Island Beneath the Sea

The inhabitants of Louisiana are shocked and dismayed when, days after celebrating the colony’s transfer from Spain to France, news arrives that the colony has been sold to the United States.

The same month, December 1803, Haiti declares independence from France. As a result, refugees pour into New Orleans, and the new governor struggles to address the arising issues. In light of these changes, Violette and Loula wonder how best to secure their financial future.

Wanting some time away from Hortense, who is disappointed at her failure to produce a male heir, Valmorain spends most of his time on the plantation. When Valmorain learns that the nuns who teach Rosette are leaving for Cuba due to the United States’s purchase of Louisiana, he visits Tété. This visit marks the first time he has spoken to her in three years. He tells her that it is her turn to take care of Rosette and questions her decision to prioritize her freedom over her daughter’s welfare. Tété is still intimidated by Valmorain, but greatly offended, and she tells him that she prefers freedom, even in poverty. Valmorain leaves some money to cover Rosette’s costs.

Violette agrees to take in Rosette and makes a plan for her future. Violette plans to open a finishing school for girls specifically designed to prepare them for plaçage, or “left-handed marriage.” In plaçage, a white man forms a romantic relationship with a woman of color, whom he protects and supports financially without legally formalizing the relationship. At a grand ball at the end of the year, rich men interested in plaçage can make their selections. Despite her reservations, Tété agrees.

Violette’s school, known as the Yellow House, soon begins session. Over the course of a year, Violette’s students learn about posture, conversation, beauty, sex, and more. Tété listens and reflects on her own history of intimacy, including her fear of Valmorain’s repeated rapes. Now, with Zacharie, she learns to experience pleasure. She also becomes pregnant.

The summer following Maurice’s fourth year at school, Sancho, rather than Hortense’s relative, who was disgraced, arrives to take Maurice on his annual trip. Sancho has planned a trip to Cuba, intending to “pervert” the young man with sex and drinking. Maurice, now 15, enjoys himself but shies away from any adult activities. The next year, Sancho takes him on a similar trip to Mexico.

The year after that, they visit Savannah, Georgia. The city interests Maurice since his favorite teacher, Cobb, described it as a site of “negotiable morality,” corrupted by the financial allure of slavery. While there, Sancho hires a woman to pretend to fall in love with Maurice, and the two have sex. When Maurice learns the truth, he is offended but soon forgets the incident after receiving letters from Rosette.

Following Maurice’s last year of school, Valmorain, wanting to rekindle his relationship with his son, takes him on a trip to France. There, Maurice meets his grandmother and two aunts for the first time. Valmorain’s mother receives him apathetically, only asking for more money. Later, Valmorain is bewildered when Maurice declines his offer to visit one of Paris’s finest brothels.

A few weeks before Violette’s ball is scheduled to take place, Jean-Martin arrives in New Orleans. The young man is positioned as the secretary and translator for Isidore Morisset, who claims to be a scientist evaluating the land. In fact, Morisset is a French spy attempting to contact the pirates Jean and Pierre Laffitte, whom Bonaparte wishes to hire. Morisset was previously captured by the Laffittes and befriended them at that time.

When Jean-Martin arrives home, Violette and Loula are surprised and delighted to see him; he also meets Tété and Rosette. The next day, Violette leads Morisset, Jean-Martin, and Tété to an auction hosted by the Laffittes, who are well known in the area.

The group arrives at the auction site on a swampy island where enslaved people are among the merchandise for sale. Morisset approaches Jean Laffitte, who is happy to see him but not particularly interested in Bonaparte’s offer.

Violette’s party encounters Murphy and Valmorain. When Valmorain holds Jean-Martin’s hand longer than usual, Jean-Martin misinterprets the act as flirtatious and pulls away. To Violette’s horror, Valmorain refers to Jean-Martin, who does not know that he was adopted, as a “slave’s son.” After restraining Jean-Martin from attacking Valmorain, they return home. As Violette cries in her room, Jean-Martin questions Loula about Violette’s past, assuming she must have been enslaved at some point.

While comforting Violette, Tété realizes that she is Jean-Martin’s biological mother. Tété is relieved that he received a strong upbringing. Tété reveals the truth to Violette, but the two women decide not to tell Jean-Martin.

After his trip to France, Valmorain’s health declines. He consults Dr. Parmentier and even tries a few Voodoo remedies.

Maurice, who stayed in France at his father’s request to work at a sugar importing agency, returns to New Orleans as soon as he hears of his father’s illness. Valmorain approves Maurice’s decision to attend the Cordon Bleu ball, interpreting it as a sign of budding masculinity.

Jean-Martin and Morrisset leave for France.

As the Cordon Bleu ball begins, though Maurice finds the spectacle morally repugnant, he looks forward to seeing Rosette. It will be the first time they’ve met in person in nine years; they previously planned the meeting via letter. Upon seeing each other, they begin to dance. When another suitor approaches Rosette, Maurice shoves him aside.

