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The Black Vampyre: A Legend of St. Domingo
WARNING! Contains moderate bloody violence against slavers and plantation owners!
This pioneer vampire tale from 1819 spills revenge-cold blood as its narrator leads us through high gothic terror, to radical outrage, to in-jokes for the New York literati and broadsides on the morality of slavery, reaching a blood-soaked conclusion dripping with 'biting' polemic vilifying the bankers who caused the horrendous economic recession of that same year.
An anti-capitalist horror fable from 200 years hence, The Black Vampyre vilified the worst financial predation the capitalist world would ever see, decades before Karl Marx ― the enslavement of Africans in the New World.
One dead man said no. And this is his story.
The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo tells the affrighting tale of a slave who is resurrected as a vampire after being killed by his owner; the slave seeks revenge by stealing the owner's son and marrying the owner's wife. The anonymous writer D'Arcy sets the story against the conditions that led to the Haitian Revolution.
First published in chapbook form in New York in 1819, this is its first time ever in paperback. This emancipatory tale from literary New York in the 1810s arguably dates the birth of horror as know it!
This edition features a new introduction as well as extensive notes and a guide to literary allusions.
This pioneer vampire tale from 1819 spills revenge-cold blood as its narrator leads us through high gothic terror, to radical outrage, to in-jokes for the New York literati and broadsides on the morality of slavery, reaching a blood-soaked conclusion dripping with 'biting' polemic vilifying the bankers who caused the horrendous economic recession of that same year.
An anti-capitalist horror fable from 200 years hence, The Black Vampyre vilified the worst financial predation the capitalist world would ever see, decades before Karl Marx ― the enslavement of Africans in the New World.
One dead man said no. And this is his story.
The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo tells the affrighting tale of a slave who is resurrected as a vampire after being killed by his owner; the slave seeks revenge by stealing the owner's son and marrying the owner's wife. The anonymous writer D'Arcy sets the story against the conditions that led to the Haitian Revolution.
First published in chapbook form in New York in 1819, this is its first time ever in paperback. This emancipatory tale from literary New York in the 1810s arguably dates the birth of horror as know it!
This edition features a new introduction as well as extensive notes and a guide to literary allusions.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1819
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
March 12, 2020
Weird little story more interesting for its place in vampire and gothic literature’s history than its content.
An early example of vampire fiction directly inspired by (and capitalising off) Polidori’s The Vampyre, The Black Vampyre is notable for being the first of its type to feature a black vampire and a mixed-race vampire.
Its direct message of emancipation and revenge against a murderous slave master are much remarked upon and notable, but the narrative broadly loses itself by the end. If you have come to this story expecting a fair and respectful portrait of a former slave character, you’ll want to look elsewhere - The Black Vampyre, while it certainly could be worse, falls into many of the pits of its contemporaries and is rife with stereotypes, misportrayals and misinformation regarding people of colour, Islam and Obeah, and Haiti more broadly.
The author utilises vampirism in an economic critique sense and distracts himself by attacking his contemporaries in verse in the conclusion of the second publication, losing sight of any civil rights message. Overall, a story far more comfortable in the gothic adventure mysteries of its time with all the Orientalist fetishism and addresses to the reader as one would expect.
tl;dr - A historical curiosity with comic delivery, interesting for context but far from a masterpiece. A PDF version with notes and further reading is available here: http://jto.common-place.org/just-teac...
An early example of vampire fiction directly inspired by (and capitalising off) Polidori’s The Vampyre, The Black Vampyre is notable for being the first of its type to feature a black vampire and a mixed-race vampire.
Its direct message of emancipation and revenge against a murderous slave master are much remarked upon and notable, but the narrative broadly loses itself by the end. If you have come to this story expecting a fair and respectful portrait of a former slave character, you’ll want to look elsewhere - The Black Vampyre, while it certainly could be worse, falls into many of the pits of its contemporaries and is rife with stereotypes, misportrayals and misinformation regarding people of colour, Islam and Obeah, and Haiti more broadly.
The author utilises vampirism in an economic critique sense and distracts himself by attacking his contemporaries in verse in the conclusion of the second publication, losing sight of any civil rights message. Overall, a story far more comfortable in the gothic adventure mysteries of its time with all the Orientalist fetishism and addresses to the reader as one would expect.
tl;dr - A historical curiosity with comic delivery, interesting for context but far from a masterpiece. A PDF version with notes and further reading is available here: http://jto.common-place.org/just-teac...
September 30, 2020
This is a tricky one to rate. The central idea, of a slave child nearly murdered by his master, who comes back as a vampire years later to get revenge, is a fantastic one. And the idea of doing a black comedy spoof of the vampire genre is also good, and of course has been done successfully multiple times in the years since. I even think combining the two ideas could have successfully worked, but it's perhaps inevitable that a white writer in 1819 would come up short when trying to tell that story.
As it is, the end result is too muddled for any of the ideas to reach their full potential. Even parodies need coherent storytelling (if they're going to be good ones), and this story can't seem to figure out where it wants to go, what it's trying to say, or whose side we should be on. The vampire comes across as a much more likable and honorable character than his former masters (his backstory alone would pretty much guarantee that to a modern reader, but after putting his ex-masters through a certain amount of trouble he's basically like "Welp, I guess that's enough for my revenge. Here's some money to start a new life, I'm off to go advocate for civil rights with my vampire abolitionist group", which is really above and beyond).
But in the end, he and his abolitionist coven still get destroyed by the white characters, and the story seems to think it's a happy ending. Maybe in 1819, ending it any other way would just have been too radical.
This is a story I'd honestly love to see loosely adapted someday, preferably by a Black filmmaker (Jordan Peele's The Black Vampyre? Who wouldn't watch that?) Maybe a future storyteller could do more justice to these ideas than this story did.
