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culprit. After performing a ritual, she surmised that his home held a conspiracy, and without holding a trial, he tortured and killed the slaves whom Kingué accused. Her service of discovering poisoners in workshops was so high in demand that she and
Polidor, now her assistant, began initiating students. In another instance, Kingué invited Belhumeur to the hut of a sick pregnant woman she was assisting. The woman reportedly gave birth to a dead snake under her care, which left Belhumeur awestruck. This incident fueled Africans to revere Kingué as a god, or at least associate her with
248:, three of her former initiates planned to incriminate her, but she threatened them into silence. On Chailleau's plantation, in front of a group of white people, she threatened a prominent surgeon who had doubted that poisonings were the main cause of deaths. The manager of a plantation in Pilate, where Polidor worked, supported Kingué at first but eventually tried to detain her. She bit him and escaped, and out of fear, the slaves who were present did not impede.
224:" and continues, "she knows all the secrets of all the plantations." Kingué never had enough talismans in stock, which the complaint said all of Plaisance wore with pride. Another complaint worried about the fanaticism surrounding Kingué, such that "the greatest disorder would arise in the work gangs." In one case, she assembled one hundred men from a work gang and prompted them to revolt against their owner.
216:, she then removed the poison by drawing a toad from his head and another from his side. He reportedly felt better and let her stay on the plantation to find the perpetrators. Chailleau burned and whipped to death or sold overseas the seven or eight slaves Kingué accused. She eventually moved into his home, likely with Belhumeur's consent, after claiming she had overlooked a few slaves.
219:
Kingué began exercising the lifestyle of a free woman while paying a monthly fee to
Belhumeur. Her following grew, as did the variety of people requesting her divinations or healings—Africans at first, then multiple white colonists and free people of color. The trance states she manifested, in which
260:
and a charlatan, and her devotees "weak-minded imbeciles". They also feared their neighbours might ostracize them if their opinions were known. Certain plantation managers in
Plaisance wrote to Neufchâteau about complaints they had expressed to Belhumeur. When a mutilated slave who had escaped him
276:
In late
September, Neufchâteau wrote a final report ordering Kingué and Polidor's arrest, summarizing the case, and listing victims likely to testify. While she was wanted for arrest, Kingué hid in Chailleau's home. The transcript of her trial describes her with contempt. It introduces her as a
193:
By 1784, slaveowners trusted Kingué to divinate poisoners in their workshops. Belhumeur was one of her clients. Neighbours claimed he overworked a few of his slaves to death, though he did not accept this conclusion and asked Kingué to determine whether the workers were poisoned and, if so, the
58:
to live with a militia commander. With more freedom, she began traveling to clients all across the northern part of the island—Africans at first, then multiple white colonists and free people of color. Kingué attempted to silence her detractors. Still, she eventually lost support from white
122:
was "Marie
Catherine", though she used the African surname "Kingué" to renounce the practice and display her ancestry. As well, she insisted she was a free woman. Eddins and the historian Karol K. Weaver consider these acts a reclamation of identity from white authorities like Belhumeur.
203:
In 1785, Belhumeur brought Kingué to
Plaisance, a mountainous coffee parish south of Port-Margot, to visit the home of Antoine Chailleau, a militia commander who believed his slaves had poisoned him. Kingué affirmed this but thought his sickness was far from fatal. According to
220:
she adopted the voice of a man or a weak woman, were popular, and
Chailleau took her to various plantations across the northern part of the island, often in Limbé. One complaint states, "she has acquired a renown that extends across the entire
261:
met with a Cap-Français judge, he was summoned to court for being complicit in Kingué's activities. Belhumeur promised to reprimand her, but the managers complained that instead, he continued to pay for her services. They believed the
161:
were variously used to encompass her. Court documents assert that Kingué could heal many illnesses, kill, and resuscitate. She specialized in nursing supposed evil spells and gave herbal remedies to lower-class white people,
251:
Some white colonists became irritated by her political influence, audacity, and wealth. On
September 3, 1785, a slaveowner with only the signature "M." denounced her in a letter to Neufchâteau. Two weeks later, a
95:. This likely occurred through the Malemba port, nearly 40 miles from Kinguélé, and through a process of judicial enslavement. Eddins posits that Kingué may have escaped once. A December 1774 issue of
79:
provenance and was born between 1746 and 1750. The researcher
Crystal Nicole Eddins suggests that her pseudonym "Kingué" traces her to Kinguélé, the capital city of the kingdom of
273:
in Cap-Français, agreed with this sentiment in a report he wrote. He thought she had victimized both black and white people with absurd superstitions.
205:
1048:
84:
99:
profiled a wanted woman named "Keingue" who had fled with an
African man named "Moisna". He was likewise a slave and had tattoos of a
269:
and certain white soldiers were too loyal to her and requested she be seized by a special brigade. Jean Baptiste Suarez d'Almeida, a
1016:
977:
938:
853:
232:
1058:
1053:
888:
845:
237:
83:. Kingué had two or three Kongolese marks on her cheek, and her face bore scars. She was eventually transported to the
51:. Many slaveowners trusted her to divinate poisoners in their workshops, and they often killed the slaves she accused.
43:
as a slave, she adopted the name "Kingué" to display her ancestry. In 1784 and 1785, while working on a plantation in
922:
221:
961:
47:, Kingué gained prominence for nursing supposed evil spells, providing herbal remedies, and selling protective
289:". The outcome of the trial, whether she was brought to the courthouse, and her life afterwards are unknown.
