I may have told a fair few people already, but I have a growing obsession with fruit cake. It all started when I went looking for my mother’s recipe for fruit cake and did not find anything that sounded right in all of the papers she left me. So, I started trying out different recipes to see if I could get close to what I remember. I made two different types of fruitcake last year. I have made two different types already this year, and plan to make one more because, of course, I have found/altered a recipe I now call ‘my’ fruitcake. Then I got an inspired idea to make a zine all about fruitcake: its history, its variations, etc. It is a rabbit hole I may never dig myself out of.
While I continue work on this zine that may end up becoming a full fledged book by volume of material alone, I thought I’d share this choice variation from the Brer Rabbit’s Modern Recipes for the Modern Cook (1940 Brer Rabbit Molasses).
This is far from the only recipe I found relying on salt pork. I also found a few mince meat recipes with salt pork. One with ground beef. I know the salt pork fat is standing in for shortening and is why the fruit cake can be made with so few eggs. But….I really don’t know what else to say.
The people we know as the Pilgrims were far from the first Europeans to set foot on or colonize the land later incorporated into the United States. Explorers, fishermen, fur traders, missionaries, and treasure seekers had all been here. European and Native American interactions prior to and contemporary with that of the Pilgrims ranged between aggressive and friendly. However generously the native people sometimes viewed European invaders, Europeans arrived to exploit natural resources, claim land that belonged to native peoples, and bring disease against which the native population had no immunity.
By uncredited – Baharris.org, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38941602
By The German Kali Works, New York – Bricker, Garland Armor. The Teaching of Agriculture in the High School. New York: Macmillan, 1911. Page 112., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6767475
By Sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin (1861-1944). – Self-photographed, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4143607
At times, Europeans came to enslave. Tisquantum, often called Squanto, was kidnapped by an English explorer who took him to Spain to be sold into slavery. He was ‘bought’ by Spanish monks whose work included educating and evangelizing those they perceived as lesser. When Tisquantum finally escaped and returned to his home lands, by way of England, he found that his whole tribe had been killed by an epidemic infection likely brought to the land by the rats of European ships. Tisquantum was the last of the Patuxets.
Tisquantum was living among the Pokanoket tribe, part of a confederation of tribes called the Wampanoag, when the Pilgrims first emerged from wintering on the Mayflower. Samoset, an Abenaki Sagamore was also staying with the Pokanoket tribe at the time. Samoset had learned the English language from fishermen who frequented the waters of Maine, near the lands of the Abenaki people. He approached the Pilgrims to initiate trade relations, and would later arrange the meetings of the Pilgrim colonists with Tisquantum and Ousamequin, also known as Massasoit.
I did a two page comic for the Gyrojets contributions to Tales of Terror II. I’m especially proud of this one ’cause Richard can’t get over how weird it is.
My house has been doing a lot of non-cable watching. We have a few subscription streaming channels through a Roku stick: PBS, BritBox, and Shudder, and we have been spending quite a bit of time finding interesting programming on YouTube. One of our recent obsessions is Aerial America. Aerial America takes you on a history tour of each US state, showing the landscape, monuments, and urban scenes from the air with over-narration that tells the story of the state. There are several full episodes available on Smithsonian’s YouTube channel.
What I find most refreshing and a little depressing is the frankness with which the history is delivered. If, like me, you thought you were pretty well informed about how horribly the United States treated Native Americans, Aerial America will tell you all the horrible massacres and broken treaties you didn’t know about. If you enjoy seeing the natural beauty and vast vistas that we are lucky to have in the US, Aerial America will show you fracking, strip mining, and logging operations. I wouldn’t say this to discourage anyone from enjoying the show. I love it, it has beauty, moments of pride and triumph, and it balances this with the dirty little secrets that underpin a lot of our history. I highly recommend it.
The mention of “Voudoo Queen” will immediately bring to mind the formidable character of Marie Laveau, if it brings to mind anyone. Yet, Marie Laveau was not the only Voudoo Queen to preside over Voudoo practitioners in New Orleans. In 1869, news stories syndicated all over the country told about the naming of a new Voudoo Queen, a successor to Laveau. This woman was Malvina Latour.
Before going on much further, I feel compelled to say that the newspaper pieces that reported often on Voudoo culture between the 1860s and the 1910s were sensational and exaggerated. The aim of these news items appeared, to me, to be twofold: arouse excitement and curiosity in the public while at the same time demean black Americans by casting them as savages and animals. Some journalists were more respectful than others, but all the stories seem to share the perspective that Voudoo, and those that practice it, are some kind of mysterious other; something to be gawped at instead of understood. Knowing this, it is hard enough picking through the historical documentation to find truth. Historians of New Orleans have commented on how difficult it is to separate the truth from legend when studying the lives of people like Marie Laveau. With sensationalist news articles standing in as primary sources, we may simply have to accept that no story will be wholly substantiated.
Note: the spelling Voudoo was chosen for this post based on the spelling of the historical articles referenced for information.
Life of Malvina Latour
The first newspaper stories I could find that mention Malvina Latour show up around 1869 when she was said to succeed Marie Laveau as Queen of the Voudoos in New Orleans. An 1884 article by a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Democrat describes Malvina Latour as a handsome woman of mixed race around 48 years of age. This would mean Malvina Latour was born about 1836 and succeeded Marie Laveau when she was in her early 30s. Though the newspaper articles do not usually mention Marie Laveau’s daughter, Marie Laveau II, historians have pointed out that Laveau II was around and held quite a bit of power herself at this time, though she did not succeed her mother as Queen.
