32 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 Extract of a letter from Cape François, April 15th. "Amidst that unremitting fatigue of mind and body that has for many months past fell to my lot, I snatch a moment, to inform you of our situation and prospects. It would seem that the complete revenge of the ancient Carribbs of this island, who were extirpated by the Spaniards, is to fall upon the devoted heads of the French; not for want of ability in them to repel the evil, if united, but from those fatal dissensions which have been so carefully nurtured by the infernal arts of a blood-thirsty aristocracy, and which threaten, nay, have almost accomplished the total ruins of French St. Domingo.—This place is reckoned the strongest in the island and yet do we by no means think ourselves secure from the town's being taken by an attack, if made with vigor, and by 60 or 70,000 brigands, as we are threatened will soon be the case.—In the western districts of the island, every thing wears the most horrid appearance. The troops are in a state of anarchy, and subordination generally at an end, while the wretched remains of Port-au-Prince are surrounded by an enemy, from whom an attack is every moment expected, and from whose mercy (if conquerors) nothing is to be hoped. To give you an account of the various assassinations, murders, tortures, and excesses of almost every kind that have been committed within these few months, would ask a large volume. Vast numbers of opulent people are reduced to a morsel of bread, by the ruin of their plantations, and are going (many of them) almost pennyless into foreign lands for the preservation of an existence which has become altogether precarious here. We are willing to hope that the ocean which surrounds Hispanola will check the extension of the spirit of revolt; for, if it should become general through the islands, it will require almost half Europe to subdue it. As to myself, I will endeavor to leave this once delightful, though now miserable country, in all June; a country which has become alike ungrateful to the sailor and the mechanic, to the merchant and the philosopher—a country, Where cruel passions the warm heart infest And banish pity from the human breast, Where hostile ruffians draw the vengeful blade And stain with infant gore the blushing shade! I turn, disgusted, from this horrid scene Of tortur'd captives, slaves, and murder'd men, To where the far-fam'd Pennsylvania strays, Renown'd for justice, and for length of days." Sortable Date 1792-05-16 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 The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 16 May 1792; available on cd-rom (Accessible Archives: Wilmington, Del., distributed by Scholarly Resources, 1998). Description An account of the resource Blame now falls, at least according to the author of this letter, on the "blood–thirsty aristocracy," which has created dissensions among the French. The author also expresses alarm at the thought of the revolt spreading to other islands in the Caribbean. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 573 Title A name given to the resource The Pennsylvania Gazette: Blame Now Falls (16 May 1792) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/573/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 16, 1792 Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution 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 The Maroons [One] cause of the celebrity [of the parish of l'Anse-à-Boeuf] is the story of the negro maroons in the mountains for more than 85 years. These were [mostly] the heights around Bahoruco or la Béate and nearby. . . . This was also the scene of their cruel brigandage. In the month of March, 1702, M. de Galiffet [then the Governor] had these negroes pursued by fifteen men, who were in the forests 68 days and who sometimes passed four or five without finding water. They killed three negroes, captured eleven, and some 30 others escaped. Their food and farms were destroyed. In 1715 it was necessary to order their expulsion again, a step which M. Dubois, the commandant of the Cul-de-Sac, carried out in 1717. He found in their settlement a well of 40 feet in depth! They reappeared in 1719, the time when their chief, named Michel, was captured. In 1728, M. Charles Baudouin, since the commandant of the militia in Jacmel, went against the maroons with some of the local settlers and left out [with] 46 prisoners In 1733, they took 32. In 1740 the whites went to the Grands Bois of the Mirebalais, where M. Marillet, provost of the constabulary of the Cul-de-Sac, attacked the fugitives with 22 constables. They killed seven and captured fourteen, all born in the woods, and from them learned that 23 had fled. . . . A new expedition [came] in the month of December, 1761. Placed behind a breastwork, the negroes taunted their adversaries by a dance. The latter, furious, threw themselves into ditches whose depths were full of pointed pine stakes, covered with vines and creeping grasses. Fourteen mulattoes, making up nearly one half of the attackers, were maimed. Many of the maroons were killed; others were captured with their arrows and their firearms. Under the generalcy of M. de Belzunce, the black chief took his name [sic] and resumed disorders. Later these seemed to have become less frequent, when in 1766, M. d'Ennery was obliged to establish a post at Boucan-Patate, which the negroes attacked while that guard-house was being built and another at the dry branch of the river at Anses-à-Pitre. In spite of that, they came to murder, pillage, and carry off the slaves from Grands Bois and le Fond-Parisien as far as Sale Trou. Then the chiefs of the two Colonies concerted measures to pursue them. . . . M. de Saint-Vilmé found the base of the blacks at Bahoruco and attacked, 6 January 1777, but the [defenders'] dogs having barked the night before, they hurled themselves into woods so dense that the troop could not penetrate. The detachment was so broken down with fatigue, some soldiers having been reduced to drinking their urine, that they pulled back to get supplies. More than 30 mulattoes disbanded and it was necessary to wait while fifteen grenadiers or chasseurs were sent for. Provisions for a month were hurried out. Then M. de Saint-Vilmé marched anew, and found no maroons at all. . . . In 1777 the maroons repeated their ravages, at Boucan-Greffin. They reappeared there in 1778 and plundered M. Coupé, carrying off his housekeeper. This negress, named Anne, having refused to follow the maroons, was bound and [partially] garroted, and dragged off by force. After two days' march, they arrived. The chief of the band, named Kébinda took her for himself, but she still resisted. After trying to flee, she was recaptured and the whole group condemned her to death, but the chief refused this. Finally won by a passion that was aroused by her refusals, he let himself be persuaded by her, over some four months, that she would become his wife if he married her in a church. One night Kébinda left with her. They reached a guardhouse on the Spanish frontier, where Anne cried out, causing him to be captured. She was restored to M. Coupé and the Government gave her her liberty, under the name of Faithful Anne. Although he was released by the Spaniards, Kébinda died some time afterwards, of regret for a love betrayed. . . . The blacks did not cease their incursions in 1779, 1780, and 1781. . . . Finally, in 1782, M. de Saint-Larry, former surveyor and lieutenant of militia, [took a new initiative]. Established since 1779 at Anses-à-Pitre, where he had had to be continually on guard, far from all French farms and close enough to some Spaniards of a lightly-policed [frontier] area, Saint-Larry sought to acquaint himself with the latter and especially with those who had good relations with the maroons. He succeeded in this, attached these Spanish-speaking inhabitants of the border to him, and talked frankly to one of them, Diego Felix, a free Spanish quadroon. Saint-Larry's design was to bring the negroes to give up and to form a village acceptable to the Government. He spoke also to [another such] quadroon and [two other apparently white] men of the Spanish-Language population. The answers of the negroes being favorable, M. de Saint-Larry was able to give confidential word of this to M. Darcé, the King's major at Jacmel, and M. de Vincent, the deputy commander at Port-au-Prince. They replied that he should continue these discussions. [Saint-Larry] had gifts sent to the slaves by Diego Felix and also an invitation for about a dozen of them to meet him at Trou-Jacob, about five leagues off, and he would come there alone, by sea. On the day indicated, fourteen negroes clad in simple garments but with leather cartridge cases on their belts, together with their firearms and machetes, came from one side, with Diego Felix and M. de Saint-Larry