Haitians

“ All the world over men yield to the same temptations; everywhere the thirst for gold provokes social catastrophes and many a time stains the honor of the best families. Haitians are mere human beings, swayed by human passions like the rest of mortals. ”

“ Instead of finding out from trustworthy sources the exact truth of the matter, they hasten to draw the conclusion that the Haitians are lazy and unworthy of possessing such a rich and beautiful island. ”

“ In the light of these facts, which may be easily verified, I may confidently appeal to the fair-minded and intelligent reader to decide whether the assertions so frequently made, that the Haitians are relapsing into barbarism and falling back into a state almost of savagery, are worthy of credence, or whether they are merely unjust and ungrounded aspersions upon a people who since their independence have been striving, with success commensurate to their opportunities, to attain the practical ideals of modern civilization! ”

“ It would be equally absurd for the Haitian to attempt to break through the walls of prejudice and to expect all Americans and Haitians to mix with ease. Although it is most certainly true that America has an infinitely more thorough [103] knowledge and is more capable of government than is Haiti, yet the Haitians have what many Americans of even the upper classes often lack, a knowledge of culture and excellent manners. ”

“ For the purpose of showing that the Haitians are reverting to barbarism, their detractors affect to praise the prosperity of the island at the time of the French domination; they are especially fond of alluding to the agricultural products which, according to them, have not only never been surpassed, but have not even been equalled since the independence of Haiti. ”

“ And if civil wars, for which the Haitians have been so severely taken to task, were an evidence of the incapacity of a nation to govern itself, then the great Powers of to-day would not have existed. All of them have gone through trying ordeals, have paid for their advancement with the blood of the best among their citizens; every effort toward a higher ideal was marked by hecatombs; and those who have sacrificed their lives for the advancement of civilization cannot be numbered. ”

“ But that the Haitians, after over one hundred years of self-government and liberty, contemplating the slaughter of three thousand of their sons, the loss of their political and economic freedom, without compensating advantages which they can appreciate, feel very differently, is equally true. ”

“ The war of independence which began at the end of 1802 was a war of extermination. Both parties killed, burned, and destroyed all that stood in their way. When the Haitians at last became masters of the land which they had watered with their blood, all the magnificent plantations, sugar-houses, mills, the very towns, were one mass of ruins. Everything had to be built up afresh in this devastated land. Although in constant fear of an aggression from France, the Haitians courageously set to work. In 1824 they exported the following products: Coffee, 44,270,000 lbs. ”

“ Men who are ignorant even of the correct geographical position of the island think themselves competent to give information about the Haitians; undeterred by the scantiness of their knowledge, they hasten to affirm that instead of progressing they are relapsing into barbarism. ”

“ Nearly four years of American occupation had passed. That the purpose of the United States was purely philanthropic was not—and is not—believed by the vast majority of the Haitians. Though living conditions have improved vastly, [Pg 39] though brigandage on the plains has ceased, and though terrorism has diminished, at heart only the Haitian merchants and job-holders like the American occupation. The educated Creoles tolerate it. The semi-savages of the hills resent it. ”

“ Whilst the Haitians, in spite of the ill will shown them abroad, were striving to consolidate their government, France harassed them still further by a humiliation in the guise of a favor. This was the act of Charles X, who bestowed on them as a charity the recognition of their independence. ”

“ And when her detractors reproach her, after but one century of her independence, with not having made as much progress as the United States or the old States of Europe, the sense of their injustice is lost in their manifestation of supreme ignorance, at least of their complete disregard of the historical evolution of the world. The Haitians would indeed be extraordinary beings if their civilization, which dates back only one hundred years, could equal that of Europe for instance. ”

“ Other striking characteristics of the Haitians are their open-heartedness and straightforwardness; their word may be relied upon, and in friendship they are sincere and devoted. They are intensely patriotic, although they will be the first to laugh at their own failings and shortcomings. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Price there will be no one who can say of the Haitians: "We civilized and educated you; none who can say: without us you would soon have relapsed into African barbarism." Haiti's mission as he understood it is to rehabilitate the Negro race. His dying gift to mankind was his splendid work on the Rehabilitation of the Black Race by the Republic of Haiti. ”

“ I have been in Haiti, and the Haitians are splendid fellows compared with them. Our soldiers are merely a bodyguard for the Socialists, and robbers all. The true army, that went through the unspeakable sufferings of the war, was turned on the streets to starve. ”

“ Customs and manners of the people; their hospitality—Marriage and divorce—The Haitian woman—The Haitians are not lazy—They entertain no race prejudice—Advantages which foreigners enjoy; their safety—Naturalization—Right to hold real estate.
One of the chief characteristics of the Haitian peasant is his thorough kind-heartedness; he is free from all envious thoughts and is pleased with his lot, his few wants being so easily satisfied. He has no cause for hatred, nature's liberality supplying him with all that he requires. ”

“ All foreigners may be naturalized Haitians by observing the following formalities (Art. 14, Civil Code) : "All those who, by virtue of the Constitution, are qualified to become Haitian citizens, must, within a month of their arrival in the country, declare before a justice of the peace of their place of residence and in the presence of two well-known citizens, their intention of settling in the Republic. They will at the same time swear before the justice of the peace to give up all other countries in favor of Haiti. ”

