HISTORICAL SKETCH.--CHANGES OF GOVERNMENT.-18O1 TO 1844
Rule of Toussaint l'Ouverture.--Exodus of whites.--Capture of Santo
Domingo by French.--War with negroes.--Government of Ferrand.
--Incursion of Dessalines.--Insurrection of Sanchez Ramirez.
--Reestablishment of Spanish rule.--Proclamation of Colombian
State of Spanish Haiti.--Conquest by Haiti.--Haitian rule.--Duarte's
conspiracy.--Declaration of Independence.
Toussaint l'Ouverture's occupation of Santo Domingo occasioned a new
exodus of white families who were fearful of what might happen under
negro rule. From the French portion of the island the whites had been
emigrating since the first uprisings; a number had fled into the
Spanish colony and these now also left. It is estimated that in the
decade beginning with 1795 the Spanish portion lost over 40,000
inhabitants, more than one-third of its population. Most of the
persons who abandoned the island during these troublous times settled
in Cuba, Porto Rico and Venezuela, where they established coffee and
sugar plantations, to the great advantage of these countries. Some of
the most prominent families of Cuba to-day are descendants of families
which left Santo Domingo at this time.
Toussaint tried to stem the tide of emigration by issuing conciliatory
proclamations; but when he found his efforts in vain, it is claimed
that he conceived the idea of a general massacre of the whites
remaining in the capital. He ordered the entire population, without
distinction of age or sex to gather on the plaza and the men, women
and children to be separated into different groups, the whole plaza
being surrounded by strong forces of cavalry. Appearing before the
terrified people Toussaint declared slavery abolished and began to
walk up and down and ask the women in broken Spanish whether they were
French or Spanish, touching them with his cane in an ever more
insolent manner. It was too much for one high-spirited young woman,
who commenced to upbraid him for daring to touch her. At this critical
moment a severe storm, that had been gathering since he appeared on
the plaza, broke, and Toussaint, apparently regarding it as a sign of
divine disapproval, ordered the children removed, then permitted the
women to retire and finally sent the soldiers to their barracks,
leaving the men to disperse of themselves.
Toussaint divided the Spanish part of the island into two departments,
making his brother Paul l'Ouverture governor of the south with
headquarters at Santo Domingo and General Clervaux governor of the
Cibao, with headquarters at Santiago. He then made a journey through
the country, being everywhere received by the frightened inhabitants
with every mark of distinction. Upon his return to the French section
he promulgated, in July, 1801, a constitution for the island, by which
he was declared governor for life and commander-in-chief, with the
right of appointing his successor and with an annual salary of 300,00
francs. At the same time he confiscated the property of persons who
had emigrated.
Toussaint's constitution was a challenge to Napoleon Bonaparte, who
having temporarily made peace with England, determined to reestablish
French authority in the island. He accordingly dispatched to Santo
Domingo a fleet with a well-equipped army of 25,000 men under his
brother-in-law, General Le Clerc. Upon arriving in Samana Bay the
force was divided into several bodies which were to operate in
different parts of the island. The reconquest of the Spanish part was
confided to Generals Kerverseau and Ferrand.
General Ferrand landed in Monte Cristi and without difficulty took
possession of the Cibao while the colored chief, Clervaux, knowing the
hostility of the population toward him, retired without giving battle.
General Kerverseau took Samana by assault and then sailed for Santo
Domingo City. The negro Governor Paul l'Ouverture prepared to resist,
but a brave Dominican, Colonel Juan Baron, organized an
insurrectionary force and placed himself in communication with
Kerverseau. The first attempt at uprising was a failure, as his plans
were betrayed, and a rough sea prevented the French from landing. His
enemies took the opportunity to sack the town of San Carlos, outside
the city gates, and to murder a number of Dominicans. Baron gathered a
larger force and in unison with Kerverseau demanded the surrender of
the city. Paul l'Ouverture reluctantly capitulated and the French thus
assumed command of the Spanish portion of the island, with Kerverseau
as governor. When Toussaint heard of what had occurred he ordered the
murder of a battalion of Dominican soldiers whom he had retained
as hostages.