As it is, the end result is too muddled for any of the ideas to reach their full potential. Even parodies need coherent storytelling (if they're going to be good ones), and this story can't seem to figure out where it wants to go, what it's trying to say, or whose side we should be on. The vampire comes across as a much more likable and honorable character than his former masters (his backstory alone would pretty much guarantee that to a modern reader, but after putting his ex-masters through a certain amount of trouble he's basically like "Welp, I guess that's enough for my revenge. Here's some money to start a new life, I'm off to go advocate for civil rights with my vampire abolitionist group", which is really above and beyond).
But in the end, he and his abolitionist coven still get destroyed by the white characters, and the story seems to think it's a happy ending. Maybe in 1819, ending it any other way would just have been too radical.
This is a story I'd honestly love to see loosely adapted someday, preferably by a Black filmmaker (Jordan Peele's The Black Vampyre? Who wouldn't watch that?) Maybe a future storyteller could do more justice to these ideas than this story did.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 28, 2023
A supernatural short story with some grisly scenes. There are many references to classical mythology and contemoray people and issues.
October 29, 2021
A short story that I’m giving 4 stars to not because it’s fantastic but because it’s probably the first black vampire narrative. Published 13 years after Charlotte Dacre’s ‘Zofloya’, D’arcy’s gothic treatment of the literary Moor figure is potently political.
December 21, 2021
The Black Vampyre was written in response to Polidori's Vampyre. The edition I read contained a fascinating introduction which provided context for the story and numerous footnotes which explain the now-obscure references in the story.
The Black Vampyre was written anonymously, attributed to one Uriah Derick D'Arcy (this is an anagram of Richard Varick Dey, who may have been the actual author). Like Polidori, the author quotes lines about vampires from Byron's "The Giaour" which compared Greece being subject to the Ottoman Empire to slavery. D'Arcy takes up this theme, applying it to African slaves in America.
There was a big anti-slavery movement in New York throughout the 1810s when this was written. Haiti (referred to as St. Domingo at the time), had successfully won its independence, and works about Haiti were popular at the time.
D'Arcy drew upon a history of the West Indies which discussed obeah, a group of creole religious and medical practices. In response to the Panic of 1819, one of the worst recessions of the time, the author denounces financial criminals as being the real vampires, but stops short of condemning slavery.
The author calls the work simple, stupid, nonsense in his own introduction, justifiably setting low expectations. No wonder he chose to remain anonymous.
In the story itself, Anthony Gibbons is the only slave to survive passage to Haiti on his ship. He's bought by Mr. Personne who thinks to put him out of his misery by knocking out his brains and throwing him in the ocean. But the tide brings him back. The 10-year-old cannot seem to die.
Later, a prince (presumably an adult Gibbons) appears with a white orphan boy named Zembo, seeking to seduce Mr. Personne's widow Euphemia. He becomes her fourth husband (she had buried 3 husbands by this time) then turns her into a vampire. Her previous three husbands rise from their graves and fight over her.
I've got say, this is more gruesome than Polidori's Vampyre, and also quite a bit sillier. It's basically the 1819 equivalent of a bad episode of What We Do in the Shadows. I can't recommend anyone read this for the story itself.
However, the cool thing about reading old stories like this is the old-fashioned vocabulary. A few words I liked include: ignaqueous (able to live in both fire and water), squizzed (a word that might mean squeezed), tumuli (a mound covering a grave), cicatrized (healed over with scar tissue), facer (a punch to the face), to speak catachrestically (to misuse imagery or description), esculent (edible), bibliopost (bookseller), "gutting the fobs" (pick-pocketing), and "cayenne bath" (a punishment inflicted on slaves in Haiti administered after a beating. It involved a blend of lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. Yikes.)
There's also cool details like wooden toys weighted at the bottom with lead that stands up again when tipped. I didn't know Brother Jonathan was a precursor to Uncle Sam. I also enjoyed this description of someone wounding another: "Mr. DuBois soon brought claret from Mr. Marquand."
The author provides a moral to the story at the end, accusing dandies, frauds, corrupted clerks, plagiarists, critics, etc. of being vampyres. The author even accuses himself! However, he leaves slave holders off the list, making me think the author wasn't as anti-slavery as the introduction makes it seem.
Overall, The Black Vampyre is a poorly-written story, but the history behind it is interesting.
The Black Vampyre was written anonymously, attributed to one Uriah Derick D'Arcy (this is an anagram of Richard Varick Dey, who may have been the actual author). Like Polidori, the author quotes lines about vampires from Byron's "The Giaour" which compared Greece being subject to the Ottoman Empire to slavery. D'Arcy takes up this theme, applying it to African slaves in America.
There was a big anti-slavery movement in New York throughout the 1810s when this was written. Haiti (referred to as St. Domingo at the time), had successfully won its independence, and works about Haiti were popular at the time.
D'Arcy drew upon a history of the West Indies which discussed obeah, a group of creole religious and medical practices. In response to the Panic of 1819, one of the worst recessions of the time, the author denounces financial criminals as being the real vampires, but stops short of condemning slavery.
The author calls the work simple, stupid, nonsense in his own introduction, justifiably setting low expectations. No wonder he chose to remain anonymous.
In the story itself, Anthony Gibbons is the only slave to survive passage to Haiti on his ship. He's bought by Mr. Personne who thinks to put him out of his misery by knocking out his brains and throwing him in the ocean. But the tide brings him back. The 10-year-old cannot seem to die.
Later, a prince (presumably an adult Gibbons) appears with a white orphan boy named Zembo, seeking to seduce Mr. Personne's widow Euphemia. He becomes her fourth husband (she had buried 3 husbands by this time) then turns her into a vampire. Her previous three husbands rise from their graves and fight over her.
I've got say, this is more gruesome than Polidori's Vampyre, and also quite a bit sillier. It's basically the 1819 equivalent of a bad episode of What We Do in the Shadows. I can't recommend anyone read this for the story itself.
However, the cool thing about reading old stories like this is the old-fashioned vocabulary. A few words I liked include: ignaqueous (able to live in both fire and water), squizzed (a word that might mean squeezed), tumuli (a mound covering a grave), cicatrized (healed over with scar tissue), facer (a punch to the face), to speak catachrestically (to misuse imagery or description), esculent (edible), bibliopost (bookseller), "gutting the fobs" (pick-pocketing), and "cayenne bath" (a punishment inflicted on slaves in Haiti administered after a beating. It involved a blend of lemon juice, salt, and cayenne. Yikes.)
