RT Article
T1 Antoine Lavalette, Slave Murderer: A Forgotten Scandal of the French West Indies
JF Journal of Jesuit studies
VO 8
IS 1
SP 37
OP 55
A1 Dial, Andrew
LA English
PB Brill
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1748057715
AB Abstract The name Antoine Lavalette (1708–67) is infamous within the Society of Jesus. The superior of the Martinique mission in the mid-eighteenth century, he is known for triggering the 1764 expulsion from France. Less known is his torture to death of four enslaved men and women. The visitor sent to investigate Lavalette’s commercial activities, Jean-François de la Marche (1700–62), discovered these murders and reported them to Rome. This paper analyzes La Marche’s account of the atrocities within their Caribbean context. It demonstrates that Lavalette’s killings were within the established norms of the planter class. It further argues that his actions were part of the Society’s attempts to reconcile its religious calling with the gruesome realities of plantation slavery.
K1 Murder
K1 Torture
K1 Expulsion
K1 Sorcery
K1 Caribbean
K1 Scandal
K1 Martinique
K1 Antoine Lavalette
K1 Slavery
DO 10.1163/22141332-0801P003