Sancho takes Maurice aside, and Maurice admits that he attended solely to meet Rosette, whom he intends to marry. When Sancho points out that they are half-siblings, Maurice says he is aware. Maurice confronts his father. In striving to dissuade his son from marrying Rosette, Valmorain openly admits, for the first time, that Rosette is his daughter. The effort is to no avail. Maurice blames Valmorain, pointing out that the abuses he committed through slavery led to the current situation.

When Tété hears what happened at the ball, she reflects that Maurice’s and Rosette’s fates always seemed to be linked.

Returning to the apartment where he lives with Sancho, Maurice feels sick for a time. Dr. Parmentier arrives and counsels him to consider an arrangement of plaçage with Rosette. Sancho brings the idea up to Valmorain, who fears that his sponsorship of the union could lead to scandal. Hortense, meanwhile, looks for a chance to ruin Maurice’s reputation.

Maurice is diagnosed with typhus but plans to visit Rosette as soon as possible. Before doing so, he returns to Valmorain and announces his intention to embark on a political career for the abolishment of slavery. This announcement hurts Valmorain even more than Maurice’s intention of marrying Rosette. Maurice leaves as Valmorain shouts insults at him. Suddenly, Valmorain collapses.

Maurice visits Rosette and Tété, whom he greets with a hug, calling her “Maman.” Acknowledging the risk of birth defects, Maurice describes his and Rosette’s love as eternal and attributes any sin to Valmorain. Tété gives them her blessing and leads them to consult Père Antoine, who happily offers to marry them until he realizes that they are half-siblings. However, Tété interprets his parting words as a hint that the captain of a ship might be able to marry them.

Tété leads Maurice and Rosette to Zacharie’s gambling house; Zacharie’s face is marked with scars, and he only has one eye, following an attack some time ago by unknown assailants. Zacharie locates a captain. Four hours later, a few miles offshore, the captain marries Maurice and Rosette, with Tété and Fleur serving as witnesses.

Maurice and Rosette spend a day and two nights in the ship’s cabin talking and making love. Immediately after returning to land, Maurice sets out for Boston to find a place for the two of them to live. Rosette remains behind.

Dr. Parmentier treats Valmorain, whose collapse was caused by a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Two days later, Tété receives a note from Hortense, asking her to visit Valmorain. Père Antoine, who received a confession from Valmorain, advises her to go. In his confession, Valmorain admitted his theft of a neighboring planter’s money but maintained that he was blameless as far as enslaved people were concerned.

Arriving in Valmorain’s room after passing a resentful Hortense, Tété is astonished when he asks her to take care of him and offers to pay whatever she asks; she realizes that he has no idea how much she hates him. Offering no explanation, she declines his request and leaves, at the same time letting go of her hatred.

In Boston, Maurice moves in with Cobb, who continues to nourish his political and abolitionist ambitions. Due to a harsh winter, Rosette’s journey north is delayed. Soon, Rosette discovers that she is pregnant, further delaying the trip.

Valmorain grows grumpy and continually reflects on his fractured relationship with Maurice, whom he views as afflicted with Eugenia’s “madness.” Meanwhile, with the departure of the Murphys, Hortense appoints a new manager, and the plantation’s productivity declines.

One day in the market, Tété overhears a song commemorating the heroic death of Capitaine La Liberté, confirming Gambo’s death. Dr. Parmentier assures her that he is remembered as a hero.

In June, Tété gives birth to a baby girl. For the first time in over 30 years, Sancho returns to Spain. Valmorain endures a slow recovery under the care of a German nun.

One day, Hortense passes Rosette on the street. She pauses to criticize Rosette’s clothing, as Black women are forbidden by law from wearing jewelry in public. When Hortense slaps her, Rosette, who remains naïve about racial oppression, slaps her back. Falling to the ground and screaming dramatically, Hortense makes a scene that leads to Rosette’s arrest.

That night, Père Antoine and Tété visit Rosette in the cramped, dirty jail. The next day, Tété appeals to Hortense to drop the charges against Rosette, to no avail. Rosette is sentenced to two years in jail.

Père Antoine appeals to Valmorain, who was unaware of the incident, to drop the charges against Rosette. In the hopes of repairing his relationship with Maurice, Valmorain does so.

When Rosette leaves the jail, she is sick and malnourished. She gives birth prematurely to a son, Justin, who barely survives. Rosette, however, soon weakens and dies herself. Valmorain offers to give Justin a wealthy upbringing, but Tété says it is up to Maurice to decide. Maurice returns as soon as he can, but Rosette’s death breaks his ambition. Rather than care for his son, Maurice begins to travel aimlessly.

Four years later in 1810, Tété, now 40, is raising Justin alongside a son and daughter born to her and Zacharie. Zacharie’s business survives but does not prosper, since it is difficult for him to obtain credit to open additional gambling houses. Violette makes up with Sancho after he has an affair with another woman but longs for her adopted son, Jean-Martin, to return from Europe, where he lives with Morisset. Tété longs for a day when all of her descendants can come together to eat and dance. In the meantime, her relationship with Zacharie has blossomed into a mature affection. Tété continues to dance and be mounted by Erzulie, who takes her to visit her dead loved ones on the “island beneath the sea” (457).