Moreau de Saint-Méry describes the 'Vaudoux'

Médéric Moreau de Saint-Méry's description of Saint-Domingue, published in 1797, gave the first detailed written account of a Vodou ceremony, with a serpent in a box and a priest and priestess.

1797 CE · 19.76, -72.20 · status: official

The account

He also described the Petro dance and the trance of participants. His account, written from a colonist's viewpoint, shaped European ideas of Vodou for a century but is an important early source.

Connections in the atlas

• The Bois Caïman ceremony

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Médéric Louis Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry
2. Wikipedia: Haitian Vodou