THE NEGRO IN HAITI
The earliest instance of a State peopled and governed under a
constitution made by Negroes, is the Republic of Haiti. For this
reason it shares with Liberia a place of first interest among all
the communities of the world. At its head is a president, with a
parliament of two Chambers, acting under the revised Constitution of
1889. Republican in form, the spirit of the Government is French,
since the language and customs are inherited from the French
occupation of the Island. Unfortunately, however, the country was,
for years, ruled by a succession of military despots, each of
whom was so occupied with maintaining his position against rivals
that, even if capable of doing so, he had no time to develop the
rich natural resources of the country or to establish democratic
institutions. The population has, therefore remained a backward race.
The history of Haiti began with its discovery by Columbus in 1492.
The aborigines were Indians, but these were enslaved, some sent to
Europe, and the balance gradually exterminated. To take their places,
negro slaves in great numbers were brought over by the Spaniards at
first from Europe, later from Africa.
Columbus established six flourishing settlements, including the
present capital; he opened mines, and established agriculture. Sugar
was introduced, and ultimately became the chief crop. It is evident
that, from the very outset, slave-labor was used in the development
of this colony; and further, that the slaves employed in Haiti were
brought thither from Europe. It may, therefore, be of interest to
recall the facts concerning the first establishment of negro slavery
in the western hemisphere. For this, we must turn back the pages of
history to a period fifty years prior to the discoveries of Columbus.
In 1442, during the reign, in Portugal, of King Henry, surnamed “The
Navigator,” Antam Gonsalvez, returning to Portugal from an African
cruise, brought with him three captive Moors. The Moors offered to
purchase their liberty with negro slaves if their captors would
return them to Africa. Prince Henry accepted the offer, giving a
reason which served to quiet his own conscience, while suggesting a
subtle motive which was to justify the traffic for many a long year
to come. It was “because the Negroes might be converted to the Faith,
which could not be managed with the Moors.” So the trade was made—ten
Negroes for three Moors—to the greater triumph of “the Faith.” They
were landed in Portugal in 1442; and, within two years, so zealous
became the apostles of the Faith that the “Company of Lagos” was
chartered, others soon following, whose industry included the traffic
in slaves from Africa. Hundreds, yearly, were brought into Spain and
Portugal.
Alfred H. Stone of Dunleith, Mississippi, furnishes the facts which
we are using, and from which we quote rather freely:
“In the description of the landing of the first Negroes——we may read
the first count in the indictment against modern slavery, destined to
be repeated ten thousand times in the English-speaking world during
the 417 years which elapsed between that time and the destruction of
slavery in the southern States: ‘But now, for the increase of their
grief (_Chronicle of Azurara_), came those who had the charge of the
distribution, and they began to put them apart, one from the other,
in order to equalize the portions; wherefore it was necessary to part
children from parents, husbands and wives, and brethren from each
other. Neither in the partition of friends and relations was any law
kept, only each fell where the lot took him.’ We are further informed
that the Infante was present to look after the fifth part, which fell
to his share, ‘considering with great delight the salvation of those
souls which before were lost.’”
In 1501, nine years after the discovery of America, the first slaves
were transferred from Spain to the King’s Colony of Haiti. At first,
only Negroes Christianized by European life, were sent. This custom
probably persisted until the direct trade between the colonies and
Africa was begun, in 1518. It was then that the good Roman Priest,
Las Casas, desiring to save the Indians from the killing labors
of the mines, advised the direct traffic in slaves with Africa.
Without impugning Las Casas’ motives, it is only fair to add that,
in the estimate of the time, one Negro was equal to about five
Indians in mining-labor. This great value of negro slavery as an
economic institution is, above all considerations, responsible for
the enormously increasing traffic from this date down to the era of
abolition. Such, in brief, is the story of the institution of slavery
in our hemisphere, and especially in Haiti.
Because of the insular life, the great predominance of the Negroes,
the almost constant civil strife, and the slight contact of the
races, the conditions for the maintenance of racial traits and habits
were more favorable in Haiti than anywhere else in America; hence
the development and persistence of that debasing mixture of magic,
superstition, and secret rites, known as _Voodoo_, which seems to
permeate all classes of the Haitien population. The Roman Church,
by law established in the Republic of Haiti since 1869, seems to
have failed in eradicating this cult or of reaching helpfully any
large proportion of the people. This is doubtless due in part to the
difficulties of travel in the interior, and to the fact that the
evils of illiteracy were never sufficiently realized to compel any
adequate attempt toward education. The children of the wealthier,
city-bred people have usually been sent to France to school; the
great mass of poorer children entirely neglected. Inherent laziness
served to re-enforce the ill effects of ignorance among the people at
large, and instability of Government added a further counter-weight
against progress.