There's also cool details like wooden toys weighted at the bottom with lead that stands up again when tipped. I didn't know Brother Jonathan was a precursor to Uncle Sam. I also enjoyed this description of someone wounding another: "Mr. DuBois soon brought claret from Mr. Marquand."
The author provides a moral to the story at the end, accusing dandies, frauds, corrupted clerks, plagiarists, critics, etc. of being vampyres. The author even accuses himself! However, he leaves slave holders off the list, making me think the author wasn't as anti-slavery as the introduction makes it seem.
Overall, The Black Vampyre is a poorly-written story, but the history behind it is interesting.
July 15, 2025
The author said they wrote this in two afternoons and like yeah you can really tell….
June 25, 2024
- Did not want to keep reading and only did so because it was so short (I DNFed the poems and other notes at the end still)
- The inclusion of the protagonist being balck and a vampire is really good, especially for the time that it was written as but so much more could’ve been done with that, and the goal (is any?) was lost very quickly
- Despite how descriptive the settings and characters were, the book was so easy to get lost in, especially when changing settings or topics
- I’m really not sure what was going on in the second half of this..
- The inclusion of the protagonist being balck and a vampire is really good, especially for the time that it was written as but so much more could’ve been done with that, and the goal (is any?) was lost very quickly
- Despite how descriptive the settings and characters were, the book was so easy to get lost in, especially when changing settings or topics
- I’m really not sure what was going on in the second half of this..
March 2, 2022
Klasik zombi hikayesi gibi başlayan ama giderek politik satir haline gelen bir hikayeye sahip.
December 4, 2022
read this in undergrad and truly never expected to read it again, but here we are
3.5?
3.5?
Read
January 8, 2024An interesting read, especially in combination with the intro/background. This is definitely a historical artifact (read: it’s kinda racist), but there were some good ideas/imagery - that first scene on the beach, damn! - and some funny lines. I lol’ed at the parentheticals “(loud cheering from the Vampyres.)” and “(Unparalleled bursts of unprecedented applause!!!)”
February 7, 2023
Literally obsessed with how wild and out there this short story was.
Rating: 5/5 Stars
This book was so funny and weird! It's so unique with its take on vampires, and touches on a lot of "taboo" topics for the time. I was way more interested in this than my other Vampyre book tbh because this one was just generally all over the place in the best way. I found the characters interesting and not overly simplified, and the humor in the novel lasts until today. Probably one of my favorite reads of my Vampires in Lit and Film class so far.
Rating System:
★ - Avoid at all costs. Don't even look at it.
★★ - I would recommend for people not to read it.
★★★ - It was okay. I might recommend for certain people.
★★★★ - I'd recommend it to most people.
★★★★★ - I'd literally gift this to someone. Must read.
Rating: 5/5 Stars
This book was so funny and weird! It's so unique with its take on vampires, and touches on a lot of "taboo" topics for the time. I was way more interested in this than my other Vampyre book tbh because this one was just generally all over the place in the best way. I found the characters interesting and not overly simplified, and the humor in the novel lasts until today. Probably one of my favorite reads of my Vampires in Lit and Film class so far.
Rating System:
★ - Avoid at all costs. Don't even look at it.
★★ - I would recommend for people not to read it.
★★★ - It was okay. I might recommend for certain people.
★★★★ - I'd recommend it to most people.
★★★★★ - I'd literally gift this to someone. Must read.
February 5, 2025
Read this for, you guessed it, my English lit analysis class!!
This was HORRIBLE
Either I really just DID NOT understand what was happening OR this is a deeply weird, DEEPLY RACIST book
Like I think this was supposed to be for the emancipation of enslaved Haitian people BUT GOOD LORD some of the comments made, like when the author says,
« much regretted by all who had the honour of his acquaintance, particularly by his [enslaved people]; 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. »
LIKE AM I MISSING SOMETHING OR???!!!! WTF IS THIS MY GUYS, WHAT IS THISSSSS
This was HORRIBLE
Either I really just DID NOT understand what was happening OR this is a deeply weird, DEEPLY RACIST book
Like I think this was supposed to be for the emancipation of enslaved Haitian people BUT GOOD LORD some of the comments made, like when the author says,
« much regretted by all who had the honour of his acquaintance, particularly by his [enslaved people]; 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. »
LIKE AM I MISSING SOMETHING OR???!!!! WTF IS THIS MY GUYS, WHAT IS THISSSSS
April 17, 2024
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 others—I am a VAMPYRE!
Va más para un puntaje de 3.5 estrellas, pero lo redondeo en 4.
Se nota que el autor quería dejar una marca en la literatura, quería hacerle una pseudo competencia a Polidori. Esta obra está tan explotada del contexto social que se vivía en Estados Unidos a comienzos del 1800 y se nota, rebalsa de querer romper esquemas.
Va más para un puntaje de 3.5 estrellas, pero lo redondeo en 4.
Se nota que el autor quería dejar una marca en la literatura, quería hacerle una pseudo competencia a Polidori. Esta obra está tan explotada del contexto social que se vivía en Estados Unidos a comienzos del 1800 y se nota, rebalsa de querer romper esquemas.
October 12, 2024
Appreciated for what it added to the vampire myth, but the execution of this work is sloppy at best. It seems as if d'Arcy wanted to both create a satire of Polidori's The Vampyre AND offer support(?) as an abolitionist (specifically regarding the Haitian Revolution.) Unfortunately the halfhearted execution of these ideas led to a work which doesn't come across as genuine.
November 26, 2023
This is a fascinating work, both because of its completely unique perspective and setting in the scope of vampire lore, but also because of its political and social commentary. It's worth highlighting that the first vampire story written in the Americas -- and one of the first vampire stories written ever -- features a black protagonist who survives his own (repeated) attempted murder, escapes slavery, and goes on to help lead the Haitian revolution. While the language is dated and the characterizations rely on some racial stereotyping, I definitely read this as a pro-emancipation work that's sympathetic to the Haitian cause. It's a satire that feels entirely modern in its combination of horror tropes with ironic dark comedy.
