DREADFUL EFFECTS OF IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION

[From a pamphlet recently published in England.}

Of the many persons who declare themselves averse to slavery and yet afraid to join in measures for its abolition, some perhaps have not paid much attention to the instances of emancipation that have already taken place. If any such will take the trouble to read the following account of the effects of emancipation as far as it has hitherto been tried, they will perhaps see that their fears on the subject are not justified by experience.

The History of Hayti when separated from the accidental circumstances attending it, furnishes irrefragable evidence of the safety and advantage of immediate emancipation. It is true that much blood was shed there during the French revolution; but this was not owing to the emancipation of the slaves, but was the consequence either of the civil war which preceded the act of emancipation; or of the atrocious attempt to restore slavery.

In September, 1793, Polvirel, one of the Commissioners sent to St. Domingo by the National Convention, issues a proclamation declaring the whole of the slaves in the island free. Colonel Malenfant, a slave proprietor, resident at the time in the island, thus describes the effects of this sudden measure. “After this public act of emancipation, the Negroes remained quiet both in the south and in the west, and they continued to work upon all the plantations. There were estates which had neither owners nor managers resident upon them, and on those estates where no white men were left to direct them, they betook themselves to the planting of provisions; but upon all plantations where the whites resided, the blacks continued to labor as quietly as before.” Colonel Malenfant says, that when many of his neighbors, proprietors or managers, were in prison, the negroes of their plantations came to him to beg him to direct them in their work. “If you will take care not to talk to them of the restoration of slavery, but talk to them of freedom, you may with this word chain them down to their labor. How did Toussaint succeed?—How did I succeed before is time in the plain of the Culde-Sac on the plantation Gourand, during more than eight months after liberty had been granted to the slaves? Let those who knew me at that time, let the blacks themselves, be asked: they will all reply that not a single negro upon that plantation, consisting of more than four hundred and fifty laborers, refused to work: and yet this plantation was thought to be under the worst discipline and the slaves the most idle of any in the plain. I inspired the same activity into three other plantations of which I had the management. If all the negroes had come from Africa within six months, if they had the love of independence that the Indians have, I should own that force must be employed; but ninety-nine out of a hundred of the blacks are aware that without labor they cannot procure the things that are necessary for them; that there is no other method of satisfying their wants and their tastes. They know that they must work; the wish to do so, and they will do so.”

Such was the conduct of the negroes for the first nine months after their liberation, or up to the middle of 1794. In the latter part of 1796, Malenfant says, “The colony was flourishing under Toussaint, the whites lived happily and in peace upon their estates, and the negroes continued to work for them” General Lecroix who published his “Memoirs for a history of St. Domingo” in 1819, says that in 1797 the most wonderful progress had been made in agriculture. “The Colony,” said he, “marched as by enchantment towards its ancient splendor: cultivation prospered; every day produced perceptible proof of its progress.” General Vincent, who was a general of brigade of artillery in St. Domingo and a proprietor of estates in the island, was sent by Toussaint to Paris in 1801 to lay before the Directory the new constitution which had been agreed upon in St. Domingo. He arrived in France just at the moment of the peace of Amiens, and found that Bonaparte was preparing an armament for the purpose of restoring slavery in St. Domingo. He remonstrated against the expedition; he stated that it was totally unnecessary and therefore criminal, for that every thing was going on well in St. Domingo. The proprietors were in peaceable possessions of their estates; cultivation was making rapid progress; the blacks were industrious and beyond example happy. He conjured him, therefore not to reverse this beautiful state of things, but his efforts were ineffectual, and the expedition arrived upon the shores of St. Domingo. At length, however, the French were driven from the island. Till that time the planters had retained their property, and then it was, and not till then, that they lost their all. In 1804 Dessalines was proclaimed Emperor; in process of time a great part of the black troops were disbanded, and returned to cultivation again. From that time to this, there has been no want of subordination or industry among them.

