Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

Languages Used:

• English
• French

LC Subject Headings:

• Generals -- Haiti -- Biography.
  
• Haiti -- History -- Revolution, 1791-1804.
  
• Haiti -- History.
  
• Revolutionaries -- Haiti -- Biography.
  
• Slavery -- Haiti -- History.
  
• Toussaint Louverture, 1743?-1803.
  

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TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE:
A
BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

Boston:
JAMES REDPATH, PUBLISHER,
221 WASHINGTON STREET.
1863.

Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1863,
BY JAMES REDPATH,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. GEO. C. RAND & AVERY,
STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS.

INTRODUCTION.

        THIS volume contains two distinct works,--a Biography and an Autobiography.

        The Biography was first published in London, ten years since, as "The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Negro Patriot of Hayti: By the Rev. John R. Beard, D. D., Member of the Historico-Theological Society of Leipsic, etc." It had the following--

PREFACE.

        "The life which is described in the following pages has both a permanent interest and a permanent value. But the efforts which are now made to effect the abolition of slavery in the United States of America, seem to render the present moment specially fit for the appearance of a memoir of TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. A hope of affording some aid to the sacred cause of freedom, specially as involved in the extinction of slavery, and in the removal of the prejudices on which servitude mainly depends, has induced the author to prepare the present work for the press. If apology for such a publication was required, it might be found in the fact that no detailed life of TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE is accessible to the English reader, for the only memoir of him which exists in our language has long been out of print.

        "The sources of information on this subject are found chiefly in the French language. To several of these the author acknowledges deep obligation.

        "The tone taken on the subject of negro freedom in Hayti, by recent writers in two French reviews, is partial and unjust.

Possibly this may be attributable to a mulatto pen. The blacks have no authors; their cause, consequently, has not yet been pleaded. In the authorities we possess on the subject, either French or mulatto interests, for the most part, predominate. Specially predominant are mulatto interests and prejudices, in the recently published Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture, by SAINT REMY, a mulatto: this writer obviously values his caste more than his country or his kind."

        With this work the editor has taken the liberty of making a few verbal and other changes in the text of the opening chapters; of erasing the two elaborated guesses as to Toussaint's Scriptural studies and readings in the Abbé Raynal's philosophy; and of omitting the entire Book IV., which gave a sketch of the history of Hayti from the death of Toussaint to the reign of the late Emperor Soulouque. The alterations in the first chapters referred chiefly to statements respecting modern Hayti, with which the editor's travels and his official relations to its Government had made him more familiar than the author. Book IV. was erased because it was deemed an inadequate presentation of the history of an independent negro nationality,--not unfair, indeed, nor essentially inaccurate, but too meagre for publication in the United States where its statements would necessarily be weighed in the scales of party. It is hoped that a full and impartial history of Hayti will, erelong, be presented to the American people; until then, the sketches in the encyclopedias and the summary of Mr. Elie in "The Guide," must suffice to indicate the governmental changes that have occurred in the island. *

        In the historical record of Dr. Beard, no changes have been made. This fact does not imply a uniform concurrence of judgment. For it is but justice to say, that, although "the blacks have no authors," they have found in Dr. Beard not a friend only, but an able and zealous partisan.

        There have been three versions of Haytian history,--the white, the black, and the yellow: the white representing the pro-slavery party, the black that of the negroes, and the yellow that of the mulattoes. The abolitionists of England and America have adopted the negro standard,--refusing equally to pay any homage to Pétion, the idol of the mulatto historians, whom they call the Washington of Hayti, or to regard Toussaint as the bête noir of the revolution, or otherwise than as Hayti's hero,

                         "Great, ill-requited chief."

        This brief statement will show that to have undertaken to present the other sides of the events narrated would have required a volume of notes.

        The "Notes and Illustrations" of Dr. Beard, with one exception, have, also, been omitted, and others deemed more interesting and pertinent substituted for them.

        It is from the "Mémoires de la Vie de Toussaint L'Ouverture," edited by the M. Saint Remy, whose partisan spirit Dr. Beard reproves, that the Autobiography of the great General and Statesman is taken.

        "The existence of these Memoirs," he says, "was first mentioned by the venerable Abbé Grégoire, bishop of Blois, in his curious and entertaining work entitled, 'The Literature of the Negroes.' In 1845, the journal 'La Presse' published fragments of them; and at that time some persons seemed to doubt their authenticity. But, quite recently, through the friendly medium of Mr. Fleutclot, member of

the University of France, I was enabled to obtain from General Desfourneaux a copy of these Memoirs which he had in his possession. Still later, after much research, I succeeded in discovering the original manuscript in the General Archives of France. Eagerly, and with scrupulous attention, did I peruse the lengthy pages, all written in the hand of the First of the Blacks. The emotions excited in me by this examination will be better understood than they can be described. The mind is thrown into an abyss of reflections by the memory of so lofty a renown bent under the weight of so much misfortune."

        M. Saint Remy adds, that "Toussaint's cast of mind may well be judged from the fact that his own manuscript is entirely at first hand, without an erasure or an insertion."

        This interesting paper is now first published in the English language, having been expressly translated for this volume.

        "Are the Negroes fit for Soldiers?" Ignorant of the history of Hayti, which forever settled the question, our journalists and public men for many long months disputed it, until the gallant charges on Port Hudson and Fort Wagner put an end to the humiliating debate.

        "Are Negroes fit for Officers?" We are entering on that debate now. The Life of Toussaint may help to end it. What Toussaint, Christophe, Dessalines did,--"plantation-hands" and yet able warriors and statesmen, all of them,--some Sambo, Wash, or Jeff, still toiling in the rice-fields or among the sugar-canes, or hoeing his cotton-row in the Southern States, may be meditating to-day and destined to begin tomorrow.

BOSTON, SEPTEMBER, 1863.

CONTENTS.

• BOOK I.

  • FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY IN HAYTI TO THE FULL ESTABLISHMENT OF TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE'S POWER.
  • • CHAPTER I.
      Description of Hayti--Its name, mountains, rivers, climate, productions, and chief cities and towns . . . . . 13
    • CHAPTER II.
      Columbus discovers Hayti--Under his successors, the Spanish colony extirpate the natives--The Buccaneers lay in the West the basis of the French colony--Its growth and prosperity . . . . . 22
    • CHAPTER III.
      The diverse elements of the population of Hayti--The blacks, the whites, the mulattoes; immorality and servitude . . . . . 28
    • CHAPTER IV.
      Family, birth, and education of Toussaint L'Ouverture--His promotions in servitude--His marriage--Reads Raynal, and begins to think himself the providentially-appointed liberator of his oppressed brethren . . . . . 34
    • CHAPTER V.
      Immediate causes of the rising of the blacks--Dissensions of the planters--Spread of anti-slavery opinions in Europe--The outbreak of the first French Revolution--Mulatto war--Negro insurrection--Toussaint protects his master and mistress, and their property . . . . . 42
    • CHAPTER VI.
      Continued collision of the planters, the mulattoes, and the negroes--The planters willing to receive English aid--The negroes espouse the cause of Louis XVI.--Arrival of Commissioners from France--Negotiations--Resumption of hostilities--Toussaint gains influence . . . . . 50
    • CHAPTER VII.
      France equalizes mulattoes and negroes with the whites--The decapitation of Louis XVI. throws the negroes into the arms of Spain--They are afraid of the Revolutionary Republicans--Strife of French political parties in Hayti--Conflagration of the Cape--Proclamation of liberty for the negroes produces little effect--Toussaint captures Dondon--Commemoration of the fall of the Bastille--Displeasure of the planters--Rigaud . . . . . 60

      ---

      Page viii

    • CHAPTER VIII.
      Toussaint becomes master of a central post--Is not seduced by offers of negro emancipation, nor of bribes to himself--Repels the English, who invade the island; adds L'Ouverture to his name; abandons the Spaniards, and seeks freedom through French alliance . . . . . 69
    • CHAPTER IX.
      Toussaint defeats the Spanish partisans--By extraordinary exertions, raises and disciplines troops, forms armies, lays out campaigns, executes the most daring exploits, and defeats the English, who evacuate the island--Toussaint is Commander-in-chief . . . . . 79
    • CHAPTER X.
      Toussaint L'Ouverture composes agitation, and brings back prosperity--Is opposed by the Commissioner, Hédouville, who flies to France--Appeals, in self-justification, to the Directory in Paris . . . . . 90
    • CHAPTER XI.
      Civil war in the South between Toussaint L'Ouverture and Rigaud--Siege and Capture of Jacmel . . . . . 102
    • CHAPTER XII.
      Toussaint endeavors to suppress the slave-trade in Santo-Domingo, and thereby incurs the displeasure of Roume, the representative of France--He overcomes Rigaud--Bonaparte, now First Consul, sends Commissioners to the island--End of the war in the South . . . . . 112
    • CHAPTER XIII.
      Toussaint L'Ouverture inaugurates a better future--Publishes a general amnesty--Declares his task accomplished in putting an end to civil strife, and establishing peace on a sound basis--Takes possession of Spanish Hayti, and stops the slave-trade--Welcomes back the old colonists--Restores agriculture--Recalls prosperity--Studies personal appearance on public occasions--Simplicity of his life and manners--His audiences and receptions--Is held in general respect . . . . . 121
    • CHAPTER XIV.
      Toussaint L'Ouverture takes measures for the perpetuation of the happy condition of Hayti, specially by publishing the draft of a Constitution in which he is named governor for life, and the great doctrine of Free-trade is explicitly proclaimed. . . . . . 134

  • BOOK II.