To begin, the depiction of the French slaveowner, Mr. Personne*, is grotesque, but also bumbling and absurd. He's an evil man. Right off the bat, he attempts to murder a starving 10-year-old slave boy because he appears too small and weak to work the sugar plantation. That boy, our titular main character, survives Mr. Personne's assaults in increasingly improbable and ludicrous ways while Mr. Personne grows flustered and desperate. It's clear that Mr. Personne is very much in the wrong, casually committing crimes against humanity, while also not in the position of unshakable power he thinks he is.
This opening scene is wonderfully written, including some top-notch descriptions of setting and action. There's this image of the boy crab walking out of a jewel bright Caribbean ocean in a scene that could be shot, no notes, in an Exorcist-like film sequence today.
Anyway, the boy turns out to have preternatural strength, and when Mr. Personne attempts to throw him into a bonfire to burn him to death, the boy instead flips Mr. Personne into the fire. In the ensuing chaos, the boy slips away to freedom. Mr. Personne dies of his burns, but before he does, his wife reveals that their infant son has been murdered... or something: only the baby's skin and nails are left inside his crib.
The story then shifts narrative perspective to Mrs. Personne, who, after her first husband's death, remarries, then remarries again... and again....and again. From a modern perspective, this is a strange move narratively, but I think this enumeration of her veritable parade of husbands is actually supposed to demonstrate her lack of character: Mr. Personne's defining feature is his casual cruelty while his wife's is faithlessness, shallowness, and frivolity. This matters, because a lot of the pro-emancipation elements of this story rely on us disliking -- or at least dismissing -- her character in the future.
It also matters because she's got a boatload of husband corpses in the ground by the time the black vampire reappears, many years later. And, gentle reader, let me tell you: the black vampire is all grown up and he is hot. We get multiple paragraphs describing how much of a thirst trap this vampire is:
"One of them was a coloured gentleman, of remarkable height, and deep jetty blackness; a perfect model of the CONGO Apollo. He was drest in the rich garb of a Moorish Prince... The manners and conversation of the PRINCE had an irresistible charm. The regal port was manifest in his gigantic and well proportioned frame; and majesty was conspicuous on his brow, without its diadem. The turban and crescent had never graced a nobler front; but the winning condescension of his tones and language, while they could not banish the feeling of the presence of royalty, removed every restraint incident to that consciousness."
Mrs. Personne falls hard for this strange prince, and, after he negs her for a while, she agrees to marry him that very evening. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Personne's new husband takes her and his white page boy, Zembo, to a graveyard at midnight, where the vampire and his page start feasting on dead bodies and Mrs. Personne begins to suspect something is wrong.
Interestingly, in this version of vampire lore, vampires can drink the blood of the dead as well as the living, which, frankly, seems more ethical. However, in drinking the blood of the dead, the dead are brought back to life as vampires. (It's like vampires playing by zombie rules.) So now the story becomes a comedy of errors when multiple of Mrs. Personne's ex-husbands are brought back to life and all start fighting over who's her real husband. The black vampire prince is also a husband at this point, so it's a real mess. Hilariously, the black vampire suggests that all the other ex-husbands duel it out, knowing full well that, as vampires, they're immortal undead and can't actually kill one another. So several ex-husbands just end up in this toxic-masculinity-fueled slapstick situation, beating each other and stabbing each other to no avail.
The black vampire eventually gets tired of this, promptly stakes several ex-husbands back in their coffins, and reveals his identity to Mr. and Mrs. Personne. He is the boy Mr. Personne tried to murder so many years ago. And Zembo, his white page boy, is their son who the vampire has raised and educated as his own son. (Not the worst case scenario for Zembo... We're told another of Mrs. Personne's sons died of intoxication at the age of 7, so...) The black vampire is tired of all their bullshit, tells them that the island of St. Domingo (aka Hispaniola) is no longer safe for them, advises them to leave, returns Zembo to them, and peaces out.
Rather than leave the island, Zembo advises his parents to follow the vampire, which they do, discovering that he and other vampires and slaves have banded together to plan a revolt against white slaveowners. Hidden, they all watch a meeting of these conspirators deep in a cave. The black vampire delivers a fiery speech. Unfortunately, the army shows up just then and defeats all the vampires and slaves. The black vampire is killed, and the depiction is extremely dramatic: "So when a Gœtulian lion is pierced by the light bamboo, overpowered by the hunters, he struggles in his thrall like an Enceladus under Ætna, and dies at last with heart-wrung tears of anguish, and reverberating roars of hatred!!!" (Three exclamation points!)
The rebellion defeated, Zembo renames himself Barrabas after the prisoner freed by Pilate instead of Jesus (no commentary intended there, I'm sure); his parents get back together; Mrs. Personne has the vampire's baby; and the entire thing ends with an extremely confusing note about the author and his hot takes on politics, finance, the press, dandies, and New Jersey.
So. After all that, I have some notes.
First, while I do think this is an anti-slavery, pro-emancipation work of fiction (arguably, the FIRST pro-emancipation work of fiction published in America, predating other American abolitionist works of fiction by at least 5 years), the ending is baffling and the author's decision to tack on an entire "Morals" section at the end drastically undercuts the strength of the anti-slavery message. The choice to end the story with the slave rebellion being defeated comes across as an odd bit of revisionist history: the Haitian revolution ended in French defeat in 1804, 15 years before the publication of The Black Vampyre. The most generous read I can give on this front is that I guess there was still fighting and power consolidation on the island until 1822, so maybe things didn't seem so finalized yet? Alternatively, are we, as the readers, supposed to understand that the vampire-slave coalition was ultimately successful, given the history of the Haitian revolution and that this one defeat of the conspirators is only a small setback? If so, why not show the Personnes being dragged from their beds and massacred in 1804? I mean, I'm here for it.
