The Freedmen's Book

by Lydia Maria Child

When the white planters of St. Domingo heard of this, they were filled with wrath. In one place, a mulatto named Lacombe, whose only crime was that he had signed the petition, was seized and hung. In another place, the mob seized a highly respected old white magistrate and cut off his head, because he had drafted for the mulattoes a very moderate petition, begging to be released from some of the hardships under which they had so long suffered. When the colored deputy Ogé returned from France and demanded that mulattoes should have the rights of citizenship, which had been decreed to them by the French Assembly, soldiers were sent to seize him, and he was sentenced to have all his limbs broken on a wheel, and then to have his head cut off.

Besides the classes of which I have spoken there was another class in St. Domingo called petit blancs, which means small whites. They were so called to distinguish them from the large landed proprietors. They occupied a position not unlike that of the class known as "poor whites" in the slaveholding portion of the United States. They were ready instruments to carry out the vengeance of the infuriated planters. They seized every opportunity to insult the free mulattoes, and to inflict cruelty and outrage on the negro slaves. They went about as patrols, traversing the plantations, and bursting into negro huts at all times of night, under the pretence that they were plotting insurrection. The poor ignorant slaves did not understand what all this mobbing and murdering was for; but finding themselves so much suspected and abused without cause, they became weary of their lives. Many committed suicide, others tried to poison their tormentors. At Port au Prince an attempt was made to get up an insurrection. Fifty slaves, suspected of being connected with it, were beheaded, and their heads, stuck on poles, were set up by the hedges in a row.

While the fire was thus kindling under their feet the white planters came out in open defiance of the French government, and refused to take the oath of allegiance. They called on the English for aid, and offered to make the island over to Great Britain. The mulattoes were filled with dismay, for the French government was their only hope. They had hitherto kept aloof from the negroes; but now, seeing the necessity of curbing the power of the white planters, at all hazards, they instigated the already exasperated slaves to seize this favorable moment of commotion and rise against their masters. They did rise, on the 22d of August, 1791. All at once the sky was red with the reflection of burning houses and cane-fields. The cruelties which they had witnessed or suffered, they now, in their turn, inflicted on white men, women, and children. It was a horrible scene.

Toussaint was working as usual on the Breda estate, when he heard that the planters had called in the aid of the English, and that four thousand negroes had risen in insurrection. He exerted his great influence with his fellow-slaves to prevent the destruction of houses and cane-fields on the Breda estate. For a month, he kept the insurgents at bay, while he helped M. Bayou de Libertas to convey a cargo of sugar on board a Baltimore ship, for the support of his family, and aided his mistress to collect such articles of value as could conveniently be carried away. Then he secretly conveyed them to the same ship; and it was an inexpressible relief to his heart when he saw them sailing away, bound for the shores of the United States.

The armed negroes increased in numbers, and marshalled themselves under an intelligent leader named Jean François. When the French governor in St. Domingo called upon them to lay down their arms, their leaders replied for them: "We have never thought of failing in the respect and duty we owe to the representatives of the King of France. The king has bewailed our lot and broken our chains. But those who should have proved fathers to us have been tyrants, monsters, unworthy the fruits of our labors. Do you ask the sheep to throw themselves into the jaws of the wolf? To prove to you, excellent sir, that we are not so cruel as you may think, we assure you that we wish for peace with all our souls; but on condition that all the whites, without a single exception, leave the Cape. Let them carry with them their gold and their jewels. All we seek is our liberty. God grant that we may obtain it without shedding of blood. Believe us, it has cost our feelings very much to have taken this course. But victory, or death for freedom, is our profession of faith; and we will maintain it to the last drop of our blood."

The negroes were mistaken in supposing that Louis XVI., king of France, had broken their chains, or that the king's party, called Royalists, were trying to do anything for their freedom. It was the revolutionary party in France, called Republicans, who had declared themselves in favor of emancipating the negro slaves, and giving the free mulattoes their civil rights. The main body of the negroes had been kept in the lowest ignorance, and of course could not understand the state of political parties. The world was ringing with French doctrines of liberty and equality, to be applied to men of all colors; and they could not help hearing something of what was so universally talked of. The Spaniards in the eastern part of St. Domingo were allies of the French king, and they wanted the negroes to help them fight the French planters, who were in rebellion against the king. In order to give them a strong motive for doing so, they told them that Louis XVI. had been cast into prison in France, and that they were going to kill him, because he wanted to emancipate the slaves in his colonies. They readily believed that it was so, because they saw their masters in arms against the king. Therefore they called their regiments "The King's Own," and carried flags on which were inscribed, "Long live the King," "The Ancient System of Government."

The slaveholders mounted the English cockade, and entered into alliance with Great Britain, while their revolted slaves joined the Spanish. The war raged horribly on both sides. Jean François was of a gentle disposition, and disposed to be merciful; but the two other leaders of the negroes, named Jeannot and Biassou, were monsters of revenge and cruelty. The bleeding heads of white men surrounded their camps, and the bodies of black men hung on trees round the camps of the planters.

This state of things shocked the soul of Toussaint Breda. Much as he desired the freedom of his own race, he was reluctant to join an enterprise marked by so many cruelties. Conscience forbade him to enlist on the side of the slaveholders, and he would gladly have remained neutral; but he found that men of his own color were suspicious of him, because he had adhered so faithfully to M. Bayou de Libertas. He joined the black insurgents; but, resolved not to take part in their barbarities, he occupied himself with healing the wounded,—an office for which he was well qualified by his tender disposition and knowledge of medicinal plants.

After a while, however, the negroes were compelled to retreat before the superior discipline of the white troops; and feeling greatly the need of intelligent officers, they insisted upon making Toussaint aide-de-camp to Biassou, under the title of Brigadier. He desired, above all things, that hostilities should cease, that the negroes should return to their work, and that the planters should consent to cease from oppressing them. A very little justice and kindness would have pacified the revolted slaves; but the slaveholders were so full of rage and pride, that if a slave attempted to return to his master, however sincere he might be, he was instantly put to death. Three commissioners came from France to try to negotiate a peace between the contending parties. The blacks sent deputies to the Colonial Assembly to help the French commissioners in this good work; but the planters treated their overtures with haughtiness and contempt.