Agriculture.—Crops in Toussaint’s and Dessalines’ time.—System
of Christophe and Petion.—Decline under Boyer.—Crops in his
time.—Attempts to revive it.—Coercion resorted to.—Code
Rural.—doubts on enforcing its clauses.—Disposal of
lands.—Consequences from it.—Incompetency of planters.—State
of cultivation of sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo.—Free
labour.—Consequences arising from it.—its inefficacy, etc.
I SHALL now endeavour to detail the decline of agriculture in Hayti,
and to offer a few remarks upon its present state; as well as to shew
that under the present inefficient government, very faint hopes only
can be held out of any revival, or that the republic of Hayti can ever
reach that eminence and repute which once belonged to Saint Domingo as
a French colony.
In various parts of this work I have observed that the decline of
agriculture commenced immediately after the improvident and impolitic
measures pursued by the national assembly of France, and after the
first partial revolt of the slave population: and that all the energy
of the successive chiefs who have subsequently governed the country,
and who have promulgated several edicts to enforce or encourage
cultivation, has not been sufficiently powerful to keep up that regular
system of tillage from which, in her former state, she derived such
advantages. True it is, that great efforts were made by Toussaint,
Dessalines, and Christophe, to infuse into the people a taste for
husbandry, and to impress on them that the surest way to arrive at
affluence is by an undeviating perseverance in the cultivation of
those lands which had fallen into their possession; that the only
true riches of a country are to be derived from the soil; and that
commerce, although a very powerful auxiliary, is only a secondary
means by which a nation can arrive at opulence, or its people attain
to any advancement in wealth. But their efforts were unavailing in
part, though they certainly did more to keep up cultivation than has
been attempted since their days. The proclamation of Toussaint in
the year 1800 was a powerful document, and had a great effect as an
incitement to labour; and his solicitude respecting an intercourse
with Europe and the United States shewed that he wished to adopt every
expedient by which encouragement could be given to the cultivator; to
find a vent for their productions, in order to enhance their value, and
thus stimulate the occupiers of the soil to further exertions. He was
extremely solicitous to introduce an organized system of cultivation
which would eventually aggrandize his country. Coercion he knew to be
absolutely necessary. He was well aware that without this nothing
could be accomplished. But the state of popular feeling rendered the
rigid exaction of duty in agricultural labour a dangerous experiment;
he therefore decided on adopting a mean between two extremes which,
while it excited no dissatisfaction among the people, would provide for
the exigences of his government.
Toussaint unquestionably pursued a plan which, had he not been seized
by the French general, and in defiance of the laws of honour and
nations so inhumanly transported to France, would in time have so
far restored agriculture, and placed his country in so flourishing a
condition, that in a few years it would have rivalled even the most
happy period of its agricultural and commercial greatness. His object
was clearly to advance by degrees, and to stimulate his people to the
culture of the soil, by holding it up as the most noble pursuit of
which they could possibly make choice; to infuse into them a taste
for industry; and to give them a relish for those rural occupations
which cultivation required, and for which, the extremely rich and
fertile soil of the country would so amply and so quickly reward
them. He had also made great strides towards impressing them with an
idea that they had many wants, which, although artificial, yet were
necessary towards advancing them in the opinion of the world. To teach
them this effectually, and to impress it seriously, would have been
a work of time, but he made great efforts, and he began to perceive
that they had not been unavailing. But wherever he discovered an
invincible indisposition to receive these salutary lessons and a total
disregard of his admonitions and persuasions, he tried what force would
accomplish; and consequently the law for enforcing agriculture was
enacted, and all people were directed to make choice of the plantations
on which they were disposed to labour, prohibiting all persons from
living in idleness and sloth. The estate and the employer being thus
once selected, the labourer was not permitted to recall his choice,
unless permission to do this were granted him by the officer commanding
the district or one of the municipal authorities. Hence the labourers
became once more slaves in fact, although not so in name.
When this law was promulgated, Toussaint began to exert the power which
he possessed to enforce it, and cultivation began to raise its head
in a most eminent degree. The sugar estates exhibited labour going
on with the same spirit and success as in former times; the coffee
settlements displayed a busy scene in every direction throughout the
colony; and the cotton and cocoa plantations shewed that they were not
to be neglected in the midst of this animated and interesting struggle
for the revival of a country’s greatness and a nation’s wealth. But
here coercion did the work, here was compulsory labour resorted to,
because it was sanctioned by the law, and those who held the power
were more than equal to those who felt a disposition to resist it. The
whip, that symbol of office of the principal negro, was dispensed with,
it is true, but the cultivators were placed under the apprehension of
a more effective weapon, for they were attended through the day by a
military guard, and the bayonet and the sabre superseded the cat and
the lash. To the astonishment of the leading people in the country, the
cultivators submitted to this coercion without a murmur; and it was
not until French intrigue was industriously set to work to instil into
their minds that their condition was worse than when they were slaves,
that any disposition was shewn to oppose the principle of compulsory
labour; and even this opposition was far from being general. When
we take into consideration that the population under Toussaint had
greatly diminished, and that the cultivators in his time exceeded very
little more than half of the slaves that were employed in agriculture
in the time of the French, and compare the returns of produce at the
respective periods, it must be evident that the system of coercion
resorted to by Toussaint, must have been to the full as rigid as that
which existed at any former period, or it would have been impossible
for him to have carried on cultivation to so great an extent.
In the early part of this work I have stated the quantity of produce
exported in the year 1791, which was the most flourishing period of
the French, and the number of slaves that were employed in the colony.
That the reader may more clearly see the difference at the two periods,
I shall enumerate the principal articles again. It appears by various
authorities that the exports were as follow: in 1791—
Sugar 163,405,220 pounds.
Coffee 68,151,180 ditto.
Cotton 6,286,126 ditto.
Indigo 930,016 ditto.
Molasses 29,502 hogsheads.
Rum 303 puncheons.
And that there were employed for all the purposes of cultivation, four
hundred and fifty-five thousand slaves. The most productive year under
his sway, will be found to exhibit the following returns of exports:—
Sugar 53,400,000 pounds.
Coffee 34,370,000 ditto.
Cotton 4,050,000 ditto.
Cocoa 234,600 ditto.
Indigo 37,600 ditto.
Molasses 9,128 hogsheads.
According to Mr. Humboldt, the cultivators employed to carry on the
whole of the works of agriculture, and to produce the above exports,
did not exceed two hundred and ninety thousand. In addition to the
foregoing returns should be taken into consideration the condition into
which the soil had been brought by the exertions and the judicious
measures pursued by this chief from the year 1798, when he became the
leader of the people, to the time of his seizure. All those estates on
which culture had so successfully recommenced, were so much improved by
his system, that the greatest expectations were entertained respecting
the produce of future exertions; but the fall of this chief, and the
renewal of the contest between the people and the French, threw every
thing again into confusion, and the work of cultivation for a time
ceased, with the exception of the exertions made by the women, who
applied themselves to labour, and their efforts were not altogether
unavailing, for they proceeded with the lighter labour of the
plantations, which was exceedingly beneficial.
