242 Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Present30 slaves accused of poisoning were brought to trial in Mar-
tinique, an island in the French Caribbean.
Th ough reports of poisonings by slaves occurred all
across the Americas, they were most pronounced in the
Caribbean, where slavery was particularly harsh, slaves
vastly outnumbered Europeans, African cultural and re-
ligious practices survived, and contact with natives pro-
vided information about indigenous poisons. Until the
end of the Atlantic slave trade in the 19th century, the Ca-
ribbean was a major economic center of the New World,
and most African slaves brought into the Americas en-
tered through Caribbean ports. As slaves were taken from
the Caribbean and sold throughout the Americas, knowl-
edge about poisons and the religious practices associated
with poisonings spread. Of course, diff ering conditions of
enslavement and slave population sizes aff ected the ways
this knowledge was used in new environments.
Accounts of poisonings during slavery are a fascinat-
ing blend of fantasy and fact. As enslaved Africans adjusted
to life in the New World, poisonings—and the threat of
poisonings—were a way to exert control on a world that
was profoundly uncontrollable. By disrupting operations,
undermining discipline, challenging white power, and ex-
erting agency, poisoners posed a threat that went to the
foundations of colonial order. Whether used to punish
whites, gain social power, or produce fear, Africans poi-
soned, threatened poisoning, and took credit for poisonings
as a means of exerting agency and resisting enslavement. Of
course, the cultural drama surrounding poisoning did not
always favor slaves, given that white fears of black power
led to false accusations and increased supervision, punish-
ments, and paranoia. By the beginning of the 19th century,
a decline in the Atlantic slave trade paralleled a decline in
reported poisonings. As the slave trade became a domestic
aff air, African Americans turned toward diff erent forms of
religious and social resistance.
See also: New York Conspiracy of 1741; Pritchard, Gullah
Jack; Slave ResistanceKathleen HladkyBibliography
Morgan, Philip. Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eigh-
teenth-Century Chesapeake and Lowcountry. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Rucker, Walter. “Conjure, Magic, and Power: Th e Infl uence of
Afro-American Religious Practices on Slave Resistance and
Rebellion.” Journal of Black Studies 32, no. 1 (2001):84–103.eliminate individuals who were a threat. In addition, these
actions undermined masters by exacting fi nancial loss.
Th ough noxious substances were used throughout the
Americas to harm people and animals, reports of poison-
ings also document a pervasive belief that Africans and
natives eff ectively used magic and conjuring to produce
sickness and death. Th e term “poisoning” was used just as
frequently to describe these supernatural events. In some
ways, the threat of supernatural harm was more unsettling
to potential victims because it was quite diffi cult to detect
or prevent the ill eff ects of magic. Many whites had little
doubt about Africans’ inherently devilish dispositions and
easily believed that their slaves were able to harm them
using these powers. Religious leaders, oft en referred to as
Obeah men and women, found themselves in powerful so-
cial positions. Oft en individuals who had recently lived in
Africa, Obeah practitioners were said to have the power to
make someone invincible, cure diseases, resurrect the dead,
and cause harm to anyone they wished. Th ese religious ex-
perts possessed knowledge of poisons, whether magical or
material, and off ered their services through reciprocal ex-
change. In the slave and white communities, known Obeah
practitioners were feared and revered. Whites, apprehensive
of an Obeah leader’s power to organize slaves in rebellion,
cause harm, provide leadership, and transmit knowledge,
attempted to identify and remove an Obeah man from their
labor force.
Historical documents illustrate clearly that slaves used
poisons; however, it is unlikely that poisonings occurred
as frequently as they were reported. Living in fear of their
slaves’ religious and worldly powers, whites were apt to at-
tribute sickness, death, and other destructive events to poi-
sonings or malevolent religious activity. It was even believed
that the Obeah practitioner could slowly dispense poison
from afar and, therefore, mimic the natural progression
of sickness. In this way, whites’ obsession with poisoning
was largely self-sustaining. As whites accepted and shared
stories of slave revolts and poisonings, they simultaneously
reinforced the power of Obeah leaders in the eyes of whites
and Africans. Rumors of potential poisonings or curses
could send an entire white population into panic, and in
many cases, dozens of slaves were punished or killed for
their alleged involvement. Some communities even passed
laws mandating that slaves’ quarters be searched regularly
in the interest of public safety. Even as late as 1826, when
reports of slave poisonings had almost disappeared, nearly