HAYTI.
In sketching an account of the people of Hayti, and the struggles
through which they were called to pass, we confess it to be a difficult
task. Although the writer visited the Island thirty years ago, and has
read everything of importance given by the historians, it is still no
easy matter to give a true statement of the revolution which placed
the colored people in possession of the Island, so conflicting are the
accounts.
The beautiful island of St. Domingo, of which Hayti is a part, was
pronounced by the great discoverer to be the “Paradise of God.”
The splendor of its valleys, the picturesqueness of its mountains, the
tropical luxuriance of its plains, and the unsurpassed salubrity of
its climate, confirms the high opinion of the great Spaniard. Columbus
found on the Island more than a million of people of the Caribbean
race. The warlike appearance of the Spaniards caused the natives to
withdraw into the interior. However, the seductive genius of Columbus
soon induced the Caribbeans to return to their towns, and they extended
their hospitality to the illustrious stranger.
After the great discoverer had been recalled home and left the Island,
Dovadillo, his successor, began a system of unmitigated oppression
towards the Caribbeans, and eventually reduced the whole of the
inhabitants to slavery; and thus commenced that hateful sin in the New
World. As fresh adventurers arrived in the Island, the Spanish power
became more consolidated and more oppressive. The natives were made
to toil in the gold-mines without compensation, and in many instances
without any regard whatever to the preservation of human life; so much
so, that in 1507, the number of natives had, by hunger, toil, and the
sword, been reduced from a million to sixty thousand. Thus, in the
short space of fifteen years, more than nine hundred thousand perished
under the iron hand of slavery in the island of St. Domingo.
The Island suffered much from the loss of its original inhabitants;
and the want of laborers to till the soil and to work in the mines,
first suggested the idea of importing slaves from the coast of Africa.
The slave-trade was soon commenced and carried on with great rapidity.
Before the Africans were shipped, the name of the owner and the
plantation on which they were to toil was stamped on their shoulders
with a burning iron. For a number of years St. Domingo opened its
markets annually to more than twenty thousand newly-imported slaves.
With the advance of commerce and agriculture, opulence spread in every
direction. The great tide of immigration from France and Spain, and
the vast number of Africans imported every year, so increased the
population that at the commencement of the French Revolution, in 1789,
there were nine hundred thousand souls on the Island. Of these, seven
hundred thousand were Africans, sixty thousand mixed blood, and the
remainder were whites and Caribbeans. Like the involuntary servitude
in our own Southern States, slavery in St. Domingo kept morality at a
low stand. Owing to the amalgamation between masters and slaves, there
arose the mulatto population, which eventually proved to be the worst
enemies of their fathers.
Many of the planters sent their mulatto sons to France to be educated.
When these young men returned to the Island, they were greatly
dissatisfied at the proscription which met them wherever they appeared.
White enough to make them hopeful and aspiring, many of the mulattoes
possessed wealth enough to make them influential. Aware, by their
education, of the principles of freedom that were being advocated in
Europe and the United States, they were ever on the watch to seize
opportunities to better their social and political condition. In the
French part of the Island alone, twenty thousand whites lived in the
midst of thirty thousand free mulattoes and five hundred thousand
slaves. In the Spanish portion, the odds were still greater in favor of
the slaves. Thus the advantage of numbers and physical strength was on
the side of the oppressed. Right is the most dangerous of weapons--woe
to him who leaves it to his enemies!
The efforts of Wilberforce, Sharp, Buxton, and Clarkson, to abolish
the African slave-trade, and their advocacy of the equality of the
races, were well understood by the men of color. They had also learned
their own strength in the Island, and that they had the sympathy of
all Europe with them. The news of the oath of the Tennis Court, and
the taking of the Bastile at Paris, was received with the wildest
enthusiasm by the people of St. Domingo.
The announcement of these events was hailed with delight by both
the white planters and the mulattoes; the former, because they
hoped the revolution in the Mother Country would secure to them the
independence of the colony; the latter, because they viewed it as a
movement that would give them equal rights with the whites; and even
the slaves regarded it as a precursor to their own emancipation. But
the excitement which the outbreak at Paris had created amongst the
free men of color and the slaves, at once convinced the planters that
a separation from France would be the death-knell of slavery in St.
