Jacques Nicolas Léger

“ The first to bid defiance to the colonial system, they showed the men of their race that hardships, sufferings, even death—all were preferable to such degrading servitude. They formed the vanguard of the future army of liberation. [2]
Such were the four classes of men who inhabited Saint-Domingue; the clashing of whose conflicting aspirations was destined to hurl them one against the other. After irrigating the Haitian soil with their sweat, "affranchis," slaves, and maroons firmly united, would lavish their blood on it in order to root out forever the shameful institution of slavery. ”

“ This nation, which was and still is one of the greatest exponents of civilization, should have long ago been struck off the maps of the world if intestine dissensions and civil wars were to prove the incapacity of a people to govern itself. With France, as with Germany and Great Britain, almost every step on the thorny road of progress has been paid for with the blood of her children. Her history, to go no farther back than 1789, is at least as agitated and surely more bloody than that of Haiti. ”

“ If now so horrible and shocking a practise as that of cannibalism under the guise of religion or any other cloak existed at all in Haiti, how could it be that this considerable body of educated, devoted religious teachers, the vast majority of whom are Europeans, keep silent about it through all these years and years? Surely they are all at least civilized men, and if so horrible and revolting a practise as that of cannibalism existed at all in Haiti they would surely know of it. ”

“ This man never broke his word. I would call him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a soldier, and the state he founded went down with him into his grave. I would call him Washington, but the great Virginian held slaves. This man risked his empire rather than permit the slave-trade in the humblest village of his dominions. ”

“ In Haiti a man's color constitutes neither a bar nor a disadvantage to him. Every man is a man; that only which is taken into account is intelligence, probity, and courage. A coward or a dishonest man, be he white, yellow, lilac or black, will receive the contempt he deserves. It is the brain and the heart which constitute a man rather than the color of his skin. Consequently, to do away with everything which might seem to be the outcome of race prejudice, President Geffrard, in 1860, caused the abolition of a custom which up to that time prevented marriages between Haitians and foreigners ”

“ The papa-loi, who is represented in the many books and articles about Haiti as an extraordinary being, is in reality what in the United States and in Europe is called a charlatan, quack, clairvoyant or fortune-teller. Turning to his own account the ignorance or the credulity of those who consult him, the papa-loi does his best to foster the beliefs that he has the power to cure all kinds of diseases, to procure happiness, to insure the success or the failure of all kinds of undertakings, to influence love and hatred, to enrich or impoverish. ”

“ However, this indifference to their sufferings has not made the Haitians selfish; in their kind-heartedness they are ever ready to sympathize with the misfortunes of others. Even when undeserved calamities have befallen her, Haiti has never received the sympathy or help of the other nations. Abandoned to her own resources she is, step by step, making steady progress up the ladder of civilization. This progress, though considered slow by many, is worthy of a higher appreciation when one realizes the obstacles she has had to surmount. ”

“ A nation which has been through so many crises and has voluntarily endured so many hardships in order to improve its political regime cannot be considered degenerate and retrogressive. Like the countries of the Old World, Haiti will achieve the conquest of its ideal by the steadfastness of its faith in personal effort and the consciousness of its dignity and its duty toward the race whose rehabilitation it has willingly undertaken to secure. ”

“ But it is unjust beyond measure to hold a whole nation responsible for the action of a few of her citizens. In every country wrong goes side by side with right; and in order to establish an average one must find out which prevails over the other. Those dishonest men who accumulate wealth at the expense of the people seem at first glance to be more numerous, the display of their ill-gotten wealth making them conspicuous. They attract by these means more attention than the great majority of honest citizens who perform their daily duties in an unpretentious manner ”

“ Therefore he gave the name of Hispañola [2] to the island he had just discovered; and believing that he was in Asia, he called the inhabitants "Indians." On those unfortunate people the arrival of the Spaniards was about to bring endless calamities. And the island up to that time so peaceful and quiet was to have no more tranquillity; the land was to be nothing else than an everlasting battlefield, where all kinds of horrors and atrocities would be perpetrated. Torrents of blood would irrigate its fertile soil and a whole race would disappear in order to satisfy the cupidity of the newcomers. ”

