99 10 1079 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Having passed through Moscow, we stopped two or three versts farther on. The army continued its march. For some time the ancient capital has been burning in many places! The French are completely brainless. Why should they burn our beautiful town? Or their magnificent quarters, which they have rented at such expense? Strange people! We have all watched sorrowfully as the fire has become larger and a bright glow has covered almost half the sky. The taking of Moscow has caused us some confusion. The soldiers are somehow frightened, and sometimes they blurt out: “It would have been better for us all to lie down dead here than to give up Moscow!” Of course they say this to one another quietly, and in that case an officer is not obliged to hear it. The left flank of our regiment touches some miserable little village, in which there is no longer a single person. I asked the captain if we were to stay there long. “Who knows?” he answered. “We have not been order[ed] to start fires, so that means we must be ready at any minute. And what's that to you?” “This. I would like to go to the house at the edge of the village to sleep a little. My leg hurts a great deal.” “Go ahead. Have the corporal stand by the hut with your horse. When the regiment moves, he can wake you.” I ran straight to the house, went into the hut, and, seeing that the floor and benches were broken, could find no place better than the stove to lie on. I crawled up onto it and lay on the edge. The stove was warm, so it was clear that someone had stoked it recently. It was rather hot in the hut owing to the closed shutters. Warmth and darkness! What two blessed comforts! I fell asleep at once. I think I slept more than half an hour, because I soon awakened to the repeated exclamation, “Your honor! Your honor! The regiment has left! The enemy is in the village!!” Having awakened, I hastily arose, and while trying to support myself with my left hand, felt something damp under it. I turned to look, and as it was dark I had to lean very close to the thing on which I had rested my hand. It was a corpse, apparently a militia man. I do not know whether I would have lain on the stove if I had seen this neighbor beforehand, but it didn't occur to me to be frightened now. Such strange encounters occur in life, especially in the present war! Leaving the silent inhabitant of the hut to sleep the sleep of the never-to-awaken, I went out onto the street. The French were already in the village, and our people were firing at everyone. I hastened to mount my horse and overtook the regiment at a trot. Sortable Date 1812-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Nadezhda Durova, The Cavalry Maid: The Memoirs of a Woman Soldier of 1812, tr. M. F. Zirin, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), pp. 150-151. Description An account of the resource Fighting under the name Alexander Durov, Nadezhda Durova was the daughter of a Russian officer who dressed as a man to join the Russian army in 1806. Although it became known that she was a woman, she was allowed to serve until 1816 when she retired as a captain of the cavalry. Her memoirs were first published in 1835. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 525 Title A name given to the resource The Russian Campaign as Seen by a Female Russian Soldier Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/525/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1812 Europe in Revolution Napoleon Bonaparte Text War Women Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document In two hours after the encounter with the Russians, the Emperor reached Krasnoë with the first regiments of the Guard—ours and the Fusiliers-Chasseurs. We camped behind the town. I was on guard with fifteen men at General Roguet's quarters: a miserable house in the town, thatched with straw. I put my men in a stable, thinking myself to be in luck to be under cover, and near a fire we had just lighted, but it turned out quite otherwise. While were were in Krasnoë and the immediate neighborhood, the Russians, 90,000 strong, surrounded us—to right, to left, in front, and behind, nothing but Russians—thinking, no doubt, they could soon finish us off. But the Emperor wished to show them it was not quite so easy a thing as they imagined; for although we were most wretched, and dying of cold and hunger, we still possessed two things—courage and honor. The Emperor, therefore, annoyed at seeing himself followed by this horde of barbarians and savages, decided to rid himself of them. On the evening of our arrival, General Roguet received orders to attack during the night, taking with him part of the Guard, the Fusiliers-Chasseurs, the Grenadiers, the light companies, and skirmishers. At eleven o'clock a few detachments were sent on first to reconnoiter, and find out exactly where the Russians lay; we could see their campfires in the two villages they held. They seem to have expected us, for some were already prepared to receive us. At about one o'clock in the morning, the General came to me, and said, with his Gasçon accent: “Sergeant, leave a corporal and four men here in charge of my quarters, and the few things I have left. Go back to the camp yourself, and rejoin the regiment