DESSALINES AS EMPEROR OF HAYTI.
Rochambeau, with the remnant of his defeated army, had scarcely
retired from St. Domingo before the news of the death of Toussaint
reached the Island. The announcement of this, together with the fact
that their great general had died by starvation, assured the natives
of the essential goodness of their cause, and the genuine vigor of
their strength. They had measured swords with the whites, and were
conscious of their own superiority. Slavery in St. Domingo was dead,
and dead forever. The common enemy was gone, and the victory had
been gained by the union of the blacks and mulattoes, and these put
forth a Declaration of Rights, in which they said: “The independence
of St. Domingo is proclaimed. Restored to our primitive dignity, we
have secured our rights; we swear never to cede them to any power in
the world. The frightful veil of prejudice is torn in pieces; let it
remain so forever. Woe to him who may wish to collect the blood-stained
tatters. We have sworn to show no mercy to those who may dare to speak
to us of slavery.” This document was signed by Dessalines, Christophe,
and Clervaux, the three chiefs who had conducted the war after the
capture of Toussaint.
The first of these were black, and represented that class of his race
who held sentiments of the most extreme hatred to the whites. The
second was also black, but of a feeling more inclined to moderation.
The third represented the mulattoes, although he had none of the
prejudice against the blacks, so prevalent in those days. Clervaux was
a brave man, and had fought under Toussaint before the landing of Le
Clerc and Rochambeau.
By the daring manifested on the field of battle, his fierce and
sanguinary look, his thirst for blood, Dessalines had become the leader
of the blacks in the war for liberty; and now that victory was perched
upon their banners, and the civil government of the Island was to fall
into their hands, he set his associates aside, and took the State into
his own charge. Jean Jacques Dessalines was appointed governor-general
for life. He was not only a life officer, but he had the power to
establish laws, to declare war, to make peace, and even to appoint his
successor.
Having by a show of mildness gained the advantage which he sought,--the
acquisition of power,--Dessalines, a few weeks after his appointment as
governor for life, threw aside the mask, and raised the cry of “Hayti
for the Haytians,” thinking by proscribing foreigners, he should most
effectually consolidate his own authority.
From that moment the career of this ferocious man was stained with
innocent blood, and with crimes that find no parallel, unless in
the dark deeds of Rochambeau, whom he seemed anxious to imitate.
The blacks, maddened by the recollection of slavery, and crimes
perpetrated under its influence; maddened by the oft-repeated stories
of murders committed by the French, and the presence of many of their
old masters still on the Island, and whose bloody deeds Dessalines
continually kept before them in his proclamations, were easily led into
the worst of crimes by this man.
On the 8th of October, 1804, Dessalines was proclaimed Emperor of
Hayti, with the title of Jean Jacques the First. A census taken in 1805
showed the population of that part of the Island ruled by Dessalines,
to be only four hundred thousand.
The title of majesty was conferred on the new Emperor, as well as
on his august consort, the empress; their persons were declared
inviolable, and the crown elective; but the Emperor had the right to
nominate his successor among a chosen number of candidates. The sons of
the sovereign were to pass through all the ranks of the army.
Every emperor who should attach to himself a privileged body, under the
name of guard of honor, or any other designation, was, by the fact,
to be regarded as at war with the nation, and should be driven from
the throne, which then was to be occupied by one of the councillors of
state, chosen by the majority of the members of that body.
The emperor had the right to make, and approve and publish the laws;
to make peace and war; to conclude treaties; to distribute the armed
force at his pleasure; he also possessed the exclusive prerogative
of pardon. The generals of brigade and of division were to form part
of the council of state. Besides a secretary of state, there was to
be a minister of finances, and a minister of war. All persons were
encouraged to settle their differences by arbitration.
