See AMERICA: A. D. 1562-1567.
HAWKWOOD, Sir John, The Free Company of.
See ITALY: A. D. 1343-1393.
HAWLEY, Jesse, and the origin of the Erie Canal.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1817-1825.
HAYES, General Rutherford B.,
Presidential election and administration.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1876-1877, to 1881.
HAYNE AND WEBSTER DEBATE, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1828-1833.
----------HAYTI: Start--------
HAYTI, HAITI, OR SAN DOMINGO (Originally called Hispaniola):
Its names.
Its beauty.
"Columbus called the island Hispaniola, and it has also been
called St. Domingo from the city of that name on its
southeastern coast; but Hayti or Haiti (the mountainous
country) was its original Carrib name. The French bestowed
upon it the deserved name of 'la Reine des Antilles.' All
descriptions of its magnificence and beauty, even those of
'Washington Irving in his history of Columbus, fall far short
of the reality. It seems beyond the power of language to
exaggerate its beauties, its productiveness, the loveliness of
its climate, and its desirableness as an abode for man.
Columbus labored hard to prove to Isabella that he had found
here the original garden of Eden."
_W. H. Pearson,
Hayti and the Haitians
(Putnam's Monthly Magazine, January, 1854)._
HAYTI: A. D. 1492-1505.
Discovery and occupation by Columbus.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1492; 1493-1496; and 1498-1505.
HAYTI: A. D. 1499-1542.
The enslavement of the natives.
System of Repartimentos and Encomiendas.
Introduction of negro slavery.
Humane and reforming labors of Las Casas.
See SLAVERY, MODERN: OF THE INDIANS,
and SLAVERY, NEGRO: ITS BEGINNINGS.
HAYTI: A. D. 1632-1803.
Partly possessed France and partly by Spain.
Revolt of the Slaves and rise of Toussaint L'Ouverture to power.
Extinction of Slavery.
Treachery of the French.
Independence of the island acquired.
"About 1632 the French took possession of the western shore,
and increased so rapidly that the Spaniards found it
impossible to drive them out; and the footing they had gained
was recognized by the Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, when the
western portion of Haiti was confirmed to France. The latter
nation was fully conscious of the importance of the new
acquirement, and under French rule it became of great value,
supplying almost all Europe with cotton and sugar. But the
larger eastern portion of the island, which still belonged to
Spain, had no share in this progress, remaining much in the
same condition as formerly; and thus matters stood—a sluggish
community side by side with a thriving one—when the French
Revolution broke out, and plunged the island into a state of
ferment. In 1790 the population of the western colony
consisted of half a million, of which number 38,360 were of
European origin, 28,370 free people of colour, and the whole
of the remainder negro slaves. The government of the island
excluded the free people of colour—mostly mulattoes—from
all political privileges, although they were in many cases
well-educated men, and themselves the owners of large estates.
… On the 15th May, 1790, the French National Assembly passed
a decree declaring that people of colour, born of free
parents, were entitled to all the privileges of French
citizens. When this news reached the colony, it set the
inhabitants in a perfect frenzy, the mulattoes manifesting an
unbounded joy, whilst the whites boiled at the indignity their
class had sustained. The representations of the latter caused
the governor to delay the operation of the decree until the
home government could be communicated with—a measure that
aroused the greatest indignation amongst the mulattoes, and
civil war appeared inevitable, when a third and wholly
unexpected party stepped into the arena. The slaves rose in
insurrection on August 23rd, 1791, marching with the body of a
white infant on a spear-head as a standard, and murdering all
Europeans indiscriminately. In the utmost consternation the
whites conceded the required terms to the mulattoes, and,
together with the help of the military, the rising was
suppressed, and there seemed a prospect of peace, when the
Assembly at Paris repealed the decree of the 15th May. The
mulattoes now flew to arms, and for several years a terrible
struggle was sustained, the horrors of which were augmented by
vindictive ferocity on both sides. Commissioners sent from
France could effect no settlement, for the camp of the whites
was divided into two hostile sections, royalist and
republican.