The war waged between the French and the blacks in the old French
Colony of St. Domingue was characterized by nameless atrocities
committed on both sides. The last vestiges of former prosperity were
swept away and the country converted into a wilderness. Toussaint was
captured through treachery and died in a European prison, but yellow
fever invaded the French ranks and did great havoc. Le Clerc died, and
Rochambeau, his successor, was unable, even with reinforcements, to
hold his own. England, again at war with France, impeded further
reinforcements and actively assisted the insurgent negroes. Death by
disease and wounds made the great French army melt away, and towards
the end of 1803 the last remnant was forced off the island. On January
1, 1804, the negro generals proclaimed the island an independent
republic under the name of Haiti, one of the island's Indian names.
Jean Jacques Dessalines, a rough, illiterate negro, but of
indefatigable energy, was made governor for life, with dictatorial
powers. One of his first acts was to order the extermination of such
whites as still remained. Dessalines a year later assumed the title
of emperor.
Ferrand, the French general in the Cibao, conceived the project of
disobeying his orders to evacuate and of trying to hold Spanish Santo
Domingo for France. Finding that Kerverseau was ready to capitulate,
he determined to assume command himself, feeling sure that the French
government would approve his action, if his plans were successful. He
therefore marched to Santo Domingo City and after a few days'
parleying deposed Kerverseau, placed him aboard a vessel that carried
him to Mayaguez, in Porto Rico, and assumed the governorship.
Dessalines did not long keep him waiting. Desiring to extend his
authority over the whole island, and angered by an injudicious decree
of Ferrand, which permitted the enslaving of Haitians of over fourteen
years found beyond their frontier, he invaded the country with a horde
of 25,000 men. The population of the border towns fled before him in
terror, the very slaves remaining with their masters rather than join
him. Victorious in an engagement on the Yaque river, he laid siege to
the capital on March 5, 1805. In the meantime his lieutenant,
Christophe, overran the Cibao, sacking the towns and committing
horrors. Santiago was captured before the inhabitants had time to
flee, and a large number were murdered by the savage invaders. The
members of the municipal council were hung, naked, on the balcony of
the city hall; the people who had sought refuge in the main church
were put to the sword and their bodies mutilated; and the priest was
burnt alive in the church, the furniture of the edifice constituting
his funeral pyre.
Santo Domingo City had been placed in a state of defense and artillery
mounted on the tower of Mercedes church and the roofs of the San
Francisco and Jesuit churches. The garrison consisted of some 2,000
men, but to maintain these and the 6,000 inhabitants of the city as
well as the refugees there were only limited supplies on hand. Food
quickly ran low when, providentially, a French fleet appeared before
the city. The admiral, who thought the entire island abandoned by the
French, was delighted to find the French flag still flying and gladly
rendered assistance. A desperate sortie was made on March 28, the
twenty-third day of the siege, with such success that Dessalines
precipitately retired, abandoning his stores. The main body of the
Haitians retreated by way of the Cibao, the others through the south,
all devastating the country as far as they could. Azua, San José de
las Matas, Monte Plata, Cotui, San Francisco de Macoris, La Vega,
Santiago and Monte Cristi were reduced to ashes. In Moca 500
inhabitants, deceived by the promises of Christophe, returned from
their hiding places in the hills and assembled for divine service in
the parish church, where they were butchered by the negro soldiers. In
La Vega and Santiago the Haitian troops made prisoners of numerous
families, aggregating 900 persons among men, women and children in La
Vega and probably more in Santiago, and forced them to accompany the
army to northern Haiti, where they were kept in captivity, working
practically as slaves for their captors, for four years. The march was
full of horrors for the poor prisoners, who were prohibited from
wearing hats or shoes and were brutally treated by their guards.
As a civil administrator Ferrand did excellent work. He encouraged the
resettlement of the abandoned fields, persuaded emigrated families to
return, established schools and began to build water-works for the
capital, a work which he nearly completed, but which was abandoned by
his successors and has never been realized in the century that has
since transpired. Napoleon on hearing of Ferrand's conduct not only
approved everything he had done but sent him the cross of the Legion
of Honor and financial assistance. Ferrand was especially impressed
with the importance of Samana Bay and made plans for a city to be
located west of the town of Samana, to which he intended to give the
name of Napoleon. The peaceful conditions to which the country
returned were only troubled by British vessels which occasionally
attempted to establish blockades. On February 6, 1806, a British
squadron of eight vessels under Sir John Duckworth badly defeated a
French squadron, also of eight vessels, in a hotly contested fight off
Point Palenque to the southwest of Santo Domingo City.