Again, the laws of marriage (or the lack of them) have had a vicious
effect upon the Haitien Negro. Where marriage is not recognized by
the State as legally necessary to the legitimacy of children and is
therefore rarely observed, polygamy with all its debasing results is
bound to lower the moral tone of a people, and of the Negro above
all. It is fair to say that, after a century of independence and
self-government prior to American intervention, the people of Haiti,
kindly and hospitable and amenable to civilizing influences as they
are, gave little, if any, evidence of progress.
The proverbs of a people, just as their folksongs, reveal much as to
the character, habits and mental traits. The _Spirit of Missions_ for
September, 1875, records a collection of Haitien Proverbs, from which
these are selected:
_It is only the knife that knows the heart of the yam_—used with
various meanings—as, for example, distrust outward appearances, it is
not what you see that counts, and the like.
_Shoes alone know if the stockings have holes_—doubtless a later
application of an older proverb, meaning that only the most intimate
know the weakness of others.
_Conspiracy_ (or combination) _is stronger than witchcraft_—a useful
encouragement for minds just emerging from superstitious fear into
the conviction that “spirits fear a crowd.”
_The wild goat is not cunning that eats at the foot of the
mountain_—a comment on the folly of ignoring points of vantage, and
of abandoning safety for publicity.
_If the frog says that the alligator has sore eyes, believe him_—the
trustworthy testimony of an unfriendly neighbor.
_The ox never says to the pasture, “Thank you”_—a possible
implication that it is only a beast which gives no thanks for favors.
_Joke freely with the monkey but don’t play with his tail_—an evident
warning against outraging the sensitive feelings of others.
_All wood is wood, but mapou_ (a worthless wood) _is not cedar_,
meaning that all people are good for something, but none good for
everything.
There are certain qualities of mind and character which appear
plainly in these popular sayings, and the latter are re-enforced
by an old southern proverb of doubtful origin which applies to the
Haitien, as to our Southern Negro, however lowly. “If you burn him
for a fool, you will lose your ashes.” Certainly it is a huge mistake
to discount the Negroes’ wisdom, no matter how homely and often rude
the expression of it.
We may now return to a consideration of the history of the Island,
pausing only to call attention to the fact that we are chiefly
concerned with the western third composing the Republic of Haiti.
For here, in contrast to the Dominican Republic, with its largely
mulatto population under the political domination of whites, we find
a population, ninety per cent of which is pure Negro and with a negro
government. We shall here see the Negro developing out of slavery in
an insular, French colonial environment.
In 1630, a mixed company of English and French occupied the Island of
Tortuga and became formidable buccaneers. Obtaining a foothold on the
mainland of Haiti, their descendants became French subjects when,
by the Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, the part of the Island which they
occupied was ceded to France. A period of strife followed, involving
the whites, the mixed, and the Negroes. As a result, the whole Island
became subject to France. In 1801, Toussaint L’Ouverture, a Negro of
remarkable military genius, successfully renounced the authority of
France and set up the Republic of Haiti with himself as Governor.
Captured by treachery, he was taken to France where he died in prison
in 1803. The next year, Dessalines became Governor, massacred the
remaining whites, proclaimed himself Emperor, and was assassinated in
1806. The Spaniards again reappeared about this time, and gained a
footing in the eastern part of the Island, but, after years of cruel
warfare, they failed to maintain their hold, and the Negro Republic
of Santo Domingo was established in 1844. More recent events are
newspaper history, read and fairly known by all.
The Island is shared by the two Republics, the western third being
Haitien, the eastern two-thirds Dominican. The former is French
in language, the latter Spanish. Repudiation of obligations and
a continuous state of disorder finally compelled the American
Government to intervene. In 1915, a concordat was established with
the Government of Haiti whereby American resident officials were
given certain advisory powers, and in 1916, the Dominican Republic
was taken in charge by an American Army of Occupation. Thus the
United States became a virtual protector and guardian of the
peace, serving the whole Island in an educational and developmental
capacity, very much as in the Philippine Islands.
