The Disembowelment and Decapitation of a Pregnant Maroon
Marie Jeanne was an enslaved female who was a part of a Maroon band in Guadeloupe. In 1743, an overseer of the plantation she escaped from spotted her bathing. Rather than capturing her and returning her to the plantation, Jeanne was subjected to a horrifying death. The overseer stabbed Jeanne twice with his sword before disemboweling her. Jeanne was believed to be pregnant at the time. After the gruesome murder, the overseer took things even further by slicing Jeanne’s head off and placing it on a spike to be displayed as a warning to other enslaved people who were considering trying to escape.
Enslaved Woman Forced to Watch the Beheading of Her Own Child
A former enslaved man from Georgia recalled a horrifying story during an interview in 1937 as a part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Slave Narrative Project. He revealed that an enslaved woman witnessed a white woman slice her own child’s head off because the baby belonged to the white woman’s husband.
“One white lady that lived near us at McBean slipped in a colored gal’s room and cut her baby’s head clean off ‘cause it belonged to her husband,” the unnamed former enslaved man said.
