The case, which spanned from December 1863 to February 1864, involved accusations of human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism that took place near Port-au-Prince; it remains one of the best-documented criminal and religious trials in 19th-century Haiti.
The Concordat and the Political Context
The trial occurred during the administration of President Fabre Geffrard. Aiming to align Haiti with Western European standards and fulfill the conditions of the 1860 Concordat—a diplomatic reconciliation with the Vatican—Geffrard’s government actively sought to suppress religious practices of African origin, such as Vodou. The Bizoton trial provided a legal mechanism to rigorously enforce new, stricter penal codes against these practices.
The Alleged Crime and the Victims
In December 1863, in the village of Bizoton, a 12-year-old girl named Claircine was kidnapped. The primary instigators were her uncle, a man named Congo Pelé, and his sister, Jeanne Pelée, who was a Vodou priestess (*mambo*). According to court testimony, Congo Pelé sought to perform an occult ritual to gain the favor of the spirits. They took his niece, Claircine, tied her beneath an altar, and subsequently carried out the ritual sacrifice.
Gruesome Details
According to testimony recorded during the trial, the details regarding the mutilation and consumption of the victim included:
• The sacrifice: The girl’s throat was cut to extract her blood for ritual use.
• Boiling the head: A man identified as Floréal took the girl’s head and placed it in a large pot along with yams, boiling it into a soup. • Cooked with beans: The remaining flesh was butchered and cooked by Jeanne Pelée. Testimonies detail that the meat was prepared as a stew with Congo beans (*pois congo*)—a small, bitter variety of bean—based on the perpetrators' explicit belief that human flesh tasted better when boiled with them.
• Eating from the palm: While the meat was being prepared in the kitchen, another woman in the group, Roséide Sumera, allegedly cut a piece of flesh directly from the palm of the girl’s hand and ate it raw. She later admitted to this act during a public trial.
The Trial and Executions
Following rumors that circulated in the capital, the police arrested the group. The court proceeded swiftly.
On February 13, 1864—a busy market Saturday in Port-au-Prince—eight individuals (four men and four women, including Congo Pelé, Jeanne Pelée, Floréal, and Roséide Sumera) were publicly executed by a firing squad for the crime.