SAINT-DOMINGUE, HAYTI,
“PEARL OF THE ANTILLES”
(COMPARING OUR STORIES AS TO THE
TWO AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS RESPECTIVELY CREATING
TWO AMERICAN NATIONS: THE USA, AND HAITI)
“The San Domingan revolution is a minor episode at best, now, in the cavalcade of American history. It has been confined to insignificance, because it does not serve that saga well.” — Michael Zuckerman, ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE: OBLIQUE BIOGRAPHIES IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN, 1993, page 176
We have taken the American revolution which created our USA as an initial step in the establishment of a nation based upon the principles of freedom for all and of human dignity for all. There’s a little problem in this, however. The revolution which created the USA did not free very many of America’s slaves. Or, we say, it did not free them except potentially, after we had fought another war, a “Civil” one. –But, we ask, we were on our way weren’t we? The short answer to this is, no. Michael Zuckerman begins his paper “The Color of Counterrevolution: Thomas Jefferson and the Rebellion in San Domingo” (in Loretta Valtz Mannucci’s THE LANGUAGES OF REVOLUTION, Quaderno 2, Milan Group in Early United States History, no date) by offering that “Victorious rebels rarely maintain their revolutionary fervor after they secure their own ascendancy.” Actually, that is very much of an understatement. The reality of revolution is that the very first thing that victorious rebels always do, immediately that they secure their own ascendancy, is turn entirely against the sort HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI of revolutionary fervor which had secured for them their new ascendancy. There has never been and there never will be any instances in which victorious rebels maintain their revolutionary fervor after they secure their own ascendancy. That’s because revolutionary fervor isn’t about being revolting, but is about creating and then maintaining a new ascendancy. This has been termed “the recirculation of the elites.” It is the iron law of revolution and has a succinct expression: “Revolution? Just what for Heaven’s sake might that change?” The case of the American revolution which created Haiti at the turn of the 19th Century, however, and more particularly, the case of the extremely negative reaction which obtained in the United States of America to this slave revolt, can offer us another and quite revealing perspective on these events — if and when we choose to pay attention to it. We are reminded that at the time of the American revolution which created these United States of America, England was in the process leading toward the eventual freeing of English slaves in the New World while France was in the process leading toward maintaining the French slaves in the New World in their condition of servitude — and we had in this revolution sided with the French enslavers in opposition to the English liberators. Which, in itself, might have been enough to have given our historians pause, had they been paying attention to this, which they had not, as a surd of our history. The simple fact of the matter is that the freedom for which we fought in the American revolution was a freedom for some to enslave others. The American revolution was about this peculiar sort of freedom, freedom for some which was to be obtained specifically at the expense of the unfreedom of others, and was not at all about the sort of thing which today we associate with a term such as “freedom.” Now it should be clear that, in order to expand a freedom which is obtained specifically through unfreedom, it is necessary to expand unfreedom (one simply cannot expand a freedom for some which is being obtained at the expense of the unfreedom of others, through the freeing of others). –For logically, the freeing of others could only operate to diminish such a strange sort of freedom. Therefore there is no linear scale of developing freedom to be discerned in the history of the United States of America from its foundation as a nation forward into the present era. Quite to the contrary, the sort of freedom1 which our forefathers originally established here was a sort of freedom on the basis of which we could not build anything noble or lasting. It would first need to be eradicated root and branch, before a real freedom, a freedom2 which was not a freedom for some obtained at the expense of the unfreedom of others, could be dreamed. Have we at this point established such a freedom2? Or is what we have still merely a refined and carefully masked evolutionary product of the originary freedom1? Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? Did our vast American Civil War switch us over from a freedom1 to a freedom2, or was it, as our Revolutionary War had been, a mere cover story?1 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
15TH CENTURY
1492
August 3, Friday (Old Style): Cristóbal Colón, with the ships the Niña, the Pínta, and the Santa María and 119 men, departed Palos, Spain, traveling toward the west across the ocean to a new land that they would name Nuéva España and Tiérra Nova (New Spain and New Found Lands).
The 100-ton Santa María has a crew of 52.
Martín Alonso Pinzón, a shipowner, was part owner of the Niña and Pínta. Don Pinzón procured crews, prepared the ships and was commander of the Pínta during this expedition. Don Pinzón’s brother Vicente Yañez Pinzón commanded the Niña in 1492 and 1493 and remained with Cristóbal Colón throughout the expedition. Hempen sails, hempen caulking, and hempen rigging would help these little ships to reach the New World of their dreams.
1. I have been a participant in a scholarly Internet discussion group, on the topic of whether the 18th-Century uses of the terms “freedom” and “liberty” made them synonyms, or whether there was a detectable difference between the uses of these two terms. When the discussion concluded that these two terms had been used essentially as synonyms, with no fixed differentia between the two, I proposed that we actively create a differentia, by declaring a new definition. I proposed that, in the context of the 18th Century, we ought to be restricting such a term to the meaning it actually did have in the 18th Century, a period in which the people who were deploying the term uniformly presumed that their liberty was being enhanced when they were able to own other human beings as property (the slaveholder Patrick Henry for one fine example, with his immortal “give me liberty or give me death” trope), and uniformly presumed that their liberties would be impeded were they to be deprived of their property in other human beings. The other term, “freedom,” I proposed, we ought now to restrict to our usage as of the 20th Century, a usage in which we presume that the freedom of one is contingent upon the freedom of all, a usage according to which (we express this as an adage) while even one person is enslaved, none of us are free. By such an act of creative definition, I proposed, we would make it much easier to study the difference between our Founding Fathers and ourselves, a difference which generation after generation of our students have been finding incredibly puzzling. Well, since this was a moderated list having to do with our memories of Thomas Jefferson, I anticipated that such a submission would be rejected out of hand by the moderators — but in fact the next day it appeared as one of the contributions to the discussion list (the other discussants must have ignored my suggestion, however, for it provoked no response either pro or con). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
Chronological observations of America to the year of Christ 1673.
Christopher Columbus sent to discover the West- Indies by Ferdinando King of Arragon, and Isabella Queen of Castile, who descended from Edward the Third King of England.
The Caribby-Islands the Antilles or Canibal, or Camerean-Islands now discovered by Christopher Columbus, who took possession of Florida and Hispaniola for the King of Spain.
From the year of World BY John Josselyn Gent. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
December 1, Saturday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus sailed toward a large island the local Arawak knew about, which they termed Haiti but which he would redesignate as La Isla Española, or Hispaniola.
December 6, Thursday (Old Style): Scouting Europeans first sighted an island shaped like a turtle, which they termed Tortuga, and then a large island which they would like to have, which the local Arawak knew as Haiti but which Christopher Columbus would redesignate La Isla Española, or Hispaniola.2 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
2. The western portion of this island would later be ceded to the French under the name Saint-Domingue, and would eventually loom like a large dark cloud on the horizon of the hegemonic history of the Western Hemisphere, as a free kingdom again known as Haiti. But all this is later, as is the reputation of the “discoverer.” It would not be until 1552 that it would be suggested (by Francisco López de Gómara to King Charles V) that the conquest of the Americas had been the most significant event since the divine Creation of the universe, or, at least, since the first Coming of Christ. For the longest time, only a rather small group of Spanish intellectuals
and bureaucrats would have any interest in this crazed figure, Christopher the Christ Carrier, who supposed the hill of the Garden of Eden to be at the origin of every strong ocean current which he encountered. the half-mythicized faces of America, such as that of the Emperor Montezuma (Motechuzoma), quite overshadowed him for the time being.
Ethnicity gave Columbus a lobby, a prerequisite to public success in US culture. The 1850 census reported only 3,679 individuals of Italian birth. Yet by 1866, Italian-Americans, organized by the Sharpshooters’ Association of New York, celebrated the landfall and, within three years, annual festivities were being held in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and San Francisco on or around October 12. Italians and Spaniards were just not enough, however, to turn this celebration into a national practice. Fortunately, ethnicity gave Columbus a second –and more numerous– group of lobbyists, Irish-Americans. By 1850, there were already 962,000 Americans claiming Irish descent. Many of them regrouped in organizations like the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal society for Catholic males founded in 1881. In less than ten years, community support and the institutional patronage of the Catholic church swelled the Knights’ membership. As the association spread in the northeast with the backing of prominent Irish-Americans, it increasingly emphasized the shaping of “citizen culture.” Columbus HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
December 25, Tuesday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria, sank off Haiti, La Isla Española or Hispaniola. Of necessity, the adventurers used its timbers to construct ashore a fort they termed La Navidad.
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project The People of Walden and A Week HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1493
The Spanish Sovereigns granted the Admiral from Castille, Cristóbal Colón, the right to bear arms, which is to say, permission to wear the sword of nobility. From this year into 1499 he would be exploring the rim of the Caribbean in 3 voyages. He had brought sugar cane and cucumbers from the Canary Islands to Hispaniola at Santo Domingo. His father-in-law owned a sugar plantation on Madeira.
January 6, Sunday (Old Style): Martín Alonso Pinzón brought the Pinta back to Christopher Columbus.
January 16, Wednesday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus departed Hispaniola for Spain in the Niña.
November 22, Friday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus completed his return to the island of Haiti, which he had redesignated as La Isla Española or Hispaniola. On this trip he was bringing with him the seed of the lemon tree, the lime tree, and the sweet orange tree. He was also introducing sugar cane to the island (by 1516 the first processed sugar would be shipping from Santo Domingo to Spain; soon after that Portugal would begin importing sugar from Brazil and so sugar cane would become, as we know, a driving force for the African slave trade). PLANTS
November 28, Thursday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus arrived at La Navidad on Haiti, La Isla Española or Hispaniola only to discover that his fort there, constructed from the remains of his flagship the Santa Maria, had been destroyed.
December 8, Sunday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus founded, on the large island the Taino referred to as Haiti, which he was referring to as La Isla Española or Hispaniola, the new colony of La Isabela. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1494
Christopher Columbus introduced cucumbers and other vegetables from Europe to Haiti. Columbus’s physician, Chanea, described Mexican capsicums (red peppers). PLANTS
February 2, Sunday (1493, Old Style): The 1st convoy of 12 ships bearing 500 Carib native Americans Christopher Columbus had taken in wars with the Cacique departed from the large island that Columbus had redesignated La Isla Española or Hispaniola (the one the Taino termed Haiti). They were to be sold as slavery in Seville, Spain. Queen Isabella would suspend the royal order for their sale and request an inquiry into the lawfulness of the sale. Theologians would differ on the lawfulness of the sale. The Carib eventually would be shipped back to their home. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
April 24, Thursday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus sailed from La Isabela on the coast of Hispaniola in search of a mainland.
ESSENCES ARE FUZZY, GENERIC, CONCEPTUAL; HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI ARISTOTLE WAS RIGHT WHEN HE INSISTED THAT ALL TRUTH IS SPECIFIC AND PARTICULAR (AND WRONG WHEN HE CHARACTERIZED TRUTH AS A GENERALIZATION).
June 13, Friday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus started the return to La Isabela on Haiti, La Isla Española or Hispaniola.
June 16, Monday (Old Style): A hurricane was recorded by Christopher Columbus, near La Isabela on Hispaniola.
September 22, Monday (Old Style): The long-lost “Fourth Bull of 1494,” issued secretly by the Spanish Pope, virtually abolished the Demarcation Line and granted to Spain the right to the entirety of the New World. (Satanic Verses, anyone? — maybe the devil whispered in Jeremy Irons’s ear.)
September 29, Monday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus arrived at La Isabela on Haiti, La Isla Española or Hispaniola dangerously ill and in a stupor.
October 20, Monday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus reached Haiti, La Isla Española or Hispaniola.
“HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE” BEING A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN TIME (JUST AS THE PERSPECTIVE IN A PAINTING IS A VIEW FROM A PARTICULAR POINT IN SPACE), TO “LOOK AT THE COURSE OF HISTORY MORE GENERALLY” WOULD BE TO SACRIFICE PERSPECTIVE ALTOGETHER. THIS IS FANTASY-LAND, YOU’RE FOOLING YOURSELF. THERE CANNOT BE ANY SUCH THINGIE, AS SUCH A PERSPECTIVE.
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1496
March 10, Thursday (1495, Old Style): Christopher Columbus departed from La Isabela on the coast of Hispaniola for Spain. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1498
August 19, Sunday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus arrived at Hispaniola. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
16TH CENTURY
1500
At the end of this year and during the following one Christopher Columbus would be on his 4th and final expedition to the islands he had discovered in the Western Ocean, while Gaspar de Corte-Real of Portugal would be exploring the east coast of Newfoundland and possibly Labrador.
Chronological observations of America to the year of Christ 1673. CARTOGRAPHY
Christopher Columbus his fourth and last voyage to the West-Indies.
Jasper Corteriaglis a Portugal, his voyage to discover the North-West passage, he discovered Greenland, or Terra Corteriaglis, or Terra di Laborodoro.
From the year of World BY John Josselyn Gent. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
August 23, Sunday (Old Style): Francisco de Bobadilla landed on Hispaniola at Santo Domingo with the idea that Christopher Columbus and his brothers had set themselves up as monarchs. He had them put in irons, to be sent home in chains. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI October: Christopher Columbus was repatriated in irons to Spain on charges of having mistreated the natives of Hispaniola (he would be “rehabilitated”). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1501
When African slaves were introduced into Hispaniola at Santo Domingo by Spanish settlers, this was the 1st importation of African slaves into the Americas. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
“When one is happy in forgetfulness, facts get forgotten.” — Robert Pen Warren, 1961 THE LEGACY OF THE CIVIL WAR HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1502
THE BOOK OF PRIVILEGES: A collection of agreements between Admiral of the Oceans Cristóbal Colón and the King and Queen of Spain at the beginning of his 4th and final voyage. From this year into 1504 Columbus would be reaching what was to become Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. The Admiral’s ships would pass near St. Vincent and nearby smaller islands of The Grenadines but make no attempt to settle Europeans there.
Nicolas de Ovando, governor of Santo Domingo on Hispaniola, obtained the permit he needed to transport slaves born in Seville and other parts of Spain to that remote New World island — a permission that was being granted, of course, on condition that these slaves had previously received instruction in Christianity.
After Arawak slaves prove unable to survive the combination of overwork and unfamiliar Eurasian diseases, the Spanish start shipping disease-resistant West African slaves to the West Indies. By 1511, European merchants operating out of Sao Tomè and Mbanza would have turned slave-trading into big business. The way it worked was that African monarchs waged war on their neighbors and then marched their prisoners of war to the coast to trade them for glass, metal, cloth, liquor, and other manufactured goods. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
It wouldn’t be just these black slaves originating in Africa that would find new lives on this new continent. It seems that the Europeans also would introduce, in the Lesser Antilles entirely by accident, the big-headed Pheidole megacephala ant, also out of Africa.
June 29, Wednesday (Old Style): Christopher Columbus arrived at Santo Domingo, Hispaniola.
July 1, Friday (Old Style): A hurricane struck the island of Hispaniola. On 20 ships, all aboard were lost. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1503
Nicolas de Ovando, the Spanish governor of Hispaniola, petitioned King Ferdinand II of Aragón, known as “Ferdinand the Catholic,” husband of Queen Isabella I of Castile, to prevent any more African slaves from being sent to that island. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
An incident occurred which has been recorded in part by Bartolome de las Casas, in part by a cave painting on the island of Hispaniola, and which closely resembles in its development the “Boston Massacre” of 1770. One of the first major clashes between the intrusive Spaniards under Christopher Columbus and the peaceful Taion tribe of Arawak natives of that island came about as an intensification of a mistake which was made while, in accordance with treaty, native-produced bread was being loaded aboard a galleon. It happened in the
following manner, a manner similar to that in which someone would shout “Fire!” in Boston: the attack dog being held by a Spaniard was becoming excited at the close proximity of the natives it had been trained to regard as its prey, and another Spaniard jokingly shouted out the attack command “Tomalo!” As the dog lunged the handler lost his grip on the leash and a Taion nearby was instantly disemboweled. This man happening to have been a minor chief, shortly afterward the natives retaliated by killing a few of the Spaniards, whereupon the garrison at Santo Domingo sent an expedition into the region and in a major battle killed perhaps 7,000 natives. After the battle they lined up the corpses in long rows, carrying off the hands. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1505
The 1st really significant numbers of already enslaved Africans began to arrive in the New World, with contingents of “Guinea” born slaves being imported from Lisbon to work in the copper mines of Hispaniola. For 360 years slavery was going to be the key labor source for New World sugar production, with at least 9,500,000 Africans being brought across the ocean, fully 2,500,000 of whom would be deployed in the Caribbean area, substantially as a labor force for the sugar industry. Matthew Restall’s “Black Conquistadors: Armed Africans in Early Spanish America” (The Americas, 57:2, October 2000, pages 171-205) notes that “Beginning as early as 1505, enslaved men and women were imported in increasingly large numbers to the Spanish colonies, at first from Iberian kingdoms but soon directly from Africa. King Ferdinand authorized in the first months of 1510 the transportation to Hispaniola of 250 African slaves; thus formally began the trans- Atlantic expansion of a slave trade that would last into the nineteenth century and bring millions of Africans in chains to European colonies in the Americas.” (These were not the 1st Africans in the Americas, nor were they the 1st enslaved ones. Africans had been in the New World at least from 1496 when Juan Garrido, Juan Gonzalez Ponce de Leon, and others had fought alongside Spaniards in Hispaniola. From there they had joined the Caribbean conquests against Tainos, Caribs, and Aztecs. There had been enslaved Africans as early as 1503, because we have a record that Governor Ovando had complained in that year that enslaved Africans were escaping to join the Tainos of Hispaniola.) INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1506
May 20, Wednesday (Old Style): Having helped so many people to die, Christopher Columbus himself died.
Chronological observations of America to the year of Christ 1673.
Christopher Columbus dyed.
From the year of World BY John Josselyn Gent.
The body would be interred in Valladolid, Spain, but these remains would become at least as well traveled as the explorer himself — the burial would later be moved to a monastery at Seville –and then in 1542 moved again to Santo Domingo, Hispaniola –and then again in 1795 to Havana, Cuba. (Finally in 1898 some remains supposed to be the correct ones would be repatriated back to Seville.) DIGGING UP THE DEAD
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1508
With Spaniards in charge, the native population of Hispaniola wasn’t doing all that well. Their numbers had by this point fallen to 60,000 in comparison with the original 200,000 to 300,000 of 1492. –If they all died what were these white people going to do to assure a continued cheap supply of colored local labor?
In disfavor with the King of Spain, Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba y Aguilar took up the contemplative life at the monastery of San Jerónimo in Córdoba. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1510
King Ferdinand ordered the transportation of African slaves to Hispaniola at Santo Domingo to work the mines. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1512
African slaves were imported into Hispaniola’s western settlement (now Haiti) in large numbers to replace native slaves who were dying there at an unacceptable rate due to overwork and disease. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1513
As the initial record of slavery on the island of Cuba, the landowner Amador de Lares sought and obtained permission to bring 4 African slaves over from Hispaniola.
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1514
The first white city on the island of Cuba was established by Pánfilo de Narváez. The city was named Havana after a local native headman, San Cristóbal de Habana. Santiago, however, down on the southeastern end of the island facing Hispaniola, became for the conquering Spaniards the island’s capital city:
NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1516
King Carlos I of Spain (AKA King Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) received 6 sihat-shaped loaves of sugar, produced in the Americas, from Hispaniola’s inspector of gold mines. –This was presumably the 1st sugar product created in the Americas to reach Europe. It was well understood that to create this valuable commodity it was necessary for the sugar cane plantations to utilize large supplies of slave labor. Despite the Castilian regent Jiminez having forbidden the importation of slaves into Spanish colonies, therefore, Carlos granted license to his courtiers to bring slaves to these Spanish colonial islands. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
1st published European description of maizium (maize, Indian corn), in Peter Martyr Anglerius’s DE ORBO NOVE.
The banana was introduced to the New World, from Africa, which is to say that in this year the 1st shipment of plantains from the Canary Islands arrived on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. This shipment is of significance because we know that a couple of years later, entire plantations on that large island would be devastated by an ant infestation, “as though fire had fallen from the sky and scorched them” (presumably these ants would have been introduced along with some such plant transfer; Professor Edward O. Wilson now indicates that the culprit introduced species was likely to have been the tropical fire ant Solenopsis geminata.)
The dyestuff indigo came to Europe.3
PLANTS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
3. The indigo plant, a member of the pulse family the crushed leaves and stems of which can be used to dye cotton cloth, originated chiefly in India, hence its name Indigofera Tinctoria. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1517
Enslavement of Indians in the Americas was protested by Father Bartolomeo de Las Casas. Father Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, first priest ordained in America and a former planter, went back to Spain to plead the case of the Indians to King Carlos I. In order to release the natives from slavery, he requested that each Spanish resident on the island of Hispaniola be granted a license to import a dozen black Africans as slaves. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1518
To replace the island’s fast-disappearing native population, the 28 Spanish sugar cane plantations at Santo Domingo on Hispaniola were stepping up importation of slaves from Africa, to do the cane chopping and heavy lifting. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
Hey, that sounds like a plan! There was a problem, however, on many of these plantations in this year. They were being devastated by an ant infestation, “as though fire had fallen from the sky and scorched them.” Presumably these ants had been introduced along with some plant that the Spanish had brought in. (Professor Edward O. Wilson now indicates that the culprit introduced species was likely to have been Solenopsis geminata, the tropical fire ant.)
Duarte Barbosa, in AN ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRIES BORDERING ON THE INDIAN OCEAN AND THEIR INHABITANTS described sweet oranges in Ceylon. A later book by Garcia da Orta, 1562, one of the earliest European books printed in India, would comment that the oranges of Ceylon were “the best of the whole world in regard to sweetness and abundance of juice.” Prior to the discovery that China harbored sweet oranges, Europeans were less accustomed to consuming the fruit and considered citrus more valuable for its fragrance. PLANTS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1521
June 24, Monday (Old Style): The 1st recorded Spanish expedition reached the Carolina coast, probably near Winyah Bay. (During this year Francisco de Gordillo and Quexos were in general exploring the Atlantic coast of North America to Cape Hatteras off North Carolina.) CHARLESTON
According to Quattlebaum’s THE LAND CALLED CHICORA, initially the Chicora headman at Georgetown Bay sent 50 men to the visiting ships to deliver gifts of skins, little pearls, and a bit of silver, and then provided guides to help the Spaniards cross the bay and explore the countryside. At the end of the month Captain Francisco de Gordillo and another captain cut crosses into trees as a way of taking possession of the land in the name of their king. When they had 140 Chicorans being entertained aboard ship, the Spaniards would consider that they had taken up their allotment of Chicoran slaves, and sail for Hispaniola. Lucás Vasquéz de Ayllon would order that the captives be returned, but he took one, whom he gave the name Francisco Chicora, with him to Spain to meet the historians Oviedo and Peter Martyr. (The French would also explore the coast of Carolina. Captain Jean Ribaut and crew would put down anchor at what is now Port Royal, which the Spaniards had called Santa Elena. Two native guides for Ribaut and his lieutenant René de Laudonniere would offer to take the Frenchmen “to see the greatest Lord of this country whom they called Chiquola.”)
NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE JUNE 24TH, 1521 AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY (THE FOLLOWING DAY, TOMORROW, IS BUT A PORTION OF THE UNREALIZED FUTURE AND IFFY AT BEST).
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1522
The slaves on the large Caribbean island which local Arawak had known as Haiti but which the Spaniards were terming La Isla Española or Hispaniola, staged a large-scale uprising (within the following 31 years there would be at least 10 more of these). SERVILE INSURRECTION “I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return.” — W.H. Auden, September 1, 1939
Because this would fail either to dislodge the Spaniards from the island or to change their views about human enslavement, the rebellion would be, from a European perspective, a failure. From an African perspective, though, the revolt would be a qualified success, as the Spanish would ordinarily ignore slaves who escaped into the wilderness (it being cheaper and easier to purchase and import new slaves than to hunt down and recapture and subdue to productive labor the recalcitrant ones). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1526
November: There is something we need to bear in mind about our term “settler,” which has for so long been a code designation for people who are privileged to be inheritors due to the white color of their skins. The thing we need to bear in mind is that in this month of this year there were some 500 Spaniards under Francisco Gordillo, a skipper for Lucás Vasquéz de Ayllon, with some 100 black slaves, at Cape Fear, forming the 1st “settlement” on the lands that would someday be included within the United States of America. Their settlement was called San Miguel de Gualdape, and it was located on the Pee Dee River, probably near Winyah Bay at what is now Georgetown, South Carolina. They’d been there since August, and during this month of November, since the whites were being decimated by a sickness, the black slaves of the settlement were able to enter into an alliance with the local tribe of red Americans (Chicora or Shakori or Chiquola) and stage a successful revolt. CHARLESTON HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI Approximately 150 of the 500 whites managed to make their way back to Hispaniola, leaving these approximately 100 blacks to become (disregarding for the moment, as is unfortunately conventional, native American settlers who had been on this continent already for some 10,000 to 20,000 years) our first permanent “settlers.”
Which is to say, when General Andrew Jackson would be down in Georgia and Florida attempting to exterminate “Seminoles” of mixed red and black origins who had found refuge in the swamps a dozen or so generations later, it is plausible that the persons whom he was attempting to exterminate were in actuality a people whom we ought to be honoring as the legitimate descendants of our “first settlers”! Had these 100 persons been white, there would now be an extensive shelflist honoring them in every bookstore in our grand nation. They’d be part of the perennial Search For The Blue-Eyed Indian. But no, they were black, and so they are ignored. I will quote from the presumptuous just-so story as it is told by Kevin Mulroy in 1993 in his FREEDOM ON THE BORDER: THE SEMINOLE MAROONS IN FLORIDA, THE INDIAN TERRITORY, COAHUILA, AND TEXAS (Lubbock TX: Texas Tech UP, pages 10-11): At the very time the Seminole band were establishing a separate political identity in Florida, therefore, their neighbors were treating Africans favorably. The Spaniards welcomed runaways from southern plantations, gave them their freedom, and asked for little in return save for their cooperation in repelling elements hostile to both parties. The way these Europeans treated their African associates well may have made an impression upon the Seminoles. The Spaniards allowed Africans to live apart, own arms and property, travel at will, choose their own leaders, organize into military companies under black officers, and generally control their own destinies. Several of the Mose men even had wives in the nearby Indian villages. A separate, armed settlement of free blacks, which enjoyed the full support of the adjacent Spanish residents, had been established just outside St. Augustine, the two communities being joined in a mutually beneficial alliance based primarily upon their joint opposition to British expansionism. It seems probable that the early Seminoles would have been aware of these developments and that their initial perceptions helped determine the course of their own relations with blacks.... Attracted by the semitropical climate, sparse white settlement, and chronic political instability of Florida, ... runaways continued to cross the border in ever- increasing numbers. They seemingly founded maroon communities and sought military and trading alliances with the nearby Seminole villages. Africans became associated with the Seminoles in the late eighteenth century in two other ways: by capture from plantations and by purchase from whites or from other Native Americans. Those blacks also would come to reside in the adjacent Florida maroon communities. Though it cannot be pinpointed with any degree of accuracy, the ethnogenesis of the Seminole maroons took place during the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The true beginnings of this ethnic group date from the time its individual members were HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI forced to accept common values and interests to counter the threat of domination and reenslavement. The group’s members would have come together as a people primarily for survival and then to pursue mutual goals. Ethnicity would have acted as a structural principle long before their society emerged clearly as an ethnic group. Whether runaways, captives, or slaves to the Seminoles, these blacks preferred to live beyond the pale and ally with Europeans and Native Americans rather than remain enslaved on Southern plantations. Of major significance to their ethnohistory, the maroons’ early and close association with the Seminoles would contribute strongly to the development of their identity. Yet these people would go on to establish a culture and history of their own and in so doing define themselves, and be defined by others, as a separate and distinct entity. The above is not based upon historic evidence. It is based only on the known fact that later there were dusky skins in the area, combined with a.) the standard white-racist presumption that white people are innovative whereas dark people are obviously merely imitative, and with b.) the standard white-racist presumption that these 100 black men who had set themselves free would continue in a native context to be classified as escaped slaves rather than becoming a tribe of “Indian warriors” in their own right, and with c.) the standard white- racist presumption that free darkies are obviously mere escapees. This sort of account can stand only on the basis of presumption. The presumption involved is the idea that since this is the only available explanation, it must be true regardless of lack of research into confirming evidences.
But the above presumptuousness is not all that is available. Also available is a demographic model which, beginning with 100 black males in this 1526 timeframe, assuming a 20-year reproductive cycle and assuming that these old-world blacks would have had great survival potential when set suddenly in the midst of a native red population being decimated by its first contact with old-world diseases such as smallpox, becomes the genetic equivalent4 of 105 black individuals in the 1546 timeframe, becomes the genetic equivalent of 110 black individuals in the 1566 timeframe, becomes the genetic equivalent of 116 black individuals in the 1586 timeframe, becomes the genetic equivalent of 122 black individuals in the 1606 timeframe, becomes the genetic equivalent of 128 black individuals in the 1626 timeframe, becomes the genetic equivalent of 135 black individuals in the 1646 timeframe, becomes the genetic equivalent of 143 black individuals in the 1666 timeframe, attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 171 black individuals in the 1686 timeframe, attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the
4. For simplicity I am counting in terms of the equivalent of persons of 100% African heredity. In actuality these figures, of say 200 black individuals in the 1706 timeframe, would have amounted actually to something like 50 fully African persons, 200 half-African and half-American persons, and 100 quarter-African and three-quarter-American persons, for a total influenced population of perhaps 350 mingled-heredity individuals rather than 200 unmingled-heredity individuals. Thus, when we get to the year 1826, after some 15 generations or so of New-World interbreeding with reds and with whites, instead of a population of 1,000 genetic Africans we would see what we actually do see: a Florida native population of thousands upon thousands of “maroons” of varying complexions known collectively as “Seminoles” and “Black Seminoles.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 200 black individuals in the 1706 timeframe, attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 250 black individuals in the 1726 timeframe, attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 350 black individuals in the 1746 timeframe, attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 450 black individuals in the 1746 timeframe, attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 550 black individuals in the 1746 timeframe, attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 750 black individuals in the 1746 timeframe, and attracts recruitments from slave populations and becomes the cultural core of the genetic equivalent of 1,000 black individuals in the 1826 timeframe.
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1527
June: Pànfilo de Narvàrez left Spain with a fleet of 5 ships, carrying 600 men, and would be arriving in Hispaniola during February 1528.
About September 27, Friday (Old Style): The expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez, with Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, “arrived at the island of Santo Domingo and there tarried nearly 45 days gathering provisions and particularly horses, during which time the local inhabitants, by promises and proposals, seduced more than 140 of our men to desert. From that island we sailed to Santiago [de Cuba] where, for some days, the Governor recruited men and further furnished himself with arms and horses. It fell out there that a prominent gentleman, Vasco Porcallo, of Trinidad, a hundred leagues northwest on the same island, offered the Governor some provisions he had stored at home if the Governor could go pick them up. The Governor forthwith headed with the whole fleet to get them, but, on reaching Cabo de Santa Cruz, a port half way, he decided to send Captain [Juan] Pantoja [who had commanded the crossbowmen on Narváez’s 1520 expedition to Mexico] to bring the stores back in his ship. For greater security, the Governor sent me along with another ship, while he himself anchored with the remaining four (he had bought an additional ship at Santo Domingo). When we reached the port of Trinidad, Vasco Porcallo conducted Captain Pantoja to the town, a league away, while I stayed at sea with the pilots, who said we ought to get out of there as fast as possible, for it was a very bad port where many vessels had been lost. Since what happened to us there was phenomenal, I think it will not be foreign to the purpose of my narrative to relate it here.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI What follows at this point is the very first description of a hurricane to be written by a European:
“The next morning gave signs of bad weather. Rain started falling and the sea rose so high that I gave the men permission to go ashore; but many of them came back aboard to get out of the wet and cold, unwilling to trek the league into town. A canoe, meanwhile, brought me a letter from a resident of the town requesting me to come for the needed provisions that were there. I excused myself, saying I could not leave the ships. At noon the canoe returned with a more urgent letter, and a horse was brought to the beach for me. I gave the same answer as before, but the pilots and people aboard entreated me to go in order to hasten the provisions as fast as possible; they greatly feared the loss of both ships by further delay in this port. So I went to the town, first leaving orders with the pilots that should the south wind (which is the one which often wrecks vessels here) whip up dangerously, they should beach the ships at some place where the men and horses could be saved. I wanted to take some of the men with me for company, but they said the weather was too nasty and the town too far off; but tomorrow, which would be Sunday, they intended to come, with God’s help, and hear Mass. An hour after I left, the sea began to rise ominously and the north wind blow so violently that the two boats would not have dared come near land even if the head wind had not already made landing impossible. All hands labored severely under a heavy fall of water that entire day and until dark on Sunday. By then the rain and tempest had stepped up until there was as much agitation in the town as at sea. All the houses and churches went down. We had to walk seven or eight together, locking arms, to keep from being blown away. Walking in the woods gave us as much fear as the tumbling houses, for the trees were falling, too, and could have killed us. We wandered all night in this raging tempest without finding any place we could linger as long as half an hour in safety. Particularly from midnight on, we heard a great roaring and the sound of many voices, of little bells, also flutes, tambourines, and other instruments, most of which lasted till morning, when the storm ceased. Nothing so terrible as this [hurricane] had been seen in these parts before. I drew up an authenticated account of it and sent it back to Your Majesty. On Monday morning we went down to the harbor but did not find the ships. When we spied the buoys HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI belonging to them floating on the water, we knew the ships had been lost. Hiking along the shore looking for signs of them, we found nothing, so we struck through the marshy woods for about a quarter of a league [about three fourths of a mile] and came upon the little boat of one of the ships lodged in some treetops. Ten leagues farther, along the coast, two bodies were found, belonging to my ship, but they had been so disfigured by beating against the rocks that they could not be recognized. Some lids of boxes, a cloak, and a quilt rent in pieces were also found, but nothing more. Sixty persons had been lost in the ships, and twenty horses. Those who had gone ashore the day of our arrival — they may have numbered as many as thirty — were all who survived of both ships. For some days we struggled with much hardship and hunger; for the provisions had been destroyed, also some herds. The country was left in a condition piteous to behold: parched, bereft of grass and leaf, the trees prostrate.”
BETWEEN ANY TWO MOMENTS ARE AN INFINITE NUMBER OF MOMENTS, AND BETWEEN THESE OTHER MOMENTS LIKEWISE AN INFINITE NUMBER, THERE BEING NO ATOMIC MOMENT JUST AS THERE IS NO ATOMIC POINT ALONG A LINE. MOMENTS ARE THEREFORE FIGMENTS. THE PRESENT MOMENT IS A MOMENT AND AS SUCH IS A FIGMENT, A FLIGHT OF THE IMAGINATION TO WHICH NOTHING REAL CORRESPONDS. SINCE PAST MOMENTS HAVE PASSED OUT OF EXISTENCE AND FUTURE MOMENTS HAVE YET TO ARRIVE, WE NOTE THAT THE PRESENT MOMENT IS ALL THAT EVER EXISTS — AND YET THE PRESENT MOMENT BEING A MOMENT IS A FIGMENT TO WHICH NOTHING IN REALITY CORRESPONDS.
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1528
April 28, Saturday: The expedition of Don Pànfilo de Narvàrez explored the coast of Florida, there discovering and destroying some corpses of some European castaways which Florida natives had for some reason been preserving:
“[T]he Governor resolved to explore inland, taking the Commissary [Fray Suárez], the Inspector [Solis], and me [Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca], together with forty men, including six horsemen, who could hardly have done much good. We headed northward until about the hour of vespers, when we came upon a very big bay which seemed to extend far inland. [This would have been Tampa Bay.] We stayed there overnight, returning the next day to our base camp. The Governor ordered the brig to coast in search of the harbor which Miruelo, the pilot, had said he knew but which he so far had failed to find; he did not know where we were or where the port was from here. The Governor further ordered that, in case this harbor could not be found, the brig should proceed to Havana, find the ship Alvaro de la Cerda commanded, get them both provisioned, and return together to us. When the brig had gone, we struck inland again, the same men as before plus others. We followed the shore of the bay we had found and, after four leagues, captured four Indians. We showed them some corn to see whether they knew what it was, for we had so far come across no sign of any. They indicated they would take us where there was some and led us to their village at the head of the bay close by. There they showed us a little corn not yet fit to gather. We saw a number of crates there like those used for merchandising in Castile, each containing a dead man covered with painted deerskins. The Commissary took this for some form of idolatry and burned the crates and corpses. We also found pieces of linen and woolen cloth and bunches of feathers like those of New Spain. And we saw some nuggets of gold. [The JOINT REPORT of Cabeza de Vaca, Castillo, and Dorantes, written in Mexico in 1536 and delivered to the Audiencia at Santo Domingo by Cabeza de Vaca on his homeward voyage in 1537, amplifies that the Governor gave the order for burning the dead bodies and their boxes; that pieces of shoes and canvas and some iron were also found; and that the Indians said by signs that they had found these items in a vessel that had been wrecked in that bay. The JOINT REPORT makes it clear that the bodies were Europeans, and blames the friars, not just the Franciscan Commissary, for the burning.] We inquired of the Indians by signs where these things came from. They gave us to understand that very far from here was a province called Apalachen, where was much gold and plenty of everything we wanted. [The JOINT REPORT specifies that it was the gold rather than all the items indiscriminately which came from “Apalache.” The Apalachee Indians lived in northwestern Florida, centering on the later Tallahassee and St. Marks. Appalachee Bay and the Appalachian Mountains take their names from this tribe.] Keeping these Indians for guides, we proceeded another ten or twelve leagues, to a village of fifteen houses, where we saw a large cornfield ready for harvest, some of the ears already dry. After staying two days there, we returned to the base camp and told the Comptroller and pilots what we had seen and what the Indians had told us.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1531
In Santo Domingo, the cultivation of tobacco for European markets began. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1533
Slaves on the large Caribbean island which local Arawak had known as Haiti but which the Spaniards were terming La Isla Española, or Hispaniola, staged an uprising which was suppressed with a great deal of bloodshed. SERVILE INSURRECTION HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1534
“Tall tobacco” –sweet, broadleaved Nicotiana tabacum– was transplanted from the Central American mainland to the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola.