When Dessalines assumed the command, the country was in a state of
great irritability, and he could not therefore devote that attention to
agriculture which his predecessor had done. But when he had succeeded
in expelling the French from the island, and had restored some degree
of tranquillity, and the people became somewhat free from apprehension
of future broils, he began to devise means for reviving cultivation;
but he wanted the discretion and the temper, as well as that knowledge
of the people which Toussaint possessed. The latter pursued a system
of culture, that in the first instance was easy and acceptable to them,
and when he saw that they began to relax in their duty, he began to
enforce it more rigidly, and under the sanction of the law inflicted
punishment with no light hand, in cases of disobedience and refractory
conduct. But Dessalines acted differently and most injudiciously, for
he rushed upon the cultivators so suddenly, and with so tyrannical a
hand, that disobedience began to be general; and those people who had
in his predecessor’s time been the most industrious and most forward in
setting an example to their fellow-labourers became supine and inactive
through his oppressive proceedings. Dessalines knew well that force
alone could compel his countrymen to work, and that nothing could be
obtained from them if they were left to their own will; but he was
too precipitate and hasty in introducing his measures of coercion. He
even compelled his soldiers to labour in the field in parties, on such
of the government estates as had not been farmed out, and for which
they received a trifling addition to their regular military pay. But
all his exertions were ineffectual in producing such returns as those
which followed the efforts of Toussaint. Both knew that coercion was
the only way by which cultivation could be carried on, and they both
resorted to it. With one it succeeded in a degree which equalled his
most sanguine expectations, because he advanced progressively, and the
people did not feel it so severely; whilst the other burst upon the
cultivators with an unmerciful hand and inflicted such punishments for
disobedience as made them determine on resistance, and the consequence
was, that a revolt followed, and Dessalines fell. By a document given
me by an individual now living in Hayti, and who was attached to the
suite of the tyrant, it appears that with all his power and exertions,
his returns from the soil fell much below those of his predecessor. In
1804, which seems to have yielded about the largest return of his three
years, the exports were the following:—
Sugar 47,600,000 pounds.
Coffee 31,000,000 ditto.
Cotton 3,000,000 ditto.
Cocoa 201,800 ditto.
Indigo 35,400 ditto.
Molasses 10,655 hogsheads.
The number of the cultivators at this period has not been stated,
though I have been informed by respectable individuals that they were
as numerous as in the time of Toussaint, but that from the very harsh
proceedings of Dessalines a great number left their homes and fled
to the eastern part of the island, and there lived in the woods and
recesses of the mountains until they heard of his death.
In the time of Christophe and Petion the culture of the soil was
carried on by the former with some spirit, whilst the latter allowed
it to relax in a most extraordinary degree. Christophe pursued it
with strong compulsory measures, as may be seen by his adoption of
the code of Toussaint, but Petion left every thing to the will and
inclination of his people. The government of the north, by means of
its agricultural pre-eminence, had a flowing treasury, and its people
advanced in affluence from the effects of industry; but the government
of the south, from supineness and from a disregard of cultivation, was
reduced to the lowest state of poverty, and was driven to expedients
exceedingly ruinous in their consequences. By Christophe the people
were taught to love agricultural pursuits, as conducive to their
happiness and comforts; and were made to understand that cultivation
would be enforced, and that the disobedient and the indolent would be
visited with the full penalty of the law. By Petion every class of
persons were permitted to pursue those courses to which their tastes
and their will led them. Uncontrolled by any regulations of the state,
they never pursued cultivation beyond their own immediate wants; and
beyond the supply of those wants, which were inconsiderable, no surplus
was left for the use of government or for the purposes of commerce.
Whilst the north excited some degree of interest in the mind of the
traveller as he pursued his journey through its several districts, by
an appearance of industry and cultivation, the south displayed little
more than occasional spots of vegetation, and the eye wandered over
an expanse of country in a state of waste and neglect. The mistaken
policy of Petion ruined the progress of agriculture in his part, and
all his after efforts to restore its wonted vigour were ineffectual
and unavailing. Fondly confiding that his people would without
compulsion devote the whole of their time to the pursuits of industry,
he permitted them to indulge in those propensities to which they were
naturally prone. But instead of keeping pace with their northern
neighbours in the progress of agricultural industry, they evidently
receded beyond the possibility of recovery, and not a chance was left
that agriculture would revive under the weak and ineffectual measures
of Petion’s government.
Christophe most advantageously farmed out the government estates, and
at the same time he gave to the farmers of them every possible support;
but he most strictly bound them to push the culture of their lands as
far as it was practicable from the paucity of labourers; and he also
ordained the portion of labour which might be exacted from each of
them. Every individual in the least acquainted with the portion of
labour allotted for the slave in the British colonies will readily
admit, that the labour performed by them, far from being excessive,
does not exceed the ordinary labour of man in general throughout the
agricultural countries in Europe or the United States of America. From
every account which I have been able to collect, and from the testimony
of living persons, Christophe exacted from every labourer the full
performance of a day’s labour as provided for by the twenty-second
article of the law for regulating the culture of soil, and which forms
a part of the Code Henry, and every proprietor who did not enforce
it incurred his severest censure. The only thing which impeded the
great advancement of cultivation in his dominions was his contest with
Petion, and the necessity which that occasioned for his keeping up a
powerful military establishment, which took away the most able of the
cultivators for the army.
After the union of the three divisions of the island under the
republic, some hopes were entertained that Boyer would concert
measures for reviving agriculture, although from his election to the
presidential chair after the death of Petion, he had given no proofs,
nor evinced the least desire to disturb the cultivators, but allowed
them to follow such courses as seemed most congenial to their habits,
and consequently, instead of any improvement in the condition of the
country, there was evidently a greater decline; and as the population
had been greatly increased, the whole country tranquil, and without
the appearance of any interruption being given to it, a period
more favourable could not have arrived for effecting a change of a
system, which he must have seen was attended with the most baneful
consequences.
I shall now advert to the quantity of produce obtained from the soil
after the union, and it seems, from the returns which were laid before
the public in 1823, and subsequently from a note which I had presented
to me in Hayti, that the year 1822, the first year after the union,
was the most productive, and that since that period there has been an
evident decline. In 1822, the exports stood thus:—
Coffee 35,117,834 pounds.
Sugar 652,541 ditto.
Cotton 891,950 ditto.
Cocoa 322,145 ditto.
Logwood 3,816,583 ditto.
Mahogany 20,100 feet.