As for the author's musings on the vampiric nature of finance, politics, the press... and dandies... This observation is by no means unique: most vampire references up to and including Bram Stoker were critiques of finance and politics or other predatory power structures, including The Vampyre by John Polidori, which was a Lord Byron caricature published in 1819 and a direct inspiration for The Black Vampyre. What is confounding is how the inclusion of this laundry list of criticism seems to unintentionally (?) equivocate the actions of a black former slave fighting for freedom of the oppressed with the sins of the land-owning, capital-holding elite. These groups are literally diametrically opposed. They're necessarily opposed since some of the "property" owned by the monied class of the time were slaves and since a lot of the capital being invested in Wall Street came, either directly or indirectly, from industries that profited from slavery. My most generous read of this section is that this is intended to be a "The black vampire isn't the real vampire: the idiots in power and anyone else of whom I personally disapprove are the real vampires... Which is eye-rolly moralism, even if true. Cut it, "D'Arcy", you absolute windbag.
The final note to make about this story is about the interesting gender dynamics. I'll admit that on first read, I was a little disgruntled with the characterization of Mrs. Personne as a faithless, frivolous, airheaded slut. (No need to slut-shame when confronting your readers with a sexy-ass vampire.) However. White women, while historically oppressed, were also oppressors. White women owned slaves, abused slaves, and profited from slavery. Mrs. Personne is one such white woman, and I think making her a Bad Person is a very good choice. I just wish it wasn't done primarily based on her choice to serial-marry her way through the island. Mrs. Personne, I'm here for your early-1800s trampage. Just... have a single shred of morality and social conscience while doing so. And don't let your 7-year-old children drink themselves to death.
Overall? 3.5 stars.
------
*"Mr. Personne" means "Mr. Nobody" or "Mr. No One" in French. In keeping with the horror-comedy genre, it reminds me of Clue's "Mr. Body."
To begin, the depiction of the French slaveowner, Mr. Personne*, is grotesque, but also bumbling and absurd. He's an evil man. Right off the bat, he attempts to murder a starving 10-year-old slave boy because he appears too small and weak to work the sugar plantation. That boy, our titular main character, survives Mr. Personne's assaults in increasingly improbable and ludicrous ways while Mr. Personne grows flustered and desperate. It's clear that Mr. Personne is very much in the wrong, casually committing crimes against humanity, while also not in the position of unshakable power he thinks he is.
This opening scene is wonderfully written, including some top-notch descriptions of setting and action. There's this image of the boy crab walking out of a jewel bright Caribbean ocean in a scene that could be shot, no notes, in an Exorcist-like film sequence today.
Anyway, the boy turns out to have preternatural strength, and when Mr. Personne attempts to throw him into a bonfire to burn him to death, the boy instead flips Mr. Personne into the fire. In the ensuing chaos, the boy slips away to freedom. Mr. Personne dies of his burns, but before he does, his wife reveals that their infant son has been murdered... or something: only the baby's skin and nails are left inside his crib.
The story then shifts narrative perspective to Mrs. Personne, who, after her first husband's death, remarries, then remarries again... and again....and again. From a modern perspective, this is a strange move narratively, but I think this enumeration of her veritable parade of husbands is actually supposed to demonstrate her lack of character: Mr. Personne's defining feature is his casual cruelty while his wife's is faithlessness, shallowness, and frivolity. This matters, because a lot of the pro-emancipation elements of this story rely on us disliking -- or at least dismissing -- her character in the future.
It also matters because she's got a boatload of husband corpses in the ground by the time the black vampire reappears, many years later. And, gentle reader, let me tell you: the black vampire is all grown up and he is hot. We get multiple paragraphs describing how much of a thirst trap this vampire is:
"One of them was a coloured gentleman, of remarkable height, and deep jetty blackness; a perfect model of the CONGO Apollo. He was drest in the rich garb of a Moorish Prince... The manners and conversation of the PRINCE had an irresistible charm. The regal port was manifest in his gigantic and well proportioned frame; and majesty was conspicuous on his brow, without its diadem. The turban and crescent had never graced a nobler front; but the winning condescension of his tones and language, while they could not banish the feeling of the presence of royalty, removed every restraint incident to that consciousness."
Mrs. Personne falls hard for this strange prince, and, after he negs her for a while, she agrees to marry him that very evening. Shortly thereafter, Mrs. Personne's new husband takes her and his white page boy, Zembo, to a graveyard at midnight, where the vampire and his page start feasting on dead bodies and Mrs. Personne begins to suspect something is wrong.
Interestingly, in this version of vampire lore, vampires can drink the blood of the dead as well as the living, which, frankly, seems more ethical. However, in drinking the blood of the dead, the dead are brought back to life as vampires. (It's like vampires playing by zombie rules.) So now the story becomes a comedy of errors when multiple of Mrs. Personne's ex-husbands are brought back to life and all start fighting over who's her real husband. The black vampire prince is also a husband at this point, so it's a real mess. Hilariously, the black vampire suggests that all the other ex-husbands duel it out, knowing full well that, as vampires, they're immortal undead and can't actually kill one another. So several ex-husbands just end up in this toxic-masculinity-fueled slapstick situation, beating each other and stabbing each other to no avail.
The black vampire eventually gets tired of this, promptly stakes several ex-husbands back in their coffins, and reveals his identity to Mr. and Mrs. Personne. He is the boy Mr. Personne tried to murder so many years ago. And Zembo, his white page boy, is their son who the vampire has raised and educated as his own son. (Not the worst case scenario for Zembo... We're told another of Mrs. Personne's sons died of intoxication at the age of 7, so...) The black vampire is tired of all their bullshit, tells them that the island of St. Domingo (aka Hispaniola) is no longer safe for them, advises them to leave, returns Zembo to them, and peaces out.