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1536
October: Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca continued his attempts to restore himself in Christendom, including creating a JOINT REPORT, a 30-page summary drawn up by himself, Castillo, and Dorantes in Mexico City to be delivered to the Audiencia at Santo Domingo on Hispaniola by Cabeza de Vaca on his homeward voyage:
“After two months’ rest in Mexico City, I wanted to get back to these kingdoms but, when about to embark [at Veracruz] in October, a storm blew up which capsized the ship, and she was lost. So I decided to stay on for the winter, a boisterous season in those parts for navigation.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1537
Slaves on the large Caribbean island which local Arawak had known as Haiti but which the Spaniards were terming La Isla Española, or Hispaniola, staged yet another uprising. SERVILE INSURRECTION
May 14, day (Old Style): Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca continued his attempts to restore himself in Christendom:
“When my ship pulled into the Harbor at Havana on May 4 [Old Style], we waited for the other ships until June 2, when we went on in dread of falling in with French pirates who had taken three Spanish vessels a few days before. What took us, instead, was a violent storm at the island of Bermuda. Those who pass there from time to time say such storms are fairly regular. We thought ourselves lost one whole night when, to our relief, the storm subsided with morning, and we continued our course. [The stopover on Hispaniola at Santo Domingo is not mentioned. Obviously, the JOINT REPORT, which Cabeza de Vaca delivered to the Audiencia there had been composed in Mexico City — possibly a duplicate of the report to the Viceroy that has been lost.] In twenty-nine days out of Havana we had sailed 1,100 leagues, supposedly the distance to the Azores and, sure enough, next morning we passed the island of Corvo, but, as we did, fell in with a French ship. She took up the chase at noon, bringing along a Portuguese caravel captured earlier. That evening we made out nine more sail, but they were so far away we could not tell whether they were Portuguese or French. After nightfall the Frenchmen got within lombard shot of us, and we stole from our course in the dark, hoping to evade him. Three or four times we did this. He got near enough to us once to see us, and fired. He could have taken us, either then or at his leisure next morning. I will never forget my gratitude to the Almighty when, with the sunrise, we recognized the nine sail closing in to be of the fleet of Portugal. I gave thanks to our Lord for His shielding hand against the perils of land and sea alike. As soon as the Frenchman identified the nine sail, he let go the caravel which carried a cargo of Negroes, to make us think the caravel was Portuguese so we might wait for her. On casting her off, the Frenchman told her pilot and skipper that we were French and under his convoy. Suddenly sixty oars sprouted from the Frenchman and he moved out with incredible speed. The caravel went to the galleon and informed the commander that
both we and the racing ship were French. The fleet therefore thought we might be bearing down upon them as we drew nigh, and bore up for us in battle formation. When we had converged close enough, we hailed them; and the discovery that we were friends was also the discovery that they had been duped into letting the pirate get away. Four caravels were sent in pursuit. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI When the galleon came alongside, the commander, Diego de Silveira, called out to our captain: “Whence come ye, and what may be your merchandise?” “From New Spain, laden with silver and gold.” “How much?” “Three thousand castellanos.” “Ye do truly come passing rich, and such a sorry ship — sorrier artillery. Chee! That French son of a bitch missed a luscious morsel! Now mind that ye stick to my rear, that I may, with God’s help, get you to Spain.” The caravels did not keep up their pursuit for long and came back. The Frenchman was too fast for them but, also, they hated to leave the fleet, which was guarding three spice-laden ships. So we made the island of Terceira and languished there fifteen days imbibing refreshment while awaiting the arrival of another Portuguese merchantman coming with a cargo from India to join the three spice ships and their convoy.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1548
The native population of the large Caribbean island which local Arawak had known as Haiti but which the Spaniards were terming La Isla Española, or Hispaniola, had fallen to fewer than 500, while the black population had swelled tremendously. At this point the island experienced yet another of its slave uprisings. SERVILE INSURRECTION HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1561
Francis Drake’s cousin Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595) was doing illegal slaving in South America and the West Indies. This 1st English participation in the slave trade came about because he was able to hijack a Portuguese ship that was conveying a cargo of 105 to 300 African slaves to Brazil. He would trade these slaves in 1562 at Hispaniola for sugar, pearls, and ginger and make a huge profit. Drake would subsequently sell the worn-out ship he had inherited from his old master and join his cousin in Plymouth. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1562
Santiago de los Caballeros in the eastern half of the large Caribbean island of Hispaniola, destroyed by earthquake, was rebuilt.
Francis Drake’s cousin Sir John Hawkins (1532-1595) was doing illegal slavetrading in South America and the West Indies. In the previous year this privateer had hijacked a Portuguese ship carrying African slaves to Brazil, and in this year having captured 5 Portuguese ships bearing slaves bound to Brazil he was trading these 105 to 300 slaves at Hispaniola for hides, sugar, pearls, and ginger and making a huge profit. In the process he made himself Britain’s first famous slaver. His eyes were opened and he saw: black people aren’t like you and me, who aren’t worth money wholesale! Drake would subsequently sell the wornout ship he had inherited from his old master and join his cousin in Plymouth. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
Chronological observations of America to the year of Christ 1673.
Sir John Hawkin’s first voyage to the West-Indies.
The first expedition of the French into Florida, undertaken by John Ribald.
From the year of World BY John Josselyn Gent.
W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Sir John Hawkins’s celebrated voyage took place in 1562, but probably not until 16315 did a regular chartered company undertake to carry on the trade.6 This company was unsuccessful,7 and was eventually succeeded by the “Company of Royal Adventurers trading to Africa,” chartered by Charles II. in 1662, and including the Queen Dowager and the Duke of York.8 The company contracted to supply the West Indies with three thousand slaves annually; but contraband trade, misconduct, and war so reduced it that in 1672 it surrendered its charter to another company for £34,000.9 This new corporation, chartered by Charles II. as the “Royal African Company,” proved more successful than its predecessors, and 5. African trading-companies had previously been erected (e.g. by Elizabeth in 1585 and 1588, and by James I in 1618); but slaves are not specifically mentioned in their charters, and they probably did not trade in slaves. Cf. Bandinel, ACCOUNT OF THE SLAVE TRADE (1842), pages 38-44. 6. Chartered by Charles I. Cf. Sainsbury, CAL. STATE PAPERS, COL. SER., AMERICA AND W. INDIES, 1574-1660, page 135. 7. In 1651, during the Protectorate, the privileges of the African trade were granted anew to this same company for fourteen years. Cf. Sainsbury, CAL. STATE PAPERS, COL. SER., AMERICA AND W. INDIES, 1574-1660, pages 342, 355. 8. Sainsbury, CAL. STATE PAPERS, COL. SER., AMERICA AND W. INDIES, 1661-1668, § 408. 9. Sainsbury, CAL. STATE PAPERS, COL. SER., AMERICA AND W. INDIES, 1669-1674, §§ 934, 1095. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI carried on a growing trade for a quarter of a century. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1563
John Hawkins completed the sale of a hijacked cargo of 105 to 300 African slaves in Hispaniola.
Queen Elizabeth thus opinioned: “If any African were carried away without his free consent it would be detestable and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertaking.” The Queen, evidently, was living in a world of her own, a world in which people of color respectfully petitioned “Would you please enrich my life by enslaving me?”10 INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
10. Clearly, there’s a terminology problem here. In an effort to resolve this terminology issue, at the Republican National Convention in New York during August 2004 –at which the Republican Party would for four days make an effort to strip from its face its mask of hostility to the plight of the downtrodden and reveal its true countenance of benevolent conservatism and concern– these people would be sensitively referred to by a Hoosier Republican running for the US Senate as “involuntary immigrants.”
So, perhaps, this is a good point at which to insert a story about involuntary immigrants that has been passed on to us by Ram Varmha, a retired IBM engineer whose father had briefly served as Maharaja after the independence of Cochin. He relates the story as narrated to him by his paternal grandmother who lived in Thripoonithura, Cochin: “When my grandmother (born 1882) was a young girl she would go with the elder ladies of the family to the Pazhayannur Devi Temple in Fort Cochin, next to the Cochin Lantha Palace built by the Dutch (Landers = Lantha), which was an early establishment of the Cochin royal family before the administration moved to Thripoonithura. My grandmother often told us that in the basement of the Lantha Palace, in a confined area, a family of Africans had been kept locked up, as in a zoo! By my Grandmother’s time all the Africans had died. But, some of the elder ladies had narrated the story to her of ‘Kappiries’ (Africans) kept in captivity there. It seems visitors would give them fruits and bananas. They were well cared for but always kept in confinement. My grandmother did not know all the details but according to her, ‘many’ years earlier, a ship having broken its mast drifted into the old Cochin harbor. When the locals climbed aboard, they found a crewless ship, but in the hold there were some chained ‘Kappiries’ still alive; others having perished. The locals did not know what to do with them. Not understanding their language and finding the Africans in chains, the locals thought that these were dangerous to set free. So they herded the poor Africans into the basement of the Cochin Fort, and held them in captivity, for many, many years! I have no idea when the initial incident happened, but I presume it took place in the late 1700s or early 1800s. This points to the possibility that it was, in fact, a slave ship carrying human cargo from East Africa to either the USA or the West Indies. An amazing and rather bizarre story. Incidentally, this is not an ‘old woman's tale’! Its quite reliable. My grandmother would identify some of the older ladies who had actually seen the surviving Kappiries.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1586
When Fulke Greville and Sir Philip Sidney tried to join Sir Francis Drake in his expedition to capture Spanish cities in the West Indies, Queen Elizabeth expressly forbade this. The Queen also refused Greville permission to join the Earl of Leicester in his campaign in the Netherlands, while allowing Sir Philip Sidney to go (he would soon be killed in combat).
When Sir Francis Drake stopped by the Cayman Islands with 26 ships for a couple of days, noticing that although there were no humans but there were quite a few crocodiles, alligators, iguanas, and turtles. He took note that the large lizards he termed “caymanas” were edible.
January 1, day (1585, Old Style): Sir Francis Drake sacked Santo Domingo on Hispaniola. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1591
Sir Martin Frobisher commanded an English naval squadron in the Azores that sought to intercept the treasure ships of Spain. He was entirely unsuccessful. However, England did have successes elsewhere:
Chronological observations of America to the year of Christ 1673.
The first Englishman that ever was in the Bermuduze or Summer-Islands, was one Henry May.
The voyage of Capt. Newport to the West-Indies, where upon the coast of Hispaniola, he took and burnt three Towns, and Nineteen sail of ships and Frigats.
Mr. Thomas Candish last voyage, in which he dyed. From the year of World BY John Josselyn Gent. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
17TH CENTURY
1625
The initial English settlement on Barbados.
The Dutch and English settled St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.
Some French and English who had been planning to settle on the island of Hispaniola decided instead to settle on the smaller island to its north, L’ile de la Tortue (Turtle Island or Tortuga). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1629
After 20 years in the pueblos of the Rio Grande, the Spanish begin sending missionaries and soldiers west to the Acoma, Hopi, and Zuni pueblos. Forced Indian labor was used transport materials and build the missions.
The French and English who had in 1625 settled on L’ile de la Tortue (Turtle Island or Tortuga) just to the north of Hispaniola were at this point driven away by the Spanish under Don Fadrique de Toledo, who would then set out to fortify the island. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1630
The 1st servile insurrection to take place in an English colony, on Santa Catalina in the Eastern Caribbean (a Puritan colonist there advised the slaves that human enslavement was illicit and that they might legitimately abscond).
The Spanish under Don Fadrique de Toledo who had in the previous year set out to fortify the smaller island of Tortuga just to the north of Hispaniola (L’ile de la Tortue or Turtle Island) had become preoccupied with driving other French settlers out of Hispaniola, and so the French returned to that smaller island, seized the new Spanish fortifications, and expanded on them. From this point Tortuga would be inhabited by a French colony, and by settlements consisting mostly of English pirates. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1633
Africans were imported to work the plantations of the smaller island of Tortuga north of Hispaniola (this would prove to be a mistake as the slave would get out of hand there, and by 1635 would have been disposed of to other plantations on other islands). SERVILE INSURRECTION
A Latin edition of Johannes de Laet’s NEW WORLD, prepared by himself: NOVUS ORBIS SEU DESCRIPTIONIS INDIÆ OCCIDENTALIS LIBRI XVIII AUTHORE JOANNE DE LAET ANTVERP. NOVIS TALULIS GEOGRAPHICIS ET VARIIS ANIMANTIUM, PLANTARUM FRUCTUUMQUE ICONIBUS ILLUSTRATA (Lugd. Batav.: Elzevirios). Also, his PERSIA, SEU REGNI PERSICI STATUS. VARIAQUE ITINERA IN ATQUE PER PERSIAM: CUM ALIQUOT ICONIBUS INCOLARUM (Lvgd. Batav., ex officina Elzeviriana). His spouse Maria Boudewijns van Berlicum died. The maps are: 1) Americae sive Indiae occidentalis tabula generalis 2) Maiores minoresque insulae. Hispaniola, Cuba, Lucaiae et Caribes 3) Nova Francia et regiones adiacentes 4) Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium et Virginia 5) Florida. et regiones vicinae 6) Nova Hispania, Nova Gallicia, Guatamala 7) Tierra Firma item Nuevo Reyno de Granada atque Popayan 8) Peru 9) Chili 10) Provinciae sitae ad fretum Magellanis itemque fretum Le Maire 11) Paraguay, o prov. de rio de la Plata: cum adiacentibus Provinciis, quas vocant Tucuman, et Sta. Cruz de la Sierra 12) Provinciua de Brasil cum adiacentibus provinciis 13) Guaiania sive provinciae intra rio de las Amazonas atque rio de Yviapari sive Orinoque 14) Venezuela, atque occidentalis pars Novae Andalusiae N OVIS ORBIS
IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT IT IS MORTALS WHO CONSUME OUR HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS, FOR WHAT WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO DO IS EVADE THE RESTRICTIONS OF THE HUMAN LIFESPAN. (IMMORTALS, WITH NOTHING TO LIVE FOR, TAKE NO HEED OF OUR STORIES.)
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1635
The smaller island of Tortuga north of Hispaniola was again recaptured by the Spanish, expelling the French colonists and the English pirate settlements (this would not last very long, as the island was too small to be of interest to the Spanish and they would again sail away, leaving the island vacant again to be repopulated again by pirates).
The French settled the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean. A private company “Compangnie dis Iles” of 74 individuals took possession of Martinique.
The French claimed Saba. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1638
Manasseh ben Israel was appointed to the Amsterdam Yeshiva.
The French attempted to settle Grenada. English from Bermuda and St. Kitts settled St. Lucia (3 years later these settlers would be exterminated by Caribs).
The Spanish returned to the island of Tortuga north of Hispaniola for a 3d time, expelling French and Dutch colonists. This time they would hold the island for a couple of years, before being driven away in 1640. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1640
The pirate Jan Janszoon resurfaced at this point as an employee of the Emperor of Morocco, governing for him the castle of Maladia on the west coast of Morocco. In this year his Dutch daughter, Lysbeth Janszoon, sailed to Morocco to visit him. (The last thing we know of him is that he and his daughter were still at the castle of Maladia in August 1641.)
The Dutch settled the Caribbean island of Saba, building 2 communities, Trent Bay and The Bottoms.
By this point the French and English pirates who based themselves on the island of Tortuga north of Hispaniola were referring to themselves as “The Brethren of the Coast” (included among them were a smaller number of Dutch pirates). In this year the French returned to Tortuga, expelling the Spanish forces, and began to construct Fort de Rocher to keep the island from changing hands so often. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1654
Sir Kenelm Digby got leave to return to England and became an agent for Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell in the hope that this would help English Catholics recover their civil rights.
The Lord Protector, striving to overthrow the Spanish power in the West Indies, fitted out large naval and military forces under Admiral Sir William Penn and General Venables and sent them to Jamaica to operate against Hispaniola. He named a board of 3 commissioners, with controlling authority, of which Edward Winslow became the head.
With Ireland’s armies in defeat and exile, the only mounted persons on the island were English soldiers. To the English ruling class Ireland was a tabula rasa on which it could inscribe what it would.
At about this point one of these English soldiers, Friend William Edmundson, got on his horse and visited two Quaker families in Rosenallis in county Laois in Ireland, apparently the Cantrill family of Tineil and the Chander family of Ballyhide. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1655
English and French forces led by Elias Watts occupied Tortuga, he having obtained from Colonel William Brayne, acting military Governor over Jamaica, a commission appointing him as Governor over that island just to the north of Hispaniola (this was possible because Admiral Sir William Penn (father of Friend William Penn) had just subjugated the Spanish island of Jamaica to the rule of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, his force of 5,000 having met with but little resistance).
As this kerfuffle of hegemony among the white folks was being transacted, with the island’s Spanish settlers fleeing to Cuba, various of the slaves of the Spanish residents seized upon their one golden opportunity. Escaping into the mountains of the interior of the island, they there established their own “Maroon” settlements. Admiral Sir William Penn thus unwittingly freed more black slaves, than his high-principled Quaker son ever would! Robert Sedgwick, born in Woburn, Bedfordshire, England in about 1611 and baptized on May 6, 1613, who had settled at Charlestown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635 and become a successful merchant there, for many years had represented Charlestown in the General Court and had helped organize the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, of which he had been the captain during 1640. He had during 1652 been the commander of all the Massachusetts militia, and had supervised the construction of the 1st fort at Boston. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell had promoted him to major general, making him the first Major General of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. With John Winthrop, Jr., and others, he had established in 1643/1644 the first ironworks in the North America. In 1654 he had driven the French from the Penobscot region and Fort Pentagouet. In this year this Robert Sedgwick accompanied this British naval expedition against Jamaica, and would be made Governor General of the island (he would die there).
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
Within a few years Spain would have abandoned all efforts to recover this colony and the English settlers would be growing crops such as tobacco, cotton and cocoa, and logging off the indigo wood. However, it would be privateering and piracy that would help Port Royale (Kingston) become one of the richest towns in the Americas as well as most certainly the most notorious: HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1640-1713 seven slave revolts in the islands of the British West Indies
1655 With Jamaica in transition between Spanish control and English control, some 1,500 slaves escaped into the mountains to form maroon communities.
1656 Juan de Bolas led many of the escaped slaves in the maroon communities of the mountains of Jamaica down to the plains and the coast with a deal in which the English granted pardon and freedom. Many maroons, however, would elect to remain in the moun- tains.
1668 “Lobby’s rebellion” on Jamaica — several hundred black slaves escaped to the mountains.
1725-1740 1st Maroon War on Jamaica
March 1, The 1st Maroon War on Jamaica ended in a treaty guaranteeing freedom for the maroons, 1738-1739 the deal being that henceforward they would capture and turn in for a reward any new slave or bond-laborer escapees.
1760 slave uprising on Jamaica
1776 slave uprising on Jamaica
1784 slave uprising on Jamaica
1795-1796 2d Maroon War on Jamaica
1823 slave uprising on Jamaica
1824 slave uprising on Jamaica
1831 slave uprising on Jamaica HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
April 17, day (Old Style): Failure of Admiral Sir William Penn’s and General Venables’s attempt to take Hispaniola from Spain.
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1660
The beverage made from the scorched Arabian bean coffee was at this point being introduced into France as a substitute for the consumption of wine.
The Spanish abandoned the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean.
The English renewed their claim on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. However, when they appointed Jeremie Deschamps as Governor over Tortuga, he set up the French colors and acknowledged the King of France (and would be able to turn away several English attempts to reclaim this island just to the north of Hispaniola; it would be from here that the French would subdue the western portion of Hispaniola and transform it into Saint-Domingue). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1664
Although the eastern end of the island of Hispaniola was being settled by the Spanish, on the western side of this landmass the French pirates who had their headquarters on the Cayman Islands had been able to achieve almost complete dominance. The pirates had been establishing plantations and in this year they founded the town of Port-de-Paix for which they placed the French West India Company in charge. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1670
Henry (Harri) Morgan, a Welsh privateer, collected together the bands of pirates taking refuge on the island of Tortuga, who had fallen on such hard times that some of them were actually working for a living, and his group began to function as an auxiliary force for French naval forces in the Caribbean.
Helmsman Pedro Bravo do los Camerinos decided that he has had enough of Christian voyages of exploration, and settled in the Philippines where he would spend the remainder of his life planting cocoa — laying the foundations for one of the great plantations of that time. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1676
The capital of the French colony of Saint-Domingue was relocate across the channel from Tortuga to Port-de- Paix on the mainland of the larger island of Hispaniola.
Governor Dutton of Barbados was wondering whether he was going to be forced to destroy the places of worship of a disruptive element, the island’s Friends. The Legislature passed a law restricting the activities of itinerant Quaker ministers and teachers. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1678
In Amsterdam, Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin published, in the Dutch language, what we know as his THE PIRATES OF PANAMA; OR, THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ASSAULTS COMMITTED OF LATE YEARS UPON THE COASTS OF THE WEST INDIES BY BUCCANEERS OF JAMAICA AND TORTUGA ...WHEREIN ARE CONTAINED MORE ESPECIALLY THE UNPARALLELED EXPLOITS OF SIR HENRY MORGAN, AN ENGLISH JAMAICAN HERO WHO SACKED PORTO BELLO, BURNT PANAMA, ETC. It was issued under the title PIRATICA AMERICANA, OF DEN AMERICAENCHEN ZEE-ROOVER. It would be translated into Spanish by a Dutch physician, Alonso de Bonne-Maison, in 1681. The English version, a translation of the Spanish version, would appear in 1684, with the author’s name anglicized as “John Esquemeling.” Born a Frenchman, most probably a native of Harfleur in Normandy, Exquemelin had it would seem come in 1666 to the New World as a indentured servant for the French West India Company. For 3 years he had served on the island of Tortuga off the coast of Haiti, at the time a haven for buccaneers. When he joined the buccaneers, it
was possibly as their barber-surgeon. He accompanied Henry (Harri) Morgan, a legendary figure of piracy who would later become governor of Jamaica, on most of his expeditions. Governor Morgan would sue the publishers of the book, William Crooke and Thomas Malthus,11 for publishing the allegation that he had allowed his men to torture the citizens of a sacked city in order to confess to their hidden stashes of money and jewels, and would win the lawsuit and a retraction: There have been lately printed and published two works, one by Wil. Crook, the other by Tho. Malthus, both initialed The History of the Bucaniers: both which books contained many false, scandalous and malitious reflection on the life and actions of Sir Henry Morgan, of Jamaica, Kt. The said Sir Henry Morgan hath by judgment had in the Kingsbench-Court, recovered against the said libel 200£ damages. And on the humble solicitation and request of William Crook, hath been pleased to withdraw his 11. Thomas Robert Malthus? No, I don’t think so. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI action against Crook, and accept of his submission and acknowledgment in print. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1679
There was a slave revolt in Haiti. SERVILE INSURRECTION HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1681
Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin’s 1678 PIRATICA AMERICANA, OF DEN AMERICAENCHEN ZEE-ROOVER was at this point translated into Spanish by a Dutch physician, Alonso de Bonne-Maison. The English version which would appear in 1684 (THE PIRATES OF PANAMA; OR, THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ASSAULTS COMMITTED OF LATE YEARS UPON THE COASTS OF THE WEST INDIES BY BUCCANEERS OF JAMAICA AND TORTUGA ...WHEREIN ARE CONTAINED MORE ESPECIALLY THE UNPARALLELED EXPLOITS OF SIR HENRY MORGAN, AN ENGLISH JAMAICAN HERO WHO SACKED PORTO BELLO, BURNT PANAMA, ETC.) would be based upon this Spanish volume. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1684
The 1681 Spanish translation of Alexander Oliver Exquemelin’s 1678 DE AMERICAENCHE ZEE-ROOVERS at this point appeared in English as THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA. A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ASSAULTS COMMITTED OF LATE YEARS UPON THE COASTS OF THE WEST INDIES BY BUCCANEERS OF JAMAICA AND TORTUGA ...WHEREIN ARE CONTAINED MORE ESPECIALLY THE UNPARALLELED EXPLOITS OF SIR HENRY MORGAN, AN ENGLISH JAMAICAN HERO WHO SACKED PORTO BELLO, BURNT PANAMA, ETC.) with its author’s Dutch name transliterated into English as “John Esquemeling.”
Most of the Spaniards who had once inhabited the island of Hispaniola had been gone-to-Peru and gone-to- Mexico for something like the past three generations of human life — there being more perceived pelf on the mainland. The few who remained on the island had been induced to emigrate to its eastern half in 1605, to prevent them from having dealings with Dutch and French traders when they should be dealing only with Spanish traders, and it was from this power base on the eastern half of the island (now the Dominican Republic) that Spain was ruling its colonies in the Americas. With the Spaniards beginning to raise crops on the mainland with which to feed themselves, the last usefulness of the island to them had vanished. This had created a power vacuum on the western half of the island, into which the buccaneers and pirates of the Caribbean had flowed like water — this is what would eventually enable the French to conquer the western part of Hispaniola from its base on L’ile de la Tortue (Turtle Island or Tortuga) and convert it into the colony of Saint-Domingue.
Tortuga, named for its outline, stands off the northern coast of the northern peninsula of Haiti. At the beginning of the 17th century the population lived on the coast facing Haiti. There were several anchorages along this coast, such as the one at Cayona, suitable for ships carrying up to 70 cannon. When the Spanish destroyed the English settlement in Nevis in 1629, Anthony Hilton, a shipmaster and leader of that colony, needing another place in which to combine planting with piracy, relocated his enterprise to Tortuga. There was also a steady flow of indentured servants running away from masters on St. Christopher and Barbados. The French who settled in Tortuga came from St. Christopher. Others arrived to engage in the business of provisioning the French and English pirates of the Caribbean. Tortuga was strategically situated to challenge the treasure galleons on their primary path to Europe from Central and South America. There was another path to the south of Puerto Rico, but it required the crossing of dangerous shallows. Anthony Hilton’s colony had come under the control of the Providence Company in 1631. In 1633 the Audiencia of Santo Domingo had determined that it would clear out these desperadoes for once and all, and in 1635, while the English and French in Tortuga were fighting each other, the Spanish had pounced. The English governor had fled at the sight of these Spanish HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI ships. The Spaniards killed most of the white men on the island, taking their women as slaves. A group of Frenchmen hid out in the woods and abandoned their women and children and sailed at night to Haiti, where they again sought refuge in the woods until they could reprovision themselves. After most of the Spanish had departed, they sailed back to Tortuga and defeated the few Spaniards who had been left in garrison. They applied to the French governor of St. Christopher to send them a a governor who would help them defend themselves against the Spanish, and the new governor, Le Vasseur, ordered the rush construction of a fortress upon the highest rock on the island, with a battery of cannon to command the anchorage. Upon completion of this structure, he had the workers remove the access route to this fort. Then the Spanish again invaded Tortuga, this time in canoes carrying 800 men, and managed to get ashore before the French were able to mobilize and react. The Spanish force established itself atop a mountain and built a battery. The French solicited the assistance of nearby buccaneers and filibusters, who were brought onto the island at night to avoid observation by the Spanish atop their mountain. They then staged a successful surprise attack on the Spaniards just as the Spaniards were leaving their fortification to go down to attack the French. This fun and games had established the French on Tortuga, and from that island they would conduct their invasion of the western part of Hispanola and the creation of St. Domingue. With the Dutch more or less gone from the Caribbean, and English pirates such as Henry (Harri) Morgan centered at Jamaica, Tortuga came to be mainly occupied by French pirates. By the middle of the 17th century there were around 600 buccaneers on the island. The Governors of Tortuga had been proud possessors the island until, in 1664, the French West India Company had laid the foundations of a colony there under which the Spanish planters of Hispanola were subsumed as subjects. Bertrand D’Ogeron, who had been recommended to consolidate French power in the Antilles, had been appointed as Governor of Tortuga in 1665 and ordered to make the island a center from which to extend the French influence over Hispanola. At first Bertrand D’Ogeron had been unable to persuade the buccaneers to abandon their dealings with the Dutch and with any buccaneers or pirates who entered their harbors. By census, he had discovered that there were 450 whites, 60 slaves, and a few indentured servants in his colony. In 1665 he had reported to Louis XIV’s Minister of Commerce, Colbert, that 700-800 Frenchmen were “scattered along the coasts of the Island of Hispanola in inaccessible places surrounded by mountains or by great rocks” and that it would be “necessary for his majesty to give an order to cause these people to leave the said island of Hispanola and betake themselves in two months into Tortuga which they would do without doubt if it were fortified and that would bring in a great revenue to the King if all captains of merchant ships and others were forbidden to buy or sell anything to the Frenchmen called buccaneers along the coast of Hispanola.” Bertrand D’Ogeron had actively and successfully transformed Tortuga’s mixed bag of adventurers into a stable French colonial population by mingling them with new colonists from France. Within a few years there were 2,000 French colonists in Western Hispanola, engaged in productive lives and purchasing more and more black slaves for forced labor in their plantation fields. Although there were still perhaps a hundred buccaneers, order of magnitude, lurking in the woods, he had found uses for the filibusters in the furtherance of French national policy, and had attracted French rovers from Port Royal, concentrating the French forces at the stronghold of Tortuga. His policies would result in the splitting of the island of Hispaniola into two colonies during the 17th and 18th Centuries — French St. Domingue on the west part of the island and Spanish Santo Domingo on the east (it would not be until the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, which settled a European war, that Spain would officially acknowledge that the western portion had come to pertain to France).
The Spanish raided the small settlement at New Providence Island, scattering the British into the depths of the island and razing their town. This displacement only made the pirate presence stronger – once the Spanish had left, there were few settlers left to oppose the pirates. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1686
On New Providence Island in the Bahamas, the pirates were stronger than ever. Their strength grew as the war between England and France drove pirates from Hispaniola to the north; these reinforcements were, in fact, welcomed by the Bahaman governors for the additional trade they brought with them. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1687
June 12, Sunday (Old Style): John Evelyn’s diary entry for this day was in part as follows: ... There was about this time brought into the Downes, a Vast treasure which after 45 yeares being sunk in a Spanish Galioon, which perish’d somewhere neere Hispaniola [or B[a]hama Ilands] coming home; was now weighed up, by certaine Gentlemen & others, who were [at] the Charge of Divers &c: to the suddaine enriching of them, beyond all expectation: The Duke of Albemarles share came (tis believed) to 50000, & some private Gent[lemen] who adventured but 100 pounds & little more, to ten, 18000 pounds, & proportionably; [his Majesties tenth to 10000 pounds:] The Camp was now againe pitch’d at Hounslow, The Commanders profusely vying in the expense & magnificence of Tents: HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1697
King William’s War came to an end as the western 3d part of the island of Hispaniola was formally ceded by the Spanish to the French in the Treaty of Ryswick between France and the Grand Alliance, and the French were able to rename this colony Saint-Domingue.12
12. Eventually the local people would secure their independence and, despite the fact that the originary Arawaks had long since been decimated by genocide and pandemic and slavery, restore a native name for the landform, Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1699
April: Captain William Kidd arrived in the Caribbean, making landfall at Anguilla. Upon hearing that King William III of England had issued a Royal Warrant for their arrest for acts of piracy, his crew wanted to scuttle the Quedagh Merchant and disband rather than surrender to the authorities. Kidd however, was so sure of his innocence, he convinced the majority of his crew to go with him to New-York to clear their names. On his way to New-York, Kidd stopped of at Hispaniola where he bought a small sloop named St. Antonio. He transferred most of his booty from the Quedagh Merchant to the St. Antonio and, with a crew of 12, set sail for New-York, leaving the remainder of his crew to guard the Quedagh Merchant and remainder of his plundered cargo in a small creek. Kidd would spend a couple of weeks with his wife and stepchildren in New-York before his meeting with Bellomont in Boston. The first thing Kidd did was contact John Emmot, his attorney from Oyster Bay and instruct him to approach Bellomont on his behalf. Kidd needed to know Bellomont’s stance before meeting him face to face. Kidd gave Emmot the two French passes that would surely prove his innocence, to show to Bellomont — but these would be promptly confiscated. It would be the last time Kidd would see this exculpatory evidence, and this would prove to have been a fatal mistake.
PRIVATEERING
July 1, Saturday (Old Style): Captain William Kidd had sailed the Adventure Galley from New-York three years earlier, with a commission to prey upon the enemies of England. When he learned that he had been declared a pirate, he transferred some of his loot to a sloop, the St. Anthony, and leaving the Quedah Merchant behind in the Caribbean, set sail for New England to clear his name. He seems to have gone directly to Oyster Bay, where he contacted an attorney, James Emmot, whom he asked to approach Bellomont. Bellomont wrote: Captain Kidd in a sloop richly laden, came to Rhode Island, and sent one Emot to Boston to treat about his admission and security. He said Kidd had left the great Moorish ship he took in India, called the Quedah Merchant, in a creek on the coast of Hispaniola, with goods to the value of 30,000 pounds. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI While safely harboring at Block Island, which was under the jurisdiction of the colony of Rhode Island &
Providence Plantations, he negotiated at long range with the Governor of the Bay Colony, the Earl of Bellermont, cousin to the King of England, for a full pardon for the manner in which he had been interpreting this commission while upon the high seas, and received the promise “I make no manner of doubt but to obtain the King’s pardon to you.” Kidd gave the current owner of Gardiners Island, Jonathan Gardiner the grandson of Lion Gardiner, “four pieces of Arabian Gold” and asked him to accept custody of “three negroes, two boys and a girl, ashore, to keep till he, the said Kidd, should call for them.” Kidd also presented Gardiner with some
luxurious silk fabric — a piece hangs today on a wall of that island’s manor house. Gardiner would reveal to the authorities that during his visit to his island Captain Kidd had also buried “a chest and a box of Gold, a bundle of quilts, and four bales of goods” half a mile inland from the western coastline, marking the burial spot with a pile of rocks. (The trove was estimated at the time to be worth £20,000, which would be more than $1,000,000 in our greenbacks today. Every item was on a witnessed manifest and this buried trove was not the total loot, but was merely the due share of the Earl of Bellermont. Some assert that the bulk of Kidd’s treasure is still under the sands of Campobello Island, which is just across the Canadian boundary. Others assert, on the basis of some cryptic remarks Kidd made just before the first noose took his breath away, that he had been able to bury something of substance somewhere near Old Saybrook in Connecticut. The vine-covered cairn still stands on Gardiners Island above the hole emptied by the governor, and nearby there is a granite marker HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI erected during the 19th Century.)
Two members of Kidd’s crew “who went by the names of Cook and Parrot” gave Gardiner “two bags of Silver ... which weighed thirty pounds ... a small bundle of gold, gold dust of about a pound weight ... a sash and a pair of worsted stockings.” Kidd sent jewels to Boston care of his attorney, James Emmot, for presentation to Bellomont’s wife. Then, with all his bargaining chips in place, Kidd ventured to Boston, carrying with him his documentary proofs that the ships he had seized were all of French registration in accordance with his contract of privateering. His best bet, as he must have realized, was his continued control over the Quedah Merchant back in the Caribbean. On this day, however, when he sailed into Boston harbor, he found himself unexpectedly taken under arrest by the officers of Governor Bellermont, facing charges of piracy. Colonel Robert Livingston’s own self-interest was at stake for, in concert with some other crown officers in England, he had had a 1/5th share in the enterprise, so he attempted to be of assistance, offering suggestions for a resolution of the difficulties. For some reason, however, Livingston’s attempts at a resolution would fail.13 Isaac Norris, Senior would write that “We have four men in prison, taken up as pirates, supposed to be Kid’s men. Shelly, of New York has brought to these parts some scores of them, and there is a sharp look out to take them. We have various reports of their riches, and money hid between this and the capes. There were landed about twenty men, as we understand, at each cape, and several are gone to York. A sloop has been seen cruising off the capes for a considerable time, but has not meddled with any vessel as yet, though she has spoken with several.” Presumably these men had some hint that Kidd’s treasure was greater than he had reported, and that he was holding something back from them? Since British law required that all accused of piracy receive trial in England, Kidd would be transported there. The ships’ papers he had in his possession, documentary proof that all the ships he had captured had been sailing under French authority, would be sequestered from him by the prosecution, and he would be found guilty of piracy and murder and hanged on May 23, 1701.14 PRIVATEERING
Joseph Bradish, probably a son of Joseph Bradish and a grandson of Robert Bradish of Cambridge, was sent to England with Captain William Kidd and also would hang in London for piracy.
