224 The Winning of the West 



lest their slaves should, by spell or poison, take 

 their lives. It must also be kept in mind that the 

 pardoning power of the commandant did not ex- 

 tend to cases of treason or murder a witchcraft 

 trial being generally one for murder, and that 

 he was expressly forbidden to interfere with the 

 customs and laws, or go counter to the prejudices, 

 of the inhabitants. 



At this time the Creoles were smitten by a sudden 

 epidemic of fear that their negro slaves were trying 

 to bewitch and poison them. Several of the negroes 

 were seized and tried, and in June two were con- 

 demned to death. One, named Moreau, was sen- 

 tenced to be hanged outside Cahokia. The other, a 

 Kaskaskian slave named Manuel, suffered a worse 

 fate. He was sentenced "to be chained to a post 

 at the water-side, and there to be burnt alive and 

 his ashes scattered." 8 These two sentences, and 

 the directions for their immediate execution, reveal 

 a dark chapter in the early history of Illinois. It 

 seems a strange thing that, in the United States, 

 three years after the Declaration of Independence, 

 men should have been burnt and hanged for witch- 

 craft, in accordance with the laws and with the 

 decision of the proper court. The fact that the vic- 

 tim, before being burned, was forced to make "hon- 

 orable fine" at. the door of the Catholic church, 



8 The entries merely record the sentences, with directions 

 that they be immediately executed. But there seems very 

 little doubt that they were for witchcraft, or voudooism, 

 probably with poisoning at the bottom and that they were 

 actually carried out. See Mason's pamphlet, p. 59- 