The whole value of which, in Hayti, seems to have been estimated at
about nine millions, thirty thousand, three hundred and ninety-seven
dollars, and the export duties one million, three hundred and
sixty-five thousand, four hundred and two dollars; together, ten
millions, three hundred and ninety-five thousand, seven hundred and
ninety-nine dollars, or about two millions, seventy-nine thousand, one
hundred and fifty-nine pounds sterling, taking the value of the dollar
as in Hayti at four shillings sterling. No subsequent year has been
equal in produce to 1822, and in 1825 the returns are infinitely less,
for the quantity of coffee does not exceed thirty million pounds,
sugar seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and the other articles
somewhat less in proportion. The valuation of the whole in 1825 is
stated at eight millions of dollars, or thereabouts. Such is the
wretched state to which the improvident measures of Boyer has brought
agriculture in Hayti, and in this condition would the republic have
remained, had he not attended to the suggestions of men wiser than
himself, who have some knowledge of governing, and who are not such
bigots as to be led by a mistaken philanthropy, when they perceive
their country sinking under its injurious effects.
An individual now high in the councils of Boyer made the strongest
remonstrances against the unwise policy which he followed; and the
late Baron Dupuy, a man who knew how the best interests of his country
might be upheld, declared to him that by pursuing such a line in
future he would bring the republic to the brink of ruin. That it was
folly to think of any expedients for raising their national wealth and
consequence, except by encouraging and enforcing the cultivation of
the soil, and extending their commercial intercourse by every possible
means, for that agriculture and commerce were the only sources of
national wealth.
When we look into the state of the products in the time of Toussaint,
and compare them with those of Boyer, it is a just conclusion to draw,
that the one knew his people, and the other feared them; that the
former by compulsory means enriched his country, and kept the people
quiet, whilst the latter, by giving unlimited latitude to indolence,
has impoverished and ruined them. This is the more extraordinary, also,
when we look at the means of each chief for cultivating the soil, and
the strength of the population at the respective periods. Toussaint’s
population, according to Humboldt, only amounted to three hundred and
seventy-five thousand, and by the census taken in 1824, when the island
was incorporated under Boyer’s government, it amounted to nine hundred
and thirty-five thousand, three hundred and thirty-five, so that in
1822 it could not have been many short of that number. And supposing
therefore the census of Boyer to be correct, was such an astonishing
decrease ever known in the means of any country in the world, and
arising too from the incapacity of its ruler and the weakness of its
government?
When poverty began to be felt, and the exigences of the state became
alarmingly pressing, Boyer became convinced that his policy had been
defective and ruinous, and that it was time to concert plans for
rousing himself from the lethargy into which he had fallen. He was
forced to seek advice from the very people whose counsels he had before
rejected with disdain. He courted them, and even begged, that they
would suggest the most beneficial plans for relieving the country from
that dilemma into which his precipitancy and obstinacy had thrown
it. They again stepped forward, and their first suggestion was a
_rigid system of agriculture_, the revival of Toussaint’s principle
of culture, and the strict enforcement of it without any evasion
or escape. It was by coercion that Toussaint, Dessalines, and even
Christophe, raised their country, and by coercion only could Hayti
recover its pristine condition. Her prosperity had received a stab, and
it required skill and experience to restore her wonted vigour.
It is evident that the sugar plantations were nearly all thrown up,
as the country scarcely produced more than was necessary for its own
consumption. There were a few only that had the appearance of being
cultivated, and those were in the possession of individuals connected
with the government either in a civil or military capacity. On these
plantations the work was generally performed by labouring parties from
the military stations in their vicinity; and if labourers from the
general class of cultivators were engaged, they never omitted to exact
from them a due proportion of work, and they were always superintended
by the gens d’armes, or country police, armed for the sole purpose of
compelling them to the performance of their duty.
A variety of expedients were tried, it is true, by the leading
proprietors in the country, but more particularly by the military ones,
for the purpose of advancing cultivation by the most effectual means.
The cane, requiring a greater proportion of labour than any other
of the staple articles of growth, was little attended to; it seemed
therefore adviseable to hold out inducements to prevail upon the people
to undertake its culture. In many instances, I have been informed,
the proprietors have not only offered them a fourth of the produce,
but they have actually promised a pecuniary remuneration in addition
to it. Even this would not induce them to work, and nothing therefore
remained but to adopt a system of compulsory labour. That compulsion
was resorted to, is a fact; but the law was not sufficiently strong to
punish offenders in the case of disobedience, and many delinquents,
many of the refractory labourers, who had engaged to perform a certain
portion of duty on a plantation, but neglected to do so, escaped that
punishment which they deserved.
The law for the better observance of the culture of the soil, until the
Code Rural, of which I shall speak hereafter, made its appearance, was
extremely deficient, and merely compelled all cultivators to remain
on their respective settlements, and to attend to the duties required
on them, except on Saturday and Sunday, and such holidays as were
particularly enumerated; but there was no penalty for disobedience
sufficient to deter a man from being guilty of it. As far however
as the proprietors dared to go in enforcing labour, many of them
certainly proceeded, and in several instances I have seen the labourers
working under the terror of the bayonet and sabre, and this too on
the plantations of Boyer himself. I have seen it also on those of
Secretary-General Inginac, Colonel Lerebour, General Jeddion, and
General Mazuy, and several others.
It was evident to every man in Hayti, at all conversant with the negro
character, that an attempt to keep up cultivation without force was
impossible, and many of the proprietors, themselves negroes, knew
that by force only could they obtain labourers amongst their people.
They knew that indolence in the negro was innate, and that it was
absolutely impracticable to carry on the work in the soil unless rigid
laws were enacted to enforce it. The laws which had been passed by
Toussaint and Dessalines had become so mutilated by relaxation and
modification, that they were little more than a dead letter; and the
government, recovering from its apathy, and feeling the consequences
of its loss of energy and want of decision, very wisely remonstrated
with the president, and condemned further submission to the will of a
people desirous to go on unrestrained in their indolent propensities.
This remonstrance was effectual, and Boyer acquiesced in the necessity
of establishing a system of extensive cultivation, and of enacting a
law to provide for its due observance throughout his dominions. He
saw the good effects which had arisen from the application of force
on his own plantation at Tor, on which the cultivators worked under
the surveillance of a military guard; and he therefore became now as
willing an advocate for a law to sanction coercive labour, as he had
been negligent in not providing for the culture of the soil from the
beginning of his power.
The Code Rural, the existence of which has been the subject of much
doubt, was passed by the Chamber of Communes on the 21st of April,
1826, admitted by the senate on the 1st of May, and received the
president’s fiat on the 6th of the same month. All this took place
during my residence in Port au Prince. This law is the work of
Secretary-General Inginac, aided by one or two of the members from
the chamber and the senate. During the discussion of this law in the
Chamber of Communes, it was remarked by one of the most intelligent
of its members, “that it was a measure of expediency, for that the
citizen cultivators had become so indolent that agriculture had in some
districts been almost forgotten, and that cultivation was completely
suspended.” This declaration was echoed through the chamber, and every
member concurred in the observation, and gave it his unqualified assent.