    • FROM THE FITTING OUT OF THE EXPEDITION BY BONAPARTE AGAINST SAINT DOMINGO TO THE SUBMISSION OF TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
    • CHAPTER I.
      Peace of Amiens--Bonaparte contemplates the subjugation of Saint Domingo, and the restoration of slavery--Excitement caused by report to that effect in the island--Views of Toussaint L'Ouverture on the point. . . . . . 145

      ---

      Page ix

    • CHAPTER II.
      Bonaparte cannot be turned from undertaking an expedition against Toussaint--Resolves on the enterprise in order chiefly to get rid of his republican associates in arms--Restores slavery and the slave-trade--Excepts Hayti from the decree--Misleads Toussaint's sons--Despatches an armament under Leclerc . . . . . 152
    • CHAPTER III.
      Leclerc obtains possession of the chief positions in the island, and yet is not master thereof--By arms and by treachery he establishes himself at the Cape, at Fort Dauphin, at Saint Domingo, and at Port-au-Prince--Toussaint L'Ouverture depends on his mountain strongholds . . . . . 160
    • CHAPTER IV.
      General Leclerc opens a negotiation with Toussaint L'Ouverture by means of his two sons, Isaac and Placide--The negotiation ends in nothing--The French Commander-in-chief outlaws Toussaint, and prepares for a campaign . . . . . 171
    • CHAPTER V.
      General Leclerc advances against Toussaint with 25,000 men in three divisions, intending to overwhelm him near Gonaïves--The plan is disconcerted by a check given by Toussaint to General Rochambeau in the Ravine Couleuvre. . . . . . 182
    • CHAPTER VI.
      Toussaint L'Ouverture prepares Crête-à-Pierrot as a point of resistance against Leclerc, who, mustering his forces, besieges the redoubt, which, after the bravest defence, is evacuated by the blacks . . . . . 190
    • CHAPTER VII.
      Shattered condition of the French army--Dark prospects of Toussaint--Leclerc opens negotiations for peace--Wins over Christophe and Dessalines--Offers to recognize Toussaint as Governor-General--Receives his submission on condition of preserving universal freedom--L'Ouverture in the quiet of his home . . . . . 200

  • BOOK III.

    • FROM THE RAVAGES OF THE YELLOW FEVER IN HAYTI UNTIL THE DEPOSITION AND DEATH OF ITS LIBERATOR.
    • CHAPTER I.
      Leclerc's uneasy position in Saint Domingo from insufficiency of food, from the existence in his army of large bodies of blacks, and especially from a most destructive fever . . . . . 217
    • CHAPTER II.
      Bonaparte and Leclerc conspire to effect the arrest of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who is treacherously seized, sent to France, and confined in the Chateau de Joux; partial risings in consequence. . . . . . 225

      ---

      Page x

    • CHAPTER III.
      Leclerc tries to rule by creating jealousy and division--Ill-treats the men of color--Disarms the blacks--An insurrection ensues, and gains head, until it wrests from the violent hands of the General nearly all his possessions--Leclerc dies--Bonaparte resolves to send a new army to Saint Domingo . . . . . 243
    • CHAPTER IV.
      Rochambeau assumes the command--His character--Voluptuousness, tyranny, and cruelty--Receives large reinforcements--Institutes a system of terror--The insurrection becomes general and irresistible--The French are driven out of the island . . . . . 257
    • CHAPTER V.
      Toussaint L'Ouverture, a prisoner in the Jura Mountains, appeals in vain to the First Consul, who brings about his death by starvation--Outline of his career and character. (The end of Dr. Beard's Biography) . . . . . 276

  • BOOK IV.

    • Memoir of the Life of General Toussaint L'Ouverture, written by himself, in the Chateau de Joux, in a letter to Napoleon Bonaparte . . . . . 295

  • NOTES AND TESTIMONIES.

    • I. Proclamation by King Christophe . . . . . 331
    • II. Note by Harriet Martineau, including a description of a visit to the Chateau de Joux, and the Sonnet on Toussaint L'Ouverture by Wordsworth . . . . . 337
    • III. A visit to the Chateau de Joux by John Bigelow, containing interesting documentary evidence relative to Toussaint's imprisonment therein . . . . . 347
    • IV. The Poem on Toussaint L'Ouverture by John Greenleaf Whittier . . . . . 358
    • V. Peroration of Wendell Phillip's Oration on Toussaint L'Ouverture . . . . . 366

  • ILLUSTRATIONS.

    • I. Outline Map of Colonial Hayti
    • II. An authentic Portrait of Toussaint L'Ouverture
    • III. Autograph of Toussaint L'Ouverture . . . . . 12

BOOK I.

FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY IN HAYTI TO THE FULL ESTABLISHMENT OF TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURES POWER.

[Autograph of Toussaint L'Ouverture]

OUTLINE MAP OF COLONIAL HAYTI OR ST. DOMINGO.

CHAPTER I.

        Description of Hayti--Its name, mountains, rivers, climate, productions, and chief cities and towns.

        I AM about to sketch the history and character of one of those extraordinary men, whom Providence, from time to time, raises up for the accomplishment of great, benign, and far-reaching results. I am about to supply the clearest evidence that there is no insuperable barrier between the light and the dark-colored tribes of our common human species. I am about to exhibit, in a series of indisputable facts, a proof that the much-misunderstood and down-trodden negro race are capable of the loftiest virtues and the most heroic efforts. I am about to present a tacit parallel between white men and dark men, in which the latter will appear to no disadvantage. Neither eulogy, however, nor disparagement is my aim, but the simple love of justice. It is a history, not an argument, that I purpose to set forth. In prosecuting the narrative, I shall have to conduct the reader through scenes of aggression, resistance, outrage, revenge, bloodshed, and cruelty, that grieve and wound the heart, and, exciting the deepest pity for the sufferers, raise irrepressible indignation against ambition, injustice, and tyranny,--the scourges of the world, and specially the sources of complicated and horrible calamities to the natives of Africa.

        The western portion of the North Atlantic Ocean is separated from the Caribbean Sea on the south, and the Gulf of Mexico on the north, by a succession of islands which, under the name of the West India Islands, seem to unite, in a broken and waving line, the two great peninsulas of South and North America. Of these islands, which, under the general title of the Antilles, are divided into several groups, the largest and the

most important are, Porto Rico on the east, Cuba on the west, and St. Domingo between the two, with Jamaica lying off the western extremity of the latter. Situated between the seventeenth and twentieth degrees of north latitude, and the sixty-eighth and seventy-fifth degrees of west longitude, St. Domingo stretches from east to west about 390 miles, with an average breadth, from north to south, of 100 miles, and comprises about 29,000 square miles, or 18,816,000 square acres; being four times as large as Jamaica, and nearly equal in extent to Ireland. Its original name, and that by which it is now generally known, Hayti,--which, in the Caribbean tongue, signifies a land of mountains,--is truly descriptive of its surface and general appearance. From a central point, which, near the middle of the island, rises to the height of some 6,000 feet above the level of the sea, branches, having parallel ranges on the north and on the south, run through the whole length of the island, giving it somewhat the shape and aspect of a huge tortoise. The mountain ridges for the most part extend to the sea, above which they stand in lofty precipices, forming numerous headlands and promontories, or, retiring before the ocean, give place to ample and commodious bays. Of these bays or harbors, three deserve mention, not only for their extraordinary natural capabilities, but for the frequency with which two of them, at least, will appear in these pages. On the northwest of Hayti, is the Bay of Samana, with its deep recesses and curving shores, terminating in Cape Samana on the north, and Cape Raphael on the south. At the opposite end of the country, is the magnificent harbor called the Bay Port-au-Prince, enclosing the long and rocky isle Gonave,--on the north of which is the Channel St. Marc, and on the south the Channel Gonave. Important as is the part which this harbor sustains in the history of the land, scarcely, if at all, less important is the bay which has Cape François for its western point, and Grange for its eastern, comprising on the latter side the minor but well sheltered Bay of Mancenille, and in the former the large roadstead of Cape François.

        The mountains running east and west break asunder and sink down so as to form three spacious valleys, which are watered by the three principal rivers. The River Youna, having its sources in Mount La Vega, in the northeast of the island, and receiving many tributaries from the north and the south, issues in the Bay of Samana. The Grand Yaque, rising on the western side of the Watershed,--of which La Vega may be considered as the dividing line,--flows through the lengthened plain of St. Jago, until it reaches the sea in the Bay of Mancenille. The chief river is the Artibonite, on the west, which, having its ultimate springs in the central group of mountains, waters the valleys of St. Thomas, of Banica, of Goave, and, turning suddenly to the north, along the western side of the mountains of Cahos, falls into the ocean a little south of the Bay of Gonaïves, after a long and winding course. While these rivers run from east to west and west to east,, innumerable streams flow in a northern and southern direction, proceeding at right angles from the branches of the great trunk. Hayti is a well-watered land; especially is it so in the west, where several lakes and tarns adorn and enrich the country. The more eastern districts are rugged as well as lofty, but the other parts are beautifully diversified with romantic glens, prolific vales, and rank savannahs. Though so mountainous, the surface is overspread with vegetation, the highest summits being crowned with forests. Placed within the tropics, Hayti has a hot yet humid climate, with a temperature of very great variations; so that while in the deep valleys the sun is almost intolerable, on the loftiest mountains of the interior a fire is often necessary to comfort. The ardor of the sun is on the coast moderated by the sea and land breezes, which blow in succession. Heavy rains fall in the months of May and June. Hurricanes are less frequent in Hayti than the rest of the Antilles. The climate, however, is liable to great and sudden changes, which, bringing storm, tempest, and sunshine, with the intensity of tropical lands, now alarm and now enervate the natives, and often prove very injurious to Europeans. On so rich a soil human life is easily supported,

and the inducements to the labors of industry are neither numerous nor strong. Yet, in auspicious periods of its history, Hayti has been made abundantly productive. *

        At the time when the hero and patriot whose career we have to describe first appeared on the scene, the island was divided between two European Powers: the east was possessed by the Spaniards, the west and south by the French. It is with the latter portion that this history is mostly concerned.

        Of the Spanish possessions, therefore, it may suffice to direct attention to two principal cities. The oldest European city is Santo Domingo, which had the honor of giving a name to the whole island. It was founded by Bartholomew, the brother of Columbus, who is said to have so called it in honor of his father, who bore that name. Santo Domingo stands in the southeastern part of the island, at the north of the River Ozama. Santiago holds a fine position in the plain of that name, near the northern end of a line passing somewhere about the middle of the island.

