Casquette girl

A casquette girl , originally known as fille à la cassette (girl with a cassette), was one of the women brought from France to the French colonies of Louisiana to get married. The name is derived from the small chests, called "casquettes", in which they transported their clothes. Apparently they were of remarkable virtue.

Women delivered to colonists were usually unwanted people who came from the streets or prisons of Paris. The casquette girls, however, were recruited by charitable church institutions, usually orphanages and monasteries, and so it was practically guaranteed that they - although poor - were virgins. For this reason, it later became a matter of pride in Louisiana to show that one was descended from these pure women.

According to other reports, they could also have been prostitutes; according to legend, they also brought vampires to the southern states.

The first broadcast reached Mobile , Alabama in 1704, Biloxi , Mississippi in 1719 and New Orleans , Louisiana in 1728. They inspired Victor Herbert to write his operetta Naughty Marietta .

See also: Daughters of the King

Web links

• New Orleans Casquet Girls Legends , accessed October 22, 2014.