No dominant religion was admitted; the liberty of worship was
proclaimed; the State was not to take on itself the support of any
religious institution. Marriage was declared a purely civil act, and in
some cases divorce was permitted. State offences were to be tried by
a council to be named by the Emperor. All property belonging to white
Frenchmen was confiscated to the State. The houses of the citizens were
pronounced inviolable.
The Constitution was placed under the safeguard of the magistrates, of
fathers, of mothers, of citizens, of soldiers, and recommended to their
descendants, to all the friends of liberty, to the philanthropists of
all countries, as a striking token of the goodness of God, who, in the
order of his immortal decrees, had given the Haytians power to break
their bonds, and make themselves a free, civilized, and independent
people. This Constitution, which, considering its origin, contains so
much that is excellent, and which even the long civilized States of
Europe might advantageously study, was accepted by the emperor, and
ordered to be forthwith carried into execution.
The condition of the farm-laborer was the same as under the system
of Toussaint L’Ouverture; he labored for wages which were fixed at
one-fourth of the produce, and that produce was abundant. The whip and
all corporal punishments were abolished.
Idleness was regarded as a crime, but was punished only by
imprisonment. Two-thirds of the labor extracted under slavery was
the amount required under the new system. Thus the laborers gained
a diminution of one-third of their toil, while their wants were
amply supplied. The mulattoes, or quaterons, children of whites and
mulattoes, who were very numerous, if they could show any relationship,
whether legitimate or not, with the old white proprietors, were allowed
to inherit their property.
Education was not neglected in the midst of these outward and material
arrangements. In nearly all the districts, schools were established;
and the people, seeing what advantage was to be derived from learning,
entered them, and plied themselves vigorously to gain in freedom what
they had lost in slavery.
A praiseworthy effort was made by the framers of the constitution,
under which Dessalines was inaugurated emperor, to extinguish all
distinctions of color among the colored people themselves.
They decreed that the people should be denominated _blacks_; but such
distinctions are far stronger than words on paper. Unfortunately,
the distinctions in question, which was deeply rooted, and rested
on prejudices and antipathies which will never be erased from human
nature, had been aggravated by long and sanguinary contests between the
blacks and mulattoes.
Aware of that individual superiority which springs from a share in
the influences of civilization, the mulattoes of Hayti despised the
uneducated black laborers by whom they were surrounded, and felt that
by submitting to their sway, they put themselves under the domination
of a majority whose sole authority lay exclusively in their numbers.
The mulattoes really believed that their natural position was to fill
the places in the government once held by the whites.
They would no doubt have forgotten their party interests, and labored
for the diffusion through the great body of the people of the higher
influence of civilization, if they could have secured those positions.
The mutual hatred between the mulattoes and the blacks was so deeply
rooted, that neither party could see anything good in the other;
and therefore, whatever was put forth by one party, no matter how
meritorious in itself, was regarded with suspicion by the other.
The regular army of Dessalines was composed of fifteen thousand men,
in which there was included a corps of fifteen hundred cavalry. They
were a motley assemblage of ragged blacks, kept in the ranks, and
performing their limited routine of duty through the awe inspired among
them by the rigid severity of the imperial discipline. The uniform
of the troops had not been changed when the Island was erected into
an independent power, and the red and blue of the French army still
continued to distinguish the soldiers of the Haytian army, even when
the French were execrated as a race of monsters, with whom the blacks
of St. Domingo should have nothing in common. Together with the regular
army of the empire, there existed a numerous corps of national guard,
composed of all who were capable of bearing arms; though the services
of these were not required but in some dangerous emergency of the
State. The national guard and regular army were called into the field
four times every year; and during these seasons of military movement,
the government of Dessalines was over a nation of soldiers in arms, as
they remained in their encampment for some days, to be instructed in
military knowledge, and to be reviewed by the great officers of the
empire.
Dessalines now put forth a proclamation filled with accusations against
the white French still on the Island.