        The French colony was divided into three Provinces,--that of the North, that of the West, and that of the South. At the beginning of the French Revolution of 1789, these provinces were transformed into three corresponding Departments. The three Provinces, or Departments, were subdivided into twelve Districts, each bearing the name of its chief city. The twelve Districts were,--in the north, the Cape, or Cap-François, Fort Dauphin, Port-de-Paix, Môle Saint Nicholas; in the west, Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Saint Marc, Petit Goave; and in the south, Jérémie, Cape Tiburon, Cayes, and St. Louis. The District of the Cape comprised the Cape, La Plaine-du-Nord, just above the Cape, Limonade, between the two; Acul, west of the Cape, and on the coast, Sainte Suzanne; with Morin, La Grande Rivière, Dondon, Marmelade, Limbé, Port Margot, Plaisance, and Borgne,--thirteen parishes. The District Fort Dauphin,

in the east of the Northern Department, comprised Fort Dauphin itself, Ouanaminthe, on the south of it, Vallière, Terrier Rouge, and Trou,--five parishes. The District of Port-de-Paix comprised Port-de-Paix, Petit-Saint-Louis, Jean Rabel, and Gros-Morne,--four parishes. The District of the Môle Saint Nicholas comprised Saint Nicholas and Bombarde,--two parishes. There were thus four-and-twenty parishes in the northern department. The District Port-au-Prince comprised Port-au-Prince, Croix-des-Bosquets, on the north, Arcahaye on the northwest, and Mirebalais on the northeast,--four parishes. The District of Léogane was identical with the parish of the same name. The District of Saint Marc comprised Saint Marc, Petite Rivière, Gonaïves,--three parishes. The district of Petit-Goave comprised Petit-Goave, Grand Goave, Baynet, Jacmel, and Cayes-Jacmel,--five parishes. Fourteen parishes made up the western province. The District Jérémie comprised Jérémie and Cap Dame-Marie,--two parishes. The District of Tiburon comprised Cape Tiburon and Coteaux,--two parishes. The District of Cayes comprised Cayes and Torbeck,--two parishes. The District of Saint Louis comprised Saint Louis, Anse-Veau, Fond-Cavaillon, and Acquin,--five parishes. There were eleven parishes in the South.

        The study of the map will show that these, the districts under the dominion of France, covered only the west of the island. As, however, they contained the chief centres of civilization, and the chief places which occur in this history, our end is answered by the geographical details now given.

        The appearance of the island from the ocean is thus described by an eye-witness: "The bold outlines of the mountains, which in many places approached to within twenty miles of the shore, and the numerous stupendous cliffs which beetled over it, casting their shadows to a great distance in the deep,--the dark retreating bays, particularly that of Samana,--and extensive plains opening inland between the lofty cloud-covered hills, or running for uncounted leagues by the sea-side, covered with trees and bushes, but affording no glimpse of a human

habitation,--presented a picture of gloom and grandeur, calculated deeply to impress the mind; such a picture as dense solitude, unenlivened by a single trace of civilization, is ever apt to produce. Where, we inquired of ourselves, are the people of this country? Where its cultivation? Are the ancient Indian possessors of the soil all extinct, and their cruel conquerors and successors entombed with them in a common grave? For hundreds of miles, as we swept along its shores, we saw no living thing, but now and then a mariner in a solitary skiff, or birds of the land and ocean sailing in the air, as if to show us that nature had not wholly lost its animation, and sunk into the sleep of death." *

        The interior of Hayti, however, lacks neither inhabitants nor natural beauty. The mountains rise in bold and varying outline against the brilliant skies, and in almost every part form a background of great and impressive effect. Broken by deep ravines, and appearing in bare and rugged precipices, they present a continued variety of imposing objects which sometimes rise into the sublime. The valleys and plains are rich at once in verdure and beauty, while from elevated spots you may enjoy the sight of the great centres of civilization, Cap-Francais, Port-de-Paix, Saint-Marc, Port-au-Prince, &c., busy in the various pursuits of city and commercial life.

        The wealth of Hayti comes from its soil. It is an essentially agricultural country. Cereal products are not cultivated; but maize or Indian corn grows there; and rice flourishes in the savannas. The negro lives on the natural fruits of the island chiefly, and obtains fish, breadstuffs, and other merchandise from the United States. Plantation tillage is the chief occupation. This culture embraces sugar-cane (which is manufactured chiefly into syrup and rum), coffee, cocoa, and cotton. In 1789, the French portion of the island contained 793 sugar plantations, 3,117 coffee plantations, 789 cotton plantations, and 182 establishments for making rum, besides other minor factories and workshops. In 1791, very large capitals were employed in

carrying on these cultivations; the capitals were sunk partly in slaves and partly in implements of husbandry; in the cultivation of sugar there was employed a capital of above fifty millions of livres; *

        * A livre, or franc, is worth about twenty cents of our money.

and animals employed in husbandry" put into the same class. Observe, too, the items. The value of the "negroes old and new, large and small," is set down at 758,333,334 francs, while the other animals are worth only 5,226,667 francs. We thus learn, that three-fourths of the wealth of the planters consisted in their slaves. Such was the stake which was at issue in the struggle for freedom of which we are about to speak.

        The population of Hayti was, in the year 1824, accounted to amount to 935,335 individuals. *

        * This census was purposely falsified. I made very careful inquiries respecting the population of Hayti at different periods, and concluded that at no time since its independence has Hayti proper--the French part--had more than from 500,000 to 600,000 inhabitants. See the Guide, p. 137.--ED.

he be able, in future, to acquire there, either real estate or the rights of a Haytian."

        The language prevalent in the west and north is the French; that generally used in the east is the Spanish. Neither is spoken in purity. Not only has the French the ordinary grammatical faults which belong to the uneducated, but out of the peculiar formation of the negro organs of speech, the peculiar relations in which they have stood in social and political life, as as well as the nature of the climate and the products of the soil, a Haytian patois has been formed which can scarcely be understood by Frenchmen exclusively accustomed to their pure mother tongue. And while the educated classes speak and write what in courtesy may be called classic French, the few authors whom the island has produced do not appear capable of imitating, if they are capable of appreciating, the purity, ease, point, and flow which characterize the best French prose writers.

        The religion of Hayti is the Roman Catholic. This form of religion is established by law. Under all Governments Protestantism has been protected. The religion of Rome exists among the people in a corrupt state, nor are the highest functionaries free from a gross superstition, which takes much of its force from old African traditions and observances, as well as from the peculiar susceptibilities of the negro temperament. As soon as the native chiefs began to obtain political power in their struggle for freedom, they practically recognized the importance of general education, well knowing that only by raising the slaves into men could they accomplish their task and perpetuate their power. Accordingly educational institutions have, from time to time, been set up in different parts of the island. These establishments have received favor and encouragement according to the spirit of the Government of the day. *

CHAPTER II.

        Columbus discovers Hayti--Under his successors, the Spanish colony extirpate the natives--The Buccaneers lay in the West the basis of the French colony--Its growth and prosperity.

        WE owe the discovery of Hayti to Columbus. When, on his first voyage, he had left the Leucayan Islands, he, on the fifth of December, 1492, came in sight of Hayti, which at first he regarded as the continent. Having, under the shelter of a bay, cast anchor at the western extremity of the island, and named the spot Saint Nicholas, in honor of the saint of the day, he sent men to explore the country. These, on their return, made to Columbus a report, which was the more attractive, because they had found in the new country resemblances to their native land. A similar impression having been made on Columbus, especially by the songs which he heard in the air, and by fishes which had been caught on the coast, he named the island Espagnola, (Hispaniola,) or Little Spain. Forthwith, on his arrival, Columbus began to inquire for gold; the answers which he received induced him to direct his course toward the south. On his way, he entered a port which he called Valparaiso, now Port-de-Paix; and in this and a second visit occupied and named other spots, taking possession of the country on behalf of his patrons, Ferdinand and Isabella, sovereigns of Spain. The return of Columbus to Europe, after his first voyage, was accompanied by triumphs and marvels which directed the attention of the civilized world to the newly-discovered countries; and, exciting ambition and cupidity, originated the movement which precipitated Europeans on the American shores, and not only occasioned there oppression and cruelty, but introduced with African blood worse than African slavery, big with evils the most multiform and the most terrible.

        At the time of its discovery, Hayti was occupied by--if we may trust the reports--a million of inhabitants, of the Caribbean race. They were dark in color, short and small in person, and simple in their modes of life. Amid the abundance of nature, they easily gained a subsistence, and passed their many leisure hours either in unthinking repose, or in dances, enlivened by drums, and varied with songs. Polygamy was not only practised but sanctioned. A petty sovereign is said to have had a harem of two-and-thirty wives. Standing but a few degrees above barbarism, the natives were under the dominion of five petty kings or chiefs, called Caciques, who possessed absolute power; and were subject to the yet more rigorous sway of priests or Butios, to whom superstition lent an influence which was the greater because it included the resources of the physician as well as those of the enchanter. Under a repulsive exterior, the Haytians, however, acknowledged a supreme power,--the Author of all things, and entertained a dim idea of a future life, involving rewards and punishments correspondent to their low moral condition and gross conceptions.

        On the arrival of Columbus, the natives, alarmed, withdrew into their dense forests. Gradually won back, they became familiarized with the new-comers, of whose ulterior designs they were utterly ignorant. With their assistance, Columbus erected, near Cap-François, a small fortress which he designated Navidad (nativity), from the day of the nativity (December 25th) on which it was completed. In this, the first edifice built by Europeans on the Western Hemisphere, he placed a garrison of eight-and-thirty men. When (on the 27th of October, 1493) he returned, he found the settlement in ruins, and learned that his men, impelled by the thirst for gold, had made their way to the mountains of Cibao, reported to contain mineral treasures. He erected another stronghold on the east of Cape Monte Christo. There, under the name of Isabella, arose the first city founded by the Spaniards, who thence went forth in quest of the much-coveted precious ore. Meanwhile the new

colony had serious difficulties to struggle with. Barely were they saved from the devastations of a famine. Their acts of injustice drove the natives into open assault, which it required the skill and bravery of Columbus to overcome. His recall to Europe set all things in confusion. Restrained in some degree by his moderation and humanity, the natives on his departure rose against his brother and representative, Bartholomew; and, receiving support from another of his officers, namely, Rolando Ximenes, they aspired to recover the dominion of the island. They failed in their undertaking, the rather that Bartholomew knew how to gain for himself the advantage of a judicious and benevolent course. The love of a young Spaniard, named Diaz, for the daughter of a native chief, led Bartholomew to the mouth of the river Ozama. Finding the locality very superior, he built a citadel and founded a city there, which, under the name of Santo Domingo, he made his headquarters, intending it to be the capital of the country. Meanwhile, Ximenes, at Fort Isabella, carried on his opposition to the Government. Columbus's return to the island, in 1498, did not bring back the traitor to his duty. Meanwhile, in Spain, a storm had broken forth against Columbus, which occasioned his recall in 1499. The discoverer of the New World was put in chains and thrown into prison by his successor, Bovadillo. With the departure of Columbus, the spirit of the Spanish rule underwent a total change. The natives, whom he and his brother had treated as subjects, were by Bovadillo treated as slaves. Thousands of their best men were sent to extract gold from the mines, and when they rapidly perished in labors too severe for them, the loss was constantly made up by new supplies. In 1501, Bovadillo was recalled. His successor, Ovando, was equally unmerciful. On the death of Queen Isabella and Columbus, the Haytians lost the only persons who cared to mitigate their lot. Then all consideration toward them disappeared. They were employed in the most exhausting toil, they were misused in every manner; torn from the bosom of their families, they were driven into the remotest parts of the island,