The political history of the Island of Haiti, whether in its French
or its Spanish aspect, naturally led to the early establishment
there of the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1869, it became the
representative of the established religion of the Haitien Republic.
In this Faith the people were brought up (in so far as they came
under any Christian teaching at all). Thus, from the beginning, the
history of the Church in Haiti differs widely from that in Liberia.
In 1861, an American negro priest—the Rev. James Theodore Holly—went
to Haiti with a company of 110 persons, and there formed the nucleus
of a Mission of the American Episcopal Church.
The early history of this leader of his people is full of interest as
is shown by the following, taken from _Men of Maryland_ by the Rev.
Dr. Bragg of Baltimore, the historiographer of his race in the Church.
Born in Maryland, in 1829, young Holly was baptized by a Roman
Catholic priest from Haiti who had fled to this country before
the fury of the Negroes, at that time intent upon ridding their
country of the last vestige of the white people. Twelve years
later, he was confirmed by the Archbishop of Baltimore, the Rt.
Rev. Dr. Eccleston, but his connection with the Roman Church was
not destined to be permanent. He learned the trade of shoemaking,
working in Washington, and later in Detroit. Influenced probably by
the peculiar circumstances of his Baptism, and by the romance of
the negro Republic battling for self-government, he seems early to
have been possessed with the desire to offer himself as a helper.
This he disclosed in a letter written, after his desire had been
gratified, from his Haitien home: “I was ordained deacon in 1855 (by
Bishop McCoskry of Michigan) with the express understanding that I
should be sent to work in this field. As a matter of fact, two weeks
after my ordination, I set out from Michigan to New York, from which
I was sent ten days later, by the Foreign Committee of the Church,
to collect information as to the possibility of establishing such a
Mission, and returned from thence with a favorable report. Six years
were then spent in gaining pastoral experience for the work in view;
and to this end I was advanced to the priesthood by the Bishop of
Connecticut on the 2nd of January, 1856, when I accepted the pastoral
charge of St. Luke’s Church, New Haven, in that Diocese. Aside from
the active pastoral work of that congregation, every fitting occasion
was seized during those six years to stir up an interest by tongue,
pen, and the press, in the contemplated Mission. In 1861, my face was
again set towards Haiti, accompanied by 110 persons (of whom I was
the pastor) for the practical establishment of the Mission in this
land.”
Among the most forward in promoting this enterprise, were the Bishops
of Ohio and Connecticut. It was through the latter’s influence, that
his Diocese generously aided the Mission of Mr. Holly for sixteen
months. At the close of 1862, the Mission in Haiti was adopted by the
American Church Missionary Society, with Bishop Lee, of Delaware,
as Provisional Bishop. The next year, the Bishop made his first
visitation to the new Mission. From this time forward, the Church at
home kept a kindly oversight over the Mission in Haiti. So faithfully
and successfully did Mr. Holly and his band of Churchmen work, that,
in 1871, the Haitien Church, by vote of its Convocation, petitioned
General Convention to elect and consecrate a Bishop for Haiti. The
response was sympathetic, and the petition was referred to the
Board of Missions to ascertain the best means of securing adequate
episcopal supervision. Three years passed, and the Convention of 1874
entered into a covenant between the Protestant Episcopal Church in
the United States and “The Orthodox Apostolic Church” of Haiti. The
following are the more important terms of this covenant: (1) That the
Church in America recognizes the Church in Haiti as of right and of
fact a foreign Church under the definition of our Constitution; and
that, with this recognition, the assurance is given that the Church
in Haiti will enjoy the nursing care of the Church at home until such
care shall no longer be needed. (2) That the Church will designate
and consecrate one of the Haitien clergy to be Bishop of Haiti. (3)
That a Commission of four American Bishops will be named to act with
the Bishop of Haiti as a Board of Administration, to extend the
Episcopate when needed, and to administer discipline pertaining to
the episcopal order. (4) That the Church in Haiti agrees to guard,
in all their essentials, a conformity to the doctrines, worship and
discipline of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States,
departing from them only as local circumstances require. (5) That
the Haitien Church agrees to concede to the Church at home the
designation and consecration of the Bishops of the Church in Haiti
until three Bishops shall have been established therein.