On the 1st of May, the day appointed for the celebration of the Fête
Agriculture, and when the cultivators were assembled in the public
square bearing specimens of their several productions of the soil, the
president, together with a member from the chamber and another from the
senate, addressed them, and said that the legislature would provide
for a more general cultivation, and that all persons not engaged, or
usually occupied as labourers, would be peremptorily called upon for
a more strict attention to their duty, as the government contemplated
a revival of agriculture, which had fallen into so much neglect from
the indolent habits of the people. These addresses _were not_ received
with acclamation, and many a cultivator heard them with a degree of
dissatisfaction which seemed to forebode resistance.
The Chamber of Communes, in its farewell address, tells the people that
laws “just and severe” were imperative for the revival of agriculture,
and that by the law which they had passed to enforce cultivation they
thought that they had materially served their country, and in such
an opinion I most readily concur. They rendered to their country an
important service by passing the Code Rural; for it will tend towards
obstructing the course of immorality pursued by the people in their
idleness, and will eventually reestablish upon a sound basis the
shattered finances of the state. The passage in that address is so
very forcible, and so extremely just, that I shall call the attention
of my readers to it, as it has been given by a gentleman to whom I am
under many obligations for his assistance upon various rious subjects
connected with this work. It says, “What is due to the conservative
principle would not have been provided, if the revival of our
agriculture had not been stimulated (provoqué) by laws at once just and
severe; your representatives in passing the Code Rural, have believed
that a benefit was conferred upon the people.” This was conclusive of
the opinion of the country that severity was imperative for enforcing
a general cultivation, and that, without laws “just and severe”, force
cannot be resorted to with any chance of a favourable result.
It may not be unimportant to give a few of the articles of the Code
Rural. This Code has now found its way to Europe, and the public, on
reading its enactments, will be enabled to judge of the feelings of the
leading persons in Hayti with regard to the state of cultivation, when
such laws are said to be required to force the people to labour.
“Art. 173. The purposes of Rural Police are,
“First. The repressing idleness.
“Second. Enforcing order and assiduity in agricultural labour.
“Third. The discipline of the labourers collectively or in gangs.
“Fourth. The making and keeping in repair of the roads, both public and
private.
“Art. 174. All persons who are not proprietors or renters of the land
on which they are residing, or who shall not have made a contract to
work with some proprietor or renter, shall be reputed vagabonds, and
shall be arrested by the rural police of the section in which they may
be found, and carried before the justice of the peace of the commune.
“Art. 175. The justice of the peace, after interrogating and hearing
the person brought before him, shall make known to him the articles of
the law which oblige him to employ himself in agricultural labour; and
after that communication he shall remand him to prison, until he shall
have bound himself by a contract according to the provisions of the law.
“Art. 176. The justice of the peace will allow the person arrested to
make his own choice of the individual with whom he is to contract to
labour.
“Art. 177. If, after eight days of detention, the prisoner shall not
have agreed to go to field work, he shall be sent to the public works
for cleaning the town or district where he may be arrested, and there
he shall be employed until he shall consent to go to field labour. The
person who removes any labourer from the public works to employ him in
private work shall be subject to a fine of fifty dollars, of which a
moiety is to be paid to the person complaining.
“Art. 178. If the prisoner be a child under age, the justice of the
peace shall inquire out his parents, and send him to them to follow
their condition of life.
“Art. 179. After the expiration of three months from the publication of
this Code, rigorous measures shall be enforced against delinquents.
“Art. 180. Every person attached to the country as a cultivator, who
shall on a working day, and during the hours of labour, be found
unemployed, or lounging on the public roads, shall be considered idle,
and be arrested and taken before the justice of the peace, who shall
commit him to prison for twenty-four hours for the first offence, and
shall send him to labour on the public works upon a repetition of the
offence.
“Art. 181. To provide against vagabondage, under the pretence of being
a soldier.
“Art. 182. Officers commanding the rural police shall take care that in
their respective sections no person shall live in idleness. For this
purpose they have authority to oblige such persons as are not actually
employed in labour, to give an account of their occupations; and such
persons as cannot prove that they cultivate the soil, or are keepers of
cattle-pens, shall be considered as without visible means of procuring
their livelihood, and shall be arrested as vagabonds.
“Art. 183. Field labour shall commence on Monday morning, and shall
never cease until Friday evening (legal holidays excepted); and in
extraordinary cases, when the interest of the cultivator as well as
of the proprietor appears to require it, work shall be continued until
Saturday evening.
“Art. 184. On working days, the ordinary field labour shall commence
at day-dawn, to continue until mid-day, with the interval of half an
hour for breakfast, which shall be taken on the spot where the work
is carrying on. After mid-day the field labour shall commence at two
o’clock, and continue until sun-set.
“Art. 185. Pregnant females shall be employed on light work only, and
after the fourth month of pregnancy they shall not be obliged to do any
work in the field.
“Art. 186. Four months after delivery they shall be obliged to resume
the labour in the field; but they shall not turn out to work until one
hour after sun-rise; they shall continue to work until eleven o’clock,
and from two o’clock until one hour before sun-set.
“Art. 187. No labourer attached to an estate in the country shall
absent himself from the labour assigned him, without the permission of
the overseer, in the absence of the proprietor or farmer; and no one
shall give that permission unless the case be urgent.
“Art. 188. Gangs of labourers upon estates shall be obedient to their
drivers, jobbers, sub-farmers, farmers, proprietors and managers, or
overseers, whenever they are called upon to execute the labour they
have bound themselves to perform.
“Art. 189. Every act of disobedience or insult on the part of a
workman commanded to do any work, to which he is subjected, shall be
punished by imprisonment, according to the exigency of the case, in the
discretion of the justice of the peace of the commune.
“Art. 190. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays being at the entire
disposal of the labourers, they shall not be permitted on working
days to leave their work, to indulge in dancing or feasting, neither
by night nor by day. Delinquents shall be subject to imprisonment for
three days for the first offence, for six days for the repetition of
the offence.”
The remaining articles of the code relate to the making of roads and
keeping them in repair.
“These clauses are given as more particularly exhibiting the effect of
the code on the field labourer. To exhibit the whole system by which
the driver is made answerable for the labourer, the overseer for his
drivers and labourers, and the police, in its various grades, for the
whole, it would be necessary to translate the entire code. During
imprisonment, the labourer being absent from field work forfeits his
wages; the pregnant women also appear to receive no wages during their
exemption.”[9]
It is impossible for any one who is at all conversant with the negro
character not to say, that the Code Rural is just such a law as the
exigences of Hayti particularly require: and that it is absolutely and
imperatively called for in order to extend cultivation, and to bring
the people to some sense of duty towards their country and themselves.
Left any longer to pursue their uncontrolled and unlimited propensity
for indolence, they must recede into barbarism and uncivilization, and
the country fall a sacrifice to the mistaken policy of its chief and
the leaders of his government, and to those false ideas of philanthropy
with which they are so often assailed by persons who are incompetent to
advise, because they are without any knowledge of the country or its
people.
