Case file · Witch trials
Makandal, the poisoner who became a fly
François Makandal, a maroon leader in colonial Saint-Domingue accused of organising mass poisonings, was burned at Cap-Français on 20 January 1758. Many enslaved onlookers believed he escaped as a fly or mosquito.
1758 CE · 19.76, -72.20 · status: legend
The account
Colonists credited him with a network of poisoners and with making protective packets, which they called 'makandals'. His name became a word for charms and for poison. The belief that he had shape-shifted out of the flames fed later revolts.
The sceptical view
Historians debate how much of the poisoning plot was real and how much was planters' panic about illness and deaths among livestock and people.