In accordance with this agreement, General Convention, in 1874,
elected, from among the clergy of Haiti, the Rev. James Theodore
Holly, and, on Nov. 8th, in Grace Church, New York, he was
consecrated as Bishop.
Eager to be back at work, Bishop Holly set sail ten days later, and
thus describes the glad, joyous reception of his people upon his
arrival at his home and old parish, Port-au-Prince: “I found all
the members of my family and of Holy Trinity on the lookout for me.
A deputation of the clergy and of the vestry were in waiting with
a carriage. I was conducted to the church where the faithful had
gathered for a thanksgiving service, entering under the triumphal
arch surmounted by the phrase, ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo,’ which had
hastily been constructed that morning, after the steamer had been
seen at a distance entering the harbor. The service over in church, I
retired to my residence, where I was besieged during the rest of the
day by visits of the members of the congregation, from neighbors,
friends, and the citizens in general, all coming to welcome me home,
and to present me their warm congratulations. These visits were
continued in like manner all the next day. Saturday morning I called
on the President of the Republic, and the Minister of Public Worship,
to pay my respects, and thus rendered to the civil authorities the
honor due to them before appearing to officiate in public in my
new vocation. Mr. Preston, the Minister Plenipotentiary to Haiti,
had made an official report to the Government of my consecration
as Bishop, at which he assisted in Grace Church, New York, and the
President and Minister expressed to me their highest gratification
at the new position thus gained by our Church in Haiti. Advent
Sunday, I addressed the English congregation after Morning Prayer at
six o’clock, and the French congregation at the 9 o’clock service,
taking, on each occasion, for my text, those words of Zechariah
iv. 6, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the
Lord of hosts.’ The drift of my remarks, in setting forth all the
circumstances leading to and attending my consecration to the Haitien
Episcopate, was to impress on the minds of the people committed to
my charge that human instruments and worldly powers were of no value
in this matter, but that the movements of God’s Holy Spirit were the
basis of all our successes in the past as they must be of our hope in
the future.”
Thus began the Episcopate of the first negro Bishop of the American
Church, a man of unusual ability; of highly developed powers of
leadership; a courteous, Christian gentleman.
The statistics for 1875 are: The Bishop; priests, 6; deacons, 4;
lay-readers, 14; candidates for Orders, 3; number of missions, 18;
of churches, 3; of rectories, 2; whole number of souls, 751; of
communicants, 238, and perhaps 3 schools.
The Bishop’s early letters supply information concerning the nature
of the field. Transportation was difficult with only paths or
trails to guide the traveler. All of the travel by land was done on
horseback, and the Bishop was gradually accumulating the means of
locomotion. On December 24, 1874, he writes, “I have already bought a
mountain saddle (to be paid for when convenient to me) and have yet
to get bridle and knapsack. However I borrow these things, with the
use of a horse, to make my trip tomorrow”—a comfortable, leisurely
approach to equipment, with the blessing of handy friends by the way.
Other travel was by boat, very leisurely too, a week to come and go
if the places be near, and more if they be far. The Bishop is already
longing for a “Bishop’s Horse,” and says so; a “Bishop’s Boat” is
probably as yet only a dream, because “the interior stations are
among the most interesting in which we are engaged, and work ought to
be encouraged and strengthened by the visits, as often as possible,
of the missionary-in-chief.”
The Bishop’s travels were wonderfully fruitful—large classes
confirmed, and glad response given to the ministrations of their new,
but already beloved, Father in God. The schools, too, were filled
with boys and girls in training for the new day of the Church in
their homeland. But church-buildings were lacking, and many of the
congregations were worshipping in rented or private houses.
In Port-au-Prince, the capital, the Church was firmly established and
included two parishes where services were constantly held in English
as well as in French; but the poverty of the people was a drawback to
independence. The Bishop writes, “We have from three to four hundred
souls to look after in this way at the Haitien Capital; but the
most of them are in unfortunate or very moderate circumstances, and
therefore can do but little to sustain the Gospel among themselves.
They must not be expected to keep up, without generous aid from
abroad, the work of the Gospel in Haiti. The time may come when the
great mass of men of the so-called better classes, who now live in
complete religious indifference, shall be awakened to a sense of
their great spiritual danger. Here, as elsewhere since the beginning,
it is the common people who follow Him gladly.”