unprovided with even the bare necessaries of life. In 1506, a royal decree consigned the remainder as slaves to the adventurers, and Ovando failed not to carry the unchristian and inhuman ordinance into full effect, especially in regard to those who were at work in the mines, four of which were very productive. A rising, which took place in 1502, had no other result than to rivet the chains under which the natives groaned and perished. Another, in 1503, brought Anacoana, a native queen, to the scaffold. In 1507, the number of the Haytians had, by toil, hunger, and the sword, been reduced from a million down to sixty thousand persons. Of little service was it that, about this time, Pedro d'Atenza introduced the sugar-cane from the Canaries, or that Gonzalez, having set up the first sugar-mill, gave an impulse to agriculture; there were no hands to carry on the works, for the master labored not, and the slave was beneath the sod. Ovando made an effort to procure laborers from the Leucayan Isles. Forty thousand of these victims were transported to Hayti; they also sank under the labor. In 1511, there were only fourteen thousand red men left on the island; and they disappeared more and more in spite of the exertions for their preservation made by the noble Las Casas. In 1519, a young Cacique put himself at the head of the few remaining Haytians, and, after a bloody war of thirteen years' duration, extorted for himself and followers a small territory on the northeast of Saint Domingo, where their descendants are said to remain to the present day.

        Greatly did the island suffer by the loss of its native population; the working of the gold mines ceased, or was carried on to a small extent, and with inconsiderable results; agriculture proceeded only here and there, and with tardy steps; the colony declined constantly more and more on every side. The metropolis alone withstood the prevalent causes of decay, for it had become a commercial entrepôt between the Old World and the New. Its prosperity, however, was, in 1586, seriously shaken by the English commander, Francis Blake, who, having seized the city, laid one-half in ruins. A still greater calamity impended.

The reputed riches of the New World, and the wide spaces of open sea which its discovery made known, invited thither maritime adventurers from the coasts of Europe. Men of degraded character and boundless daring, finding it difficult to procure a subsistence by piracy and contraband trade in their old eastern haunts, now, from the newly-awakened spirit of maritime enterprise, frequented, if not scoured, by the vessels of England, Holland, and France, hurried away with fresh hopes into the western ocean, and swarmed wherever plunder seemed likely to reward their reckless hardihood.

        Of these, known in history as the buccaneers, a party took possession (1630) of the isle of Tortuga, which lies off the northwest of Hayti. With this as a centre of operation, they carried on ceaseless depredations against Hayti, the coasts of which they disturbed and plundered, putting an end to its trade, and occupying its capital. The court of Madrid, being roused in self-defence, sent a fleet to Tortuga, who, taking possession of the island, destroyed whatever of the buccaneers they could find; but the success only made the pirates more wary and more enterprising. When the fleet had quitted Tortuga, they again, in 1638, made themselves masters there, and, after fortifying the island and establishing a sort of constitution, made it a centre of piratical resources and aggressions, whence they at their pleasure sallied forth to plunder and destroy ships of all nations, wreaking their vengeance chiefly on such as came from Spain. In time, however, these corsairs met with due punishment at the hands of civilized nations.

        A remnant of the buccaneers, of French extraction, effected a settlement on the southwestern shores of Hayti, the possession of which they successfully maintained against Spain, the then recognized mistress of the island. In their new possessions they applied to the tillage of the land; but, becoming aware of the difficulty of maintaining their hold without assistance, they applied to France. Their claim was heard. In 1661, Dageron was sent to Hayti, with authority to take its government into his hands, and accordingly effected there, in 1665, a regularly

constituted settlement. At this time the Spanish colony, which was scattered over the east of the island, consisted only of fourteen thousand free men, white and black, with the same number of slaves; two thousand maroons, moreover, prowled about the interior, and were in constant hostility with the colonists.

        As yet, the French colony in the West was very weak. Its chief centre was in Tortuga. It had other settlements at Port de Paix, Port Margot, and Léogane. When Dageron came to Hayti, with the title of Governor, the Spaniards became more attentive to what went on in the west of the island. They proceeded to attack the French settlements, but with results so unsatisfactory that the new French Governor, Pouancey, drove them from all their positions in the West. His successor, Cussy, who took the helm in 1685, was less successful. The Spaniards made head against him, and the French power was nearly annihilated. In 1691, France made another effort. The new Governor, Ducasse, restored her dominion, and in the peace of Ryswick, Spain found itself obliged to cede to France the western half of Hayti. With characteristic enterprise and application, the French soon caused their colony to surpass the Spanish portion in the elements of social well-being; and in the long peace which followed the wars of the Spanish succession, Saint-Domingue (so the French called their part of the island) became the most important colony which France possessed in the West Indies. It suffered, indeed, from Law's swindling operations, and from other causes; but on the whole, it made great and rapid progress until the outbreak of the first revolutionary troubles in the mother country.

        Side by side with the advance of agriculture, opulence spread on all sides, and poured untold treasures into France. In a similar proportion the population expanded, so that in 1790 there were in the western half of the island 555,825 inhabitants, of whom only 27,717 were white men, and 21,800 free men of color, while the slaves amounted to 495,528.

CHAPTER III.

        The diverse elements of the population of Hayti--The blacks, the whites, the mulattoes; immorality and servitude.

        THE large black population of Hayti was of African origin. Stolen from their native land, they were transplanted in the island to become beasts of burden. The slave-trade was then at its height. Nations and individuals who stood at the head of the civilized world, and prided themselves in the name of Christian, were not ashamed to traffic in the bodies and souls of their fellow-men. Three hundred vessels, employed every year in that detestable traffic, spread robbery, conflagration, and carnage over the coasts and the lands of Africa. Eighty thousand men, women, and children, torn from their homes, were loaded with chains, and thrown into the holds of ships, a prey to desolation and despair. In vain had the laws and usages of Africa, less unjust than those of Christian countries, forbidden the sale of men born in slavery, permitting the outrage only in the case of persons taken in war, or such as had lost their liberty by death or crime. Cupidity created an ever-growing demand; the price of human flesh rose in the market; the required supply followed. The African princes, smitten with the love of lucre, disregarded the established limitations, and for their own bad purposes multiplied the causes which entailed the loss of liberty. Proceeding from a less to a greater wrong, they undertook wars expressly for the purpose of gaining captives for the slave mart; and when still the demand went on increasing, they became wholesale robbers of men, and seized a village, or scoured a district. From the coasts the devastation spread into the interior. A regularly organized system came into operation, which constantly sent to the sea-shore thousands of innocent

and unfortunate creatures to whom death would have been a happy lot. In the year 1778, not fewer than one hundred thousand of its black inhabitants were forcibly and cruelly carried away from Africa.

        Driven on board the ships which waited their arrival, these poor wretches, who had been accustomed to live in freedom, and roam at large, were thrust into a space scarcely large enough to receive their coffin. If a storm arose, the ports were closed as a measure of safety. The precaution shut out light and air. Then, who can say what torments the negroes underwent? Thousands perished by suffocation,--happily, even at the cost of life, delivered from their frightful agonies. Death, however, brought loss to their masters, and therefore it was warded off, when possible, by inflictions, which, in stimulating the frame, kept the vital energy in action. And when it was found that grief and degradation proved almost as deadly as bad air, and no air at all, the victims were forced to dance, and were insulted with music. If, on the ceasing of the tempest and the temporary disappearance of the plague, things resumed their ordinary course, lust and brutality outraged mothers and daughters unscrupulously, preferring as victims the young and innocent. When any were overcome by incurable disease, they were thrown into the ocean while yet alive, as worthless and unsalable articles. In shipwreck, the living cargo of human beings was ruthlessly abandoned. Fifteen thousand, it has been calculated,--fifteen thousand corpses every year scattered in the ocean, the greater part of which were thrown on the shores of the two hemispheres, marked the bloody and deadly track of the hateful slave-trade.

        Hayti every year opened its markets to twenty thousand slaves. A degradation awaited them on the threshold of servitude. With a burning-iron they stamped on the breast of each slave, women as well as men, the name of their master, and that of the plantation where they were to toil. There the new-comer found everything strange,--the skies, the country, the language, the labor, the mode of life, the visage of his master,--all

was strange. Taking their place among their companions in misfortune, they heard them speak only of what they endured, and saw the marks of the punishments they had received. Among the "old hands," few had reached advanced years; and of the new ones, many died of grief. The high spirit of the men was bowed down. For the two first years the women were not seldom struck with sterility. In earlier times, the proprietors had not wanted humanity; but riches had corrupted their hearts now; and giving themselves up to ease and voluptuousness, they thought of their slaves only as sources of income, whence the utmost was to be drawn.

        The evils consequent on slavery are not lessened by the incoming of one or two stray rays of light. If the slave becomes conscious of his condition, and aware of the injustice under which he suffers, if he obtains but a faint idea of these things; and if the master learns that a desire for liberty has arisen in the slave's mind, or that free men are asserting anti-slavery doctrines, then a new element of evil is added to those which before were only too powerful. Hope on one side, and distrust and fear on the other, create uneasiness and disturbance, which may end in commotion, convulsion, cruelty, and blood. In the agitation of the public mind of the world, which preceded the first French Revolution, such feelings could not be excluded from any community on earth. They entered the plantations of Hayti, and they aided in preparing the terrific struggle, which, through alarm, agitation, and slaughter, issued in the independence of the island.