1043:
872:
886:
Houllemare, Marie (2019). "Marie Kingué and the Subversion of Colonial Order (Saint-Domingue, 1785)".
1008:
92:
182:
and reportedly carried spiritual powers against illnesses. She held gatherings where she performed
156:
166:, and slaves. Though it was also outlawed to manufacture them, Kingué gained prominence as far as
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264:
167:
149:
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897:
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285:, or rather monster", and asserts that she is not a free woman but "in fact a slave and a
878:
200:, a divine Kongolese snake spirit. Some Africans committed theft to pay for her services.
171:
163:
55:
244:
Kingué occasionally silenced her detractors. While performing rituals on a plantation in
213:
64:
919:
Rituals, Runaways, and the Haitian Revolution: Collective Action in the African Diaspora
88:
40:
1037:
100:
874:
The Kongolese Atlantic: Central African Slavery & Culture from Mayombe to Haiti
245:
76:
36:
842:
Medical Revolutionaries: The Enslaved Healers of Eighteenth-Century Saint Domingue
305:
A feared and reckless health professional hired by lower-class white people and
107:
59:
colonists, a few of whom sent complaints regarding her deadly activities to the
44:
987:
948:
183:
132:
119:
118:. Kingué cohabited with Polidor, a Kongolese man and lieutenant. Her European
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32:
25:
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136:
115:
67:. He ordered her arrest that September, and her life afterwards is unknown.
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800:
693:
691:
969:
930:
39:
provenance and was born between 1746 and 1750. After being transported to
958:
A Secret Among the Blacks: Slave Resistance Before the Haitian Revolution
286:
175:
139:. In a time when the religion was outlawed, she may have also acted as a
48:
909:
901:
179:
142:
80:
375:
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Kingué is documented in the papers of Neufchâteau deposited in the
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of a white man, Caillon Belhumeur, and an unnamed woman, likely a
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528:
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on the talismans, then distributed them, often while a male
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Vaudou, Sorciers, Empoisonneurs de Saint-Domingue à Haïti
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412:
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In 1784 and 1785, Kingué practiced healing, herbalism,
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For many years until 1785, Kingué worked as a slave in
256:named LeMay did the same. The two branded Kingué a
75:According to court documents, Marie Kingué was of
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896:(2). Translated by Jane Roffe: 161–170.
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7:
309:, sometimes for spiritual illnesses.
91:, present-day Haiti, as part of the
871:Mobley, Christina Frances (2015).
14:
917:Eddins, Crystal Nicole (2022) .
206:Nicolas François de Neufchâteau
1:
889:Clio. Women, Gender, History
846:University of Illinois Press
1049:Haitian Vodou practitioners
31:, was a Haitian healer and
1075:
956:Garrigus, John D. (2023).
923:Cambridge University Press
71:Early life and enslavement
16:Haitian healer and diviner
840:Weaver, Karol K. (2006).
641:, pp. 165–166, 168;
54:In 1785, Kingué moved to
1003:Pluchon, Pierre (1987).
962:Harvard University Press
1059:18th-century occultists
279:
263:
241:
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155:
141:
127:Healing and divination
970:10.4159/9780674295094
931:10.1017/9781009256148
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228:Detractors and arrest
190:sang and led dances.
178:. They cost 10 to 12
1054:Supernatural legends
762:, pp. 142–143;
669:, pp. 143–144;
589:, pp. 132, 134.
577:, pp. 132, 134.
443:, pp. 114–115;
93:Atlantic slave trade
24:, also known by the
782:, pp. 168–169.
685:, pp. 134–135.
645:, pp. 133–134.
561:, pp. 166–167.
549:, pp. 143–144.
475:, pp. 142–143.
459:, pp. 113–115.
238:Archives Nationales
116:free woman of color
902:10.4000/clio.17234
242:
103:and his homeland.
1009:Éditions Karthala
307:free black people
147:queen. The terms
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921:(2nd ed.).
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29:Marie Catherine
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877:(PhD thesis).
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35:. She was of
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174:for selling
157:hospitalière
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65:Cap-Français
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28:
22:Marie Kingué
21:
20:
18:
823:Mobley 2015
792:Mobley 2015
776:Mobley 2015
760:Eddins 2022
729:Mobley 2015
717:Weaver 2006
667:Eddins 2022
623:Mobley 2015
547:Eddins 2022
520:Eddins 2022
501:Eddins 2022
497:Mobley 2015
473:Eddins 2022
469:Weaver 2006
457:Weaver 2006
441:Weaver 2006
429:Weaver 2006
417:Mobley 2015
400:Eddins 2022
396:Weaver 2006
380:Eddins 2022
353:Eddins 2022
334:Eddins 2022
330:Mobley 2015
108:Port-Margot
45:Port-Margot
1038:Categories
988:1369679187
949:1259295645
317:References
184:witchcraft
133:divination
120:slave name
112:plantation
26:slave name
176:talismans
172:Plaisance
150:kaperlata
137:midwifery
77:Kongolese
56:Plaisance
49:talismans
37:Kongolese
1027:19709888
910:27077500
864:62430871
287:vagabond
281:négresse
188:sorcerer
180:gourdes
143:vaudoux
110:on the
81:Kakongo
33:diviner
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254:notary
246:Pilate
208:, the
197:Mbumba
135:, and
97:Le Cap
906:JSTOR
293:Notes
258:hussy
168:Limbé
1023:OCLC
1013:ISBN
984:OCLC
974:ISBN
945:OCLC
935:ISBN
860:OCLC
850:ISBN
170:and
153:and
966:doi
927:doi
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212:of
87:of
63:of
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