The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-04-21 00:00:00

" The Cause for which HAMPDEN fell in the Flea, end SYDNEY died on the Seattle!'"

ESSAYS cos rats CAUSES or rim REVOLUTION
AND THE CIVIL WARS or 11.4371:
DONNING A ONRINII Of POLITICAL SIVILSCTIONS ON CDR.
'PAIN FRENCH JOURNALS AND Panrulars, coNctaliT.4l
HAYTI, PT SioNt.INVII LE DAKOPI DE VASTLY.

TRANSLATED rams 1171 OIININ•L ►RINCR, visa TIM PAEIR

txcLuslyiLv,
By ALEXANDER JAMIESON, E►at.

XSSAY FIRST.
ON TOE PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICII II IIYIL LLD THE PIIO-
PLE UP
tiTI TO ASSERT TfICIR LIBERTY AND IN-
DEPENDENCE.

11..yti has hitherto been deficient in a general •14s-
tory. written by an indigene! inhabitant; the greeter
part of the historians, who have given some fragments,
were Europeans. They have occupied themselstes
principally with the histor.cal part, which of coarse
concerned them most; and when they ha►e been low
pelted, by their subject, to wok of the isdigenal
habiteuts, they have done so with the spirit of preju-
dice and partiality, which they could not shake of
when it was roused by the competition of 61ack$ and
whit( s.

Relates it is necessary to consider that these histo-
rians have had, as their guides, but materials fabri-
cated by the whites. Events and facts have been
twisted in a sir:owe manner; triah has been shown)
in a false light ; the halance has always inclined more
to one side than the other ; ami moreover, since it is
absolutely necessary that they who write the history'
of any country should have a perfect knowledge of
every cirrnmstance concerning it, is it strange or asto-
nishing that writers, even men of great talents, should:
have erred in what they have written of Hayti, and
have given very defective historical notices of that
island ?

The want of a general, exact, and true history, oc-
casions great difficulties to the politi•Al writer, who is
shackled and stopped at • very step in his march ; and
to be able well to refute his adversaries, and render
his subject clear and intelligible to his readers, he is
oblized to ascend to the sources of events, if lie would
develope truth, and expose the mi.repn•sentations of
his adversaries.

We have been compelled to follow this path, in
giving a succinct exposition of the principal events of
the Revolution of Ilayti, and of the causes which led
to that Revolution. We have placed them as land-
marks for our guide with the reader in this labyrinth,
without, however, going ourselves from the strict
bounds which we have prescribed, lest we should fall
into prolixity, and lose sight of the essenti,ll objcct
for which we write.

Without further preamble we proceed with our
subject.
_Ol

&Awe 1

don of Hayti was divided into three distinct casta.l
which were again subdivided according to the esta,-
Wished prekolii e. of the colonial spstew, via.-
40,000 Whitt:, who divided themselves into great
planters and 1,. r;tA.,,lanrs.
30.009 Pcupl.. of colour and blacks, formerly free-
men, who were divided into as many classes as there
were gradations of eidour, more or less approaching
the whites.

5011,4410 Itliici< slaves, natives and Afri' ans, subject
also to the colonial pr,juilires. The rreoles were dis-
tinguished fioin the Africans; and in these two classes,
the domestics, the coati in, drivers, ennituanderrs,
every one who was attached to the whites, all who
were then culled lewd aphjcete, were distinguished
from the unfortunate slaves who cultivated the soil.
A spirit of egotism, of pride and vanity, reigned
In all these classes; the great planters despised the
petits-blames, the petits-blames contemned the men of co-
lour and the enfranchised blacks; and these, in their
turn, looked down on the unfortunate slaves.
Such were the basis of the colonial system ; they
were founded on slavery and the prejudices of colony,
with the view of preserving to the whites the pre-
eminence of which the ex-colonists are so jealous.
We speak not of a prohibited commerce : that
branch of the system concerned only the ex-col,inists
with the mother-country—France. At that period
we were neither merchants Mir planters ; we were
only the instruments with which both aggrandized
themselves. A population so considerable, rotnposed
of elements an dillerent, and of principles so hetero-
geneous, would certainly feel the effects of a revolu-
tion such as broke out in France, and needed but a
faint spark to kindle into a blaze all the bustibie
materit al, s which had been gathered in its bosom.
The Revolution commenced by consecrating in
France the eternal and indistinctihle principles of
the rights of man, in a social state ; liberty and
equality, prod:timed in the hearing of so many men
who groaned wider :he oppr. ssion ill a colonial des-
potism and barbarous slavery, could not fail to pro-
duce tem hle effects, which have, in their explosion,
overturned and destroyed, root and brand:, the colo-
nial system of Saint Domingo.
There were but two tic thoils by which this system,
deep rooted by time and prejudices, could be destroyed.
One was, by the will of the oppress irs aided by time,
or, in default of this, by those violent checks which
become ne essary to remose an excess of crime, by
blood and destruct' , during many years, -between
the oppressed and their oppressors. And it is this
which has actually happened in Hayti. The inflexi-
bility of character, the ittjusti e, and the tyranny of
the ex-colourists, have produced this terrible struggle,
which has been prolonged even to the present time ;
and the colonial hydra, in his agony, dares to pro-
voke it still by his vain murmurings.
When the Royalists and the Repuldirane began
quarrelling; in France, and the Revolution marched
with gigantic strides, Saint Domingo followed the
example of the ntother-country. '1 he great planters
and the petita, quarrelled among themselves,
and from disputes came to blows. (Inc party ?mounted
the white cockade, the other the tr,-cvlurt.. In all

