Island Beneath the Sea

After deciding to return for France, Violette and Relais write to Valmorain, offering to buy the boy, named Jean-Martin, from him. They wish to legally adopt him. Valmorain visits and is pleased to see that Jean-Martin is healthy and happy. He offers to let them keep him at no cost beyond what they already spent to raise him.

Tété’s pregnancy progresses. On the day she goes into labor, she notices that Gambo is missing, and she wonders if he went to join the Maroons.

Prior to leaving, Gambo invited Tété to go with him, but she refused to leave young Maurice and his mother, Eugenia. The day of Gambo’s departure, Tété gives birth to a daughter, Rosette, as Cambray and his dogs chase after Gambo. Almost immediately, Maurice becomes Rosette’s loyal friend and refers to her as his sister, though Valmorain forbids him from doing so.

Failing to capture Gambo, Cambray accuses Tété of helping him escape; Valmorain refuses to let him beat Tété. In fact, prior to his escape, Gambo was assigned to help Tante Rose tend to other enslaved people who were recaptured by Cambray; from those recaptured people, Gambo learned about the surrounding area. Tante Rose, who is in contact with the Maroons, also gave Gambo valuable pointers.

After walking for three days straight, Gambo arrives at an ominous crossroads between worlds that is a part of Voodoo mythology. Two beings arrive, and he gives the password he learned from Tante Rose. He later wakes in a camp of Maroons.

In one of his customary evening monologues, Valmorain tells Tété of an affranchis rebellion in the north, which Relais quashed.

A few months later, at the age of 31, Eugenia dies peacefully, and Tété keeps her rosary as a memento. Rosette becomes a lively child, and Valmorain allows her to remain in the main house since Maurice is so fond of her.

Valmorain joins a group of Patriots, as they call themselves, who are loyal to the now-fallen French monarchy. He spends a month in Le Cap, plotting to form an alliance with England and rebel against the French Republican government.

Fires break out on several plantations, including Saint-Lazare, as part of a rebellion.

Relais and Violette are about to leave for France when Relais is summoned to the office of the new governor, Vicomte Blanchelande. Blanchelande revokes his predecessor’s acceptance of Relais’s resignation, saying that the French army needs him now more than ever.

Describing the event as it was described to her, Tété recounts a massive assembly of revolutionaries at Bois Cayman. There, Boukman, a Voodoo priest, presides over a ceremony that calls for various spirits to aid them in their fight for freedom. Tante Rose is possessed by Ogoun, a war spirit. The gathering marks the formal beginning of the Haitian Revolution.

Returning to Saint-Lazare, Valmorain is conflicted. He needs to use violence to quell the uprisings, but he senses that doing so tarnishes his family legacy. Cambray, in contrast, does not hesitate to administer ever-harsher punishments; he is also increasingly rude to Tété.

As Maurice notices that Rosette does not enjoy the same privileges he does, he cries and asks, “Why, why?” (164); he also promises to marry Rosette when he grows up.

Dr. Parmentier, on visiting Saint-Lazare, is disappointed to learn that Tante Rose is gone. Valmorain welcomes the doctor with a feast, and the two argue over the uprisings, during which the doctor suggests that the uprisings are a fitting response to what the French have done by imposing slavery.

As plantations burn and the enslavers who run them are killed, officials in France revoke earlier decrees granting political rights to the affranchis. This news comes even as Le Cap’s white population violently attacks the affranchis, to Dr. Parmentier’s horror. The doctor approaches Relais to voice his concerns for the safety of Adèle, an affranchie woman who is essentially, but not legally, his wife, and their three children. The couple keep their relationship secret to protect the doctor’s professional reputation. Dr. Parmentier accepts Relais’s offer to transport their family to Cuba the next day, alongside Violette and Jean-Martin.

In Boukman’s camp, Gambo works as a spy and a raider. He also meets Toussaint Louverture, a rising leader with a dignified personality. Following Boukman’s death, he joins Toussaint’s camp. When revolutionary leaders meet with French officials, Gambo is outraged to overhear them offering to reinstate slavery in exchange for their own, personal emancipation; the French reject the offer, and the war continues.

A year and a half after his escape, Gambo suddenly appears in Tété’s room one night. The two make love, and he warns her of an impending attack on the plantation. She refuses to leave the children behind, as they would likely die in the attack. She also refuses to take them with her to the rebels’ camp, since their light skin would invite mistreatment. Tété convinces Gambo to help her, Valmorain, and the children escape, since doing so offers the best chance for the children’s survival.

Tété wakes Valmorain and demands freedom for her and Rosette in exchange for Gambo’s assistance to escape before the attack. Valmorain writes and signs a document to that effect.

Tété, Gambo, and Valmorain set out on foot, carrying Maurice and Rosette. Gambo leads them on a path through a swamp. When they pause to rest, Tété and Gambo step away for a few minutes to make love, much to Valmorain’s displeasure.