13. Robert Livingston would settle in Albany, New York, becoming Lord of the 160,000-acre Manor of Livingston. In 1695 he would become Secretary of Indian Affairs, and from 1709 to 1711 he would be a prominent member of the New York Provincial Assembly, rising in 1716 to the post of Speaker of the Assembly. He would die in his bed in 1728 at the age of 74. 14. The Earl of Romney, the Earl of Orford, Sir John Somers, and the Duke of Shrewsbury would never acknowledge their involvement with William Kidd and would be protected behind the veil of appearances the court so carefully wove. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1720
September: Arriving again in Québec City, from this point into 1729 Père Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix of the Society of Jesus would be traveling up the St. Lawrence River and passing through the Great Lakes, making a portage to the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and traveling downriver to the Gulf of Mexico and to the island of Saint-Domingue — where he would survive a shipwreck. JESUITS
HAITI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1722
December: Père Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix sailed from the mouth of the Mississippi back to France. In France, he would work on VIE DE MÈRE MARIE DE L’INCARNATION, HISTOIRE DE SAINT-DOMINGUE, and HISTOIRE DU JAPON. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1730
Père Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix’s HISTOIRE DE SAINT-DOMINGUE. HAITI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1764
The Sugar Act of 1760, putting a tax of six cents per gallon upon the molasses obtained in the Caribbean in exchange for the cod, vegetables, wheat, and Indian maize of the North American colonies, had been defeated through contraband trade. Britain’s attempt to obtain a revenue stream from its colonies was a failure. The British Parliament in this year tinkered with the duties, lowering this oppressive tax upon molasses but placing instead duties on sugar and on Madeira wine. The idea they had was that since the substitute for Madeira wine was Port wine, and since Port wine was available only from British merchants, the colonists would switch from SWEETS Madeira to Port. However, the practice was to trade a middle-grade cure of cod, known as the Madeira cure, WITHOUT for Madeira wine. This tax tinkering would also be a failure, as the colonists would switch to the drinking of SLAVERY rum.
During this year the slaves of Jamaica were plotting servile insurrection — although nothing would come of it.
The free men of color in Haiti (Hispaniola) were prohibited from the practices of medicine and pharmacology. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1765
The free men of color in Haiti were prohibited from employment as court clerks, bailiffs, or notaries. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1767
October 6, Tuesday: Henri Christophe was born a slave, of Bambara ancestry from west Africa, in the British West Indies, probably on the island of Grenada. He would be brought to the northern part of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1770
March 5, Monday: The town of Acton voted to join in the general colonial boycott of imported British goods. As early as the 21st of December, 1767, the town [of Acton] voted to “comply with the proposals, by the town of Boston, relating to the encouraging of manufactures among ourselves, and not purchasing of superfluities from abroad.” On the 5th of March, 1770, the town entered into a covenant not to purchase nor use foreign merchandise, nor tea. The state of public affairs was again brought before the town on the 21st of December, 1772, and referred to a committee, consisting of Capt. Daniel Fletcher, Francis Faulkner, Deacon Jonathan Hosmer, Deacon John Brooks, Josiah Hayward, Ephraim Hapgood, Captain Samuel Hayward, Simon Tuttle, and Daniel Brooks. Their report was made on the 18th of the following month, and expresses the general sentiments of the people in this vicinity. At this time the town had no representative in the General Court, and a vote was passed recommending to the representatives of the people, that they use every constitutional measure in their power to obtain a redress of all their grievances.15 Although the Parliament was rescinding all of its Townshend Revenue Act’s imposts except for the one upon bulk tea, by this point things were getting very much out of hand in the American colonies. An incident occurred which has been recorded in part by an engraving by Paul Revere, in part by Boston court records, which closely resembles in its development the “Arawak Massacre” that had occurred in the Year of Our Lord 1503 on the island of Haiti. One of the first major clashes between army and citizenry came about as an intensification of a mistake made while some drunks were throwing snowballs at some annoyed soldiers outside a tavern. One of the deep-rooted causes of the incident in downtown Boston was that the army soldiers were being so poorly paid that they were forced to moonlight for American employers. The incident began as an American rope-maker named William Green pretended to be offering paid work to a British private named Walker. When Walker, sucked in, responded the affirmative, Green proceeded to make a rough joke out of it, and then Walker was tripped and his weapon taken away from him. He went and got eight or nine of his fellow soldiers, and it was then that the drunken mob of Americans began to pelt the soldiers with icy snowballs. This was in downtown Boston not far from the Quaker meetinghouse, and it intensified in a manner similar to that in which some playful Spaniard in Haiti had shouted “Tomalo!” causing an attack dog being held on leash nearby to lunge and disembowel a minor chief. It is possible that there was a minor fire nearby, but at any rate someone on that street in Boston shouted “Fire!” Seven of the frightened soldiers obeyed what they thought was an order to fire into the taunting crowd of drunken civilians throwing snowballs some of which were admittedly loaded with rocks and ice. After which some people were very sorry that this thing had happened, and that some people had been killed for no very good reason, while some other people were exceedingly elated because such stuff was going to be a prime ingredient in the manufacture of further such confused and frightful hostilities. Capitalizing on this incident to the maximum extent possible, a Boston Huguenot named Paul Revere very promptly rushed out an engraving of a “Boston Massacre,” which you will be able to view on a following screen. WIKIPEDIA’S LIST OF HUGUENOTS
Evidently he had copied this design being worked up by a colleague, his brother-in-law Pelham, and beaten 15. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI him to publication:
Thomas Hutchinson was acting royal governor of the colony at the time of the Boston Massacre, and was virtually forced by the citizens of Boston, under the leadership of Samuel Adams, to order the removal of the British troops from the town. Throughout the pre-Revolutionary disturbances in Massachusetts he would be the representative of the British ministry, and though he would disapprove of some of the ministerial measures he would feel impelled by his role to enforce them and would necessarily incur the hostility of the Whig or Patriot element.
The attorneys for the defense, Josiah Quincy and John Adams, would be able to win acquittals for most of the accused soldiers despite the fact that their response had created five corpses, among them most notably the lengthy corpse of Crispus Attucks. The jury, which, one must consider, was made up of Boston citizens, would find a couple of these soldiers guilty of an offense, but the offense would be not be murder. As their penalty the court would require of them that they read aloud a verse of Scripture and then –to ensure that they could in the future be identified if they were again tempted to this sort of conduct– submit to having a thumb branded with the letter “M” standing for “manslaughter.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
The Reverend Doctor Mather Byles, Sr. of Boston, a Congregationalist who was being forced from the pulpit on account of his Loyalist views, was said to have remarked during the long funeral procession for the people killed in the Boston Massacre: “They call me a brainless Tory; but tell me, my young friend, which is better, to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or by three thousand tyrants not a mile away?”16
16. Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, THE FAMOUS MATHER BYLES: THE NOTED BOSTON TORY PREACHER, POET, AND WIT, 1707-1788 (Boston MA: W.A. Butterfield, 1914), 146-7 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1771
The white writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier announced, in L’AN 2440, a utopian novel of anticipation, the eventual arrival of a black avenger of the New World. The message was: we are to mend our ways, we fellow white planters, or else we are to face retribution.
Nature has at last created this stunning man, this HAITI immortal man, who must deliver a world from the most atrocious, the longest, the most insulting tyranny. He has shattered the irons of his compatriots. So many oppressed slaves under the most odious slavery seemed to wait only for his signal to make such a hero. This heroic avenger has set an example that sooner or later cruelty will be punished, and that Providence holds in store these strong souls, which she releases upon earth to reestablish the equilibrium which the inequity of ferocious ambition knew how to destroy.
(It is not known whether this passage was ever brought to the attention of Toussaint Louverture, but it may well have been perused by Waldo Emerson prior to his delivery of an equivalently provocative message to Frederick Douglass.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
“The grandeur of a country is to assume all its history. With its glorious pages but also its more shady parts.” — President Jacques Chirac of France
SLAVEHOLDING HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1774
A slaveholder of Jamaica, Edward Long, argued in his HISTORY OF JAMAICA (which would for the most extended period be considered an authoritative source) that “there are extremely potent reasons for believing that the White and the Negro are two distinct species.” These extremely potent reasons of Long’s seem actually
to have had little to do with the slavemaster’s conviction that his African blacks represented “the vilest of the human kind, to which they have little … pretension of resemblance,” for he was arguing that this was demonstrated by the putative fact that his mulattoes, crosses between white and blacks, ordinarily turned out to be sterile. Not only were the African women he owned “libidinous and shameless as monkeys, or baboons” (not only do they fuck like monkeys, we would say) but also they fuck monkeys, admitting “these animals frequently to their embrace.” For all the various false facts of this ilk to be found in this 1774 tome, Paul Fryer has recently awarded to Long a title of sorts: “the father of English racism.”17 What is noticeable here, as at almost every point, is Long’s predilection for expressing his racist views through comments about a repugnant sexuality.… 19th-Century theories of race did not just consist of essentializing differentiations between self and other: they were also about a fascination with people having sex — interminable, adulterating, aleatory, illicit, inter-racial sex. The Abbé Guillaume-François Raynal and his ghost-writer Denis Diderot put out their L’HISTOIRE DES DEUX INDES, in which they raised the spectre of a black avenger for the racial sins of the whites in the New World. The colonies of “fugitive negroes” which, they indicated, had become established in Jamaica and in Guyana, were to be regarded as “flashes of lightning” preceding “the thunder.” [T]he negroes lack only a chief courageous enough to drive them to revenge and to carnage. Where is he, this great man whom nature owes perhaps to the honor of the human species? Where is this new Spartacus?18 Note that precisely when we of the British colonies in North America were casting our lot with France (the nation that was on its way to maintaining slavery in the Caribbean region of the New World for as long as it could), in order to defy our mother country England (the nation that was on its way toward eventual elimination of slavery in its portion of that region), these French apologists for human slavery Raynal and Diderot were praising us to the skies for having “refused slavery,” for having “burned our chains.”
–Of course, there was a reason why this was being said. The reason was that such badly needed to be proclaimed, it functioning as the Big Lie, the precise opposite of the truth of what we were doing, as a mask and a shield for the shameful truth of our maneuver. It is, in fact, inversion.
17. Fryer, Paul. STAYING POWER: THE HISTORY OF BLACK PEOPLE IN BRITAIN. London: Pluto Press, 1984, page 70. It is worth noting, however, that this is a disputed title, for Philip Curtin, in THE IMAGE OF AFRICA. BRITISH IDEAS AND ACTION 1780-1850 (Madison WI: U of Wisconsin P, 1964, page 377) awards it to Doctor Robert Knox of Edinburgh for his 1850/1862 treatise THE RACES OF MEN: A PHILOSOPHICAL ENQUIRY INTO THE INFLUENCE OF RACE OVER THE DESTINIES OF NATIONS (London: Renshaw). Young, Robert J.C. COLONIAL DESIRE: HYBRIDITY IN THEORY, CULTURE AND RACE. London: Routledge, 1995 (page 151, page 181). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
18. The authors of this histoire, clearly, have bought into the fantastical “Spartacus model” of the slave fighting for freedom, according to which this slave, rather than struggling to make himself the slavemaster, is dreaming a grand dream of the utter demise of all human slavery:
“...the slave, dreaming of the death of slavery...” — Kirk Douglas, preparing himself to play the title role in the 1961 Hollywood movie “Spartacus” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1776
June 28, Friday: In the initial major naval battle of the Revolution, a fleet of 11 British warships and 1,500 troops under Admiral Sir Peter Parker attacked Ft. Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. They were repulsed with severe damage to the vessels, because the fort had been constructed of palmetto logs that were too spongy to be much damaged by cannonballs, and because British attackers attempting to wade across from Long Island found the water to be too deep. CHARLESTON
The drafting committee presented its recommended draft for a declaration of independency, thus stopping the clock on the deadlines which had been imposed on its work. The draft, however, was merely tabled rather than picked up and immediately processed by the congress acting as a Committee of the Whole. Pauline Maier says of this draft: No doubt it was a promising text, one that would have been easily improved if the author could have put it aside for two weeks, then looked at it afresh. Jefferson didn’t have two weeks. He had, however, the next best thing: an extraordinary editor. AMERICAN REVOLUTION
June 30, Saturday: Great Britain reintroduced troops to the 13 rebellious colonies by occupying Staten Island, New York. Eventually there would be 32,000 soldiers on that island — which was greater than the population of any city on the North American continent. AMERICAN REVOLUTION HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
She is referring of course to the Congress acting collectively to improve the script:
JOHN TRUMBULL
The more alterations Congress made on his draft, the more miserable Jefferson became. He had forgotten, as has posterity, that a draftsman is not an author.
According to John Adams’s 1805 autobiography, Jefferson’s drafting contribution amounted to merely “a day or two,” and came after the five members of the committee had not only outlined the document desired but also decided at least in general terms what its various “Articles” should say. These instructions to the draftsperson according to Adams had been issued in writing, as “minutes,” so they might be in a form which the draftsperson could take with him to his lodgings. Whatever written directions or “minutes” the Committee of Five gave Jefferson have long since disappeared. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
Unless and until we have those instructive written “minutes” which Jefferson the scribe took with him to his lodgings, we have no way to determine the extent to which his subsequent “day or two” of work as a “draughtsman” amounted to more than a copying job, one of sheer elaboration.
Jefferson would make the old age claim that he had in his possession “written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the spot,” but such materials are not now of record and there is every appearance that Jefferson, at age 80, was lying. Furthermore, be it noted that the words he used, “written notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the spot,” are entirely ambiguous in that they might indicate that he was writing down the instructions of others under dictation, might indicate that he was jotting down his own thoughts and plans, or might indicate anything in between these two extremes. However that may be, Pauline Maier, on her page 100, HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI concurs that he was “likely” lying when he made this assertion.
When, in 1852, Frederick Douglass would deliver an address in Rochester, New York about our national Declaration of Independence, he would be forced to repudiate it since it had been a foundational document of, by, and for only those Americans who have the good fortune to be all white. He would need to take that tack because although this text about human freedom, which had originally been reported to “the representatives of the United states of America, in General Congress Assembled” as of this June 28, 1776, had in its originary version contained the following valid declaration in regard to slaves by King George III of England, and as to our right to free ourselves from such treatment — he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE — that portion had been omitted by the white delegates in their process of reconsideration of the document!
(Had they not expunged such a peroration, the representatives obviously brought themselves to recognize, it would render this new continental government liable to the same course of action in the future, on the part of its own black slaves, which these white men were contemplating in their initial honorific rebellion against their white king. This clause of the document would have been able to become a perfect legitimation for further rebelliousness, available to such a personage as Frederick Douglass: a war between the enslaved and enslaving races constructed in our originary document as being quite as legitimate as that earlier revolution of the whites against their white overlord. But no, they would be careful not to leave in the document a section useful to a later generation of freedom fighters of another hue!)
Now, it has ever been presumed that the above challenging paragraph about human freedom was something that was being created by Thomas Jefferson the believer in freedom, during his midnight-oil musings, and it has ever been presumed that the above challenging paragraph about human freedom was something that some cabal of other delegates of lesser audacity and benevolence at the congress would then have needed to voided in its entirety because they were not so firm in their belief in human freedom as was our Founding Father Jefferson the sole author of this Declaration of Independence writ. But my intent here is to inquire as to how we know this to be the correct reconstruction of the course of events. Bear in mind, Jefferson was the guy who would become so horrified at the idea of miscegenation between the races, that he would be ready to contemplate the killing of white women in Virginia who were guilty of bearing racially tainted children — and of such racially tainted children with them. Bear in mind, this is the Jefferson who later, as President, when later faced by a 2d American revolution, a revolution by black slaves on the Caribbean Island of Haiti, would become so horrified as to place that sugar island under an absolute embargo, directly transforming it by US fiat from the richest “Pearl of the Antilles” into the sort of pesthole it is today.
Had this Virginia slavemaster been the delegate who actually espoused the attitudes shown in the paragraph HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI included above, from the draft for the document?
It seems that the document we frequently see reproduced, that is on display in our nation’s capital under heavy green glass, is not only not in the hand of this Thomas Jefferson, but does not even date all the way back to July 4th, 1776, let alone to this earlier June 28th. Instead, what we display for our corporate self-worship is a mere prettified copy that we are officiously passing off as if it had been that foundational writ. The Continental Congress would actually have its originary document set up in uggy movable metal type and printed off at a job print shop, rather than penned onto foolscap. If we ask the interesting question, how is it that this prettified late copy on foolscap is now being passed off as the original, the answer seems to be that such an anonymous piece of calligraphy, since it approximates handwriting, appears to be the work of one hand, and, appearing as a hand product, better supports one of the myths we have come to embrace: the myth of Sole Authorship.
We know very well that Jefferson was not actually having quite as much to do with the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, as his posterity now chooses to pretend to recall. For instance, on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC we have carved a truncated version of the grandiloquent last paragraph of the Declaration and yet as we are well aware those were words that would be inserted primarily only during the general revision process, as a generally accepted replacement for other text which Jefferson had sponsored. Jefferson’s “autobiography,” written in 1820 when he was 77 after most of the other witnesses were out of the way, included an annotated version of his overnight draft showing the changes made by others subsequent to its submittal, and in that commentary what we have chiseled into the wall of his memorial is carefully exegeted as having been primarily the contribution of others. Also, we know that at the point at which Jefferson would begin to take sole credit for the Declaration, he would have become an old gent whose desire it was to be remembered for this creation of this foundational document, with the following eventually to be inscribed on his (replacement) tombstone19 at his slave plantation Monticello in Virginia: Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the statute of Virginia for religious freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.
At that point he would have become an octogenarian survivor whose grand claims could no longer readily be contested. He would have become able conveniently to forget that, at the time of enactment, he had been protesting that the other delegates were “mutilating” his work. He would have become able conveniently to forget how much editorial guidance he had been receiving, beforehand, from other members of the drafting committee, and elide this in his uncorroborated and entirely self-serving late narrative. He would in this late reconstruction neglect to make any similar record of the detailed instructions from other committee members which he had taken back to his lodgings with him for the preparation of that overnight draft — would choose to remember instead that these others had subsequently made but “two or three” minor changes in his draft!
Well, if this is to be suspected to be an exaggeration, was it typical, or atypical, of Jefferson, to exaggerate? Jefferson was in fact frequently guilty of what John Quincy Adams, who knew the man, carefully referred to as “prodigies.” For instance, Jefferson once gratuitously insisted that for six weeks the thermometer had been below zero, when that was egregiously false. Also, he once claimed he had taught himself Spanish, when that, also, was a considerable exaggeration. Adam’s comment on this tendency was:
“He knows better, but he wants to excite wonder.”
The actual origin of the document seems to have been in a draft of a “Declaration of Rights” which George Mason had prepared for Virginians, a draft which ran afoul of the delegation because it spoke of human slavery as “disgraceful to mankind.” Mason, when it came time to sign the original printed-up form of the Declaration of Independence as amended and approved, would decline to add his name at the foot of that document. 19. In what year was this replacement grave marker with its inscription prepared, after the original marker had been chipped away by visitors? Had the original cenotaph been a blank stone? HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI He refused, ashamed, because he knew that in this form it would be made to apply only to white Americans. It was this which would free Thomas Jefferson, who never in his life saw anything problematic about American racism, later into his dotage, to claim to have been the Sole Author of that repudiated document.20
I would like to suggest that we may be quite mistaken in presuming it to have been Jefferson who wrote the above paragraph about freedom for slaves, and in presuming that the better judgment of the other delegates over-rode his convictions in this area. It may well have been, instead, that this paragraph about the horror of slavery reflects instructions given by other drafters to Jefferson, which this slavemaster and other slavemasters would finally succeed in overcoming. –That alternate, unconsidered interpretation is a possibility which is definitely more compatible with a Jefferson who would later express such a horror of miscegenation, and demonstrate such mistrust in the processes of freedom in Haiti.
Thus, actually, the claim that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence is a claim which rests merely upon his own late-life assertion, and not upon any other evidence. At first none of us really had cared who had written up that document. It had no legal standing. It had been brought into existence only as pro-revolution propaganda, which is to say, material considered to be of temporary and topical relevance. It had taken quite a long time for it to become more than a pamphlet of the times, to become instead a popular part of our history, an extra-legal foundational document of sorts.
The hard evidence which we presently have is consistent with A.) the story Jefferson created for himself in his old age. However, this hard evidence is also B.) consistent with another story altogether: that in fact for his own aggrandizement in history he vastly exaggerated not only the original importance of that particular document but also his own impact upon the document. As he was wont to do, even in regard to his knowledge of foreign languages and even in regard to the temperature. “He knows better, but he wants to excite wonder.”
We know he was sent home overnight by the drafting committee with a list of instructions as to what to prepare for the next day. We know he returned the next morning with a draft, of which we have the text. What we decidedly do not know is, how much of that draft he brought back in to the committee the next morning had already existed, in the list of instructions which he had been given by the committee. His claim was that this list of instructions had been perfunctory. We do not know that that was true. For all we actually know, the list of instructions might well have been, all but a jot here and a tittle there and a little perfunctory scribal improvement in handwriting and/or wording, identical with what he brought back in the next morning.
Story B.) is consistent with everything else we know of Jefferson and his life.
Story A.) is generally inconsistent with many of the details of Jefferson’s other work, such as with his eagerness to outlaw, and thus legally sanction the murder of, any white woman who bore a child not entirely white — and her child with her.
W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The Declaration of Independence showed a significant drift of public opinion from the firm stand taken in the “Association” resolutions. The clique of political philosophers to which Jefferson belonged never imagined the continued existence of the country with slavery. It is well known that the first draft of the Declaration contained a severe arraignment of Great Britain as the real promoter of slavery and the slave-trade in America. In it the king was charged with waging “cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying 20. Incidentally, contrary to what you might have supposed, the moniker “the United States of America” was not created by Jefferson for use in this document. Such a moniker was already in existence. For instance, we have a letter written by Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts as a member of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, to General Horatio Gates, promising that execution would be the fate of internal “enemies of the United States of America,” and the date on that letter is June 25th, three days prior to the appearance of the phrase “the representatives of the United states of America, in General Congress Assembled” on June 28th. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.”21 To this radical and not strictly truthful statement, even the large influence of the Virginia leaders could not gain the assent of the delegates in Congress. The afflatus of 1774 was rapidly subsiding, and changing economic conditions had already led many to look forward to a day when the slave-trade could successfully be reopened. More important than this, the nation as a whole was even less inclined now than in 1774 to denounce the slave-trade uncompromisingly. Jefferson himself says that this clause “was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also, I believe,” said he, “felt a little tender under those censures; for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.”22 As the war slowly dragged itself to a close, it became increasingly evident that a firm moral stand against slavery and the slave-trade was not a probability. The reaction which naturally follows a period of prolonged and exhausting strife for high political principles now set in. The economic forces of the country, which had suffered most, sought to recover and rearrange themselves; and all the selfish motives that impelled a bankrupt nation to seek to gain its daily bread did not long hesitate to demand a reopening of the profitable African slave- trade. This demand was especially urgent from the fact that the slaves, by pillage, flight, and actual fighting, had become so reduced in numbers during the war that an urgent demand for more laborers was felt in the South. Nevertheless, the revival of the trade was naturally a matter of some difficulty, as the West India circuit had been cut off, leaving no resort except to contraband traffic and the direct African trade. The English slave-trade after the peace “returned to its former state,” and was by 1784 sending 20,000 slaves annually to the West Indies.23 Just how large the trade to the continent was at this time there are few means of ascertaining; it is certain that there was a general reopening of the trade in the Carolinas and Georgia, and that the New England traders participated in it. This traffic undoubtedly reached considerable proportions; and through the direct African trade and the illicit West India trade many thousands of Negroes came 21. Jefferson, WORKS (Washington, 1853-4), I. 23-4. On the Declaration as an anti-slavery document, cf. Elliot, DEBATES (1861), I. 89. 22. Jefferson, WORKS (Washington, 1853-4), I. 19. 23. Clarkson, IMPOLICY OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, pages 25-6; REPORT OF THE LORDS OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL, etc. (London, 1789). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI into the United States during the years 1783-1787.24 Meantime there was slowly arising a significant divergence of opinion on the subject. Probably the whole country still regarded both slavery and the slave-trade as temporary; but the Middle States expected to see the abolition of both within a generation, while the South scarcely thought it probable to prohibit even the slave-trade in that short time. Such a difference might, in all probability, have been satisfactorily adjusted, if both parties had recognized the real gravity of the matter. As it was, both regarded it as a problem of secondary importance, to be solved after many other more pressing ones had been disposed of. The anti-slavery men had seen slavery die in their own communities, and expected it to die the same way in others, with as little active effort on their own part. The Southern planters, born and reared in a slave system, thought that some day the system might change, and possibly disappear; but active effort to this end on their part was ever farthest from their thoughts. Here, then, began that fatal policy toward slavery and the slave-trade that characterized the nation for three-quarters of a century, the policy of laissez-faire, laissez-passer. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
“It behooves the United States, therefore, in the interest both of scientific truth and of future social reform, carefully to study such chapters of her history as that of the suppression of the slave-trade. The most obvious question which this study suggests is: How far in a State can a recognized moral wrong safely be compromised? And although this chapter of history can give us no definite answer suited to the ever-varying aspects of political life, yet it would seem to warn any nation from allowing, through carelessness and moral cowardice, any social evil to grow. No persons would have seen the Civil War with more surprise and horror than the Revolutionists of 1776; yet from the small and apparently dying institution of their day arose the walled and castled Slave-Power. From this we may conclude that it behooves nations as well as men to do things at the very moment when they ought to be done.” — W.E. Burghardt Du Bois, 1896
24. Witness the many high duty acts on slaves, and the revenue derived therefrom. Massachusetts had sixty distilleries running in 1783. Cf. Sheffield, OBSERVATIONS ON AMERICAN COMMERCE, page 267. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1779
Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a mulatto from Haiti, and his wife Catherine, a Potawatomi, established the initial permanent settlement near the mouth of the Chicago River, just east of the present Michigan Avenue Bridge on the north bank.
Julius Scott observed on pages 85-86 of his dissertation THE COMMON WIND: CURRENTS OF AFRO-AMERICAN COMMUNICATION IN THE ERA OF THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION (Duke University, 1986) that: [S]everal hundred blacks and mulattoes from Saint-Domingue participated directly in the war for North American independence, and they took back with them experiences in fighting for liberty which they may have applied to their later struggles. As a result of a 1778 commercial treaty between the United States and the French West Indies, French forces joined the Americans in military engagement against the British in the West Indies. In 1779, however, French admiral D’Estaing sailed from Saint-Domingue to Savannah with several battalions of black and mulatto troops in an effort to break up the British siege. Though the poorly coordinated attack failed to dislodge the British, observers credited one of these detachments from Saint- Domingue with covering the retreat of the American forces, thereby averting a major defeat. The lasting impact of this engagement on the minds of the black and brown soldiers proved of great importance than their heroism in 1779. Considering that these troops, numbering at least six hundred and perhaps twice that many, included among their ranks Henry Christophe, Andre Rigaud, Marial Besse, and other leaders of Saint-Domingue’s fight for freedom, a nineteenth-century student of their role at Savannah has argued persuasively that “this legion ... formed the connecting link between the siege of Savannah and the wide development of republican liberty” in the new world. According to J.C. Dorsainvil’s HISTOIRE D’HAITI (Henri Deschamps Editors, 1942), Henri Christophe, age 12, served in the war of the American Revolution on the side of the colonists: The Count of Estaing, former Governor [presumably of the colony], who had become an Admiral, came to enroll men at Saint- HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI Domingue. 1500 “affranchis” (freed slaves) went with him and fought valiantly at Savannah. Among them were Christophe, Rigaud, Beauvais etc. Christophe evidently was wounded, but not badly. He may have served with the French forces as a drummer boy in the Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, a regiment composed of gens de couleur (mixed-race residents of Saint-Domingue), at the siege of Savannah. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1780
October 20, Friday: Samuel Laing was born to Robert Laing and Barbara Blaw Laing in Kirkwall St Ola, Orkney, Scotland.
The Great Hurricane of 1780, also known as Hurricane San Calixto, the Great Hurricane of the Antilles, and the 1780 Disaster, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, faded away southeast of Newfoundland. Barbados had endured winds possibly exceeding 200 miles per hour, and Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Saint Eustatius had each suffered thousands of deaths. Since this was the period of the American Revolution, British and French fleets were contesting for control of the Caribbean, and were heavily impacted. The hurricane had passed near Puerto Rico and over Santo Domingo, the eastern portion of Hispaniola, creating heavy damage near the coastlines, before ultimately turning toward the northeast. This hurricane alone had produced a greater number of human mortalities than would occur during any other entire decade of Atlantic storms.
Former Brigadier-General Benedict Arnold, turned Loyalist, issued a proclamation to his former colleagues: To the Officers and Soldiers of the Continental Army who have the real Interest of their Country at Heart, and who are determined to be no longer the Tools and Dupes of Congress, or of France. HAVING reason to believe that the principles I have avowed, in my address to the public of the 7th instant, animated the greatest part of this continent, I rejoice in the opportunity I have of inviting you to join His Majesty’s Arms. His Excellency Sir Henry Clinton has authorized me to raise a corps of cavalry and infantry, who bring in horses, arms, or HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI accoutrements, are to be paid their value, or have liberty to sell them: To every non-commissioned officer and private a bounty of Three Guineas will be given, and as the Commander in Chief is pleased to allow me to nominate the officers, I shall with infinite satisfaction embrace this opportunity of advancing men whose valour I have witnessed, and whose principles are favourable to an union with Britain, and true American Liberty. The rank they obtain in the King’s service will hear a proportion to their former rank, and the number of men they bring with them.... Great as this encouragement must appear to such as have suffered every distress of want of pay, hunger and nakedness, from the neglect, contempt, and corruption of Congress, they are nothing to the motives which I expect will influence the brave and generous minds I hope to have the honour to command. I wish to lead a chosen band of Americans to the attainment of peace, liberty, and safety (that first object in taking the field) and with them to share in the glory of rescuing our native country from the grasping, hand of France, as well as from the ambitious and interested views of a desperate party among ourselves, who, in listening to French overtures, and rejecting those from Great-Britain, have brought the colonies to the very brink of destruction. Friends, fellow soldiers, and citizens, arouse, and judge for yourselves, — reflect on what you have lost, — consider to what you are reduced, and by your courage repel the ruin that still threatens you. Your country once was happy, and had the proffered peace been embraced, your last two years of misery had been spent in peace and plenty, and repairing the desolations of a quarrel that would have set the interest of Great-Britain and America in its true light, and cemented their friendship; whereas, you are now the prey of avarice, the scorn of your enemies, and the pity of your friends. You were promised Liberty by the leaders of your affairs; but is there an individual in the enjoyment of it, saving your oppressors? Who among you dare speak, or write what he thinks, against the tyranny which has robbed you of your property, imprisons your persons, drags you to the field of battle, and is daily deluging your country with your blood? You are flattered with independency as preferable to a redress of grievances, and for that shadow, instead of real felicity, are funk into all the wretchedness of poverty by the rapacity of your own rulers. Already are you disqualified to support the pride of character they taught you to aim at, and must inevitably shortly belong to one or other of the great powers their folly and wickedness have drawn into conflict. Happy for you that you may still become the fellow-subjects of Great-Britain, if you nobly disdain to be the vassals of France. What is America now but a land of widows, orphans, and beggars? — and should the parent nation cease her exertions to deliver you, what security remains to you even for the enjoyment of the consolations of that religion for which your fathers braved the ocean, the heathen, and the wilderness? Do you know that the eye which guides this pen lately saw your mean and profligate Congress at mass for the soul of a Roman Catholic in Purgatory, and participating in the rites of a Church, against whose antichristian corruptions your pious ancestors would have HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI witnessed with their blood. As to you who have been soldiers in the continental army, can you at this day want evidence that the funds of your country are exhausted, or that the managers have applied them to their own private uses? In either case you surely can no longer continue in their service with honour or advantage; yet you have hitherto been their supporters of that cruelty, which, with an equal indifference to your, as well as to the labour and blood of others, is devouring a country, which, from the moment you quit their colours, will be redeemed from their tyranny. But what need of arguments to such as feel infinitely more misery than tongue can express. I therefore only add my promise of the most affectionate welcome and attention to all who are disposed to join me in the measures necessary to close the scene of our afflictions, which, intolerable as they are, must continue to increase until we have the wisdom (shewn of late by Ireland) in being contented with the liberality of the Country, who still offers her protection, with the immediate restoration of our ancient privileges....
NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project People of Walden: Samuel Laing HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1781
August 4, Saturday: Just beyond the city limits of Charleston, the British hanged Colonel Isaac Hayne of the South Carolina militia. AMERICAN REVOLUTION
August 5, Sunday: Admiral de Grasse sailed from Cap-Français, Hispaniola for America with 3 regiments and 28 ships. AMERICAN REVOLUTION
O selig bist du! for chorus and strings by Johannes Herbst was performed for the initial time. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1785
John Jay and Alexander Hamilton organized the New-York Manumission Society.
Jean-Antoine Houdon, commissioned by the legislature to execute a statue of George Washington, arrived at Mount Vernon; he made a life mask and painstaking measurements of Washington.
As you inspect the above piece of plaster, bear in mind please that it was probably in about this year that the mulatto slave West Ford was being born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Some speculate that he was the son of Washington with Venus, a daughter of a slave who had been one of George’s childhood playmates. The story is that during a visit by Washington to the plantation on which Venus was a slave during the previous year, this girl had been asked to serve as his bed companion.
Late in this year, Elkanah Watson purchasing a plantation in Edenton, North Carolina and four slaves, and engaged for a 2d time in a commercial enterprise with a merchant of Nantes, François Cossoul, who resided on the island of Haiti.
April 26, Tuesday: John James Audubon was born as the son of a French lieutenant, Jean Audubon, with his mistress, a girl of Les Cayes, Saint-Domingue, named Mlle Jeanne Rabine and identified in early documents as “Creole de Santo Domingo.” She would die while her infant, who as a child created out of wedlock was named Jean Rabine, was but six months old. The mother’s having been listed as “Creole,” plus John James’s illegitimacy, have given rise to the supposition that the infant was racially mixed; however, the term “Creole” as used in that context did not suggest racial mixture but instead implies only that this girl’s family had been in the New World for some period of time, long enough to be considered to be local people — rather than having recently emigrated to the French plantations of the western side of the large island of Haiti from Europe.25 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1787
Elkanah Watson’s partner in Haiti, François Cossoul, died.
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 25. Present-day usage, affected by the racial passions of the post-Civil War era, has produced one “creole myth” among pure-white people in New Orleans, that “creole” always applied only to “pure white” persons such as themselves, while it has produced another very contrasting “creole myth” among the cafe-au-lait population of New Orleans created by the extensive miscegenation of antebellum years, that “creole” commonly indicated the “cafe au lait” persons such as themselves. And of course, race pride can carry us the rest of the way, and make Audubon out to have been a white man if we are proud of being white, or a black man if we are proud of being black. Looking at New Orleans newspapers in the period 1810-1830, however, it is clear that a child born in New Orleans to New England Yankee parents had absolute recognition as a creole, but a St. Domingue-born resident of the state was never so identified. Audubon, in effect, would never have been called a creole in antebellum Louisiana — so where did this record of his mother being “Creole de Santo Domingo” originate? Native-born slaves, free persons of color, and children of Irish or German immigrants all carried identity as creoles, as the judicial records of Louisiana demonstrate beyond dispute. Much of the confusion in all this resulted from the usages attendant upon the cultural and political conflict between the original colonial population and the American newcomers after the Purchase of 1803. It became a convenience in distinguishing the competing factions to speak of the “ancienne population” as “the creoles,” but in the singular form, “creole” always meant nothing more than native-born. Another suggestion that has been made is that an Afro-Cuban slave born in Cuba was a criollo, just as much as his Hispano-Cuban master — and vice versa. “Creole de” is most often used to mean “native born” in regard to Santo Domingo, or Louisiana, or some other New World location, as opposed to someone who had been born in Europe and was “fresh off the boat.” The term was without any reference to racial identity either way. At no time did it make any suggestion of “mixed blood,” a distortion not uncommon outside of Louisiana. The racial connotation we now profess to find is simply absent, although the term might in some populations have indicated Spanish stock in distinction from Northern European stock: technically a Creole was the child of Spanish or French parents born in the New World. The thing to bear in mind is that had Audubon’s appearance in any manner suggested any degree of black ancestry, he would have been treated much differently in Jacksonian America than in fact he was treated. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1788
The free men of color in Haiti were obligated to obtain a permit before engaging in any trade other than farming. They were forbidden to assemble.