Domingo.
Although emancipated by law from the dominion of individuals, the
mulattoes had no rights; shut out from society by their color, deprived
of religious and political privileges, they felt their degradation even
more keenly than the bond slaves. The mulatto son was not allowed to
dine at his father’s table, kneel with him in his devotions, bear his
name, inherit his property, nor even to lie in his father’s graveyard.
Laboring as they were under the sense of their personal social wrongs,
the mulattoes tolerated, if they did not encourage, low and vindictive
passions. They were haughty and disdainful to the blacks, whom they
scorned, and jealous and turbulent to the whites, whom they hated and
feared.
The mulattoes at once despatched one of their number to Paris, to lay
before the Constitutional Assembly their claim to equal rights with
the whites. Vincent Oge, their deputy, was well received at Paris
by Lafayette, Brisot, Barnave, and Gregoire, and was admitted to a
seat in the Assembly, where he eloquently portrayed the wrongs of his
race. In urging his claims, he said if equality was withheld from the
mulattoes, they would appeal to force. This was seconded by Lafayette
and Barnave, who said: “Perish the Colonies, rather than a principle.”
The Assembly passed a decree, granting the demands of the men of color,
and Oge was made bearer of the news to his brethren. The planters armed
themselves, met the young deputy on his return to the Island, and a
battle ensued. The free colored men rallied around Oge, but they were
defeated and taken, with their brave leader; were first tortured, and
then broken alive on the wheel.
The prospect of freedom was put down for the time, but the blood of Oge
and his companions bubbled silently in the hearts of the African race;
they swore to avenge them.
The announcement of the death of Oge in the halls of the Assembly
at Paris, created considerable excitement, and became the topic of
conversation in the clubs and on the boulevards. Gregoire defended the
course of the colored men and said: “If liberty was right in France, it
was right in St. Domingo.” He well knew that the crime for which Oge
had suffered in the West Indies, had constituted the glory of Mirabeau
and Lafayette at Paris, and Washington and Hancock in the United
States. The planters in the Island trembled at their own oppressive
acts, and terror urged them on to greater violence. The blood of Oge
and his accomplices had sown everywhere despair and conspiracy. The
French sent an army to St. Domingo to enforce the law.
The planters repelled with force the troops sent out by France, denying
its prerogatives, and refusing the civic oath. In the midst of these
thickening troubles, the planters who resided in France were invited
to return, and to assist in vindicating the civil independence of
the Island. Then was it that the mulattoes earnestly appealed to the
slaves, and the result was appalling. The slaves awoke as from an
ominous dream, and demanded their rights with sword in hand. Gaining
immediate success, and finding that their liberty would not be granted
by the planters, they rapidly increased in numbers; and in less than a
week from its commencement, the storm had swept over the whole plain
of the north, from east to west, and from the mountains to the sea.
The splendid villas and rich factories yielded to the furies of the
devouring flames; so that the mountains, covered with smoke and burning
cinders, borne upward by the wind looked like volcanoes; and the
atmosphere as if on fire, resembled a furnace.
Such were the outraged feelings of a people whose ancestors had been
ruthlessly torn from their native land and sold in the shambles of St.
Domingo. To terrify the blacks and convince them that they could never
be free, the planters were murdering them on every hand by thousands.
The struggle in St. Domingo was watched with intense interest by the
friends of the blacks, both in Paris and in London, and all appeared
to look with hope to the rising up of a black chief, who should prove
himself adequate to the emergency. Nor did they look in vain. In the
midst of the disorder that threatened on all sides, the negro chief
made his appearance in the person of a slave named Toussaint. This man
was the grandson of the King of Ardra, one of the most powerful and
wealthy monarchs on the west coast of Africa. By his own energy and
perseverance, Toussaint had learned to read and write, and was held in
high consideration by the surrounding planters, as well as their slaves.
In personal appearance he was of middle stature, strongly-marked
African features, well-developed forehead, rather straight and neat
figure, sharp and bright eye, with an earnestness in conversation that
seemed to charm the listener. His dignified, calm, and unaffected
demeanor would cause him to be selected in any company of men as one
who was born for a leader.