The following account of the character and condition of the negroes of Hayti, at a later period, is taken from “Sketches of Hayti” by Mr. Harvey, who during the latter part of the reign of Christophe spent a considerable time at Cape François the capital of his dominions. “The cultivators who formed the great mass of the population, resided on or near the plantations of which they were appointed to labor. A great proportion of them were engaged in cultivating the estates of the king; if soldiers, they were fed and clothed at his expense; if regular cultivators, they received such a share of the produce as was fully adequate to yield them a competent maintenance. Others were in the employ of the nobles and officers, who received either stated wages or such a portion of the article they cultivated as was deemed a sufficient reward for their industry, were equally supplied with whatever could contribute to their comfort. And those who by their exertions and economy were enabled to procure small spots of land of their own or to hold the smaller plantations at an annual rent, were diligently engaged in cultivating coffee, sugar, and other articles, which they disposed of to the inhabitants of the adjacent towns and villages. It was an interesting sight to behold this class of the Haytians, now in possession of their freedom, coming in groups to the market nearest which they resided, bringing the produce of their industry for sale; and afterwards returning, carrying back the necessary articles of living which the disposal of their commodities had enabled them to purchase; all evidently cheerful and happy. Nor could it fail to occur to the mind that their present condition furnished the most satisfactory answer to that objection to the general emancipation of slaves, founded on their alleged unfitness to value and improve the benefits of liberty.

Though of the same race and possessing the same general traits of character as the negroes of the other West India islands, they are already distinguished from them by habits of industry and activity such as slaves are seldom known to exhibit. As they would not suffer, so they do not require the attendance of one acting in the capacity of a driver with the instrument of punishment in his hand.—As far as I had an opportunity of ascertaining from what fell under my own observation, and from what I gathered from other European residents, I am persuaded of one general fact which on account of its importance I shall state in the most explicit terms, viz: that the Haytians employed in cultivating the plantations, as well as the rest of the population, perform as much work in a given time as they were accustomed to do during their subjection to the French. And if we may judge of their future improvement by the change which has already effected, it may be reasonably anticipated that Hayti will ere long contain a population not inferior in their industry to that of any civilized nation in the world.

While the interior of this island was in this improving state, and its inhabitants were peaceful and industrious, Cape Francois and other towns presented scenes of the utmost order and activity: the great majority of the inhabitants of Cape Francois consisted of trades-people and mechanics, the former of whom were supplied by the resident merchants with cloths, linens, silks and other manufactures, which they sold to the natives in small quantities. Their business was seldom so great as to enable them to amass fortunes, but it afforded them ample means of support. Towards strangers who entered their shops, whether for the purpose of making purchases or not, they were invariably and remarkably civil; a trait in the character of Christophe’s subjects which I believe to have been universal. The mechanics, though many of them were deficient in skill from having been imperfectly instructed, were all enabled by their industry to gain a competent maintenance. On the whole, the scene which Cape Francois presented was as interesting as it was in many respects surprising. In few places of commerce could there be seen greater regularity in the despatch [sic] of business, greater diligence displayed by those engaged in it, or more evident marks of a prosperous state of things. Every man had some calling to occupy his attention; instances of idleness or intemperance were of rare occurrence, the most perfect subordination prevailed, and all appeared contented and happy. A foreigner would have found it difficult to persuade himself on his first entering the place, that the people he now beheld so submissive, industrious and contented, were the same people who a few years before has escaped from the shackles of slavery.”

A gentleman who had been for upwards of twenty years past a general merchant in Hayti, frequently crossing to Europe and America, gave the following account of the condition of the Haytians to Capt. Stuart at Belfast last winter. The present population he supposes consists of at least seven hundred thousand. He said that there was very universal happiness amongst them,—and that though their conduct was not unexceptionable, yet there was a less distress, than in any other country of his knowledge. That they obtained abundance by their own labor.—There were no paupers except the decrepid [sic] and aged: that the people were very charitable, hospitable and kind, very respectful to Europeans, temperate, grateful, faithful, orderly and submissive, easily governable, lively and contented, good mechanics, and that no corporal punishments are allowed.