“The grandeur of a country is to assume all its history. With its glorious pages but also its more shady parts.” — President Jacques Chirac of France
SLAVEHOLDING HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1789
Slaves fought for emancipation on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. SLAVERY
Planters in Saint Domingue on Hispaniola sent delegates to Paris and demand freedom to deal with local matters, slavery, without interference. Paris was not sympathetic to their demands. Hispaniola had 480,000 slaves. SLAVERY
In this year Jamaica had 211,000 slaves. SLAVERY
2 By this point nearly /3ds of the entire foreign investment of the European nation of France was tied up in its Saint-Domingue colony, the location now known to us as Haiti. Some 700 oceangoing vessels were sailing into and out of this large natural harbor each year. Of the population of 556,000, some 500,000 non-whites were enslaved to some 32,000 whites.26
“The grandeur of a country is to assume all its history. With its glorious pages but also its more shady parts.” — President Jacques Chirac of France
SLAVEHOLDING
26. There were in addition approximately 24,000 blacks who were not yet enslaved. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1790
In a French memoir of this year we find the following benevolently exploitative racial sentiment: It is perhaps not impossible to civilize the Negro, to bring him to principles and make a man out of him: there would be more to gain than to buy and sell him.
At about this time, a French captain of a sailing vessel, in reaction to news from Paris that some supporters of free mulatto slavemasters had organized a Société des Amis des Noirs, proclaimed himself to be “l’Ami des Hommes.” What this captain meant by his self-descriptive phrase we may infer as we peruse his ship’s manifest of cargo: slaves from Africa destined for the cane plantations of the French Caribbean. The man was captain of a negrero engaged in the international slave trade. The events that shook up Saint-Domingue from 1791 to 1804 constituted a sequence for which not even the extreme political left in France or in England had a conceptual frame of reference. They were “unthinkable” facts in the framework of Western thought. Pierre Bourdieu defines the unthinkable as that for which one has no adequate instruments to conceptualize. He writes: “In the unthinkable of an epoch, there is all that one cannot think for want of ethical or political inclinations that predispose to take it in account or in consideration, but also that which one cannot think for want of instruments of thought such as problematics, concepts, methods, techniques.” The unthinkable is that which one cannot conceive within the range of possible alternatives, that which perverts all answers because it defies the terms under which the questions were phrased. In that sense, the Haitian Revolution was unthinkable in its time: it challenged the very framework within which proponents and opponents had examined race, colonialism, and slavery in the Americas.
Bear in mind that there was a peculiarity in the situation of the USA and of Haiti at this time. As has been commented on a number of times, “Americans had recently been rebels, were noted in the world as such, and knew it.” The USA, a democracy in a world still dominated by blood aristocrats, a republic in an era still ruled by absolute monarchs, was being considered an outlaw nation, a pariah state. Haiti, a nation 90% enslaved, by way of extreme contrast was being considered a model of perfect appropriateness and decorum!
In this year the free men of color in Haiti protested that they were “a class of men born French, but degraded by cruel and vile prejudices and laws.”
A Frenchman of this Saint-Domingue colony, where some 90% of the population was enslaved, wrote home HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI to reassure his wife and, perhaps, to reassure himself: “There is no movement among our Negroes.... They don’t even think of it. They are very tranquil and obedient. A revolt among them is impossible.”
This nation’s revolt against French rule gave George Washington a chance to put our own nation’s money where its heart was. The federal administration loaned hundreds of thousands of dollars to the French planters, to help them put down this revolt among their black charges.
Why did we behave in this manner? Well, bear in mind that the officially registered commerce of Haiti with France alone –leaving out of consideration all the trade with all the other countries and leaving out of consideration all smuggling– was equal to the total trade of the USA with all of the world. Haiti was one big deal. The US needed some 500 ships just for its trade with this one island, and that number was on the rise toward 600 and more! Before Thomas Jefferson imposed his embargo against all American shipping to the new black republic, the US had been this island’s most important trading partner. Commerce with this island was foundational to the economic prosperity of the New England and the Middle Atlantic states. This island received at least a tenth of all American exports. Only Great Britain itself received a greater percentage of our foreign commerce. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1791
The French National Assembly granted Africans born of free parents in the French West Indies voting rights and the same privileges as all citizens. The 30,000 white citizens of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) prepared to secede. Free Africans and mulattoes revolted (by this point, it is believed, Henri Christophe, who was managing a hotel restaurant in Cap-Français, had been granted his freedom). Within a few months 2,000 whites and 10,000 Africans had been killed. Sugar plantation mansions burned but 70,000 tons of cane sugar still were produced. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: The rôle which the great Negro Toussaint, called L’Ouverture, played in the history of the United States has seldom been fully appreciated. Representing the age of revolution in America, he rose to leadership through a bloody terror, which contrived a Negro “problem” for the Western Hemisphere, intensified and defined the anti-slavery movement, became one of the causes, and probably the prime one, which led Napoleon to sell Louisiana for a song, and finally, through the interworking of all these effects, rendered more certain the final prohibition of the slave-trade by the United States in 1807. From the time of the reorganization of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, in 1787, anti-slavery sentiment became active. New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia had strong organizations, and a national convention was held in 1794. The terrible upheaval in the West Indies, beginning in 1791, furnished this rising movement with an irresistible argument. A wave of horror and fear swept over the South, which even the powerful slave-traders of Georgia did not dare withstand; the Middle States saw their worst dreams realized, and the mercenary trade interests of the East lost control of the New England conscience. INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
William Cowper published his improvement on Alexander Pope’s version of Homer. When the widow Mary Unwin with whom he had been living long-term fell ill, the poet relapsed into another depression, one from which he would never fully recover.
A pamphlet was published in an attempt to get the people of Great Britain to abstain from West Indian cane sugar and rum, so as to abolish the international slave trade.27 It quoted the following, attributed as “Cowper’s Negro’s Complaint”: Why did all-creating Nature Make the plant for which we toil? Sighs must fan it, Tears must water, Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think ye Masters, iron-hearted, Lolling at your jovial Boards, Think how may Backs have smarted For the Sweets your Cane affords!
27. “Address to the People of Great Britain on the propriety of abstaining from West India Sugar and Rum,” M. Gurney et. al., 8th edition, No. 128 Holborn-Hill, 1791. Except for the decline in cane sugar production which was caused by the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1803, the island of Haiti being the world’s largest colonial producer, world production of sugar has not suffered more than an occasional hiccup in the course of five centuries. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI April 20, Wednesday: When William Wilberforce presented his initial bill in the House of Commons to abolish the international slave trade, it was easily defeated by 163 votes to 88.28
“EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES”: In 1791, Mr. Wilberforce announced to the House of Commons, “We have already gained one victory: we have obtained for these poor creatures the recognition of their human nature, which, for a time, was most shamefully denied them.” It was the sarcasm of Montesquieu, “it would not do to suppose that negroes were men, lest it should turn out that whites were not;” for, the white has, for ages, done what he could to keep the negro in that hoggish state. His laws have been furies.
The House of Commons has been prejudiced by the slave insurrection at Saint-Domingue and by similar revolts in Martinique and Dominica. Most of Wilberforce’s Tory colleagues were opposed to any restrictions on the slave trade and at first he and Friend Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp had to rely on the support
28. Anna Letitia Barbauld would write a poem entitled “Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq. On the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade,” which would in this year be published in London by J. Johnson. The bill would succeed in 1807. READ THE FULL TEXT HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI of Whigs such as Charles Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Grenville, and Henry Peter Brougham.
“EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES”: In 1788, the House of Commons voted Parliamentary inquiry. In 1791, a bill to abolish the trade was brought in by Wilberforce, and supported by him, and by Fox, and Burke, and Pitt, with the utmost ability and faithfulness; resisted by the planters, and the whole West Indian interest, and lost. During the next sixteen years, ten times, year after year, the attempt was renewed by Mr. Wilberforce, and ten times defeated by the planters. The king, and all the royal family but one, were against it. These debates are instructive, as they show on what grounds the trade was assailed and defended. Every thing generous, wise, and sprightly is sure to come to the attack. On the other part, are found cold prudence, barefaced selfishness, and silent votes. But the nation was aroused to enthusiasm. Every horrid fact became known.... In 1791, three hundred thousand persons in Britain pledged themselves to abstain from all articles of island produce. The planters were obliged to give way; and in 1807, on the 25th March, the bill passed, and the slave-trade was abolished. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI August 22, Monday-24, Wednesday: The freemen of racially mixed ancestry of the northern province of Saint- Domingue launched an uprising against French overlordship –led by a short former coachman named François SWEETS Dominique Toussaint Louverture who himself from time to time owned black slaves– which during the WITHOUT following 13 years would spread throughout the colony, and which would severely impact the lucrative 29 SLAVERY production of cane sugar. But do not suppose that this was initially a slave revolt. According to Lester D. SLAVERY Langley’s THE AMERICAS IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 1750-1850 (New Haven CT: Yale UP, 1996, page 119), The rebellion began not as a struggle for African freedom but as a conflict between whites and free coloreds over social equality. In the beginning the [African] blacks were observers, then participants, sometimes at the behest of whites or free coloreds but always with a different agenda.... Often forgotten are the early phases. Whites and free coloreds had initiated the carnage.
Two years into the French Revolution the marginalized peoples of the island of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean were somehow getting a message of liberty, equality, and fraternity. In the course of their struggle they would defeat, in succession, their local white overlords and the soldiers of the French monarchy, a Spanish invasion, a British expedition of some 60,000 soldiers, and, finally, in 1803, a French expedition of roughly the same size commanded by a brother-in-law of Napoleon Bonaparte. What specifically did they say were their nonnegotiable demands? –They said they were fighting in order to obtain the concession of three days off per week to work in their own gardens –in order to be able properly to feed themselves and their families during their labors– and they added that in addition to that, they preferred not to be punished by the
29.Except for the decline in sugar production which was thus occasioned during the years 1791-1803, the island of Haiti being the world’s largest colonial producer, world production of sugar has not suffered more than an occasional hiccup in the course of five centuries. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI use of whips. The eventual result would be the nation of Haiti, famous for an unofficial and sarcastic motto: “We oppress ourselves, quite eliminating the middleman.”
It is important to come to grips with the fact that the world of 1791 was in certain ways now poorly understood quite a big different from the world as it is now. As things now stand, Haiti is a little ruined island where nothing much goes on other than poverty and filth and oppression and political victimization, and Disney factories where local people fabricate cuddly stuffed toys for pennies an hour, whereas the United States of America is the world’s only superpower and the home of the free and the brave. In 1791 Haiti was the richest and best-run, most orderly and arranged society one might imagine, entirely regular and autocratic, with a place for everyone and everyone in their place —a sugar-saturated economy— whereas the USA was an outlaw nation, a backwater violent republic in an era in which monarchy was recognized as the righteous condition. Winthrop Jordan expressed the situation as “Americans had recently been rebels, were noted in the world as such, and knew it.” Then, during this night, the situation began to change. The island of Haiti began a second American revolution much like the one which had occurred a decade or two before on the American mainland. Well, but the white people of the United States of America were able to make a significant distinction between that 1st revolution for freedom, on the mainland, and this 2d revolution for freedom, on the island in the Caribbean, because the fight for freedom in the Caribbean would be an “insurrection of the negroes.” As Jordan would put it, the white people would lack any inclination to “admit the exactness of the parallel” between the one struggle for freedom and the other. And this refusal to see the parallel between the 1st and 2d revolutions would “help ... form an ideology” in the USA that would “differ ... significantly from the humanistic traditions of Western civilization.” White freedom righteous black freedom unrighteous. The revolutionary rhetoric of American patriotism was to be held unavailable. The American president, Thomas Jefferson the strong believer in human liberty, would out of race prejudice become in this circumstance the strongest believer in human illiberty. Although he might well have perceived the revolt in Haiti as representing a heaven-sent opportunity to achieve freedom and justice for all, had he been another sort of person than the person he was, he would not perceive the situation in that way, indeed he would not even become aware that this was an option. He would lock himself and his nation into a knee-jerk hostility. He “grew increasingly silent and depressed about the future of Africans in America” and focused himself upon his “aversion ... to the mixture of color.” Essentially, we proceeded in regard to the island of Haiti in the late 18th Century in the manner in which we would proceed in regard to the island of Cuba at the middle of the 20th Century, by our treating Fidel Castro as if he were a new Toussaint Louverture. As the French general Leclerc resorted to unblinking terrorism (“Since terror is the sole resource left me, I employ it.”), as the French troops imported 1,500 bloodhounds trained to attack any person of black skin and tear him or her to pieces, we stood idly by. We stood idly by in precisely the same manner as white women stood idly by in their finery and watched exhibitions in which blacks were lashed to posts in order to be disemboweled by attack dogs.
August 27, Saturday: The Declaration of Pillnitz was promulgated by King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia and Emperor Leopold II — this would supposedly guarantee the safety of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.
August 31, Wednesday: The Wiener Zeitung announced Artaria’s publication of Joseph Haydn’s Piano Sonata XVI: 4a.
Mulattos revolted in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) killing people in the streets, especially whites (up to 300 were killed during this insurrection). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI October 30, Sunday: In the French assembly, one of the Amis des Noirs delegation, Jean-Pierre Brissot, attempted to argue that the recent news from the Caribbean, that some 50,000 of the African slaves were staging a violent revolt in the colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), would need to be a mere rumor. There were no mulattoes or whites there who were so insane as to incite them to such violence, no such group of blacks could ever assemble so quickly and act thus in concert with one another — and, even if the rumor were to turn out to have a foundation in truth, by this point the rebellion would have been put down by the French troops stationed there, who were superior, so forget about this noise: What are 50,000 [black] men, badly armed, undisciplined and used to fear when faced with 1,800 [white] Frenchmen used to fearlessness? What! In 1751, Dupleix and a few hundred Frenchmen could break the siege of Pondichéri and beat a well-equipped army of 100,000 Indians, and M. de Blanchelande with French troops and cannons would fear a much inferior troop of blacks barely armed?
“The grandeur of a country is to assume all its history. With its glorious pages but also its more shady parts.” — President Jacques Chirac of France
SLAVEHOLDING HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1792
Denmark ended its involvement in the international slave trade and, within its dominion, abolished human enslavement.
Paris sent an army to restore order in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), only to have its military commanders favor and support the rebellious slaves.
Governor Robert Brooke of St. Helena drew up a code of laws for the control and protection of slaves which limited the authority of the master and extended the authority of the magistrates. Further importation of slaves was forbidden. ST. HELENA RECORDS
From this year into 1799 the yellow fever would be epidemic in Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and the West Indies.
Spring: By this point even the most distant and noncomprehending European observer had become unable to sustain the condition of denial. The revolution of the slaves of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), no matter that such a thing was quite incomprehensible, was indeed taking place. Perhaps these slaves had not heard that such a revolt was quite inconceivable. However, the consensus opinion had become that although the destruction of the plantations was severe, such a disaster must be temporary, and everything on these plantations would eventually return to good order.
December: A white observer of the revolution on Saint-Domingue (Haiti) commented that “If the whites and the free mulattoes knew what was good for them, and kept tightly together, it is quite possible that things would return to normal, considering the ascendancy that the white has always had over the negroes.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1793
The yellow fever, carried by French refugees from the epidemic in the Caribbean, struck this capital city. I approached a house before which stood a hearse. Presently a coffin borne by two men issued from the house.
Several of Philadelphia’s doctors fled to the Poconos for their own safety, but Dr. Benjamin Rush cared too much for his patients to imitate their personal cowardice.
Because white people were tending to pay no attention at all when a person of color died, people of color of course being of no particular importance, at this point in time there was a very prevalent myth that African blacks were quite immune to the yellow fever. Also, at this point in time, the system of human enslavement was being phased out of operation in Pennsylvania. The consequence of these two factoids was that there was a 2,500-member black American community living in the vicinity of Philadelphia as it went through its epidemic of the yellow fever in this year, and these people were free but were living in abject poverty. Absalom Jones and Richard Allen had a few years before formed in this community the 1st self-help group
to be organized by black Americans, and one of the principal white doctors dealing with this epidemic, Dr. Benjamin Rush, was an abolitionist. Are you beginning to get the picture? –What developed was that the Philadelphia blacks were being organized as a cheapo nursing service for sick whites, while in fact this nursing staff was itself dying in similar proportion as these whites who were being attended. Even black convicts were being released, from the Walnut Street prison, in order to assist at the emergency “contagion hospital” set up HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI on Bush Hill for sick white people.30
Parents desert their children as soon as they are infected, and in every room you enter you see no person but a solitary black man or woman near the sick. Many people thrust their parents into the streets as soon as they complain of a headache.
The epidemic would die down in the early winter, as frost killed the female Culicidae Aëdes aegypti stowaways which had brought the virus up from the Caribbean with the race-war refugees. A count of fresh graves in cemeteries near Philadelphia reached a total of 4,041, which would seem to indicate that in our nation’s capital at least 5,000 had died out of a total population of about 45,000. Within four months the population had been “decimated” (a technical term meaning that fewer than nine out of ten remained living).
Ann Bonsall Say, wife of Dr. Benjamin Say of Philadelphia and mother of the child Thomas Say, died (although whether she died of the yellow fever or of some other cause I do not know).
On the following screen is the manner in which John F. Watson’s ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA AND 31 PENNSYLVANIA would summarize the epidemic: The need for a place to examine, detain, and quarantine travelers by ship into the United States via Philadelphia was recognized almost immediately during and following this epidemic. Circumstances surrounding the epidemic –including the arrival of potential revolutionaries, malcontents, and shiploads of slaves from exploding Saint-Domingue (Haiti)– caused a panic in the capital city to repel unwanted foreigners who might infect the nation with French infidelity, revolutionary ideas, or rampaging tropical diseases. While the exact cause of the yellow fever was unknown at the time, the devastating disease was associated with the ships arriving from the Caribbean in ports such as Charleston, South Carolina, Norfolk, Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, etc. Debates in Philadelphia on how to treat those inflicted with the disease splintered whites and blacks, French and Americans, slaves and free blacks into warring parties. Some physicians in Philadelphia favored bleeding and purging; others prescribed passive treatments of rest, liquids, and cool sponges to reduce the fevers. Fears of the unknown was causing Americans to repel foreigners and potential foreign threats in much the same manner as we saw in the immediate wake of 9-11. A “lazaretto” was established near Philadelphia through the collaboration of the US federal government, the government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the city government itself, to insure that dangerous, unwanted, or potentially infected immigrants or travelers to the United States could be halted, detained, or excluded from entry to nation through that port.
30. Afterward of course these black nurses would be accused not only of extorting exorbitant fees for their services to the white community during the white community’s emergency, but also of pilfering the property of the dead and dying. –Which only goes to show how difficult it can become, psychically, when one needs to feel gratitude toward one’s social inferiors! 31. Watson, John Fanning. WATSON’S ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA, A COLLECTION OF MEMOIRS, ANECDOTES, AND INCIDENTS OF THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS AND OF THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS OF THE INLAND PART OF PENNSYLVANIA FROM THE DAYS OF THE FOUNDERS INTENDED TO PRESERVE THE RECOLLECTIONS OF OLDEN TIME, AND TO EXHIBIT SOCIETY IN ITS CHANGES OF MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, AND THE CITY AND COUNTRY IN THEIR LOCAL CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS. Written between 1830 and 1850, published 1857 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
No history of Philadelphia would be complete, which should overlook the eventful period of 1793, when the fatal yellow fever made its ravages there. It is an event which should never be forgotten; because, whether we regard it as a natural or a spiritual scourge, (effected by the divine power) it is a calamity which may revisit us and which, therefore, should be duly considered, or we suffer it to lose its proper moral influence. The medical histories and official accounts of that disastrous period are in print before the public, and in general terms, give the statement of the rise, progress, and termination of the disease, and the lists of the weekly, monthly, and total deaths: but the ideas of the reader are too generalized to be properly affected with the measure of individual sufferings; therefore, the facts which I have preserved on that memorable occasion, are calculated to supply that defect, and to bring the whole home to people’s interests and bosoms. Let the reader think of a desolation which shut up nearly all the usual churches; their pastors generally fled, and their congregations scattered; the few that still assembled in small circles for religious exercises, not without just fears that their assembling might communicate the disease from one to the other. No light and careless hearers then appeared, and no flippant preaching to indulge itching ears: all, all was solemn and impressive. They then felt and thought they should not all meet again on a like occasion; death, judgment, and eternity then possessed the minds of all who so assembled. Look, then, in which way you would through the streets, and you saw the exposed coffins on chair-wheels, either in quick motion, or you saw the wheels drawn before houses to receive their pestilential charge. Then family, friends, or mourners scarcely ever accompanied them; and no coffins were adorned to please the eye; but coarse, stained wood of hasty fabric received them all. The graves were not dug singly, but pits which might receive many before entire filling up, were opened. In the streets you met no cheerful, heedless faces, but pensive downcast eyes and hurried steps, hastening to the necessary calls of the sick. Then the haunts of vice were shut up; drunkenness and revelling found no companions; tavern doors grew rusty on their hinges; the lewd or merry song was hushed; lewdness perished or was banished, and men generally called upon God. Men saluted each other as if doubting to be met again, and their conversation for the moment was about their several losses and sufferings. The facts of “moving incidents” in individual cases, prepared for the present article, have been necessarily excluded from lack of room, but may hereafter be consulted on pages 210 to 213 in my MS Annals in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI NO-ONE’S LIFE IS EVER NOT DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HAPPENSTANCE
August: French Civil Commissioner Léger Félicité Sonthonax of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) declared that all slaves willing and able to fight under the flag of the Republic of France would be freed, and from his Camp Turel, François Dominique Toussaint Louverture responded by proclaiming immediate freedom and equality for all.
(Now let’s see you raise that ante again, colonialist schmuck!)
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1794
The slaves of Saint-Domingue or the island of Haiti in the Caribbean, some half-million strong, were producing nearly 2/3ds of the world’s coffee, nearly 1/2 of the world’s sugar, and quite a bit of its cocoa. The commerce of this one small island accounted for about 1/3d of France’s total international trade. At this point the slaves rose in revolt against the 40,000 white Frenchmen on the island, while, in France, the Legislative Assembly, in the midst of the “Reign of Terror” period, enacted the freedom of all slaves in all French colonies. This act made France the 1st nation of the world to free its slaves.
A convoy of 10 merchantmen out of Jamaica were wrecked off Gun Bay in the Grand Caymans of the Caribbean.
From this year until 1802, the English would be occupying the island of Martinique. The British captured Port- au-prince, Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI George Washington recommended Harpers Ferry as the site for a new federal armory and arsenal. (The primary considerations in such a decision, of course, were transport, ease of defense, and power.)
Under the leadership of the mulatto François Dominique Toussaint Louverture, 51, Jean Jacques Dessalines,
36, and Henri Christophe, 27, some 500,000 black and mulatto Haitian slaves rose against the 40,000 whites of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) on Hispaniola, and then defeated a Spanish/English force sent HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI to re-impose slavery upon the island.
February 4, Tuesday: Thomas Clarkson issued a pamphlet urging suppression of the international slave trade.
The French Assembly emancipated all slaves in French colonies: The National Convention declares the abolition of Negro slavery in all the colonies; in consequence it decrees that all men, without distinction of color, residing in the colonies are French citizens and will enjoy all the rights assured by the constitution. It asks the Committee of Public Safety to make a report as soon as possible on the measures that should be taken to assure the execution of the present decree. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
Eight months before, slavery had been locally abandoned at the French colony of Saint-Domingue in the HAITI Caribbean. Although the declaration of August 26, 1789 had proclaimed all men to be equal, it had taken five years for France to generally abolish slavery, until the influence of Robespierre on this day in the National Convention. (On the island of Guadeloupe, the only French colony for which this decree would become effective, eventually Napoleon Bonaparte would reinstitute slavery — slavery would be again abolished there, for the last time, in 1848.) Here is a recent report from “Dominique Chathuant”
“My ancestor Toussaint Louverture, great-grandfather of my grandfather, was born in Guadeloupe around 1800. He was slave #959 of the parish of Sainte-Rose. Like every new citizen, he went to the town hall of Sainte-Rose with his wife and their 5 children and received a name, given by a secretary who was probably surprised at all those former slaves he was being asked to consider to be citizens. My ancestor probably had to put his finger on a dictionary. He was given the name Chathuant, which comes from chat-huant (hooting cat), which is a variety of owls in western France. The French revolution formally renouncing human slavery in recognition of the de facto freedom which had been achieved by Haitian blacks under the leadership of their Creole commander. Soon these black warriors –at times more than 20,000 of them– would be fighting first alongside the French against the Spaniards who still controlled the eastern end of the island, and then alongside the French to repel a determined invasion by British forces.32 W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: At the beginning of the nineteenth century England held 800,000 slaves in her colonies; France, 250,000; Denmark, 27,000; Spain and Portugal, 600,000; Holland, 50,000; Sweden, 600; there were also about 2,000,000 slaves in Brazil, and about 900,000 in the United States.33 This was the HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI powerful basis of the demand for the slave-trade; and against the economic forces which these four and a half millions of enforced laborers represented, the battle for freedom had to be fought. Denmark first responded to the denunciatory cries of the eighteenth century against slavery and the slave-trade. In 1792, by royal order, this traffic was prohibited in the Danish possessions after 1802. The principles of the French Revolution logically called for the extinction of the slave system by France. This was, however, accomplished more precipitately than the Convention anticipated; and in a whirl of enthusiasm engendered by the appearance of the Dominican deputies, slavery and the slave-trade were abolished in all French colonies February 4, 1794.34 This abolition was short-lived; for at the command of the First Consul slavery and the slave-trade was restored in An X (1799).35 The trade was finally abolished by Napoleon Bonaparte during the Hundred Days by a decree, March 29, 1815, which briefly declared: “À dater de la publication du présent Décret, la Traite des Noirs est abolie.”36 The Treaty of Paris eventually confirmed this law.37 In England, the united efforts of Sharpe, Clarkson, and Wilberforce early began to arouse public opinion by means of agitation and pamphlet literature. May 21, 1788, Sir William Dolben moved a bill regulating the trade, which passed in July and was the last English measure countenancing the traffic.38 The report of the Privy Council on the subject in 178939 precipitated the long struggle. On motion of Pitt, in 1788, the House had resolved to take up at the next session the question of the abolition of the trade.40 It was, accordingly, called up by Wilberforce, and a remarkable parliamentary battle ensued, which lasted continuously until 1805. The Grenville-Fox ministry now espoused the cause. This ministry first prohibited the trade with such colonies as England had acquired by conquest during the Napoleonic wars; then, in 1806, they prohibited the foreign 32. Over an 8-year period the British, who regarded Saint-Domingue as a central military prize in a general Caribbean campaign against French dominion, would be sacrificing 60,000 of their soldiers, more than eventually they would be losing in their final battle with the forces of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo — with essentially zero return on investment. (Egad, talk about Vietnam!)
33. Cf. Augustine Cochin, in Lalor, CYCLOPEDIA, III. 723. 34. By a law of Aug. 11, 1792, the encouragement formerly given to the trade was stopped. Cf. CHOIX DE RAPPORTS, OPINIONS ET DISCOURS PRONONCÉS À LA TRIBUNE NATIONALE DEPUIS 1789 (Paris, 1821), XIV. 425; quoted in Cochin, THE RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION (Booth’s translation, 1863), pages 33, 35-8. 35. Cochin, THE RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION (Booth’s translation, 1863), pages 42-7. 36. BRITISH AND FOREIGN STATE PAPERS, 1815-6, page 196. 37. BRITISH AND FOREIGN STATE PAPERS, 1815-6, pages 195-9, 292-3; 1816-7, page 755. It was eventually confirmed by royal ordinance, and the law of April 15, 1818. 38. STATUTE 28 GEORGE III., ch. 54. Cf. STATUTE 29 GEORGE III., ch. 66. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI slave-trade; and finally, March 25, 1807, enacted the total abolition of the traffic.41
39. Various petitions had come in praying for an abolition of the slave-trade; and by an order in Council, Feb. 11, 1788, a committee of the Privy Council was ordered to take evidence on the subject. This committee presented an elaborate report in 1789. See published REPORT, London, 1789. 40. For the history of the Parliamentary struggle, cf. Clarkson’s and Copley’s histories. The movement was checked in the House of Commons in 1789, 1790, and 1791. In 1792 the House of Commons resolved to abolish the trade in 1796. The Lords postponed the matter to take evidence. A bill to prohibit the foreign slave-trade was lost in 1793, passed the next session, and was lost in the House of Lords. In 1795, 1796, 1798, and 1799 repeated attempts to abolish the trade were defeated. The matter then rested until 1804, when the battle was renewed with more success. 41. STATUTE 46 GEORGE III., ch. 52, 119; 47 GEORGE III., sess. I. ch. 36. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1795
July 22, Wednesday: As peace was concluded between France and Spain in Basel, Spain ceded their eastern portion (Hispaniola) of the island of Haiti.
July 27, Monday: In Concord, Massachusetts, Cato Ingraham and Philis, the maid of the widow Tuft, got married. Apparently at this time Cato was still working for Squire Duncan Ingraham, for we have on record that “on his desiring to marry, his master consented; on condition of his no longer depending upon him for support, to which he agreed.”42
(We may wonder how many of us would venture to marry, if by marrying we were implicitly to be required to abandon any entitlement to all retirement benefits after a lifetime of labor. :-)43
42. Squire Ingraham remained still his master, and still had the privilege of making such decisions, in Concord, despite the fact that “slavery had been abolished” in the entire sovereign state of Massachusetts, at least ostensively, since 1783, which is to say, for about the previous one dozen years! 43. It was an established principle of law that slaves and bond-servants could never marry, or have sexual intercourse, without the permission of their owner, as such activities subtracted from the energies available to the use of their master. This sort of deal would not have been permitted out of kindness, but must have been a way to dispose of an elderly servant for whom, otherwise, the master would have been expected to provide during his old age. In plain language, this was a taking of advantage. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1796
May 10, Tuesday: French troops forced their way across the River Adda at Lodi, southeast of Milan, as the Austrians retreated before them.
May 11, Wednesday: Joseph Boulogne de Saint Georges arrived in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) with commissioners sent by the French government. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1798
Through the patronage of William Wilberforce, Edward Jesse became clerk in a government office on San Domingo in the West Indies.
HAITI
August 31, Friday: Great Britain signed an agreement with François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture. The British agreed to completely withdraw from Saint-Domingue on Hispaniola (Haiti) in return for economic concessions. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
19TH CENTURY
1800
Denmark Vesey used $600 of his winnings from a town lottery to purchase his freedom. MANUMISSION
“The capacity to get free is nothing; the capacity to be free, that is the task.” — André Gide, THE IMMORALIST translation Richard Howard NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970, page 7
From this point he would work as a free carpenter in Charleston SC. Peter Hinks has commented that: “A black man in Charleston in the early 1820s would have had a number of opportunities to hear the bold Denmark Vesey speak his mind for he was a prominent and relatively affluent member of the free black community, was a class leader in the African Church, and was renowned for vehemently stating his opinions openly in his shop which was frequented by many people.” Men must not only be dissatisfied; they must be so dissatisfied they will act. Per a New York Times review of a recent biography of Vesey: “To those taken with Christianity, he quoted the Bible. To those mindful of power, he spoke of armies of Haitian soldiers in waiting. To those fearful of the spirit world, he enlisted one Jack Pritchard –universally known as Gullah Jack– a wizened, bewhiskered conjurer whose knowledge of African religious practices made him a welcome figure on the plantations that surrounded Charleston.” HAITI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI The English took Curacao.
Alexander von Humboldt, traveling in Cuba and the West Indies, noted that whites there represented but 17% of the human population. He would warn that the “great mass of the planters of the West Indies” were harboring an illusion of invincibility, whereas inevitably “the political preponderance will pass into the hands of those who have strength to labour, will to be free, and courage to endure long privations.” His warnings, as thus belatedly published, had been heeded by the British but not by the French.
Bear in mind that C.L.R. James, in THE BLACK JACOBINS: TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE AND THE SAN DOMINGO REVOLUTION (New York: Vintage, 1963, 2d Edition revised) has said, of this “Pearl of the Antilles” colony at the end of the 18th Century, that “On no portion of the globe did its surface in proportion to its dimensions yield so much wealth as the colony of St. Domingo.” Haiti simply was not, in this period, the sorry, sordid place we now see. Or, at least, it was not so for a very privileged group of white and mulatto persons. For them, it was a mansion in which they indulged themselves in extravagant wealth and privilege. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1801
May: General Toussaint Louverture’s army of Creole former slaves defeated the Spanish forces that had held the eastern portions of Hispaniola.44 Louverture became Governor-General and a Constitution was enacted.45
This Caribbean island would be safe for a year, until First Consul Napoléon Bonaparte, subsequent to the coup d’état of 18 Brumaire, with a pledge by our President Thomas Jefferson that there would be no US interference (a reversal of our federal diplomatic policy), would be able to send an expedition to attack his allies of color and thus restore order and slavery. —Welcome to your dream of American empire, M. Napoleon; when it comes down to black-and-white issues, we white people are all in the same boat!46
The harbor at Le Cap emptied of American vessels so swiftly that Toussaint was moved to ask sarcastically 44. Now known as the Dominican Republic. 45. Eventually, in Concord, Waldo Emerson would be urging Frederick Douglass to make himself into a Governor-General François-Dominique Brèda Toussaint-Louverture for the continent of North America, and eventually we would learn of this –despite the fact that Emerson would attempt to cover it up by suppressing information as to the presence of the black man– because Thoreau had rushed off and gotten Emerson’s inflammatory recommendation printed up in Boston and distributed before it could be suppressed. 46. When Jefferson heard the motto “Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God,” he thought “Yes, of course that’s true if you are a white man — but if you are a black man of course it is false.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI “if the change in administrations had destroyed all the American ships.” ... Race was at the root of all these ironies. Race drove all these Jeffersonian retreats. Race overrode all other considerations for Jefferson whenever it was salient at all.... Jefferson was a man intellectually undone by his negrophobia.... He was the foremost racist of his era in America. And St. Domingue constituted the crisis in which all this came clear. — Michael Zuckerman, ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE: OBLIQUE BIOGRAPHIES IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN, 1993, pages 194-6
Having placed himself in a position of permanent dictatorial control over Haiti, François-Dominique Brèda Toussaint-Louverture re-legalized the slave trade and invited the white planters to return and take control over their abandoned sugar plantations. He stipulated, however, that anyone who returned would need to be a practitioner of family values, who would encourage his slaves to marry and to produce legitimate offspring -- because, he suggested, only with the family as its basis would a stable and just social order be able to evolve. He also stipulated that whipping was in the future going to be forbidden, and that these white planters would need to be out in the fields with their slaves and would need to share the profits from the sugar with their slave workforces. He wrote to his own former manager of the Brèda estate, in exile in the USA, asking him in particular to return, and advised him: Be just and unbending, make the blacks work hard, so as to add by the prosperity of your small interests to the general prosperity of the administration of the first of the blacks, the General-in- Chief of St. Domingue. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1802
Denmark made itself the initial European nation to end its participation in the international slave trade.
Slavery was restored in Guadeloupe. In the Peace of Amiens between England and France, Spain ceded Trinidad to the British, who would import large numbers of black slaves to labor in sugar cane fields.The slave colonies were restored to their prewar status except for Trinidad, Haiti (Saint-Domingue), and Louisiana.
Napoléon Bonaparte revoked the emancipation decree act of 1794 and reintroduced slavery to French colonies and sent an army to put down the rebellion in Haiti (Saint-Domingue).
“The grandeur of a country is to assume all its history. With its glorious pages but also its more shady parts.” — President Jacques Chirac of France
SLAVEHOLDING
Walter Savage Landor went to Paris, where observing Bonaparte at close quarters was enough to cure him of his idealism in regard to French republicanism. His POETRY, BY THE AUTHOR OF ‘GEBIR’ (London: Rivingtons) included the narrative poems “The Story of Chrysaor” and “From the Phocæans.”
After December 23, 1845: ... {One-fourth page blank} Landor’s works are WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR 1st A small volume of poems 1793 out of print next Poems of “Gebir” “Chrysaor”, the “Phocaeans” &c The “Gebir” eulogized by Southey & Coleridge Wrote verses in Italian & Latin. The dramas “Andrea of Hungary” “Giovanna of Naples” and “Fra Rupert.” “Pericles & Aspasia” “Poems from the Arabic & Persian” 1800 pretending to be translations. “A Satire upon Satirists, and Admonition to Detractors” printed 1836 not published Letters called “High & Low Life in Italy” “Imaginary Conversations” “Pentameron & Pentalogia” “Examination of William Shakspeare before Sir Thomas Lucy, Knt., touching Deer-stealing.” {One-fourth page blank} Vide again Richard’s sail in “Rich. 1st & the Abbot” Phocion’s remarks in conclusion of “Eschines & Phocion” “Demosthenes & Eubulides” In Milton & Marvel speaking of the Greek poets –he says “There is a sort of refreshing odor flying off it perpetually; not enough to oppress or to satiate; nothing is beaten or bruized; nothing smells of the stalk; the flower itself is half-concealed by the Genius of it hovering round.” Pericles & Sophocles Marcus Tullius Cicero & his Brother Quinctus in this a sentence on Sleep and Death. Johnson & Tooke for a criticism on words. {Three-fifths page blank} ... HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI April: In Saint-Domingue, for purposes of mass executions of blacks, the invading French converted the hold of one of their vessels into a crude but effective gas chamber. The vessel was known as The Stifler. Hunting dogs were brought from Cuba that had been trained to hunt down, kill, and devour human prey. General Henri HAITI Christophe defected to the French forces. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI May: Governor-General Toussaint Louverture of Saint-Domingue ceased resistance to the French.
