Poison was slaves’ undetectable weapon against masters, their property, and rival slaves

Evidence

Poison could be placed in food by the domestics who surrounded whites, and there was often no way to detect it or to identify who had placed it there. Commentators pointed out that since many planters put stipulations in their wills granting freedom to certain slaves, there was a strong incentive for those named slaves to accelerate their access to freedom by killing their masters. Poison could also be used against the master’s property, killing animals in ways that were often difficult to distinguish from death by disease. Often it was used by slaves against other slaves. Those who knew how to use poison could gain power and respect within the slave community. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 203

Categorization

• QUESTION: The dynamic where slaves named in wills had incentive to kill masters is striking and merits further exploration of how widespread emancipation-by-will was.