with you guard. We shall have our work cut out for us presently.” To tell the truth, I was very much disgusted by this order. I do not mean that I was afraid of fighting, but I grudged the time lost for sleep terribly. When we got [to] the camp, preparations were already going on; evidently serious things were expected. I heard several men say that they hoped an end would at last be put to their sufferings, as they could struggle no longer. At two o'clock we began to move forward. We formed into three columns—the Fusiliers-Grenadiers (I was amongst them) and the Fusiliers-Chasseurs in the center, the skirmishers and light companies on the right and left. The cold was as intense as ever. We had the greatest difficulty in walking across the fields, as the snow was up to our knees. After half an hour of this, we found ourselves in the midst of the Russians. On our right was a long line of infantry, opening a murderous fire on us, their heavy cavalry on our left made up of Cuirassiers in white uniform with black cuirasses. They howled like wolves to excite each other, but did not dare to attack. The artillery was in the center, pouring grape-shot on us. All this did not stop our career in the least. In spite of the firing, and the number of our men who fell, we charged on into their camp, where we made frightful havoc with our bayonets. The men who were stationed further off had now had time to arm themselves, and come to their comrades' help. This they did by setting fire to their camp and the two villages near. We fought by the light of the fires. The columns on the right and left had passed us, and entered the enemy's camp at the two ends, whereas our column had taken the middle. I have omitted to say that, as the head of our column charged into the Russian camp, we passed several hundred Russians stretched on the snow; we believed them to be dead or dangerously wounded. These men now jumped up and fired on us from behind, so that we had to make a demi-tour to defend ourselves. Unluckily for them, a battalion in the rear came up behind, so that they were taken between two fires, and in five minutes not one was left alive. This was a stratagem the Russians often employed, but this time it was not successful. Poor Béloque was the first man we lost; he had foretold his death at Smolensk. A ball struck his head, and killed him on the spot. He was a great favorite with us all, and, in spite of the indifference we now felt about everything, we were really sorry to lose him. We went through the Russian camp, and reached the village. We forced the enemy to throw a part of their artillery into a lake there, and then found that a great number of foot soldiers had filled the houses, which were partly in flames. We now fought desperately hand-to-hand. The slaughter was terrible, and each man fought by himself for himself. I found myself near our Colonel, the oldest in France, who had been through the campaign in Egypt. A sapper was holding him up by the arm, and the Adjutant-Major Roustan was there too. We were close to a farmyard filled with Russians, and blockaded by our men; they could retreat only by an entrance into a large courtyard close by a barrier. While this desultory fighting was going on, I saw a Russian officer on a white horse striking with the flat of his sword any of his men who tried to get away by jumping over the barrier, and so effectually preventing his escape. He got possession of the passage, but just as he was preparing to jump to the other side, his horse fell under him, struck by a ball. The men were forced to defend themselves, and the fighting now grew desperate. By the lurid light of the fire it was a dreadful scene of butchery, Russians and Frenchmen in utter confusion, shooting each other muzzle to muzzle. I tried to get at the Russian officer, who had now extricated himself from his horse, and was trying to save himself by getting over the barrier, but a Russian soldier got in the way and fired at me. Probably only the priming caught fire, otherwise there would have been an end of me; but the man who had fired reloaded his musket calmly, thinking, no doubt, that I was dangerously wounded. The Adjutant-Major, Roustan, ran to me and, seizing me by the arm, said: “My poor Bourgogne, are you wounded?” “No,” I answered. “Then,” he said, “don't miss him.” That was what I meant also, and before the Russian had time to reload, I shot him through. Mortally wounded, he did not, however, fall at once, but reeled back, and, glaring at me, fell over the officer's horse at the barrier. The Adjutant-Major gave him a thrust with his sword. Just then I found myself near the Colonel, who was completely worn out and fit for nothing more. He was alone except for his sapper. The Adjutant-Major came up, his sword covered with blood, saying that, to get back to the Colonel, he had been forced to cut his way with the sword, and that he had a bayonet wound in his thigh. As he spoke, the sapper, who was supporting the Colonel, was struck in the chest by a ball. The Colonel instantly said: “Sapper, you are wounded?” “Yes, sir,” said the sapper, and, taking the Colonel's hand, he made him feel the hole the ball had made. “Then go back.” The sapper replied that he was strong enough to stay and die with him if necessary. “And, after