Rather than leave the island, Zembo advises his parents to follow the vampire, which they do, discovering that he and other vampires and slaves have banded together to plan a revolt against white slaveowners. Hidden, they all watch a meeting of these conspirators deep in a cave. The black vampire delivers a fiery speech. Unfortunately, the army shows up just then and defeats all the vampires and slaves. The black vampire is killed, and the depiction is extremely dramatic: "So when a Gœtulian lion is pierced by the light bamboo, overpowered by the hunters, he struggles in his thrall like an Enceladus under Ætna, and dies at last with heart-wrung tears of anguish, and reverberating roars of hatred!!!" (Three exclamation points!)
The rebellion defeated, Zembo renames himself Barrabas after the prisoner freed by Pilate instead of Jesus (no commentary intended there, I'm sure); his parents get back together; Mrs. Personne has the vampire's baby; and the entire thing ends with an extremely confusing note about the author and his hot takes on politics, finance, the press, dandies, and New Jersey.
So. After all that, I have some notes.
First, while I do think this is an anti-slavery, pro-emancipation work of fiction (arguably, the FIRST pro-emancipation work of fiction published in America, predating other American abolitionist works of fiction by at least 5 years), the ending is baffling and the author's decision to tack on an entire "Morals" section at the end drastically undercuts the strength of the anti-slavery message. The choice to end the story with the slave rebellion being defeated comes across as an odd bit of revisionist history: the Haitian revolution ended in French defeat in 1804, 15 years before the publication of The Black Vampyre. The most generous read I can give on this front is that I guess there was still fighting and power consolidation on the island until 1822, so maybe things didn't seem so finalized yet? Alternatively, are we, as the readers, supposed to understand that the vampire-slave coalition was ultimately successful, given the history of the Haitian revolution and that this one defeat of the conspirators is only a small setback? If so, why not show the Personnes being dragged from their beds and massacred in 1804? I mean, I'm here for it.
As for the author's musings on the vampiric nature of finance, politics, the press... and dandies... This observation is by no means unique: most vampire references up to and including Bram Stoker were critiques of finance and politics or other predatory power structures, including The Vampyre by John Polidori, which was a Lord Byron caricature published in 1819 and a direct inspiration for The Black Vampyre. What is confounding is how the inclusion of this laundry list of criticism seems to unintentionally (?) equivocate the actions of a black former slave fighting for freedom of the oppressed with the sins of the land-owning, capital-holding elite. These groups are literally diametrically opposed. They're necessarily opposed since some of the "property" owned by the monied class of the time were slaves and since a lot of the capital being invested in Wall Street came, either directly or indirectly, from industries that profited from slavery. My most generous read of this section is that this is intended to be a "The black vampire isn't the real vampire: the idiots in power and anyone else of whom I personally disapprove are the real vampires... Which is eye-rolly moralism, even if true. Cut it, "D'Arcy", you absolute windbag.
The final note to make about this story is about the interesting gender dynamics. I'll admit that on first read, I was a little disgruntled with the characterization of Mrs. Personne as a faithless, frivolous, airheaded slut. (No need to slut-shame when confronting your readers with a sexy-ass vampire.) However. White women, while historically oppressed, were also oppressors. White women owned slaves, abused slaves, and profited from slavery. Mrs. Personne is one such white woman, and I think making her a Bad Person is a very good choice. I just wish it wasn't done primarily based on her choice to serial-marry her way through the island. Mrs. Personne, I'm here for your early-1800s trampage. Just... have a single shred of morality and social conscience while doing so. And don't let your 7-year-old children drink themselves to death.
Overall? 3.5 stars.
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*"Mr. Personne" means "Mr. Nobody" or "Mr. No One" in French. In keeping with the horror-comedy genre, it reminds me of Clue's "Mr. Body."
February 19, 2024
When the introduction says the story has been written in two days with no sense or purpose whatsoever, and that even the author thinks it is "simple, stupid, and unadulterated absurdity," your expectations are set pretty low. This story, however, managed to be so bad it was actually kinda good.
It opens with the murder of some slaves, as you do, only one of these murderers is burned on his own pyre and was "served up like a broiled and peppered chicken" to death. One of those murdered slaves was of course the titular vampyre who's here to free the slaves. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be taken seriously.
Other favourite phrases:
"interesting infant"
"had been precociously sucked, like an unripe orange"
The heroine, while being choked by the vampyre and told to swear and oath and drink her child's blood, "murmured that she was not thirsty"
"armed himself with a gigantic thigh-bone"
"all the better for the loss of their wits, which, indeed, was a mere trifle"
ZEMBO carrying a stake with him "for such emergencies"
The author himself, at the very end: "I am a VAMPYRE!"
Surely this is some sort of satire.
Oh, also, there's no way this isn't either the first, or one of the first, instance(s) of using the triple exclamation point (!!!) ✨️for emphasis✨️ in, like, every paragraph!!!
This is fanfiction. That's the only explanation.
It opens with the murder of some slaves, as you do, only one of these murderers is burned on his own pyre and was "served up like a broiled and peppered chicken" to death. One of those murdered slaves was of course the titular vampyre who's here to free the slaves. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be taken seriously.
Other favourite phrases:
"interesting infant"
"had been precociously sucked, like an unripe orange"
The heroine, while being choked by the vampyre and told to swear and oath and drink her child's blood, "murmured that she was not thirsty"
"armed himself with a gigantic thigh-bone"
"all the better for the loss of their wits, which, indeed, was a mere trifle"
ZEMBO carrying a stake with him "for such emergencies"
The author himself, at the very end: "I am a VAMPYRE!"
Surely this is some sort of satire.
Oh, also, there's no way this isn't either the first, or one of the first, instance(s) of using the triple exclamation point (!!!) ✨️for emphasis✨️ in, like, every paragraph!!!
This is fanfiction. That's the only explanation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 20, 2025
This story is rather odd, but fascinating in the span of vampire history. It is the first American published vampire story, as well as the first story to feature a black vampire. It sends the message of anti-slavery and emancipation, but it was written in the 19th century by an anonymous author (that scholars speculate is one of two white men). It was written as a response to Polidori's "Vampyre" and contains a lot of intertextuality and connections to the Haitian revolution. The history and context of the story were the more interesting aspect. But I'd definitely recommend this to those who seek out more diverse vampire stories and vampire history!
