HAYTI
Hayti is a black republic--a place where the negro race is predominant.
No white man may claim any plantation or even an acre of land in the
Haytian republic as his own. The negroes refuse to grant land tenures to
any “white trash.” Europeans exist in the island only on sufferance, and
they are subjected to much the same treatment as in the days of old was
meted out to negro slaves. It is the least desirable country in the
world for the white man to select as his home.
The republic spreads about halfway across the island of San Domingo,
whose history is rich in tales of bloodshed, piracy, and worse. The
first of the West Indian islands to be annexed by Europe, San Domingo,
or Española as Columbus named it, was the earliest Spanish settlement in
the western world. As in Jamaica the Spaniards introduced religion so
effectually that the original inhabitants, the gentle Caribs, were
crushed out of existence. The Africans were introduced to do the work of
the plantations. The Haytian portion of the island was afterwards
wrested from Spain by the French buccaneers, who presented it without
reserve to the Crown of France. The French did much to improve the
island; plantations were established, cities were formed, churches were
built, and the planters found that their country was, naturally, the
richest of all the Caribbean group.
When the revolution broke out in France the new Government decided
against the slave labour, and so the negroes obtained their freedom. The
freed slaves promptly turned against their late masters, slaughtered
every white man, woman, and child in the island, and proclaimed the
independence of Hayti as a black republic. Napoleon despatched an army
corps to avenge their murdered countrymen, but yellow fever made the
ultimate conquest of the island impossible. And so, mainly because of
the insalubrity of its climate, Hayti remains a free republic. The
language and religion, and some of the customs, of France remain. But
the Government is practically under the sway of a despotic President,
who exercises all the power of an Emperor, while pandering to the vanity
of his people by calling them free, and his government representative.
Though nominally elected by a popular assembly he really governs by
right of might, and he is as a rule dethroned after much bloodshed by a
rival Haytian giant. The President sees to it that he secures the
affection and loyalty of the trained soldiery, and all his friends and
most powerful supporters are given gaudy uniforms and high-faluting
titles in the Haytian army. It is a Gilbertian style of government and
might be
[Illustration: HUTS ON A COUNTRY ROAD, JAMAICA]
counted entirely humorous were it not for the constant bloodshed.
Morally the Haytians are impossible people. Snake worship and
cannibalism, and all the old superstitions of barbaric Africa, still
prevail in the gilded republic. Their religion is frequently but a thin
veneer of polish, worn to cover the arts of fetish worship and human
sacrifice. The lives of the citizens are not respected so much by the
prevailing government as are the political rights of the electorate. The
whole republic is one festering mass of corruption. The officials are as
a rule entirely corrupt, the European church has practically no real
existence, sober “home life” is almost unknown. The men of the place are
as a rule entirely vicious, unlicensed and unprincipled; the women are
unmoral and entirely without culture.
It is a curious place to look upon, this Hayti; but it is a most unsafe
place to travel in. The people of the capital, Port-au-Prince, live in
the midst of a city of fine buildings and garbage-littered streets; the
women parade the white squares in European costumes of Parisian silks
and high-heeled, patent-leather shoes. The men swagger in gaudy,
tinselled uniforms of extravagant design and indifferent workmanship,
trailing tailor-made swords, and jingling heavy South American spurs.
Their manners are entirely without polish, though they swagger with the
air of a crack German cavalry colonel mixed with the braggadocio of a
half-bred Spanish Mexican. The children of the reigning officials and
the sons of the richest merchants are sent to Paris to be educated.
These young people return to Hayti with a deep knowledge of all the
vices of the gay capital, and many trunks filled with gaudy finery
which, probably, have been obtained on credit. The condition of the
people of the black republic is similar to that of any Gold Coast tribe
of negroes with a rich country and a knowledge of the vices of
Europe,--similar, except that whereas the Haytians are all powerful and
independent, the Gold Coast tribe is watched by a strong white
government and kept within the bounds of decency.
It will be gathered that Hayti is not a pretty place. I would not have
troubled to mention it at all had it not been that the black republic
has a profound significance to all British people who take their Empire
seriously. Hayti is the world’s object lesson of what a country must
become so soon as the negro obtains fairly within his grasp the reins of
government. In discussing the West Indian problems it would be well if
Britain always kept in mind the condition of this one black republic in
the west. Why? Because it is estimated that Jamaica has a population of
seven hundred and fifty thousand people, ninety-five per cent of whom
are coloured. Education is spreading rapidly among the people of our
largest West Indian colony, and in the market-places and among the huts
of the native villages one constantly hears the phrase “political
freedom” and “Government of Jamaica by Jamaicans.” In a government
elected entirely by the people of the island, Jamaica will be ruled by
black men--just as Hayti is. And the real nature of a negro can never
be discovered until he is placed in a position of unfettered power.
Hayti is a very few hours sailing distance from Jamaica, and Kingston is
the resting-place and recruiting-ground for all the deposed or
temporarily overshadowed Haytian presidents. President Salomon, one of
the most powerful rulers Hayti ever had, was at one period a refugee of
Jamaica, and there he became the intimate friend of Gordon. The Gordon
riot was crushed by the Jamaican Government (though the strong man who
dealt summarily with the rioters was disgraced in consequence), and
Salomon returned to rule in Port-au-Prince. But in Jamaica to-day there
is evidence that intrigue and disaffection have not been entirely
banished from the hearts of all her coloured citizens.
[Illustration: PASSENGERS EMBARKING FROM A QUAY, ST. ANN’S BAY,
JAMAICA]
IN CONCLUSION