HAITI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI June: Governor-General François-Dominique Brèda Toussaint Louverture of Saint-Domingue was tricked and trapped and shipped off to a French prison, the Fort de Joux in the Alps — which once upon a time had held prisoner Joan of Arc. HAITI
HAITI July 4, Sunday: The French on Saint-Domingue issued a supposedly secret order for the arrest of Colonel Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci, who had once been a Bossali slave, presumably from the Congo.47
Carl Theodor, Baron von Dalberg replaced Friedrich Karl Joseph Baron von Erthal as Archbishop of Mainz.
HAITI July 7, Wednesday: Learning that the French forces on Saint-Domingue had issued a secret order for his arrest, Colonel Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci went on the attack.
47. Which is to say that, in contradistinction to the local Creoles, Sans Souci was a very black man. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI August-October: Most of the black soldiers who had submitted under orders by General Toussaint Louverture to the new French army of occupation of Saint-Domingue became alarmed at a general disarmament which HAITI was being ordered, and began to constitute themselves into a resistance movement.
Fall: By this point President Thomas Jefferson had become aware that the army the French had sent to subdue the island of Haiti had succumbed to the yellow fever, and that the army the French had intended for the Louisiana territory had been redirected toward that island.
September 11, Saturday: France annexed Piedmont.
The publication of Muzio Clementi’s three piano sonatas op.40 was entered at Stationer’s Hall, London.
September 14, Tuesday: Jan Ladislav Dussek gave a concert with horn player Giovanni Punto in Caslav. This would be repeated on the following day. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
HAITI September 15, Wednesday: The French on Saint-Domingue counterattacked against the Congo forces of Colonel Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci.
September 18, Saturday: Faced with an armed uprising by rural Swiss, and the absence of French troops, the central government of the Helvetic Republic collapsed.
November: The Creoles of Saint-Domingue united against the French, and Jean-Jacques Dessalines became the commander of their resistance. Since Colonel Jean-Baptiste Sans Souci refused to lead his Congos into HAITI unity with these Creoles, General Henri Christophe had him bayoneted during the negotiations. Later, King Henry I would name his palace “Sans Souci” — in all probability not at all after the palace in Bavaria of that name but, rather, after this too-black soul whom he had caused to be casually murdered. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1803
A French expedition of some 60,000 soldiers commanded by a brother-in-law of Napoléon was defeated by the former slaves of the island of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, who had already in quick succession overwhelmed their local white overlords and the soldiers of the French monarchy, a Spanish invasion, and a British expedition of approximately that size. The eventual result would be the nation of Haiti, famous for its unofficial motto “We oppress ourselves, quite eliminating the middleman.” Here is a map of the island, created in this year by Jean-Baptiste Poirson:
April 7, Thursday: Former Haitian Governor-General François-Dominique Brèda Toussaint Louverture died in exile in the Fort de Joux in the Jura Alps, of mistreatment and malnutrition. He had been a loyal French republican to the end. Despite his origins as a slave, he had never been an antislavery activist. He had persisted in making a distinction between mulattoes such as himself, and African blacks or “Congos.” He considered himself a Frenchman even when he accepted a Spanish military commission. He himself had owned and sold slaves. When he had proposed freedom for the French colony’s slaves, he had done so as a matter of expediency, in order to gain fighters for his ranks. He had been very much a man of that age, and very like our own Patrick Henry, the slaveholding freedom fighter of Virginia.
“The grandeur of a country is to assume all its history. With its glorious pages but also its more shady parts.” — President Jacques Chirac of France
SLAVEHOLDING
Even as late as this, the consensus of opinion in Europe and the United States was that the revolt on the sugary island of Saint-Domingue would eventually be defeated. What had become un fait accompli would be ungraciously acknowledged only long after its fact.
November 9, Tuesday: Having lost 19 generals including the brother-in-law of Napoléon Bonaparte, having lost more of their soldiers than eventually they would lose in the battle at Waterloo (Egad, talk about Vietnam!), the French acknowledged that they had been more or less at least temporarily militarily defeated at their sugary plantations of Saint-Domingue –which had before the slave revolt been considered not merely France’s most important possession but the most valuable colony of any in the Western world– and General Jean-Jacques Dessalines became the head of a new government. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
November 18, Thursday: Haitian forces defeated the French at Vertieres and the French army, or what was left of it, withdrew from Saint-Domingue, the western third of the island of Hispaniola.48
48.They would maintain a presence on the eastern side of this island until 1809, but, basically, it was the loss of this influence on this sugar island that would end the dream of a French empire on the American mainland, and clear the ground for that bargain- basement sale of all their residual claims which is now known under the rubric, the “Louisiana Purchase.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1804
January 1, Sunday: In Vienna, the concerto for trumpet and orchestra by Johann Nepomuk Hummel was performed for the initial time, for Prince Esterházy.
Commander Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haiti to be an independent republic, the 2d independent nation of the New World. All slaves were freed and any whites who did not flee would be killed. Many of the surviving whites would wind up in Baltimore, Maryland. With the Consulate having abandoned its campaign to re-subdue Haiti, with the new nation having proclaimed its independence, the party of Thomas Jefferson would urge that we intercept and forbid all trade with “that unfortunate island.” The attitude of the Republicans in Congress could not be accounted for on the basis of Francophilia, as France was no longer on the scene — this was racism pure and simple. One American Congressman declared that he “would venture to pledge the treasury of the United States that the negro government should be destroyed.”
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: It is first of the week, first of the Mo, & first of the Year 1804 ———————————————————————————————————————————————— And I trust so far the Year has begun well, for it hath been to me a precious day. I dont know that ever my mind was more sincerely devoted I rose with it from my bed this Morning, & it hath continued with me through the day, Our Meetings to me were favored in an eminent degree, tho’ Silence was kept thro’ each of them, but I trust the Great Minister of the Sanctuary was near the Spirits of some, & Ministered of his Good Spirit to their Souls. My desires are to be preserved in thankfulness for all his Mercies Vouchsafed to me, who at time feels the most unworthy of all Mortals. May the Year continue in progressive improvement, as I trust it hath begun —— is on my part greatly to be craved, & even if I should not live to see the close of 1804 I pray it may not be as with those who are spending their time in unwarrantable persuits, laboring after that which perisheth with the using, to their souls wounding. My mind has been brought to reflect on the uncertainty of time & how short our stay here is even the longest Some are taken in Old Age others cut down in Youthful prime & summoned to the Silent Awful Grave whether prepared or unprepared. Death Makes no stay, but when the pale Messenger is sent to assail our dwelling, we must quit this earthly tabernacle to appear before the Awful Judge & Governor of the Universe to render our accounts of the Deeds done in the Body, there to receive a reward Accordingly. How Awful must this change be to them who have had their tallents committed for their improvement, & from neglect feel a conciousness, of not having done their part toward the improvement of them. Surely when on a languishing bed with no hope of being permitted to try again, their Anguish must be Great. Oh how it behoves us to be up & doing while time & opportunity is yet lengthened out. I desire to proffit by those relfections myself therefore I write them that I may remember them in times when life may be low. And to take a view on the other hand of those who have been faithful & run their course well, How comfotable do we find them in their closing days, looking back on the time past without remorse, & indued HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI [embued?] with streangth to say to those about them “follow me as I have Christ tho I have passed thro” [???]is disappointments & trials of various kinds, yet they were all permitted for my refinement to profit & bring me to the much desired haven of peace & rest. Here is encoragement to press forward in humility of heart, in those things allotted by the Master for our portion on earth, tho’ ever so counter to the will of the creature yet being consistent with the will of the Creator our reward is Sure49
October: Jean-Jacques Dessalines became King Jacques I of Haiti (this would prove to be only the 1st in an exceedingly extensive series of one-emperor regimes each terminating in violent death).
49. Stephen Wanton Gould Diary, 1803-1805: The Gould family papers are stored under control number 2033 at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library, Box 5 Folder 2 for October 17, 1803-May 4, 1804, Folder 3 for May 5, 1804-October 18, 1804, and Folder 4 for October 23, 1804-May 31, 1805. Series 7 Microfilm Reel #2, positive, is made up of Friend Stephen Wanton Gould’s Diaries #2-10, 1803-1812 (October 17, 1803-June 30, 1812) (Reel #11 is the negative copy of Reel #2) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1806
The embargo recommended by President Thomas Jefferson was instituted against the island of Haiti. Our President’s attitude, about people of color thus seizing their freedom, was “Never was so deep a tragedy presented to the feelings of man.” He sent muskets to his fellow white slavemasters. Our policy would be to destroy the new republic there through the severest possible economic pressure. Freedom was for white people. Freedom included the freedom to enslave.
February 20, Thursday: The federal Senate prohibited trade with Haiti. W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: One of the last acts of this period strikes again the key-note which sounded throughout the whole of it. On February 20, 1806, after considerable opposition, a bill to prohibit trade with San Domingo passed the Senate.50 In the House it was charged by one side that the measure was dictated by France, and by the other, that it originated in the fear of countenancing Negro insurrection. The bill, however, became a law, and by continuations remained on the statute-books until 1809. Even at that distance the nightmare of the Haytian insurrection continued to haunt the South, and a proposal to reopen trade with the island caused wild John Randolph to point out the “dreadful evil” of a “direct trade betwixt the town of Charleston and the ports of the island of St. Domingo.”51
50. ANNALS OF CONGRESS, pages 21, 52, 75, etc., to 138, 485-515, 1228. See House Bill No. 168. Cf. STATUTES AT LARGE, II. 421- 2. 51. A few months later, at the expiration of the period, trade was quietly reopened. ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 11th Congress, 1st Session, pages 443-6. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI October 17, Friday: The Emperor Napoléon’s troops caught up with the retreating Prussian forces at Halle, and engaged them. The Prussians fled. There were 5,800 fresh corpses.
King Jacques I of Haiti was killed while attempting to quell a revolt of mulattoes, and General Henri Christophe came to power as King Henry I. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1808
Because of the near impossibility of the manumission of slaves in North Carolina, the Quakers there began to implement a procedure by which ownership of slaves could be transferred to the North Carolina Yearly Meeting, which would agree to take such persons under its care. “Care,” in this instance, normally included assistance in resettlement to Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, or Haiti. “It is simply crazy that there should ever have come into being a world with such a sin in it, in which a man is set apart because of his color — the superficial fact about a human being. Who could want such a world? For an American fighting for his love of country, that the last hope of earth should from its beginning have swallowed slavery, is an irony so withering, a justice so intimate in its rebuke of pride, as to measure only with God.” — Stanley Cavell, MUST WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY? 1976, page 141
Though Friends in other states also resettled, the experience of North Carolina Friends was perhaps the most profound. From an early point, the yearly meeting had argued against enslavement. In a 1779 petition to the state assembly protesting legislation that curbed the rights of people of African descent, the yearly meeting declared not only that such acts violated the nation’s founding documents but called into question the assembly’s authority to govern. “Being fully persuaded that freedom is the natural right of all mankind,” the petition stated, “we fully believe [them] to be a contradiction of the Declaration and Bill of Rights on which depends your authority to make laws.” North Carolinians generally accused the Quakers of inciting ill feeling and action: in 1791 a grand jury declared that the “great peril and danger” of insurrection was a consequence of Quakers” who “corrupt” the enslaved, turn them against the enslavers, and protect fugitives. Once North Carolina Friends began to manumit those they enslaved, they encountered several significant impediments. First, until 1830 anyone freed could be seized legally and resold. Second, enslavers who manumitted people were required to post a high bond: in 1830 it stood at one thousand dollars, and only the wealthier enslavers could afford such action. As a consequence of these restrictions, William Gaston, a sympathetic Catholic European American judge, suggested that Friends begin to record ownership of the people they wanted to free in the name of the yearly meeting. Thus, enslaved people could be protected from kidnapping, and the need to post a bond was obviated. The idea of the meeting assuming ownership for this purpose was well received; even some non-Quakers asked Friends to act similarly on their behalf. In 1803 the yearly meeting appointed the former enslavers as guardians, while North Carolina Friends continued to petition the legislature to allow manumission. When granted, those people the yearly meeting held would legally be free. Even as it followed this course, North Carolina Yearly Meeting became convinced that manumitted people had to be moved from the HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI southern states. In 1808 it established a committee of seven to act as its agents in managing the care of the newly freed and an “African Fund” to help with resettlement costs. By 1814 North Carolina Yearly Meeting technically held 350 enslaved people, almost all of those whom its members then enslaved. To counter the Friends actions, the state’s courts offered a reward to anyone bringing in a “Quaker Free Negro,” the description for those who had been turned over to the yearly meeting. The meeting hired lawyers to defend those who had been seized. This “cat and mouse game” continued for years. In 1827 North Carolina’s Supreme Court declared the Friends tactic illegal on the grounds that because wages were being paid to people of African descent held by the meeting, they must have been freed; therefore Friends had acted illegally. In the meantime the yearly meeting committee had studied the laws of the new territories to find potential resettlement locations. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were deemed to be the most suitable. Meeting members devoted most of their time to writing letters, consulting with agents of the various meetings, negotiating with Friends who lived in potential destinations, and appearing in court. Even before the 1827 court ruling, the committee had removed some African Americans to the Midwest, but afterward the committee moved more speedily. By 1828, the Africa Fund contained $13,500. The yearly meeting sent 1,700 formerly enslaved people to various locations in the 1820s and early 1830s; by 1836, the meeting held only 18 people. Not all of the enslaved people held by North Carolina Yearly Meeting wished to emigrate. In 1826, when 600 were technically the meeting’s property, 99 wished to remain in North Carolina, 316 stated another state, and 101 said they were willing to go to the West. When some decided not to leave, at least some Friends stayed behind to protect them, as did about twenty families of Core Sound Meeting in 1825. Stephen Grellet, a French Quaker who traveled widely in North America as a missionary, wrote: I felt tenderly for the few members of our Society who continue in this corner. Some of them think it is their religious duty to remain, to protect many of the people of colour, who formerly belonged to those Friends who moved away; and who, unprotected by them, might be reduced again to slavery. The task of resettlement was a formidable one for North Carolina Quakers; European American Friend Nathan Mendenhall described it as “expensive, troublesome and hard.” Friends had to identify and enroll those who wished to move, raise money, make certain that each had the proper documents, find means of transport, outfit them with appropriate equipment, utensils, and clothing (often made by Quaker women) and ultimately move them. They also provided religious tracts, Bibles, and school books. In the move of 135 African Americans to the Midwest in 1835, Friends paid most of the costs for 13 wagons and carts and for warm clothing. That trip alone cost $2,490 (about $60,000 in 2007 dollars). By 1830 the yearly meeting had helped 652 African Americans resettle in the free states, and its expenses grew from between one and two thousand to $13,000. Friends from Rhode Island, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and London responded to requests for financial assistance, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting was especially supportive, sending some $7,500 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI in 1826 and 1827. The settlers received mixed receptions in their new Midwestern homes. In 1826 Friends in North Carolina learned that some Friends of European ancestry in Indiana “were resentful toward North Caroline Friends for sending so many blacks there.” European American William Parker, who had moved to Indiana from North Carolina, wrote in 1826 that African Americans “are not wanted here. Friends do not want them and they fear they will be brought into difficulties whereby the ... people do threaten to have it a slave state if blacks do continue to flood in.” Persons who had brought African Americans into the state, Parker held, should be willing to move them out. Parker stated that another Friend in the area declared that “he would give $20 to get them out of Wayne County.” The clerk of the meeting for sufferings in Indiana wondered privately if, “in view of the attitudes” of European Americans in Indiana, it might perhaps be better to start “a colony for blacks somewhere in the Southwest.” Yet European American Friend David White “mete with no opposition” when he arrived in Ohio and Indiana from the South with fifty-three African Americans in 1835. Farmers there, he found, were quite willing “to have the coloured people settle on their lands.” Drawn by the prospect of lands free of enslavement, southern Quakers themselves also moved to the Midwest. The trek for Virginians and North Carolinians usually ran over the Appalachians and could last seven weeks or more. If Friends were traveling with people of African descent they were compelled to take more difficult routes to avoid the slave state of Tennessee. A “fringe” of this westward migration spread into Upper Canada. Southerners arriving in the Midwest joined Friends who had already moved there from New England and Pennsylvania. By 1835 Quakers had moved in such numbers that more Friends lived west of the Alleghenies than east. The new settlers had created a yearly meeting in Ohio in 1813 and in Indiana by 1821. By 1843 Ohio Yearly Meeting had 18,000 members and Indiana, 30,000; the two made up 57 percent of all Quakers in the United States. By 1850 the Orthodox Indiana Yearly Meeting was the largest Quaker meeting in the world. African Americans relocated to the Midwest, probably aware of Friends’ efforts to resettle those they had enslaved, often chose to settle near Quaker communities in the belief that doing so would enhance their chances of comfortable existence on the frontier. Nearly all the early settlers of Calvin Township in Cass County in southwestern Michigan were Friends who had migrated from the South in the 1820s and 1830s, and their presence attracted African American settlement there. In the 1840s North Carolina Friends helped freed people settle near Newport, Now Fountain City, Indiana, home at that time to well-known abolitionist Friend Levi Coffin. As many as one hundred African American families lived just over the border in Ohio, not far from the Greenville Settlement and its integrated school in Indiana, the Union Literary Institute. Family groups, many of whom were racially mixed, settled by 1830 in Rush County, Indiana, near the Quaker villages of Carthage and Ripley, in what became known as the Beech settlement. By 1835 a group of these settlers moved again to the Roberts settlement in Jackson, Hamilton County, Indiana. Formerly enslaved people threatened with recapture also sought refuge with Friends in Salem, Iowa. A recent study of these African American communities found that the settlers were drawn by the HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI presence of Quakers because of Friends “well-deserved reputation among free blacks as a people who were far more empathetic and tolerant than most other whites.”52
November 7, Monday: The French forces in Spain, personally directed by the Emperor Napoléon, began a campaign to find and destroy all Spanish and British armies on the peninsula.
On the island of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, the criollos revolted against French rule.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 7th of 11 M 1808 / My H spent the Afternoon at Neighbor Vinsons, I took tea & spent the eveng also - The visit was as agreeable as could be expected. We discoursed on Some doctrinal Points on which we did not agree but in the love — I was suprised to find how ignorant they were of friends & their principals RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
52. Pages 114-118 in Donna McDaniel’s and Vanessa Julye’s FIT FOR FREEDOM, NOT FOR FRIENDSHIP: QUAKERS, AFRICAN AMERICANS, AND THE MYTH OF RACIAL JUSTICE (Philadelphia: Quaker Press of Friends General Conference, 2009). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1809
HAITI The French entirely abandoned their efforts on the island of Hispaniola and removed the last elements of their army.
HAITI July 7, Friday: British forces occupied Samaná and blockaded the port of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7 of 7 Mo // My mind is this morning much tender’d, it is which I love to feel & I hope to cherish more & more within my breast I think this evening that I may say it has been a favord day. Our Cousin Elinor Lawton has this day come to live with us to assist my H & get what education we may be capable of giving her -We have since we have had an offspring committed to our charge been helped out by our kind Sisters one or the other of which have been with us steadily ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 9, Sunday: On the island of Santo Domingo in the Caribbean, French forces saved themselves by surrendering to the English. The criollo struggle against French rule had succeeded in establishing a period of Spanish colonial rule.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 9 of 7 Mo // Our meeting this forenoon was Silent Uncle Wm Mitchell was there & Anne Merret his companion is expected this Afternoon being this forenoon at Portsmouth. — Anne Merrett [sic] according to expectations was at meeting in the Afternoon but sat in silence & if I was able to feel aright had a sorely exercising time & if I am not mistaken is not clear of Newport & probable to me her Service will lay among Members —After tea wrote to B Purinton which took me till past 9 OClock to which my H made an addition ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1811
Henri Christophe set up an independent kingdom in the north of Haiti and became King Henry I. During the period 1811-1820 he would cause to be constructed the fortress we know as “Citadelle Laferrière” in defense of his capital at Cap-Haïtien. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1813
In an early manifestation of Afrocentrism, Chancellor of the Kingdom Pompée Valentin, Baron de Vastey, one of King Henri Christophe’s principal advisers, has celebrated the completion of Haiti’s “Sans Souci” palace and the Royal Church adjacent to it in Milot during this year in the following words: “These two structures, erected by descendants of Africans, show that we have not lost the architectural taste and genius of our ancestors who covered Ethiopia, Egypt, Carthage, and old Spain with their superb monuments.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1816
February 7, Wednesday: George Gordon, Lord Byron’s “The Siege of Corinth” and “Parsinia” were published together.
The Congress of New Granada invested Simón Bolívar with political and military control of the invasion of Venezuela from Haiti.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 7 of 2 M / This forenoon the remains of Elisha Brown were carried to Tiverton to be buried, he died yesterday in a fit on Sherburns Wharf — A solemn warning to survivors - My mind has been this day in a serious mood I hop proffitably so. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1818
General Jean-Pierre Boyer took control over the southern part of Haiti.
March 29, Sunday: Alexandre Sabès “Papa Bon-Cœur” Pétion, President for Life of the Republic of Haiti, died of yellow fever and was succeeded by Jean-Pierre Boyer.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 29 of 3 M / Anne Greene was concern’d in testimony in our morning meeting - in the Afternoon Silent - rather low times to me - In the forepart of the evening went up to see my Aged cousin Bathsheba Gould. I had written a will for her which she executed & had a sweet visit found her very lively in spirit & tho’ she has attained the eightieth Year of her Age enjoys good health - She presented me with a truly Apostolick Epistle from Saml Fothergil to friends in Tortola transcribed in her own hand writing which I shall lay by as a memento of her Set the remainder evening with my H at my Mothers in company with Aunt Stanton — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1820
July 1, Saturday: The 1st toll was collected on the Erie Canal.
The 1st publication of the newspaper Courrier de la Meuse.
This day marked the final appearance of Muzio Clementi at a meeting of the London Philharmonic Society.
Publication of LAMIA, ISABELLA, THE EVE OF ST AGNES, AND OTHER POEMS by John Keats.
President of Haiti Jean-Pierre Boyer was advertising in American gazettes for free black immigrants with tools and skills. On this day he wrote accurately of the astonishing fertility of its soil that made this blest island the garden of the western archipelago (something of which we need to remind ourselves from time to time in the midst of the present’s eroded barrenness and general filthiness) and of a structure of law ensuring a free country to Africans and their descendants (that’s before the tender mercies of the US Marines and the Tonton Macoute, and indigenous eliminate-the-middleman oppressors such as Papa Doc and Baby Doc). There yet remain on the Peninsula of Samaná, enduring present conditions, some impoverished descendants of those 19th-Century immigrants who elected to linger. Niles Weekly Register, Volume 18, page 326: President Boyer is inviting the free blacks of the United States to emigrate to Hayti, in preference to Africa, promising them protection and assistance. An address to the Haytians on this subject says — “Our past sufferings — our unexampled efforts to regain our primitive rights — our solemn oath to live free and independent — the happy situation on our island, which may be justly called the queen of the Antilles — the astonishing fertility of its soil, which makes it the garden of the western archipelago — the progress of its inhabitants in civilization, and in some of the fine arts; our wise constitution which insures a free country to Africans and their descendants; all lead us to believe that the hand of Providence has destined Hayti for a land of promise, a sacred asylum, where our unfortunate brethren will, in the end, see their wounds healed by the balm of equality, and their tears wiped away by the protecting hand of liberty.” NILES WEEKLY REGISTER
FIGURING OUT WHAT AMOUNTS TO A “HISTORICAL CONTEXT” IS WHAT THE CRAFT OF HISTORICIZING AMOUNTS TO, AND THIS NECESSITATES DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN THE SET OF EVENTS THAT MUST HAVE TAKEN PLACE BEFORE EVENT E COULD BECOME POSSIBLE, AND MOST CAREFULLY DISTINGUISHING THEM FROM ANOTHER SET OF EVENTS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI THAT COULD NOT POSSIBLY OCCUR UNTIL SUBSEQUENT TO EVENT E.
October 8, Sunday: General Jean-Pierre Boyer, who in 1818 had taken control over the southern part of Haiti, was able to take over the whole of that black and creole nation when Henri Christophe, King Henry I, semi- paralyzed and losing control over the Creole forces, shot himself with a silver bullet in order to avoid an approaching army of Congos.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 8th of 10th M / Our meetings were both Silent & to me seasons of Some life. - with my H & John spent the evening at Wm Lee’s. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1821
HAITI Santo Domingo declared its freedom from Spain. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1822
February 9, Saturday: Panama was incorporated into New Granada as the Department of the Isthmus.
Invaders under General Jean Pierre Boyer arrived in Santo Domingo to overthrow the newly founded Republic and unite the island of Haiti.53
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 9 of 2 M 1822 / This Afternoon Nathaniel Watson of Salem Arrived from Providence where he had been attending the Quarterly Meeting - on a visit to [some?] frineds in this Town. he is an agreeable well engaged friend, & very intelligent in his manners. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 30, Thursday: Peter Prioleau, a mulatto house slave, betrayed the Denmark Vesey conspiracy, allegedly one of the most elaborate slave plots on record, involving thousands of blacks in Charleston, South Carolina and vicinity. The latest timetable for the action had June 17th as the day on which they were to embark on ships seized in the harbor and set sail toward the promise of freedom in the black republic of Haiti.54 During the ensuing two months, authorities would be arresting 131 persons of color, of whom 37 would hang and 32 be condemned to exile, plus 4 whites, who would be fined and imprisoned. On May 30th, 1822, a “faithful and confidential slave” disclosed to the Intendant of Charleston, S. C., that, on Sunday evening, June 16th, the slaves had determined to rise in rebellion against the whites, “set fire to the Governor’s house, seize the Guard-house and Arsenal, and sweep the town with fire and sword, not permitting a white soul to escape.” Of the supposed conspirators, one hundred and thirty-one were committed to prison, thirty-five executed, and thirty-seven banished. Of the six ringleaders, Ned Bennet, Peter Poyas, Rolla, Batteau, Jesse, and Denmark Vesey, all were slaves, except Vesey, who had been a slave thirty-eight years, a free man twenty-two years, having in 1800 purchased his freedom. SERVILE INSURRECTION
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 30th of 5 M / Our first meeting was Silent - In the last there was considerable buisness which went on pretty well, in good Harmony. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
53. According to AN OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE TRIALS OF SUNDRY NEGROES, CHARGED WITH AN ATTEMPT TO RAISE AN INSURRECTION IN THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA..., prepared in this year by Lionel H. Kennedy and Thomas Parker and printed in Charleston NC by James R. Schenck: confirming one of the worst fears of the white citizenry of Charlestown, a black captured at the collapse of the Denmark Vesey revolt had confessed before execution that Vesey had read to him newspaper reports relating to Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1823
December 2, Tuesday: Carlos Martinez de Irujo y Tacon, marques de Casa-Irujo, duque de Sotomayor replaced Victor Damian Saez y Sanchez-Mayor as 1st Secretary of State of Spain.
The doctrine expressed in President James Monroe’s 7th annual message to Congress closed “the American continents to colonial settlements by non-American Powers” and excluded “the European Powers from all
54. President of Haiti Jean-Pierre Boyer had advertised in American gazettes for free black immigrants with tools and skills. On July 1, 1820 Niles Weekly Register had noted accurately the astonishing fertility of its soil which made the island the garden of the western archipelago (something of which we need to remind ourselves from time to time in the midst of the present’s eroded barrenness and general filthiness) and of a structure of law ensuring a free country to Africans and their descendants (that’s before US Marines, the Tonton Macoute, and local dictators such as Papa Doc and Baby Doc). There yet remain on the Peninsula of Samaná, enduring these present conditions, some impoverished descendants of those 19th-Century immigrants who elected to linger. Volume 18, page 326: President Boyer is inviting the free blacks of the United States to emigrate to Hayti, in preference to Africa, promising them protection and assistance. An address to the Haytians on this subject says — “Our past sufferings — our unexampled efforts to regain our primitive rights — our solemn oath to live free and independent — the happy situation on our island, which may be justly called the queen of the Antilles — the astonishing fertility of its soil, which makes it the garden of the western archipelago — the progress of its inhabitants in civilization, and in some of the fine arts; our wise constitution which insures a free country to Africans and their descendants; all lead us to believe that the hand of Providence has destined Hayti for a land of promise, a sacred asylum, where our unfortunate brethren will, in the end, see their wounds healed by the balm of equality, and their tears wiped away by the protecting hand of liberty.” NILES WEEKLY REGISTER HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI interference in the political affairs of the American Republics”: K EEP O EEP UT K UT O ! !
[see following]
READ THE FULL TEXT
Our President, in his address to the US Congress declaring our first formal foreign policy, also specifically excluded the government of the island of Haiti from protection under his Monroe Doctrine on the interesting traditional basis of its being “a Government of people of color.” Since black people could not trust white people, his reasoning went, and since the governments of the community of nations were made up of white people, the government of Haiti would inevitably exhibit “a separate interest and a distrust of other nations” — and could not therefore itself be trusted.
In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
Yet more from James Monroe’s 7th Annual Message to Congress:
The late events in Spain and Portugal shew that Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no stronger proof can be adduced than that the allied powers should have thought it proper, on any principle satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force in the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent such interposition may be carried, on the same principle, is a question in which all independent powers whose governments differ from theirs are interested, even those most remote, and surely none of them more so than the United States. Our policy in regard to Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the globe, nevertheless remains the same, which is, not to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers; to consider the government de facto as the legitimate government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with it, and to preserve those relations by a frank, firm, and manly policy, meeting in all instances the just claims of every power, submitting to injuries from none. But in regard to those continents circumstances are eminently and conspicuously different. It is impossible that the allied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endangering our peace and happiness; nor can anyone believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition in any form with indifference. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new Governments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in hope that other powers will pursue the same course.... HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
From James Monroe’s 7th Annual Message to Congress:
... At the proposal of the Russian Imperial Government, made through the minister of the Emperor residing here, a full power and instructions have been transmitted to the minister of the United States at St. Petersburg to arrange by amicable negotiation the respective rights and interests of the two nations on the northwest coast of this continent. A similar proposal has been made by His Imperial Majesty to the Government of Great Britain, which has likewise been acceded to. The Government of the United States has been desirous by this friendly proceeding of manifesting the great value which they have invariably attached to the friendship of the Emperor and their solicitude to cultivate the best understanding with his Government. In the discussions to which this interest has given rise and in the arrangements by which they may terminate the occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.... It was stated at the commencement of the last session that a great effort was then making in Spain and Portugal to improve the condition of the people of those countries, and that it appeared to be conducted with extraordinary moderation. It need scarcely be remarked that the results have been so far very different from what was then anticipated. Of events in that quarter of the globe, with which we have so much intercourse and from which we derive our origin, we have always been anxious and interested spectators. The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the liberty and happiness of their fellow-men on that side of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defense. With the movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more immediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political system of the allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective Governments; and to the defense of our own, which has been achieved by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintain it, and whose independence we have, on great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. In the war between those new Governments and Spain we declared our neutrality at the time of their recognition, and to this we have adhered, and shall continue to adhere, provided no change shall occur which, in the judgement of the competent authorities of this Government, shall make a corresponding change on the part of the United States indispensable to their security. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI 4th day 2 of 12 M 1823 / In Silent waiting this morning, some touches of life were experienced - & sympathy arose with Friends in a trial which I am informed awaits them at their Quarterly Meeting held there tomorrow RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1825
Colonel Francis Hall, Hydrographer in the service of Colombia’s COLOMBIA, ITS PRESENT STATE, IN RESPECT OF CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, POPULATION, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE, REVENUE, MANUFACTURES, ARTS, LITERATURE, MANNERS, EDUCATION, AND INDUCEMENTS TO EMIGRATION. WITH ITINERARIES, PARTLY FROM SPANISH SURVEYS, PARTLY FROM ACTUAL OBSERVATION (Philadelphia: A. Small, E. Parker, E. Littell, and Marot & Walter. William Brown, Printer). COLOMBIA
Haitian independence was recognized by France. But the arrangement was that Haiti was, in return, going to need to pay nearly 100,000,000 French francs per year until the year 1887. (Well, get a clue! —How many such payments do you suppose arrived in Paris?) In Panama, on account of the intransigence of the United States of America, the 1st Pan-American Congress was forced to exclude Haiti. Senator Thomas Hart Benson of Missouri made a case that to give any recognition or legitimacy to Haiti would be like telling the black slaves of America that it would be all right for them to revolt if they felt that they could win. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI We “should not permit black Ambassadors and consuls to … give their fellow-blacks in the United States proof in hand of the honors that await them for a like successful effort on their part.” Senator Benton commented about the unacceptability of this 2d American revolution, the one which had taken place a generation earlier in Haiti and which had gained emancipation for its people: “We purchase coffee from her, and pay her for it; but we interchange no consuls or ministers.... And why? Because the peace of eleven states will not permit the fruits of a successful negro insurrection to be exhibited among them.... It will not permit to be seen, and told, that for the murder of their masters and mistresses, they are to find friends among the white people of these United States.”55 Haiti would not achieve recognition until 1862, when the votes of the Southern states no longer counted and that black nation could be recognized by the government in Washington DC.
“The San Domingan revolution is a minor episode at best, now, in the cavalcade of American history. It has been confined to insignificance, because it does not serve that saga well.” — Michael Zuckerman, ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE: OBLIQUE BIOGRAPHIES IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN, 1993, page 176
55. It is by the light and heat of remarks such as these, that we can grasp how utterly provocative Waldo Emerson’s suggestion to Frederick Douglass was, on August 1, 1844 in Concord, that he should fashion himself into a Toussaint Louverture for the entire North American continent. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1829
April: William Lloyd Garrison accepted the post of associate editor on Friend Benjamin Lundy’s paper, the
Genius of Universal Emancipation. Friend Benjamin’s belief in forming colonies in thinly populated regions abroad for freed slaves would, however, lead the two editors in differing directions. Friend Benjamin would be spending much time visiting Haiti and Canada, and between 1830 and 1835 would travel to Texas three times in the hope of obtaining land there for such a colony. He would consider Texas to be ideal because of the positive response from the Mexican government, which had over the years developed some markedly negative ideas about human enslavement. (The Texian Revolution and the US government’s attack on the nation of Mexico eventually would intervene, and the new Republic of Texas –since it considered itself to be all about freedom and since what freedom is all about is the ability to molest and mess with other people– would of course immediately legalize human enslavement.) WAR ON MEXICO HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI October 15, Thursday: Asaph Hall, who would discover the moons of Mars (Phobos and Deimos), was born.
In about this timeframe, Fanny Wright and William S. Phiquepal were setting out from New-York on a combination lecture tour and mission to free the slaves of Nashoba (when they attained New Orleans they would debark with these blacks, toward freedom in Haiti).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 15 of 10 M / Tho’ quite unwell I attended Meeting in Town which was silent & an uncommonly solid favourd time to me. — I was thankful for this renew’d extension of Divine regard & hope it may be continued. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1830
January 6, Wednesday: Fanny Wright and William S. Phiquepal boarded the brig they had chartered, the John Quincy Adams anchored off New Orleans, to convey their Nashoba slaves to Haiti and there set them free.
General Manuel de Mier y Teran reported on a plan to defend Mexico against encroachment by the USA.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 6th of 1st M / Our dear friend Mary B Allen was at Meeting with us & bore a living & faithful testimony much to our comfort & Strength Lydia Breed also bore a short but good and appropriate testimony. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 19, Tuesday: Robert Hayne’s first speech in “Hayne-Webster Debate” in the Senate supported complaints that “The East” was keeping public land prices high to restrain the west’s growth. He then shifted to southern complaints, claiming “[we stand] towards the U.S. in the relation of Ireland to England.”
The John Quincy Adams departed from New Orleans, taking the Nashoba slaves with Fanny Wright and William S. Phiquepal to Haiti.
April 23, Friday: A convict ship, the Manlius, set sail from England for Van Diemen’s Land, Australia. Of the 200 convicts undergoing transportation, 26 had received life sentences and the average sentence was 8 years.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 23 of 4 M / Our frined Moses Brown had a severe ill turn yesterday & last night - I visited him today & found him comfortable and pleasant. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
The ship from Haiti, bearing Fanny Wright, docked in Philadelphia. There had been an unfortunate dalliance, and she arrived pregnant. She would go on to New-York in an attempt to assist her troubled sister Camilla, whose life had been wracked by tragedy and illness and who was “visibly sinking.” The only person with whom she was hanging out was Robert Dale Owen, and the two were very possibly in love but he was attempting to cope with “the impossibility of their situation by burying his emotions in work.” He was commuting every day 5 miles on horseback from their rural home in the upper reaches of Manhattan Island to “the city” (south of Houston Street), and working there 12 hours a day.