This ferocious manifesto was intended as a preliminary measure in the
train of horrible events to follow. In the month of February, 1805,
orders were issued for the pursuit and arrest of all those Frenchmen
who had been accused of being accomplices in the executions ordered by
Rochambeau.
Dessalines pretended that more than sixty thousand of his compatriots
had been drowned, suffocated, hung, or shot in these massacres. “We
adopt this measure,” said he, “to teach the nations of the world that,
notwithstanding the protection which we grant to those who are loyal
towards us, nothing shall prevent us from punishing the murderers who
have taken pleasure in bathing their hands in the blood of the sons of
Hayti.”
These instigations were not long in producing their appropriate
consequences among a population for so many years trained to cruelty,
and that hated the French in their absence in the same degree that
they feared them when present. On the 28th of April it was ordered by
proclamation that all the French residents in the Island should be put
to death; and this inhuman command of Dessalines was eagerly obeyed by
his followers, particularly by the mulattoes, who had to manifest a
flaming zeal for their new sovereign, in order to save themselves from
falling victims to his sanguinary vengeance. Acting under the dread
surveillance of Dessalines, all the black chiefs were forced to show
themselves equally cruel; and if any French were saved from death, it
was due to the mercy of the inferior blacks, who dared not to avoid
their generosity. Dessalines made a progress through all the towns
where there were any French citizens remaining, and while his soldiers
were murdering the unfortunate victims of his ferocity, the monster
gloated with secret complacency over the scene of carnage, like some
malignant fiend glorying in the pangs of misery suffered by those who
had fallen a sacrifice to his wickedness.
The massacre was executed with an attention to order, which proves how
minutely it had been prepared. All proper precautions were taken, that
no other whites than the French should be included in the proscription.
In the town of Cape François, where the massacre took place, on the
night of the 20th of April, the precaution was first taken of sending
detachments of soldiers to the houses of the American and English
merchants, with strict orders to permit no person, not even the black
generals, to enter them, without the permission of the master of
the house, who had been previously informed of all that was about
to happen. This command was obeyed so punctually, that one of these
privileged individuals had the good fortune to preserve the lives of
a number of Frenchmen whom he had concealed in his house, and who
remained in their asylum until the guilty tragedy was over.
The priests, surgeons, and some necessary artisans were preserved from
destruction, consisting in all, of one-tenth of the French residents.
All the rest were massacred without regard to age or sex. The personal
security enjoyed by the foreign whites was no safeguard to the horror
inspired in them by the scenes of misery which were being enacted
without. At every moment of the night, the noise was heard of axes,
which were employed to burst open the doors of the neighboring houses;
of piercing cries, followed by a deathlike silence, soon, however, to
be changed to a renewal of the same sounds of grief and terror, as the
soldiers proceeded from house to house.
When this night of horror and massacre was over, the treacherous
cruelty of Dessalines was not yet appeased. An imperial proclamation
was issued in the morning, alleging that the blacks were sufficiently
avenged upon the French, and inviting all who had escaped the
assassination of the previous night to make their appearance upon
the Place d’Armes of the town, in order to receive certificates of
protection; and it was declared to them that in doing this they might
count upon perfect safety to themselves.
Many hundreds of the French had been forewarned of the massacre, and by
timely concealment had succeeded in preserving their lives. Completely
circumvented by the fiendish cunning of Dessalines, this little remnant
of survivors came out of their places of concealment, and formed
themselves in a body upon the Place d’Armes. But at the moment when
they were anxiously expecting their promised certificates of safety,
the order was given for their execution. The stream of water which
flowed through the town of Cape François was fairly tinged with their
blood.[38]
Many of the great chiefs in the black army were struck with horror
and disgust at this fiendish cruelty of their emperor. Christophe
was shocked at the atrocity of the measure, though he dared not
display any open opposition to the will of the monarch. Dessalines
had no troublesome sensibilities of soul to harass his repose for a
transaction almost without a parallel in history. He sought not to
share the infamy of the action with the subordinate chiefs of his army,
but without a pang of remorse he claimed to himself the whole honor of
the measure.