all,” said the Adjutant-Major, “where could he go, in the midst of the enemy? We do not know where we are, and I can see that we shall have to wait here, fighting, till daylight.” We had indeed lost all idea of our locality, blinded by the glare from the fires. Five minutes after the sapper had been wounded, the Russians, whom we had held blockaded in the farm, seeing that they ran a chance of being burnt alive, offered to surrender. They sent a non-commissioned officer through a perfect storm of balls to make the proposal. The Adjutant-Major therefore sent me with the order to stop firing. “Stop firing!” said one of our wounded men; “the others may stop if they please, but as I am wounded, and very likely dying, I shall go on as long as I have cartridges to fire with.” He went on, therefore, sitting in the snow all stained with his blood, and even asked for more cartridges when he had fired his own. The Adjutant-Major, seeing that his orders were disregarded, came himself with a message from the Colonel. But our men, now perfectly desperate, took no notice, and still continued to fire. The Russians, seeing that there was no hope for them, and probably having no more ammunition, tried to rush out all together from the building, where they were fast getting roasted; but our men forced them back. They made a second attempt, not being able to endure their position, but scarcely had a few of their number reached the yard, when the building collapsed on the rest, more than forty of them perishing in the flames, and those in the yard being crushed as well. When this was over, we collected our wounded together, and gathered round the Colonel with loaded weapons, waiting for daybreak. All this time the rattle of musket shots was going on continually round us, mingled with the groans of the wounded and the dying. There is nothing more terrible than a battle at night, when often fatal mistakes take place. In this way we waited for the light. As soon as it appeared, we looked about us, and could see the result of the night's fighting. The whole ground we had been over was strewn with the wounded and dying. I saw the man who had tried to kill me, and who was not yet dead, so I placed him more comfortably away from the white horse near which he had fallen. All the houses in the village (either Kircove or Malierva) and the whole of the Russian camp were covered with half-burnt corpses. M. Gilet had his leg broken by a ball, and died a few days afterwards. The sharp-shooters (skirmishers) and the light companies lost more men than we. Sortable Date 1812-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Paul Cottin, ed., Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne: 1812-1813 (New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., 1899), pp. 107-112. Description An account of the resource Adrien-Jean-Baptiste-François Bourgogne (1785–1867) was the son of a cloth merchant from northern France. He fought in Poland in 1806; in Austria, Spain, and Portugal in 1809–11; and in Russia in 1812–13. His memoirs were first published in 1857. In his accounts of the Russian campaign, he tells how the snow and cold hampered French progress almost as much as Russian ferocity on the battlefield. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 524 Title A name given to the resource The Russian Campaign as Seen by an Ordinary Soldier Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/524/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1812 Europe in Revolution Napoleon Bonaparte Text War Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document For the houses here, there is no other clock than the sun. The people are three centuries behind in terms of skills and customs. Every private fight becomes public as women, unhappy with their husbands, plead their cases in the peoples' court [the street], rounding up all the neighbors to tell them her man's scandalous confession. Every kind of discussion ends in a fist fight, but by evening they have reconciled, even though one of them has had their face covered with scratches. There, a man holes up in a garret, evades the police and the hundred eyes of their stool pigeons, almost like a tiny insect escapes the most concentrated effort to find him. An entire family occupies a single room with four bare walls, where straw mattresses have no sheets and kitchen utensils are kept with the chamber pots. All together the furniture is not worth twenty crowns and every three months, the inhabitants, thrown out for owing back rent, must find another hole to live in. So they wander, taking their miserable possessions from refuge to refuge. They own no shoes, and only the sound of wooden clogs echo in the stairwells. Their naked children sleep helter-skelter. On Sunday, the people from this area go to Vaugirard for its many cabarets, for men must try to forget their troubles. There, men and women, dancing without shoes and swirling without stop, raise so much dust that within an hour they can no longer even be seen. With a terrible, confused din and a vile odor, everything keeps you far away from this horribly crowded place. Here, the masses drink a wine as disagreeable as their surroundings and engage in other suitable pleasures. Sortable Date 1783-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Tableau de Paris, vol. 1 (Amsterdam, 1783), 112–14. Description An account of the resource The writer Louis–Sébastien Mercier recorded in his Portrait of Paris detailed and witty commentaries on many aspects of life among the common people. In this article on the Saint–Marcel neighborhood, he comments on the difficulties faced by urban workers. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 357 Title A name given to the resource The Saint–Marcel Neighborhood Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/357/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1783 Economic Conditions Text https://revolution.chnm.org/files/original/ad1af82f58b8ed63252a85afca1fd328.jpg 80983f801e2994c7adf96e7d2e842159 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Engraving Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 33.5 x 26 cm Title (French) The image's title, in French. Le Soutien de la France Sortable Date 1800-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bibliothèque Nationale de France Description An account of the resource In this propagandistic allegorical engraving, Napoleon saves the female figure of France from the abyss to which she has been led by "revolutionary fanaticism." The figure of fanaticism is armed to the teeth with "the daggers of party spirit" and holds in one hand the chains of slavery and in the other the torch of discord. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Alexis Chataignier (engraver) André Boissier (engraver) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Public Domain Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource French Title A name given to the resource The Saving of France Relation A related resource http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/120/|de Vinck. Un siècle d'histoire de France par l'estampe, 1770-1870. Vol. 54 (pièces 7395-7505), Directoire, Consulat et Empire Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1800 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 120 Image Public Opinion Event A non-persistent, time-based occurrence. Metadata for an event provides descriptive information that is the basis for discovery of the purpose, location, duration, and responsible agents associated with an event. Examples include an exhibition, webcast, conference, workshop, open day, performance, battle, trial, wedding, tea party, conflagration. Sortable Date 1799-12-27 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 691 Title A name given to the resource The Senate is installed. Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/691/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 27, 1799 Timeline Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Parlement declares "the said Robert-François Damiens has been convicted of having committed a very mean, very terrible, and very dreadful parricidal crime against the King. The said Damiens is sentenced to pay for his crime in front of the main gate of the Church of Paris. He will be taken there in a tipcart naked and will hold a burning wax torch weighing two pounds. There, on his knees, he will say and declare that he had committed a very mean, very terrible and very dreadful parricide, and that he had hurt the King. . . . He will repent and ask God, the King and Justice to forgive him. When this will be done, he will be taken in the same tipcart to the Place de Grève and will be put on a scaffold. Then his breasts, arms, thighs, and legs will be tortured. While holding the knife with which he committed the said Parricide, his right hand will be burnt. On his tortured body parts, melted lead, boiling oil, burning pitch, and melted wax and sulfur will be thrown. Then four horses will pull him apart until he is dismembered. His limbs will be thrown on the stake, and his ashes will be spread. All his belongings, furniture, housings, wherever they are, will be confiscated and given to the King. Before the execution, the said Damiens will be asked to tell the names of his accomplices. His house will not be demolished, but nothing will be allowed to be built on this same house." Sortable Date 1757-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Anonymous, Pièces originales et procédures du procès, fait à Robert-François Damiens (Paris: Pierre Guillaume Simon, 1757). Description An account of the resource Having found Damiens guilty, the judges ordered him punished in a gruesome public spectacle, with the intention of repressing symbolically, through his body, the threat to order that the judges perceived in his attack on the King. Such punishment, characteristic of the Middle Ages and early modern period was much opposed by the Enlightenment view that crime would be better handled by rehabilitating criminals’ minds rather than mutilating their bodies. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 242 Title A name given to the resource The Sentence against Damiens (1757) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/242/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1757 Laws Monarchy Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document I arose, distressed by the horror. The night had not refreshed me at all, rather it had caused my blood to boil. . . . I go out and listen. I follow groups of people running to see the "disasters"—their word for it. Passing in front of the Conciergerie, I see a killer who I'm told is a sailor from Marseilles. His wrist is swollen from use. I pass by. Dead bodies are piled high in front of the Châtelet. I start to flee, but I follow the people instead. I come to the rue St.