The Code Rural, therefore, now enforces labour with a rigid
hand,—nothing more excessive can be demanded of the slave in the
British colonies; and I aver, that if the whole of the clauses of
this code be complied with, it will exceed the labour performed by
persons in actual slavery. I have my doubts, however, respecting
the feasibility of carrying its clauses into successful operation,
and whether the temper of the people at the present moment will be
submissive enough to adhere to it in all its parts, I am inclined
to think that they have been too long indulged in those vices which
seem inherent in the negro, to be brought to obedience; and that too
rigid an enforcement will bring on discontent, and finally a general
resistance. I think it therefore exceedingly probable that Boyer
with all his vaunting, with all his proclamations, and aided by his
military force, will never proceed to those extremities to promote
agriculture, to which he can now go under the sanction of laws made
expressly for that purpose. The Code Rural must unquestionably astonish
those advocates for free labour who have held up Hayti as an example
of what can be accomplished by it; and I think they cannot now have
the temerity to say that cultivation in the tropics can be effectually
carried on without coercion, when even the Haytian government is
constrained to have recourse to it. For my part, I have seen nothing in
Hayti to induce me to alter the opinion which I have always entertained
of the negro, nor for a moment to expect that cultivation can be
carried on with any probability of success without coercion. But I
declare it to be my firm conviction, that unless coercion be resorted
to, the negro will not labour. The impulse for indulging in sloth and
in indolence is too irresistible, and it will not be in the power of
the government to make any progress in agricultural labour, except it
be done by actual force.
The system pursued by the Haytian government respecting the disposal of
its lands seems to be erroneous. Allotting it out in small grants of
ten to fifteen acres, is an injudicious measure: it only tends towards
extending and perpetuating the evil and pernicious habits of the
people. When a negro obtains a grant of a small tract of land, he cares
little about the cultivation of it beyond the production of enough for
his own immediate wants, and those wants are trifling. Two or three
hours’ labour in each week will suffice to answer all the purposes of
the culture required to produce food enough for himself; the rest of
his time is then allowed to dwindle away in the most puerile pleasures
and inconsistencies. No object which moderate industry could procure
would balance the insatiable desire for reposing under the shade of the
guava, and for ablutions in the neighbouring stream; with these and a
little food all his wants are supplied. Such being the case, and known
to be so by the government, it is enough to surprise one that they
should parcel out their lands in this way, because, even under the Code
Rural, the person holding it is no longer a labourer, but a proprietor,
and is not therefore amenable to it. Had the government proceeded
differently, and let the estates to farm as they were originally laid
out, so many petty proprietors would not have existed, but would have
remained amenable to the law for enforcing cultivation. From this
unwise system, labourers are scarce in Hayti, and the few that are
to be obtained are of the worst characters, negroes so abandoned as
not to have been considered worthy of inheriting a patch of land.
Hayti abounds with these small proprietors; their patches of land,
with their huts upon them, are generally situate in the mountains, in
the recesses, or on the most elevated parts, on spots, as the poet
has described, “the most inaccessible by shepherds trod.” They are
therefore lost for the purposes of agriculture: their cultivation does
not extend beyond vegetables for the markets in their vicinity, added
to which they furnish an occasional supply of pork, poultry, and wild
pigeons.
Another important question arises on this subject, and that is the
quantum of labour which a negro is capable of performing within the
day. In the British colonies an experienced planter can at once
discern how much labour a slave is capable of performing. He can also
discriminate between slaves who are willing and industrious, and those
who are careless and indolent; and apportions their labour according
to their respective deserts and capacities. The Haytian proprietor is
deficient in these requisites; he is not a planter practically, and
he is ignorant of its theory. There is nothing regular in his system;
it is an anomaly, a strange, incongruous method of proceeding, having
no tendency either to improve the soil or benefit himself. The sugar
planter in the first place is so ignorant that he knows not the virtue
which his soil possesses, nor what it is capable of producing. He
considers not whether one field is better adapted for the production
of canes than another, but plants indiscriminately in bad or good soil,
in heavy or light; in fact he knows not whether it ought to be planted
with canes or cotton, or if it would be wise to allow it to become
common pastures. He is contented, and seems to be quite satisfied, if
he can but obtain vegetation in any way; careless about the manner in
which it is accomplished. To ascertain whether it can be improved by
art or industry, is a matter about which he is unconcerned.
But the cane is not often planted. Most of the cane pieces on
plantations are old, probably they were planted by the French, or
subsequently in the time of Toussaint. They exhibit an appearance of
age, for their circumference is small, and their joints are not more
than three inches apart, nor do they ever exceed four feet in length.
These are very seldom manured or trashed, nor do they receive any
attention from the time of cutting until they are again ready for the
mill the following year. There is no such thing as stirring the soil
between the rows at particular times, nor do the cultivators ever
trouble themselves about divesting the cane of its superfluous and
decaying leaves, so as to open a free course for the air through the
whole. Nothing of this is done in Hayti. The fertility of the soil,
the congeniality of climate, and the regularity of seasons, suffice
for manure, and the rest is left to nature. Art and the industry of
man contribute little or nothing to the growth of the cane. The hoe
and other implements of tillage are rendered useless by indolence,
the planter’s unconquerable love of ease having brought them into
disrepute; and I shall be somewhat astonished if the Code Rural will
have power enough to revive their use.
The same irregularity attends the operations at the mill, the
boiling-house, the distillery, and the other departments of the
plantation. I have been through them often, and have been surprised
at the want of order which every where prevails. There is nothing
systematically arranged,—every thing seems in confusion; the works
are detached, and resemble more a heap of ruins than conveniences
for manufacturing and distilling. The interior of the boiling-house
would astonish a Jamaica planter: the several boilers are not ranged
in succession from the receiver to the teacher, as they are in the
British colonies. They are placed without rule, and in their manner
of conveying the liquor from one copper to another the waste is
considerable; and this is observable too in all their operations. There
is nothing like cleanliness in their works; filth and every species
of dirtiness are to be seen in them; and this is prevalent, although
they must be sensible that it is injurious, and often destructive
to the quality of the sugar. The distillery department is also very
injudiciously constructed. They take no pains to keep the heat at
the proper degree requisite for fermentation: every thing has the
appearance of negligence, and conveys to the observer a very bad
specimen of Haytian skill in the art of manufacturing sugar or of
distilling spirits. They do not often make rum: I only know of one or
two plantations on which rum is distilled, and these are conducted by
Englishmen; one in particular at Aux Cayes, a Mr. Towning, who has an
extensive distillery. He produces rum, which, in point of flavour,
strength, and every other quality, I do not think inferior to that of
Jamaica. To all persons who visit Aux Cayes this gentleman is well
known for the hearty and hospitable reception he always gives to a
stranger. He is the only person in Hayti who devotes his attention
to the distillation of rum. The Haytians cannot distill it; they
are ignorant of its principle, and consequently confine themselves
to the distillation of what is known in the British colonies under
the denomination of low wines. The flavour of this spirit is most
unpleasant; which arises, I conjecture, from the ingredients thrown
into the fermenting vessels, and from which it is distilled: these,
consisting of the molasses from the boiling-house, with all the
sweepings of the works, with a proportion of water from any pool
however stagnant, if pure water be not near, I apprehend give to the
spirit a very acrid quality, as well as a fetid smell. It is however
held in great estimation by the people, who drink it freely, and they
can obtain it cheap. Upon the whole there can be no difficulty in
declaring that the Haytians are ignorant both of the cultivation of the
cane, and of the process of manufacturing sugar.