        The white population was made up of diverse, and in a measure conflicting elements. There were first, the colonists or planters. Of these, some lived in the colony, others lived in France. The former, either by themselves or by means of stewards, superintended the plantations, and consumed the produce in sensual gratifications; the latter, deriving immense revenues directly or indirectly from their colonial estates, squandered their princely fortunes in the pleasures and vices of the less moral society of Paris. Possessed of opulence, these men generally

were agitated with ambition, and sought office and titles as the only good things on earth left them to pursue. If debarred from entering the ranks of the French nobility, they could aspire to official distinction in Hayti, and in reality held the government of the colony very much in their own hands, partly in virtue of their property, partly in virtue of their influence with the French court.

        There were other men of European origin in the island. Some were servants of the Government; others members of the army; both lived estranged from the population which they combined to oppress. Below these were les petits blancs (the small whites), men of inferior station, who conducted various kinds of business in the towns, and who, despised by white men more elevated in station, repaid themselves by contemning the black population, on the sweat of whose brows they depended for a livelihood. Contempt is always most intense and baleful between classes that are nearest each other.

        From the mixture of black blood and white blood arose a new class, designated men of color. On the part of the planters, passion and lust were subject to no outward restraint, and rarely owned any strong inward control. From the blood sprung from this mixed and impure source came the chief cause of the troubles and ruin of the planters.

        Some of the men of color were proprietors of rich possessions; but neither their wealth, nor the virtues by which they had acquired it, could procure for them social estimation. Their prosperity excited the envy of the whites in the lower classes. Though emancipated by law from the domination of individuals, the free men of color were considered as a sort of public property, and, as such, were exposed to the caprices of all the whites. Even before the law they stood on unequal ground. At the age of thirty, they were compelled to serve three years in a militia instituted against the Maroon negroes; they were subject to a special impost for the reparation of the roads; they were expressly shut out from all public offices, and from the more honorable professions and pursuits of private life.

When they arrived at the gate of a city, they were required to alight from their horse; they were disqualified for sitting at a white man's table, for frequenting the same school, for occupying the same place at church, for having the same name, for being interred in the same cemetery, for receiving the succession of his property. Thus the son was unable to take his food at his father's board, kneel beside his father in his devotions, bear his father's name, lie in his father's tomb, succeed to his father's property,--to such an extent were the rights and affections of nature reversed and confounded. The disqualification pursued its victims until during six consecutive generations the white blood had become purified from its original stain.

        Among the men of color existed every various shade. Some had as fair a complexion as ordinary Europeans; with others, the hue was nearly as sable as that of the pure negro blood. The mulatto, offspring of a white man and a negress, formed the first degree of color. The child of a white man by a mulatto woman was called a quarteroon,--the second degree; from a white father and a quarteroon mother was born the male tierceroon,--the third degree; the union of a white man with a female tierceroon produced the metif,--the fourth degree of color. The remaining varieties, if named, are barely distinguishable.

        Lamentable is it to think that the troubles we are about to describe, and which might be designated the war of the skin, should have flowed from diversities so slight, variable, evanescent, and every way so inconsiderable. It would almost seem as if human passions only needed an excuse, and as if the slightest excuse would serve as a pretext and a cover for their riotous excesses.

        On their side, the men of color, laboring under the sense of their personal and social injuries, tolerated, if they did not encourage in themselves, low and vindictive passions. Their pride of blood was the more intense the less they possessed of the coveted and privileged color. Haughty and disdainful toward the blacks, whom they despised, they were scornful

toward the petits blancs, whom they hated, and jealous and turbulent toward the planters, whom they feared. With blood white enough to make them hopeful and aspiring, they possessed riches and social influence enough to make them formidable. By their alliance with their fathers they were tempted to seek for everything which was denied them in consequence of the hue and condition of their mothers. The mulattoes, therefore, were a hot-bed of dissatisfaction, and a furnace of turbulence. Aware by their education of the new ideas which were fermenting in Europe and in the United States, they were also ever on the watch to seize opportunities to avenge their wrongs, and to turn every incident to account for improving their social condition. Unable to endure the dominion of their white parents, they were indignant at the bare thought of the ascendency of the negroes; and while they plotted against the former, were the open, bitter, and irreconcilable foes of the latter. If the planters repelled the claims of the negroes' friends, least of all could emancipation be obtained by or with the aid of the mulattoes.

        Such in general was the condition of society in Hayti, when the first movements of the great conflict began. On that land of servitude there were on all sides masters living in pleasure and luxury, women skilled in the arts of seduction, children abandoned by their fathers, or becoming their cruellest enemies, slaves, worn down by toil, sorrow, and regrets, or lacerated and mangled by punishments. Suicide, abortion, poisoning, revolts, and conflagration--all the vices and crimes which slavery engenders--became more and more frequent. Thirty slaves freed themselves together from their wretchedness the same day and the same hour; meanwhile, thirty thousand whites, freemen, lived in the midst of twenty thousand emancipated men of color and five hundred thousand slaves. Thus the advantage of numbers and of physical strength was on the side of the oppressed.

CHAPTER IV.

        Family, birth, and education of Toussaint L'Ouverture--His promotions in servitude--His marriage--Reads Raynal, and begins to think himself the providentially-appointed liberator of his oppressed brethren.

        IN the midst of these conflicting passions and threatening disorders, there was a character quietly forming, which was to do more than all others, first to gain the mastery of them, and then to conduct them to issues of a favorable nature. This superior mind gathered its strength and matured its purposes in a class of Haytian society where least of all ordinary men would have looked for it. Who could suppose that the liberator of the slaves of Hayti, and the great type and pattern of negro excellence, existed and toiled in one of the despised gangs that pined away on the plantations of the island?

        The appearance of a hero of negro blood was ardently to be wished, as affording the best proof of negro capability. By what other than a negro hand could it be expected that the blow would be struck which should show to the world that Africans could not only enjoy but gain personal and social freedom? To the more deep-sighted, the progress of events and the inevitable tendencies of society had darkly indicated the coming of a negro liberator. The presentiment found expression in the works of the Abbé Raynal, who predicted that a vindicator of negro wrongs would erelong arise out of the bosom of the negro race. That prediction had its fulfilment in Toussaint L'Ouverture.

        Toussaint was a negro. We wish emphatically to mark the fact that he was wholly without white blood. Whatever he was, and whatever he did, he achieved all in virtue of qualities which in kind are common to the African race. Though of

negro extraction, Toussaint, if we may believe family traditions, was not of common origin. His great grandfather is reported to have been an African king of the Arradas tribe.

        The Arradas were a powerful tribe of negroes, eminent for mental resources, and of an indomitable will, who occupied a part of Western Africa. In a plundering expedition undertaken by a neighboring tribe, a son of the chief of the Arradas was made captive. His name was Gaou-Guinou. Sold to slave dealers, he was conveyed to Hayti, and became the property of the Count de Breda, who owned a sugar manufactory some two miles from Cap François. More fortunate than most of his race in their servitude, he found among his fellow-slaves countrymen by whom he was recognized, and from whom he received tokens of the respect which they judged due to his rank. The Count de Breda was a humane man, and intrusted his slaves to none but humane superintendents. At the time the plantation of the Count de Breda was directed by M. Bayou de Libertas, a Frenchman of mild character, who, contrary to the general practice, studied his employer's interests, without overloading his hands with immoderate labor.

        Under him Gaou-Guinou was less unhappy than his companions in misfortune. It is not known that his master was aware of his superior position in his native country; but facts stated by Isaac, one of Toussaint L'Ouverture's sons, make the supposition not improbable. His grandfather, he reports, enjoyed full liberty on the estates of his master. He was also allowed to employ five slaves to cultivate a portion of land which had been assigned to him. He became a member of the Catholic Church, the religion of the rulers of Western Hayti, and married a woman, who was not only virtuous but beautiful. The husband and the wife died at nearly the same time, leaving five male children and three female. The eldest of his sons was Toussaint L'Ouverture.

        These particulars, illustrative of the superiority of Toussaint's family, are neither without interest nor without importance. If, strictly speaking, virtues are not transmissible, virtuous tendencies,

and certainly intellectual aptitudes, may pass from parents to children. And the facts now narrated may serve to show how it was that Toussaint was not sunk in that mental stagnation and moral depravity of which slavery is commonly the parent.

        The exact day and year of Toussaint's birth are not known. It is said to have been the 20th of May, 1743. *

        * It is not improbable that Toussaint was born on All Saints' Day, and derived his name from that fact.--ED.

Toussaint acquired from his godfather some acquaintance with the French, and, aided by the services of the Catholic Church, made a few steps in the knowledge of the Latin. With a love of country which ancestral recollections and domestic intimacies cherished, he took pleasure in reverting to the traditional histories of the land of his sires. From these Pierre Baptiste labored to direct his young mind and heart to loftier and purer examples consecrated in the records of the Christian church.

        This course of instruction was of greater value than any skill in the outward processes which are too commonly identified with education. The young negro, however, seems to have made some progress in the arts of reading, writing, and drawing. A scholar, in the higher sense of the term, he never became; and, at an advanced period of life, when his knowledge was great and various, he regarded the instruction which he received in boyhood as very inconsiderable. Undoubtedly, in the pure and noble inspirations of his moral nature, Toussaint had instructors far more rich in knowledge and impulse than any pedagogue could have been. Yet in his youth were the foundations laid in external learning of value to the man, the general, and the legislator. It is true, that in the composition of his letters and addresses, he enjoyed the assistance of a cultivated secretary. Nevertheless, if the form was another's, the thought was his own; nor would he allow a document to pass from his hands, until, by repeated perusals, and numerous corrections, he had brought the general tenor, and each particular expression, into conformity with his own thoughts and his own purpose. Nor is there required anything more than an attentive reading of his extant compositions, to be assured of the superior mental powers with which he was endowed.

        In his mature years, and in the days of his great conflict, Toussaint possessed an iron frame and a stout arm. Capable of almost any amount of labor and endurance, he was terrible in battle, and rarely struck without deadly effect. Yet in his childhood he was weak and infirm to such a degree, that for a long time his parents doubted of being able to preserve his existence.

So delicate was his constitution that he received the descriptive appellation of Fatras-Bâton, which might be rendered in English by Little Lath. But with increase of years the stripling hardened and strengthened his frame by the severest labors and the most violent exercises. At the age of twelve he surpassed all his equals in the plantation in bodily feats.