His private virtues were many, and he had a deep and pervading
sense of religion; and in the camp carried it even as far as Oliver
Cromwell. Toussaint was born on the Island, and was fifty years of age
when called into the field. One of his chief characteristics was his
humanity.
Before taking any part in the revolution, he aided his master’s family
to escape from the impending danger. After seeing them beyond the reach
of the revolutionary movement, he entered the army as an inferior
officer, but was soon made aid-de-camp to General Bissou. Disorder
and bloodshed reigned through the Island, and every day brought fresh
intelligence of depredations committed by whites, mulattoes, and blacks.
Hitherto, the blacks had been guided by Jean-François, Bissou, and
Jeannot. The first of these was a slave, a young Creole of good
exterior; he had long before the revolution obtained his liberty. At
the commencement of the difficulties, he fled to the mountains and
joined the Maroons, a large clan of fugitive slaves then wandering
about in the woods and mountains, that furnished this class a secure
retreat. This man was mild, vain, good-tempered, and fond of luxury.
Bissou belonged to the religious body designated “The Fathers of
Charity.” He was fiery, wrathful, rash, and vindictive; always in
action, always on horseback, with a white sash, and feathers in his
hat, or basking in the sunshine of the women, of whom he was very fond.
Jeannot, a slave of the plantation of M. Bullet, was small and slender
in person, and of boundless activity. Perfidious of soul, his aspect
was frightful and revolting. Capable of the greatest crimes, he was
inaccessible to regret or remorse.
Having sworn implacable hatred against the whites, he thrilled with
rage when he saw them; and his greatest pleasure was to bathe his hands
in their blood. These three were the leaders of the blacks till the
appearance of Toussaint; and under their rule, the cry was “Blood,
blood, blood!” Such was the condition of affairs when a decree was
passed by the Colonial Assembly, giving equal rights to the mulattoes,
and asking their aid in restoring order and reducing the slaves again
to their chains. Overcome by this decree, and having gained all they
wished, the free colored men joined the planters in a murderous crusade
against the slaves. This union of the whites and mulattoes to prevent
the bondman getting his freedom, created an ill-feeling between the two
proscribed classes, which seventy years have not been able to efface.
The French government sent a second army to St. Domingo to enforce
the laws, giving freedom to the slaves, and Toussaint joined it on its
arrival in the Island, and fought bravely against the planters.
While the people of St. Domingo were thus fighting amongst themselves,
the revolutionary movement in France had fallen into the hands of
Robespierre and Danton, and the guillotine was beheading its thousands
daily. When the news of the death of Louis XVI. reached St. Domingo,
Toussaint and his companions left the French and joined the Spanish
army, in the eastern part of the Island, and fought for the King of
Spain. Here Toussaint was made brigadier-general, and appeared in the
field as the most determined foe of the French planters.
The two armies met; a battle was fought in the streets, and many
thousands were slain on both sides; the planters, however, were
defeated. During the conflict the city was set on fire, and on every
side presented shocking evidence of slaughter, conflagration, and
pillage. The strifes of political and religious partisanship, which
had raged in the clubs and streets of Paris, were transplanted to St.
Domingo, where they raged with all the heat of a tropical clime, and
the animosities of a civil war. Truly did the flames of the French
revolution at Paris, and the ignorance and self-will of the planters,
set the island of St. Domingo on fire. The commissioners with their
retinue retired from the burning city into the neighboring highlands,
where a camp was formed to protect the ruined town from the opposing
party. Having no confidence in the planters, and fearing a reaction,
the commissioners proclaimed a general emancipation to the slave
population, and invited the blacks who had joined the Spaniards
to return. Toussaint and his followers accepted the invitation,
returned, and were enrolled in the army under the commissioners. Fresh
troops arrived from France, who were no sooner in the Island than
they separated--some siding with the planters, and others with the
commissioners. The white republicans of the Mother Country were arrayed
against the white republicans of St. Domingo, whom they were sent out
to assist. The blacks and the mulattoes were at war with each other;
old and young of both sexes, and of all colors, were put to the sword,
while the fury of the flames swept from plantation to plantation, and
from town to town.