At dawn, rebels attack Saint-Lazare. When it becomes clear that the battle is lost, Cambray shoots himself in the head.

Gambo, Tété, Valmorain, and the children continue to scramble through the wilderness, occasionally pausing to hide from passersby. During the nights, Valmorain feels mixed disgust and jealousy as he overhears Tété and Gambo making love. As the group nears Le Cap, Gambo invites Tété and Rosette to join him in the rebels’ camp. Fearing that Rosette would be mistreated in the camp, Tété decides to continue with Valmorain but promises to find Gambo after the war ends. Gambo leaves.

Leaving Valmorain and Maurice, who are exhausted, to rest, Tété continues along the road, nearly collapsing herself. She offers a prayer to Erzulie, who possesses her. Tété is still in a trance when she is discovered by Relais, whose soldiers assist her. Only when he is sure they are French soldiers does Valmorain emerge to thank them profusely and even offer money. The offer embarrasses Relais, though Valmorain is too tired to realize that the soldiers are affranchis. The soldiers take the refugees to Le Cap.

Later, when Valmorain recounts their escape, he presents himself as the hero.

Valmorain decides to leave Saint-Domingue, no matter what the outcome of the war, and manage his plantation from afar. As Dr. Parmentier treats him, Valmorain shares his plan to move to Louisiana, where he and Sancho own land. They also discuss the revolution, with Dr. Parmentier hinting that the plantations could be run with paid laborers, a suggestion Valmorain finds ridiculous. The doctor also describes Toussaint as “the most reasonable of the rebel leaders” (197).

Wanting to educate Tété on the conventions of running a household in the city, Valmorain hires the Intendant’s majordomo, an enslaved Black man named Zacharie, to tutor her. Zacharie finds her an eager student, and the two become friends. He also shares his political views with her, including his hopes for the abolition of slavery.

Two months later, Valmorain hosts a party in his home. The night of the party, news arrives of the execution of King Louis XVI, leading the guests to rush home in a panic. Later, Valmorain, who is still bitter about Gambo, rapes Tété for the first time since arriving in Le Cap; he also insults and beats her. When she asks about her freedom, which Zacharie indicated must be ratified by a judge, Valmorain brushes her off.

Relais reports on the status of the war to the new governor, General Galbaud, who is open to talk of independence from France. Relais states his intention to simply follow orders. A few days later, Valmorain visits Relais and suggests that he should support the cause of independence; Relais dismisses his talk as “treason.”

At Valmorain’s request, Tété forces Maurice, who is five years old, to sleep in a separate room from her and Rosette. Maurice, who is spooked by the sounds of people dying at the gallows, struggles to make the transition.

Tensions rise in Le Cap. Tété eavesdrops on Valmorain’s political meetings and reports to Zacharie. One night, she informs him that General Galbaud and his allies, who favor independence, are about to attack the French forces.

Zacharie passes along Tété’s warning to the French commissioner, Sonthonax, who relays it to Relais, who soon finds that only the affranchis among his troops remain loyal. As fighting begins, the outnumbered forces loyal to France fall back, vacating the city. Zacharie convinces Sonthonax to enlist rebels from the surrounding countryside to aid them in their attack on General Galbaud’s troops, offering them freedom. The rebels accept the offer.

Valmorain watches in terror as rebel forces advance on the city and eventually arrive at his house, pillaging and killing as they go. Tété leads him and the children out through the servants’ door. Outside, they flee toward the harbor. There they encounter Galbaud and his family, about to leave in a boat. Holding a gun to Galbaud’s wife’s head, Valmorain secures passage for himself, Tété, and the children.

A month later, Sonthonax and Toussaint simultaneously declare the end of slavery in Saint-Domingue. Now free, Zacharie immediately leaves the colony. Meanwhile, Relais dies of injuries sustained during battle; he accepts Dr. Parmentier’s offer of poison to speed his death.

At the same moment, in Cuba, Violette’s wedding ring shatters, which she takes as a sign of her husband’s death. A few blocks away, Valmorain, Tété, and the children stay in a hotel. Together with Sancho, they decide to move to Louisiana, where Valmorain and Sancho purchased land as an investment. Valmorain wrestles with guilt for having taken money belonging to a neighboring planter following that planter’s death.

Tété reluctantly agrees to go to Louisiana, fearing she will never see Gambo again. While returning from the marketplace with the children, though, she is distracted by the sound of drums, and she begins to dance, feeling closer to freedom than ever. In her excitement, she forgets Maurice, who wanders away, crying. When a concerned bystander helps return Maurice to Valmorain, Valmorain sends officials to capture Tété, who is imprisoned. Hours later, following Valmorain’s instructions, the guards strip Tété and crack a whip near her to scare her. Valmorain then leads her away.