        The duty of the young slaves was definite and uniform. They were intrusted with the care of the flocks and herds. As a solitary and moral occupation, a shepherd's life gives time and opportunity for tranquil meditation. By nature Fatras-Bâton was given to thought. His reflective and taciturn disposition found appropriate nutriment on the rich uplands and under the brilliant skies of the land of his birth. Accustomed to think much more than he spoke, he acquired not only self-control, but also the power of concentrated reflection and concise speech, which, late in life, was one of his most marked and most serviceable characteristics.

        Pastoral occupations are favorable to an acquaintance with vegetable products. Toussaint's father, like other Africans, was familiar with the healing virtues of many plants. These the old man explained to his son, whose knowledge expanded in the monotonous routine of his daily task. Thus did he obtain a rude familiarity with simples, of which he afterward made a practical application. In this period, when the youth was passing into the man, and when, as with all thoughtful persons, the mind becomes sensitively alive to things to come as well as to things present, Toussaint may have formed the first dim conception of the misery of servitude, and the need of a liberator. At present he lived with his fellow-sufferers in those narrow, low, and foul huts where regard to decency was impossible; he heard the twang of the driver's whip, and saw the blood streaming from the negro's body; he witnessed the separation of parents and children, and was made aware, by too many proofs, that in slavery neither home nor religion could accomplish its purposes. Not impossibly, then, it was at this time that he first discerned the image of a distant duty rising before his mind's

eye; and as the future liberator unquestionably lay in his soul, the latent thought may at times have started forth, and for a moment occupied his consciousness. The means, indeed, do not exist by which we may certainly ascertain when he conceived the idea of becoming the avenger of his people's wrongs; but several intimations point to an early period in his life. His good conduct in his pastoral engagements procured for him an advancement. Bayou de Libertas, convinced of his diligence and fidelity, made him his coachman. This was an office of importance in the eyes of the slaves; certainly it was one which brought some comfort and some means of self-improvement.

        Though Toussaint became every day more and more aware that he was a slave, and experienced many of the evils of his condition, yet, with the aid of religion, he avoided a murmuring spirit, and wisely employed his opportunities to make the best of the position in which he had been born, without, however, yielding to the degrading notion that his hardships were irremediable. Sustained by a sense of duty, which was even stronger than his hope of improving his condition, he performed his daily task in a composed if not a contented spirit, and so constantly won the confidence of the overseer. The result was his promotion to a place of trust. He was made steward of the implements employed in sugar-making.

        Arrived at adult age, Toussaint began to think of marriage. His race at large he saw living in concubinage. As a religious man, he was forbidden by his conscience to enter into such a relation. As a humane man, he shrunk from the numerous evils which he knew concubinage entailed. Whom should he choose? Already had he risen above the silly preferences of form and feature. Reality he wanted, and the only real good in a wife, he was assured, lay in good sense, good feeling, and good manners. These qualities he found in a widow, well skilled in husbandry, a house-slave in the plantation. The kind-hearted and industrious Suzan became his lawful wife, according to "God's holy ordinance and the law of the land." By a man of color, Suzan had had a son, named Placide. Obeying the generous impulses of his heart, Toussaint adopted the

youth, who ever retained the most lively sense of gratitude toward his benefactor.

        Toussaint was now a happy man, considering his condition as a slave,--the husband of a slave,--a very happy man. His position gave him privileges, and he had a heart to enjoy them. His leisure hours he employed in cultivating a garden, which he was allowed to call his own. In those pleasing engagements he was not without a companion. "We went," he said to a traveller,--"we went to labor in the fields, my wife and I, hand in hand. Scarcely were we conscious of the fatigues of the day. Heaven always blessed our toil. Not only we swam in abundance, but we had the pleasure of giving food to blacks who needed it. On the Sabbath and on festival days we went to church,--my wife, my parents, and myself. Returning to our cottage, after a pleasant meal, we passed the remainder of the day as a family, and we closed it by prayer, in which all took part." Thus can religion convert a desert into a garden, and make a slave's cabin the abode of the purest happiness on earth.

        Bent as Toussaint was on the improvement of his condition, he yet did not employ the personal property which ensued from his own and his wife's thrift, in purchasing his liberty, and elevating himself and family into the higher class of men of color. His reasons for remaining a slave are not recorded. He may have felt no attractions toward a class whose superiority was more nominal than real. He may have resolved to remain in a class whose emancipation he hoped some day to achieve.

        The virtues of his character procured for Toussaint universal respect. He was esteemed and loved even by the free blacks. The great planters held him in consideration. His intellectual faculties ripened under the effects of his intercourse with free and white men. As he grew in mind, and became large of heart, he was more and more puzzled and distressed with the institution of slavery; he could in no way understand how the hue of the skin should put so great a social and personal distance between men whom God, he saw, had made essentially the same, and whom he knew to be useful if not indispensable

to each other. Naturally he asked himself what others had thought and said of slavery. He had heard passages recited from Raynal. He procured the work. He read therein passages that eloquently told him of his rights, and with fiery zeal denounced his oppressor. He read, and became the vindicator of negro freedom. *

CHAPTER V.*

        Immediate causes of the rising of the blacks--Dissensions of the planters--Spread of anti-slavery opinions in Europe--The outbreak of the first French Revolution--Mulatto war--Negro insurrection--Toussaint protects his master and mistress, and their property.

        WHILE Toussaint was pursuing a course of reading and meditation which was to conduct him in its issue to great achievements, the volcano of insurrection and mutual slaughter was preparing around him, the premonitions of which he was too sagacious not to discern. Hayti was prosperous. The masters daily grew more opulent on the produce of their plantations. The war of American independence made Hayti into a great commercial entrepôt, and largely augmented its wealth. Could the actual condition of the colony have been maintained, its riches would have continued to increase,--and, with its riches, its voluptuousness. But already that very wealth had sown the seeds of disorder. The larger planters were too opulent and too powerful to be at peace with each other. There existed a rivalry between the two chief cities,--the Cape and Port-au-Prince. This rivalry was made more intense when, in 1787, the Superior Council of the Cape was suppressed, and its power transferred to the Council of Port-au-Prince, under the general designation of "the Superior Council of St. Domingo." Dissensions ensued, in which the West and the South soon took part. Appeal was made to France. The Government listened, but gave no remedy. Recourse was had to indirect influence. Deputies were sent to Paris. Their activity

called forth opposition on the part of the colonial proprietors who habitually resided in that metropolis; and they, carried away by the fashion of the hour, formed, for the furtherance of their views, a club called the Club Massaic,--from the name of the hotel where the members assembled. Thus organized, they proceeded to withstand the deputies from Hayti,--and specially strove to prevent their obtaining a hearing before the States General. The progress of events, however, creating a common alarm, the club united with the deputies in seeking the establishment of a Colonial Assembly. In this question, there was a new source of disagreement. What should be its constitution? Who should be its members? How should its members be elected? These debatable points occasioned long and disquieting discussions. The North and the West came again into collision, and the island was torn by discord. The great proprietors set the example of innovation. At no period could such an example have been more unseasonable. Throughout Europe there had spread and waxed strong a spirit of humanity, which denounced slavery and sought its abolition. In England and in France that generous spirit acquired immense social power. Then those philanthropists who acquired for themselves perpetual fame in proclaiming the rights of the slave, and procuring the abolition of the slave-trade,--Price, Priestly, Sharp, Clarkson, Wilberforce,--began their generous and noble efforts. The society of "The Friends of the Blacks" (Les Amis des Noirs), was formed, and the stronghold of slavery was assailed in a manner which announced the certainty of its downfall.

        Could the desire of these eminent men have prevailed, the contest would have been left exclusively to mental and moral resources. But the fermentation of the public mind in France, moved in its very depths by centuries of civil and ecclesiastical misrule and profligacy, provoked an appeal to the most violent of human passions and the most dreadful of human appliances. The oath of the Tennis Court and the taking of the Bastille commenced the battle of liberty against despotism. The announcement

of these events in Hayti produced the greatest agitation. The existing discontents received fresh impulse. The planters hailed the revolution as a precursor of the independence of the colony. The officers of the government encouraged the dream of a counter-revolution. The petits blancs, intoxicated with enthusiastic sympathy, cheered and sustained the Parisian mobs, and hoped to pursue a similar course in the island. White the several classes of the whites were thus distracted, the mulattoes experienced the general excitement the more because they were watching their opportunity for self-liberation. As to the negroes, they, in general, pursued their wonted round of toil, apparently, and, for the most part, really, indifferent to the social commotion. Certainly, among the agitated parties, no one thought of their emancipation. The factions were intent only on their several interests. The colonists wanted at least an increase of their power. The men of color sought to raise themselves to an equality with the colonists. If these selfish views required a covering, the veil was found in the claim of sameness of privileges for all free men. The black was too much despised to be thought of by the colonial combatants.

        The first marked effort was made by the mulattoes, and so the first contest was a contest for the attainment of mulatto interests. A deputation of men of color was sent to Paris. Eager to promote the views of their caste, they presented six millions of francs for the service of the State, and offered the fifth of their property in mortgage of the national debt. They asked in return that they should in all things be put on a footing of equality with the whites, whom they alleged they equalled in number, and with whom they partook all the territorial and commercial wealth of the colony. The President of the Assembly replied, that "No part of the French nation should in vain claim rights at the hands of the representatives of the French people."

        At the same time there took place in the Assembly a discussion respecting the servitude of the blacks. The entire nation

seemed to have made the question its own; and a distinguished member of the Legislature uttered these bold and disinterested words: "I am one of the greatest proprietors of St. Domingo; but I declare to you, that were I to lose all I possess there, I would make the sacrifice rather than disown the principles which justice and humanity have consecrated; I declare for both the admission into the administrative assemblies (of the colony) of men of color, and the liberation of the blacks." This famous declaration made by Lamoth produced an immense effect; it astounded the great planters, and filled them with distrust and hatred against the men of color. That adverse feeling manifested itself in the execution, at the Cape, of the mulatto Lacombe, whose only crime was the affixing of his signature to a petition, in which he claimed the rights of man. The mulattoes of Petit Goâve had addressed to the electoral assembly of the West of Hayti a petition in which they humbly requested, not equality of rights, but merely some improvements in their condition. Those who had put their names to the entreaty were all apprehended, and the person who drew it up, Ferrand de Baudière, though reputed a just and wise man, and though he had been high in office, was, with only the forms of a trial, hurried into the hands of the executioner, in spite of the efforts made to save him by the colonial government. While these and other displays of hope on the one side, and jealousy and fear on the other, were taking place, a decree of the French Legislature (8th of March, 1790) arrived in the colony, which, founded on broad principles of justice, gave the men of color the right to enter the colonial assemblies. The Haytian representatives, just constituted under the orders of Louis XVI., and assembled at Saint-Mare, with the title of "General Assembly," before they proceeded to any other business, formally declared that all the whites would die rather than share political rights with "a bastard and degenerate race." Moreover they proclaimed themselves the sole legal and legitimate representatives of the colony, and disallowed the authority of the Governor-General, whose power emanated from

the French Government, merely consenting to submit their decrees for the royal sanction. By these and similar steps, the tendency of which was to concentrate all power in the hands of a portion of the resident planters, two authorities were set in operation; for the usurpations of the General Assembly compelled the Governor and the Superior Council of Port-au-Prince, in union with the Provincial Assembly of the North, to take measures of self-defence, and to maintain their position. A bitter contest ensued.