“ To revert to a condition almost of savagery, to relapse into barbarism a nation must be, at the time when the charge is made, in a state of civilization less advanced than formerly; it must be going backward instead of forward. So, to ascertain whether, since the removal of the white control, the Haitians have or have not reverted to a condition almost of savagery, one must necessarily compare their condition of to-day with their condition before the removal of that control. What was the condition of the Haitians over a hundred years ago? The great majority of them were slaves. ”

“ The foreigner who, in making use of a few particular cases in generalizing, makes the whole nation or all Congress responsible for the misconduct of a few individuals, the "black sheep" among them, would be guilty of gross slander toward the United States in thus misrepresenting the solid qualities and virtues of a thoroughly honest people. When there is question of the Senate, its tradition and its reputation place it so high in the public opinion that it does not suffer by the failings of any of its members. ”

“ For more than a century it has been the usual thing to ridicule Haiti; none of the means which might bring discredit on her has been neglected. Nevertheless, she still exists and has proudly maintained her independence. This fact may seem to be unimportant to many; but it is the best evidence that a country placed in so disadvantageous a position as was Haiti, and has nevertheless shown such a vitality, cannot be a mere collection of ignorant, corrupt, and abjectly superstitious men. Such a nation must unquestionably possess a certain amount of sterling qualities. ”

“ By rising up against their masters and in revealing themselves on the battlefields their equals in courage, the slaves of Saint-Domingue had committed what was to the minds of the partisans of slavery an unpardonable crime, rendered all the more monstrous as the Haitians, after having dispossessed the whites of their property and becoming in their turn masters of the country, openly declared that any man of the black race upon setting foot on the Haitian soil would be considered as a freedman. ”

“ At the evacuation of the island the negro troops were in a state of discipline but little inferior to the French, and in point of courage equal. Looking at them in other respects, and taking into consideration that they were men who before, nay even at that time, were in the grossest state of ignorance and moral degradation, our astonishment is excited when we find that in the moment of rage and revenge they often refrained from acts of cruelty and torture, whilst their insatiable enemies were committing the most shocking barbarities. ”

“ Whilst most of the whites led corrupt and dissolute lives, the "affranchis," through domestic virtues, were acquiring much wealth; they possessed a third of the real estate, and a fourth of the personal property of the colony. [2] Yet no regard was shown them. Despite the levelling and philanthropic philosophy which in Europe was moving the heart of the nobility, the colonists became daily more and more haughty and overbearing to the men of the black race; they did all in their power to check the hopes which these new ideas began to raise in the souls of the sorely oppressed slaves. ”

“ Those who charge all the Presidents of Haiti and the Haitian people at large with being dishonest and corrupt are merely propagating slanders in more or less good faith.
At times there are grave scandals in France; nevertheless, no impartial-minded person will infer from this that the French people are corrupt, for their probity is proverbial; a whole nation cannot be made to suffer for the faults or the failings of a few of its citizens. ”

“ Before passing judgment on them by peremptorily declaring that they are incapable of governing themselves, one must remember the condition of their coming into existence as a nation and their extraction, and compare this with the length of time which France, Great Britain, and Germany have taken to arrive at their present state of civilization. The fact that after a century of free government the United States of America have been able to equal and even exceed the progress accomplished by some of the European States cannot be used as an argument against Haiti. ”

“ Few countries have progressed without bloodshed and fierce struggles. Haiti did not escape the consequences of this fatality to which all nations seemed doomed in the beginning; she is no exception to the rule. Her detractors are aware therefore that they are acting in bad faith when they affect to believe and cause others to believe that her civil wars are due solely to the so-called incapacity of her people to govern themselves; they intentionally forget the disturbances which have given so many anxious moments to France, whose inhabitants, however, are not black. ”

