St John's Hayti, or the Black Republic: "Vaudoux Worship and Cannibalism" (London, 1884)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet proven
Year: 1884 · Places: Ayiti, Europe
SUMMARYSt John's Hayti, or the Black Republic: "Vaudoux Worship and Cannibalism" (London, 1884) [Connections: Ayiti spirit, first-person, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDSpenser St John's book has a chapter titled "Vaudoux Worship and Cannibalism." Pettinger finds the cannibalism/child-sacrifice link was not made before the early 1850s, and that after St John travel writers became "obsessed with vaudoux," now "considered the key to understanding Haiti." Smithsonian says these claims later fed justifications for the 1915 US occupation. HOSTILE witness (British diplomat)
PATTERNOne foreign book turned a religion into the "key" to a nation
LENS (WW9)This is the hinge: the dark image dates from the 1850s–1880s, not from the ancestors