in uniform and [two of his Spanish-speaking associates] from the other. Santiago, a Spanish negro born in Banique and taken by the maroons 45 years before, and Philippe, a native of the forests, their chiefs, announced that they agreed to withdraw to the parish of Neybe, to a place where they were to be directed by three or four Spaniards, and that after a year they would all be baptized at Neybe. Then they would go at once to the place which the authorities would assign to them. Santiago gave 137 kernels of corn to express the number of slaves involved. M. de Saint-Larry, after having passed out to them presents of cloth and kerchiefs, promised to return in two months. . . . [The negotiations went slowly forward and in time were satisfactorily ended. Consultation with the Spanish authorities brought their approval also.] [The establishment had failed, therefore, to crush the rebels and restore them to slavery. It boded no good for the future of that institution. On the other hand, a promise had been won from the slaves that there would be no more raids on the outlying plantations or settlements. Also, those favored blacks would pursue and arrest the fugitive slaves of both nations and receive the twelve-gourd bonus per fugitive offered in a Franco-Spanish treaty of 1777. No mention is made by Moreau of any compliance with the latter provision. The expense of the military actions, which had been high, would of course also end.] Such are the true details on these people who once devastated a large area of country. Among them are men of 60 years who have never lived anywhere but in the forests where they were born. The special quality of them all is anxiety, which is limned in their faces. Fear agitates them all. . . . Fright had accounted for as many as 1,800. Their true locale is towards the Nisao, in the mountains which are north of Azua. It was to that place that they retreated when obliged to flee the mountains of Bahoruco . . . where they had an easy food supply in the wild animals. They have for advance posts small, low huts with two men, with a back-up hut behind it, and thus successively right to the main body of their troop. Their sentinels are wild dogs. Some Spaniards go to buy rams and munitions for them even in the French Part. For plundering, they lay in wait and spied for long periods, if necessary, to find the proper moment. They were cruel if they wished to intimidate or sought revenge. They also carried off other blacks, whom they made into veritable slaves for themselves. They would admit persons who came freely to join them only after being assured that they were not spies. They killed them upon the least suspicion. . . . These slaves, after the expedition of M. de Saint-Vilmé, wandered about in terror of being ambushed. They were at times obliged to eat the leaves of trees and wild fruit. A cruel dysentery which ensued, and smallpox, which came after that, mowed them down in great numbers. [Especially typical of this second half of the eighteenth century, however, in the ferocity of feelings aroused, was the case of Macandal, the arch-poisoner.] The Case of Macandal It was at the plantation of M. Le Normand de Mézy in Limbé that the negro Macandal, born in Africa, belonged. His hand being caught in the mill, it had been necessary to cut it off, and he was made a herder of animals. He ran away. During his period of hiding, Macandal made himself famous for the poisonings which spread terror among the negroes and which made them all obey him. He kept an open school for this execrable art. He had agents in all the corners of the colony, and death flew in at his slightest signal. Finally, in his comprehensive plan, he had conceived the infernal project of making all the men who were not blacks disappear from the surface of Saint Domingue. Also, his successes, which went on increasing, had spread an alarm which assured that there would be more. Not the watchfulness of the magistrate, not that of the Government, nothing could come up with the means of catching this wretch. Efforts punished by an almost sudden death served only to terrify people even more. One day the negroes of the Dufresne plantation in Limbé had arranged for a big dance there. Macandal, who had gone unpunished for a long time, came to join in the dance. One young negro, perhaps because of the impression that the presence of this monster had produced on him, came to notify M. Duplessis a surveyor, and M. Trévan, who were on the plantation. They distributed tafia so profusely that the negroes all became drunk and Macandal, in spite of his caution, lost his good sense. They went to arrest him in a slave hut, from which they led him to a room in one of the ends of the big house. They tied his hands behind his back and for want of irons put on a piece of bridle harness. The two whites wrote to the Cape to tell of the capture and with two negro domestics they kept guard over Macandal, with loaded pistols on the table, where there was a light. The guards went to sleep. Macandal, perhaps aided by the two blacks, unfastened his hands, put out the candle, opened a window of a gable, threw himself into the prairie, and reached some coffee plants, leaping like a magpie. The land breeze which was rising made the window hook rattle and woke people up. There was a great uproar. They searched for Macandal, whom the dogs soon found, and recaptured him. Macandal, who could have escaped if he had used the two pistols on the table instead of fleeing was condemned to be burned alive. This was by an order of the Superior Council, 20 January 1758. Since he had boasted several times that if taken he would escape in different forms, he declared that he would take the shape of a fly to escape from the flames. Fate having willed that post to which his chain was fastened be rotten, the violent efforts which he made because of the torments of the fire pulled out the screw ring and he leaped out over the funeral pyre. The blacks cried out: "Macandal is saved!" The panic was wild. All the gates were shut. The detachment of Swiss guards who were on duty at the place of execution had the enclosure cleared out. The jailer Massé wanted to kill him with a sword thrust, but upon the order of the King's Attorney he was bound to a plank and thrown back into the fire. Although the body of Macandal had been incinerated, many negroes believed even now that he did not die in this torture. The memory of this creature, for whom epithets are inadequate, still awakens equally sinister ideas. The slaves call both poisons and poisoners "macandals," and this name has become one of the cruelest insults which they can address to each other. There is towards the east of Cavaillon a large mountain called Blue Mountain, celebrated because it served as a retreat of the slave Pompey, whose devastations and crimes desolated this Part for a long time. This mountain has many caverns, even very spacious ones, where you find fetishes and other evidence of their frequent use by the aborigines. It was in one of these caverns that Pompey was taken after a vigorous defense. The Downward Spiral [The cases of Macandal and Pompey and the almost never-ending struggle of the maroons to survive were the more spectacular features of the resistance of the slaves. Behind this and known chiefly in the immediate areas involved, was the depressing accumulation of suicides and abortions. What with absentee ownership and gradually impoverished soil, these could rapidly become worse.] Compared as a whole, this plain [of Léogane] produces smaller crops than those of the Cul-de-Sac and of l'Arcahaye. The sugar there . . . has been harvested for a long time without rest, for the first sugar estate of the French Part was that which M. Deslandes, a settler and then King's Major for Léogane began there in 1680. The areas near the sea, in particular, are the most worn out and want manuring. Léogane was in one period mentioned as the place where you found the greatest luxury in the Colony, the one upon which the others modeled themselves. In 1712, 40 wheeled carriages were counted in the parish. Since the time when almost all the proprietors of the plain, however, have come to live in France, people here live almost isolated lives and seem only busy with sending big revenues to these owners. Among the latter are those who—and perhaps as a direct consequence of this practice—do not watch out that their estates have always enough of the food needed for their slaves. If they don't seem to know that you always expect too much labor from a man who is not fed enough, it is the duty of the Government to remind them of it. . . . 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), 247-256. Description An account of the resource In this passage, Moreau de Saint–Méry explains that runaways (Maroons) are and have always been a persistent problem in Saint Dominigue and details the tremendous efforts put into retrieving the runaways. Despite this effort, some Maroons survived and thereby regained their freedom. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 572 Title A name given to the resource The Maroons Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/572/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1797 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 A Voluptuary All the advantages given to the mulatto man are lavished upon the mulatto woman. Everything which I have written, in painting the white Creole woman suits her perfectly, if you refer to elegance of form and ease of motion. But she carries farther the nonchalance which speaks of low vitality—this feature is not repudiated by the language of the eyes. To see her slow pace, accompanied by movements of her hips and the balancing of her head; joined by that arm which moves along her body, holding a handkerchief. . . . So, too, with a little bit of root used for a sort of brush with which she frequently burnished the enamel of her most beautiful teeth, and you recognize one of those priestesses of Venus beside whom a Laïs or a Phryné would have seen all her celebrity vanish. The entire being of a mulatto woman is given up to love, and the fire of this goddess burns in her heart, to be extinguished only with her life. This cult is her whole code, all of her votive offerings, her entire happiness. There is nothing that the most inflamed imagination can conceive of that she has not offered, guessed, or accomplished. Captivating all the senses, surrendering them to the most delicious ecstasies, holding them in suspense by the most seductive raptures: those are her whole study. Nature, in some way the accessory to pleasure, has given her charms, appeal, and sensibility. She also has what is definitely more dangerous: the talent for trying her hand at greater delights than even her partner could equal. She knows pleasures of which not even the code of Paphos contains all the secrets. Remember that I cited the mulatresses as the most precocious of the Creole women. This quality, their natural disposition, the accounts of the seductions of men by their female acquaintances, and the effect of a reputation which attaches to the entire class, are causes enough to make them pledge themselves at an early age to a life of love-making. You would be sorry to learn to what degree this disorder has developed. Sometimes the period which separates childhood from puberty and which belongs equally to both, so to speak, is hardly respected. From this stem all the wrong things, of which the inability to reproduce is not the least, or the coming of offspring who are feeble and weak. The luxury of the mulatto women is carried to the nth degree and since 1770 it has made progress which seems unbelievable to those who are able to compare the two eras. It is always in the towns that you can judge well enough to gain an exact idea. This luxury consists almost entirely of single object, dress, because usually nothing is more simple than the housing of a mulattress. 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), 81-82. Description An account of the resource Moreau de Saint–Méry painted a particularly negative portrait of mulatto women whom he considered to be voluptuaries and a threat to morals and decency. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 571 Title A name given to the resource That Seductive Mulatto Woman Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/571/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1797 Text 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 The Origin of the Freed Class The Freedmen are more universally known under the name of the People of Color or the Mixed-Bloods, although the first of these terms, taken exactly, designates the negro slaves also. From the moment that the province had slaves, it lost no time in having some freedmen. Various factors came together to create this class, situated between the master and the slave. In Saint Domingue the blacks included not only negroes but also Indians and savages whom one could tell from the former only with difficulty as far as their color was concerned. The scarcity of women, the customary ways of the Filibusters and the Buccaneers, and the alluring complaisance of the black women caused the appearance of the mulattoes. The skin color of the mulattoes classed them with the Indians and the savages. This is proved by the census of 1681, wherein one finds all the colored people lumped together and numbering 480. At that time there were none classed as free except the whites. The men who enslaved the savages and the Indians, quite without hesitation, as being of the same color as the mulattoes, discovered a feeling which they had not expected. Namely, by a sort of unstated agreement, when a white man had taken a negress as his bedmate, he found out that, out of his love for the resulting children and out of his own self-respect, he wanted to have the children become free when they came of age. Putting it simply, when the mulattoes reached twenty-one, it became customary for them to become free. But the master's personal interest in [his property] led to many violations of this unspoken rule. Also, the Black Code, in regulating the inheritance of property in slaves in the colonies [tended to reinforce this reactionary trend.] Consequently the mulattoes began to lose their advantages. The upshot generally was that people were regarded as freed men and women only if the master had given up his rights in a written paper. There were such free persons before 1685. This is shown by the edict of the month of March of that year, prepared several years before, which made manumission a legal act when put down in a paper voluntarily signed by the master. . . . If one reflected on the great number of motives which came together to increase the total of freed people, it is surprising not to see more of them in the 1703 census, when there were only 500 listed. . . . Gradually, however, a cumulative development occurred. In effect it was the result of an allegedly necessary concubinage, or of a sort of generosity which could operate only at the death of the master [through his last will and testament], or the mercenary motive of letting the slave save up to buy his own freedom, or the marriage of a freedman to his slave [or finally the natural increase of the freed class itself. The really great increase came after 1770, from 6000 in that year to double that in 1780 and to 28,000 in 1789! Included were persons who became free because of service in the constabulary set up to catch fugitive slaves. . . .] The Indian women, by the way, scorned the black men. On the other hand, the white men were attracted by the gentle and faithful character and sex appeal of the black women. The first observation which is inspired by the existence of this freed class is that it was in the bosom of France that the laws for the maintenance of slavery arose; secondly that it was France which protected the profitable slave trade of merchants of the Metropole [of Metropolitan France] from competition by the colonials, forbidding it to the latter. But it was the colonists to whom credit was due for the idea of freeing the blacks. The liberation came from the happy circumstance that the system of manumission [to repeat], left the master able to satisfy his sense of justice and of generosity by the very fact of allowing the slave to buy his own freedom, if indeed he did not give it to him. . . . The master was obligated, none the less, to support the slave after he was freed, if he was unable to look after himself, perhaps because of old age or infirmity. 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, 73-75. Description An account of the resource As many as two–thirds of the slaves in Saint Domingue in 1789 had been born in Africa, but by that time a significant number of Africans or children of Africans had become free. Here Moreau de Saint–Méry details the origins of this pivotal group. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 570 Title A name given to the resource Saint Domingue: The Freedmen Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/570/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1797 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 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 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 Of all the domains of France in the New World, the French part of the island of Santo Domingo is the most important. . . . This is because of the riches which it produces for the mother country. It is also enormously valuable as a market for French foodstuffs and [is] a stimulant to French trade. The French Part is noteworthy on this account to all students of government. This applies equally to learning the facts about the different areas of this vast state and to understanding the principal points of its administration. . . . [It is] a Colony whose distance from the mother country prevents it from being particularly like France, but its loss or rescue form one of the great subjects on which France must mediate. Finally, the scientist, the naturalist, the planter, and many others . . . will enjoy this faithful description of an establishment whose fate can have much influence upon the destinies of France. It is for these reasons that I am pursuing this project of publication. The French Part of Santo Domingo forms the western portion of that immense island. The Spaniards occupy the entire eastern part. . . . But the French Part does not, unlike the Spanish Part, offer. . . a length almost equal to its breadth. French Santo Domingo has an irregular shape, produced by a double cause. One is a sinuous boundary line between the two countries. The other factor is the presence of two unequal points of land, or, more accurately, two peninsulas, which extend from the southern and northern edges of the island to run to the west, leaving between them a sort of bay or little gulf. The mountains of Saint Domingue . . . serve to vary the climate, which depends upon their height, their nearness, and the way in which they are located in reference to the prevailing winds. . . . In general, the French Part or Saint Domingue is warmer and more exposed to droughts than the Spanish Part. The droughts are becoming longer and more frequent. This arises from a greediness which counts the future for nothing. . . . People have cut down the trees which covered the higher points and which summoned the life-giving rains and held onto the abundant dews. There was also a humidity whose beneficial influence was prolonged by the forests. The French Part has about 520,000 persons, divided into 40,000 whites, 28,000 freedmen or descendants of freedmen, and 452,000 slaves. This offers the following proportion: eleven and three-tenths slaves for one white, ten whites to seven freedmen, and sixteen slaves to one freedman. 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), 13-15. Description An account of the resource Here Moreau de Saint–Méry describes the topography and peoples of the French part of the island, providing some important basic knowledge which he expands upon in subsequent passages. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 568 Title A name given to the resource Saint Domingue: Some Geography Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/568/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1797 Economic Conditions 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 Extract of a letter from the master of a vessel at Cape François, to his owners in this city, dated September 18th. "I take this opportunity by a brig bound to Philadelphia, to inform you I am still lying here with my cargo on board, as well as all other vessels loaded with American produce. They will neither buy our cargoes, nor let us go out of port. We have not sold 20 barrels of flour since I have been here. The merchants I am consigned to are constantly out fighting the Negroes. This afternoon went out a large body of troops in order to make a general attack to-morrow on the Negro camp, which is from 8 to 10,000 men. When we shall get away from here God only knows. There is no trusting any body for sixpence. No articles of provision will sell. Cash is kept close. Extract from another letter of the same date. "The Negroes are destroying and burning every thing before them. To-morrow an army of two thousand men is to go out to the plains to attack the Negroe camp in our neighborhood.—We hope it will be successful. By keeping watch and patrol, we have prevented the Negroes from attempting any thing against this place. We are secure from any danger at present."Extract from another letter of the same date. "I dropped you a line, on guard, the other night by Capt. Green. Since which the blacks have continued their ravages; they have burnt and destroyed almost every sugar plantation in that part of the Island. When these devastations will cease, is as uncertain as it was on the first day of the insurrection. A total stagnation of business, and an impossibility of collecting a farthing of specie, are amongst the calamities that attend this barbarous rebellion. Personal safety in the town is not yet endangered; you need therefore be under no apprehension on that score."AUTHENTIC PARTICULARS Of the late Disturbances at S. Domingo, received from a gentleman at Cape François, in a letter to his friend in this city. Cape François, Wednesday evening, Aug. 24. YESTERDAY morning the Volunteers were all ordered out by order of the Assembly, who convened at an early hour. I was not acquainted with the case till near 9 o'clock, at which time a draft from every company was made, together with a large party of the Cape regiment, to march immediately to the plains, and but a few miles from town, where it seems the Negroes of a number of plantations had rebelled, assembled in a body, and killed the Overseer of one plantation, and a gentleman belonging to this town. In the afternoon reports began to circulate, and the alarm became general. Several thousands of the Negroes had assembled, and committed some ravages by burning several habitations, which they continued doing all last night, in spite of the troops which went out to stop their depredations. Many Negroes were yesterday killed, indeed all that could be met with. This morning a respectable re-inforcement were sent to the body which marched yesterday. I have not yet heard whether the insurrection is quelled—but the damage already sustained is immense. Upwards of 30 habitations are already destroyed. To what length they will carry their rage God knows. To night, no doubt, many more habitations will be destroyed. A gentleman living within a few doors of us was this morning brought in dead. Planters, with their wives and children, are every minute arriving, who bring accounts of continued distress and destruction.The cause of this dreadful insurrection I dare not conjecture; but it is said, the tyranny of some of the Overseers is not the least of the causes. A plot to burn the town and the shipping in the road, has been discovered, and which was to have been attempted the night before last. Many will be the sacrifices before the business ends, and doubtless the conspirators of so infernal a piece of work, will soon meet their just reward. Some are taken up on suspicion of supplying the incendiaries with the means, and some have been caught in attempting to execute the infernal project. Nothing has been done in town these two days, but keeping the volunteers and militia in arms, and every store and ship is obliged to be kept shut. In fine, all is fear, suspicion, jealousy! and every one has an interest in watching even the looks of the people of color. Sunday, 28 August. Since writing the foregoing, numerous have been the most cruel murders and massacres,—and numberless plantations, with the buildings and crops, destroyed by fire.—From the quay is an extensive view of a vast plain, bounded by a ridge of mountains, about 8 or 10 miles distant. The length of the plain I have not ascertained, but it may be about 30 miles. No longer than Monday last, this great space was filled with beautiful villas, elegant places, and nearly the whole covered with sugar cane; the greatest part of which are now laying in ashes. Almost the whole is destroyed!—If the infernal devils were content with this destruction, it would be happy for the Colonists; but they add the cruelty of savages to their incendiary conduct, inhumanly murdering all the whites they catch, sparing neither age nor sex.—I cannot enter into particulars; it would take more time than I have to spare.—Suffice it to say, that our troops are not able to check the ferocity of the Blacks, who are continually increasing in numbers. As many as 5,000 are assembled in a body, about 6 miles from town, and now and then the artillery has a chance to throw a few shot among them. Upwards of a thousand have already been killed on different plantations, and in different manners. If any are taken, they are commonly put to death on the spot. Since the commencement of the insurrection great numbers have been brought prisoners to town, a few Mullatoes, and the rest Negroes. If the prisoners did not walk so fast as their guard, they would be pricked with bayonets to quicken their pace. In a few instances the prisoners have been killed in the streets, not being able to avoid the rage of the people, which follows a prisoner till he ceases to live. Yesterday a shocking massacre of about fifty black prisoners was acted at the Champ-de-Mars. They were brought to town and ordered to be executed immediately at that place. They came to town in four or five parties, at different times of the day. Among them were some women, who, with the rest, were either shot, or cut to pieces with sabers. Indeed, my friend, I do not know where to stop in this horrible description! And I mention these particulars just to give you an idea of this war or horror and carnage in which we are engaged! The villages of Limbe and Port-Margot, situated on the other side of the mountains, at the back of the town, are burned, and all the inhabitants who could get off with their lives, are arrived here. Alas! To see beautiful girls, lovely women, with their children and infants, traveling the streets without a shoe to their feet, just escaped from the flames of their dwelling! 