March 22, 2022
This book is definitely heavy in political and cultural context, especially when you remember that the two speculations for the real author are two white men.
Despite that, I still enjoyed the book. I'm a bit fan of the weird and slightly gory, so this book was right up my alley! It was much different from other vampire literature I've read as it is very explicitly with its monstrosities and doesn't hide anything.
Despite that, I still enjoyed the book. I'm a bit fan of the weird and slightly gory, so this book was right up my alley! It was much different from other vampire literature I've read as it is very explicitly with its monstrosities and doesn't hide anything.
February 25, 2024
My feelings are mostly encompassed by the other reviews of this short story. Generally, a really interesting historical document with a relatively weak but theoretically attempted abolitionist direction.
I think any literature that places a historically minoritized population in the position of a supernatural being is going to be inherently complicated, with potential for both empowerment and othering in such narratives. For the former, this literary device can often mean placing someone in an underdog position that is more relatable, with the easiest example being Frankenstein's monster (an easy placeholder for all sorts of minoritized and excluded identities imo), as long as the supernatural being is not completely villainous. In this case, the former was perhaps what the author was intending, certainly in the way that the Black vampyre was by no means villainous but rather a purveyor of justice. The narrator has generally humanizing and positive descriptions of the Black vampyre (for 1819, anyway), including his benevolence in the end in (which is also like, lol tell me this was a white author without telling me this was a white author, but maybe its intended to placate the white fear of a post-slavery revolt or something). In a less impactful way, I think the author also tries to aim for empowerment in that . It makes being a vampyre not inherently evil to a potential white reader because, "hey, white people can be vampyres too so it can't be that bad" sort of vibe? But I agree with others that ending this story dulls the impact of the story (but is maybe a realistic analogy in current American society and so carries additional meaning when placed in a modern context as well). Thus, despite the intention of an abolitionist message, the novel could be easily interpreted as a "Black demon" meets innocent white "businessmen" who eventually, inevitably enjoy victory. The introduction of my version of the text mentioned this potentially being done to make the story more digestible to white readers of the time, which also seems plausible. The last thing I'll mention is And sure, making sure to look at this text through its historical context is valuable, but its still worth noting harmful prejudices/practices regardless of historical context here.
One thing that was mentioned in the "MORAL" part of this short story was, after listing positions of white people involved in the slave trade and ownership of slaves and naming them each as vampyres, the author says, "I am a VAMPYRE." Either the author thinks he is truly a vampyre, which is possible as some later writings seemed to include a nippy dog with the same name as the author (the vampire <--> dog transition coming about at least in Dracula, which is decades later than the publication of this short story, but I don't know how long that specific vampire lore existed pre-Dracula or pre-The-Black-Vampyre), or maybe he is acknowledging his own guilt as a white person in the institution of slavery and racism. As antiquated as some of the aforementioned parts of this short story are, I think (if I'm interpreting this right, which its possible I'm not) this acknowledgement of inherent participation in such institutions as a white person is something a lot of people could learn from today.
Finally, this short story is technically supposed to be a comedy. And yea, its absolutely unhinged and eccentric in terms of the language and the actions of the characters. Maybe it was a thing in the olden days to seriously call one's head their "noodle", but someone gearing up to strike someone else's "noodle" with a thigh bone is comical to read in literature from 1819... Typos. "Squizzed"? Bizarre & silly. Saw Tim Burton in my mind perhaps? Another reviewer mentioned wanting a loose adaptation of this short story by a Black producer/writer/etc and I could definitely see that.
I think any literature that places a historically minoritized population in the position of a supernatural being is going to be inherently complicated, with potential for both empowerment and othering in such narratives. For the former, this literary device can often mean placing someone in an underdog position that is more relatable, with the easiest example being Frankenstein's monster (an easy placeholder for all sorts of minoritized and excluded identities imo), as long as the supernatural being is not completely villainous. In this case, the former was perhaps what the author was intending, certainly in the way that the Black vampyre was by no means villainous but rather a purveyor of justice. The narrator has generally humanizing and positive descriptions of the Black vampyre (for 1819, anyway), including his benevolence in the end in (which is also like, lol tell me this was a white author without telling me this was a white author, but maybe its intended to placate the white fear of a post-slavery revolt or something). In a less impactful way, I think the author also tries to aim for empowerment in that . It makes being a vampyre not inherently evil to a potential white reader because, "hey, white people can be vampyres too so it can't be that bad" sort of vibe? But I agree with others that ending this story dulls the impact of the story (but is maybe a realistic analogy in current American society and so carries additional meaning when placed in a modern context as well). Thus, despite the intention of an abolitionist message, the novel could be easily interpreted as a "Black demon" meets innocent white "businessmen" who eventually, inevitably enjoy victory. The introduction of my version of the text mentioned this potentially being done to make the story more digestible to white readers of the time, which also seems plausible. The last thing I'll mention is And sure, making sure to look at this text through its historical context is valuable, but its still worth noting harmful prejudices/practices regardless of historical context here.
One thing that was mentioned in the "MORAL" part of this short story was, after listing positions of white people involved in the slave trade and ownership of slaves and naming them each as vampyres, the author says, "I am a VAMPYRE." Either the author thinks he is truly a vampyre, which is possible as some later writings seemed to include a nippy dog with the same name as the author (the vampire <--> dog transition coming about at least in Dracula, which is decades later than the publication of this short story, but I don't know how long that specific vampire lore existed pre-Dracula or pre-The-Black-Vampyre), or maybe he is acknowledging his own guilt as a white person in the institution of slavery and racism. As antiquated as some of the aforementioned parts of this short story are, I think (if I'm interpreting this right, which its possible I'm not) this acknowledgement of inherent participation in such institutions as a white person is something a lot of people could learn from today.