-Antoine, at the end of the rue des Ballets, just as a poor wretch came through the gate. He had seen how they killed his predecessor, but instead of stopping in amazement, he took to his heels to escape. A man who was not one of the killers, just one of those unthinking machines who are so common, stopped him with a pike in the stomach. The poor soul was caught by his pursuers and slaughtered. The man with the pike coldly said to us, "Well, I didn't know they wanted to kill him. . . ." There had been a pause in the murders. Something was going on inside. . . . I told myself that it was over at last. Finally, I saw a woman appear, as white as a sheet, being helped by a turnkey. They said to her harshly: "Shout 'Vive la nation!'" "No! No!" she said. They made her climb up on a pile of corpses. One of the killers grabbed the turnkey and pushed him away. "Oh!" exclaimed the ill-fated woman, "do not harm him!" They repeated that she must shout "Vive la nation!" With disdain, she refused. Then one of the killers grabbed her, tore away her dress, and ripped open her stomach. She fell, and was finished off by the others. Never could I have imagined such horror. I wanted to run, but my legs gave way. I fainted. When I came to, I saw the bloody head. Someone told me they were going to wash it, curl its hair, stick it on the end of a pike, and carry it past the windows of the Temple. What pointless cruelty! . . . The number of active killers who took part in the September massacres was only about one hundred and fifty. The rest of Paris looked on in fear or approval, or stayed behind closed shutters. Sortable Date 1792-09-03 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne, Les nuits de Paris (Paris: Hachette, [1793] 1960), 247–53. Description An account of the resource In late summer 1792, news reached Paris that the Prussian army had invaded France and was advancing quickly toward the capital. Moreover, rumors circulated that the Prussians would find ready support from Parisians who secretly opposed the Revolution, especially refractory priests. On September 3 and 4, inflamed by radical propaganda, ongoing food shortages, and fear of the invasion, crowds broke into the prisons where they attacked the prisoners, including refractory clergy, who were feared to be counterrevolutionaries who would aid the invading Prussians. The writer Nicolas–Edme Restif de la Bretonne here describes what he saw on the second day of the massacres. This outbreak of violence in the name of defending an imperiled Revolution from its enemies within France has been cited by some historians as evidence of an inherent tendency toward bloodshed on the part of the Jacobins. To others, the event suggests the unfortunate excesses to which well–meaning and sincerely frightened revolutionaries were willing to go to advance the cause of social and political change, in the face of difficult wartime circumstances. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 392 Title A name given to the resource The September Massacres Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/392/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 3, 1792 Clubs Popular Politics Sans-culottes Text The Terror Event A non-persistent, time-based occurrence. Metadata for an event provides descriptive information that is the basis for discovery of the purpose, location, duration, and responsible agents associated with an event. Examples include an exhibition, webcast, conference, workshop, open day, performance, battle, trial, wedding, tea party, conflagration. Sortable Date 1792-09-02 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 795 Title A name given to the resource The September Massacres continue through 7 September. Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/795/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 2, 1792 Timeline https://revolution.chnm.org/files/original/4cf51123a45167ff72319575b4cce527.jpg 0b4181964498b7a8b0d1cd9990d4a258 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Engraving Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 13 x 9 cm Title (French) The image's title, in French. 7.E événement du 14 juillet 1789 : mort de M. Flesselles prévôt des marchands Sortable Date 1789-07-14 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Bibliothèque Nationale de France Description An account of the resource Upon returning to City Hall, the now heavily armed crowd stormed that building as well, arresting the "Provost of Markets" (or mayor) and his son–in–law, another municipal official. Both men were beheaded and their severed heads were placed on pikes and paraded around, graphically illustrating both the power and the danger of popular insurrections like that of July 14th. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jean-François Janinet Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Public Domain Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource JPEG Language A language of the resource French Title A name given to the resource The Seventh Incident of 14 July 1789 Relation A related resource http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/90/|Collection Michel Hennin. Estampes relatives à l'Histoire de France. Tome 118, Pièces 10278-10385, période : 1789|Collection de Vinck. Un siècle d'histoire de France par l'estampe, 1770-1870. Vol. 9 (pièces 1423-1570), Ancien Régime et Révolution Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1789-1791 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 90 Image Popular Politics Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Slaves Although the slaves are not the class in the population which immediately follows the whites, it seems natural to speak of them before taking up the freedmen. After all, the latter offer the combined product of the slavery of the one and of the liberty of the other. The point made about the white population, that is not entirely made up of Creoles, ought to be repeated for the slaves, since two-thirds of these latter . . . came from Africa, while the balance were born in the Colony. Thus, we must speak separately of these two classes, which in certain respects have traits which make them more or less distinct. Africa Slaves The island of Santo Domingo was the first part of the Americas to have African slaves. No one forgets that they were introduced as laborers as a result of the advice of Bartolemé de las Casas. Las Casas had seen some of them who were brought by chance to Santo Domingo after 1505. He proposed to substitute such persons for the natives of the island, for whom the work in the mines had meant very cruel hardships and had seemed likely to destroy them entirely. . . . The idea of Las Casas, who was led astray by his very humanity, was adopted. This was really because it presented a new chance for human greed. The unfortunate Indians were pretty nearly all mowed down, anyway. All the French Colonies in the Antilles had African slaves from the start. The Island of Santo Domingo already had them, since its first conquerors had possessed them at that time for nearly a century and a half. . . . It would be easy to believe that during the beginnings of the efforts of the Adventurers, they carried off some negroes . . . from their enemies and that it was only in devoting themselves to agriculture that they had a real need for Africans. They were to be seen for quite a long period cultivating with their own hands, in association with a sort of white slave called "Engagé" or "Thirty-Six Months." These names expressed their servile state and its length. The Engagés The Engagés were Frenchmen who were wracked by a wish to try their luck in the Colonies. They sold themselves for a term of years, usually three, to a ship captain who would bring them overseas and sell their contracts to a colonist. . . . This arrangement, remarkably enough, was first introduced by the English in their North American Colonies, where it still exists today, despite their independence. Indentured service could not survive in the French islands, however. It was only until the time when tobacco was the chief and just about the only product of colonial trade, that the indentured servants were found suitable for the same employment as the blacks. But the raising of indigo and especially of sugar cane implacably demanded men more capable of standing the continual effect of the hot sun. Also, this crop . . . offered ample earnings with which to pay for the Negroes whom merchants were having sent from Africa. . . . The number of slaves kept on increasing. . . . It has now risen to 452,000. The indentured servants, who had continued to be transported—in very small numbers—and whom the laws several times boldly directed the ship owners to bring over free of charge . . . became merely foremen to the gangs of blacks. It could be added, however, that the memory of these white bondsmen helped to hold down the pride of the other white men, who by their disdainful airs forced those whose pride was injured to look up their backgrounds in self-defense. . . . What is most remarkable and what is the least affected by the sea change that has occurred, is the black's careless nature. Call it perhaps thoughtlessness, so general in the negro character. . . . From this it is no step at all to indolence, which is the favorite state of the Negro Lacking any education, left wholly prey to his prejudices and to all the terrors of ignorance, he is feeble and fearful, however much he may affect to scorn physical dangers. In fact, he scorns them precisely because his imagination fails to rise to the dangers. The Africans transplanted to Saint Domingue remain in general indolent and idle, quarrelsome and talkative, and liars, and are addicted to stealing. Always given to the most absurd superstitions, there is nothing which does not frighten them more or less. Incapable of analyzing religious ideas intellectually, they turn all their belief to external manifestations. If they go to church, they mumble some prayers which they have half learned, or indeed they fall asleep. . . . Baptism Now the Creole blacks claim that they are greatly superior to the African blacks—because they have been baptized. Such baptized ones are called "Bossals," a name used throughout Spanish America. The