'Tis too much!' And yet I have seen all this and more, if it were necessary to mention.Sunday morning, September 11th. The embargo, which was laid on all vessels at the commencement of our troubles, is taken off the Americans, and they may sail when they please. In consequence, I take the opportunity of sending this letter by Capt. Watson, who will sail on Tuesday for Philadelphia. I shall close my account of the insurrection with a few particular transactions which have occurred the week past. Two white men, and a number of blacks have been hung, some blacks shot, and many who have been brought to town will share the same fate. On Thursday 5 white men were brought to town from Gonaives, who had been detected there spreading false alarms, with intention to plunder. Eight others, on Friday were brought in, caught in the same business; and yesterday two more were taken among the negroes, who had been assisting them in burning some habitations the night before. The punishment of these whites will, no doubt, be severe, if found guilty upon evidence. Friday in the evening we had a heavy rain, and the Negroes, taking advantage of this circumstance, made an attempt to cross the bridge at Haut-du-Cap, where our army is encamped, but were repulsed with fixed bayonets, the troops not being able to fire because of the rain. In the morning about 20 were found dead on the spot where the action happened. Since the beginning of the insurrection, all the American Captains have enrolled themselves and do duty every night upon the bay. Four Captains at a time and generally one man from every vessel form a respectable corps-de-garde. On Friday night last the Governor sent a very polite letter to the Commander of the American Guard, while on duty, with a request that 12 men might be spared to man a schooner for an expedition in the morning (yesterday) to L'Acul, with intention to bring off some cannon and stores deposited there, and which it was feared would fall into the hands of the Negroes. The request was granted, and the number immediately obtained from the guard then on duty, with Capt. Lillibridge as the officer. In the morning they sailed, in company with a sloop of war. They have not yet returned; and it was reported in the evening that the Negroes had got two 24 pounders mounted, which kept playing upon the sloop, and prevented their effecting the object of the expedition. I mention this only as a report; I will not assert it. We are every day expecting succors from Jamaica. The letters of our Assembly to the Governor and Assembly of that island, requesting a supply of troops, are published in some of the papers which I send you. At present our fears for the safety of the towns are subsided, and every exertion making to quell the insurrection, and for putting a stop to the depredations of the blacks. The volunteers have been continually upon duty, who go to the camp in rotation, and are relieved every two or three days from those in town. In general they are very much harassed by the intense heat. The free Mulattoes and Negroes are all armed by the government, and in many instances have behaved bravely against the Negroes. In the situation of affairs at present, it is next to impossible to tell when the troubles will end. The Negroes keep themselves embodied in different places, and when attacked, they immediately fly and scatter. This method of theirs harrasses our troops in such a manner that, without effecting any thing essential, they get quite worn out, and are obliged to be immediately relieved. In fine, if I may be allowed to hazard a conjecture, it appears, that several months will elapse before the insurrection will be quelled, and it will require years to reinstate this part of the colony in the flourishing situation that it was in 3 weeks ago.Letter from the President of the General Assembly, to the Members of the General Assembly of Jamaica. Cape François, 24 August 1791. GENTLEMEN, "The measure of the misfortunes of St. Domingo is filled: In a short time this delightful country will be but a heap of ashes. Already the Planters have bedewed with their blood the land which they had fertilized with the sweat of their brow: at this moment, the flames are consuming those productions, which were the glory of the French empire. Principles, destructive of our property, have kindled a flame amongst us, and armed the hands of our own slaves. Philosophy, which is the consolation of mankind, has reduced us to despair. "Bereft of assistance, and reduced to the last extremity, St. Domingo looks for friends and protectors in all her neighbors. We will not remind you of your interest, that is exposed to danger from the spirit of philosophy, which is the cause of our misfortunes, and which, being equally inimical to your system, would plunge you into the same misfortunes, if the crime were once completed, without hope of reparation. We will only call upon that generosity, which is the distinguishing characteristic of your nation. "We freely call upon you for assistance; and we do it with confidence. "Inspired with these sentiments, the General Assembly of the French port of St. Domingo have determined to depute Mr. Bugnet, one of their Members, to present you our request. "1. He will present to you our constitutional act, which establishes our legal character of Representatives of the people of St. Domingo."2. His nomination."3. The proclamation for soliciting assistance from all the neighboring powers. "I have the honor to be, with the most cordial and brotherly affection, gentlemen, your most obedient humble servant, (Signed) P. de CADUSCH, President." Sortable Date 1791-10-12 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 The Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia), 12 October 1791; available on cd-rom (Accessible Archives: Wilmington, Del., distributed by Scholarly Resources, 1998). Description An account of the resource The magnitude of the insurrection quickly became clear as alarmed observers related that considerable armies were being raised to fight the rebels. It is noteworthy that such reports even to northern U.S. newspapers expressed little sympathy for the rebels. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 567 Title A name given to the resource The Pennsylvania Gazette: Magnitude of the Insurrection (12 October 1791) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/567/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource October 12, 1791 Public Opinion Text The US and Great Britain in Revolution 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 The two following points must now occupy our attention: 1st. The course which the Revolution in France took; 2nd. How that Revolution became World-Historical. 1. Freedom presents two aspects: the one concerns its substance and purport—its objectivity—the thing itself—[that which is performed as a free act]; the other relates to the Form of Freedom, involving the consciousness of his activity on the part of the individual; for Freedom demands that the individual recognize himself in such acts, that they should be veritably his, it being his interest that the result in question should be attained. The three elements and powers of the State in actual working must be contemplated according to the above analysis, their examination in detail being referred to the Lectures on the Philosophy of Right. Laws of Rationality—of intrinsic Right—Objective or real freedom: to this category belong Freedom of Property and Freedom of Person. . . . In view then of these leading considerations we have to trace the course of the French Revolution and the remodeling of the State in accordance with the Idea of Right. In the first instance purely abstract philosophical principles were set up: Disposition and Religion were not taken into account. The first Constitutional form of Government in France was one which recognized Royalty; the monarch was to stand at the head of the State, and on him in conjunction with his Ministers was to devolve the executive power; the legislative body on the other hand were to make the laws. But this constitution involved from the very first an internal contradiction; for the legislature absorbed the whole power of the administration: the budget, affairs of war and peace, and the levying of the armed force