And I, who, as Johnson said of an hypochondriac Lady, “have spun this discourse out of my own bowels,”and made as free with those of others102—I am a VAMPYRE!

terrupted by the glittering bayonets of the soldiery; who poured in upon them from every quarter, and hemmed them in, with a bristling chevaux-de-frise of steel. The Vampyres, surprised but undaunted, unsheathed their sabres, and drew up in a gallant style, as if determined to die game; being, indeed, assured, that like so many Phœnixes, they would rise from their own ashes, as often as they might be cut down.

the first moment we come ashore on ST. DOMINGO, our souls shall swell like a sponge in the liquid element;—our bodies shall burst from their fetters, glorious as a curculio from its shell;

I come to ourselves, full-blooded—unadulterated—immortal bloodsuckers!—To ourselves—whether Gouls,—or Afrits,—or Vampyres;—Vroucolochas,—Vardoulachos,—or Broucolokas81—To ourselves—the terror of the living and of the dead, and the participants of the nature of both;—To ourselves—the emblems at once of corruption and of vitality;—blotted from the records of existence, and replenished to repletion with circulating life;—abandoned by the quick, and unrecognised by the dead:—‘at once relics and relicts;—rocked on the bases of our own eternities;—the chronicles of what was—the solemn and sublime mementoes of what must be!’unqualified approbation from both sides of the house.)

From Titan himself, descended the Cy-clopes, and all other ancient and modern Anthropophagi; and, in lineal descent, the Moco tribe of our own EBOES,79to whom I have the honour of being related. Those of you, too, are his posterity, who, after your deaths, return to your native land—the true Elysium

AFRICAN PRINCE arose, and making an obeisance to the company,—cleared his throat, and began to address them as follows:—“Gentlemen and Vampyres!”—but the VAMPYRES expressing their resentment against this breach of etiquette, he corrected himself: —“Vampyres and Gentlemen!”—but the NEGROES were no more willing to come last, than the Vampyres, and a loud growl accompanied by a slight hiss, again interrupted the orator. He was not, however, disconcerted, but like Mr. Burke, thundered out an iteration of the offensive sentence.75“Yes,”said he, “I repeat it, Vampyres and Gentlemen? Shall not the immortal precede the mortal?—Shall not those whose diet surpasses the nectar and ambrosia of celestials, precede the ephemeral race, who fatten on the unclean juice of brutes,—the rank essence of esculent76productions,—or the nauseous liquor of the

The whole range of this vast amphitheatre, sweeping from before the throne, was occupied by slaves, rudely attired, and imperfectly armed with clubs and missiles; a decent platoon of black-guards were posted be-fore the Vampyre monarchs; and, in the centre, a band of musicians performed an exquisite symphony

The walls were decorated with other appendages,which added to the mystery, if not to the embellishment of the scene; being irregularly stained with blood; decorated with rude tapestry of many coloured plumage;—and stuccoed with the beaks of parrots;—the teeth of dogs, and alligators;—bones of cats;—broken glass and eggshells; plastered with a composition of rum and grave-dirt, the implements of NEGRO witchcraft!

You have been,”he said, “sufficiently rewarded, for the cruelties you practised upon my person, several yearsago. I forgive you, my dear sir, what you performed, and intended to performon me. Here is your son, who has grown considerably, as you may observe; and I assure you that his education has not been neglected. To his exertions last night you are indebted for your revivification. And as, you may remember, you were embalmed, you have kept quite sweet and fresh ever since your interment. Amiable and virtuous VAMPYRES! may you long enjoy that tranquillity and contentment, which your merit and accomplishments so eminently deserve! A vessel lies in the port, ready to sail for Europe in an hour. The Island is no longer a place for you. Here is money to pay your passages, and all I have to say, is, that the sooner you’re off the better.—Farewell!

he PRINCE said that quarrelling was all nonsense, and offered his hand; but Mr. PERSONNE refused, saying, “Don’t be too familiar, Blackey;”

knocking out their own brains

But ZEMBO, rushing between the parties, raised his hands in a supplicating posture; while the generous monarch, making a Salam62to his antagonist, begged him,keep himself quiet, and look behind him. They both turned round on this intimation,when, to the utter confusion of the Lady, her second and third husbands, Messieurs MARQUAND and DUBOIS, arose from the graves, where they had been lovingly deposited by the side of each other. They both advanced to salute their wife; but Mr. PERSONNE, brandishing his thigh-bone, warned them to stand off, as he had the first title to the Lady

