“Poison is for the slave what the whip is for the master, a moral force” said Schoelcher. It would re-establish a kind of balance between slave and master: a permanent threat that terrorises him and is supposed to moderate his abuses.
But in our case, Vallentin’s poison is precisely the pretext for his abuses. It’s the first assumption he makes when he sees his animals die, the only explanation he’ll stick to, without doing anything to verify it.
Vallentin seems to be waiting impatiently for the fatal outcome. Louis, his commander, informed him of Sébastien’s deteriorating condition: “So much the better,” he said, “I won’t lose any more of my cattle!”
8 days after Louis’ warning to his master, Sébastien no longer existed. Thus, the defendant’s threat was fulfilled: “You will tell me who is poisoning my cattle, or you will die in the dungeon”. Finally, Vallentin welcomed the news of Sébastien’s death.
On the stand, Louis, the overseer, describes the terrible spiral which will lead Sébastien toward his death.
Q.
Have you had your cattle professionally examined and autopsied?
Vallentin.
No, sir. I called in the old negro who’s been looking after the cattle for 40 years. He told me it was useless, that there was no cure.
Q.
It’s a pity this autopsy didn’t take place. Examination of the stomach, viscera and other internal parts of the animals could have given us proof that they died from causes other than poison.
Counsellor Ménestrier.
So there’s no veterinarian on Marie-Galante?
Vallentin.
No, Sir.
President.
It’s clear that you’re in thrall to the same preoccupations as most of the inhabitants.
Vallentin shares the colonists’ obsession with poison as an occult knowledge of the negroes, which the magistrate from France observes with dismay. For the colonists, epizootics do not exist, and livestock deaths can only be attributed to malicious acts. Imitating their masters, some other slaves also confirmed the poison theory:
Q : But to what can we attribute the loss of the dwelling’s livestock to poison rather than anthrax or some other natural disease?
François, former slave of Sébastien.
It’s poison, because the oxen that had been very strong in the morning, that had eaten well, fell dead the next day.
In the case of Sébastien, at the hearing, attempts were made to justify suspicions by the slave’s family connections, as stated by Félicien when he denounced him:
Félicien (quoted by Bellevue in his testimony).
The author of the poisonings you complain of is Sébastien. Sébastien is a sorcerer. His family stays on the Grande-Anse plantation, where there are sorcerers. They know about poisons and “work” for Sébastien.
The same statements now reported by Louis:
I’ll tell you that Sébastien has a sister who, like him, frequented the sorcerers of the Grande-Anse plantation; that it could be that he was initiated into their secrets and everything they say in this evil country.”
Soon another theory emerged: still reeling from the undoubtedly resounding case of a Marie Galante slave convicted of poisoning, it was imagined that Sébastien might have been initiated by him.
Bellevue, Vallentin’s associate.
I questioned Sébastien, but had no evidence against him other than Félicien’s statement, and the idea that he had been a friend of the slave Pierre, who had been sentenced by the Criminal Court, in 1829, to hard labour for life for the crime of poisoning cattle.
Q.
Were you sure that Sébastien had been Pierre’s friend?
Bellevue.
I wasn’t certain, but I knew that Pierre had told the Assizes that one of the Balisier negroes had offered him a “job”. We know what that word means among Negroes.
Q.
But how did you realize that a negro could be a poisoner?
Bellevue.
These are things that one notices rather than explains, especially for me who’s not very articulate.