In another proclamation, given to the world within a few days after
the massacre, he boasts of having shown more than ordinary firmness,
and affects to put his system of policy in opposition to the lenity
of Toussaint, whom he accuses, if not of want of patriotism, at least
of want of firmness in his public conduct. Dessalines was prompted to
the share he took in this transaction by an inborn ferociousness of
character; but a spirit of personal vengeance doubtless had its effect
upon the subordinate agents in the massacre. They hated the French for
the cruelties of Rochambeau.
Although the complete evacuation of the Island by the forces of the
French, and the ceaseless employment of the armies of Napoleon in
the wars of Europe, had left the blacks of St. Domingo in the full
possession of that Island, Dessalines lived in continual dread that the
first moment of leisure would be seized by the conqueror of Europe to
attempt the subjugation of his new empire. The black chief even alleged
in excuse for the massacre which he had just accomplished, that the
French residents in the Island had been engaged in machinations against
the dominion of the blacks, and that several French frigates then lying
at St. Jago de Cuba had committed hostilities upon the coast, and
seemed threatening a descent upon this land.
Influenced by this perpetual solicitude, Dessalines now turned his
attention to measures of defence, in case the French should again
undertake the reduction of the country. It was ordered that at the
first appearance of a foreign army ready to land upon the shores of the
Island, all the towns upon the coast should be burnt to the ground, and
the whole population be driven to the fastnesses of the interior.
He also built fortifications in the mountains as places of refuge in
the event of foreign invasion. Always violent and sanguinary, when
there remained no whites upon whom to employ his ferocity, his cruelty
was lavished upon his own subjects. For the slightest causes, both
blacks and mulattoes were put to death without mercy and without the
forms of trial. The sight of blood awakened within him his desire of
slaughter, and his government became at length a fearful despotism,
against the devouring vengeance of which none, not even those of his
own household, was safe. The generals Clervaux, Geffrard, and Gabart
died suddenly and mysteriously; and the aggressions of Dessalines,
directed particularly against the mulattoes, soon awakened the
vengeance of that jealous class, who were already displeased at their
insignificance in the State, and at the exaltation of the black dynasty
which seemed about to become permanent in the country. A secret
conspiracy was accordingly planned against the black monarch, and when,
on the 17th of October, 1806, he commenced a journey from St. Marks
to Port au Prince, the occasion was improved to destroy him. A party
of mulattoes lying in ambuscade at a place called Pont Rouge, made an
attack upon him, and he was killed at the first fire.
Thus closed the career of Dessalines, a man who had commenced life as a
slave, and ended as an emperor; a man whose untiring energy, headlong
bravery, unsurpassed audacity, and native genius made him to be feared
by both blacks and whites, and whose misdeeds have furnished to the
moralists more room for criticism than any other man whose life was
passed in the West Indies.
Yet this “monster,” with all his faults, did much for the redemption
of his race from slavery. Had Dessalines been in the position of
Toussaint, he would never have been captured and transported to
Europe. He who reads the history of the St. Domingo struggle without
prejudice, and will carefully examine the condition of parties, see
the efforts made by the expatriated planters to regain possession of
the Island, and view impartially the cruel and exterminating war upon
the blacks, as carried on by Le Clerc and Rochambeau, cannot feel like
throwing the mantle of charity over some of the acts of Jean Jacques
Dessalines. After the death of the emperor, the victorious mulattoes
followed up their success by attacking the partisans of Dessalines,
and four days were expended in destroying them. Upon the 21st there
appeared a proclamation, portraying the crimes of the fallen emperor,
and announcing that the country had been delivered of a tyrant. A
provisional government was then constituted, to continue until time
could be afforded for the formation of a new constitution, and General
Christophe was proclaimed the provisional head of the State.
FOOTNOTE:
[38] Malo.