HAYTI
CHAPTER XXVII
HAYTI
Hayti is a black republic—a place where the negro race is predominant. No white man may claim any plantation or even an acre of land in the Haytian republic as his own. The negroes refuse to grant land tenures to any “white trash.” Europeans exist in the island only on sufferance, and they are subjected to much the same treatment as in the days of old was meted out to negro slaves. It is the least desirable country in the world for the white man to select as his home.
The republic spreads about halfway across the island of San Domingo, whose history is rich in tales of bloodshed, piracy, and worse. The first of the West Indian islands to be annexed by Europe, San Domingo, or Española as Columbus named it, was the earliest Spanish settlement in the western world. As in Jamaica the Spaniards introduced religion so effectually that the original inhabitants, the gentle Caribs, were crushed out of existence. The Africans were introduced to do the work of the plantations. The Haytian portion of the island was afterwards wrested from Spain by the French buccaneers, who presented it without reserve to the Crown of France. The French did much to improve the island; plantations were established, cities were formed, churches were built, and the planters found that their country was, naturally, the richest of all the Caribbean group.
When the revolution broke out in France the new Government decided against the slave labour, and so the negroes obtained their freedom. The freed slaves promptly turned against their late masters, slaughtered every white man, woman, and child in the island, and proclaimed the independence of Hayti as a black republic. Napoleon despatched an army corps to avenge their murdered countrymen, but yellow fever made the ultimate conquest of the island impossible. And so, mainly because of the insalubrity of its climate, Hayti remains a free republic. The language and religion, and some of the customs, of France remain. But the Government is practically under the sway of a despotic President, who exercises all the power of an Emperor, while pandering to the vanity of his people by calling them free, and his government representative. Though nominally elected by a popular assembly he really governs by right of might, and he is as a rule dethroned after much bloodshed by a rival Haytian giant. The President sees to it that he secures the affection and loyalty of the trained soldiery, and all his friends and most powerful supporters are given gaudy uniforms and high-faluting titles in the Haytian army. It is a Gilbertian style of government and might be