For their shepherding, the Bishop felt the need of more men from
the American Church, consecrated to the Master’s Mission. There
were men already at his disposal, but the means to employ them were
lacking. Here again, as so consistently in our mission-fields,
because of the poor, cramped purse, the Bishop—sent to organize
and to evangelize—was estopped within hearing of yearning calls
for preachers and teachers. “I need to found at once a Theological
Training School for young men desirous of preparing themselves for
the Ministry, and a first class female Boarding School,” the latter,
to supply his schools with teachers. How like the cry of Ferguson in
Liberia is this urgent appeal of Holly in Haiti, and how natural the
cry of each!
By the close of the first year of the Bishop’s episcopate, he had
completed the round of visitations of his rather disconnected group
of missions. The year had been a very successful one, yet not without
its distresses and difficulties. There had been 106 confirmed, 36
baptised, and schools well filled with children. Property had been
repaired, and at least one church-lot donated for the new parish of
St. Andre, in Trianon. This was given by General Hyacinth Michel, who
was appointed lay-reader of the new parish.
We have lingered about the opening scenes of the Bishop’s first year
that we might gain an insight into his plans and methods, and realize
something of his difficulties and successes.
During the early years, the Bishop is evidently intent upon the great
purpose which consistently faced him—the creating of a national
Haitien Church. After five years, his report to General Convention
in 1880, tells us how earnestly he has been striving, more to
strengthen the faith and character of the little parishes, than to
extend faster than such faith and character can be established. The
statistics show but a feeble increase in the numerical strength.
“Nevertheless,” writes the Bishop, “there has been, during this
period, that which figures cannot show, viz., an increase among
its numbers of the knowledge of the ways of the Church, greater
attachment to the same, and a decided deepening of their inner
spiritual life. Our Church in Haiti also occupies the high
vantage-ground of being the only denomination exercising independent
local jurisdiction and aspiring to a complete national organization.
In pursuance of this object, this feeble Church has now twice as many
native ordained clergymen as all the other religious bodies combined.
It has also more advanced stations than any of them, established in
the interior country districts among the rural population, where
the heathen customs of Africa have hitherto prevailed. Our work has
conquered the esteem and respect of the Government and people of
Haiti, and enjoys the full protection of the authorities under the
guaranties of the Constitution and laws of the country.”
It is probably because of this conservative and cautious policy of
Church extension, and still more because of the poverty of the people
and the small amount available for clerical salaries, that we find no
appreciable increase in the number of clergy and other workers. For
the Bishop, in 1883, reiterates the statement, “we have no difficulty
in finding the needed laborers; not only can we find them among
ourselves in Haiti, but, in case of need, the whole of the British
West Indies are at our beck and call, islands where the Church and
Church training institutions have long been established. Therefore
the only difficult problem that remains to be solved is that of
supplying the money necessary to inaugurate the central training
institution that we propose to establish.” Such an institution, it
will be remembered the Bishop had had in mind from the very beginning.
Passing rapidly over the intervening years to 1895, the story reminds
one of the more tragic record of the foundation-period in Liberia.
There were successive angry waves of warfare, involving the Church
through her people and property; and the sometimes surly, sometimes
lethargic, aspects of peace, which in turn follow family outbreaks.
There were rebellions against the ruling powers; and frequent changes
among the officials upon whose stable protection the Bishop, in
earlier years, had grounded so much of his hope. There were the
severe losses of people, and the death of pastors and teachers,
bringing burdens upon the Bishop’s aging shoulders. But through it,
he battled bravely onward, filling the ranks as the communicants fell
away, and slowly, very slowly adding to them; supplying the leaders
as these passed on, and very slowly increasing their number.
In 1891 _The Twenty-fifth Convocation of the Haitien Church_ (being
the seventeenth of the Bishop’s episcopate) organized itself into a
Missionary Society, of which each member of the Church was declared
a member. The Convocation itself became the Board, while the Bishop
and other officers formed the Executive Committee. The churches were
growing in the spirit of self-help. The people of a mountain section,
poor in worldly goods, earned the money for, and built the walls
of, their church; and the President of the Republic gave $650 to
supply the roof. The church at Port-au-Prince, destroyed some years
before and hindered in its plans for rebuilding by various obstacles,
was settled in a better location through the good offices of the
President and Parliament. These are samples of the problems, some
perplexing, still others stubborn, which delayed and harassed the
workers. A year of peace (and there were not many) witnessed “some
steps taken in advance for the further extension of our Gospel work.
