The black Haytians resent being spoken of by foreigners as negroes, though they use the word freely among themselves. They prefer being called gens de couleur, as both the expressions nègres and mulâtres are considered as implying contempt. During the tiresome quarter of an hour before dinner, my friend Villevalein (coloured) turned round to a Minister of State (black) and said, “What do you think the French chargé d’affaires remarked when he first saw you?—‘Quel beau nègre!’” The blood rushed to the face of the Haytian, and his cheeks became of a deeper black; and we were all thankful that at the moment dinner was announced. I doubt whether the Minister ever forgave the author or the repeater of the remark.
The negro has the greatest, in fact, an almost superstitious, reverence for the flags of foreign nations. A well-known partisan chief, Acaau, came once to the English Consulate at Les Cayes, and demanded that all the refugees there should be given up to him to be shot. Our Acting Vice-Consul, Charles Smith, refused, and as Acaau insisted, the Vice-Consul took up the Union Jack, and placing it on the staircase, said to the chief, “If any of you dare to tread on that flag, he may go upstairs and seize the refugees.” Acaau looked at the flag a moment, and then said, “Not I,” and walked away, followed by his men. This was not from fear of material consequences, although there were two English ships of war in harbour, as, when one of the captains threatened to bombard the town if foreigners were troubled, Acaau answered, “Tell me which end you will begin with, and I will commence to burn the other end.” He was a mountaineer, who would have been delighted to burn and destroy the whole place. Many years afterwards, to avoid being shot by the Government, he perished by his own hand.
I must add an anecdote to mark the respect shown by the negro to the white. In April 1866, on account of a quarrel between an officer on board a steamer and some blacks, the mob determined to revenge themselves. Watching their opportunity, they seized an English sailor belonging to the ship and bound him to a log. Hundreds of excited negroes surrounded him with drawn razors and knives, threatening to cut him to pieces; when Mr. Savage, an English merchant, happening to be passing by, inquired the cause of the disturbance, and hearing what had happened to his countryman, forced his way through the mob, and when he reached the sailor, drew a penknife from his pocket, and, despising the yells and threats of the crowd, cut the cords, freed the man, and walked him down to the steamer’s boat. The cool courage shown by Mr. Savage perfectly awed the mob. As the Haytian police who were present had not interfered to prevent this outrage on the sailor, a hundred pounds indemnity was demanded of the Haytian Government, which was paid, and subsequently transmitted to the sailor.
I will conclude with noticing that the apathy and listlessness of the Haytians, mentioned by Mackenzie in 1826, might apply to the present day, as well as his reference to the lean dogs and leaner pigs which infest the capital. He heard an Englishman say one day, “D—— these Haytians; they can’t even fatten a pig.”
The Mulattoes.
“They hate their fathers and despise their mothers,” is a saying which is a key to the character of the mulatto. They hate the whites and despise the blacks, hence their false position. That they are looked down upon by the whites and hated by the blacks is the converse truth, which produces an unfortunate effect upon their character. They have many of the defects of the two races, and few of their good qualities. Those who have never left their country are too often conceited, and presumptuous to a degree which is scarcely credible; whilst many who have travelled appear but little influenced by bright examples of civilisation, or by their intercourse with civilised nations, retaining but the outward polish of a superficial French education. Foreigners who casually meet Haytians are often only struck by their agreeable manners, but to understand their real character one must live among them, hear their talk among themselves, or read the newspapers published for local circulation.
Travel, indeed, has little outward effect on the majority; and they return to their own country more presumptuous than ever. It has struck many attentive observers that this outward parade of conceit is but a species of protest against the inferior position they occupy in the world’s estimation, and that with their advance in civilisation and education they will rise in the opinion of others, and thus lose the necessity for so much self-assertion. I believe this to be highly probable, but until the mulattoes are convinced of their present inferiority, the improvement must be slow indeed.
It may be remarked, however, that those who have been educated in Europe from their earliest years show few or none of those defects which are implanted in them by their early associations. I have known coloured men whose first real knowledge of their own country was acquired in manhood, who were in every respect equal to their white companions, as manly and as free from absurd pretensions, and naturally without that dislike of foreigners which is instilled into home-educated mulattoes. These men, knowing the consideration in which they were held by all, had no necessity for any self-assertion.
The early training in Hayti is much at fault; their mothers, generally uninstructed, have themselves but few principles of delicacy to instil into their children’s minds. I will mention a case in illustration. A lady was asked to procure some article for a foreign visitor. She readily undertook the commission, and sent her son, a boy of ten, to seek the article. He returned shortly afterwards and said to his mother, “Our neighbour has what you want, but asks twenty-seven paper dollars for it.” “Go and tell our friend that you have found it for forty, and we will divide the difference between us.” A mutual acquaintance heard of this transaction, and subsequently reproached the lady for the lesson of deceit and swindling she had taught her child; she only laughed, and appeared to think she had done a very clever thing. The subsequent career of that boy was indeed a thorn in her side.
Their financial morality is very low indeed. A friend of mine expressing his surprise to one of the prettiest and most respectable girls in Port-au-Prince that such open robbery of the receipts of the custom-house was permitted, received for answer, “Prendre l’argent de l’état, ce n’est pas volé.”—“To take Government money is not robbery.” With such ideas instilled into the minds of all from their earliest youth, it is scarcely to be wondered at that the Haytians grow up to be completely without financial honour. Truth is another virtue which appears to be rarely inculcated by parents, and this perhaps may be accounted for by their origin. Slaves are notoriously given to falsehood, and this defect has been inherited by succeeding generations, and can scarcely be eradicated until a higher moral teaching prevails.