{1632}
The English and Spaniards both descended on the island, and
the blacks, under able chiefs, held impregnable positions in
the mountains. Apprehensive of a British invasion in force,
the Commissioners, finding they could not conquer the blacks,
resolved on conciliating them; and in August, 1793, universal
freedom was proclaimed—a measure ratified by the National
Convention early in the following year. Meanwhile the English
had taken Port-au-Prince, and were besieging the French
governor in Port de la Paix, when the blacks, relying on the
recent proclamation, came to his assistance, under the command
of Toussaint L'Ouverture, and effected his release. …
François Dominique Toussaint, a negro of pure blood, a slave
and the offspring of slaves, was born in 1743, and on
attaining manhood was first employed as a coachman, and
afterwards held a post of trust in connexion with the sugar
manufactory of the estate to which he belonged. The overseer
having taken a fancy to him, he was taught to read and write,
and even picked up some slight knowledge of Latin and
mathematics." He was slow to join the rising of the blacks;
"but at length, after having secured the escape of his master
and family, he joined the negro army in a medical capacity,"
but quickly rose to leadership. "At first the blacks fought
with the Spaniards against the French;" but Toussaint came to
the conclusion that they had more to hope from the French, and
persuaded his followers to march to the relief of the French
governor, Levaux. When the latter heard that Toussaint had won
the blacks to this alliance, he exclaimed, "'Mais cet homme
fait ouverture partout,' and from that day the black
commander-in-chief received the surname of L'Ouverture, by
which he is best known in history. Acting with wonderful
energy, Toussaint effected a junction with Levaux, drove the
English from their positions, took 28 Spanish batteries in
four days, and finally the British abandoned the island,
whilst the Spaniards [1797] gave up all claim to its western
end. Toussaint L'Ouverture—now holding the position of
commander-in-chief, but virtually dictator—succeeded with
great skill in combining all the hostile elements of the
colony. Peace was restored, commerce and agriculture revived,
the whites were encouraged to reclaim their estates, and by a
variety of prudent and temperate measures Toussaint showed the
remarkable administrative abilities that he possessed. At this
stage he assumed great state in public, being always guarded
by a chosen body of 1,500 men in brilliant uniform, but in
private life he was frugal and moderate. In the administration
of affairs he was assisted by a council of nine, of whom eight
were white planters. This body drew up a Constitution by which
L'Ouverture was named president for life, and free trade
established. The draft of this constitution, together with an
autograph letter, he forwarded to Bonaparte; but the First
Consul had no toleration for fellow-upstarts, and replied, 'He
is a revolted slave whom we must punish; the honour of France
is outraged.' At this time the whole island of Haiti was under
Toussaint's sway. As some excuse for Bonaparte it must be
acknowledged that Toussaint undoubtedly contemplated
independence. … Anxious to divest his new presidency of even
nominal subjection to France, he declared the independence of
the island, with himself as supreme chief, in July 1801. Most
unfortunately for the Haitian general, hostilities had for the
moment ceased between Great Britain and France, and the First
Consul was enabled to bestow his close attention on the former
French colony. Determined to repossess it, Bonaparte sent out
an army of 30,000 men, with 66 ships of war, under the command
of his brother-in-law General Leclerc. … During Toussaint's
presidency he had abolished slavery, the negroes still working
the plantations, but as free men, and under the name of
'cultivators.' … Leclerc now endeavoured by proclamations to
turn the cultivators against their chief, and also laboured to
sow dissension in the ranks of the black army, by making the
officers tempting offers, which they too often believed in and
accepted. For months a bloody war raged, in which great
cruelties were inflicted; but the discipline of the French was
slowly telling in their favour, when Leclerc made a political
blunder that destroyed the advantages he had gained. Thinking
that all obstacles were overcome, he threw off the mask, and
boldly declared the real object of the expedition—the
re-enslavement of the negro population. This news fell like a
thunderbolt amongst the blacks, who rallied round Toussaint in
thousands." Alarmed at the effect, Leclerc recalled his
proclamation, acknowledged it to be an error, and promised the
summoning of an assembly representative of all races alike.
"This specious programme won over Cristophe, Dessalines, and
other negro generals; and finally, on receiving solemn
assurances from Leclerc, Toussaint accepted his offers, and
peace was concluded." Soon afterwards, by an act of the
blackest treachery, the negro statesman and soldier was lured
into the hands of his mean enemy, and sent, a prisoner, to
France. Confined, without trial, or any hearing, in the
dungeons of the Château Joux, in the department of Doubs, he
was there allowed to pine away, without warm clothing and
with insufficient food. … Finally the governor of the prison
went away for four days, leaving his captive without food or
drink. On his return Toussaint was dead, and the rats had
gnawed his feet. It was given out that apoplexy was the cause
of death. … This breach of faith on the part of the French
aroused the fury and indignation of the blacks. … Under
Dessalines, Cristophe, Clerveaux, and others, the fires of
insurrection blazed out afresh." At the same time yellow fever
raged and Leclerc was among the victims. General Rochambeau,
who succeeded him, continued the war with unmeasured
barbarity, but also with continued defeat and discouragement,
until he was driven, in 1803, to surrender, and "the power of
the French was lost on the island."