Three new stations (in 1890) for the preaching of the life-giving
Word have been occupied.” One of these was initiated by a small band
in the mountain region, who, gathered into the Church and knowing the
blessing, desired to spread the Gospel to their unconverted neighbors.
* * * * *
In 1891 the Bishop records, with pride, the fact that one of his
presbyters, the Rev. Shadrach Kerr, had been transferred to the
Diocese of Florida. Mr. Kerr, while still canonically attached to
Haiti, had been temporarily at work on the Isthmus of Panama, under
Archbishop Nuttall of Jamaica. Another of the Haitien clergy had been
transferred to Jamaica. Thus the products of the Church in Haiti were
being spread abroad.
A farm-school for education and demonstration, established about
1887, and requiring three years of instruction for graduation, sent
out its first class in 1890. One of the young men at once established
a school in a needy mountain district. Thus was demonstrated the
quality of these negro Churchmen.
The year brought much sickness, however; and amongst the victims was
the young teacher, who had already begun the work of a missionary
to his people. It was doubtless this visitation which constituted a
call to the Bishop to hasten the establishment of a Medical Mission,
so greatly needed, and which had already been his earnest wish. Two
students had been sent to Boston, to be trained, one as a physician,
and the other as a pharmacist. The Bishop sent an urgent appeal for
sufficient money to establish these men in their professions upon
their approaching graduation.
The year 1892—the fourth centenary of the discovery of America—was
a memorable one in the annals of their history. “Here,” wrote the
Bishop, “the first permanent settlement of Europeans in the New World
was made. Here, later on, the first landing of African slaves in this
hemisphere was effected. Here, following the example of the United
States, the second colonial yoke of European vassalage was broken,
and the second free and independent nation of the New World thereby
established.”
“This people,” continues the Bishop, “by the powers of the merely
natural man, have indeed conquered their earthly freedom, but they
still have need to obtain the emancipation of the soul—freedom from
sin—by that liberty wherewith Christ only can make us free.”
The plea of the Bishop rings out—his plea for help to realize his
well-founded plan which again and again he had described to the Board
of Missions, and which follows the eloquent and urgent presentation
of the claims of Haiti just quoted.
“For upward of thirty years, since it was planted here in 1861, we
have stoutly held on to the almost forlorn hope of making this Church
a blessing to the people among whom our lot is cast. Among other
things for which we labor, we are striving to complete the well-being
of their acquired nationality by raising up a native clergy among
the people, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh—a most
desirable object, the accomplishment of which no other religious
denomination, aside from ours, has essayed to realize in a systematic
manner. To this end, we need a theological training-school. We are
also wrestling with the problem of extending popular education among
the illiterate masses; to do which, more successfully, a better
equipped normal school is needed. We also have in hand for solution,
the problem of introducing scientific medical treatment of the sick
and neglected poor; to do this effectually, we need a well-organized
medical mission. We have the personnel (doubtless the two students
referred to above) for such a mission, but we need the pecuniary
means necessary to effect such an organization.”
Surely this plan should have found friends and helpers in America,
and must find them even yet, in order that Haiti may realize a more
worthy measure of the ideal of her first devoted Bishop. He closes
his report thus: “On our part, we ask you brethren, one and all,
to pray for us that our faith fail not, and that we may not grow
weary in well doing, but be always animated with the blessed and
soul-consoling hope, that in due season we shall reap, if we faint
not.” In 1895, after seven years of weary but persistent patience,
the Bishop was able to hold services in the church at Port-au-Prince,
the center of the mission work of the District, which was so far
completed as to be fit for occupancy. The same year he was able to
announce the joyful tidings that “five of the sons of our clergy have
been graduated as physicians to co-operate with the clergy in the
work of the Gospel among the afflicted poor; and thereby emphasis
has been given to the humane aspect of the Gospel of Christ, while
the ministry of the clergy gives due emphasis to its divine aspect.
We have every reason to believe that our triple Gospel work, carried
on by ministers, physicians and teachers, has given us a grasp on
the very vitals of the nation, which will grow with its growth, and
increase with its strength.”