Finally, this short story is technically supposed to be a comedy. And yea, its absolutely unhinged and eccentric in terms of the language and the actions of the characters. Maybe it was a thing in the olden days to seriously call one's head their "noodle", but someone gearing up to strike someone else's "noodle" with a thigh bone is comical to read in literature from 1819... Typos. "Squizzed"? Bizarre & silly. Saw Tim Burton in my mind perhaps? Another reviewer mentioned wanting a loose adaptation of this short story by a Black producer/writer/etc and I could definitely see that.
February 14, 2024
An interesting pre-Dracula vampire story inspired by Polidori's The Vampyre. Wildly considered the first story with a black vampire, and an early anti-slavery work in America. The version I read had a very detailed introduction, which if you're a fan of literary vampire history I'm sure you'll find interesting (and if you're reading this I would assume that's probably an interest of yours). It also included a poem by the author that I'll be honest I got bored and didn't finish (I'm not a fan of early American poetry.)
Overall, it's a pretty good story for its time and setting. It suffers from a level of orientalism, which was popular with its European contemporaries in gothic lit at the time. Not as egregiously as some other works, but it's there. And there's a layer of ignorance in the authors understanding of Africans, as could be expected from a white author of the time, but overall is sympathetic to its black lead.
Unless you're interested in the history of the literary vampire, or in non-white vampires and their place in vampire lore and history, you can probably pass on this one. If you are interested in either, it's definitely worth the read, though.
Overall, it's a pretty good story for its time and setting. It suffers from a level of orientalism, which was popular with its European contemporaries in gothic lit at the time. Not as egregiously as some other works, but it's there. And there's a layer of ignorance in the authors understanding of Africans, as could be expected from a white author of the time, but overall is sympathetic to its black lead.
Unless you're interested in the history of the literary vampire, or in non-white vampires and their place in vampire lore and history, you can probably pass on this one. If you are interested in either, it's definitely worth the read, though.
November 19, 2024
Was interested in reading this after hearing about it on the Revolutions podcast (Haitian Revolution). It's certainly an interesting idea, and man, they could have done so much more with it. Another reader mentioned Jordan Peele doing a movie loosely based on that and THAT would be fantastic.
Having said that, there's some really interesting descriptions in the book, especially in the beginning, but the broad strokes are honestly more interesting than the actual text. It's really not particularly well written, and there's just so many bad stereotypes and caricatures that I really can't recommend it (kinda reminds me of the problematic parts of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow). It gets 2 stars for the idea, even though it was badly executed.
Having said that, there's some really interesting descriptions in the book, especially in the beginning, but the broad strokes are honestly more interesting than the actual text. It's really not particularly well written, and there's just so many bad stereotypes and caricatures that I really can't recommend it (kinda reminds me of the problematic parts of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow). It gets 2 stars for the idea, even though it was badly executed.
November 2, 2023
Lecture d'Halloween : une nouvelle de vampires de 1819. On y lit le premier vampire de la littérature américaine, le premier vampire noir et la première fois qu'un vampire n'est pas un vilain.
C'est aussi la première fiction américaine sur l'abolition de l'esclavage.
Black Vampyre se déroule en Haïti, pendant la Révolution Haïtienne. On y suit un vampire, ancien esclave amené de force d'Afrique, qui chasse ses anciens maîtres.
L'histoire est très originale pour l'époque, même s'il faut avouer que la plume n'est pas très agréable à lire.
C'est aussi la première fiction américaine sur l'abolition de l'esclavage.
Black Vampyre se déroule en Haïti, pendant la Révolution Haïtienne. On y suit un vampire, ancien esclave amené de force d'Afrique, qui chasse ses anciens maîtres.
L'histoire est très originale pour l'époque, même s'il faut avouer que la plume n'est pas très agréable à lire.
November 15, 2024
Even though D'Arcy occasionally mixes his vampiric metaphors and uses way, way too many exclamation marks, it's still a fun and pointed story speaking out against slavery. It's almost campy in tone, and I mostly found myself having a great time. The "rocks fall and all the Black Vampyres die" ending was a bit jarring, but hey, , so the story isn't over... There's still time to be haunted by a VAMPYRE!!!
January 17, 2024
fun to read in regards to the historical context, and also just sort of a fun text overall. ending the story with a chapter called "MORAL" is very in line with my mood lately, I love the author insulting both himself and his readers by calling them stupid and unable to extract meaning without being explicitly told.
"The intelligent reader, (if any such there be,) [...]"
"The intelligent reader, (if any such there be,) [...]"
May 12, 2024
Esta narración destaca por tres cosas muy importantes: "ser la primera historia sobre un vampiro negro, ser la primera historia de vampiros de los Estados Unidos, y quizás la primera historia abolicionista de ese país"; por consiguiente, es un relato original y que de un modo u otro, nos hace reflexionar; sin lugar a dudas, lo recomiendo mucho.
November 6, 2025
The first black vampire in fiction? Sign me up! A tale of revenge and emancipation.
I liked it, but unfortunately the story wasn’t fully fleshed out, but the context of the story lends to reason why.
I’d love an adaptation of this in visual media. A movie or limited series could do well. Jordan Peele PICK UP THE PHONE. Misha Green I KNOW YOU HEAR ME OUTSIDEEEEEE.
I liked it, but unfortunately the story wasn’t fully fleshed out, but the context of the story lends to reason why.
I’d love an adaptation of this in visual media. A movie or limited series could do well. Jordan Peele PICK UP THE PHONE. Misha Green I KNOW YOU HEAR ME OUTSIDEEEEEE.
October 30, 2020
The perfect read for “devil’s night”. Although some may think this story is dull, when this was written I’m sure it was scandalous. I did feel like this was rushed. Like it was a rough idea for a story not the short story. I enjoyed it. 3.5 stars
May 26, 2023
Had to read this piece of literature for a class. While the story itself was hard to get through, the foundations for the vampire we know today was made from this story and Polidori’s “The Vampyre” which one can’t help but find intriguing.
November 9, 2025
huge DNF despite the very intriguing sinopsis but honestly what should we even expect from the majority of vampire novels from the 19th century. They were mostly dogshit I imagine. This one is practically unreadable for how unnecessarily purple the prose is.
Read
December 26, 2020This was definitely a fun read
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