A wide wound appeared to have been inflicted there, but was now cicatrized.60Imagine if you can, her surprise; when, by a certain carniverous craving in her maw, and by putting this and that together, she found she was a—VAMPYRE!

the grave of her first husband, and stamping violently on the earth, it seemed to heave as with the throes of an earthquake

a Vampyre has none

But his bellowing and threats were vain; and he found to his mortification that he had gotten the wrong sow by the ear, or rather by the throat

Swear, or if that is against your principles, affirm, by this dirty blood,—and bloody dirt;—by this watery blood,—and bloody water;—by this watery dirt, and dirty water;—that you will never disclose in any manner, aught of what you have seen and shall see this night

Her husband drew a golden goblet from beneath a large stone; then, bending over the corse, he scooped out the heart, with his long and polished nails; and, having pressed the blood into the chalice, mingled with it some dark particles, gathered from the newly turned up earth

ZEMBO fell as fiercely upon the corpse, as a hungry dog upon his dinner; but was arrested by the AFRICAN, who lent him a severe box on the ear, which sent him blubbering to a corner of the cemetery

Presently thetwo genii53, or gentlemen, or whatever they were

The African, making observations on the grave, began to strip himself very expeditiously, assisted by ZEMBO; who seemed to recover from his blues; and by his activity and eagerness, manifested his expectation of soon seeing some fine sport.

They now stood near the spot, where her three husbands, several children, and the skin, hair and nails of her first baby, were deposited in a ro

ZEMBO mournfully followed

did not seem to be in perfect possession of her right senses

enchanting dishabille

When ZEMBO49(the page) returned, the parties had agreed to be privately united on the same evening. The ceremony was accordingly performed, on the spot, by the family chaplain of Mrs. DUBOIS: not without many remonstrances on his part, as to the impropriety of marrying a negro

The conversation gradually assumed a more empassioned and amorous complexion

The beauty then, the royalty, gentility, and various accomplishments of the BAMBUCK43monarch, made captive the too sensible heart of the French widow. She forgot her ogles, graces, and even her loquacity; rooted to her seat, and fixed in immoveable contemplation of the AFRICAN’S face

Shakspeare, true to nature, has also remarked, “Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies’eyes.”

And if we gaze on the rows of skulls, which festoon and garnish Surgeon’s Hall,41we can apply no standard, to determine their relative beauty. They are all equally ugly

Nature might stand up and say “This was a man!”And certainly it is only the weakness and imperfection of our human senses, which, penetrating no further than the surface, is for ever deceived by superficial shadows.

t is remarked by the Abbe Reynal, that there is a peculiar elegance and beauty in the complexion of the Africans, (when the eyes and nose are accustomed to their hue and odour.)40

The regal port37was manifest in his gigantic and well proportioned frame; and majesty was conspicuous on his brow, without its diadem.3

While lost in this pensive reverie, she perceived two strangers approaching her, in the extremity of the long vista of the grove. One of them was a coloured gentleman, of remarkable height, and deep jetty blackness; a perfect model of the CONGO Apollo.36He was drest in the rich garb of a Moorish Prince; and led by the hand a pale European boy, in an Asiatic dress; whose languid countenance, slender form and tristful gait, were strongly contrasted with the portlyappearance and majestic step of his conductor

much regretted byall who had the honour of his acquaintance, particularly by his negroes; who could not soon forget him; as he had left too many sincere marks of his regard upon their backs, to be ever obliterated from their recollections.

that when she went in the morning to see her baby, whom she had left in the cradle, there was nothing to be seen, but the skin, hair, and nails!!!

wrapt in greasy sheets, and smarting as if in a Cayenne bath

he popped Mr. PERSONNE up into the air many yards, and he alighted head-foremost into the fire, where he had intended to have dedicated the sable brat, with his nine lives, to Moloch!!!

ignaqueous25animals, was confident that though the water fiend was so expert in his own element, he could not stand the fiery ordea

but being ashamed that a little negro of ten years old, should put him in bodily fear, he knocked him down

ie a large stone round the boy’s middle: then, with a main exertion of strength, he hurled him into the sparkling ocean

of African extraction

elevating the literature of the Auction Room

she argues that the novella is both highly intertextual and difficult to classify using the traditional model of national literary development.

he Black Vampiredraws on this obeah literature to enmesh it with vampirism, sprinkling the already well-established conventions common to representations of obeah throughout its vampire plot. Obeah fictions, for instance, recounted enslaved Africans’ abilities to imbue inert objects with animating power—as they assembled little bags or amulets that held the power to harm those who crossed their path—and their ability to transform the living into the seemingly temporarily dead b

Abraham Lincoln reportedly called Stowe ‘the little lady who made this great war.’”