_C. H. Eden,
The West Indies,
chapter 13._
_Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography.
(by J. R. Beard) and an Autobiography._
ALSO IN:
_H. Martineau,
The Hour and the Man._
_J. Brown,
History of St. Domingo._
_H. Adams,
Historical Essays,
chapter 4._
HAYTI: A. D. 1639-1700.
The Buccaneers.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1639-1700.
{1633}
HAYTI: A. D. 1804-1880.
Massacre of whites.
The Empire of Dessalines.
The kingdom of Christophe.
The Republic of Pétion and Boyer.
Separation of the independent Republic of San Domingo.
The Empire of Soulouque.
The restored Republic of Hayti.
"In the beginning of 1804 the independence of the negroes
under Dessalines was sufficiently assured: but they were not
satisfied until they had completed a general massacre of
nearly the whole of the whites, including aged men, women and
children, who remained in the island, numbering, according to
the lowest estimate, 2,500 souls. Thus did Dessalines, in his
own savage words, render war for war, crime for crime, and
outrage for outrage, to the European cannibals who had so long
preyed upon his unhappy race. The negroes declared Dessalines
Emperor: and in October 1804 he was crowned at Port-au-Prince
by the title of James I. Dessalines was at once a brave man
and a cruel and avaricious tyrant. He acquired great influence
over the negroes, who long remembered him with affectionate
regret: but he was not warmly supported by the mulattoes, who
were by far the most intelligent of the Haytians. He abolished
the militia, and set up a standing army of 40,000 men, whom he
found himself unable to pay, from the universal ruin which had
overtaken the island. The plantation labourers refused to
work. … Dessalines authorised the landowners to flog them.
Dessalines was himself a large planter: he had 32 large
plantations of his own at work, and he forced his labourers to
work on them at the point of the bayonet. Both he and his
successor, Christophe, like Mahomed Ali in Egypt, grew rich by
being the chief merchants in their own dominions. … He
failed in an expedition against St. Domingo, the Spanish part
of the island, whence the French general Ferrand still
threatened him: and at length some sanguinary acts of tyranny
roused against him an insurrection headed by his old comrade
Christophe. The insurgents marched on Port-au-Prince, and the
first black Emperor was shot by an ambuscade at the Pont Rouge
outside the town. The death of Dessalines delivered up Hayti
once more to the horrors of civil war. The negroes and
mulattoes, who had joined cordially enough to exterminate
their common enemies, would no longer hold together; and ever
since the death of Dessalines their jealousies and differences
have been a source of weakness in the black republic. In the
old times, Hayti, as the French part of the island of Española
was henceforth called, had been divided into three provinces:
South, East, and North. After the death of Dessalines each of
these provinces became for a time a separate state. Christophe
wished to maintain the unlimited imperialism which Dessalines
had set up: but the Constituent Assembly, which he summoned at
Port-au-Prince in 1806, had other views. They resolved upon a
Republican constitution." Christophe, not contented with the
offered presidency, "collected an army with the view of
dispersing the Constituent Assembly: but they collected one of
their own, under Pétion, and forced him to retire from the
capital. Christophe maintained himself in Cap François, or, as
it is now called, Cap Haytien; and here he ruled for 14 years.
In 1811, despising the imperial title which Dessalines had
desecrated, he took the royal style by the name of Henry I.