Harriet Arbuthnot was the wife of a Tory MP and a great friend to Wellington. She secretly became his “social secretary” at No. 10 Downing Street. According to THE JOURNAL OF MRS. ARBUTHNOT 1820-1832, as edited by Francis Bamford and the duke of Wellington (Macmillan, 1950), The King goes on much the same. The Doctors say he is a little better, but I think Halford is persuaded he will die. He gets black in the face & his pulse alters when he has these attacks on his breath, which they think shows something wrong about the heart. They took him out airing ten days ago &, when he got to the Lodge, he was so bad they were frightened to death & thought he would die. They gave him quantities of brandy, & he rallied so completely that he got into his carriage & drove 20 miles. His mode of living is really beyond belief. One day last week, at the hour of the servants’ dinner, he called the Page & said, “Now you are going to dinner. Go down stairs & cut me off just such a piece of beef as you would like to have yourself, cut from the part you like best yourself, & bring it me up.” The page accordingly went and fetched him an enormous quantity of roast beef, all of which he eat, & then slept for 5 hours. One night he drank two glasses of hot ale & toast, three glasses of HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI claret, some strawberries!! and a glass of brandy. Last night they gave him some physic and, after it, he drank three glasses of port wine & a glass of brandy. No wonder he is likely to die! But they say he will have all these things & nobody can prevent him. I dare say the wine will not hurt him, for with the Evil (which all the Royal Family have) it is necessary, I believe, to have a great deal of high food, but the mixture of ale & strawberries is enough to kill a horse.... HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1831
August: The family of a teacher named Johann Adam Tracht had come from Darmstadt, Germany, the vicinity of the ruin of the Frankenstein castle, to the United States, and here the family had promoted itself into the subnobility by adopting the surname Frankenstein. In this month’s issue of HARPER’S MONTHLY MAGAZINE two of the sons of Johann Adam Frankenstein, George and Godfrey, got their 15 minutes of fame because they had painted a thousand-foot-by-eight-foot panorama of Niagara Falls which they were unrolling on stage to the accompaniment of music and commentary. This has been called the first motion picture! Did this make them role models for Hollywood’s the “Mad Scientist”? —Well, no, not really.
On August 10/11, in the vicinity of Barbados, occurred one of the more violent Caribbean hurricanes of Thoreau’s lifespan (refer to following screen). Some 1,500-2,500 people were killed. Also damaged were the islands of St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Puerto Rico. The town of Auz Cayes on the island of Haiti was nearly destroyed, as was the town of St. Jago de Cuba, and the city of Havana. The island of Martinique more or less escaped most of this fury. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI WEATHERTHE 40 DEADLIEST ATLANTIC HURRICANES OF ALL TIMEHURRICANES WEATHER HURRICANES
November 1590 Gulf of Mexico 1,000 dead (34th deadliest)
1601 Veracruz, Mexico 1,000 dead (38th deadliest)
1605 Offshore Nicaragua 1,300 dead (30th deadliest)
September 1622 Florida Straits 1,090 dead (33rd deadliest)
October 1644 Cuba, Florida Straits 1,500 dead (28th deadliest)
August 1666 Guadeloupe, Martinique 2,000 dead (25th deadliest)
September 1694 Offshore Barbados 1,000 dead (35th deadliest)
July 1715 Florida Straits, Bahamas 1,000 dead (36th deadliest)
August 1767 Martinique 600 dead (26th deadliest)
October 1768 Cuba 1,000 dead (37th deadliest)
September 1775 Newfoundland Banks 4,000 dead (8th deadliest)
September 1776 Guadeloupe 6,000 dead (7th deadliest)
October 1780 Barbados, St. Eustatius, Martinique 20,000-22,000 dead (deadliest)
October 1780 Eastern Gulf of Mexico 2,000 dead (22nd deadliest)
October 1780 Jamaica, Cuba 1,115 dead (32nd deadliest)
1781 Offshore Florida 2,000 dead (20th deadliest)
September 1782 Central Atlantic offshore 3,000 dead (12th deadliest)
June 1791 Cuba 3,000 dead (15th deadliest)
August 1813 Martinique 3,000 dead (13th deadliest)
July 1825 Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico 1,300 dead (29th deadliest)
August 1831 Barbados 1,500 dead, 2,500 missing (16th deadliest)
October 1870 Cuba 1,000-2,000 dead (23rd deadliest)
August 1893 South Carolina, Georgia 2,000-2,500 dead (21st deadliest)
October 1893 Louisiana 1,800 dead, 2,000 missing (24th deadliest)
August 1899 Puerto Rico, Carolinas 3,063 dead, 3,433 missing (9th deadliest)
September 1900 Galveston 8,000-12,000 dead (3rd deadliest)
August 1909 Mexico 1,000 dead, 1,500 missing (27th deadliest)
September 1928 Martinique, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, Florida 3,375 dead, 4,075 missing (10th deadliest)
September 1930 Dominican Republic 2,000-8,000 dead (5th deadliest)
September 1931 Belize 1,500 dead, 2,500 missing (17th deadliest)
November 1932 Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cuba 2,500 dead, 3,107 missing (11th deadliest) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
June 1934 El Salvador, Honduras 2,000-3,006 dead (14th deadliest)
October 1935 Haiti, Jamaica, Honduras 1,000-2,168 dead (18th deadliest)
October 1954 Hazel, Grenada, Haiti, USA, Canada 1,000 dead (39th deadliest)
October 1963 Flora, Haiti, Cuba 8,000 dead (6th deadliest)
September/ Inez, Caribbean, Mexico 1,000 dead (40th deadliest) October 1966
September 1974 Fifi, Honduras 8,000-10,000 dead (4th deadliest)
September 1979 David, Dominica, Dominican Republic, United States 2,063 dead, 2,068 missing (19th deadliest)
November 1994 Gordon, Costa Rica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Florida 1,145 dead (31st deadliest)
October 1998 Mitch, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize 9,086 dead, 9190 missing (2nd deadliest) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1833
Britain recognized Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1835
Concluding that emigration to Haiti indeed did offer the best alternative for his immediate family and for free mulattoes generally, the white Florida planter Zephaniah Kingsley carried out a colonization plan for his black and mixed-race family, by sending a son and other freed blacks ahead of him, to start a settlement on that Caribbean island. He would join them, bringing his black wife Anna Kingsley and other dependents, a year later. Eventually at least 53 of his former slaves would follow. A nine-year period of indentured servitude would end with manumission for these people, but other of Kingsley’s black slaves would remain on his Florida plantations — laboring in the sun to support this lovely little experiment in racial harmony.
By this year three out of every five slaves on the island of St. Helena had been purchased by the East India Company, and granted manumission papers. During this year an additional fifth would be put through the process. By the completion of this buy-out program during the following year the government would have processed a total of 614 individuals for a grand sum total expenditure of £28,062. 17s. Od. ABOLITIONISM HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1839
John Adolphus Etzler evidently spent this year in the West Indies — for instance Haiti. He may well have been drafting his volume which would see publication in 1841, THE NEW WORLD OR MECHANICAL SYSTEM. He may have been checking out various locales for a projected tropical paradise. FUTURE-WORSHIP
Baron Joseph-Marie de Gérando’s DE LA BIENFAISANCE PUBLIQUE (4 volumes, Paris).
Eugène Michel Chevreul, after 15 years of experimenting with the phenomenological aspects of the perception of colors for the weavers at the Gobelin tapestry factory in Paris, issued a book titled THE PRINCIPLES OF HARMONY AND CONTRAST OF COLORS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO THE ARTS.
In France, Louis Blanc (1811-1882) published L’ORGINISATION DU TR AVAIL . HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1842
An earthquake in Haiti precipitated the ruin of the palace of “Sans Souci,” its “Citadel Henry,” and the town of Milot surrounding it, which had been founded with great labor and loss of human blood during the regime of Henri Christophe, King Henry I, as a demonstration to the blan of the ability of the black race. (Unfortunately the chief distinction of these massive stoneworks seems to have been the large number of workers who were executed during their construction in order to encourage the others.)
In Boston, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair put out for sale a printing entitled THE LIBERTY BELL, as a fund-raising effort of the “Friends of Freedom”:
• Pierpont, John. “The Liberty Bell” • Follen, Eliza Lee. “Women’s Work” Prepared in the wake of the controversial debates of 1839-40 regarding the role of women in anti-slavery societies, debates which led to the break-up of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, this volume contains many works, like Eliza Follen’s “Women’s Work,” in which women’s rights to full political participation are defended. • Cabot, Susan C. “A Fact and a Reflection” • Bowring, John. “Union of the Old and the New World” • Adam, William. “Virginia” • Harriet Martineau. “A Child’s Thought” • Burleigh, George S. “The Dying Slave Mother” • Lowell, James Russell. “Sonnets [Great Truths are portions of the Soul of man]” • Jackson, Edmund. “The Effects of Slavery” • Chapman, Maria Weston. “Boston” • Phillips, Wendell. “Divisions” • Webb, Richard D. “Memories of the Past” • Haughton, James. “A Voice from Erin” • Garrison, William Lloyd. “Song of the Abolitionist” • Anonymous. “Sketch of ‘A Foreign Incendiary’” • Garrison, William Lloyd. “Sonnet, to Elizabeth Pease, of Darlington, England” • Quincy, Edmund. “American Chivalry” • Garrison, William Lloyd. “Sonnet to Liberty” • Rogers, Nathaniel P. “British Abolitionism” • Story, William W. “Sonnet [Freedom is wealth, health, strength--the serene throne]” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI • ---. “Sonnet [Put back the swelling ocean with thy hand!]” • Garrison, William Lloyd. “Sonnet [England! I grant that thou dost justly boast]” • Lydia Maria Child. “The Quadroons” • Adams, John Quincy. “Gelon King of Syracuse, A Sonnet” • Weston, Anne Warren. “A Lesson From History” • May, Samuel J. “The Place to Speak” • Collins, John A. “The Middle Course” • Anonymous. “Woman and Her Pastor” • Chapman, Maria Weston. “Haiti” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1843
Lydia Maria Child’s LETTERS FROM NEW YORK, popular collections of her regular columns in the National Anti-Slavery Standard. LETTERS FROM NEW YORK
The laws of the state of New York had been protecting her from having her property attached on account of her husband’s debts, but at this point family obligations overwhelmed, and the couple elected to return to Massachusetts to reside with Maria’s aging father in his Wayland home. This would be, despite occasional periods elsewhere, Maria’s home for the remainder of her life.
In Boston, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair put out for sale a printing entitled THE LIBERTY BELL, as a fund-raising effort of the “Friends of Freedom,” and both Maria and her husband David contributed:
• Weston, Anne Warren. “The Faithful Dead” • Bowring, John. “The Liberty Bell” • Bowditch, Henry Ingersoll. “Slavery and the Church” • James Russell Lowell. “Elegy on the Death of Dr. Channing” • Webb, Richard D. “A Word from Ireland” • Burleigh, George S. “Sonnets: World-Harmonies” • Martineau, Harriet. “Persevere” • Follen, Eliza Lee. “To the Martyrs for Freedom” • Morpeth, Viscount. “Letter” • Chapman, Maria Weston. “Impromptu: To Viscount Morpeth” • Phillips, Wendell. “A Fragment” • Milnes, Richard Monckton. “To Harriet Martineau: Christian Endurance” • Channing, William Henry. “A Day in Kentucky” • Story, William W. “Sonnet [Be of good cheer, ye firm and dauntless few]” • ---. “Sonnet [Slavery is wrong, most deeply, foully wrong]” • ---. “Sonnet [Freedom! August and spirit-cheering name!]” • Quincy, Edmund. “Two Nights in St. Domingo: ‘An Ower True Tale’” HAITI This lurid tale, set in Haiti, justifies slave revolt. • Pierpont, John. “The Chase” • Parker, Theodore. “Socrates in Boston: A Dialogue Between the Philosopher and a Yankee” • David Lee Child. “Thoughts of a Stone-splitter, on Finding the Figure of a Bell, Beautifully and Wonderfully Marked by Shining Hornblend, in the Heart of an Immense Granite Rock” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI • Lydia Maria Child. “Slavery’s Pleasant Homes: A Faithful Sketch” • Garrison, William Lloyd. “Sonnet: On the Death of James Cropper, the Distinguished Philanthropist of England” • Hopper, Isaac T. “Story of a Fugitive” • Collins, John A. “Irish Philanthropists” • Samuel Gridley Howe. “Scene in a Slave Prison” • Parkman, John. “Slavery and the Pulpit” • Allen, Richard. “A Sketch” • Sewall, Samuel E. “Harrington’s Decision”
I have passed ten days in New Orleans, not unprofitably, I trust, in examining the public institutions, — the schools, asylums, hospitals, prisons, &c. With the exception of the first, there is little hope of amelioration. I know not how much merit there may be in their system; but I do know that, in the administration of the penal code, there are abominations which should bring down the fate of Sodom [Genesis 19:24-25] upon the city. If Howard or Mrs. Fry ever discovered so ill-administered a den of thieves as the New Orleans prison, they never described it. In the negro’s apartment I saw much which made me blush that I was a white man, and which, for a moment, stirred up an evil spirit in my animal nature. Entering a large paved court-yard, around which ran galleries filled with slaves of all ages, sexes and colors, I heard the snap of a whip, every stroke of which sounded like the sharp crack of a pistol. I turned my head, and beheld a sight which absolutely chilled me to the marrow of my bones, and gave me, for the first time in my life, the sensation of my hair stiffening at the roots. There lay a black girl flat upon her face, on a board, her two thumbs tied, and fastened to one end, her feet tied, and drawn tightly to the other end, while a strap passed over the small of her back, and, fastened around the board, compressed her closely to it. Below the strap she was entirely naked. By her side, and six feet off, stood a huge negro, with a long whip, which he applied with dreadful power and wonderful precision. Every stroke brought away a strip of skin, which clung to the lash, or fell quivering on the pavement, while the blood followed after it. The poor creature writhed and shrieked, and, in a voice which showed alike her fear of death and her dreadful agony, screamed to her master, who stood at her head, “O, spare my life! don’t cut my soul out!” But still fell the horrid lash; still strip after strip peeled off from the skin; gash after gash was cut HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI in her living flesh, until it became a livid and bloody mass of raw and quivering muscle. It was with the greatest difficulty I refrained from springing upon the torturer, and arresting his lash; but, alas! what could I do, but turn aside to hide my tears for the sufferer, and my blushes for humanity! This was in a public and regularly-organized prison; the punishment was one recognized and authorized by the law. But think you the poor wretch had committed a heinous offence, and had been convicted thereof, and sentenced to the lash? Not at all. She was brought by her master to be whipped by the common executioner, without trial, judge or jury, just at his beck or nod, for some real or supposed offence, or to gratify his own whim or malice. And he may bring her day after day, without cause assigned, and inflict any number of lashes he pleases, short of twenty-five, provided only he pays the fee. Or, if he choose, he may have a private whipping-board on-his own premises, and brutalize himself there. A shocking part of this horrid punishment was its publicity, as I have said; it was in a court-yard surrounded by galleries, which were filled with colored persons of all sexes — runaway slaves, committed for some crime, or slaves up for sale. You would naturally suppose they crowded forward, and gazed, horror- stricken, at the brutal spectacle below; but they did not; many of them hardly noticed it, and many were entirely indifferent to it. They went on in their childish pursuits, and some were laughing outright in the distant parts of the galleries; so low can man, in God’s image, be sunk to brutality.
Haiti was experiencing a brief encounter with liberal democratic ideals, sponsored by bourgeois liberals in alliance with rural smallholders, which would be undone by state repression of dissidents. After several decades of civil war and state consolidation a liberal reform movement overwhelmed the autocratic regime of President Jean-Pierre Boyer, who had even for a period seized control over Santo Domingo (the Spanish eastern 2-3ds of that Caribbean island, presently known as the Dominican Republic). When Boyer sent troops to eliminate these protests, his rank-and-file soldiers deserted en masse to the opposition, which had coalesced around the liberal mulatto leader Hérard. Boyer eventually abdicated, fleeing to Jamaica. Haiti’s subsequent constitution was, in this year, the apex of liberal opportunity. Boyer’s ouster was followed by a revolution within the revolution, when a locally influential black landholding family mobilized the smaller landholders and coffee growers of the Aux Cayes region to challenge the racial inequality of the liberal elite. This was followed by a peasant revolt known as the Picquet movement, whose participants, the self-proclaimed “army of sufferers,” demanded economic and land reform and the protection of their Haitian constitutional rights. The insurgents’ motto was “The rich Negro who can read and write is mulatto; the poor mulatto who cannot read nor write is Negro.” Tensions between the fragile civil authority of the new legislature and the new President Hérard, who was backed by the military, would shatter this alliance between the liberal bourgeoisie and the peasants. When the peasants of southern Haiti, eager to make good their radical visions of democracy, would rebel (the Picquet movement), the result would be a reactionary crackdown by the traditional power holders, aided by the military. The nascent radical democratic polity would be crushed and a military autocracy established. There would be a new constitution in 1846 which would rescind the more liberal provisions of 1843. In 1847, the black Emperor Faustin Soulouque would bring the triumph of statist aristocracy over the potentially democratic alliance of radical segments of the bourgeoisie with peasants and cultivators. Between this year and 1915, when the US Marines would land, there would be 20 rulers over this land, of whom 16 would be overthrown by revolution or assassinated. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI November 5, Sunday: Becoming ill at dinner, Joseph Smith, Jr. accused his pregnant wife of many years Emma Hale Smith of slipping poison into his coffee (in the prayer circle, Brigham Young interpreted Emma’s silence as proof of her guilt; however, Joseph would so quickly recover that this had more probably been an attack of ulcers).
There was an insurrection on the island of Haiti. Blacks and mulattos killed 6 white men, women, and children in an effort to drive whites off the island.
When was it that Henry Thoreau commented that Mrs. Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley had “spent one whole season studying the lichens on a stick of wood they were about to put on the fire”? [JOURNAL 5:38] We should compare and contrast this with Waldo Emerson’s mean-spirited remark in a letter to Elizabeth Sherman Hoar in Liverpool on August 3,1859 while she was on the European grand tour, that “Henry T. occupies himself with the history of the river, measures it, weighs it, and strains it through a colander to all eternity.” It would have to be before November 5, 1843, because on that date Mrs. Ripley mentioned this stick in a letter to the Reverend George F. Simmons:
You recollect that stick with the Graphia Hebraica so beautifully sketched upon it, that I laboured with my hand and you with my penknife to procure, alas, some vandal has given it to the flames. I have not met with another specimen before or since.
The primary intent of Emerson’s remark to Miss Hoar touring in Europe, I would suggest, was to remind her that for a personage of the stature of Emerson to “occupy himself” with such activities and concerns would be infra dig, and that therefore there was a class difference which needed to be pointed to, with he and the touring Miss Hoar on the near side of this class divide, as gentle folk, and with our good “Henry T.,” despite an education having been attempted upon him, decidedly beyond the pale as a mere crafts person without any really good money-earning craft. I find such a remark not humorous, nor in good humour, but quite offensively condescending and demeaning. Is this just me? I wonder what Elizabeth, knowing Henry as well as she knew Waldo, thought of this letter when she opened it in Europe. Presumably “Boys need to go after each other.” So the question I am raising here is, might Thoreau’s remark about Mrs. Ripley’s preoccupation with the Graphia Hebraica on the stick of firewood be likewise interpretable as not humorous, nor in good humour, but quite offensively condescending and demeaning? (Do I have a blind spot of affection for Thoreau which I quite lack for Emerson? –Well, probably I do.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI After having thought about this for some time, I am unable to construe Thoreau’s remark about spending one whole season studying the stick of firewood as condescending or demeaning. The one invidious thing that Thoreau might have been suggestion would have been “Look, it’s just a woman, what can you expect from a botanist that’s just a woman?” And I haven’t been able to grok sexism in the relationship between Thoreau and Mrs. Ripley.
There had been early snows, and all the recruits had deserted Fruitlands and its thin linen clothing and its vegetarian diet, leaving the Alcott family and the Charles Lanes to endure the harsh winter alone. It was shaping up to be the coldest winter of the decade. Between this day and Thursday the 8th, Waldo Emerson rather unsympathetically wrote in his journal:
The Reformers wrote very ill. They made it a rule not to bolt their flour & unfortunately neglected also to sift their thoughts.... Alcott & Lane want feet; they are always feeling of their shoulders to find if their wings are sprouting; but next best to wings are cowhide boots, which society is always advising them to put on. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1844
At this time a popular uprising was expelling all Haitians from Santo Domingo, the Spanish-speaking two- thirds of that Caribbean island, the eastern portion that having gained its independence of Haiti is known as the Dominican Republic. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI August 1, Thursday: At the Festival de l’Industrie in Paris, Hector Berlioz led 1,000 performers in the premiere of his Hymne à la France for chorus and orchestra to words of Barbier. By intermission, the conductor had developed cold sweats. He was induced to change clothes, and drink some punch. He was then attended by a former teacher, Dr. Amussat, who diagnosed typhoid fever, bled the composer, and prescribed a vacation.
Frederick Douglass, whose location and activities have been a mystery to us during the last half of June and all of the month of July, resurfaced in order to return to Concord and speak during the annual fair of the Anti-
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Slavery Society of Middlesex County celebrating the 1st of August liberation of the slaves of the British West Indies, with Waldo Emerson, William A. White,56 the Reverend Samuel Joseph May, Moses Grandy, and Headmaster Cyrus Pierce of the normal school in Lexington.57
Emerson had agreed to deliver an address on the “Emancipation in the ... Indies....” Henry Thoreau would soon persuade James Munroe & Company of Boston to issue Emerson’s address in the form of a pamphlet, and see it through the press of Thurston, Torry, and Company at 31 Devonshire Street in Boston. EMANCIPATION DAY THE LIST OF LECTURES
56. This White was the white abolitionist who had in the previous year been traveling with Frederick Douglass as he lectured in Indiana. Would he be related to the Massachusetts abolitionist who is credited with being one of the 4 known presently known and recognized local conductors in the Underground Railroad, William S. White? UNDERGROUND RAILROAD 57. The John W. Blassingame volume I of THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPERS does not mention the presence of Thoreau — but then I notice even Sojourner Truth is not significant enough to have received a mention anywhere in the index to this volume). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
This abolitionist group had been refused permission to hold their meeting in any of the local churches, but Nathaniel Hawthorne had invited them to use the grounds of the Old Manse. However, it was rainy, so at the last minute Thoreau got permission to use the auditorium of in Concord’s courthouse. The audience at the lecture was small, and consisted mostly of visitors from outside Concord, and evidently those attending found the topic a difficult one for the Concord resident Frederic May Holland, in the first full-length biography of 58 this American figure Frederick Douglass, has stated that when these attendees had assembled afterward for a collation,59
they said to each other, “Can you eat? I cannot.” Douglass was among the listeners that morning, and also among the speakers in the afternoon.
We may note that the mulatto speaker was present on this occasion only because he had been scheduled to take part in a mass rally in Hingham MA, with the Reverends John Pierpont and James Freeman Clarke, and that rally had been postponed for one day on account of the rain. After Thoreau’s death Emerson would make a minute in his journal which would deal with the events of this day:
I have never recorded a fact which perhaps ought to have gone into my sketch of “Thoreau,” that, on the 1 August, 1844, when I read my Discourse on Emancipation, in the Town Hall, in Concord, and the selectmen would not direct the sexton to ring the meeting-house bell, Henry went himself, & rung the bell at the appointed hour.
It was the bell in the Unitarian church of Concord which Thoreau had rung. Evidently he was intercepted by the church authorities, for Holland stated that Thoreau had gotten off only “two or three unauthorized strokes” of the bell. In reading up on the subject of the emancipation, which had happened on this date ten years before, in 1834, Emerson had made “the most painful comparisons” with the present situation for the free blacks of New England. He had noted, for instance, that if any free black man of New England should take service aboard a ship, and should enter the harbor of Charleston, or Savannah, Georgia, or New Orleans, he would be imprisoned ashore for “so long as the vessel remained in port, with the stringent addition, that if the shipmaster fails to pay the costs of this official arrest and the board in jail, these citizens are to be sold for slaves, to pay that expense.”
58. Frederic May Holland. FREDERICK DOUGLASS: THE COLORED ORATOR, original edition 1891, revised edition prepared by the author in 1895 and reprinted by Haskell House Publishers of New York in 1969. In typical Concordian style, to the point that the author appears unwilling to use Thoreau’s full name, the politics of this treatment is to minimize Thoreauvian attitudes. We are dealing here with a town that even today spreads invidious stories among its high school students, which have been passed on by several of them directly to me, that Thoreau was a local sneak thief, taking pies off of windowsills. If hypocrisy were gold, Fort Knox would be on Concord common. 59. The mulatto speaker Frederick Douglass would of course not have been able to be present while these white people of his audience were thus eating and drinking. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI On this day (or perhaps at the meeting at the Unitarian church on June 12th , or perhaps on both occasions) Emerson found that he was so impressed by the mulatto visitor whom he identified as “Douglas” with one “s,” that he wondered whether perhaps he should attribute this person’s obvious excellence to purity of his bloodlines (pure although purely Negroid, which would lead his analysis of his admiration in the direction of the Jungian trope “the genius of this race, to be honored for itself”) or whether perhaps he should consider this person’s obvious excellence to be the result of an admixture of improving European blood (which would apparently have led his analysis of his admiration in the direction of a quite different set of tropes, presumably that white bloodlines are superior to black bloodlines and that this speaker was superior to other blacks evidently due to having a greater share of this superior white ancestry). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
When at last in a race a new principle appears, an idea, that conserves it. Ideas only save races. If the black man is feeble & not important to the existing races, not on a par with the best race, the black man must serve & be sold & exterminated. But if the black man carries in his bosom an indispensible element of a new & coming civilization, for the sake of that element no wrong nor strength nor circumstance can hurt him, he will survive & play his part. So now it seems to me that the arrival of such men as Toussaint Louverture if he is pure blood, or of Douglas [Frederick Douglass] if he is pure blood, outweighs all the English & American humanity. The Antislavery of the whole world is but dust in the balance, a poor squeamishness & nervousness; the might & the right is here. Here is the Anti-Slave. Here is Man; & if you have man, black or white is an insignificance. Why at night all men are black. The intellect, that is miraculous, who has it has the talisman, his skin & bones are transparent, he is a statue of the living God, him I must love & serve & perpetually seek & desire & dream on: and who has it not is superfluous. But a compassion for that which is not & cannot be useful & lovely, is degrading & maudlin, this towing along as by ropes that which cannot go itself. Let us not be our own dupes; all the songs & newspapers & subscriptions of money & vituperation of those who do not agree with us will avail nothing against eternal fact. I say to you, you must save yourself, black or white, man or woman. Other help is none. I esteem the occasion of this jubilee to be that proud discovery that the black race can begin to contend with the white; that in the great anthem of the world which we call history, a piece of many parts & vast compass, after playing a long time a very low & subdued accompaniment they perceive the time arrived when they can strike in with force & effect & take a master’s part in the music. The civilization of the world has arrived at that pitch that their moral quality is becoming indispensable, & the genius of this race is to be honoured for itself. For this they have been preserved in sandy desarts [sic], in rice swamps, in kitchens & shoeshops so long. Now let them emerge clothed & in their own form. I esteem this jubilee & the fifty years’ movement which has preceded it to be the announcement of that fact & our anti-slavery societies, boastful as we are, only the shadow & witness to that fact. The negro has saved himself, and the white man very patronisingly says, I have saved you. If the negro is a fool all the white men in the world cannot save him thought they should die.... He who does his own work frees a slave. He who does not his own work, is a slave- holder. Whilst we sit here talking & smiling, some person is out there in field & shop & kitchen doing what we need, without talk or smiles.... The planter does not want slaves: give him money: give him a machine that will provide him with as much money as the slaves yield, & he will thankfully let them go: he does not love whips, or usurping overseers, or sulky swarthy giants creeping round his house & barns by night with lucifer matches in their hands & knives in their pockets. No; only he wants his luxury, & he will pay even this price for it.
TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE Thoreau also heard Frederick Douglass, but it is not known that this encounter with the impressive mulatto orator sent any equivalent racist concerns going in Thoreau’s gourd at that time — probably not, as Thoreau was never so concerned with issues of relative ascendancy as was the higher-caste Emerson. We can be utterly confident, for instance, that no literary researcher will ever be able to uncover, in any pile of unprocessed remarks in Thoreau’s handwriting, any remark even remotely similar to the following blazing amazing one HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI which is in Emerson’s handwriting:Quite to the contrary!60 Because Thoreau’s spirit was so utterly different
I think it cannot be maintained by any candid person that the African race have ever occupied or do promise ever to occupy any very high place in the human family. Their present condition is the strongest proof that they cannot. The Irish cannot; the American Indian cannot; the Chinese cannot. Before the energy of the Caucasian race all the other races have quailed and done obeisance.
ALFRED ROSENBERG WALDO EMERSON from the blind prejudice displayed above, what we might confidently expect to uncover in any new pile of unprocessed remarks in Thoreau’s handwriting would be more remarks similar to this lovely one anent the Irish interlopers in Walden Wood:
Methinks I could look with equanimity upon a long street of Irish cabins and pigs and children revelling in the genial Concord dirt, and I should still find my Walden wood and Fair Haven in their tanned and happy faces.
Note that historical revisionism has rendered Frederick Douglass’s arrival in Concord that summer utterly
60. I do drip with sarcasm, don’t I? Well, when I come across stuff like this, I can’t help myself, a demon takes over my keyboard and the screen echo comes across this way even if what I am typing is the alpha string “Hail Mary full of grace.” The point is that if Thoreau had ever been guilty of writing something like this phrase from Emerson’s miscellaneous notebooks, we would long ago have burned every existing copy of WALDEN and none of us in this generation would ever have heard of the guy. And that would be only right. Emerson, however, is invulnerable, is Teflon, nothing ever sticks to him. Or, perhaps, it is the Emerson scholars who are invulnerable, or heedless or something. That quote I attributed to Emerson, repeated below, needn’t be characterized as a piece of Emersoniana at all! It could be characterized, instead, as Emerson in the 19th Century merely –somehow– “channeling” the geist of Alfred Rosenberg (the philosopher of the Nazis in our 20th Century).
I think it cannot be maintained by any candid person that the African race have ever occupied or do promise ever to occupy any very high place in the human family. Their present condition is the strongest proof that they cannot. The Irish cannot; the American Indian cannot; the Chinese cannot. Before the energy of the Caucasian race all the other races have quailed and done obeisance. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI transparent,61 with all the stir and ferment of that annual fair of the Anti-Slavery Society of Middlesex County being nicely explained away as nicely white Concordians interacting with other nicely white Concordians, and Emerson’s journal entry above has been attributed to mere musings made earlier –spontaneously, à propos de nothing– during the spring or earlier summer of this year, rather than to the unthinkable: an actual relevant encounter with a mulatto relevant interloper in nice polite white Concord. It has been revisionist scholarship subsequent to that point which has almost totally erased Douglass from the Concord scene, with all the stir and ferment of that Anti-Slavery Fair coming to be nicely explained away in more recent history books as merely a few of the nice white Concordians having an argument of some sort with a few other of the nice white Concordians. This almost total erasure has made it possible for Emerson scholars to attribute his lengthy “if he is pure blood” journal musing (exhibited nearby as a full separate page) about Douglass to irrelevant jottings done within the half-year timeframe rather than to the unthinkable: a specifically locatable and quite actual encounter with a black relevant interloper in nice polite white Concord. But here is the event as fantasized by a historian of this tradition62 — who, inheriting a tradition which has so conveniently forgotten the black speaker, proceeds to fantasize Emerson as having been being deeply impressed by the abstract idea of the abilities of Douglass the black man when that man, actually, was sitting before him staring him full in the face as he orated:
61. “That transparent black man over there can’t be seen and therefore hasn’t come to be heard by us, and therefore we’re not not polite in not not listening to him.” 62. Robert D. Richardson, Jr. EMERSON: THE MIND ON FIRE. Berkeley CA: U of California P, 1994 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI Emerson had been asked to speak on the tenth anniversary of the British emancipation of all slaves in the British West Indies; the sponsor was the Women’s Anti-Slavery Association, to which both Lidian and Cynthia Thoreau belonged. Because abolition was a controversial subject on which the people of Concord were divided, none of the local churches would open their doors to them. The event was scheduled for the courthouse. Henry Thoreau went from door to door urging Concord residents to attend. When the sexton of the First Parish Church refused to ring the bell to announce the meeting, Henry rushed to the church and rang the bell himself. The speech itself was a departure from Emerson’s usual style in three ways. It is mainly a long chronological narrative, it is full of the oratorical devices the young Emerson had learned from Everett, and it is intended as agitprop, like Antony’s speech over the body of Caesar. Emerson intended to arouse, to inflame, to move his audience to action: “If any cannot speak, or cannot hear the words of freedom, let him go hence, — I had almost said, creep into your grave, the Universe has no need of you.” He recounted the horrors of slavery, “pregnant women set in the treadmill for refusing to work,” “men’s necks flayed with cowhide, and hot rum poured on, superinduced with brine or pickle, rubbed in with a cornhusk, in the scorching heat of the sun.” He told of “a planter throwing his negro into a copper of boiling cane-juice.” He adds heavy irony to the horrors: “The sugar they raised was excellent. Nobody tasted blood in it.” Emerson continued for page after page, giving the history of slavery and the history of efforts to stop it, culminating in the act of Parliament of August 1, 1834, by which “slavery shall be and is hereby utterly and forever abolished and declared unlawful throughout the British colonies, plantations and possession abroad.” The reason for celebrating this British act was, of course, to shame the Americans who had no such act on their books. Emerson was very much alive to the economic argument against slavery by which British manufacturers were encouraged to regard the West Indian blacks as so many potential customers. But he was also aware of the insidious psychology of slavery, and he commented on “the love of power, the voluptuousness of holding a human being in his absolute control.” For those who feared emancipation might unleash a terrible retribution and bring massive civil disorder, Emerson stressed the mild and orderly transition to freedom that occurred in the West Indies. Then, at last, he turned from the British to the Americans, who were now seen to be lagging woefully behind the times. At this point Emerson turns from his warm historical survey to the present moment and to a tone of plain anger. He was personally shocked and outraged by reports of northern blacks arrested on the docks of Massachusetts ships lying in southern ports. I have learned that a citizen of Nantucket Island, walking in New Orleans, found a freeborn citizen of Nantucket, a man, too, of great personal worth, and, as it happened, very dear to him, as having saved his own life, working chained in the streets of that city, kidnapped by such a process as this. Waldo Emerson was outraged that Massachusetts seemed to be able to do nothing to help its citizens, and he said so in blunt, HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI provocative language: “If such a damnable outrage can be committed on the person of a citizen with impunity, let the Governor break the broad seal of the state; he bears the sword in vain.” The congressional delegation from Massachusetts felt that unilateral action by Massachusetts or by the North would endanger the Union. Emerson’s reply was, “The Union is already at an end when the first citizen of Massachusetts is thus outraged.” The solution was not to be sought in further compromise and political juggling. America must follow England’s lead and free the slaves. And if Emerson had been able in his private life until now to accept some of the condescending and muddy racism that undercut the urgency of abolition by declaring the blacks an inferior race, he now explicitly broke with that rationale. He declared to his audience that “the negro race is, more than any other, susceptible of rapid civilization.” He also saw that abolition was not simply something conceded by white people, which was the view of Thomas Clarkson’s book [which one of the three??]. “I add,” said Emerson, “that in part it is the earning of the blacks.” He was deeply impressed by the abilities of HAITI Toussaint Louverture and of Frederick Douglass. His private journal comments are just as strong as his public language. Referring specifically to his own conviction of the sufficiency of the individual, he said, “Here is the Anti-Slave. Here is Man; and if you have man, black or white is an insignificance. Why, at night all men are black.” It was also in his journal that he said, “The negro has saved himself, and the white man very patronizingly says I have saved you.” To his Concord audience Emerson said, “The black man carries in his bosom an indispensable element of a new and coming civilization.” And he ended the speech not with a graceful appeal to history or good will but with a stiff and polarizing insistence that “there have been moments, I said, when men might be forgiven who doubted. Those moments are past.” The speech delighted the friends of abolition in the North. Thoreau helped with arrangements to publish the address. Soon the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier was writing to solicit Emerson’s further help at an antislavery convention. A letter from William Lloyd Garrison a few years later suggests what Emerson’s conversion meant to the cause: “You exercise a strong influence over many minds in this country which are not yet sufficiently committed to the side of the slave.... You are not afraid publicly and pointedly to testify against the enslavement of three million of our countrymen.” Emerson was solidly committed to abolition both personally and publicly from now on. His speeches on the subject would, if gathered together, fill a good-sized volume. He appeared on many platforms, but he was not now or ever comfortable as an activist, an advocate. As in the matter of the Cherokee removal, he would speak because he must, because no one else would, because he had convictions, because he believed in action. But it was just not congenial work. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
The above act of historical revisionism by Robert D. Richardson, Jr. reminds us of nothing so much as of the alteration of Chinese photographs subsequent to the 1971 fall from grace of Lin Biao, the government official who had suggested the idea of “Mao’s Little Red Book,” from favor in Beijing. For many years the Chinese Communist Party would go to great expense to remove the presence of that inconvenient yellow man from every historic official photograph it could get its hands on (below is a copy from the 1960s that they simply couldn’t get their hands on, one that still shows Lin Biao standing beside Mao Tse-tsung, holding up his little red book).