But the Bishop is not deceived by the fresh hope which the year
has brought. “Let it be borne in mind,” he writes, “that our work
is carried on under the enervating influence of the Tropics, and
amidst the sluggishness of an undeveloped people; and, therefore,
such marvels of rapid progress are not to be looked for here as
characterize the railroad speed with which things more forward in the
United States under far more favorable circumstances.”
During the next ten years, the first steps were taken towards the
realization of the most important features of the plans for the
District. In 1901, following Bishop Holly’s visit to the States, the
much needed Theological School was opened at Port-au-Prince, with
the Rev. P. E. Jones as Dean, and the Revs. Alexander Battiste and
Theodore F. Holly as professors. Dean Jones had, for many years, been
the very efficient Principal of one of the Schools of the Republic
at Aquin, and his experience and success had singled him out as the
man to reorganize the Lancastrian School, needing reconstruction, in
the capital city. His transfer by the Government made it possible
for the Bishop to realize at least the beginnings of the Theological
School, so long a cherished hope. At first this school was conducted
in the evenings, after the example of the Government Law School.
Six students were enrolled at once, and others awaited the means
necessary for expenses. This school, or its successor, has been
reopened by The Rev. A. R. Llwyd, and three new clergymen recently
graduated.
The Medical Mission, so important to the development of the Bishop’s
plans, began to take definite form about 1904, through the training
of two nurses in an institution extemporized for that purpose by Dr.
A. C. C. Holly, a son of the Bishop. In 1905 two lots were secured
for the projected hospital and dispensary, for the erection of which
funds were asked of friends in the States. Awaiting these, Dr. Holly
opened a small hospital in one of the mission-buildings, with Miss
Lidia Boisson, one of the nurses trained locally, in charge of the
sick ward. Two other young women had been sent to the United States
for training as nurses, at the expense of the Board of Missions. The
ministrations of the hospital and the ministries of the physicians
and nurses wrought untold blessings to a country to which sanitation
was unknown and hygiene unheard of. The well-laid plans of the Bishop
and his co-workers, the physicians, were never completed; for, with
the coming of the Americans, in 1915, all sanitary and medical work
was taken over by them, and the necessarily imperfect equipment and
methods of the old medical mission were thereby superseded.
In the face of the infirmities of greatly advanced age, Bishop Holly
continued to administer the difficult work of the District until
March 1911, when he was called to his rest. Through fifty years of
devoted, unfaltering service he gave himself to the land of his
adoption, and the people whom he loved. In 1855, he had sought the
permission of our American Episcopal Church to found the Church in
Haiti. In 1861, the petition granted, he landed with a colony of
American Negroes in Haiti. During the succeeding years he raised up
a native ministry—a notable achievement in view of the fact that
the Roman Church, with a far longer history of missionary work in
Haiti, has, to this day, not a single native priest there. During the
first years, services in the capital were said in both French and
English; at the close of the Bishop’s Episcopate, there were but five
English-speaking communicants recorded.
When the Rev. Mr. Holly arrived in 1861, Haiti, except for a few
Church members in the new colony, was barren ground for the Church.
In 1874 the Bishop and his staff of six priests and four deacons
were ministering to nearly one thousand souls, of whom 238 were
communicants, divided among 18 missions.
At the close of Bishop Holly’s administration, there were 12 priests;
2 deacons; 2 candidates; 2 postulants; 18 lay-readers; 54 teachers
(of whom 9 were in day-schools); and 26 missions. More than 2,000
souls were under the ministrations of clergy and teachers, with 651
communicants.
The National Convocation of the Haitien Church, following the
Bishop’s death, requested the Church in America to send a delegation
to Haiti to look over the field and counsel with the native Church as
to the measures to be adopted which would best serve its interests.
Meanwhile, the Rev. Pierre E. Jones, Dean of the Convocation,
administered the District pending the decision of our American
Church. Mr. Jones gives the following most significant information:
“Only a strongly organized, national, Protestant Episcopal Church can
surely bring about a revolution in the religious views and opinions
of our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens. The English Wesleyans entered
Haiti in 1818, and have today four Missions, two native ministers
and one foreign. The American Methodists entered the field in 1824,
and have today one mission and one foreign minister. The American
Baptists entered the field in 1848, and have today three native
ministers and three missions. The Protestant Episcopal Church entered
the field in 1861; it became an autonomous Church in 1874; and has
today fifteen well-organized parishes, seven mission stations, and
fifteen ordained native ministers. We have also a young Haitien
in the Divinity School in Philadelphia, and a young woman in the
Deaconess House in the same city. After their courses are completed,
they will return home to strengthen our little army of brave ones.”