        During the progress of these collisions, a new element of confusion intervened. Vincent Ogé, a man of color, son of a wealthy butcher at the Cape, whom the mulattoes had sent to Paris, as one of their deputies, landed at Cap Francois, October 17th, 1790, under the name of Poissac, with the title of lieutenant-colonel, and the order of the Lion, which he had purchased of the Prince of Limbourg; and, having visited his mother, who lived in handsome style at Dondon, marched, in alliance with Chavanne, a man of his own caste, at the head of two hundred men to La Grande Rivière, in the Department of the North. From the camp which he established there, he sent to the President of the Assembly of that Department the following letter:--

"VINCENT OGÉ TO THE MEMBERS COMPOSING THE PROVINCIAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE CAPE.

        "GENTLEMEN:--A prejudice, too long maintained, is about to fall. I am charged with a commission doubtless very honorable to myself. I require you to promulgate throughout the colony the instructions of the National Assembly of the 8th of March, which gives without distinction, to all free citizens, the right of admission to all offices and functions. My pretensions are just, and I hope you will pay due regard to them. I shall not call the plantations to rise; that means would be unworthy of me.

        "Learn to appreciate the merit of a man whose intention is pure. When I solicited from the National Assembly a decree

which I obtained in favor of the American colonists, formerly known under the injurious epithet of 'men of mixed blood,' I did not include in my claims the condition of the negroes who live in servitude. You and our adversaries have misrepresented my steps in order to bring me into discredit with honorable men. No, no, gentlemen! we have put forth a claim only on behalf of a class of freemen, who, for two centuries, have been under the yoke of oppression. We require the execution of the decree of the 8th of March. We insist on its promulgation, and we shall not cease to repeat to our friends that our adversaries are unjust, and that they know not how to make their interests compatible with ours. Before employing my means, I make use of mildness; but if, contrary to my expectation, you do not satisfy my demand, I am not answerable for the disorder into which my just vengeance may carry me."

        Ogé was attacked by a force of six hundred men. The attack he repelled. The colonies sent another body of fifteen hundred men against him. Ogé was defeated and fled. He took refuge in the Spanish territories. His surrender was demanded from the Spanish authorities. Being delivered up, he was put on his trial. That trial, famous in the annals of Hayti, lasted two months. At last Ogé and his lieutenant, Chevanne, were condemned to be broken alive on the wheel, and their goods to be confiscated to the king. The sentence was immediately put into execution. Nevertheless the mulatto war was not brought to an end. On the contrary, the desire of ascendency and the thirst for revenge became every day more and more intense.

        Informed of the revolutionary proceedings of the Assembly of St. Marc, the authorities in the mother country declared what it had done null and void, divested its members of their authority, required a new election of deputies in their place, and sent two regiments of the line to carry their ordinances into execution. The mulattoes were enthusiastic with joy, The colonists repelled with indignation the thought of receiving men

of color as co-legislators with themselves. New risings took place, new conflicts ensued. The passions every day burned more fiercely; and while the mulattoes cherished boundless hopes, the whites, overflowing with indignation, put themselves in open revolt against the mother country, denying its prerogatives, and refusing the civic oath. In the midst of these thickening disorders, the planters resident in France were invited to return, and assist in vindicating the civil independence of the island. Then was it that the mulattoes appealed to the slaves. Terrible was the result. The slaves awoke as if from an ominous dream. Under one of their class, named Boukman, a man of Herculean strength, who knew not what danger was, the negroes on the night of August 21st, 1791, arose in the terrific power of brute force. Gaining immediate success, they rapidly increased in numbers, and grew hot with fury. They fell on the plantations, slaughtered their proprietors, and destroyed the property. Such progress did the insurrection make, that on the 26th, the third of the habitations of the Northern Department were in ashes. In a week from its commencement the storm had swept over the whole plain of the North, from east to west, and from the mountains to the sea. Those rich houses, those superb factories, were in ruins. Conflagration raged everywhere. The mountains, covered with smoke and burning fragments, borne upwards by the wind, looked like volcanoes. The atmosphere, as if on fire, resembled a furnace. Everywhere were seen signs of devastation,--demolished edifices, smouldering embers, scattered and broken furniture, plate, and other precious articles overlooked by the marauders; the soil running with blood, dead bodies heaped the one on the other, mangled and mutilated, a prey to voracious birds and beasts. In proceedings so horrible Toussaint could take no part. Faithful to his owner, he, during a whole month, protected the plantation, at the head of the negroes, whom he greatly contributed to keep in obedience, and prevented the insurgents from setting the fields of sugar-cane on fire. While all the whites were flying for their lives, and hurrying

to find a shelter in the towns, Madame Bayou de Libertas, protected by Toussaint, remained in her own abode. The superintendent himself, who was in camp at Haut-du-Cap, not far from his plantation, safely ventured near every day, in order to keep up the vigilance of the slaves. His safety he owed to Toussaint, who, with inexpressible joy, saw Bayou among the negroes at a moment when a white skin insured instant death. Happy the slave-owner who, in such a crisis, has in his gang one who, like Toussaint, is a man and a Christian indeed. Having exerted every power to protect his mistress, assist his master, and defend the property, and seeing the insurrection becoming constantly more formidable, exhausted also by fatigue, Toussaint at length induced Madame de Bayou, whose life he knew was in danger, to quit Breda, and proceed to the Cape. In the absence of her husband he got the carriage ready, loaded it with articles of value, placed his mistress therein, and confided her to the care of his younger brother, Paul. Nor was this the only service rendered to the family by their noble slave. One of the first uses which he made of the influence he acquired was to enable them to emigrate. While every white man and all he possessed were devoted to destruction, Bayou, with his family and a rich cargo, left Hayti and settled at Baltimore, in the United States.

CHAPTER VI.

        Continued collision of the planters, the mulattoes, and the negroes--The planters willing to receive English aid--The negroes espouse the cause of Louis XVI.--Arrival of Commissioners from France--Negotiations--Resumption of hostilities--Toussaint gains influence.

        THE direful efficiency with which the negroes had devastated the country indicated the presence among them of a skill superior to any they could possess. That skill was supplied by mulattoes, who organized the destroying bands, and directed their movements. The "bastard and degenerate race" thus struck a deadly blow at their criminal parents.

        During the progress of these furious excesses, a new General Assembly of Planters opened its sessions, under the title of "Colonial Assembly." Its first act was an act of rebellion. Refusing to apply to France for aid, and having taken measures of self-defence, it sought protection from England. These were the terms it employed in a letter addressed to the Governor of Jamaica:--

"AT CAP-FRANÇOIS, August 24, 1791.

        "The General Assembly of the French part of St. Domingo, deeply affected by the calamities which desolate Saint Domingo, has resolved to send a deputation to your excellency, in order to place before you a picture of the misfortunes which have fallen on this beautiful island; fire lays waste our possessions, the hands of our negroes in arms are already dyed with the blood of our brethren. Very prompt assistance is necessary to save the wreck of our fortunes,--already half-destroyed; and, confined within the towns, we look for your aid."

        Without awaiting a reply, the General Assembly adopted the

round English hat as a uniform of its troops, and substituted the black cockade for the French national colors.

        The reply of the Governor, Lord Effingham, did not come up to the expectations of the planters; he merely sent five hundred muskets, with some ammunition, and commanded a vessel of fifty guns to cruise off the western coast.

        Meanwhile the black insurgents, after augmenting their numbers by force as well as persuasion, placed themselves under the standard of royalty; they gave themselves the name of "The King's Own;" and their leader, Jean-François, assumed the title of High-Admiral, while his second in command became Generalissimo of the conquered territories. Summoned to yield by Blanchelande, Governor of French Hayti, they replied,--

        "SIR:--We have never thought of failing in the duty and respect which we owe to the representative of the person of the king, nor even to any of his servants whatever; we have proofs of the fact in our hands; but do you, who are a just man as well as a general, pay us a visit; behold this land which we have watered with our sweat,--or, rather, with our blood,--those edifices which we have raised, and that in the hope of a just reward! Have we obtained it? The king--the whole world--has bewailed our lot, and broken our chains; while, on our part, we, humble victims, were ready for anything, not wishing to abandon our masters. What do we say? We are mistaken; those who, next to God, should have proved our fathers, have been tyrants, monsters unworthy of the fruits of our labors; and do you, brave general, desire that as sheep we should throw ourselves into the jaws of the wolf? No! it is too late. God, who fights for the innocent, is our guide; he will never abandon us. Accordingly, this is our motto,--Death or Victory! In order to prove to you, excellent sir, that we are not so cruel as you may think, we, with all our souls, wish for peace,--but on condition that all the whites, whether of the plain or of the mountains, shall quit the Cape without a single exception. Let them carry with them their gold and their jewels;

we seek only liberty,--dear and precious object! This, general, is our profession of faith; and this profession we will maintain to the last drop of our blood. We do not lack powder and cannons. Therefore,--Liberty or Death! God grant that we may obtain freedom without the effusion of blood! Then all our desires will be accomplished; and believe it has cost our feelings very much to have taken this course. Victory or death for freedom!"

        This assumption of the part of Louis XVI. astounded and perplexed the planters. The fact, however, was only too plain. By means of the Spaniards of Hayti, the counter-revolutionary party in France gave secret support to the insurgents, if they did not also call them forth; and, in order to impart feasibility and vigor to the movement, they gave out that the king's life had been put in danger by the whites, because he had resolved to emancipate the blacks. Strange reversals! While the colonists hoisted English colors, their slaves exhibited the white flag, with the words on one side, Long live the king; and, on the other, The ancient system of government.