Robert Richardson has altered the history of this significant 1844 Concord meeting in much the same manner, by entirely erasing that inconvenient black man. This doesn’t just happen in totalitarian countries! We’re so good here at self-censorship, that we don’t have any need for official censorship — we can get the job done all by ourselves.
Why did this history need to be so altered? Because if you listen to the Emerson oration, not with white ears but with black ears, it sounds very different. To white ears Emerson has seemed to have been benignly embracing the cause of anti-slavery. To black ears it is obvious that Emerson is acting as an agent provocateur, and attempting to goad Douglass, in his audience, to initiate the sort of servile insurrection that will get him killed — and the white backlash from which will solve America’s race problem once and for all, by removing all the black pawns from the American game.
How are we to understand Emerson? Although the man had advocated total emancipation of the American slaves after fair compensation to their owners, when someone brought him a petition to add his name to, calling for a national convention to get the ball rolling in support of total emancipation of slaves with fair compensation to the owners –precisely what he had advocated– he refused to take the pen in his hand. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI “There is only one way to accept America and that is in hate; one must be close to one’s land, passionately close in some way or other, and the only way to be close to America is to hate it; it is the only way to love America.” — Lionel Trilling HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
Early in his life George William Curtis had spent two years at the Brook Farm community and school. then, in order to continue their association with Emerson, George and his older brother James Burrill Curtis had gone to live on a farm a mile north of Concord. The brothers worked for Captain Nathan Barrett and had a cottage adjoining his farmhouse, atop Punkatasset Hill. After spending part of a day with Hawthorne, George noted in his diary that the writer’s actual life was harmonious with the picture-perfect antique repose of his house, redeemed into the present by his and Mrs. Hawthorne’s infant and the wife’s tenderness and respect for her husband. His note in his diary in regard to Mr. Emerson’s address before the Antislavery Friends on this day August 1st, commemorating the 10th anniversary of emancipation in the British West Indies, was merely to the effect that the address had been very commanding despite being nearly two hours long.
So Waldo began by pointing out that, actually, the institution of human slavery was in the best interest of no- HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI one, for wage-labor is more efficient and far safer:
WE are met to exchange congratulations on the anniversary of an event singular in the history of civilization; a day of reason; of the clear light; of that which makes us better than a flock of birds and beasts: a day, which gave the immense fortification of a fact, — of gross history, — to ethical abstractions. It was the settlement, as far as a great Empire was concerned, of a question on which almost every leading citizen in it had taken care to record his vote; one which for many years absorbed the attention of the best and most eminent of mankind.... If there be any man who thinks the ruin of a race of men a small matter, compared with the last decoration and completions of his own comfort, — who would not so much as part with his ice-cream, to save them from rapine and manacles, I think, I must not hesitate to satisfy that man, that also his cream and vanilla are safer and cheaper, by placing the negro nation on a fair footing, than by robbing them. If the Virginian piques himself on the picturesque luxury of his vassalage, on the heavy Ethiopian manners of his house- servants, their silent obedience, their hue of bronze, their turbaned heads, and would not exchange them for the more intelligent but precarious hired-service of whites, I shall not refuse to show him, that when their free-papers are made out, it will still be their interest to remain on his estate, and that the oldest planters of Jamaica are convinced, that it is cheaper to pay wages, than to own the slave. Simultaneous with Emerson and Douglass delivering these noteworthy speeches in Concord, in Pennsylvania Emerson’s friend, the Reverend William Henry Furness, was also taking the dangerous step of announcing himself as being in opposition to human slavery.
By way of radical contrast with Robert D. Richardson, Jr.’s putrid 1994 nobody-here-but-us-white-men account (reprinted above), here is how a more recent, much more reliable, and racially inclusive source, Gregory P. Lampe63 has analyzed this Concord meeting (the material appears on pages 236-9, and has been lightly edited to make it slightly less convoluted, and for conformity with the punctuation and spelling conventions of this Kouroo database): Frederick Douglass’s activities from mid-June to the end of July are difficult to determine. Neither the Liberator nor the National Anti-Slavery Standard advertised any of his lectures or documented his participation in any antislavery meetings during this period. According to Blassingame, ed. DOUGLASS PAPERS, SERIES ONE, 1:xciii, on June 28th Douglass attended the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society meeting in Methuen, Massachusetts. However, Douglass’s name does not appear in the minutes of the meeting, published in the Liberator of July 12th, and it is probable that he was not in attendance. Douglass was invited to attend an antislavery meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire from July 26th to 29th, but there is no indication of his presence in the accounts of the proceedings published in the Liberator of September 27th. Douglass had also been invited to be the chief speaker at the August 1st celebration in Providence, Rhode Island, but he did not attend, an outcome that greatly disappointed the organizers and left many of Providence’s blacks
63. Gregory P. Lampe. FREDERICK DOUGLASS: FREEDOM’S V OICE, 1818-1845. East Lansing MI: Michigan State UP, 1998 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI “much grieved” (Liberator of August 16th). On August 17th, Douglass wrote to the Liberator that he “deeply regretted” missing the meeting at Providence and explained his absence (Liberator of August 31st). On Thursday, August 1st, Douglass returned to Concord to participate in the commemoration of the anniversary of the emancipation of 800,000 slaves in the British West Indies. Despite a rain storm and troubles with securing a meeting place, reported a correspondent to the Liberator, the occasion was one “of deep and thrilling interest.” The meeting, initially scheduled for out-of-doors, convened at eleven o’clock in the Court House. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the featured speaker of the celebration, addressed the “large and spirited meeting” for more than two and a half hours, during which time “the whole audience gave the most undivided attention.” In the afternoon, Douglass was one of five speakers to appear before the meeting (Liberator of July 12th; National Anti-Slavery Standard of July 18th; Liberator of August 9th; National Anti-Slavery Standard of August 15th). The others speakers were William A. White, Samuel Joseph May, Moses Grandy, and Cyrus Pierce (National Anti-Slavery Standard of August 15th). Although there is no full text of Douglass’ speech, we do have a sketch of it by Laura Hosmer, a member of the committee of arrangements for the celebration. Because this is the sole account of Douglass’s address, it is worth printing in full. From it, we gain a sense both of Douglass’s message and the power of his delivery. According to Hosmer’s report in the National Anti-Slavery Standard, Frederick Douglass had spoken with the deep feeling which a man of his strong mind, who had felt all the dread horrors of Slavery, must have on such an occasion; he rejoiced with a joy that was truly unspeakable, over the resurrection of so many thousands from that living grave in which they had lain buried for so many long, dreary years; he told of the unutterable joy which must have been felt by those poor bondsmen, when they received the boon of liberty —a joy which, he said, could only be conceived of by those who had, like himself, suffered as they had suffered —a joy which might be felt, but never could be told; and, said he, I rejoice with them, I rejoice with them, I REJOICE with them.” As he uttered these words, his every look and gesture showed how utterly inadequate language was to express the intensity of his feeling; his whole frame quivered with emotion, as he stood silent for a moment. “But,” said he, “while I rejoice with them, my thoughts will revert to my own country, and to the millions who are here suffering miseries from which they are now delivered.” He then depicted the state of things in our country, in language which I cannot remember to repeat, and with a power which I cannot imitate. When he had done speaking, the house was silent as if there were not a living being in it. As Hosmer’s account testifies, Douglass’s address made a powerful impression on the audience. The correspondent to the Liberator may have had Douglass’s speech in mind when he wrote, “We have been strengthened, we have been refreshed, and all I doubt not who participated with us on that day, will look back upon it as one of the bright spots on their anti-slavery course.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI Certainly, Douglass’s masterful address had been one of the day’s “bright spots” (Liberator of August 9th and of August 23rd). In the oration Emerson referenced an unprovenanced tale, that “the Great Spirit, in the beginning, offered the black man, whom he loved better than the buckra or white, his choice of two boxes, a big and a little one. The black man was greedy, and chose the largest. ‘The buckra box was full up with pen, paper, and whip, and the negro box with hoe and bill; and hoe and bill for negro to this day.’” For information, since fortunately we aren’t as close to this material as once we were — here are images of a hoe plate, used primarily for chopping weeds from cultivated fields, and of a billhook, used primarily for chopping brush from uncultivated fields:
If Frederick Douglass was unacquainted with this unprovenanced tale of Emerson’s, he would surely have been acquainted with the use of the tools it mentioned. Imagine how he must have chuckled at this point in the Sage of Concord’s oration!
Imagine how the black man reacted, when Emerson characterized nice polite negroes and how they would nicely, politely hold themselves back in order to let the white man “go ahead,” and would modestly remind one another not to be pushy, never to dare to irritate The Man — “social position is not to be gained by pushing.”
Imagine how the black man reacted, when the white man pointed up the fact that the genius of the Saxon race, his own race, was friendly to liberty; that the enterprise, the very muscular vigor of his nation, was inconsistent with slavery — that the salient difference between the white race and the black race, which had resulted in the white race enslaving the black race rather than vice versa, was that the white race would never permit itself to be enslaved.
Imagine how the black man reacted, when the white man predicted that if the black man continued to be feeble, and not important to the existing races, not on a parity with the best race, then the black man was fated to continue to serve — and was fated to “be exterminated.”
Imagine how the black man reacted, when the white man suggested that only if the black man carried in his bosom an indispensable element of a new and coming civilization, would he be able to “survive and play his part.”
Imagine how the black man reacted, when the white man described the occasion of this annual celebration of HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI the emancipation of the negroes of the British West Indies as reminding us all, that after playing for such a long time such a very low and subdued accompaniment, in the future “the black race can contend with the white [and] can strike in with effect, and take a master’s part in the music.”
Imagine how the black man reacted, when the white man spoke of “the arrival in the world of such men as Toussaint, and the Haytian heroes, or of the leaders of their race in Barbadoes and Jamaica,” and how important this was for the future success of the black race!
What a mixed message the black man received on that day! Here’s the message, in loud black letters:
IF YOU DON’T GET PUSHY YOU’LL GET EXTERMINATED
— BUT GET PUSHY AND YOU’LL GET EXTERMINATED.
This was the shadow side of the coin which the white American worshiped: “It is difficult to describe the rapacity with which the American rushes forward to receive the immense booty which fortune proffers to him. He is goaded onward by a passion more intense than love of life. Before him lies a boundless continent, and he urges onward as if time pressed, and he was afraid of finding no room for his exertions.” — Alexis de Tocqueville HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1853
John Reilley Beard’s THE LIFE OF TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE, THE NEGRO PATRIOT OF HAYTI:
TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1856
Fertilizer was so necessary by this point in our national trajectory, as a reviver for our farmed-out fields in the Northeast, that Congress with very little discussion or consideration enacted the Guano Islands Act. This law has been characterized as entirely unprecedented and unique, in that it in effect deputized random individual citizens to go around worldwide, claiming stray bits of territory on behalf of the United States government. Anywhere that a USer could locate an unprotected plot of ground containing guano, it would henceforth be considered as “appertaining to” the United States of America. Navassa Island just off the coast of Haiti would be among the first plots of ground to be thus claimed, when the Navassa Phosphate Company of Baltimore would in the next year transport a contingent of “freed” American slaves there (trusting souls!) to perform the barefoot labor of loading this dried-up birdshit at a salary of $8.00 per month.64 Despite being “free” these persons were under heavy discipline, and would be fined $0.50 for missing any day of work. The guano and the inhabitant laborers would be gone by the end of the century — transformed into fertilizer no doubt.65
64. To get a sense of what that amounted to in today’s money, consult
CONDUCT OF LIFE : We know in history what weight belongs to race. We see the English, French, and Germans planting themselves on every shore and market of America and Australia, and monopolizing the commerce of these countries. We like the nervous and victorious habit of our own branch of the family. We follow the step of the Jew, of the Indian, of the Negro. We see how much will has been expended to extinguish the Jew, in vain. Look at the unpalatable conclusions of Knox, in his FRAGMENT OF RACES, — a rash and unsatisfactory writer, but charged with pungent and unforgettable truths. “Nature respects race, and not hybrids.” “Every race has its own habitat.” “Detach a colony from the race, and it deteriorates to the crab.” See the shades of the picture. The German and Irish millions, like the Negro, have a great deal of guano in their destiny. They are ferried over the Atlantic, and carted over America, to ditch and to drudge, to make corn cheap, and then to lie down prematurely to make a spot of green grass on the prairie. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1857
After the enactment in the previous year of the Guano Islands Act, entitling private US citizens to act as deputies of the federal government in going around worldwide, seizing unprotected plots of ground containing guano on behalf of the United States government, the Navassa Phosphate Company of Baltimore transported a contingent of “freed” American slaves (trusting souls!) to a tiny guano island just off the coast of Haiti to perform the barefoot labor of loading this dried-up birdshit at a salary of $8.00 per month.66 Despite being “free” these persons were under heavy discipline, and would be fined $0.50 for missing any day of work. The guano and the inhabitant laborers would be gone by the end of the century — transformed into fertilizer no doubt.67
66. To get a sense of what that amounted to in today’s money, consult
CONDUCT OF LIFE : We know in history what weight belongs to race. We see the English, French, and Germans planting themselves on every shore and market of America and Australia, and monopolizing the commerce of these countries. We like the nervous and victorious habit of our own branch of the family. We follow the step of the Jew, of the Indian, of the Negro. We see how much will has been expended to extinguish the Jew, in vain. Look at the unpalatable conclusions of Knox, in his FRAGMENT OF RACES, — a rash and unsatisfactory writer, but charged with pungent and unforgettable truths. “Nature respects race, and not hybrids.” “Every race has its own habitat.” “Detach a colony from the race, and it deteriorates to the crab.” See the shades of the picture. The German and Irish millions, like the Negro, have a great deal of guano in their destiny. They are ferried over the Atlantic, and carted over America, to ditch and to drudge, to make corn cheap, and then to lie down prematurely to make a spot of green grass on the prairie. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1859
December 16, Friday: Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, the 2d volume of a 5-volume set prepared 1818-1821 (THEOPHRASTI ERESII QUAE SUPERSUNT OPERA: ET EXCERPTA LIBRORUM by Theophrastus of Eresus (circa 372-circa 287BCE), JOHANN GOTTLOB SCHNEIDER, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH LINK. Lipsiae: Sumtibus Frid. Christ. Guil. Vogelii) of .
THEOPHRASTUS
He also checked out the two volumes of Aristotle’s HISTOIRE DES ANIMAUX D’ARISTOTE in Greek and in the HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI French translation by M. Camus (Paris: Chez la veuve Desaint, 1783).
HISTOIRE DES ANIMAUX I HISTOIRE DES ANIMAUX II HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI While at the Harvard Library, Thoreau read from but did not check out John Gerard’s 1597 botanical resource, THE HERBALL OR GENERALL HIſTORIE OF PLANTES: GREAT HERBALL OF 1597
INTERNET COMMENTARY
December 16, 1859: A.M.–To Cambridge, where I read in Gerard’s Herbal. [Vide extracts from preface made in October 1859.] His admirable though quaint descriptions are, to my mind, greatly superior to the modern more scientific ones. He describes not according to rule but to his natural delight in the plants. He brings them vividly before you, as one who has seen and delighted in them. It is almost as good as to see the plants themselves. It suggests that we cannot too often get rid of the barren assumption that is in our science. His leaves are leaves; his flowers, flowers; his fruit, fruit. They are green and colored and fragrant. It is a man’s BOTANY knowledge added to a child’s delight. Modern botanical descriptions approach ever nearer to the dryness of an algebraic formula, as if c + y were = to a love-letter. It is the keen joy and discrimination of the child who has just seen a flower for the first time and comes running in with it to its friends. How much better to describe your object in fresh English words rather than in these conventional Latinisms! He has really seen, and smelt, and tasted, and reports his sensations. Bought a book at Little & Brown’s, paying a nine-pence more on a volume than it was offered me for elsewhere. The customer thus pays for the more elegant style of the store. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
The Select Committee on the Invasion of Harpers Ferry created by Democratic Senator James Murray Mason of Virginia held its first meeting in regard to the John Brown affair and its Secret “Six” conspiracy. The committee would be in existence for six months before delivering its final report and would summon, in all, 32 witnesses.
Edwin Coppoc and John E. Cook were hanged in Charlestown, Virginia.68 Edwin’s body would be buried in Winona after a funeral attended by the entire town. Later his body would be reburied in Salem, Ohio.
(Edwin had written from the prison to his adoptive mother, of a nonresistant-abolitionist Quaker farm family, 68. I have been advised that according to THE QUAKERS OF IOWA by Louis Thomas Jones, a scholarly work published under the auspices of the State Historical Iowa at Iowa City, Iowa in 1914 (I haven’t myself actually seen this book), prior to their deaths the Coppoc brothers were disowned by the Red Cedar Monthly Meeting of Friends in the West Branch/Springdale area. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI that he was “sorry to say that I was ever induced to raise a gun.”
Edwin’s brother Barclay Coppoc was still eluding capture.)
John E. Cook had made a full confession of his activities with the raiders and at the last moment had sought to save his neck by representing that he had been deceived through false promises, but this had not saved him, nor had the fact that his brother-in-law A.P. Willard was Governor of Indiana.
When it came the turn of John Anderson Copeland, Jr. to be hanged, too short a drop was used. He strangled slowly.
Just before being taken from his cell to the execution field that morning, he had completed a last letter to his family: Charlestown Jail, Va., Dec. 16, ‘59 Dear Father, Mother, Brothers Henry, William and Freddy, and Sisters Sarah and Mary: The last Sabbath with me on earth has passed away. The last Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that I shall ever see on this earth have now passed by God’s glorious sun, which he has placed in the heavens to illuminate this earth- whose refulgent beams are watched for by this poor invalid, to enter & make as it were in heaven of the room in which he is confined- I have seen declining behind the western mountains for the last time. Last night for the last time, I beheld the soft bright moon as it rose, casting its mellow light into my felons cell, dissipating the darkness and filling it with that soft pleasant light which causes such thrills of joy to all those in like circumstance with myself. This morning for the last time, I beheld the glorious sun of yesterday rising in the far-off East, away off in the country where our Lord Jesus Christ first proclaimed salvation to man, and now as he rises higher and his bright light takes the place of the pale, soft moonlight, I will take my pen, for the last time, to write you who are bound to me by those strong ties (yea, the strongest that God ever instituted,) the ties of blood and relationship. I am well, both HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI in body and in mind. And now, dear ones, if it were not that I know your hearts will be filled with sorrow at my fate, I could pass from this earth without a regret. Why should you sorrow? Why should your hearts be racked with grief? Have I not everything to gain and nothing to lose by the change? I fully believe that not only myself but also all three of my poor comrades who are to ascend the same scaffold- (a scaffold already made sacred to the cause of freedom, by the death of that great champion of human freedom, Capt. JOHN BROWN) are prepared to meet our God. I am only leaving a world filled with sorrow and woe to enter one in which there is but one lasting day of happiness and bliss. I feel that God in his mercy has spoken peace to my soul, and that all my numerous sins are now forgiven me. Dear parents, brothers and sisters, it is true that I am now in a few hours to start on a journey from which no traveler returns. Yes, long before this reaches you, I shall as I sincerely hope, have met our brother and sister who have for years been worshiping God around his throne — singing praises to him, and thanking him that he gave his Son to die that they might have eternal life. I pray daily and hourly that I may be fitted to have my home with them, and that you, one and all, may prepare your souls to meet your God, that so, in the end, though we meet no more on earth, we shall meet in Heaven, where we shall not be parted by the demands of the cruel and unjust monster Slavery. But think not that I am complaining, for I feel reconciled to meet my fate. I pray God that his will be done; not mine. Let me tell you that it is not the mere act of having to meet death, which I should regret, (if I should express regret I mean,) but that such an unjust institution should exist as the one which demands my life; and not my life only, but the lives of those to whom my life bears but the relative value of zero to the infinite. I beg of you one and all that you will not grieve about me, but that you will thank God that he spared me time to make my peace with Him. And now, dear ones, attach no blame to anyone for my coming here for not any person but myself is to blame. I have no antipathy against anyone, I have freed my mind of all hard feelings against every living being, and I ask all who have any thing against me to do the same. And now dear parents, Brothers and sisters, I must bid you to serve your God and meet me in heaven. I must with a few words, close my correspondence with those who are the most near and dear to me: but I hope, in the end, we may again commune, never to cease. Dear ones, he who writes this will, in a few hours, be in this world no longer. Yes, these fingers which hold the pen with which this is written will, before to-day’s sun has reached his meridian have laid it aside forever, and this poor soul have taken its flight to meet its God. And now dear ones I must bid you that last, long, sad farewell. Good-day, Father, Mother, Henry, William, and Freddy, Sarah and Mary, serve your God and meet me in heaven. Your Son and Brother to eternity, John A. Copeland. OBERLIN COLLEGE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI Is it that Aaron D. Stevens, and 10 of Captain Brown’s black supporters, having been duly found guilty of treason and murder by a jury of their white male peers, were hanged on this date?
Or is it that the other surrendered survivors of the raid on Harpers Ferry, John Anderson Copeland, Jr., Shields Green, and Aaron D. Stevens, having been duly found guilty of treason and murder by a jury of their white male peers, were hanged on this date?69
A monument would be erected by the citizens of Oberlin, Ohio in honor of their three free citizens of color who had died in the raid or been hanged, Shields Green, John Anderson Copeland, Jr., and Lewis Sheridan Leary (the 8-foot marble monument would be moved to Vine Street Park in 1971).
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND
69. In THE CAPTURE AND EXECUTION OF JOHN BROWN: A TALE OF MARTYRDOM, BY ELIJAH AVEY, EYE WITNESS, WITH THIRTY ILLUSTRATIONS, dated 1906, we have on page 45 an assertion that the white men John E. Cook and Edwin Coppoc, and then the black men John Anderson Copeland, Jr. and Shields Green, were hanged on December 16th, 1859. The reference says that, the gallows being not large enough, the 2 black men Copeland and Green were forced to stand and watch the 2 white men Cook and Coppoc being hanged before themselves ascending the scaffold. But I have from another reference this assertion that it was one surrendered surviving white man, Aaron D. Stevens, who was hanged on the 16th along with 10 black supporters of Captain John Brown, and that Cook actually would be among the last hanged. Which account would be correct — and why is there such a glaring discrepancy between these various accounts?
The book SECRET SIX treats each retreating admission of each of the co-conspirators in treason as if it were holy writ. No attempt has been made to discern, behind this haze of post-facto explanations and justifications, what the brags of these participants might have been had their plot been successful in initiating the race war they contemplated and had this race war been completed, as it would certainly have been completed, by a historic genocide against black Americans. (Joel Silbey has contended, in “The Civil War Synthesis in American History,” that postbellum American historians have been misconstruing antebellum American politics by viewing them in conjunction with our knowledge of the bloodbath that followed. It is only after the fact that we can “know” that the US Civil War amounted to a sectional dispute, North versus South. We avoid learning that before the fact, it was undecided whether this conflict was going to shape up as a race conflict, a class conflict, or a sectional conflict. We avoid knowing that the raid on Harpers Ferry might have resulted in a race war, in which peoples of color would be exterminated in order to create an all-white America, or might have resulted in a class war, in which the laboring classes might have first destroyed the plantation owners’ equity by killing their slaves, and then gone on to purge the nation of the white plantation owners themselves, with their privileged-class endowments.) Also, according to the endmatter, the SECRET SIX study had obtained its material on Frederick Douglass basically from McFeely’s FREDERICK DOUGLASS of 1991, and its material on Thoreau from Sanborn’s HENRY DAVI D THOREAU of 1917, neither of which were the last word on the subject when the book was prepared. In addition, this work provides no reference whatever for the Emerson life: evidently he was simply presumed not to be of even marginal pertinence. There is no consideration to be found anywhere in this volume of the comparison event: the other American struggle for freedom, the one which had taken place in Haiti under General Toussaint Louverture. For these reasons, the study is, fundamentally, incompetent. It is as if O.J. Simpson and his Dream Team had been allowed to control what would appear in our social history texts. Or, it is as if the White House staff had been allowed to define once and for all the extent of President Richard Milhouse Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate break-in, with, after their initial defensive testimony, after their establishment of the official consensus “truth,” all explanations accepted at their putative face value — with no further questioning tolerated. SECRET “SIX” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
HAYTI “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1860
The pro-Lincoln faction of the Republicans was at this point being referred to as “the Wide-Awakes.” Thomas Hicks painted a portrait of their candidate on the basis of a photograph made in a studio in Springfield during this year:
William Dean Howells’s POEMS OF TWO FRIENDS. His LIVES AND SPEECHES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND HANNIBAL HAMLIN (campaign biography, for which he would get appointed consul in Venice). During this year he met Elinor Mead, his future wife. He traveled to Boston and Concord (see LITERARY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCE) where he met J.T. Fields, Lowell, Holmes, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Emerson. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI John Albion Andrew became a delegate to their National Convention, from Massachusetts.
Chicago hosted its 1st political convention, the one in which the newly formed Republican Party, having previously lost with its initial candidate John Charles Frémont, nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois to be its 2d presidential candidate. (Frémont had carried 11 states and Lincoln would be elected President with only 40 percent of the popular vote because he would be able to carry all 18 northern states — beginning a tradition in which, during the 18 national elections between 1860 and 1932, non-Republican candidates would succeed in only 4.)
South Carolina seceded from the Union and the Confederation of Southern States was formed. US CIVIL WAR
American Presidential Elections 1789-1864a
Presidential Political Electoral Popular Candidate Party Votes Votes
1789 GEORGE WASHINGTON No formally organized party 692
JOHN ADAMS No formally organized party 34
JOHN JAY No formally organized party 9
R. H. HARRISON No formally organized party 6
JOHN RUTLEDGE No formally organized party 6
JOHN HANCOCK No formally organized party 4
GEORGE CLINTON No formally organized party 3
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON No formally organized party 2
JOHN MILTON No formally organized party 2
JAMES ARMSTRONG No formally organized party 1
BENJAMIN LINCOLN No formally organized party 1
EDWARD TELFAIR No formally organized party 1
(NOT VOTED) No formally organized party 44
1792 GEORGE WASHINGTON Federalist 132 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI American Presidential Elections 1789-1864a
Presidential Political Electoral Popular Candidate Party Votes Votes
JOHN ADAMS Federalist 77
GEORGE CLINTON Democratic-Republican 50
THOMAS JEFFERSON 4
AARON BURR 1
1796 JOHN ADAMS Federalist 71
THOMAS JEFFERSON Democratic-Republican 68
THOMAS PINCKNEY Federalist 59
AARON BURR Antifederalist 30
SAMUEL ADAMS Democratic-Republican 5
OLIVER ELLSWORTH Federalist 11
GEORGE CLINTON Democratic-Republican 7
JOHN JAY Independent-Federalist 5
JAMES IREDELL Federalist 3
GEORGE WASHINGTON Federalist 2
JOHN HENRY Independent 2
S. JOHNSTON Independent-Federalist 2
C. C. PINCKNEY Independent-Federalist 1
1800 THOMAS JEFFERSON Democratic-Republican 733
AARON BURR Democratic-Republican 73
JOHN ADAMS Federalist 65
C. C. PINCKNEY Federalist 64
JOHN JAY Federalist 1
1804 THOMAS JEFFERSON Democratic-Republican 162
C. C. PINCKNEY Federalist 14
1808 JAMES MADISON Democratic-Republican 122
C. C. PINCKNEY Federalist 47
GEORGE CLINTON Independent-Republican 6
(NOT VOTED) 1
1812 JAMES MADISON Democratic-Republican 128 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI American Presidential Elections 1789-1864a
Presidential Political Electoral Popular Candidate Party Votes Votes
DE WITT CLINTON Fusion 89
(NOT VOTED) 1
1816 JAMES MONROE Republican 183
RUFUS KING Federalist 34
(NOT VOTED) 4
1820 JAMES MONROE Republican 231
JOHN Q. ADAMS Independent-Republican 1
(NOT VOTED) 3
1824 JOHN Q. ADAMS No distinct party designations 844 113,122
ANDREW JACKSON 99 151,271
HENRY CLAY 37 47,531
W. H. CRAWFORD 41 40,856
1828 ANDREW JACKSON Democratic 178 642,553
JOHN Q. ADAMS National Republican 83 500,897
1832 ANDREW JACKSON Democratic 219 701,780
HENRY CLAY National Republican 49 484,205
WILLIAM WIRT Anti-Masonic 7 100,715
JOHN FLOYD Nullifiers 11
(NOT VOTED) 2
1836 MARTIN VAN BUREN Democratic 170 764,176
WILLIAM H. HARRISON Whig 73 550,816
HUGH L. WHITE Whig 26 146,107
DANIEL WEBSTER Whig 14 41,201
W. P. MANGUM Anti-Jackson 11
1840 WILLIAM H. HARRISON Whig 234 1,275,390
MARTIN VAN BUREN Democratic 60 1,128,854
1844 JAMES K. POLK Democratic 170 1,339,494
HENRY CLAY Whig 105 1,300,004
JAMES G. BIRNEY Liberty 62,103 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI American Presidential Elections 1789-1864a
Presidential Political Electoral Popular Candidate Party Votes Votes
1848 ZACHARY TAYLOR Whig 163 1,361,393
LEWIS CASS Democratic 127 1,223,460
MARTIN VAN BUREN Free Soil 291,501
1852 FRANKLIN PIERCE Democratic 254 1,607,510
Winfield Scott Whig 42 1,386,942
JOHN P. HALE Free Soil 155,210
1856 JAMES BUCHANAN Democratic 174 1,836,072
JOHN C. FRÉMONT Republican 114 1,342,345
MILLARD FILLMORE American 8 873,053
1860 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Republican 180 1,865,908
JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE Southern Democratic 72 848,019
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS Democratic 12 1,380,202
JOHN BELL Constitutional Union 39 590,901 a.Minor candidates polling less than 10,000 popular votes and receiving no electoral votes are excluded. In early elections, electors were chosen by legislatures in many states, rather than by popular vote. Until 1804, each elector voted for two men without indicating which was to be president and which vice president. Because the two houses of the New York legislature could not agree on electors, the state did not cast its electoral vote. It was some time before North Carolina and Rhode Island ratified the Constitution. When Jefferson and Aaron Burr received equal numbers of electoral votes, the decision was referred to the House of Representatives. The 12th Amendment (1804) provided that electors cast separate ballots for president and vice president. In cases in which no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, the decision was made by the House of Representatives. This is all based upon data from the HISTORICAL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES, COLONIAL TIMES TO 1957 (1960), STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1969, 90th ed. (1969), and CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY’S GUIDE TO U.S. ELECTIONS, 3rd ed. (1994).
James Redpath toured Haiti as a reporter and returned to the United States as the official Haitian lobbyist for diplomatic recognition — which he would secure within 2 years. He was also directing Haiti’s campaign to attract free black emigrants from the United States and Canada. His GUIDE TO HAYTI is an anthology of articles by various authors on a wide range of Haitian subjects. He expected that immigration of skilled blacks to Haiti would not only elevate conditions there but also mitigate racial tensions in the US (after the Civil War he would be forced to abandon this project because of reality — North American blacks preferred to remain at home).
Richard Josiah Hinton wrote the initial hasty campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln and would come to be termed his “Reluctant Biographer”: AN INTERVIEW WITH ABRAHAM LINCOLN CONCERNING A RECOGNITION OF HAITI BY CAPTAIN R.J. HINTON U.S.C.T. The republic of Haiti, in the autumn of 1860, organized here a bureau for the encouragement of emigration to that country. Its HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI work lay, of course, among the colored American population. Mr. James Redpath, of Malden, Mass., (“Berwick” of the N.Y. Tribune) Now editor of the Mercury and superintendent of public schools in Charleston, South Carolina, was placed in charge as general agent for the Haytian government. Part of the work designed by this bureau was the agitation of the Haytian republic by this government. Like Liberia, the Negro nationality of the Antilles was not especially esteemed by us as worthy a place among the commonalities of the earth. President Fabre Geffrard and his advisers believed that an administration on the basis of resistance to (not abolition of) would consider respectfully the claims of a people, who, almost alone in that respect in the history of the human race, unaided, had fought their way from the direst slavery to an independent nationality, against odds such as few people have resisted successfully. Having being associated with Mr. Redpath in other anti-slavery efforts, at his request, I acted as special agent of the movement, and in that capacity made a tour through many of the Northern States. During the trip, the leading Republican papers published favorable articles upon the movement. Interviews were had with Governor Chase and others, the now Chief Justice expressed himself most decidedly in favour of recognition. On my arrival in Chicago Mr. Joseph Medill, of the Chicago Tribune urged the propriety of visiting Springfield for the purpose of seeing Mr. Lincoln, and offered me letters of introduction. It had been deemed best not to bring the matter before the President elect. Embarrassments and responsibilities were crowding upon him daily, each hour providing their grave and momentous character. Mr. Chase, as well as other gentlemen, suggested that Mr. Lincoln be left to carry out the expression of public sentiment on this and kindred subjects. Mr. Medill, however, urged my going so strenuously, that I accepted the letters and took the night train, arriving in the capital city of Illinois on the morning of the day upon which the Electoral College was to meet and cast its presidential vote. At about 10 o’clock a.m., I went to the capitol building, and was shortly after announced at the door of the Governor’s room, an apartment which had been appropriated by Gov. Wood for Mr. Lincolns use; an accommodation of great value, considering the number and variety of callers who were daily demanding the attention of the newly-elected magistrate. As I entered the room, a tall, spare form, with a strongly-marked but shrewd and pleasant countenance, rose from an armchair, near the window and welcomed me cordially. I was struck then with the transparent simplicity and heartiness of Mr. Lincoln's manner, for I recognized him immediately having had the pleasure of listening to his remarkable oration in the Cooper Institute nearly a year before. The apartment was rather dingy and quite poorly furnished, the most remarkable thing in it being an axe, a log chain and some rails arranged on one side of the room. When I entered Mr. Lincoln was listening placidly and patiently to the tiresome compliments of a farmer, who had come in to see “the rail splitter” as he loudly affirmed. In a few moments Mr. Lincoln turned to me, and, after reading my letter, asked in what manner he could serve me. I requested a few moments of his time to lay before him statements relative to the position, condition and hopes of the Haytian Republic. Without hesitation 4 o’clock was named for the interview. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI At the appointed time I went to the Capitol and found Mr. Lincoln was at dinner with members of the electoral college. Somewhat disappointed, I determined to remain until the night train and call at the Presidents house. At about seven o’clock, on my road to his residence, I met Mr. Lincoln coming from the post-office with his arms full of papers and letters. In fact, it being a misty, dark night, in crossing the street I ran against him, before recognition. Apologizing, I told him of the liberty I was about to take in calling, and expressing my unwillingness to leave until I had seen him on the subject matter of my communication. I remember his very pleasant and cheery manner in apologizing for not seeing me at the time appointed, giving me a reason the congratulations of the electors. “That sort of thing has to be gone through with” he said. Of the sitting room of the modest residence my memory still retains the cheerful home-like refined appearance it presented. Pictures, books, etc., were in abundance and the apartment gave the appearance of belonging to a busy man of intellect. Mr. Lincoln seated himself and waited for what might be said. Telling him that if he allowed me to proceed undisturbed, I would take but a short time to lay before him the feelings, purposes and objects of the Haytian government, what was meant by the emigration movement in connection therewith and the plans by which its agents intended to agitate the matter of recognition, he said very simply and patiently “Go ahead” and listening to what I had to say undisturbed, asked only one question-as to whether I had been to Hayti myself. Answering in the negative, I availed myself of this opening to present papers, statistics etc., furnished by the Haytian government and bureau, which at least satisfied Mr. Lincoln I knew whereof I was speaking. Concluding with a statement that the friends of the movement did not expect that he would not express any opinion or intimate any course of action on the subject of recognizing the Negro republics and thanking him for the courtesy with which he had heard my statements and argument, I rose to leave. Mr Lincoln motioned me to resume my seat and commenced a series of question, which continued for nearly three quarters of an hour which without committing him specially to any policy resulted in his possession and sifting of all the knowledge I had on the matter and collateral topics on which we were talking. I remember without recollection of the words, very distinctly the impression made on me by the Presidents questions and remarks, First: There was a desire to avoid a public discussion of the question of recognizing Negro governments while the uncertain but –most alarming- state of affairs existed with the Southern States. He was assured of the earnest desire of all concerned in the Haytian movement not to embarrass his administration by any hasty action, while it was stated that the question would ultimately be raised and must be met. Secondly: I was convinced that Mr. Lincoln recognized fully the meanness of non-recognition and the equity of the claim presented by the Haytian Republic. In this connection he was somewhat surprised by the statistics presented to him showing the value and extent of our commercial relations with Haytian ports. The fact is now familiar to most readers of the current press that the trade between the Negro Republic of Hayti and the United States, at the time, was larger and of more value than HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI all the Central American Republics or with all the German States excepting Prussia, Austria and one or two of the free cities. I believe, larger too than the whole of Italy. At the time of which I write (1860) very few, except those connected with the Haytian trade and some anti-slavery zealots, were aware of this, Mr. Lincoln was not I am sure. He subjected the statements made to him to a severe cross examination. In this connection I remember him expressing himself satisfied of the correctness of a policy which President Fabre Geffrard of Hayti was determined to adopt. This was to ultimately to close his ports to vessels belonging to the United States, as (it) being the only nation which refused to recognise the national existence of the people over whom he ruled. In this connection I remember very distinctly a remark of Mr. Lincoln which showed how little the prejudice against color affected his own conclusions, it is more distinct in my memory because other Republican statesmen, to whom the same view was presented, expressed a different conclusion from that given by Mr. Lincoln. In the arguments made on behalf of the recognition of Hayti, I suggested as a matter of policy, that President Geffrard would send, in the event of recognition, as a representative of the republic at Washington some one of the educated men of mixed blood of whom there were many who would pass muster for Creole or Spanish American whites. In short Hayti would send a representative as near like a white man as she could find among her worthy citizens. Mr. Lincoln remarked in an animated manner “I don’t see the necessity for that, an educated black man would be as dignified, I have no doubt, as a ginger colored one” I had presented the same suggestion to others who were at that hour considered as able and more radical than was Abraham Lincoln. His manner assured me that the question of receiving a black man as a diplomat would not at all affect his conduct and aroused no special prejudice in his mind. Third, I found Mr. Lincoln decidedly in favour of a separation of the races, provided as he himself expressed it, -“it could be about fairly and voluntarily”-He heartily endorsed the emigration project then being inaugurated and suggested that we confine our exertions, for the time being, to that purpose. I was very much pleased, as may readily be supposed, with the courtesy and attention awarded me by Mr. Lincoln which was agreeably contrasted with the hauteur of some prominent men with whom I had before come in contact on the same subject. I have thrown these items into shape, hoping they may be worthy a place in the many more reminiscences of Mr. Lincoln which are being daily published. The question to which they relate is perhaps of sufficient historic importance to warrant the publication of the notes preserved by so humble a person as myself. Captain Richard J. Hinton HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1861
Many Canadian blacks moved to Haiti as a part of a larger emigration movement.
