The Rising Son; or, the Antecedents and Advancement of the Colored Race

by William Wells Brown

Thus placing themselves in hostile array against each other, the two chiefs of Hayti employed themselves in strengthening and establishing their respective governments, and in attempts to gain over the different parts of the Island to an acknowledgment of their authority. Christophe assumed the title of President of the State, and Pétion, of the Republic; and the inhabitants of the country conferred their allegiance according to the opinions of their chiefs, or the places of their residence.

The successes of Christophe in his late campaign against his rival at Port au Prince, had encouraged him with the hope of obtaining a complete conquest over him when he had strengthened and confirmed his power over the blacks of the North. The greater part of this province had already declared for him, and refused to acknowledge the new president at Port au Prince, who had been taken from among the mulattoes of the South. In this state of public feeling, Christophe proceeded to issue a series of proclamations and addresses to the people and the army, encouraging them to hope for a better era about to arise under his auspices, in which the evils of foreign invasion and the disaster of intestine disturbance were to cease, and the wounds of the country to be healed by the restoration of peace and tranquillity. He manifested a desire to encourage the prosperity of commerce and agriculture; and by thus fostering individual enterprise, to ensure the happiness of the people under his rule. To support the credit of his government among the commercial nations abroad, he dispatched a manifesto to each of them, with a design to remove the distrust which had begun to be entertained in the mercantile world of the new governments of Hayti.

It was announced in these dispatches that the storehouses and magazines of the Island were crowded and overflowing with the rich productions of the Antilles, awaiting the arrival of foreign vessels to exchange for them the produce and fabrics of other lands; that the vexatious regulations and ignorant prohibitions of his predecessor no longer existed to interfere with the commercial prosperity of the Island; and that protection and encouragement would be granted to commercial factors from abroad, who should come to reside in the ports of the country.

Christophe felt that his assumption of power was but a usurpation, and that so long as his government remained in operation without the formal sanction of the people, his rival at Port au Prince possessed immense advantages over him, inasmuch as he had been made the constituted head of the country by an observance of the forms of the constitution. To remedy this palpable defect, which weakened his authority, he resolved to frame another constitution, which would confirm him in the power he had usurped, and furnish him with a legal excuse for maintaining his present attitude. In accordance with this policy he convoked another assembly at Cape François, composed of the generals of his army and the principal citizens of that province, and after a short session these subservient legislators terminated their labors by giving to the world another constitution of the country, dated upon the 17th of February, 1807. This new enactment declared all persons residing upon the territory of Hayti, free citizens, and that the government was to be administered by a supreme magistrate, who was to take the title of President of the State, and General-in-Chief of the land and the naval forces.

The office was not hereditary, but the president had the right to choose his successor from among the generals of the army; and associated with him in the government there was to exist a Council of State, consisting of nine members, selected by the President from among the principal military chiefs. This, like the constitution, which conferred power upon Dessalines, made Christophe an autocrat, though he was nominally but the mere chief magistrate of a republic.

The rival government of Port au Prince differed from that of Christophe, by its possessing more of the forms of a republic. With a president who held his power for life, and who could not directly appoint his successor, there was associated a legislative body, consisting of a chamber of representatives chosen directly by the people, and a senate appointed by the popular branch of the government, to sustain or control the president in the exercise of his authority.

Hostilities between Christophe and Pétion were carried on for a long time, which led to little less than the enfeeblement of both parties. The black chief, however, established his power on solid foundations in the North, while Pétion succeeded in retaining a firm position in the South. Thus was the Island once more unhappily divided between two authorities, each of which watched its opportunity for the overthrow of the other.

The struggle between the two presidents of Hayti had now continued three years, when a new competitor started up, by the arrival of Rigaud from France. He had passed by way of the United States, and arrived at Aux Cayes on the 7th of April, 1810. This was an unexpected event, which awakened deep solicitude in the bosom of Pétion, who could not avoid regarding that distinguished mulatto as a more formidable rival than Christophe. He feared his superior talents, and dreaded the ascendency he held over the mulatto population. Rigaud was welcomed by his old adherents with enthusiastic demonstrations of attachment and respect; and after enjoying for a few days the hospitalities that were so emulously offered to him, he proceeded on his way to Port au Prince. Though Pétion could not feel at his ease while such a rival was journeying in a species of triumph through the country, he dared not, at least in his present condition, to make an open manifestation of his displeasure, or employ force against one who had such devoted partisans at his command. He determined, therefore, to mask his jealous feelings, and wear an exterior of complaisance, until he could discover the designs of Rigaud. The latter was received graciously by the President, whose suspicions were all effectually lulled by the harmless deportment of the great mulatto chieftain; and he was even invested by Pétion with the government of the South. This was to place an idol in the very temple of its worshippers, for Rigaud returned to Aux Cayes to draw all hearts to himself. No one in that province now cast a thought upon Pétion; and within a short period Rigaud was in full possession of his ancient power. Pétion, affrighted at his situation, surrounded as he was by two such rivals as Rigaud and Christophe, began an open rupture with the former before he had fully ascertained whether he could sustain himself against the hostilities of the latter. Some of the mulattoes, who, with a spirit of patriotism or clanship foresaw the triumphs which would be offered to the blacks by civil dissensions among themselves, proposed a compromise between Rigaud and Pétion; but this was rejected by the latter, who began to make preparations to invade Rigaud’s province.

Resolved to profit by this division, Christophe marched against Pétion, but the common danger brought about a union, and Christophe judged it prudent to retire.

When Pétion had been left at peace, by the temporary retirement of Christophe from the war against him, all his former jealousy was awakened within him against Rigaud. The treaty of Miragoane had been wrung from him by the hard necessities of his situation, which were such as to force him to choose between yielding himself a prey to the warlike ambition of Christophe, or complying with the urgent demands pressed upon him by the political importance of Rigaud. A compact thus brought about by the stern compulsion of an impending danger, and not yielded as a voluntary sacrifice for the preservation of peace, was not likely to remain unviolated when the necessity of the moment had passed away and was forgotten. Thus, as has been observed, when Christophe, engaged as he was in renovating the structure of his government, had ceased from his hostilities against Pétion, the latter became immediately infested with all his former dislike of Rigaud. Intrigues were commenced against him, to shake the fidelity of his followers, and to turn the hearts of the Southern blacks against the mulatto who had been placed over them as their chief.