        The insurrection proceeded; the negroes carried their arms from place to place, and, subduing all the open country, reduced the colonists to the defensive. As the contest went on, horrors multiplied. The planters hung on trees and hedges the dead bodies of their black prisoners; the insurgents formed around their camp an enclosure marked by the bleeding heads of those who fell under their hands. The fury of the negroes was stimulated by unworthy priests; but even religion was powerless when it endeavored to place a barrier against tumultuous passion. A priest was hung on the spot for the crime of trying to protect innocent women from brutal violation.

        The superior discipline at the command of the colonists, however, began to prevail. The negroes were checked and driven back. Their bands were directed by three chiefs, Jean-François, Biassou, and Jeannot.

        Jean-François belonged to a colonist of the name of Papillon.

A young creole of good exterior, he had not been able to bear the yoke of slavery, though he had no special cause of complaint against his master; he had, long before the revolution, obtained his liberty. Flying from the plantation, he joined the maroons, or black fugitives, who wandered at large in the refuge of the mountains. He was naturally of a mild disposition, and inclined to clemency. If his career was stained by cruelties, the crime must be imputed to perfidious councils. Of no great courage, and little enterprise, he owed his command to his intellectual superiority.

        Biassou belonged to the religious body designated "The Fathers of Charity." A contrast, in every respect, to Jean François, he was fiery, rash, wrathful, and vindictive. Always in action, always on horseback, very suspicious, and very aspiring, he usurped the lead which the apathy of his principal almost let fall into his hands. Jean François loved luxury, fine clothes, and grand equipages; Biassou was given to women and drink.

        Jeannot, a slave of the plantation of M. Bullet, was small and slender in person, and of boundless activity. Perfidious of soul, his aspect was frightful and revolting. Capable of the greatest crimes, he was inaccessible to regret and remorse. Having sworn implacable hatred against the whites, he thrilled with rage when he saw them; and his greatest pleasure was to bathe his hands in their blood. On his master's estate, the chief theatre of his crimes, he was sure, after committing a massacre, to gather up in his hands the blood which flowed on all sides, and, carrying it to his mouth, was heard to exclaim,--"Oh, my friends, how sweet--how good--this white blood! let us take full draughts; let us swear irreconcilable revenge against our oppressors; peace with them, never,--so help me God!" Like cruel men in general, Jeannot was as cowardly as he was faithless. Yet was he daring in attack; and when danger pressed, his fear or his fury drove his troops to a resistance proof against attack, or compelled them to snatch a victory by cutting off every way of retreat.

        Such were the men under whom Toussaint now found himself. No longer able to choose the moment for commencing his benevolent enterprise, he was hurried into the eddying torrent by the swelling streams of popular fanaticism. His fidelity to his proprietors making him an object of suspicion and a butt for negro attack, he was, even in self-defence, obliged to fall into the ranks of the raging insurgents. Generally known as much for his intelligence as his moderation, he was the less likely to be spared; but dragged into the rebellion against his better feelings and his judgment, he was regarded with distrust. Withheld, in consequence, from the military post for which his talents fitted him, he was commanded to employ his medical skill in taking care of the wounded. Quietly and usefully employed in an office which was agreeable to his feelings, he, at a distance from the conflict, turned his naturally reflective mind to the study of the personal qualities of his chiefs, and so acquired an acquaintance with their weaknesses, which greatly aided him in at length attaining supreme command. That post he reached without disgracing himself by blood or pillage, in a contest in which examples of both crowded on his sight. He was by nature retiring and given to seclusion, but in François Lafitte, whom he had long known, and whom he now found among the insurgents, he had one companion with whom similarity of ideas and feelings made intercourse both pleasant and profitable. It may well be supposed that these two men, united in the bonds of goodness and philanthropy, often deplored together the horrible excesses which they witnessed, or of which they heard.

        As, however, the insurrection passed on,--and specially when defeat made its conduct difficult,--the leaders found it imperative to bring forward all men of superior talent. No longer, therefore, was Toussaint permitted to pursue his medical occupations. Taken out of comparative privacy, he was made aide-de-camp to Biassou.

        A grotesque spectacle did that negro army, or rather those negro bands, present. The slaves were ridiculously attired in the

spoils of their masters. The cavalry were mounted on lumbering horses and mules, worn down by labor and fatigue. The horseman was armed with a musket almost as dangerous to himself as to his foe. The infantry were all but naked, and destitute of experience; their weapons were sticks pointed with iron, broken or blunted swords, pieces of iron hoop, and some wretched guns and pistols. Notwithstanding the alarm they inspired, the troops were almost without ammunition. Jean François, decorated with ribbons and orders which he had plundered in the sack of the abodes of the proprietors, gave himself out for a chevalier of the Order of Saint Louis, besides taking to himself the titles of admiral and generalissimo. Biassou and Jeannot were brigadiers, a title which was fixed on Toussaint; the rest were marshals, commanders, generals, colonels, and some condescended to be captains. At a later period, Biassou, on having a disagreement with Jean François, assumed the pompous title of viceroy of the conquered countries. Only an iron discipline could maintain any order in such a body of men. The soldiers had sought liberty, and for the moment found the severest bondage. Disobedience was punished with severity, in the more flagrant instances with decapitation. Yet some regard was shown to the rights of property, for the stealer of cattle was hanged.

        The leaders of the insurrection feared each other. Jeannot's cruelties were held in abomination by Toussaint. Jean François, by whom Jeannot was dreaded, resolved to disembarrass himself of the monster. Seizing his opportunity, he caused him to be apprehended. Tried by a summary process, Jeannot was sentenced to be shot. In this moment of peril, the wretch who had shed so much blood, and who had gloated over the sufferings of his victims, proved how cowardly a soul he had. He threw himself on his knees before Jean François, supplicated pardon, offered to purchase life by becoming his slave; and when the priest came up to offer him spiritual aid, he took him into his arms, pressing body to body, and was only by violence torn from him, to be dragged to execution.

        The whites, although they had gained advantages in the war, were scarcely less than the blacks agitated with mutual dissensions. While they lost time and energy in discord, the men of color assumed a formidable position under one of their caste, named Beauvais. The movement had an excuse in the cruelties which the colonists perpetrated at the Cape, where seventeen mulattoes had been put to death without even the forms of a trial, and where daily, fugitive slaves, even the most faithful, were, on seeking an asylum in the city, forthwith hanged, after having escaped the dangers of being massacred on their road by some of the white scouts who scoured the neighborhood.

        On every side the grossest injustice prevailed; crime was repaid with crime; vengeance followed vengeance; the civilized master degraded himself no less than the neglected slave; between the two stood the mulatto, the enemy of both, and prepared to sacrifice either for his own aggrandizement.

        The ease with which the mulatto betrayed the rights of the negro may be exemplified in the case of a number of men denominated the Swiss. In the ranks of the men of color were three hundred slaves, who received the title of "the Swiss," from the resemblance which their service bore to that of the Swiss under the French monarchy. Used by the men of color in their warfare against the whites, they were surrendered by the former at the demand of the latter the moment fortune began to frown on the mulatto cause. Consisting of men of color as well as negroes, they were thrown on the coast of Jamaica. Driven thence, they either perished in the ocean or on the inhospitable shores of their birth, presenting in their sufferings and destruction a proof of the inhumanity of the whites and the perfidy of the mulattoes.

        Disorder continued to increase. It would be a tedious as well as painful task to recount the misdeeds that were done on all sides, at the Cape by the colonists, at La Grande Rivière by the negroes, and in the West by the mulattoes. The leaders of the blacks began to feel that they had in hand a hopeless cause. The liberation of the negro population was not possible in the

presence of two powerful enemies,--the planters and their descendants. Consequently they were not disinclined to negotiate.

        At this juncture, there arrived in Hayti three Commissioners, sent by the mother country on a mission of peace. These were Roume, Mirbeck, and St. Léger. Roume, a creole of Grenada, had been a councillor in that island, and afterwards a commissioner at Tobago. Under a simple and modest exterior, he possessed much knowledge; of a phlegmatic disposition, he would have been inaccessible to the attacks of the factious, had not his ordinary fickleness called forth their efforts. Mirbeck, a celebrated advocate in the council of state, where he had pleaded many causes for the colonists, was haughty and inflexible. St. Léger had long lived as a physician in Tobago, where he possessed slaves. The first object of these three men was to appease the civil war which wasted the West, and to stop the hurricane which covered the North with ruins. They wisely began by causing the gallows of the planters at the Cape to be demolished. The news of their arrival induced the masters of slaves to open a negotiation. Raynal and Duplessy, the first a free mulatto, the second a free negro, being admitted to an audience by the Colonial Assembly, received for answer:--"Emissaries of the revolted negroes, the assembly established on the law and by the law cannot correspond with people armed against the law,--against all laws. The assembly might extend grace to guilty men if, being repentant, they had returned to their duty. Nothing would please its members better than to be in a condition to recognize those who, contrary to their will, have been hurried into guilt. We know how to measure out favors as well as justice. Withdraw!" "Withdraw" to men who came with the olive-branch in their hands! The deputies did withdraw,--indignation burning in their hearts, and curses murmured from their lips. They made their way through the spectators with a haughty brow, and when that crowd tried to hoot them down, they hastened to register a new outrage in the book of vengeance.

        On the arrival of the deputies at La Grand Rivière, the army of the population came together. Every one had fondly dreamt of union. What was the disappointment! When Raynal and Duplessy related the disdainful manner in which they had been treated, cries of vexation and rage rent the air. Biassou, unable to restrain his passion, ordered all the whites detained in the camp to be put to death. The necessary preparations were made; when Toussaint--always humane--intervened, calmed his chief, and saved the lives of the intended victims. Such is the ascendency of goodness. Such is the power of that rapid, animated, and picturesque eloquence which Toussaint possessed, and which, on very many other occasions, he employed for merciful results of a similar kind. We subjoin an instance. Biassou one day received from the Cape a proclamation intended to win back the slaves. The insurgent chief determined to publish it. Causing his soldiers to take their arms, he ordered the proclamation to be read aloud. Instantly there arose the awful cry of "Death to the whites." Toussaint shuddered, rushed forward, again read the proclamation