One man's thirst for vengeance brought the death of thousands of victims. He was said to be the Angel of Death. He treated people like rats. Entire villages and cities died in terrible torments at his command. He was the most ruthless poisoner in history. And probably also:the biggest serial killer.
François Mackandal was born around 1728 in the Kingdom of Lorango, West Africa. He probably came from a Muslim family. Little is known about his childhood - other than that it was brutally cut short at the age of twelve. It was then that Mackandal was kidnapped, sold into slavery to European traders and sent to the French-ruled island of Hispaniola.
One-armed Angel of Death
This first piece of America discovered by Christopher Columbus has long ceased to be a tropical paradise. Europeans murdered most of the Indians living there. And now they went out of their way to fill the gaps in the workforce. As Adam Węgłowski, the author of the new book , explains "Zywe Trupy. The real zombie story ” , the island became one large plantation of reeds, cotton, coffee and tropical fruit. And at the same time:a great slave labor camp.
250 years after Columbus' discovery of Hispaniola, the island has long ceased to be a tropical paradise. Now it was one big slave labor camp, bringing huge profits to the French (source:public domain).
Mackandal was to be another of tens of thousands of walking tools. It was not, however, in his character that he was submissive. In one of the cotton plantations, due to disobedience, his left arm was cut off . It did not break his character and only increased the hatred of white masters. In 1751, he escaped from the plantation and hid in the mountains of St. Domingo. It was then that he started planning his revenge.
Groups of refugees gathered around him. Under the cover of night they organized raids on plantations during which they released other slaves . In return, they promised Mackandal allegiance and swore to fight under his command no matter the price they would pay for it. He was more than human to them. They said:Macdanal, the Black Messiah.
The slave army grew. Furious and thirsty for revenge, they wanted to take an armed action against their masters. They demanded from Mackandal a signal that a decisive uprising was made. This, however, cooled the enthusiasm of his brothers. He was aware that an open fight against the armed colonizers was not going to be successful. He had a completely different plan in his head.
Poisonous Side Effects
Instead of fighting openly, Macandal opted for poisoning. His people acted like angels of death. Unseen by anyone, began to poison everything the French had contact with - wells, medicines, alcohol barrels, fruit, bread . Doctors were unable to find the cause of sudden deaths among growers, and the death toll was increasing. First tens, then hundreds, and finally thousands of people died in agony.
Slave uprisings were rare, but they were always extremely bloody (source:public domain).
Not only the French fell victim to Mackandal's squad. Slaves also died. Adam Węgłowski in the book "Living corpses. The real zombie story ” writes:
For some it was a liberation and a tragic revenge on the owners ruthlessly using them. For others - a punishment for disloyalty to the rest.
Nobody knew what was going on:neither the black slaves, much less the French. Mackandal was seeking revenge, not fame. He took care of complete discretion. Death would come unexpectedly - like punishment from the Gods for decades of exploitation and humiliation.
In 1755 alone, there were so many poisonings on the island that it seriously threatened the existence of the French colony. The mass deaths of slaves were almost as severe as the growers - there was a shortage of labor.
Over the next three years, over six thousand deaths were recorded . The island authorities tried hard to find out who was behind it. It was only possible thanks to massive, ruthless torture. Someone finally grunted with the last of their strength:not African gods are killing, but one man. Haitian guerrilla leader François Mackandal.
A great hunt has begun. Big and completely ineffective. The slave leader still enjoyed freedom. He created an efficient network of agents and informers, thanks to which he avoided the traps set by the French heads who wanted his head. He was like a ghost. Until…
Hope dies last
Cutting fingers and noses, skinning them alive, nailing their ears to trees, stuffing gunpowder into the anus and setting it on fire ... The torture was getting more and more sophisticated, and the imaginations of the French seemed to have no limits. It finally had the desired effect. François Mackandal was betrayed by a little girl named Assam. The days of the "greatest poisoner in history" are numbered.
Mackandal's poisoning activities meant that there was a shortage of labor on the island. The French did not intend to let it go to the "Black Messiah" (source:public domain).
In early 1758, the one-armed "poison master" was tracked down, surrounded by French troops, and captured. He managed to escape, but the tracking dogs found him hours later. Chained and guarded by a dozen guards he was transferred to the Cap Francais prison. There was also his show trial during which he was sentenced to death.
The pile for Mackandal caught fire in the early morning , January 20, 1758. Slaves who were brought to the place of execution from the entire colony witnessed his death. Participation in this event was to serve as a warning to other rebels. The legend of Mackandal was stronger than the fear of death, however. His heroism gave other slaves strength and the hope that their fate could still change. The revolution was only a matter of time…
The hell of the revolution in Haiti was started by the charismatic leader Francois Mackandal (source:public domain).
The Haitian uprising began in 1790. After a series of compromising defeats, the decimated French troops evacuated the island. On January 1, 1804, Haiti declared independence.
The curse spoken on the stake
As Mackandal's pyre was set on fire, Mackandal reportedly shouted that he would be resurrected soon and come back to life as a mosquito . He promised that along with other mosquitoes, that is, the reincarnations of fallen slaves, he would do even more damage than during his lifetime. The French laughed at these words, the Haitians believed them uncritically.
And when in 1794 during the revolution, a huge plague of mosquitoes brought the yellow fever epidemic, killing over thirty thousand French soldiers The Haitians knew that it was François Mackandal himself who came to them, fulfilling his last promise. To this day, many inhabitants of the island keep repeating that the Black Messiah in the form of a mosquito brought them independence ...