CHAPTER VI. EMANCIPATION SAFE IN EVERY INSTANCE.
"Right never comes wrong."
—Old Maxim.
Whenever immediate emancipation is urged, the "horrors of St. Domingo" are always brought forward to prove it dangerous. This is one of numerous misstatements originating in prejudice, and afterward taken for granted by those who have not examined the subject. The first troubles between the white and black races in St. Domingo were the result of oppressive and unlawful treatment of the free colored population, who were numerous, and many of them wealthy proprietors. The whites were determined to wrest from them certain rights which the French government had secured to them. The next troubles were occasioned by an attempt to restore slavery, after it had been for some years abolished. It was never the granting of rights to the colored people that produced bloodshed or disturbance. All the disasters to the whites came in consequence of withholding those rights, in the first instance, and afterward from a forcible attempt to take them away, after they had long been peacefully and prosperously enjoyed under the protection of French laws.
In 1793, the National Assembly proclaimed liberty to all slaves under the dominion of France; more than 600,000 in number; and history shows that the measure proved safe. In St. Domingo emancipation was both peaceful and prosperous in its results. Col. Malenfant, a slave-holder resident in the island at the time, published "A Historical and Political Memoir of the Colonies," in which he says: "After this public act of emancipation the negroes remained quiet, both in the south and west. There were estates which had neither owners nor managers upon them; yet upon those estates, though abandoned, the negroes continued their labors, where there were any of the inferior agents left to guide them; and where there was no white man, in any capacity, to take direction of affairs, they betook themselves to planting provisions. Several of my neighbors, proprietors or managers, were in prison; and the negroes on their plantations were in the habit of coming to me to direct them in their work. If you will take care not to talk to them of the restoration of slavery, but to talk to them of freedom, you may with that word chain them to their labor. In the plain of the Cul de Sac, on the plantation Gouraud, I managed four hundred and fifty laborers for more than eight months after liberty had been granted them. Not one of them refused to work. Yet that plantation was reputed to have been under the worst discipline, and the slaves the most idle of any in the plain. I inspired the same activity into three other plantations, of which I had the management. Ninety-nine out of a hundred blacks are perfectly well aware that labor is the process by which they can obtain means to gratify their wants and their tastes; and therefore they are desirous to work." In describing the latter part of 1796, Col. Malenfant says: "The Colony is flourishing. The whites live peacefully and happily upon their estates, and the negroes continue to work for them." Gen. Lecroix, who published "Memoirs for a History of St. Domingo," speaks of wonderful progress in agriculture in 1797. He says: "The Colony marched, as by enchantment, toward its ancient splendor; cultivation prospered, and every day furnished perceptible proofs of progress."
Such was the effect of Emancipation in St. Domingo!
In 1801, Gen. Vincent, a proprietor of estates in St. Domingo, went to France to lay before the government the plan of a new Constitution for the island. He found Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, preparing to send out an armament to restore slavery in St. Domingo. General Vincent earnestly remonstrated against the expedition. He assured the Consul that the negroes were orderly and industrious, and that every thing was going on peacefully and prosperously for all parties; that it was unnecessary, and therefore cruel, to attempt to reverse this happy state of things. But there was a class of old despotic planters who clamored for the restoration of the arbitrary power, which they had most cruelly abused. Unfortunately, Bonaparte considered it good policy to conciliate that class; and he persisted in his purpose. He tried to restore slavery, by military force, and the consequence was that the French were driven out of the island, with great bloodshed.
In Guadaloupe, where liberty was proclaimed at the same time as in St. Domingo, the sudden transition took place with perfect safety. The reports from the Governors, for successive years, bear testimony that the emancipated laborers were universally industrious and submissive to the laws.