It is evident that sugar is not much cultivated, as in every district
throughout the republic there are only a few plantations to be seen in
the plains of Cul de Sac and vicinity of Port au Prince where sugar
is produced. There were in the time of the French about one hundred
and forty sugar estates, very few, if any, with less than one thousand
acres of land, one-fourth of which would be in canes, and the remainder
in pastures and other crops. Now in the same space there are not more
than twenty estates, and in each of them there cannot be found more
than from forty to fifty acres of canes, the remainder of the land
being in a neglected state, overrun with different weeds. President
Boyer has an estate within a small distance of Port au Prince, called
Tor, the favourite residence of the late Petion. This plantation has
upwards of two thousand acres of land attached to it, and, from the
great strength of the soil, it is impossible to select a spot more
eligible for the production of sugar. But there are not more than
forty acres of the land in canes. This, however, is not singular; it
is general throughout the island. When the sugar cane in Hayti was
cultivated properly, and received the requisite care and attention in
the several stages of its growth, it produced very abundantly. Bryan
Edwards gives an average of two thousand seven hundred and twelve
pounds of sugar per acre through the island; and at this period I
have been informed, and in fact I have seen it calculated myself,
that in the plains of Cul de Sac and Leogane the average does not
exceed one thousand pounds of sugar per acre; and an experienced
planter on looking at the canes when they are ripe for cutting, would
conclude that they would not produce so much. Formerly a pound of
sugar was obtained from a gallon of juice in some districts, in others
sixteen pounds from twenty gallons, and in some sixteen pounds from
twenty-four gallons: but now it requires nearly treble the quantity
of juice to produce the same quantity of sugar: and this must remain
so, until a new system of cultivation be tried, and the management
of the plantations be entrusted to men of experience, men who have
been practical planters, and who are conversant with the whole of its
duties; men, I say, who have a perfect knowledge of the soil, its
capabilities and its wants for the work of tillage, and who will devote
their time and attention to all the minutiæ of plantation labour. If
such a system should ever be pursued in Hayti, and there be labourers
to cultivate, and capital can be invested securely, then sugar planting
may be carried on with some chance of a successful issue: until this
take place, I have great doubts whether the culture of the cane will
prove profitable to the occupier of the soil.
The labour required for the cultivation of coffee is exceedingly light:
I was therefore much surprised to see the very little progress the
people had made in this branch of agriculture. When an individual,
who has been accustomed to plantations in the British, French, and
Spanish islands, visits the coffee plantations in Hayti, and observes
the whole conducted without judgment or care, it impresses him with
a most unfavourable idea of the people; and when he sees the easiest
branch of agriculture so much neglected, it convinces him that their
idleness is almost invincible. In the British islands every coffee
plantation is arranged with the greatest exactitude. The lands are
divided into fields as nearly equal as possible, and in those fields,
in all probability, the coffee has been planted in successive seasons,
so that when the period arrives in which the trees begin to exhibit a
decline in their growth, the planter provides for the loss of them by
planting others, and by this expedient manages always to keep up his
crop. The fences which divide the fields are constantly kept up with
regularity and order, the whole having the appearance of a garden laid
out with neatness and precision. The plantation works for washing,
drying, and preparing the coffee, are in the best condition, and with
the barbacues, exhibit a well-arranged system for the production of
the berry. In Hayti the scene is different: what is denominated there
a coffee plantation, is neither more nor less than a large tract of
land, throughout which grows spontaneously the coffee tree; not planted
there by the people, but sprung from the seed which has fallen from
those planted by the French, and which escaped destruction during the
revolution. There is no such thing as a plantation established upon
the same principle as in other islands. There are no divisions, no
laying out of the lands, no order of planting in succession, nothing
done towards improving and fertilizing the soil, in order to aid the
growth of the tree, no lopping it of its excrescences, and pruning
it to strengthen the parent stem; but every thing is left to nature,
the pruning knife is sheathed, and the rank luxuriance of the tree is
permitted to increase, whilst the hoe is seldom called into use, to
extirpate those weeds which are so destructive to vegetation.
A person must be somewhat conversant with travelling in Hayti before he
can discover on his road that a coffee plantation is near him. For my
part, I could see nothing that resembled one, nor should I have known
the coffee tree, growing as it did in a pyramidal form, surrounded
by numberless other shrubs, had it not been for the appearance of
a few red berries on one of its lower branches. I alighted from my
mule to examine some trees just round the spot: as nearly as I could
ascertain, every tree must have exceeded twelve feet in height, and
I am convinced that each of them at the time would not have produced
two pounds of coffee in the husk. I had the curiosity to go a little
way into the interior of this settlement to see if there were any
thing like cultivation, but I could discover nothing bearing the least
resemblance to a plantation. I saw nothing but a hut, and four or five
people in it, whom I found to be the proprietors of the place. They
were inquisitive, and not much pleased that I should have intruded on
their privacy, and therefore I had a hint from my guide that it would
be prudent not to advance farther. I saw, however, enough to convince
me that there was no regular system of cultivation pursued in this
place, although there were twelve hundred acres of land in the Keen;
and that the coffee grew in a wild state, the soil never being touched
or disturbed, save, occasionally, by pigs, goats and asses, which range
through the whole, and feed on the grass which grows luxuriantly in the
intervals. Mills are not very common, and the few which exist are very
small and turned by asses. Washing and pulping are not performed by
machinery. Indeed I am inclined to suspect that they are dispensed with
altogether, as I could not find any apparatus for these operations.
My guide knew this plantation well, and he told me, that although the
proprietor had this large tract of land, yet he was so poor that he
could not afford to hire cultivators, who, when employed, never did
work enough to pay for their hire. I was anxious to ascertain the
annual quantity of coffee which this place produced, and I was told
that it did not exceed four thousand five hundred pounds weight. I have
mentioned this plantation because it is considered to be a settlement
in a productive part of the country, the mountains of Leogane; and
extraordinary as it may appear, it is a very good illustration of the
coffee settlements in general, all of which exhibit negligence and want
of that industry which characterize the Haytian planter and cultivator.