In January, 1912, the Board of Missions requested the Rt. Rev. Dr.
Knight, Bishop of Cuba, to be the chairman of the delegation in
response to the above request. The Bishop, with his party, arrived
at Port-au-Prince about the close of the month, and later sent an
interesting account of the expedition, which was published in _The
Spirit of Missions_ for September and October 1912. As a sidelight
on the difficulties which had beset the path of Bishop Holly, this
extract from Bishop Knight’s letter is illuminating. Referring to
Port-au-Prince he says, “There is a saying that it has been burned
and rebuilt every seven years as a result of frequent revolutions.”
And then, as an earnest, let us devoutly hope, of what may come
to pass, this sketch is given of the newly elected President Le
Conte. “It was some time before I understood that this gentle and
soft-spoken Negro was the chief executive of this turbulent black
republic. There was nothing uncouth about him; he had no braggadocio
manners; on the contrary, he seemed refined and effeminate. It was
hard to realize that only a few months before he had landed on
his native shores, after five years of exile; had gathered a few
followers; and had swept his course onward to the Capital, until the
martial Simon fled before him. With his advent to power, better days
for Haiti seem to have dawned. Le Conte belongs to one of the oldest
and most refined families of the Island. He is grandson of the first
President, the military genius who, taking up the sword of Toussaint,
completed the deliverance of Haiti from France. He has been highly
educated, and has spent much time abroad. He has come to power when
militarism has ridden his country for many years, and crushed out its
industries. He is reversing these things. The number (of the army)
has been reduced. The new broom is sweeping clean. Our Church can be
a great aid at this time if she rises to the opportunity.”
Bishop Knight met and advised with the Council of the Haitien Church,
called in special session. The action taken is thus described:
“The Convocation remained in session for a week; and, finally,
by a practically unanimous vote, passed a resolution requesting
the American Church to receive the Haitien Church as a Missionary
District.” One can but regret, and deeply, that the purpose of
Bishop Holly’s fifty years of vision, which seemed so great to him,
should have been abandoned, when the Convocation voted to relinquish
its autonomy. Let us hope that this is but a temporary status.
It was not until 1913 that General Convention could reply to the
request of the Church in Haiti, and meantime Bishop Knight was
deputed to render episcopal service there. In that year General
Convention, having elected the Rev. Charles B. Colmore as Bishop of
Porto Rico, appointed him to the charge of the Missionary District
of Haiti. The connection between Porto Rico and Haiti is exceedingly
remote, and the means of transportation most difficult, so that
Bishop Colmore found a task impossible to be done efficiently. Like
a good soldier, he obeyed orders, and the Church must take all the
onus for the short-comings. He holds the District together, promoting
the existing enterprises, and greatly encouraging the work of the
Woman’s Auxiliary, of which little or no notice seems previously to
have been taken. To overcome, as far as possible, the disadvantages
of the conditions, the Rev. A. R. Llwyd was appointed commissary
to the Bishop, and, in 1918, he began work in this capacity. With
headquarters in Port-au-Prince, Mr. Llwyd has indefatigably labored
to repair rents and build up waste places.
The reports, as well as the comments of visitors, all agree that what
is most needed for the upbuilding of the people is the Christian
Industrial School. This was Bishop Holly’s dream; it must still be
the objective until realized.
In 1919, General Convention resolved that Haiti must have a negro
Bishop of its own, and elected the Rev. Samuel Grice of Payne
Divinity School. He felt constrained to decline, and the Rt. Rev. Dr.
Morris, of the Panama Canal Zone, was appointed to take the oversight
of the Church in Haiti. At best, an absentee Episcopate can do little
more than conserve, and Haiti awaits the day when love and generosity
shall overflow in the American Church, so that she may fully seize
the day of opportunity. It is her chance to do for the struggling
Church of the Haitiens what our American representatives, civil and
military, are doing for their Government,—settle and establish and
train, and thus in good time set free a people from the thraldom of
ignorance and vice. It is doubtful if either can succeed without the
other; it is pretty certain that social training must fail unless
religious culture accompany it. “Except the Lord build the house,
their labor is but lost that build it.”