were in the hands of the Legislative Chamber. Everything was brought under the head of Law. The budget however is in its nature something diverse from law, for it is annually renewed, and the power to which it properly belongs is that of the Government. With this moreover is connected the indirect nomination of the ministry and officers of state, etc. The government was thus transferred to the Legislative Chamber, as in England to the Parliament. This constitution was also vitiated by the existence of absolute mistrust; the dynasty lay under suspicion, because it had lost the power it formerly enjoyed, and the priests refused the oath. Neither government nor constitution could be maintained on this footing, and the ruin of both was the result. A government of some kind however is always in existence. The question presents itself then, Whence did it emanate? Theoretically, it proceeded from the people; really and truly from the National Convention and its Committees. The forces now dominant are the abstract principles—Freedom, and, as it exists within the limits of the Subjective Will—Virtue. This Virtue has now to conduct the government in opposition to the Many, whom their corruption and attachment to old interests, or a liberty that has degenerated into license, and the violence of their passions, render unfaithful to virtue. Virtue is here a simple abstract principle and distinguishes the citizens into two classes only—those who are favorably disposed and those who are not. But disposition can only be recognized and judged of by disposition. Suspicion therefore is in the ascendant; but virtue, as soon as it becomes liable to suspicion, is already condemned. Suspicion attained a terrible power and brought to the scaffold the Monarch, whose subjective will was in fact the religious conscience of a Catholic. Robespierre set up the principle of Virtue as supreme, and it may be said that with this man Virtue was an earnest matter. Virtue and Terror are the order of the day; for Subjective Virtue, whose sway is based on disposition only, brings with it the most fearful tyranny. It exercises its power without legal formalities, and the punishment it inflicts is equally simple—Death. This tyranny could not last; for all inclinations, all interests, reason itself revolted against this terribly consistent Liberty, which in its concentrated intensity exhibited so fanatical a shape. An organized government is introduced, analogous to the one that had been displaced; only that its chief and monarch is now a mutable Directory of Five, who may form a moral, but have not an individual unity; under them also suspicion was in the ascendant, and the government was in the hands of the legislative assemblies; this constitution therefore experienced the same fate as its predecessor, for it had proved to itself the absolute necessity of a governmental power. Napoleon restored it as a military power, and followed up this step by establishing himself as an individual will at the head of the State: he knew how to rule, and soon settled the internal affairs of France. The avocats [barristers], ideologues and abstract-principle men who ventured to show themselves he sent "to the right about," and the sway of mistrust was exchanged for that of respect and fear. He then, with the vast might of his character turned his attention to foreign relations, subjected all Europe, and diffused his liberal institutions in every quarter. Greater victories were never gained, expeditions displaying greater genius were never conducted: but never was the powerlessness of Victory exhibited in a clearer light than then. The disposition of the peoples, i.e., their religious disposition and that of their nationality, ultimately precipitated this colossus; and in France constitutional monarchy, with the "Charte" as its basis, was restored. But here again the antithesis of Disposition [good feeling] and Mistrust made its appearance. The French stood in a mendacious position to each other, when they issued addresses full of devotion and love to the monarchy, and loading it with benediction. A fifteen years' farce was played. For although the Charte was the standard under which all were enrolled, and though both parties had sworn to it, yet on the one side the ruling disposition was a Catholic one, which regarded it as a matter of conscience to destroy the existing institutions. Another breach, therefore, took place, and the Government was overturned. At length, after forty years of war and confusion indescribable, a weary heart might fain congratulate itself on seeing a termination and tranquillization of all these disturbances. But although one main point is set at rest, there remains on the one hand that rupture which the Catholic principle inevitably occasions, on the other hand that which has to do with Men's subjective will. In regard to the latter, the main feature of incompatibility still presents itself, in the requirement that the ideal general will should also be the empirically generalized will, that the units of the State, in their individual capacity, should rule, or at any rate take part in the government. Not satisfied with the establishment of rational rights, with freedom of person and property, with the existence of a political organization in which are to be found various circles of civil life each having its own functions to perform, and with that influence over the people which is exercised by the intelligent members of the community, and the confidence that is felt in them, "Liberalism" sets up in opposition to all this the atomistic principle, that which insists upon the sway of individual wills; maintaining that all government should emanate from their express power, and have their express sanction. Asserting this formal side of Freedom—this abstraction—the party in question allows no political organization to be firmly established. The particular arrangements of the government are forthwith opposed by the advocates of Liberty as the mandates of a particular will, and branded as displays of arbitrary power. The will of the Many expels the Ministry from power, and those who had formed the Opposition fill the vacant places; but the latter having now become the Government, meet with hostility from the Many, and share the same fate. Thus agitation and unrest are perpetuated. This collision, this nodus, this problem is that with which history is now occupied, and whose solution it has to work out in the future. 2. We have now to consider the French Revolution in its organic connection with the History of the World; for in its substantial import that event is World-Historical, and that contest of Formalism which we discussed in the last paragraph must be properly distinguished from its wider bearings. As regards outward diffusion its principle gained access to almost all modern states, either through conquest or by express introduction into their political life. Particularly all the Romanic nations, and the Roman Catholic World in special—France, Italy, Spain—were subjected to the dominion of Liberalism. But it became bankrupt everywhere; first, the grand firm in France, then its branches in Spain and Italy; twice, in fact, in the states into which it had been introduced. This was the case in Spain, where it was first brought in by the Napoleonic Constitution, then by that which the Cortes adopted—in Piedmont, first when it was incorporated with the French Empire, and a second time as the result of internal insurrection; so in Rome and in Naples it was twice set up. Thus Liberalism as an abstraction, emanating from France, traversed the Roman World; but Religious slavery held that world in the fetters of political servitude. For it is a false principle that the fetters which bind Right and Freedom can be broken without the emancipation of conscience—that there can be a Revolution without a Reformation.—These countries, therefore, sank back into their old condition—in Italy with some modifications of the outward political condition. Venice and Genoa, those ancient aristocracies, which could at least boast of legitimacy, vanished as rotten despotisms. Material superiority in power can achieve no enduring results: Napoleon could not coerce Spain into freedom any more than Philip II could force Holland into slavery. Sortable Date 1830-00-00 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 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of History, English translation (New York: Colonial Press, 1899), 449–53. Description An account of the resource Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) was a famous philosophy professor in Berlin whose lectures attracted many students, even though the lectures were extraordinarily abstract. The Philosophy of History was a compilation of his lectures given in 1830–31 and published after his death. They give the flavor of his philosophy of history and of his preoccupation with the French Revolution. Hegel was almost obsessed with Napoleon, whom he described as "world history on horseback." Hegel argued that the French Revolution failed because it had not been preceded by a prior Protestant Reformation, as in the German states. Freedom, he insisted, depended on a mental change; it could not be enforced politically. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 566 Title A name given to the resource The Philosophy of History Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/566/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1830 Enlightenment Europe in Revolution Public Opinion 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 These infuriated men alone could have devised the means, and what is still more incredible, partly have succeeded in the execution of their project. The means were doubtless execrable, but it must be acknowledged that they were of gigantic conception. The Jacobins possessed minds rarefied by the fire of republican enthusiasm, and they may be said to have been reduced, by their purifying scrutinies . . . to the quintessence of infamy. Hence they displayed, at the same time, a degree of energy which was completely without example, and an extent of crimes, which all those of history, put together, can scarcely equal. They saw that to obtain the end which they had in view, the received systems of justice, the common axioms of humanity, and the whole range of principles, adopted by Lycurgus, would not be of use, and that they must arrive at the same object by another road. To wait till death took away the great proprietors of estates, or till they consented to their own spoliation; to wait till years rooted out fanaticism, and effected a change in customs and manners; to wait till recruits, raised in the ordinary way, could be sent to the armies: all this appeared doubtful and tedious. As if, therefore, the establishment of a republic and the defense of France, taken separately, afforded too little employment for their genius, they resolved on attempting both at the same time. Agents having been placed at their posts in every corner of the republic, and the word communicated to affiliated societies, the monsters . . . gave the fearful signal which was to recall Sparta from its ruins. It resounded though France like the trump of the exterminating angel—the monuments of the sons of men crumbled away, and the graves opened. At the same moment a thousand sanguinary guillotines were erected in all the towns and villages of France. The citizen was suddenly awoke in the night by the report of cannon and roll of the drum, to receive an order for his immediate departure to the army. He was thunderstruck, and knew not whether he was a wake. He hesitated and looked around him. There he espied the ghastly heads and hideous trunks of those unfortunate wretches, who had perhaps refused to march at the first summons, only that they might take a last farewell of their families. What could he do? Where were the leaders, under whom he could place himself in order to avoid the requisition? Every one, thus taken separately, found himself deprived of all defense. On one side he beheld certain death; on the other bands of volunteers, who, flying from the famine, persecution, and intolerance of the interior, were going to seek bread and liberty in the army. They were intoxicated, singing, full of all the ardor of youth; and the citizen, with a guillotine before his eyes, seeing no other resource but to join them, took his departure with despair in his heart. On arriving soon afterwards at the frontiers, the necessity of defending his life, the courage natural to the French, the inconstancy and the enthusiasm of which they are characteristically susceptible, considerable pay, abundant food, the tumult and dangers of a military life, the women, the wine, and his native gaiety of disposition, made him forget that he had been brought thither by force, and he became a hero. Thus persecution on the one hand, and rewards on the other, created armies by enchantment; for when once the first example had been set, and the requisition obeyed, men by a natural imitative impulse, were eager, whatever might be their opinions, to walk in the steps of others. Here then were the rudiment of a military force, but it was necessary that this force should be organized. A committee, of which it has been said that its talents could not have been surpassed except by its crimes, employed itself in connecting these disjointed corps. Let no one, however, suppose that they resorted to the ancient tactics of Caesar and Turenne, No. Everything was to be new in this newly modeled world. It was no longer an object to save the life of man; it was no longer a rule to give battle only when the loss would at least be reciprocal. The art of war was now reduced to a calculation of numbers, rapidity, and time of attack. As to numbers, two or three armies immediately followed each other, to keep up an imposing mass of strength . . . . It might cost ten thousand men to take a place; it might be necessary to attack it twenty times, and on twenty successive days—still the place was to be taken. When the blood of men is reckoned as nothing, it is easy to make conquests. Were not deserters and spies sure to be found? The engineers trolled a song while they studied the weak points of the army, and secured victory in spite of the scientific secrets appertaining to their department of service. The telegraph conveyed flying orders, the earth yielded saltpeter, and France vomited forth innumerable legions. While the armies were forming, the prisons were filled with all the wealthy persons of France. At one place they were drowned by thousands, at another the doors of the crowded dungeons were opened and the victims fired upon by cannon loaded with grapeshot. The guillotine was at work day and night. This implement of destruction was too slow for the haste of the executioner; and the artists of death invented a new kind, which cut off several heads with a single blow. The streets were so inundated with blood, as to become impassible; and it became necessary to change the place of execution. It was in vain that immense pits were opened to receive the dead bodies; they were soon filled, and new ones obliged to be dug. Grey-headed people of eighty years old and girls of sixteen, fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, husbands, wives and children died covered with the blood of each other. Thus the Jacobins attained four leading points at once, towards the establishment of their republic; they destroyed the inequality of rank, leveled the fortunes of individuals, augmented the finances by the confiscation of every person's property who was condemned, and attached the army to their interest by buoying it up with the hope that it would some day posses these estates. The people, now hearing of nothing but conspiracies, invasion, and treason, were afraid of their own friends, and fancying themselves upon a mine which was ready to burst beneath them, sunk into a state of torpid terror. This the Jacobins had foreseen. A man, if now asked for bread, gave it; if for his garment, he took it off; if for his life, he resigned it without regret. At the same time he saw all the churches shut, its ministers sacrificed, and the ancient worship of the country banished under pain of death. He was told that there is no celestial vengeance but a guillotine; while by a contradictory and inexplicable jargon, he was commanded to adore the virtues for which festivals were instituted, where girls, clothed in white, and crowned with roses, entertained idle curiosity by singing hymns in honor of the Gods. The unfortunate confounded people no longer knew where they were, nor whether they existed. They sought in vain for their ancient customs—these had vanished. They saw a foreign nation in strange attire, wandering through the public streets. If they asked which were their holidays, and which the days of their ordinary duties, new appellations struck their ears. The day of repose had disappeared. They trusted at least that the fixed return of the year would restore the natural state of affairs, and bring some consolation with it. Unfounded hope! As if condemned for ever to this new order of misery, the unknown months seemed to tell them that the revolution would extend to eternity; and in this land of prodigies, they had fears of losing themselves even in the midst of the streets, the names of which they no longer knew. . . . Thus was the unhappy nation bandied about by the hands of a powerful faction, suddenly transported into another world, stunned by the cries of victims, and the acclamations of victory resounding from all the frontiers, when God, casting a look towards France, caused these monsters to sink into nothingness. Such were the Jacobins, of whom much has been said, though few people knew them. Most