We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

In Darkness Chapter 8 Summary

Then

  • Giddy up, because Toussaint and his men are riding their horses through the town.
  • They've been freeing enslaved people at every turn, and it feels good.
  • A couple of times, Toussaint has dealt with some overzealous slaves, though. Most of them are just after revenge, and he's making them take a step back and think of bigger picture.
  • What will happen if they burn everything just to teach the slave owners a lesson?
  • Luckily, Toussaint thinks about the future more than how good it might feel to get back at the slave owners.
  • While they're riding, Toussaint sees a body nailed to a tree up ahead.
  • It's Boukman. They nailed his feet, slashed his throat, and shot him. Yikes.
  • Toussaint gets close to the body and takes Boukman's pwen out of his pocket.
  • One of the other men named Jean-Christophe remarks that the stone mustn't work then.
  • Toussaint replies that it depends. If you think about it, the pwen probably protected Boukman from dying right away—any one of those wounds could kill a man.
  • As they chat, Toussaint remembers when he first met Boukman. The guy was playing cards, and talking about—what else?—politics.
  • Boukman told them that white power in Haiti was like a house of cards: It could fall over at any point.
  • He built up a stack of cards to illustrate his point.
  • Then he blew on them. Naturally, the cards all fell down and scattered across the room.
  • Toussaint remembers Boukman saying that they are the wind, ready to destroy the house of cards at any moment.