Although Ferrand was personally liked, discontent began to brew in the
country. The inhabitants were loyal to Spain and chafed under foreign
rule; many believed there was danger of Haitian invasion so long as
the French remained; certain tax exactions stirred up animosity; and
the stories of Spain's resistance to Napoleon's aggressions inflamed
the spirits of the leading men. Conspiracies ensued, fomented
principally by a Cotui planter named Juan Sanchez Ramirez, who had
emigrated in 1803, but returned after four years of exile, and the
Spanish flag was formally raised in Seibo in October, 1808. Ferrand
immediately set out to quell the uprising and on November 7, 1808, met
Sanchez Ramirez at Palo Hincado, about two miles west of Seibo. He was
vigorously attacked by the revolutionists, his native troops deserted,
and his other troops were cut to pieces. Seeing that all was lost and
that all his work was ruined, Ferrand blew out his brains with
a pistol.
The revolutionists received assistance from the governor-general of
Porto Rico and from their former enemy Christophe, who had made
himself king of northern Haiti; a British squadron took Samana, the
only post held by the French outside of Santo Domingo City, and raised
the Spanish flag; and Sanchez Ramirez laid siege to the capital, where
the French general Barquier had assumed command, while British vessels
blockaded it by sea. The siege lasted almost nine months, during which
the besieged suffered greatly from want of provisions, being reduced
to eating dogs and cats, and the surrounding country was devastated by
sorties and foraging parties. The severest fighting took place about
San Geronimo castle, on the shore three miles west of the city, which
was taken and retaken. In the sixth and seventh months of the siege
the city was repeatedly bombarded from land and sea, but without
result. At length Sanchez applied to the governor of Jamaica and a
British force under Sir Hugh Lyle Carmichael was sent to his
assistance. It landed at Palenque and took up a position in San
Carlos. A general assault had been determined upon, when the brave
little defender of the city, realizing the hopelessness of further
resistance, agreed to capitulate to the English. On July 9, 1809, the
French flag was lowered and the country again became a dependency of
Spain, and in 1814 Spain's dominion was confirmed by the treaty
of Paris.
Spain had been busy fighting the French within her own borders, and
when normal conditions were restored had her hands full in keeping
order and in trying to bring her revolting colonies of America back to
obedience. She had little time for affairs in Santo Domingo, and did
nothing to ameliorate conditions. The colony was left to vegetate in
absolute poverty. This second Spanish era came to be known as the
period of "Espana boba," "stupid Spain," as the home government
remained so indifferent to the colony's affairs. The only redeeming
feature was the return of a number of exiled families. Sanchez
Ramirez, who had been proclaimed governor-general, was confirmed in
the office and held the same until his death in 1811, being succeeded
by Spanish military officers.
In the first years of the new Spanish colony there was an undefined
attempt at uprising on the part of a few white hotheads, and an
attempt to incite the slaves against their masters on the part of a
few black ones, but in both cases the ringleaders were captured and
put to death. The great struggle for independence in South America
gradually influenced the minds of the inhabitants of Santo Domingo;
Bolivar's brief visit to Haiti also had its effect, and secret
separatist societies began to be founded. In the beginning of 1821 a
conspiracy was discovered and numerous arrests made. Plotting
continued nevertheless, stimulated by a prominent lawyer, José Nuñez
de Caceres, who dreamed of making the country a state of Bolivar's
Colombian Republic. On the night of November 30, 1821, the conspiracy
culminated in an uprising in the capital; most of the troops had been
won over to the cause of independence and offered no resistance; the
rest were taken by surprise; and the revolutionists without difficulty
made themselves masters of the gateway "Puerta del Conde" and of the
other gates and forts. The Spanish governor was placed under arrest
and put aboard a vessel sailing for Europe, and the Colombian flag was
raised. Public proclamation was made of the independent and sovereign
State of Spanish Haiti, affiliated with the Republic of Colombia, and
José Nuñez de Caceres assumed the office of political governor and
president of the State, while the provincial assembly became a
provisional junta of government.