persons have indulged in declamation and published their crimes, without stating the general principle on which they acted. This principle consisted in the system of perfection, towards which the first step to be made was the restoration of the Spartan laws. We have ascribed too much to passions and circumstances. A distinguishing feature of the French Revolution is, that it is necessary to admit speculative views and abstract doctrines, as infinite in their causes. It was in part effected by the men of letters, who were rather inhabitants of Rome and Athens than of their own country, and who endeavored to bring back the manners of antiquity into modern Europe. Sortable Date 1815-00-00 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 François-René Chateaubriand, Historical, Political, and Moral Essay on Revolutions, Ancient and Modern (English translation, 1815; original French Essai historique, politique et moral, sur les révolutions anciennes et modernes, considérées dans leurs rapports avec la Révolution française, 1815), 46–54. Description An account of the resource The French novelist and essayist François–René Chateaubriand (1768–1848) was a royalist who for a time admired Napoleon. Like Burke, he denounced the revolutionary reliance on reason and advocated a return to Christian principles. Although Chateaubriand detested the revolutionaries and their principles, he recognized that the French Revolution required extended commentary. Here he analyzes the Jacobins whom he clearly despises. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 565 Title A name given to the resource Historical, Political, and Moral Essay on Revolutions, Ancient and Modern Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/565/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1815 Counterrevolution Monarchy Public Opinion Religion 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 An occurrence in our own times which proves this moral tendency of the human race: The occurrence in question does not involve any of those momentous deeds or misdeeds of men which make small in their eyes what was formerly great or make great what was formerly small, and which cause ancient and illustrious states to vanish as if by magic, and others to arise in their place as if from the bowels of the earth. No, it has nothing to do with all this. We are here concerned only with the attitude of the onlookers as it reveals itself in public while the drama of great political changes is taking place: for they openly express universal yet disinterested sympathy for one set of protagonists against their adversaries, even at the risk that their partiality could be of great disadvantage to themselves. Their reaction (because of its universality) proves that mankind as a whole shares a certain character in common, and it also proves (because of its disinterestedness) that man has a moral character, or at least the makings of one. And this does not merely allow us to hope for human improvement; it is already a form of improvement in itself, in so far as its influence is, strong enough for the present. The revolution which we have seen taking place in our own times in a nation of gifted people may succeed, or it may fail. It may be so filled with misery and atrocities that no right-thinking man would ever decide to make the same experiment again at such a price, even if he could hope to carry it out successfully at the second attempt. But I maintain that this revolution has aroused in the hearts and desires of all spectators who are not themselves caught up in it a sympathy which borders almost on enthusiasm, although the very utterance of this sympathy was fraught with danger. It cannot therefore have been caused by anything other than a moral disposition within the human race. The moral cause which is at work here is composed of two elements. Firstly, there is the right of every people to give itself a civil Constitution of the kind that it sees fit, without interference from other powers. And secondly, once it is accepted that the only intrinsically rightful and morally good constitution which a people can have is by its very nature disposed to avoid wars of aggression (i.e., that the only possible constitution is a republican one, at least in its conception), there is the aim, which is also. This does not mean, however, that a people which has a monarchic constitution can thereby claim the right to alter it, or even nurse a secret desire to do so, for a people which occupies extended territories in Europe may feel that monarchy is the only kind of constitution which can enable it to preserve its own existence between powerful neighbors. And if the subjects should complain, not because of their internal government but because of their government's behavior towards the citizens of foreign states (for example, if it were to discourage republicanism abroad), this does not prove that the people are dissatisfied with their own constitution, but rather that they are profoundly attached to it; for it becomes progressively more secure from danger as more of the other nations become republics. Nevertheless, slanderous sycophants, bent on increasing their own importance, have tried to portray this innocuous political gossip as innovationism, Jacobinism and conspiracy, constituting a menace to the state. But there was never the slightest reason for such allegations, particularly in a country more than a hundred miles removed from the scene of the revolution. A duty, of submitting to those conditions by which war, the source of all evils and moral corruption, can be prevented. If this aim is recognized, the human race, for all its frailty, has a negative guarantee that it will progressively improve or at least that it will not be disturbed in its progress. All this, along with the passion or enthusiasm with which men embrace the cause of goodness (although the former cannot be entirely applauded, since all passion as such is blameworthy), gives historical support for the following assertion, which is of considerable anthropological significance: true enthusiasm is always directed exclusively towards the ideal, particularly towards that which is purely moral (such as the concept of right), and it cannot be coupled with selfish interests. No pecuniary rewards could inspire the opponents of the revolutionaries with that zeal and greatness of soul which the concept of right could alone produce in them, and even the old military aristocracy's concept of honor (which is analogous to enthusiasm) vanished before the arms of those who had fixed their gaze on the rights of the people to which they belonged, and who regarded themselves as its protectors. And then the external public of onlookers sympathized with their exaltation, without the slightest intention of actively participating in their affairs. It may be said of such enthusiasm for asserting the rights of man: postquam ad arma Vulcania ventum est,—mortalis mucro glacies ceu futilis ictu dissiluit—Why has no ruler ever dared to say openly that he does not recognize any rights of the people against himself? Or that the people owe their happiness only to the beneficence of a government which confers it upon them, and that any pretensions on the part of the subject that he has rights against the government are absurd or even punishable, since they imply that resistance to authority is permissible? The reason is that any such public declaration would rouse up all the subjects against the ruler, even although they had been like docile sheep, well fed, powerfully protected and led by a kind and understanding master, and had no lack of welfare to complain of. For beings endowed with freedom cannot be content merely to enjoy the comforts of existence, which may well be provided by others (in this case, by the government); it all depends on the principle which governs the provision of such comforts. Sortable Date 1798-00-00 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 Immanuel Kant, The Contest of Faculties, in Hans Reiss, ed., Kant: Political Writings, 2d ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) (Der Streit der Fakultäten [1798]), 182–83. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press. Description An account of the resource The most influential German philosopher of the eighteenth century, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), set the foundations for much of modern philosophy. He lectured on a wide variety of topics, from astronomy to economics. In this short statement from 1798, he captures much of the significance of the French Revolution for his time. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 564 Title A name given to the resource Kant, The Contest of Faculties Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/564/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1798 Enlightenment Europe in Revolution Public Opinion Text