Vampires of New Orleans

The discussion in class on Tuesday lead me to question whether or not someone could really be born into vampirism or if it was just something they wanted to get into over the years. I started doing a bit of research and googling and found out some pretty interesting things about birthrights and how you knew someone was a vampire from birth.  

Since vampires have been an intriguing folklore of nearly every early ancient civilization and culture, the fact that it arose like it did in New Orleans should be no surprise. New Orleans was settled in the early 1700's which was also during the time that massive vampire hunts were occurring in Europe and eventually spread into Western civilizations.

The different causes of vampirism varied as did the characteristics in to which someone was believed to be a vampire. There were certain qualities that someone could obtain at birth that would subject them to being a vampire. For example, being born at certain times of the year (New moons and holy days), being born with teeth, or even having an extra nipple. Also, if the child was born with excess hair, white hair, red hair, a red birthmark, or with two hearts they were also believed to be a vampire (bizarre right!?). If the child weaned early or died prior to their Baptism, vampirism was suspected upon death. If a pregnant woman received a curse or was stared or attacked by a vampire, then the child was definitely destined to be a vampire. 

With all these ways of being born into vampirism, there are ways to obtain it after birth as well. Being fed on seven or more times without dying was a shoe in to becoming a vampire. But countless things can happen after death that can cause one to become a vampire: Committing suicide, eating sheep killed by wolves, leading an immoral life, having a cat jump over the corpse, and death by drowning just to name a few.