Hayti; or, The black republic.

by Sir Spenser St. John

I now agree with those who deny that the negro could ever originate a civilisation, and that with the best of educations he remains an inferior type of man. He has as yet shown himself totally unfitted for self-government, and incapable as a people to make any progress whatever. To judge the negroes fairly, one must live a considerable time in their midst, and not be led away by the theory that all races are capable of equal advance in civilisation.

The mulattoes have no doubt far superior intelligence, and show greater capacity for government, but as yet they have had no marked success. It is pitiable to read their history, and see how they are almost ever swayed by the meanest impulses of personal interest and ambition, and how seldom they act from patriotic motives. During the twenty years which have elapsed since I first became acquainted with the country, what a dreary succession of meaningless conspiracies, from the abortive attempt of General Legros in 1863, to the disastrous civil strife between two sections of the mulatto party, led by Boisrond-Canal and Boyer-Bazelais, when the latter completed the ruin of those of his own colour, and let in their worst enemies, the blacks, who had dreamed for twenty years of their extermination (1879).

Scarcely one of these plots and insurrections, by which the country has been bathed in blood, but was founded on the hope of office and the consequent spoils. The thoughts of the conspirators are concentrated on the treasury and the division of its contents. “Prendre l’argent de l’état ce n’est pas volé,” is the motto of all parties, of every shade of colour.

Politically speaking, the Haytians are a hopeless people, and the most intelligent and best educated among them are more and more inclined to despair of the future of their country when they see the wreck that follows each wave of barbarism which every few years passes over their republic. President Geffrard, on going into exile in 1867, remarked to my Spanish colleague, that, putting aside all personal feelings and regrets, he could only foresee for his country a disastrous series of convulsions. He spoke prophetically; for Hayti has never recovered from the effects of the civil war which followed his expulsion, and he must have observed, from his secure retreat in Jamaica, how the leaders of every section of his enemies were, one by one, executed, killed in battle, or sent into exile.

I will now attempt to examine some characteristic traits of the Haytian negro and mulatto.

The Negro.

A French admiral once asked me, “Est-ce que vous prenez ces gens au sérieux?” And at first sight it is impossible to do so in Hayti; but after the eye becomes used to the grotesque, the study of the people is both interesting and instructive. To a foreigner accustomed to regard the negro as he is depicted by our latest travellers, a half-naked savage, brutal and brute-like, it is not possible to contemplate as otherwise than incongruous a black general with heavy gold epaulettes and gorgeous uniform galloping on a bedizened steed, surrounded by a staff as richly apparelled, and followed by an escort of as ragged a soldiery as ever Falstaff was ashamed to march with. The awkward figure, the heavy face, the bullet head, the uncouth features, the cunning bloodshot eyes, seen under the shade of a French officer’s cocked hat, raise the hilarity of the newcomer, which is not lessened when he discovers that this wretched imitation of a soldier declares himself the most warlike of a warlike race. But putting aside the absurdities which appear inherent to the blacks, you soon discover that there is something sympathetic in that stolid being.

In treating of the Haytians, one must carefully separate the lower-class negro as he appears in a large commercial town from the black who lives in the plains or mountains. The former, brought into constant contact with the roughest of the white race, as represented by an inferior class of merchant seamen, is too often insolent and dishonest, whilst the countryman, who only sees a select few of the whites, appears to have an innate idea of their superiority, and almost always treats them with respect and deference, and with a hospitality and kindness which is not found in the cities.

Whilst the civilised Haytian is essentially inhospitable towards foreigners, the contrary is the case among the country population. They have the virtues as well as the vices of wild races; and although their long intercourse with their more civilised compatriots has given them a species of French varnish, yet they are essentially an African people removed from their parent country.

Circumstances, however, have naturally modified their character. After the departure of the French, their estates ultimately fell into the hands of the coloured freedmen and enfranchised slaves. Many of the latter squatted among the coffee plantations, regardless of the nominal proprietor, and there gathered and sold the crops without paying much attention to the rights of the owner. With the thirst, however, to be the real possessor of land, so characteristic of all peasantry, as soon as the negro acquired a little capital from savings, his first thought was turned to secure the tenure of his household, and in many parts the land has been morselled out among them. President Pétion encouraged this system by the action of Government.