Africans, whom the Creole blacks address insultingly as "horses" [apparently meaning horses as stupid beasts of burden], are very eager to be baptized themselves. At certain days, such as Holy Saturday and the Saturday of Pentecost, when adults are baptized, the blacks go to be sure to have a sponsoring "godfather" and "godmother." Even these, in fact, may be arranged for after they get there. They thus receive the first sacrament of the Christians and are guaranteed against any injury addressed to non-baptized persons. The Creoles always refer to them contemptuously as "baptized standing up" [i.e., not held in the mother's arms]. The respect which the Africans have for their new godfathers and godmothers is pushed so far that they act as if they were their own fathers and mothers. To curse another person's godmother, by the way, is like inflicting the most bloody injury upon him, and if the two parties ever after come to understand and tolerate each other, it is at best after long quarrels. The most grave offense, which seems to be a tradition in the kingdom of Angola, is to make derogatory remarks about the morals of the mother as well as the godmother. To this, the injured party responds with offenses of the most bizarre type, often crying out: "He has insulted me, but he hasn't dared to curse my godmother." Such an incident may well arouse the attention of the masters, for on a plantation it is not uncommon for a black who abuses his godfather to be ordered helped by a new arrival. This increases his own work, if the new man is not sufficiently acclimated [or is ill] . . . because he has to do the work of both. Blacks who share the same godparent by the way, frequently call each other "brothers" and "sisters." Magic and Sorcery The Negroes believe certain days unlucky. They will never begin an important undertaking on Friday, for instance. If one of the blacks hits his right foot against something, he doesn't mind, because it is the good foot, but if it is the left, that is bad. If he hits this foot against someone, that person must be given a little kick with the right foot. He calls that "giving back some foot." But what irritates him most is to see a broom touch some portion of his body. He at once asked if people think he is dead and he remains convinced that this shortens his life. The Negroes belief in magic and the power of their fetishes follow them from overseas. The more absurd the tale, the more appealing it is to them. Rough little figures of wood or stone, representing men or animals, for them are the authors of supernatural things. They call them "bodyguards." There are many Negroes who acquire an absolute power over others by such [superstitious] means. They take advantage of their credulity to win money, power, and pleasures of all kinds, even sexual pleasures. This sort of subjection of one African to another is all the less surprising if you consider the following statement: that among the blacks shipped to America fully one-forth of those sold into slavery in their home areas were ones convicted of being sorcerers! . . . The crime of poisoning, by the way, is also said to cause many, many sentences of deportation from the African kingdoms, [but] these monsters who devote their effort to killing their fellows are not as common in the colonies as was long credited. . . . Probably many deaths which supposedly were the result of poisoning were really the product of physical or climatic circumstances. It is also true, however, that some of the elderly African slaves profess this vicious art. . . . With the Negroes as with all non-civilized peoples . . . gestures or signs are many and form a basic part of their language. The blacks love above all else to use imitative sounds. If they speak of a cannon shot, they add "boom," a musket shot, "poum," a slap, "pam," a kick or block of a stick, "bam," a whip, "v'lap, v'lap." Did one fall lightly, it is "bap," heavily, it is "boom," for tumbling down, "blou coutoum"; and whenever one wishes to give a sound an augmentive force, it is "loin, loin, loin," which expresses a great distance, etc. The blacks love proverbs and sayings. The latter are often very moral. After a wrong deed, they commonly say in repentance: "Ah, if I had but known." The blacks have derived from that their proverb: "If I had only known. Never the stick! You can always read it on my behind!" [i.e. afterwards!] to indicate that they had not taken thought until it was too late. Man-Woman Relationships All the negroes born in Africa are polygamous in Saint Domingue—and jealous. Marriages are very uncommon and the most religious of the white masters are practically obliged to give up trying to push them to marry. This would only be a scandal, anyway! The influence of their primitive customs and the very disproportion in the number of women to men, of which the first form hardly a half [sic] are very logical causes of this pluralism. The climate also favors it. The black men treat very harshly the women who were unfaithful or whom they suspect of unfaithfulness, and it is to the latter that the bad treatment comes. This is so even though the men don't feel too badly about being disloyal to their women. The women have fits of jealously, but such reactions are limited by their fear of irritating their