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

by William Wells Brown

Christophe was without education, but like his predecessor, Dessalines, he found a royal road to learning. His knowledge of books was extensive, as several educated mulattoes retained about his person under the name of secretaries were employed several hours of each day in reading to the monarch. He was particularly delighted with history, of which his knowledge was extensive and accurate; and Frederick the Great of Prussia was a personage with whom above all others he was captivated, the name of Sans Souci, his palace, having been borrowed from Potsdam.

Such sharpness had been communicated to his genius, naturally astute, by having knowledge thus dispensed to him in daily portions, that Christophe became at last a shrewd critic upon the works read before him, and even grew fastidious in the selection of his authors. The events of that stormy period of European history, as detailed in the public journals of the time, were listened to with a greedy ear, and the course of Napoleon’s policy was watched with a keenness which manifested Christophe’s own interest in the affair.

Christophe, though a pure African, was not a jet black, his complexion being rather a dusky brown. His person was commanding, slightly corpulent, and handsome. His address was cold, polished, and graceful. He possessed a certain air of native dignity which corresponded well with his high official station, and he exacted great personal deference from all who approached him. The personal qualities and majestic bearing of the black king impressed his own characteristics upon his court. The most formal ceremony was observed upon public occasions, and no grandee of the realm could safely appear at the court of his sovereign without the costume and decorations of his rank. The ceremonial and observances were modelled after the drawing-rooms at St. James palace, and Christophe was always pleased with the attendance of whites, particularly if they were titled Englishmen. Many distinguished foreigners visited the court of the black monarch, attracted thither by a curiosity to witness the spectacle of an African levée, a scene which, by established regulation, was held at the palace on the Thursday of every week.

The company was collected in an ante-chamber which adjoined the principal hall of the palace, where the novices in courtly life were suitably drilled and instructed in the minute details of the parts they were expected to play in the coming pageantry, by two or three assistants of the grand master of ceremonies, the Baron de Sicard. When all things were in readiness, both within and without, the doors were thrown open, and the monarch of Hayti appeared seated upon the throne in royal costume, with the crown upon his head, and surrounded by a glittering cortege composed of his ministers, grand almoner, grand marshal of the palace, chamberlains, and heralds at arms.

Political offences were never left unpunished by Christophe, and towards delinquents of this kind he never manifested his vengeance by open violence or a display of personal indignation. Those who had excited his mistrust were upon some occasions even favored with a personal visit from the monarch, who studiously concealed his vengeful purposes under a show of kindness, and the utmost graciousness of manner. But the arrival of his vengeance was not retarded by this display of civility. The agents of Christophe generally made their appearance by night, and the suspected offender was secretly hurried off to the fate which awaited him. But though Christophe’s anger for offences not of a political character was violent, it was seldom bloody.

Amidst a torrent of philippics against such persons, his customary expression, “O! diable,” was a signal to those in attendance to fall upon the offender and scourge him with canes; and when the punishment had been made sufficient, the justice of the monarch was satisfied, and the culprit was restored again to his favor. Sometimes, however, his indignation in these cases was aroused to the ferocity of a savage not to be appeased but by the blood of his victim.

We must now turn to the affairs of the republic. Pétion had long been despondent for the permanence of the republic, and this feeling had by degrees grown into a settled despair, when he discovered that his long administration had not succeeded in giving order and civilization to the idle and barbarous hordes composing the dangerous population of his government. While the more despotic sway of Christophe maintained the prosperity of his kingdom, Pétion found that the people of the republic was becoming every day a more ungovernable rabble, indolent, dissolute, and wretched. While the coffers of Christophe were overflowing with millions of treasures wrung by the hard exactions of his tyranny from the blacks who toiled upon the soil, the finances of the republic were already in irretrievable confusion, as the productions of that territory were hardly sufficient for the sustenance of its population.

Amidst these perplexities and embarrassments, Pétion fell sick in the month of March, 1818, and after a malady which continued but eight days, he perished of a mind diseased, declaring to his attendants that he was weary of life.

The announcement that Pétion was no more threw all the foreign merchants of the republic into consternation. They expected that an event like this would be the harbinger of another revolution to overturn all that had been achieved, or of a long and destructive anarchy, which would completely annihilate the little authority there yet remained in the republic. Merchandise to the amount of millions had been sold to the credit of the country, in the doubtful hope that its government would be durable. Both treasures and blood were at stake, but the terror of the moment was soon appeased. At the tidings of Pétion’s illness, the Senate had assembled itself in session, and this body conferred power upon the expiring president to nominate his successor; and Pétion, when he foresaw that his death was inevitable, designated for this purpose General Boyer, then commanding the arrondissement of Port au Prince.

The funeral ceremonies of the deceased president took place upon the first of April, and were performed with the most august solemnity. All the great officers of the army were ordered to their posts, and required to maintain a ceaseless vigilance for the preservation of tranquillity. An embargo was laid until the Sunday following upon all vessels in the harbor of Port au Prince, and several detachments of troops were ordered to march towards different points of the frontier. The observance of every precaution which the most anxious solicitude could suggest for the maintenance of internal peace, and the prevention of invasion from abroad, was evidence that Pétion had bequeathed his power to a successor worthy of his choice.