In 1886 Malvina Latour was again named as Laveau’s successor by another reporter, George Washington Cable, who had visited with Laveau before her death in 1881. Cable gave the conflicting information that the title of Voudoo Queen was held until death, and that only in 1881 did Malvina Latour take on the responsibilities. Other historians and legend makers have postulated that Malvina Latour herself was one of Marie Laveau’s daughters. Latour was sometimes referred to as Laveau or Laveau II. Confusing the three women fed Marie Laveau’s legend by lengthening her time in power to an unbelievable spans.
Yet, Malvina Latour peeks through history. Often described, young and old, as sporting a blue calico dress with white polka-dots, Latour would be Queen of the Voudoos, leading St. John’s Eve celebrations on the banks of Lake Ponchartrain, for around two decades. She was regarded as powerful as Laveau, and had performed feats that equaled those of her predecessor, though reportedly she did not add anything new to the practice while Voudoo Queen. According to many, Latour’s primary goal was to remove Catholicism and Catholic practices from Voudoo. She was unsuccessful at this and also at holding the Voudoo community together in the face of many different bids for power. Under Latour, Voudoo in New Orleans split into several factions, never to be reunited. Latour’s eventual abdication and later life are a mystery.
The St. John’s Eve celebrations of 1884 were located between Milneburg and the old Spanish Fort on the banks of Lake Ponchartrain. N Milneburg in front of Bird Cage Cottage. unknown. 1923
Truth, Legend, & Mystery
Carolyn Morrow Long, author of A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau, postulates that the New Orleans Times-Democrat reporter in 1884 may have invented Malvina Latour. Long bases her hypothesis on not being able to find Latour in any church, city or census records, and indicates that the invention of Latour was “indicative of how such sensational accounts came to be regarded as historical and factual.” Yet, the 1886 piece by George Washington Cable that also reported Latour as the successor to Laveau, was apparently unconnected with the previous journalist, revolving around an interview and visit with the aging Laveau. This, to me, serves more as corroboration of Latour’s existence since Cable’s article did not rehash the same stories and visuals of previous articles the way that most newspaper articles of the time seemed to do. I also have spent several hours searching for links in my family tree during the middle and late 1800s that were not recorded by census, church, or city records, so it does not seem strange to me that Latour is not mentioned in these documents.
Though I cannot immediately accept that Latour was a fiction, Long was making an excellent point that the legend of the Voudoo Queen has grown beyond the truth. This becomes evident when faced with obviously conflicting information like the interview with Dr. J. B. Bass of New York, in the Chicago Daily Tribune of 1881. Dr. Bass was a known Voudoo practitioner and had met Laveau when he was a teenager. He asserted that there was no such office as Queen within the order; that Laveau was a mother in the order and had respect, but held no official office. Could this be chalked up to the unique and independent way New Orleans Voudoo has evolved over time, where in the city Laveau and Latour were Queens, but in the worldwide Voudoo community, they held no such office? A later article recounting St. John’s Eve celebrations in 1890 includes recounted testimony from Marie Laveau’s daughter, perhaps Laveau II, refuting that Laveau was ever connected with Voudoo at all. Who then did Latour succeed?
As an illustration of how legend can take over our popular history Malvina Latour has since been linked to the ghost story of a violet eyed zombie girl whose prison was broken by hurricane Katrina and now roams about New Orleans. Though the best guesses at Latour’s possible birth and death dates are so far away from overlapping with her supposed role in the story, the story serves as an interesting example of how our own sensationalism can replace our history.
Gordon, Michelle Y. (2012) “Midnight Scenes and Orgies”: Public Narratives of Voodoo in New Orleans and Nineteenth-Century Discourses of White Supremacy, American Quarterly; College Park Vol. 64, Iss. 4, (Dec 2012): 767-786,914.
?Hearns? (1884). Voudou dance; revival on the lake shore of the voudou mysteries: Description of the celebration of the Eve of St. John by creole voodoo queen Malvina Latour and her attendants in New Orleans Louisiana. . Times Democrat (New Orleans. LA. Louisiana Digital Library (Louisana Works Progress Administration. Louisiana Digital Library. https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/state-lwp%3A8520
Drunk History isn’t new, but its been a long time since I watched any and there are several that I have never seen. Some are funnier than others. This one made me laugh harder than I have in years. I cried. I am afraid to watch it again, i laughed so hard.
While this does have to do with the 2020 election specific to Florida, it does not have to do with partisan politics. I do considerable research on all the offices and issues for which I cast my vote. Honestly, the process is about as fun as doing my taxes, but I want to be confident in what I am voting for. The Constitutional Amendments section of our ballot always sends me a little cross-eyed. In case anyone else out there is beating their head on the same brick, I wanted to share that the League of Women Voters of Florida’s 2020 Nonpartisan Voters Guide on the FL Constitutional Amendments on the ballot is super helpful with understanding what the amendments really mean.
New Comic Here, Folks! New Comic! I have been slow on my comicking for a while now. In order to jump start myself into the swing so I can get back to long running comics like Levi Levi, I took a moment to do this short based on a dream I had. The Witch’s Curse started posting yesterday and will be posting on Tuesdays and Saturdays for a couple weeks. Go check it out!