men too much. Unfortunate is the man whose mistress is too strong for him, however, for he must worry about something more than threats. In general, the African women accustomed to polygamous husbands, however, are not furious in their reaction to their man's conduct. It is also somewhat common to see several wives of one man living together in a sort of harmony, although they all love the same one. Privately, the women call each other "seaman," from the old filibustering usage, for the filibusters formed societies whose members all called each other that. Among the women, it may be added, whether in the polygamous sector or elsewhere, it is common to form a sort of league against the men. Without loving them, and hardly knowing them, they substitute for each other [in bed] when it is a question of fooling the lover. . . . A very distinctive quality of the African women is their invincible preference for the negro men. Neither their behavior with the whites, nor the advantages which that brings them, even the freedom so often resulting—for themselves or for their children—can hold them back. . . . Nor can their concern about the punishment that white pride and jealousy can make so severe. The women put up a long fight, or more or less happily hide this inclination, but their preference for black men wins in the end. . . . This is proved by the public choice, which they always make, of a negro man, when some happening returns them to their own race, destroying their close relation with the whites. Their common mental processes and language, the perfect equality between them, the familiarity which stems from that and which is not the smallest charm of love, are no doubt the chief causes of this tendency. It is also fortified by their primitive education. Perhaps, further, and I have heard several negresses avow it, the advantages which nature—or the use of palm wine—has given to the negro men over other men in what is the physical agent of love, has a great influence on this choice, for which, in any case, the white is only a puny competitor. Interpreters, Mirrors, and Watches What it is necessary also to speak of is the pride of the negro women in being considered Creoles or native-born, even though that is not true. The men have the same attitude. Both aim at least to be regarded as having come to the Colony when very young. One result of this is a refusal, generally, to act as interpreters for newcomers who are of their own African tribe. They use the pretext that they have forgotten the language. It is one of the inconsequences of life that the Africans . . . often refer to others who came over on the same ship as "shipmates"—which gives them away. Self-esteem of a different sort is the reason for refusing, quite obstinately, to give details of the customs of their particular country. This is especially so if the white person questioning them lets it be seen that he is amused at what is told. The only Africans who will speak freely are those who arrived when very old, or those talking to white children. In such cases, it is apparent that they loved everything about the old country—the mountains, the trees, the honey bees, the crocodiles, and so on. When the slaves come off the ship they are not greatly surprised at the various natural products of the island. These are all too similar to what they knew in Africa. But almost all the manufactured objects surprise them. Most striking to them are the mirrors and the reflections they produce. The negro looks at a mirror, feels the glass, and runs around back to try to find the other copy of himself. Finally convinced of the uselessness of these efforts . . . he performs a thousand antics and makes a thousand faces, trying to imitate the other person. It is a phenomenon which nobody can explain to him. A watch is also puzzling. He at first supposes that there is an animal making it work. There are negroes to whom red wine causes a lively horror the first time one is given any. He thinks the wine is blood and he fears the terrors he felt when on the voyage come back to him. Yet he likes the intoxication it brings. Ere long, he prefers the "tafia," of which he is excessively fond, because it is more powerful. It remains to be said that the above comments apply also, equally, to the Creole blacks. But let us go on to discuss what is especially true of the latter. Sortable Date 1797-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Médéric-Louis-Elie Moreau de Saint-Méry, A Civilization That Perished: The Last Years of White Colonial Rule in Haiti, (Philadelphia, published by the author, 1797-1798), translated, abridged, and edited by Ivor D. Spencer, (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985), 39-47. Description An account of the resource The African born slaves brought with them their African rituals and customs, but the white planters also tried to get them to accept French manners and mores. Moreau de Saint–Méry had a great curiosity about all parts of these Africans’ lives. One can easily see his own biases in these passages. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 569 Title A name given to the resource The Slaves from Africa Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/569/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1797 Text