Cotton, which formerly was an article much grown in Hayti, is
now greatly neglected, although the labour attending it is very
inconsiderable, the people having no wish to extend cultivation to
those products of the soil which require planting annually. It is
both an annual and a perennial plant, but the former is esteemed as
most productive, whilst the latter is somewhat out of repute from not
affording such profitable returns. In some of the districts, when in
possession of the French, from the extreme luxuriance of the soil, a
planter could obtain, from the labour of one man, six thousand pounds
of it annually; but in these more modern times, and under the free
labour system, not more than six hundred pounds can be obtained, and
even that is only partial, and not a general thing. In the vicinity of
Gonaives it is more cultivated than in any other district, the soil
in the uplands being more congenial for its growth than it is in any
other part of the island. In the time of the French it produced about
three millions and a half of pounds weight, but in 1825 the crop only
amounted to five hundred and twenty thousand pounds. With lands so
exceedingly fertile, so peculiarly adapted for the cultivation of this
plant, it is not a very cheering prospect to see that free labour is
able to accomplish so little in the production of an article of culture
that requires such trifling exertion. What might not be accomplished by
an industrious race of people in the production of cotton, in a country
so favourable to its growth? If it were possible to waft the industry
of the peasantry of Great Britain to the shores of Hayti, what an
extraordinary effect would it have in the production of an article, the
superior quality of which would so amply repay the tillers for their
industry and care. But the Haytians care not for these things; they
are totally unconcerned about the growth of any article for foreign
consumption; they seem to have no desire beyond that of cultivating the
few vegetables required for their own immediate use, leaving all other
things to the effects of nature, even valuable articles of spontaneous
growth being sometimes permitted to rise and fall into decay without
becoming the object of the cultivator’s attention.
The culture of cocoa is not now attended to, except, I believe, in the
vicinity of Jeremie. It is a plant the nature of which is peculiarly
delicate, and requires shade as well as moisture, and it is material to
its growth, that it should be defended against the powerful rays of the
sun. The labour of cultivating it is very trifling; the most important
duty which it requires is to guard it during its approach to perfection
against the macaw and the parrot, for wherever they touch the pod,
destruction ensues. It may be considered a perennial plant, for the
fruit is found upon it throughout the greater part of the year, though
there are two principal crops, which are gathered in June and December.
After it is gathered great care must be taken of it, for before it is
prepared for market it receives a sweat by the application of salt
water, which destroys any vermin that may have got into it, and, it is
said, preserves its hue. Any vegetable production requiring so much
care in the culture and preparation of it will never become extensively
cultivated in Hayti, although it may be exceedingly profitable. The
Haytians cannot confine themselves to any settled system of planting;
and cocoa therefore requiring the greatest possible aid through the
whole progress of its growth, as well as much attention after it is
picked, will never be an article of very general culture, however
valuable it may be to the planter.
Although there are a great many fields in which the indigo grows wild,
and settlements in which it was once extensively cultivated still
exist, yet at this period but very little is produced. Its cultivation
requires the greatest care, for it has to go through a very long
process, from the picking of the leaves on which the blue is found
until it is fit to be removed into chests. This is too much for the
fickle Haytian planter to undergo. It is said to be a plant that cannot
be cultivated without shade and moisture, and that it will not bear any
other vegetable near it without sustaining great injury. It is a plant
also that exhausts the soil very considerably indeed, and at the end
of two years it has not only become degenerated, but the land which
bore it becomes weak and unfit to be again used for its production.
After the loss of Hayti to the French, they made experiments on its
growth in some parts of their dominions in Europe, and they are I think
stated to have been successful, but the quantity which they raised was
small. The indigo from Guatemala is esteemed the finest, and in that
republic is an article of very extensive cultivation, and a source of
great wealth to the people who cultivate it; but the native Spaniards
and the Indians of that country are a very industrious race of people,
and leave nothing untried which may improve their country, or enrich
themselves.
I am astonished that the cochineal insect was never extensively sought
after, and the raising of it more generally attended to in Hayti, as
the cactus, or prickly pear, on which it feeds, grows throughout the
whole of the country, and forms a common fence round gardens in many
parts of the island. So precious an insect, and requiring no labour in
the preservation of it, must be a valuable acquisition to those who
would devote their time in looking after it; but the attention which it
absolutely requires causes the Haytians to neglect it. It is said to
have been in the time of the Spaniards an indigenous insect, and that
in the districts of St. John’s and Ocoa they usually collected large
quantities for the European market.
The cultivation of tobacco has declined exceedingly, although the
districts of St. Jago and the whole of the banks of the Yague, as well
as the plains of La Vega, produced an article very little inferior in
its quality to that of Cuba. The large quantities of this commodity
which found their way to Jamaica were a source of great wealth to
the Spaniards who cultivated it; but that vent being closed, it has
now become much neglected; and as the Spanish cultivators of it
have mostly left the island, and have gone to the Spanish Main or
to Cuba, a little is still produced by the Haytian planters; but,
as with respect to every other article derived from the soil, they
are quite careless about the culture of it, and often leave it to
decay, rather than undergo the toil of preparing it for market. There
are other territorial productions which formerly were considered
important to raise, and which gave the planter very handsome returns,
such as ginger, pimento, rice, vanilla, palma christi oil (ricinus
Americanus), and sarsaparilla, as well as many indigenous plants that
contain qualities which might make a valuable addition to the number
of useful drugs now comprised in the Materia Medica. All these may now
be said to be totally disregarded, with the exception of rice, which
is occasionally grown, for I could never ascertain that any individual
devoted the least of his time to cultivating them, nor did I ever
see any of them exhibited as articles of commerce in any part of the
country.
Having now adverted to the productions of the soil in Hayti, and the
decline of agriculture through the country, it may not be improper, by
way of a conclusion to this subject, to offer a few remarks on what is
termed free labour, and the consequences which have arisen from it in
Hayti. It seems to me quite clear that this subject is by no means well
understood in Europe, and that its advocates are much too sanguine and
enthusiastic when they expect that it would be found practicable to
keep up the tillage of the colonies if their present sable cultivators
were to be set free. It is indisputable that the declaration of freedom
to the slave population in Hayti was the ruin of the country, and
that it has not been attended with those benefits which the sanguine
philanthropists of Europe anticipated. The inhabitants have neither
advanced in moral improvement, nor are their civil rights more
respected; their condition is not changed for the better. They are not
slaves, it is true, but they are suffering under greater deprivations
than can well be imagined, whilst slaves have nothing to apprehend, for
they are clothed, fed, and receive every medical aid in the time of
sickness. The free labourer in Hayti, from innate indolence and from
his state of ignorance, obtains barely enough for his subsistence. He
cares not for clothing, and as to aid under sickness he cannot obtain
it; thus he is left to pursue a course that sinks him to a level
with the brute creation, and the reasoning faculties of the one are
almost inferior to the instinct of the other, and will be so until
moral instruction effect a change. Had the Haytians been prepared for
freedom by moral and religious education, emancipation might have
done them some good; but even then, they would not have made much
progress unless agriculture had been legally imposed as a duty, and the
government enforced all the laws enacted for punishing negligence and
disobedience. I have never yet been able to discover in Hayti, that the
blacks since their emancipation have improved in the extraordinary
degree which they are sometimes represented to have done. It is
probable that those blacks who live in the towns may have improved a
little. Their intercourse with the strangers who visit the country and
their avocations afford them opportunities of improving, which are
denied to their brethren in the interior parts. But to calculate the
increase of improvement from the progress of those in the towns, is
wrong. The whole mass of the people must be taken, and then, if the
measure of moral improvement be ascertained, it will not be found to
exceed one in fifteen. The state of ignorance prevailing among the
people in the mountains and the interior parts is almost inconceivable.
