In Mississippi, Yazoo Clay keeps secrets.

Seven thousand bodies out there or more.

A forgotten asylum cemetery.

It was my family's mystery.

Shame, guilt, propriety, something keeps it all buried deep until it's not.

I'm Larison Campbell, and this is Under Yazoo Clay.

Listen on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

Get thee to a nunnery, go, farewell. These are Hamlet's famous words to Ophelia,

as the play's titular character begins to succumb to madness and paranoia. There are probably

plenty of Shakespeare podcasts you could listen to for a more in-depth

analysis, and we could spend hours debating whether Hamlet is actually mad or just

pretending.

But on a surface level, the meaning of Hamlet's orders to Ophelia is clear.

A convent is a place where a woman can go to absolve her sins,

to conveniently disappear.

Joining a convent by force or coercion or choice

is a hand that fate dealt many women, both real and fictional,

throughout the ages. In 17th century France, most upper-class women generally had two choices upon coming of age, become a wife or become a nun.

Both would require following rigorous sets of social rules and accepting a fundamental

lack of freedom. But what about the women who defied that choice? Ninoin de L'Anne de L'Anclo was one

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