Christophe, as a man, was nearly as great a monster as
Dessalines. … Yet Christophe at his best was a man capable
of great aims, and a sagacious and energetic ruler." In 1820,
finding himself deserted in the face of a mulatto
insurrection, he committed suicide. "In a month or two after
Christophe's suicide the whole island was united under the
rule of President Boyer." Boyer was the successor of Pétion,
who had been elected in the North, under the republican
constitution which Christophe refused submission to. Pétion,
"a mulatto of the best type," educated at the military academy
of Paris, and full of European ideas, had ruled the province
which he controlled ably and well for eleven years. In
discouragement he then took his own life, and was succeeded,
in 1818, by his lieutenant, Jean Pierre Boyer, a mulatto. "On
the suicide of Christophe, the army of the Northern Province,
weary of the tyranny of one of their own race, declared for
Boyer. The French part of the island was now once more under a
single government: and Boyer turned his attention to the much
larger Spanish territory, with the old capital of St. Domingo,
where a Spaniard named Muñez de Caceres, with the aid of the
negroes, had now followed the example in the West, and
proclaimed an independent government. The Dominicans, however,
were still afraid of Spain, and were glad to put themselves
under the wing of Hayti: Boyer was not unwilling to take
possession of the Spanish colony, and thus it happened that in
1822 he united the whole island under his Presidency. In the
same year he was elected President for life under the
constitution of Pétion, whose general policy he maintained:
but his government, especially in his later years, was almost
as despotic as that of Christophe. Boyer was the first Haytian
who united the blacks and mulattoes under his rule. It was
mainly through confidence in him that the government of Hayti
won the recognition of the European powers. … In 1825 its
independence was formally recognised by France, on a
compensation of 150,000,000 of francs being guaranteed to the
exiled planters and to the home government. This vast sum was
afterwards reduced: but it still weighed heavily on the
impoverished state, and the discontents which the necessary
taxation produced led to Boyer's downfall," in 1843, when he
withdrew to Jamaica, and afterwards to Paris, where he died in
1850. A singular state of affairs ensued. The eastern, or
Spanish, part of the island resumed its independence (1844),
under a republican constitution resembling that of Venezuela,
and with Pedro Santana for its President, and has been known
since that time as the Republic of San Domingo, or the
Dominican Republic. In the Western, or Haytian Republic, large
numbers of the negroes, "under the names of Piquets and
Zinglins, now formed themselves into armed bands, and sought
to obtain a general division of property under some
communistic monarch of their own race. The mulatto officials
now cajoled the poor negroes by bribing some old negro, whose
name was well known to the mass of the people as one of the
heroes of the war of liberty, to allow himself to be set up as
President. The Boyerists, as the mulatto oligarchy were
called, thus succeeded in re-establishing their power," and
their system (for describing which the word "gerontocracy" has
been invented) was carried on for some years, until it
resulted, in 1847, in the election to the Presidency of
General Faustin Soulouque. "Soulouque was an illiterate negro
whose recommendations to power were that he was old enough to
have taken part in the War of Independence, having been a
lieutenant under Pétion, and that he was popular with the
negroes, being devotedly attached to the strange mixture of
freemasonry and fetish worship by which the Haytian blacks
maintain their political organisation."
{1634}
The new President took his elevation more seriously than was
expected, and proved to be more than a match for the mulattoes
who thought to make him their puppet. He gathered the reins
into his own hands, and crushed the mulattoes at
Port-au-Prince by a general massacre. He then "caused himself
to be proclaimed Emperor, by the title of Faustinus the First
(1849)," and established a grotesque imperial court, with a
fantastic nobility, in which a Duke de Lemonade figured by the
side of a Prince Tape-à-l'œil. This lasted until December
1858, when Soulouque was dethroned and sent out of the
country, to take refuge in Jamaica, and the republic was
restored, with Fabre Nicholas Geffrard, a mulatto general, at
its head. Geffrard held the Presidency for eight years, when
he followed his predecessor into exile in Jamaica, and was
succeeded by General Salnave, a negro, who tried to
re-establish the Empire and was shot, 1869. Since that time
revolutions have been frequent and nothing has been constant
except the disorder and decline of the country. Meantime, the
Dominican Republic has suffered scarcely less, from its own
disorders and the attacks of its Haytian neighbors. In 1861 it
was surrendered by a provisional government to Spain, but
recovered independence three years later. Soon afterwards one
of its parties sought annexation to the United States, and in
1869 the President of the latter republic, General Grant,
concluded a treaty with the Dominican government for the
cession of the peninsula of Samana, and for the placing of San
Domingo under American protection. But the Senate of the
United States refused to ratify the treaty.
_E. J. Payne,
History of European Colonies,
chapter 15._
ALSO IN:
_Sir S. St. John,
Hayti, or the Black Republic,
chapter 3._
----------HAYTI: End--------
HEAD-CENTER, Fenian.
See IRELAND: A. D. 1858-1867.
HEARTS OF OAK BOYS.
HEARTS OF STEEL BOYS.
See IRELAND: A. D.1760-1798.
HEAVENFIELD.
Battle of the (635).
Defeat of the Welsh, with the death of Cadwallon, the "last
great hero of the British race," by the English of Bernicia,
A.D. 635. "The victory of the Heaven-field indeed is memorable
as the close of the last rally which the Britons ever made
against their conquerors."
_J. R. Green,
The Making of England,
page 275._
ALSO IN:
_Bede,
Ecclesiastical History,
book 3, chapters 1-2._