“ The Haitians, anxious to eliminate the whites, encouraged such emigration and confiscated the property left by the emigrants. The policy of the Haitian government was to build up a strong African state in the whole island, and in pursuance of this policy it emancipated all slaves, colonized Haitian negroes on the Samana peninsula and in other parts of the Spanish-speaking territory and brought in colored people from the United States. ”

“ In the schools there is also no color line drawn. But in social life absence of prejudice is still more noticeable. Whites and blacks intermarry; many Haitians marry French, German, and English women, these unions as a rule resulting very happily. ”

“ The preponderance of the English in these colonies, or in other words and to use an expression familiar to the calumniators of Haiti, the supremacy of the white man, was unable to preserve the former prosperity of the British possessions in the West Indies. It is therefore more than unjust to impute to the laziness of the Haitians or to their so-called incapacity for governing themselves the abandonment of the cultivation of many products which for economic reasons are no longer profitable. ”

“ Not satisfied with the education which can be had at home, many Haitians go to France to obtain still higher or special instruction, and achieve success in the French schools of mineralogy, agriculture, moral and political sciences, etc. ”

“ The factories, the rich plantations had been all destroyed during the war of independence. The Haitians found themselves in possession of a devastated, land. They have rebuilt their cities and towns. They cultivate now their own properties, almost every inhabitant of the Republic being a land-owner. ”

“ Dessalines and Christophe, monsters of brutality, [Pg 59] are the heroes of Haiti, because they massacred everyone who was not coal-black.
Manuel cast a sidelong glance at Stuart, smiling inwardly at the boy's attempt to maintain his disguise, that disguise which the Cuban had so quickly pierced, and shrugged his shoulders.
"What would you!" he rejoined. "You see yourself, it is the only government that Haitians understand. To this day, a century later, this part of the island is better than the south, because of the impress of the reign of Christophe. Nothing changes Haiti!" ”

“ Haiti is a country of rapidly changing conditions. Like others, emerging from revolution and disorder to peace and the pursuits of peace, it finds its possibilities unlimited. Furthermore, under the Haitian-American treaty, part of the government is being run by the Haitians themselves in the three departments: executive, legislative and judicial; and a portion is controlled by the United States, including the military. ”

“ The two strong points of opposition were, first the objection to no alliance, especially an armed one, with any other nations; and, second, the recognition of the negro Republic of Haiti which opened up the slavery question." ↑ "Whatever success the Haitians have attained has been solely by their own unaided efforts. The Christian world, which looked with horror on the institution of slavery and cried loudly for its abolition, neglected this self-emancipated people when they most needed its help and aid. ”

“ The Haitians entertain neither race hatred nor race prejudice. Consequently, they find it difficult to understand why a man should be persecuted and made to endure humiliation solely on account of the color of his skin. They extend a welcome to all who arrive on their territory, irrespective of their color. ”

“ If the stories which gradually leak out from the confidences of returning natives to their friends are trustworthy, she tells all Haitians that they are some day to become president of their country, not a bad guess under old conditions, though the supernatural madame does not seem to have kept up with the times. ”

“ On the 5th of January, 1805, General Ferrand, who was in command of this portion of the country, ordered a sudden attack upon the Haitians, among whom only those under 14 years of age were to be taken prisoners, the others being destined evidently to be massacred; the boys and the girls under 10 years were to be sold and kept on the plantations of the colony; whilst those between the ages of 12 and 14 years were to be sold and deported. ”

“ Hence the custom of the country people in Haiti of calling any one occupying a position superior to theirs "Général." Foreigners hearing this word applied indiscriminately to Haitians believed that every one held that military rank. ↑ In 1784, after an unsuccessful attempt to subdue by force the maroons in hiding in the Bahuruco Mountains, Governor-General Bellecombe acknowledged their independence. ”

“ In the North we scarcely think of a corporal or sergeant of marines as standing particularly 156high in the social scale; in these Haitian villages they have almost the power of absolute monarchs, and are treated with corresponding respect by their native subjects. Even the village accounts are periodically brought to them to be audited. So accustomed do the Haitians become to obeying the commander of the district in which they live that it is difficult to get them to change their allegiance. ”

“ The West Indies offer you a more desirable home than can be found this side the Atlantic; but in all, save Haiti, the Government is colonial, and the white man the land holder and superior in power. The Haitian Government is an absolute Monarchy, a Military Despotism; the French language only is spoken; the people debased and licentious, with whom you could and ought not to assimilate. ”

“ About 1630, a mixed company of French and English, driven by the Spaniards from St Kitts, settled on the island of Tortuga, where they became formidable under the name of Buccaneers. They soon obtained a footing on the mainland of Haiti, and by the treaty of Ryswick, 1697, the part they occupied was ceded to France. This new colony, named Saint Dominique, subsequently attained a high degree of prosperity, and was in a flourishing state when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. The population was then composed of whites, free coloured people (mostly mulattoes) and negro slaves. ”

“ There are eighteen Spanish-American ones; one French, Haiti; and one Portuguese, Brazil. In these twenty Republics there are more than 75,000,000 people.
This book is too short a one in which to tell about all the Liberators of these Republics.
There was Toussaint l’Ouverture, the extraordinary coloured man, an ex-slave, who liberated Haiti. Haiti was the first Latin American Republic to declare its Independence.
In Peru, there was Tupac Amaru, the brave young Indian Cacique, a descendant of the “Child of the Sun” whom Pizarro conquered. ”