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Summary: The Spirits And The Law By Kate Ramsey

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Recommended: Haitian religion

Darien Wellman
Latin American History
Dr. Nadel
November 1, 2014
Ramsey, Kate. The Spirits and the Law: Vodou and Power in Haiti. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
In the book The Spirits and the Law, author Kate Ramsey showed vodou history in relation to Haitian law. In the introduction, Ramsey hoped her book would show “the construction and contestation of Vodou as an object of the law in the pages that follow will illuminate the complex processes through which several of these conversations have taken place”(Ramsey 14).The author explained the various chapters that include historical analyzation as well as examination.The sources used in the book included phone calls, letters, newspapers, and books on Haiti.
In the first chapter, …show more content…

During this time, vodou was characterized as a criminal religion. The first act described by Ramsey was the introduction of the Code Penal. This was also used to restrict vodou practices.During the 1860s, the Geffard administration took the Code Penal to another level. During his presidency, he told the police “to pursue severely all those who, in the reach of your command, indulge publicly or secretly in practices of vaudoux, to arrest them and deliver them to the judicial authority to be tried”(Ramsey 86).According to Hannibal Price, the measures taken by President Geffard did not end with just a trial. There were also confiscations of “flags,drums, all the materials of the societies were seized and burned, and all individuals reputed, wrongly or rightly, to be papa-loi or maman-loi were arrested and imprisoned”(Ramsey 87).These forms of oppression would continue for the remainder of the 1800s.In chapter three, the author did not focus too much on the lawful side of vodou but on the effects of the occupation. During the United States occupation of Haiti, vodou was considered “an ultimate symptom of Haitian disorder”(Ramsey 130). The American government viewed the religion as uncivilized and many involved in the occupation did not really know what the religion was really all about. One American general stated in a hearing on Haiti that “it is very difficult to say exactly what it

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