“They were assigned to distant fields beyond the crossroads , and camped there, keeping to themselves like any proper family or village group” (pg 96 of Black Sorcery )
Last time we met in class we watched the film “White Zombie” which was set upon Haiti. Within the first few scenes we see slaves working on the fields but most likely zombies. The a majority of the people in Haiti are black and this isn’t any different from what we have learned in history. Of course we know that the whites are typically the plantation owners or slave owners. To reflect back on Haiti’s history, the French had once taken over the land and made it into a profitable land with slaves being imported and exported.
Eventually the slaves revolted and gained freedom. In the introduction of The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook , the author mentions how the symbolic emblem of black freedom was the red-blue flag made from France’s flag by ripping the white off. The memory of slavery remained in both sides, the blacks and whites, because many of the plantation owners hated the new feeling of having to pay for labor. Owners felt disturbed with the amount of money they were now making because everything before was just done for them as a “gift”. To relate back to the movie, it was shown how once the couple got married , the plantation owner had a plan before and met with a man similar to Ti Joseph of Colombier in “The Magic Island” reading.
The man had a big factory filled with working zombies so they had both used the zombies as slaves and to their own benefit. Within Polynice’s story he never mentions how they become zombies but then the girl visits her doctor and is told that it is done by a substance. This goes back to “White Zombie”, how the wife was turned into a zombie, as she inhaled the substance, which doesn’t cause death, but the employment of the person as said Dr. Antoine Villiers in the reading. This shows how slavery was never forgotten by the owners and did anything to get any people, whether conscious or not, to work for them.
Interesting scene, where he does see that the zombies are working for the other plantation owner who is also a voodoo practitioner, or magician. Regardless I agree, the society used zombies as another way to bring ‘slaves’ to their plantation. It was a reflection of free labor within the society through magic. This magic although immoral used the dead as a way to gain more money and free labor.
I agree with your relation of The Magic Island article to the film White Zombie. In the article, the author mentions that those around the factory where not living men and women but where actually zombies. The zombies in both the article and the movie are working and black. I found it interesting that the zombies were toiling while also being whipped to force them to work faster just as we can assume they had been while living.