Also known as: Jerome conspiracy, Marmelade ritual conspiracy, 1786 Marmelade conspiracy
Last updated: April 26, 2026
In 1786, authorities in the Marmelade district prosecuted a clandestine ritual network associated with Jerome Poteau and Telemaque, both fugitives from the same plantation, whose gatherings could draw up to two hundred participants. Witnesses described ritual meetings involving altars, candles, rum mixed with pepper and gunpowder, sacred packets, and mayombo sticks filled with charged materials; colonial testimony claimed Jerome and his associates preached independence and sold protective objects. Crystal Eddins reads the network as part of a larger pattern where ritual, marronnage, and collective action are inseparable — the 1786 prosecution is one of the clearest pre-1791 cases where colonial law, anti-assembly policing, Black sacred practice, and explicit liberation language converge in the same archive.
Jerome Conspiracy 1786
The central figure in the 1786 Marmelade ritual-conspiracy prosecution; condemned in effigy after escaping capture.
Both events reflect the ritual and maroon network infrastructure in the North Province before 1791
The Jerome conspiracy is one of the pre-1791 ritual-political networks that contextualizes the Bois Caïman ceremony
The prosecution took place in the Marmelade district of Saint-Domingue
Jerome and Telemaque were fugitives, and the conspiracy's reach across plantations was sustained by marronnage networks
Jerome Conspiracy 1786
Jerome Conspiracy 1786
The objects and practices prosecuted - mayombo sticks, sacred packets, nocturnal assemblies - belong to the Vodou and Petwo tradition
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"Jerome Conspiracy 1786." 1786. Rasin.ai, 2026. https://rasin.ai/connections/events/jerome-conspiracy-1786. Accessed 2026-05-05.