A work shouldn’t be considered worthy of canonization in American Literature because of its ambiguity or complexity, but for the magnitude of impact that it made on America as a whole.

arguably more important than them to the American story.

demonstrate how this was clearly a story meant for European or colonialist eyes.

Neither Unca nor Alluca are examples of feminist characters for one simple reason: every action they both take is motivated by the pursuit of a man.

male colonialist’s wet dream

truly feels like a scene stolen from Days of Our Lives

Then I took it of the child, and eat it myself, and savory it was to my taste.

I told them, they had as good knock me in head as starve me to death.

then she cut me off a little piece, and gave one of the English children a piece also

boiling corn and beans, which was a lovely sight to see, but I could not get a taste thereof

Englishman stripped naked, and lying dead upon the ground, but knew not who it was.

That we must rely on God Himself, and our whole dependance must be upon Him.

Before I knew what affliction meant, I was ready sometimes to wish for it. When I lived in prosperity, having the comforts of the world about me, my relations by me, my heart cheerful, and taking little care for anything, and yet seeing many, whom I preferred before myself, under many trials and afflictions, in sickness, weakness, poverty, losses, crosses, and cares of the world, I should be sometimes jealous least I should have my portion in this life, and that Scripture would come to my mind, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12.6).

my thoughts are upon things past, upon the awful dispensation of the Lord towards us, upon His wonderful power and might, in carrying of us through so many difficulties

wilderness from among all Christians

pitiful, tender-hearted and compassionate Christians

I told him no: I was not willing to run away, but desired to wait God’s time, that I might go home quietly, and without fear.

They mourned (with their black faces) for their own losses, yet triumphed and rejoiced in their inhumane, and many times devilish cruelty to the English

with their black faces

They would pick up old bones, and cut them to pieces at the joints, and if they were full of worms and maggots, they would scald them over the fire to make the vermine come out, and then boil them, and drink up the liquor, and then beat the great ends of them in a mortar, and so eat them. They would eat horse’s guts, and ears, and all sorts of wild birds which they could catch; also bear, venison, beaver, tortoise, frogs, squirrels, dogs, skunks, rattlesnakes; yea, the very bark of trees; besides all sorts of creatures, and provision which they plundered from the English.

strangely did the Lord provide for them

God had an over-ruling hand in all those things.

I can but admire to see the wonderful providence of God in preserving the heathen for further affliction to our poor country.

It is the Lord’s doing, and it should be marvelous in our eyes.

afflicted

So like were these barbarous creatures to him who was a liar from the beginning.

I asked them to let me go out and pick up some sticks, that I might get alone, and pour out my heart unto the Lord. Then also I took my Bible to read, but I found no comfort here neither

for which she gave me a mess of broth, which was thickened with meal made of the bark of a tree, and to make it the better, she had put into it about a handful of peas, and a few roasted ground nuts

There was a squaw who spake to me to make a shirt for her sannup, for which she gave me a piece of bear. Another asked me to knit a pair of stockings, for which she gave me a quart of peas.

There one of them asked me why I wept. I could hardly tell what to say: Yet I answered, they would kill me. “No,” said he, “none will hurt you.” Then came one of them and gave me two spoonfuls of meal to comfort me, and another gave me half a pint of peas; which was more worth than many bushels at another time.

Four of them carried a great Indian upon a bier;

“Wait on the Lord, Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine Heart, wait I say on the Lord.”

But before they came to us, Oh! the outrageous roaring and hooping that there was. They began their din about a mile before they came to us.

(by my master in this writing, must be understood Quinnapin, who was a Sagamore, and married King Philip’s wife’s sister; not that he first took me, but I was sold to him by another Narragansett Indian, who took me when first I came out of the garrison)

Feb. 18, 1675

His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning.

yea, so much that I could never have thought of, had I not experienced it.

I went on foot after it

God was with me

vast and desolate wilderness

Those seven that were killed at Lancaster the summer before upon a Sabbath day

Little do many think what is the savageness and brutishness of this barbarous enemy,

All was gone, my husband gone (at least separated from me, he being in the Bay; and to add to my grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward), my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts—within door and without—all was gone (except my life), and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.

But, given the amount of subliminal adult humor present in the show and because “psychoanalysis…[is] first and foremost an art of interpreting”, anything is possible (433).