Uriah Derick D’Arcy’s The Black Vampyre: A Legend of St. Domingo, published in 1819, caused a bit of a stir. To start with, no one is certain who wrote the story, as Uriah Derick D’Arcy is merely a pseudonym used by the author. While there are two likely candidates for D’Arcy’s real identity, it will likely never be known for certain. This story is relevant because it is the first to include a Black vampire. More than that, it is a fictional recollection of the Haitian Revolution, and a powerful piece of anti-slavery literature. While it wasn’t as popular as other pieces of vampire literature of its time, it is known and celebrated to this day.

     D’Arcy’s use of a pseudonym was likely for his or her own protection. The Haitian Revolution had only concluded fifteen years prior to his story’s publication. As slavery was still very alive in the US at this time, this had the potential to be extremely controversial and dangerous if the public knew the author’s true name. The two likely candidates for the authorship are Robert C. Sands and Richard Varick Dey.

     The Black Vampyre is best known for being the first vampire novel to feature a Black vampire. On top of this, it is also the first American vampire novel. Prior to this, vampires had largely been seen as monsters from Eastern Europe and recently aristocratic figures from Western Europe. As such, the inclusion of a Black vampire was something completely new to the genre.

     The novel takes place from the beginning of the Haitian Revolution to the day it was published, in 1819. This is evidenced by the opening words of the novel, which read “MR. ANTHONY GIBBONS was a gentleman of African extraction. His ancestors emigrated from the eastern coast of GUINEA, in a French ship…” (Page 1). This book also makes parallels to slavery and anti-slavery movements. It also has interracial marriage, which for its time would have been shocking. Further, it also challenges class beliefs held at the time, as the Prince is a former slave who marries his former mistress and has a child with her, a mixed race child at that. All of this served to turn heads in America, as the notion that a slave child could be capable of not only killing his master (albeit by his master’s own doing) but also marrying and having a child with his former mistress was nearly unfathomable.

The Black Vampyre didn’t just cause waves in the American public in the early 1800s. In the novel, D’Arcy “...explicitly parodies The Vampyre and even suggests that Lord Ruthven, Polidori’s British vampire aristocrat, had his origins in the Carrib[b]ean.” (George). Such a move would force itself into the canon of Byronic vampires if it were accepted. Its effects can still be felt to this day, as it was featured during the Being Human Festival on November 14th, 2020. 200 years later, it still has an audience, now not just for people fighting slavery, but also for equal rights and Black empowerment.