their assemblies" in their societies, at table, or in
public, the only questions discussed were the rights
of man, liberty, and equality.
The domestics and other confident, who approached
the whites lent an attentive ear to these discussions,
which attracted them by their novelty, and interested
them by their consequences. The Revolution, the
rights of man, liberty, and equality, became now the
discourse of the domestic., who reported to their
friends and comrades in the plantations and the stores,
what they heard at the table of their masters. The
whites heeded not their discourse, but allowed all li-
cense to speech in our° presence, believing that our
senses were so dull and stapid that we could under-
stand nothing of political discussions. So far they
were blinded by the prejudices which they bad so long
entertained against the blacks; prejudices which they
cannot abandon even at the present time.
We hero said that the spirit of egsotiam end pride,
inherent In the colonial system, reigned ht all classes.
Alm great planters did not wish to make any cession
of their rights to the petits-414'es, who, on their
part, wished to have the same rights as the first, but
refused them to the men of colour ; and these last,
who wished to he on an equality of rights with the
petits-61asses, refused to make any cession of rights to
the blacks.

It was thus that the unfortunate flee, suing for the
civil and political rights of the men of colour only,
refused to follow the counsels of the brave and gene-
rous Chavanne, who had pledged himself that the
blacks would enjoy the same advantages ; and by thus,
depriving himself voluntarily of the strength of an
immense force, he became the fatal victim of his er-
ror ; the whites would no longer place any confidence
in him, and he expired under the wheel with his
family!
It was thus that in the different agreements which
took place between the whites and the men of colour,
the blacks were always sacrificed by the two parties.
Nevertheless, the blood of these martyrs, the blond
of Oge and Chavanne, shed gloriously on the scatt.ld,
cried aloud for vengeance, and contributed to give
motion to the Revolution.

The white population divided itself into two die-

'tine! parties :
The great planters, whom we now call the I:ltra-
Colonists, for they have not changed the system formed
by the Royalist party, who have made common cause
with the emigrants, the Spaniards and the English.
The whites, attached to revolutionary principles,
whom we now call Liberals or Constitutionalists,
formed the republican party.
The black and olive population became the tools of
both parties ; the great planters stirred up to insurre.
tins tba black*, is the name of the Kills of France and
loSpalirlb oppose the Republicans; and the Repnblieami,
on their part, were violent to proclaim general liberty,
that they might he able to oppose the blacks to the
planters, the Spaniards, and the English.
The Generals Jean Francois, Masson,' !longue-
mand, Candi, be. combatted, in the name of the Kings
of France and Spain, against the French Republic:
and the Generals Ti;ns.aint Louverture, Vilatte, Le-
veille, and many other Ilaytian warriors, fought in the
name of the French Republic, against the emigrants,
the Spaniards, and the English.
Roth parties became the unhappy victims of their
credulity and attachment to the whites.
Jean Francois, Biassou, Candi, and many others
who have shed your blood for the Kings of France and
Spain, what has become of you ? Jean Francois has
terminated his days in exile, Masson and Candi have
'bean inhumanly replunged into slavery, and buried
alive in the mines of Mexico! And you, Toossaint
Lonverture, Vilatte, and many other Ilaytian warrior.,
what has been the recompense of the eminent services
you have performed, and of the blood you have shed
for these ungrateful Republicans?. Toussaint died in
the horrors of a dungeon, in tortures, in cold, and
famine, and misery ; Vilatte, before he xpired, felt
his entrails racked by poison ; thousands of our bre-
thren have been the victims of their credulity. It,
cruel ingratitude : detestable crime It, my com-
panions, when will you cease to he the instruments and
the victims of these monsters ? A part of the men of
colour and the blacks, ancient freemen, threw them-
selves among the Republicans, and a part among the
Royalists. The mass of the black population folluvvcil
the impulse which had been given it, and it was thus
divided into two parties. The white cockade distin-
guished the one party, the tri-colonr the other: and
ender the specious names of King, Liberty, Re, uidic,
we fought, and we shed our blood, without knowing
why, without even suspecting that we ;ere mere tools,
employed fur own ruin, by the white Royalists and the
Republicans: for we were far (ro:n thinking that the
whiter, divided among themselves by political opinions,
were perfectly indifferent as to our fate, htit marched
by different roads to the Caine end. The IMP party
wished to annihilate the other, and then reduce to
slavery the party which had served as the instrument
to gain the victory.
It was thus that the blacks were served by General
Rigaud, in his attempt to annihilate Toussaint, and
that afterwards the Republicans wished to plunge the
victorious party, General Toussaint and his friends,
into slavery. But the reader cannot be deceived on
this point; General Rigand was conquered, and he has
been well received by the French ; in consequence,
General Toussaint became their victim, and he has
been so. If, on the contrary, Rigawl had hen vie-
! torious, Toussaint would have been welcomed by them;
in fine, both became their victims. As the one or the
other might be conqueror, the French expedition
would not have had less effect ; this civil war was but
the prelude, the victorious had been in t!,e necessity
of combatting, or of submitting to slavery.
Truly, from what had taken place in France, and
• The translator preserves.this style throughout: it is the
bineusge of "' • ten-- ' -
t•or,••