It appears as if the work of civilization had not commenced, and
that the people had not taken one voluntary step towards improving
themselves in any one thing. Neither is there one step taken by the
government to force some degree of attention to those duties that may
eventually improve them, unless, since the conviction of their own
impolitic system of governing, the Code Rural should effect that change
which ought to have been accomplished before.
If any one suppose for a moment that the present race of free labourers
in Hayti resemble the free labourers of any other part of the world,
he will be most egregiously deceived. There cannot be a greater
distinction between two classes of people than there is between the
free labourers in Hayti and those of Cuba and the southern states
of North America. The first are in a state of profound ignorance,
inheriting all those vices of idolatry and heathenism so peculiar to
the African race; whilst the second, before they received the boon of
freedom, had been taught how to value it, had received the blessings of
a moral and religious education, and, although they were not admitted
into the general community of free persons, but formed a class of their
own, yet they were respected and became valuable as labourers. In the
United States the incitements to labour are great, the most important
being that of want; and until the Haytians are impelled by a stimulus
equally powerful, they will not work; and that such a stimulus will
be found is not probable, while we know that the labour of a few days
will furnish a negro with sustenance for a month. Experiments may
be tried, laws may be enacted, and encouragement given, but nothing
short of coercion and want will impel the Haytian to labour; and I
have my doubts as to the practicability of enforcing labour in Hayti
until the people have been better instructed, and their characters
become changed. As to want, the fertility of the soil is so great that
it offers every security against its occurrence, by the most simple
exertions. It is evident to me, that unless constant labour be required
for the support of the negro, he never can become like the free
labourers in other countries; and to imagine that he will work for
hire without coercion, is absolutely to imagine that to be practicable
which is physically impossible. I am well aware that it has been often
asserted that the Haytians are always found willing to contract, or
engage to perform any proportion of the work required on a plantation,
on being fairly and equitably remunerated for their labour; but I am
bold to pronounce such an assertion, come from what quarter it may,
to be unfounded. It was, I aver, out of the power of a proprietor to
obtain labourers, although the most liberal offers were made to them to
undertake a proportion of such work as he wished to be performed.
It is perhaps unfortunate that the local authorities in Hayti are
individuals without decision, and too apt to submit to the will of the
people; mere nonentities, without resolution sufficient to command
obedience in their several districts, although invested with power to
commit, or inflict summary punishment. Hence there is much reason to
presume that the enactments of the Code Rural will become inefficacious
for a more general and extensive cultivation of the soil, and that
agricultural pursuits will not be the least encouraged or promoted by
its clauses, because the task of enforcing them devolves on the very
imbecile class of persons who constitute the executive part of the
government.
Before I conclude this part of my observations, I cannot avoid
repeating, that Hayti must not be held up as an example of what can be
accomplished by free labour; but that it ought rather to be the beacon
to warn the government of England against an experiment which may prove
absolutely fatal to her colonial system. If it be not wished that a
fate similar to that which has befallen Hayti should overtake our own
colonies, that they should be rendered totally unproductive to the
revenue of the country, and that the property invested in them should
be preserved from destruction, the advisers of the crown must pause
before they listen to the ill-judged suggestions of enthusiasts; for
they must banish from their minds the idea that the work of cultivation
can be made productive by means of free labour. Such a thing appears to
me impossible. The negro, constituted as he is, has such an aversion
from labour, and so great a propensity for indulgence and vice, that no
prospect of advantage can stimulate him, and as for emulation it has
not the slightest influence over him. Without force he will sink into
lethargy, and revert to his primitive savage character, and the only
feasible and effectual plan to promote his civilization is to persist
in those measures which compel him to labour, inculcate morality, and
tend to extirpate those vices which are inherent in the descendants
of the African race. This has been often exemplified in cases of
Africans who have been taken from their native soil and educated in
England. When they have returned to the spot of their nativity, and
have beheld their kindred indulging in all the habits of savage life,
they have thrown off all traces of civilization, and embraced with all
their primeval ardour the vices of their native country. As Africa has
presented various instances of this, so has it occurred also among the
Indian tribes, not only of North but of South America.
I trust that my readers will not for a moment consider that I am
advocating the cause of slavery; that I have the most distant wish that
freedom should not be conceded to the slave population of the world;
but that, if it were possible, the whole of the British colonies should
be cultivated by free labourers. Nothing can be more opposite to my
feelings than such a supposition, for I should be one of the first to
exult were the measure practicable, and were the condition of the slave
to be changed for the better by it. But I have Hayti before me as an
example, as a forcible illustration of the evils likely to attend such
an experiment; for I am convinced that to attempt it, would inevitably
ruin all interests, be a signal for general insurrection, and the
colonies would then be lost for ever as a productive possession of the
crown, without improving the condition of the slave. I venture to make
this declaration from a knowledge of the character of the slave. From
having, during an intercourse of twenty-two years with those countries
in which slavery exists, minutely examined him in all his essential
qualities, I have been only able to arrive at the conclusion, that it
will be found an undertaking of extreme difficulty to change his nature
so as to make freedom a good to him; and even assuming that such an
attempt should be considered practicable, it is evident that it must
be the work of time, and not the result of any sudden and precipitate
act. But I would, with great deference, call upon my countrymen to
deliberate before they venture upon further experiments, unless they
wish to subvert their colonial establishments; and not to be hurried
into the adoption of any measure without the most serious consideration
of the consequences which are likely to ensue from it. I would call
upon them to examine into the state and condition of the Haytian
people, before they adopt any plan, or devise any means, for attempting
to cultivate their colonies by free labour. The state of the population
of this island is calculated to excite the most painful sensations, and
their abject sloth, indolence, and ignorance, would, I should think,
induce the warmest philanthropists of England to form the wish that
their condition were rendered equal to that of the slave population
of the British colonies. Their condition has not been improved by the
change from slaves to free labourers. In point of fact, the slave is
infinitely better off than the free labourer of Hayti; in physical
circumstances he is particularly so; and even as regards morality, the
former has the advantage. I say again that Hayti, instead of being an
example of what may be done by free labour in the tropics, or a proof
that agriculture can be successfully carried on by it, stands as a
beacon to caution us against the rock on which the prosperity of the
colonies is likely to be wrecked.