Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution by Laurent Dubois Page B
Authors: Laurent Dubois
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Surrounded by slaves, knowing that some might know
how to concoct poisons, and that many had plenty of motivation to use it,
many masters responded by burning suspected slaves alive without the for-
mality of a trial. In 1775, according to one doctor, every plantation had its stake. “To intimidate the other negroes,” he wrote, the masters forced
“each of them to carry a bundle of wood for the stake, and to watch the ex-
ecution.”48
It was illegal for masters to torture and kill their slaves in this way. A
few masters were in fact deported from Saint-Domingue after committing
atrocities against their slaves. For the most part, however, they acted with
impunity. In 1788 a planter name Nicholas Le Jeune tortured two female
slaves whom he suspected of having used poison against other slaves. He
burned their legs, locked them up in a cell, and threatened to kill any slave who attempted to denounce him. Nevertheless, a group of fourteen slaves
brought a complaint to the local court. White judges who went to the plan-
tation to investigate found the two women chained, their burned legs
decomposing, and one being strangled by the metal collar around her
neck. Both died soon afterward. The judges also found that a small box that
Le Jeune claimed contained poison in fact contained “nothing more than
common smoking tobacco interspersed with five bits of rat stool.” Le Jeune
was put on trial on the basis of the slaves’ denunciations. He defended
himself by arguing that if slaves saw planters punished on the basis of their testimony, there would be a breakdown of authority and, ultimately, a slave
revolution. Others agreed, and one man even suggested that each of the
slaves who had denounced Le Jeune should receive fifty lashes. The inves-
tigating officials who took over the case, on the other hand, argued that
punishing brutal planters was the only way to prevent an outbreak of revo-
lution: if the violence of planters was not kept in check, and if slaves found no recourse from the administration, they would have no option but violent vengeance. Ultimately, however, the officials bowed to pressure from
the planters, and Le Jeune was never punished.49
For fearful masters, Makandal came to symbolize the danger of a mass
uprising that would destroy the whites in the colony. One famous account
of his life described a speech he made to slaves, during which he placed
three scarves in a vase full of water—one yellow, one white, and one black.
The first symbolized the original inhabitants of the island, the second the
“present inhabitants.” Pulling out the third, he declared: “Here, finally, are those who will remain masters of the island: it is the black scarf.” A 1779
56
av e n g e r s o f t h e n e w w o r l d
memoir presented Makandal as a “Mohammed at the head of a thousand
exiled refugees” who, imagining “the conquest of the Universe,” had
planned to massacre all the whites in the colony. All that was lacking to
bring about a “general massacre” and “a revolution similar to that of Suri-
name or Jamaica” was a leader, “one of those men, rare in truth, but who
can emerge at any moment,” like Makandal, “whose name itself” made the
inhabitants of the Northern Province “tremble.” In 1801, in a “grand new
spectacle” presented in London, the romantic hero was a rebellious slave
named Makandal who declared himself “one unawed by fear.”50
Writers in France also prophesied the imminent emergence of a black
revolutionary leader. In his 1771 fable of time travel, Louis Sebastien
Mercier imagined waking up after a 672-year nap and finding himself in a
changed and perfected world. In one plaza he saw on a pedestal “a negro
his head bare, his arm outstretched, with pride in his eyes and a noble and
imposing demeanor.” Under the statue were the words “To the Avenger of
the New World!” Mercier learned that “this surprising and immortal
how to concoct poisons, and that many had plenty of motivation to use it,
many masters responded by burning suspected slaves alive without the for-
mality of a trial. In 1775, according to one doctor, every plantation had its stake. “To intimidate the other negroes,” he wrote, the masters forced
“each of them to carry a bundle of wood for the stake, and to watch the ex-
ecution.”48
It was illegal for masters to torture and kill their slaves in this way. A
few masters were in fact deported from Saint-Domingue after committing
atrocities against their slaves. For the most part, however, they acted with
impunity. In 1788 a planter name Nicholas Le Jeune tortured two female
slaves whom he suspected of having used poison against other slaves. He
burned their legs, locked them up in a cell, and threatened to kill any slave who attempted to denounce him. Nevertheless, a group of fourteen slaves
brought a complaint to the local court. White judges who went to the plan-
tation to investigate found the two women chained, their burned legs
decomposing, and one being strangled by the metal collar around her
neck. Both died soon afterward. The judges also found that a small box that
Le Jeune claimed contained poison in fact contained “nothing more than
common smoking tobacco interspersed with five bits of rat stool.” Le Jeune
was put on trial on the basis of the slaves’ denunciations. He defended
himself by arguing that if slaves saw planters punished on the basis of their testimony, there would be a breakdown of authority and, ultimately, a slave
revolution. Others agreed, and one man even suggested that each of the
slaves who had denounced Le Jeune should receive fifty lashes. The inves-
tigating officials who took over the case, on the other hand, argued that
punishing brutal planters was the only way to prevent an outbreak of revo-
lution: if the violence of planters was not kept in check, and if slaves found no recourse from the administration, they would have no option but violent vengeance. Ultimately, however, the officials bowed to pressure from
the planters, and Le Jeune was never punished.49
For fearful masters, Makandal came to symbolize the danger of a mass
uprising that would destroy the whites in the colony. One famous account
of his life described a speech he made to slaves, during which he placed
three scarves in a vase full of water—one yellow, one white, and one black.
The first symbolized the original inhabitants of the island, the second the
“present inhabitants.” Pulling out the third, he declared: “Here, finally, are those who will remain masters of the island: it is the black scarf.” A 1779
56
av e n g e r s o f t h e n e w w o r l d
memoir presented Makandal as a “Mohammed at the head of a thousand
exiled refugees” who, imagining “the conquest of the Universe,” had
planned to massacre all the whites in the colony. All that was lacking to
bring about a “general massacre” and “a revolution similar to that of Suri-
name or Jamaica” was a leader, “one of those men, rare in truth, but who
can emerge at any moment,” like Makandal, “whose name itself” made the
inhabitants of the Northern Province “tremble.” In 1801, in a “grand new
spectacle” presented in London, the romantic hero was a rebellious slave
named Makandal who declared himself “one unawed by fear.”50
Writers in France also prophesied the imminent emergence of a black
revolutionary leader. In his 1771 fable of time travel, Louis Sebastien
Mercier imagined waking up after a 672-year nap and finding himself in a
changed and perfected world. In one plaza he saw on a pedestal “a negro
his head bare, his arm outstretched, with pride in his eyes and a noble and
imposing demeanor.” Under the statue were the words “To the Avenger of
the New World!” Mercier learned that “this surprising and immortal
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