The National Leprosarium started in 1894 at the Indian Camp Plantation. The Plantation house had been left in disrepair after the end of the civil war, and the bank had repossessed the title in 1874. When the bank gave it to the state of Louisiana to be used as a Leprosarium, seven lepers within New Orleans were forced from their beds in the middle of the night and sailed down the river to be exiled to the plantation house.
The reason for their abrupt exile was due to the discovery of Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterium that causes leprosy. The disease had always been stigmatized throughout history, but the discovery that it was caused by a bacteria meant that the disease was communicable, making it’s victims even more dangerous in society’s eyes. What they didn’t know at the time was that almost 95% of people on earth are actually immune to the effects of the bacteria. Catching the disease also requires months or even years of repeated exposure to the bacteria. Not much is actually known about the transmission, but the bacteria is believed to be spread through droplets in the air when someone infected with the bacteria sneezes or coughs. The bacteria also thrives in warm, tropical climates, and will be more common in areas closer to the equator.
Thus, Louisiana was the perfect ground for the disease to make a home. When the patients first arrived at the plantation, they stayed in the 15 slave cabins that were still on the site. However, in 1896, four nuns from the Daughters of Charity went to the plantation to care for the patients. In doing so, they willingly exiled themselves from the rest of society. They helped the patients for 9 years until the state of Louisiana bought the plantation from the bank and assumed care of the patients. It replaced the cabins with twelve cottages and a dining hall, and in 1917 the Senate passed an act to create a National Leprosarium. The Leprosarium at Carville would be selected for this after several years of research, and this allowed them to garner more funding. Between WWI and WWII, the Leprosarium would even build it’s own laboratory.
This would pay off in 1941, when Doctor Guy Faget began experimenting with the drug Promin. It was a sulfone drug that could stop and even reverse the effects of leprosy for most patients. During this period of advancing treatments, most doctors began to realize how rare it was for the disease to spread to others. When an over-the-counter treatment was approved, doctors agreed that patients should be allowed to leave exile. However, many patients still wanted to stay at the Leprosarium. They had grown up there, and while leprosy could be treated, it was still heavily stigmatized. Many of the patients at the Leprosarium had created their own lives there and were happy; they didn’t want to leave, and the state didn’t force them to.