The Kingdom Of This World

This chapter picks up 20 years later: Lenormand de Mézy’s second wife has died. He met an actress, Mademoiselle Floridor, traveled back to France with her, discovered he missed Haiti, and returned with her. Ti Noël has fathered 12 children but still travels to the Cap to shop on Lenormand de Mézy’s behalf. There, he passes the restaurant Auberge de la Couronne, owned by Black master chef Henri Christophe.

Meanwhile, the enslaved workers resent both Lenormand de Mézy and Mademoiselle Floridor for their abusiveness. Ti Noël passes Macandal’s tales—and his hopes—down to his children.

Ti Noël attends a gathering of enslaved Haitians headed by a man named Bouckman the Jamaican. The enslaved people have learned that France has decreed that they should be freed—and that the enslavers in Haiti have not obeyed this edict. Bouckman tells the others, “The god of the whites demands crime. Our gods seek vengeance” (43). Together, they chant to Ogun, sacrifice a pig, and swear loyalty to Bouckman. Ti Noël swims back across the river to the plantation.