“ Woe to those whose conduct has not been blameless. From the President of Haiti down to the humblest citizen no one whose behavior has merited it is immune from the attack in the popular songs; in spite of the comical form in which it is clothed this has become a great moral force, and many men and women who might be inclined to do otherwise behave so as to avoid becoming the theme of a song which would soon be heard about the streets in every part of the city. ”

“ If this powerful, rich, and highly educated people had, during nineteen centuries, to grope for the political regime best suited to their temperament, can the world refuse to make some allowance and to have a little indulgence for Haiti, whose existence dates back but a hundred years and whose sons possessed none of the advantages enjoyed by those of the older nations of Europe?
The lesson taught us by the history of the Old World should make it clear that there is nothing surprising in the fact that after a century of existence Haiti has not attained the height of modern civilization ”

“ On October 6, 1793, Polvérel, then at Cayes, freed the slaves of the South. Thus the coalition of the wealthy planters of Saint-Domingue with the English and the Spaniards had the effect of hastening the abolition of the very institution of slavery which it was their intention to preserve and maintain in the colony had their efforts been crowned with success.
After two long years of struggle and of suffering the blacks eventually were delivered forever from this barbarous and inhuman system. In Saint-Domingue men would no longer be the property of men. The revolution was complete. ”

“ Everything had to be created and organized. It was literally a new people who had come into life. Was it to be expected that in a century this nation could attain its complete and full development? As with other nations, progress must of necessity be slow with this new people. Spenser St. John "e tutti quanti" has overwhelmed Haiti with abuse in that her civilization is not as advanced as that of the Old World. But do these persons recollect how many centuries Great Britain, France, and Germany spent in all kinds of struggles before arriving at the state in which they are to-day? ”

“ However, in spite of all these facts, Haiti is persistently being charged in the United States and elsewhere with entertaining race hatred and race prejudice.
Haiti is the Eden of foreigners. Few are there who do not succeed in making a fortune after doing business there for a while. All their undertakings are facilitated, being even allowed in some cases the enjoyment of more privileges than the natives. ”

“ Germany has thus gone through centuries of vicissitudes before reaching her present state of splendor.
England had to undergo like tribulations. The blood of a great number of her children was shed in establishing the liberty she enjoys to-day and of which she is justly proud. A century of continual warfare was necessary to obtain the unity of the kingdom. From 1074 to 1174 the barons fiercely defended their prerogatives; and many kings of England lost their lives in the cause of centralization. The struggle for the possession of power and religious quarrels also made numberless victims. ”

“ If it be borne in mind that, for a considerable period, both the Spanish and the French parts of the island of San Domingo were under the sole dominion of Haiti, that it has been the policy of that government not only to oppose the independence of the Spanish part of the island, but to prevent its occupation by a foreign power, the difficulty of lending entire credence to any assurances which that government may give as to its indisposition to interfere in Dominican affairs will be apparent. ”

“ The ignorance and even the superstitions, which clouded the intellect of those who seemed to be forever bound to the soil, furnished a good opportunity for carrying out the work of redemption. Hatred of slavery, rancor provoked by revolting cruelties, and the craving after liberty united all the victims of the inhuman institution. ”

“ Prejudice against Haiti is so universal abroad that even certain Powers who, like Germany for instance, had never owned slaves in the West Indies or on the American continent have nevertheless fallen under the influence of this prejudice. Acting probably under the impression made upon her by these slanderous misrepresentations, Germany, at the outset of her relations with Haiti, acted toward her with a harshness and irritability which all lovers of justice must deplore. In the past other nations, such as Great Britain, France, and Spain, had had grievances real or supposed against Haiti ”

“ Nevertheless, foreigners who have lived in Washington but a short time have often been heard to say that it is a dangerous place on account of its diseases. This hastily formed opinion has as slight a foundation as that generally heard on the sanitary condition of Haiti.
Haiti is not a Garden of Eden from which human infirmities have been banished; its inhabitants are in no wise exempt from the sufferings and diseases that fall to man's lot; but those sufferings and diseases are no greater here than they are elsewhere. ”