Columbus called the Island of St. Domingo “The Paradise of God.” The
beauty of its valleys, the wildness of its mountains, the tropical
luxuriance of its plains, confirm his opinion. But the Spaniards who
followed him cared not for beauty or fruitfulness; they were hungrier
then than now for gold, and plunged into the bosom of the beautiful
island for that: a million of the simple natives was sacrificed
without mercy or care, to discover and dig the yellow metal. Las
Casas only was moved to pity, and he said, “Might not the grosser
and hardier African be made to take these burdens, and spare this
destruction of the mild Indians?”
To steal, to seduce, and to buy negroes from the African coasts,
and to sell them to this island, soon became a great and profitable
traffic, yielding large returns to the Lisbon merchants. Kings and
emperors participated in it, and bishops did not always condemn.
Three hundred slave ships, every year, spread robbery, conflagration,
and carnage along the African coasts.[1] Eighty thousand creatures,
torn from their homes, crowded their holds, and were carried to
market. “The laws and usages of Africa forbade this,” but those of
Europe did not.[2]
As early as the year 1503, the importation of men from Guinea began,
blessed by the Pope, encouraged by the State. At that time, too, it
was no disgrace, and not rare to sell white slaves;[3] but they were
poor creatures apt, too soon, to break down. The true sources of
wealth in the island were found to be in the fruitful earth, not in
the unexplored mines, and after the settlement of the western part
by the Buccaneers, and the supremacy over it of France, emigration
became the rage. It was found to be profitable—plantations were
opened; the cry of “Sugar!” was heard; thirty per cent. profit
seduced capital; the importation of black slaves was stimulated.[4]
In the year 1790, their numbers had come to be 480,000, while that of
the whites was some 35,000, and of the free people of color, about
25,000.
All these 480,000 were worked to purpose. They were not there to seek
their own good, but to raise sugar and coffee for others—and they
were made to do it. So the island exported, in 1788, some 5,000,000
pounds sterling[5] worth of these things, and the mercantile world
was exultant. None asked if the _men_ of St. Domingo were steadily
advancing in intellect, and conscience, and strength, and manhood.
Who demanded schools? Who built hospitals? Who thanked God for a
new idea in St. Domingo? Literature and the Arts were unknown and
unheeded; not these, but “Sugar! sugar! more sugar!” was always heard.
The returns per negro were greater in St. Domingo than in Jamaica,
owing to one or both of these causes: 1st, that the land was more
fruitful; or, 2d, that the men were harder worked.
St. Domingo was, then, a tropical paradise, about the year 1790!
The planters were deeply in debt[6]—nigh every estate heavily
mortgaged—yet they got large returns and paid heavy interests—the
merchants freighted their ships, and made rich commissions; France
found places for her favorite courtiers, and a ready market for her
wares. Travelers were delighted with the balm of the atmosphere, the
hospitality of the planters, and the heedlessness of the negroes.
Humboldt was charmed—he said: “Every evening the slaves of both sexes
were to be seen dancing in festive circles—and the sound of music and
the voice of gladness were heard on all sides.” Happy slaves! simple
traveler.
’Tis true, some remembered that, away in the past (1522,)[7] the
slaves had risen, slain their overseers, and been hung by scores:
this was but the beginning. Other daring, desperate men had headed
them in 1702. Again, Polydor (1724), at the head of his brigands,
had ravaged and assassinated. Macandal, the one-handed negro, had
been burnt alive at the Cape, in 1758, and a superstitious memory
of the desperate chief lived among the negroes. He had proved his
brotherhood to the Borgias by his use of poison; with his Maroons
behind him, for years he had been the terror of the whites. The Chief
Kebinda had filled the mountains with his fame, as Rob Roy has the
hills of Scotland.