The State of Spanish Haiti lasted barely nine weeks. An emissary sent
to Colombia for assistance in maintaining independence was
unsuccessful. Another emissary sent to President Boyer of Haiti, for
the negotiation of a treaty, brought back the answer that "the whole
island should constitute a single republic under the flag of Haiti."
For several years Boyer, a dark mulatto, who had united Haiti under
his rule, had been endeavoring to influence the colored people on the
Spanish side of the border, to such an extent that the activities of
his agents repeatedly provoked protests from the Spanish governors,
and he now recognized that his opportunity had come. Invading the
country in the north and south his forces captured the most important
points. He met with no resistance, due to the fact that the temporary
government was entirely unprepared, that the population feared a
repetition of the horrors of 1805, and that many were in sympathy with
him while others were indifferent. On February 9, 1822, Nuñez de
Caceres was obliged to deliver the keys of Santo Domingo City to the
invader and the whole island came under the dominion of Haiti.
The twenty-two years of Haitian rule marked a period of social and
economic retrogression for the old Spanish portion of the island. Most
of the whites, especially the more prominent families, the principal
representatives of the community's wealth and culture, definitely
abandoned the country, some immediately upon the advent of the
Haitians, others in 1824, when a hopeless conspiracy in favor of a
restoration of Spanish rule was quenched in blood, and others in 1830,
when a quixotic demand of the Spanish king for a return of his domain
was refused by Boyer. The Haitians, anxious to eliminate the whites,
encouraged such emigration and confiscated the property left by the
emigrants. The policy of the Haitian government was to build up a
strong African state in the whole island, and in pursuance of this
policy it emancipated all slaves, colonized Haitian negroes on the
Samana peninsula and in other parts of the Spanish-speaking territory
and brought in colored people from the United States. Some of these
remained in Puerto Plata, others in Santo Domingo City, but the larger
number settled on the Samana peninsula, where their descendants still
form the bulk of the population. Every effort was made to Haitianize
the country by extending the Haitian laws, and imposing Haitian
governors. Representation was also accorded in the Haitian congress.
In 1825 the French government recognized the independence of the
French part of the island in consideration of the payment of an
indemnity, toward which the Haitians forced the Spanish part to
contribute.
The wanton acts of the Haitian authorities, their hostility to whites
and lighter colored mulattoes, their opposition to the Spanish
language and customs, and their neglect of the country's development,
caused much discontent, and the idea of separating from Haiti began to
be entertained. An enthusiastic young man, Juan Pablo Duarte, who had
been educated in Europe, in 1838 founded a secret revolutionary
society, called "La Trinitaria," to work for the country's
independence. In May, 1842, an earthquake destroyed Santiago and La
Vega, as well as Cape Haitien and other towns in the western part of
the island, and with lesser earthquakes which followed caused a panic
throughout the country, which in turn made conditions more favorable
for a change of government.
In the meantime opposition to Boyer had spread in Haiti also, and in
1843 gave rise to a revolution, as a result of which Boyer was driven
from the country and Charles Hérard installed as dictator-president.
Duarte redoubled his activities for independence, struggling against
the opinion of many who thought such an aspiration hopeless, but his
plans were discovered and he and others obliged to flee. His work had
been well done, however; his ideas continued to spread, and it was
determined to proclaim the independence of Santo Domingo on February
27, 1844. Late that night a large group of Dominicans under Francisco
del Rosario Sanchez appeared at the principal gateway of Santo Domingo
City, "Puerta del Conde," and received the surrender of the guard, and
on the following morning the Dominican flag, as designed by Duarte,
was waving over the gate.
Dessalines, the emperor of Haiti, had adopted red and blue, two of the
colors of the French Republic's flag, for the flag of Haiti, leaving
out white, because to this hated color he attributed all the
misfortunes of his country and his race. Duarte took the Haitian
colors, arranged them in four alternate squares and placed a white
cross in the center to signify the union of the races through
Christianity and civilization.
The other points of vantage were quickly occupied and the Haitian
general, finding himself shut up in the fort "La Fuerza" without hope
of successful resistance, surrendered and was permitted to withdraw
with his officers. On the same day or within a few days afterward the
flag of the new republic was raised in every town of the old Spanish
colony of Santo Domingo, except certain towns in the west which are
still in possession of the Haitians, and the country entered upon the
period of independence.