As early as the 17th century, travellers and administrators reported that black slaves in the Caribbean had a bad habit of eating soil. To explain this dietary deviation, they incriminated the particularly harsh working conditions and climate, and said that the consequence was “stomach ache”.
The root cause of this perversion is to be found in what Father Labat calls “black melancholy”. It leads, he says, “negroes to eat soil, ashes, lye and other things of this nature…”. This perversion is simply an expression of deep despair. It is their pitiful condition as slaves, and the feeling that there is no hope of change for them, that incites these unfortunates to the worst.
Whether a conscious suicide project or a supreme expression of melancholy, the habit of eating dirt seems to be fairly widespread among the Balisier slaves. Or at least, it seems to play a major role in the master’s paranoia. Vallentin fears it, and fights it like a threat with his preferred weapon: the gag. So Louis, his devoted commandeur, administers them by turns.
Louis.
Médor had died swollen, because he had eaten earth. Rosillette ate dirt; I gagged her, and she was saved. Mélanie and Jean-Pierre were also swollen, because we hadn’t been able to stop them eating soil. I gagged them, and with a lot of care, they recovered.
During the trial, the slaves were more circumspect: none of them admitted to having eaten dirt, nor confirmed that one of their number had done so.
Me Grandpré (Defense Attorney).
I beg the President to ask the witness if the gags Mr. Vallentin had made were not intended for negroes who ate dirt?
Jacob.
I didn’t see any negroes eating dirt on the dwelling. They were gagged when they did something naughty or ate cane.
Vallentin.
I saw that it always had a very good effect. Medor and Rosillette ate dirt. Didn’t Rosillette die swollen from eating dirt?
Jacob.
Yes, sir, but I didn’t see her.
To go further: Gélis, Jacques. «Les mangeurs de terre, anthropologie d’une pathologie alimentaire». Le corps, la famille et l’État, édité par Myriam Cottias et al., Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2010, doi.org/10.4000/.