James Redpath’s A GUIDE TO HAYTI (G.W. Colton; Boston: Haytian Bureau of Emigration, 221 Washington Street).70
Early in this year Harriet Tubman and several others established a Fugitive Aid Society in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada West.
Lydia Maria Child’s attitude toward the Civil War as she expressed it in a letter to Jesse Freemont was “If we rightly exert the power which God has put into our hands, this may prove the last great battle, in open field, between the forces of Despotism and the forces of Freedom.” Well, there must have been, then, some wrongness in the manner in which these abolitionists would exert the power which God had put into their hands, right? –Because, by the summer of 1865, Child’s dream that each black family would be able to tend
70. Here’s a cute note: during the Civil War they were drafting people, but Redpath never needed to cough up the dough to hire himself a substitute, since all he needed to do was play his “Hey, I’m a British subject” card, or his “Hey, I’m a Scotsman” card, or whatever. –Never a player, always a commentator. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI its own plot of land would be replaced, in a number of the defeated states, by new apprenticeship systems known as “Black Codes” which, in addition to radically restricting the employment possibilities for black Americans, would limit their freedom of movement, their opportunity to purchase or rent property, and so on and so forth. How sad that the civil war would not prove to be the last great battle, in open field, between the forces of Despotism and the forces of Freedom! Who could have predicted such an unfortunate outcome?
The census data as of 1790 had indicated that about 8 percent of the American black population had been free. The rise in manumissions in the post-Revolutionary period had raised the proportion of free blacks to about 13.5 percent by 1810, where it remained through 1840. By this point just prior to the Civil War, a decline in manumissions, combined with the lesser fecundity of free black Americans, was lowering the free-to-enslaved proportion to about 11 percent.
Year % in Population
1790 8
1810 13.5
1840 13.5
1861 11 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI “In those parts of the Union in which the negroes are no longer slaves, they have in no wise drawn nearer to the whites. On the contrary, the prejudice of the race appears to be stronger in the States which have abolished slavery ... and nowhere is it so intolerant as in those States where servitude has never been known.” — Alexis de Tocqueville HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1862
April 16, Wednesday: President Jefferson Davis signed a preliminary conscription law. US CIVIL WAR
President Abraham Lincoln signed a law that provided compensation to the slaveholders of the District of Columbia (the City of Washington, Washington County, and Georgetown). They would receive, rather than the stick of imprisonment for the harm they had caused, the carrot of compensation for the personal loss they were incurring: $1,000,000 was appropriated to compensate owners of manumitted slaves — and $100,000 was set aside to fund the transportation of those who wished to emigrate to Haiti, Liberia, or any other country outside the United States of America who would have them. The Emancipation Claims Commission would retain the services of a Baltimore slavetrader to provide a professional assessment of the value of each freed slave, women and children being worth less than men etc., and suitable compensation would be awarded for a total of 2,989 manumitted persons. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI Curiously, the District had been operating off of longhand copies of the DC slave code for lo these many years, and the very first printed version of this code would come off the presses on March 17, 1862 — just one month before slavery in the District was to come to an end. The final printed version of this legal code would be of interest only as a historical curiosity. —Well, the slaveowning representatives voting to pay themselves for their slaves out of the government coffers was a boondoggle, so I suppose we can regard this superfluous printing of an obsolete code to have been just another boondoggle!
There was fighting at Fort Jackson / Fort St. Philip, that would continue until the 28th. US CIVIL WAR HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1862
April 22, Tuesday-30, Wednesday: With the US at war, it was unpleasant in cities like Washington and Cincinnati, and besides, the Reverend Moncure Daniel Conway was of military age. So he desired to flee our nation. He shamelessly pestered the highest levels of the federal government to provide him with a remunerative and relaxing post abroad for the duration of the hostilities. He thought maybe he could be consul-general to the newly recognized nation of Haiti, since he did understand black people, or, even, he suggested to the government officials, since he had somehow picked up some German and some French, as “an antislavery Virginian” he could get the ambassadorial “rest” he required “almost anywhere.” US CIVIL WAR
Of course nobody paid the slightest attention to this special pleading on the part of this gent who had nothing to offer, who had never done anything for any politician that was worthy of the slightest reciprocation. Later, with a sour grapes attitude and as little regard for the truth as ever he would display, he would quite invert this situation, and proclaim that he had been informed that “the President would give me a foreign consulate if I desired it — which I did not.” AUTOBIOGRAPHY VOLUME II
(Such a record of self-serving dissimulation should give us pause, in crediting without further substantiation anything this man would have to tell us about the historical trajectory of Henry Thoreau! Duh, do you suppose he might have been capable of fabricating such stories?) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1871
January 12, Thursday: Frederick Douglass was appointed as assistant secretary to a governmental commission of inquiry into Santo Domingo (presently known as the Dominican Republic, the Spanish eastern two-thirds of the Caribbean island “Hispaniola” generally known as Haiti).
The request of Johann Strauss, Jr. to be released from his position as Hofballmusik-Direktor was granted by Emperor Franz Joseph. The reason offered was ill health, but he probably wanted to devote himself more to stage composition. Strauss was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI January 18, Wednesday: Henry Marie Brackenridge died in Pittsburgh. His remains are at the Prospect Cemetery of Brackenridge, Pennsylvania.
King Wilhelm of Prussia was crowned Emperor of Germany in the Palace of Versailles. This amounted to the founding of the 2d Reich or Deutsches Kaiserreich, (the 1st Reich having been the Holy Roman Empire).
From this day until March 26th, Frederick Douglass would be on a tour of Santo Domingo. Later he would be speaking on behalf of President Ulysses S. Grant’s agenda that the island generally known as Haiti be seized by and become a possession of the United States of America. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1879
December 14, Sunday: In Haiti, the Dominican generals Quintín Díaz and Antonio Pérez made an attempt upon the life of Antonio Maceo. Supporters warned Maceo and this assassination failed (later it would become apparent that the attempt had been planned and paid for by Cuba’s Captain General, Ramón Blanco).
José Martí was again exiled. He would travel from Madrid to Paris, to the US, and then to Venezuela. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1880
January 7, Wednesday: Antonio Maceo and his brother Marcos Maceo left Haiti on the French steamer Deserade, heading for St. Thomas in the Danish Virgin Islands. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1889
July 1, Monday: President Benjamin Harrison appointed Frederick Douglass as the Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti.
September: President Benjamin Harrison appointed Frederick Douglass as Chargé d’Affaires in Santo Domingo, for the larger eastern side known as Hispaniola, in addition to being the Minister Resident and Consul General to the smaller western side known as Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1891
July 30, Thursday: With US Admiral Bancroft Gherardi threatening to seize Mole St. Nicolas, in disgust over the maneuvering of the Department of State and of American corporations to acquire this part of a black foreign nation, Frederick Douglass proffered his resignation as Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1892
The first elevated trains began operation in Chicago (count on the Windy City to put the train on a pedestal).
HAITI During this year and the following one, Frederick Douglass would be serving as Commissioner of the Haitian exhibit at the World’s Fair in Chicago.
Construction began on what would come to be known as Chicago’s Sanitary and Ship Canal, by which the direction of flow of the Chicago River would be reversed. The new canal would cut through a low point in the “regional” continental drainage division which separated the watershed basin drained by the north and east flowing Chicago River from the watershed basin drained by the south and east flowing system of the Des Plaines and Illinois Rivers. This reversal of the Chicago River was at that time the largest municipal earth- moving project ever attempted. The first portion of this, finished in 1900, would be 28 miles in length, 24 feet in depth, and 160 feet in width. The untreated city sewage discharged into that new channel would begin to flow, not to the east into Lake Michigan where it could contaminate the municipal water supply of the city, but thereafter to the west, down the Des Plaines River to the Illinois River and into the Mississippi River, where it would instead, after a lag-time of about 2½ weeks, pollute the drinking water of St. Louis. This reversal of the flow of the river, polluting the municipal water supply of St. Louis rather than the municipal water supply of Chicago, would be complete by 1922 with the opening of the North Shore Channel and the Cal-Sag Channel, at an estimated overall cost of $70,000,000. (Hey, it ain’t cheap to float a problem downstream where it will instead afflict somebody else!)71
September 24, Saturday: José Martí visited Haiti and Jamaica (until October 13th).
71. Fast forward to the Asian carp. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1893
Frederick Douglass completed his service as Commissioner of the Haitian exhibit at the World’s Fair in Chicago. The 125 pages of his original NARRATIVE of 1845 having been brought up to date and expanded in HAITI 1855 into a 350-page treatment, in this year it was again brought up to date and expanded, this time into a 600- page treatment.72
James Monroe Gregory’s FREDERICK DOUGLASS THE ORATOR. CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE; HIS EMINENT PUBLIC SERVICES; HIS BRILLIANT CAREER AS ORATOR; SELECTIONS FROM HIS SPEECHES AND WRITINGS (Springfield, Massachusetts: Willey & Co.). FREDERICK DOUGLASS
On their way to Chambersburg Mr. Douglass and Shields Green stopped at Mrs. E.A. Gloucester’s in Brooklyn, August 18, who sent through Mr. Douglass to Captain Brown a letter and a small amount of money. The following is a copy of a letter signed by colored citizens of Philadelphia, which was found among the papers at the Kennedy farm, Brown’s headquarters before moving on to Harper’s [sic] Ferry, and was sent to Mr. Douglass at Rochester in September: “F.D., Esq., Dear Sir, — The undersigned feel it to be of the utmost importance that our class be properly represented in a convention to come off right away (near) Chambersburg, in this state. We think you are the man of all others to represent us; and we severally pledge ourselves that in case you will come right on we will see your family well provided for during your absence, or until your safe return to them. Answer to us and to John Henrie, Esq., Chambersburg, Penn., at once. We are ready to make you a remittance, if you go. We have now quite a number of good but not very intelligent 72. Frederick Douglass’s personal copy of the original edition of the 1845 clothbound NARRATIVE is to be found in the library taken from Cedar Hill and now preserved in separate moisture-controlled storage, Catalog #10995 (along with copies of the 1881 and the 1882 editions, and fragments of this 1893 edition). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI representatives collected. Some of our numbers are ready to go on with you.” It was never known why this letter was sent to Mr. Douglass. He thinks, however, that the sending of it was prompted by Kagi, who was present at the Chambersburg interview, and had heard him say that he could not go to Harper’s [sic] Ferry in the way proposed. Kagi probably thought a letter signed as this was would induce Mr. Douglass to reconsider his determination and at last consent to accompany Brown. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1895
April 5, Friday: With help from the Haitian consul, José Martí obtained passage on the German fruit ship Nordstrand and headed for Cape Haitian on the north coast of Haiti.
April 9, Tuesday: Ruggero Leoncavallo was granted an audience with Queen Margherita of Italy. He wanted to persuade her to allow him to dedicate his opera Chatterton to her (he would not be able to persuade).
José Martí left Cape Haitian on the north coast of Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
20TH CENTURY
1915
There having been some 20 rulers over Haiti since 1843, some 16 of whom had been thrown out by revolution or murdered, enough was enough and the US Marines landed. The suicide of a prominent black member of the Haitian literary movement La Ronde, Edmond Laforest, in this year indicated the curious relationship between a nonhegemonic writer and the hegemonic language in which of necessity he or she is to write in order to have an audience (in this case French). Laforest’s grand gesture was to tie a Larousse dictionary emblematically around his neck before leaping into the river. Other nonhegemonic writers have been suffocated as artists beneath the weight of these Western idioms of triumph, but in this case the manner of the death was made indicative of this linguistic indenture. Subsequently, until 1934, the nation would be in effect run by the US Marine Corps. We would make a mess of things and train the Haitian army. US MILITARY INTERVENTIONS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI July 28, Wednesday: The governor-general of Erzerum Province reported widespread looting and rape.
The Interior Ministry issued a circular telegram instructing that Muslims be settled in the large Armenian villages.
The deportation of the Armenians of the town of Aintab began.
The deportation of the Armenians of the town of Kilis began.
The deportation of the Armenians of the town of Adiaman began.
Professor Kakig Ozanian of the American College and others from Marsovan (Merzifon), together with the Armenian community leader Dikran Diranian and others from Samsun, were transported to the prisons of Sivas to be killed. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
US Marines landed in Haiti, beginning what would turn out to be our longest and least satisfactory Caribbean intervention (until August 15, day, 1934). US MILITARY INTERVENTIONS USMC
November 3, Wednesday: Doctor Schacht, a German army physician, stationed near the village of Der-el-Zor (Deir el- Zor) village, reported counting 7,000 severed Armenian heads (skulls) in Sabgha District near the Euphrates River. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
November 4, Thursday: The German consul in Mosul reported that Halil Pasha’s soldiers had massacred the Armenians north of Mosul and were preparing to massacre the Armenians in the city of Mosul. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI November 5, Friday: The Germans surrendered Banyo, Kamerun, 320 kilometers north of Yaounde, to the British.
Bulgarian forces captured Nis, Serbia.
The 1st concert of the Sociedad Nacional de Música took place in Buenos Aires.
Nish, the Serbian war capital, was captured by the Bulgarians. WORLD WAR I
On this date, 10,000 Armenian deportees were reported in Bozanti, 20,000 deportees in Tarsus, 40,000 deportees in Islahiye, and 50,000 deportees in Katma.
150,000 Armenian deportees were reported scattered between Adana and Aleppo crossing the Amanos Range.
20,000 Armenian deportees were reported in Adana. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
November 6, Saturday: German forces took Krusvac.
After a month of training camp in the Austro-Hungarian army at Bruck an der Leitha, Alban Berg suffered acute asthma attacks and a bronchial catarrh. He was immediately hospitalized.
Sinfonietta op.5 for orchestra by Sergei Prokofiev was performed for the initial time, in Moscow.
November 7, Sunday: Stephanos Skouloudis, a neutralist, replaced Alexandros Thrasivoulou Zaimis as Prime Minister of Greece.
German forces took Aleksinac, Serbia.
A German or Austrian U-boat sank the Italian ocean liner Ancona off Cape Carbonara, Sardinia, killing 272.
November 8, Monday: The Turkish authorities again made preparations to deport the 200,000 Armenians of Constantinople. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
November 11, Thursday: Jemal Pasha, as commander of Syria, sought to court-martial the dean of the Realschule in Aleppo and other German signatories of the protest of October 15 for having publicized the Armenian events in Cilicia. ARMENIAN GENOCIDE HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1934
August 15, Wednesday: During the period that the US Marine Corps had run Haiti, making a mess of things and training the Haitian army, we had maintained the road system in the countryside by a scheme of forced peasant labor, causing a guerrilla revolt. At this point President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered a Marine withdrawal.
US MILITARY INTERVENTIONS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1989
Professor Michael Zuckerman’s “The Color of Counterrevolution: Thomas Jefferson and the Rebellion in San Domingo,” in Valtz Mannucci, Loretta, THE LANGUAGES OF REVOLUTION, Quaderno 2, Milan Group in Early United States History.
“The San Domingan revolution is a minor episode at best, now, in the cavalcade of American history. It has been confined to insignificance, because it does not serve that saga well.” — Michael Zuckerman, ALMOST CHOSEN PEOPLE: OBLIQUE BIOGRAPHIES IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN, 1993, page 176 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1995
In this year the US Marine Corps took over from the Haitian forces which during the period 1915-1934 they themselves had trained, who had been making a mess of things, and again ran Haiti, again making a mess of things.
Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s SILENCING THE PAST: POWER AND THE PRODUCTION OF HISTORY (Beacon Press). Reviewed by Bob Corbett, June 1996 Without writing a book about Haiti, Michel-Rolph Trouillot has written one of the most interesting books about Haiti I’ve ever read. SILENCING THE PAST: POWER AND THE PRODUCTION OF HISTORY is a philosophy of history, that is, a book about how history is created by historians. Reality, what is, is created by events and processes. But history is the human narration of that reality as seen by the historian. On Trouillot’s view the serious and honest historian tries to tell the story as accurately as possible from the data — the various records left in time. But, it is a crucial part of Trouillot’s thesis that much of the past, even the past which is preserved in records, gets “silenced,” gets passed over or pushed to the background. This scholarly book is the story of how history is produced and how this selective “silencing” occurs. Of course, the flip side is there too — history is the story of what is not silenced, of what is broadcast and generally accepted as “history,” the general narrative of the past that most of us learn and internalize. Trouillot reminds us “human beings participate in history both as actors and narrators.” Events and processes often leave traces — records of various texts, and ideally, the narration of history is from these sources. However, no historian, no narrator of the past, has access to all sources, nor deems each source of the same value or power in creating the narration. To some genuine extent each historical narrative is a fictional story, but with special power. But history is “fiction” with special power — the power is that it is not regarded as fiction by its hearers, and most of us who “consume” history come to believe there is THE PAST — a relatively true narration of the past which shapes not only our view of the past, but explains our present and dictates our future as well. Trouillot is concerned with the various silences which spring up in the process of making history and he identifies four specifically: • there is a silencing in the making of sources. Which events even get described or remembered in a manner which allows them to transcend the present in which they occurred? Not everything gets remembered or recorded. Some parts of reality get silenced. • there is a silencing in the creation of archives — the repositories of historical records. Again, choices are made, accidents occur, judgments made, and some of our recorded past is silenced. At times this archival silencing is permanent HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI since the records do not get preserved; other times the silencing is in the process of competition for the attention of the narrators, the later tellers of the historical tales. • the narrators themselves necessarily silence much. In most of history the archives are massive. Choices, selections, valuings must be done. In this process, huge areas of archival remains are silenced. • finally, not every narrative becomes a part of the “corpus,” the standard historical narrative received and accepted by various groups as THE PAST. This “corpus” will be different for professional historians, critical readers, the general public and so on, but only a handful of narrations become the final produce: “history.”
It is Trouillot’s purpose to trace this process of the creation of history, cautioning us as consumers of history, to be critically aware of the “silencing of the past” and of the often ideological nature of historical narrations. In order to illustrate these philosophical concepts Trouillot turns to two examples from Haitian history, which, for those especially interested in Haitian history, can be read as fascinating “narrations” separate from Trouillot’s larger purpose. On the other hand, these Haitian narratives draw one into Trouillot’s general thesis. The first “Haitian story” is that of Sans Souci — the palace of Henri Christophe? Well, yes and no. Trouillot deals with three Sans Soucis. • the palace of Henri Christophe, which is the standard narrative • the palace of Frederick the Great in Potsdam, Germany • finally the “real” story here, Sans Souci the person, colonel in the Haitian Revolution. Who? we ask? Who is this Sans Souci? And that is Trouillot’s point. He is the “silenced” Sans Souci.
Colonel Jean-Baptist Sans Souci was an African born slave who emerged as a leader very early in the revolution. He excelled in guerrilla-like tactics, a fact which interests Trouillot a great deal since it suggests an influence on the tactics used by the Haitian revolutionaries which is usually not suggested (i.e. a silenced source). When the main revolutionary army led by Toussaint Louverture, Dessalines, Henri Christophe, Petion and others finally “submitted” to the French in 1802, Sans Souci did not, leading to a war within a war. He was especially at odds with Henri Christophe, who eventually betrayed him and murdered him, very close to the spot where he later built the palace of Sans Souci. Trouillot makes much of story. The sources which survive are few, inconclusive, but intriguing. (Here is the silencing via the archives.) Even with the few sources that survive, the “war within a war,” the role of the “Bossales” (African born slaves and revolutionaries), the possible role of African-influenced guerrilla tactics, all intrigue Trouillot since they are a narrative rarely told — a silenced narrative; all of which leaves us, the twentieth century consumer of Haitian history HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI with a view of the revolution suffering these silences of the past. The second detailed example of the process of silencing again comes from Haitian history. When the slave rebellion began in 1791, and even as it gained power and momentum, contemporary observers found it virtually impossible to take it all seriously. First of all it was unthinkable that black slaves could ever defeat the “superior beings,” the white French. And even as that phenomenon began to unfold before their very eyes, the narrators found other explanations: yellow fever or some plot of whites against white and/or mulattoes which got out of hand. (One is here reminded of Madison Smartt Bell’s recent ALL SOULS RISING.) Trouillot’s point in telling this intriguing story is to show how our conceptions of the world limit what is even “thinkable” and functions as a silencing of the past. Trouillot uses one last lengthy example to illustrate his general thesis, the story of Columbus’ “invasion.” While I won’t detail the story here, Trouillot vividly shows how later use of celebrations function as powerful forces in shaping our views of THE PAST. Trouillot’s lengthy treatment of his two Haitian examples (pages 31-107, almost 50% of the whole book), make this a fascinating read of two most unusual and untold narratives of Haitian history. Those two stories fit magnificently into a powerful story and philosophical argument about the nature of the writing of historical narratives. This primary thrust and bulk of the book I found both persuasive and fascinating. However, in the last pages of the book I was troubled by another thesis which I found to be insufficiently developed, unconvincing and even downright wrong. Trouillot rightly cautions against any notions of history as telling us THE PAST. He demonstrates the process of conscious and unconscious, of natural and human generated silencing of the past. But he goes too far in arguing that the only acceptable use of history is to shape current ideological views. He warns that “...the focus on THE PAST often diverts us from the present injustices for which previous generations only set the foundations.” (p. 150). Even more pointedly he argues: “But no amount of historical research about the Holocaust and no amount of guilt about Germany’s past can serve as a substitute for marching in the streets against German skinheads today. Fortunately, quite a few prominent German historians understand that much.” (p. 150). While I find myself persuaded by Trouillot’s strong arguments that history is told in relation to the powerful forces which silence some sources while favoring others, his argument for a radical historically rooted activism seems to come from nowhere, a pronouncement rather than the result of persuasive argumentation. Despite my unwillingness to follow Trouillot in the last argument of this book, I come away from SILENCING THE PAST: POWER AND THE PRODUCTION OF HISTORY knowing I’ve read a very well argued, important and powerful book. I come away from SILENCING THE PAST having read two historical narratives of Haiti as interesting and challenging as anything I’ve read anywhere before and I’m grateful to Michel-Rolph Trouillot for yet another quality book on Haiti. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
One final comment in closing. Structurally SILENCING THE PAST has a preface, 5 chapters and an epilogue. Each begins with a journal-like entry from his own experiences. These personal tales, stories, are extremely fascinating and extraordinarily well written. It would be my hope that some day Trouillot might take a short vacation from his more scholarly writings and produce a volume of the personal and informal stories and reflections which he tells so well. I’d be first in line to buy a copy of such a volume. To: H-NET/IEAHC ASSOCIATION IN EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
1996
Lester D. Langley’s THE AMERICAS IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 1750-1850 (New Haven, Connecticut and London: Yale UP). Reviewed for H-Pol by Jack A. Goldstone
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI colonial U.S. or Latin American history, or comparative students of revolution, slavery, and imperialism, it is worth attempting to follow Langley through his diverse cases, to see how one’s preconceptions of this period hold up when carried the length of the hemisphere. The account of the American revolution strikes me as fairly conventional, although Langley does a nice job of pointing up the class and racial differences among the various groups that fought for independence. He comments on Washington’s view of his rag-tag army; on the divisions between Virginia planters and New England farmers, on the different perspectives on the revolution in the northern and southern states, and on the critical role of the western frontier from the revolution up through the Civil War. Without the Appalachian frontier in the 18th century, and Britain’s efforts to close the west to the colonies, there might have been no revolution, even granting the struggles over taxation; and certainly without the dispute over extending slavery in the west and the southwest, there would have been no war over slavery. Indeed, one of the truly fine aspects of this book is its continual confrontation of the issues of slavery and race, and the immense importance such issues had for all three conflicts. After all, every one of these revolutions was about liberty, yet took place in societies that were committed to the continuation of legal slavery. How these issues were wrestled with, and mostly not resolved, is an oft-neglected element of general accounts that receives its deserved attention from Langley. In the end, Langley seems to believe that the American Revolution occurred because it had to — the colonies were becoming too populous, too expansionary, too self-confident, too accomplished, to acquiesce in the role of perpetual servant to the mother country that Parliament seemed to have designed for them. But Langley doesn’t dwell on the issue of causation; he is more concerned to point out that even the revolutionary victory didn’t resolve the problems of class and racial conflict that would bedevil American politics for the next half-century. He does, however, suggest that open land, the dominance of small independent farmers, and a true sense of noblesse oblige on the part of the planter elite, helped the infant United States avoid –for at least the few decades needed to entrench its republic– the more severe racial unrest and militarization that developed in Haiti and Latin America. Haiti, of course, is often held up as an exception to history — a successful slave revolution. Langley’s account is sufficiently complete, however, to show that it was nothing of the sort. The leaders of the revolt against French rule were certainly black, but they were not slaves — they were slave-owners themselves. Saint Domingue (as it was known before the revolution) was exceptional in the Caribbean in having a large number of free coloreds who included “French-educated planters, tradesmen, artisans and small landholders,” and whose “rapid advancement occasionally alarmed even the grand blancs,” or white plantation owners (p. 106). The free coloreds copied white manners and dress, and provoked a backlash of legal restrictions from the 1760s through the 1780s. Beginning with prohibitions against the practice of medicine, coloreds were later barred from serving as court clerks or notaries. By the late 1780s, coloreds were obliged to file for a permit to conduct any trade except farming. They were denied the rights of assembly, refused noble status, HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI and kept out of the regular military. In their view, the free coloreds had become “a class of men born French, but degraded by cruel and vile prejudices and laws” (p. 106). With forty thousand whites and five hundred thousand African slaves, the colony of Saint Domingue had a similar white/slave structure to many other Caribbean and even southern British colonies. But it also had thirty thousand free coloreds, who in effect held the balance. For the white elite was sharply divided between highland and lowland, northern and southern, coffee and sugar, planter and merchant, groups. White divisions intensified when France was swept by its revolution in the 1790s, and the free coloreds stepped up to demand their rights as citizens. An initial revolt of free coloreds was brutally suppressed by Saint Domingue’s planters, but in Paris the Assembly declared that all free-born coloreds should enjoy full rights equal to the whites. Saint Domingue’s leaders refused to publish this decree, but news spread and a second rebellion of free coloreds broke out. This time, however, the free colored revolts also triggered slave revolts in the northern plains. These slave revolts were ferocious — thousands of plantations were burned and hundreds of white families were killed and mutilated. In reprisal, the whites reacted with equal savagery, hanging and breaking blacks and coloreds in public squares, decapitating leaders and placing their heads on pikes. These extremes of violence then exacerbated divisions and set the stage for decades of bloody civil war. In these wars, free coloreds first gained the support of troops sent from France. Sometimes joining with the whites to keep slaves from overthrowing the entire social order, sometimes recruiting slaves to join militias aimed at repulsing attacks from Spain or new, more conservative French governors, loyalties shifted from year to year and month to month. The only thing that steadily increased was the militarization of the populace and the arming and incitement of slaves to support various factions. In the end, black slave leaders arose, mainly Jean- Jacques Dessalines and Toussaint L’Overture (who was a free colored, but had once been a slave) who consolidated control of the island. But the struggle for independence destroyed the plantation economy, and left an impoverished land of marginal freeholders in its wake. In mainland Latin America, the tale of independence from Spain and Portugal is long and often confusing. Langley does little to alleviate those endemic problems. But he does emphasize how race and slavery were almost as much of an issue in all of Latin America as in Haiti, although the problems in the former were more about the status of creoles, mestizos, and Native Americans than about African blacks. Langley is eloquent on the frustrations of Simon Bolivar, and on the divisions among elites that wracked Latin American societies. Everywhere, urban and rural elites fought against each other, and inter-elite struggles were entwined with class uprisings by peasants, Native Americans, and the urban poor. The central problem in a comparative history of revolutions in the Americas, as Langley recognizes, is why the United States emerged from its revolutionary turmoil able to sustain republican institutions, up through the eras of industrialization and civil war, while most Latin American republics gave way to military dictatorships. Langley’s main HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI answer would support recent findings regarding the key role of democratic “pacts” in stabilizing democracies. In the United States, the willingness of urban and rural elites –as represented by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, on the one hand, and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on the other– to find common ground initially, and then to agree on “rules of the game” for conducting their conflicts after they split into Federalist and Democratic parties, was crucial. But it also was enormously important that such agreements were undertaken by elites that were practiced in self-government and committed to civilian government and republican rule. It also helped that in the United States there was no mestizo “underclass” nor a large number of coloreds to create multiple fissures along racial lines. There certainly was a race line in the United States, but it was clear and dramatic; slaves on one side, virtually everyone else on the other. There was an abolitionist movement, and there were a tiny number of free blacks and coloreds in the north, but they did not threaten the overwhelmingly white composition of economic and social life. In Latin America, the revolutions were not only seeking to change the region’s status from colonial to free; they were also changing from a royal bureaucracy and corporatist society to one that was republican and liberal. Yet they had no local republican tradition or institutions, so abolishing the royal bureaucracy created great disorder, and opened the way for caudillos and military dictators. And they had no alternative to corporatism to deal with the schisms among whites, mestizos, coloreds, and slaves, so drawing a horizontal line anywhere (everyone on one side free citizens, on the other side those with diminished rights) roused fresh conflicts. In Spain itself, the Carlist wars took two generations to move Spain from monarchy to constitutional government; in France it took from 1789 until the onset of the Third Republic in 1871. So it should not astonish us that it took Latin America –where racial issues added to and overlaid class and regional conflicts– over a century to shed its monarchical and militarized skin. This book certainly maps out new territory, for comparative studies of North and South America remain rare. Like many explorations it yields new perspectives and flashes of insight. But it is an exploration, not a full survey or a mapping expedition, and much follow-up work remains to be done if we are to fully grasp the differences in the causes and outcomes of these perplexing events. Copyright (c) 1998 by H-Net, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission, please contact H-Net@h- net.msu.edu. [The book review editor for H-Pol is Lex Renda
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
21ST CENTURY
2010
March 25: In the Boston Globe, Ted Widmer argued that the motivation of the French, in helping us to finance our revolution on the American continent, was not an international friendship whatever that might amount to, but was simply self-interest, that they needed to protect the enormous lucrativeness of their sugar/slave colony on HAITI the island of Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean: GO TO THE BOSTON GLOBE
In the late 18th century ... Saint Domingue, was the richest colony in the world. Its capital city, Cap Français (today’s Cap Haïtien) was larger than Boston, and among the most cosmopolitan places in the Americas.... Comedies were performed at playhouses around the country (the largest theater in Cap Français seated 1,500). Le Cap’s first theater preceded Boston’s by more than 50 years. The historian James E. McClellan III said that Haiti’s scientific clubs “certainly rivaled, if they did not eclipse” those of Philadelphia and Boston. A highly sophisticated urban life sprang into existence - more than 11 towns had more than 1,000 people, and in the capital, all of Cap Français danced to orchestras, laughed at cabarets, played at cards and billiards, and visited wax museums. (In 1789, a waxen George Washington was put on display, in what might have passed for the first state visit by a US president.) ...Saint Domingue’s commerce added up to more than a third of France’s foreign trade. One person in eight in France earned a living that stemmed from it. By 1776, this tiny colony produced more income than the entire Spanish empire in the Americas. But Haiti’s superheated economy required constant, grinding labor in the plantations - and that meant massive importation of human beings from Africa. To a greater degree than in South Carolina or Virginia, the planters of Saint Domingue worked their slaves to death. This was a slave society on a scale beyond anything seen in North America. The profits were bigger, and so were the cruelties, distributed as generously. A small colony of 10,000 square miles - roughly the size of Massachusetts - held a teeming population of Africans, half a million strong, ruled over by a mixture of French families, light-skinned mulattoes, and the profiteering adventurers who always congregate in lively Caribbean cities. To a surprising degree, Boston was economically linked with a city that was in many ways its polar opposite. New England merchants had been getting rich in Hispaniola since at least 1684, when a young adventurer, William Phips, found a Spanish treasure that made his fortune there. Foodstuffs like dried fish were sold by enterprising Yankees to the rich French island, and the trade in molasses (a run-off of the sugar refining process) became a New England specialty, part of the so-called Triangle Trade. The difficulty of regulating this trade led to the strictures by which England tried and generally failed to bring HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI New England to heel, enraging Americans in the process.... Why did the French pour money into our cause? A large portion of the answer lies in Haiti, unremembered by Americans. France did not want to lose its jewel, and so it sprang into action when the American colonists began to agitate for their freedom. The king’s advisers worried that the British would use the conflict to shore up their Caribbean possessions, and seize Saint Domingue once and for all. To support the Americans would not only weaken the British and help avert that disaster, it would support a people with a known interest in trading with the French colonists. The loans were small and secretive at first, often funneled through clandestine agents. But eventually, French support grew open and robust. As recounted by Stacy Schiff in “A Great Improvisation,” France ultimately provided 1.3 billion livres, or the equivalent of $9 billion today. Without this help, the Revolution probably would have fizzled. Certainly it would not have lasted as long. When the Declaration of Independence announced the United States, the Americans had only about 30,000 fighting men and very little money. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “the world wondered that we so seldom fired a cannon. We could not afford it.” France’s aid made all the difference. The battle that ended the war - Yorktown - was essentially a French production. But not entirely French. To do their part, the people of Saint Domingue responded enthusiastically to the call to defend the infant United States. Haitians of all complexions fought alongside the continentals at the Battle of Savannah in 1779 (one of them was a 12-year-old drummer named Henri Christophe, who went on to pronounce himself king of Haiti in the 19th century, after getting a taste of independence in America). Just as importantly, Saint Domingue served as a vital point of transfer for the men, arms, and gunpowder flowing from France to the patriot cause. As those essential donations poured in to the United States, they came through what is now Haiti. Americans were buying powder there as early as 1775. The powder that won the battle of Saratoga came from there. The military engineers who designed the plans for victory at Yorktown and the cannons needed to win it and the French fleet who made sure it happened all came to us via our island neighbor. Yorktown essentially won it all for us. Perhaps the most important gift of all from Haiti to the United States came in a form that remains difficult to quantify, but was essential all the same. The money that kept the United States afloat during the long war for independence came from those enormous loans, negotiated by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams during their long stay in Paris. Does it not seem plausible that France had money to lend to one part of America because of the huge profits that another part of America - Saint Domingue - made possible? It is hard enough today to know how money goes from one pot into a government expenditure; the difficulty increases exponentially when looking at the distant finances of a country that no longer exists. But the vast sums pouring into France from Saint Domingue at exactly the same time made foreign aid to the New World a distinctly more attractive option than it would have been otherwise. The 1770s and 1780s were the richest decades Saint Domingue had ever seen. It goes without saying that the entire enterprise rested on the backs of the men and women whose labor powered it.... HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI Ultimately, America’s cause merged into Haiti’s own, for the huge loans given to America weakened the French economy sufficiently that another revolution broke out in Paris and the world turned upside down all over again. Out of that chaos emerged a third revolution, and a new Haitian nation, which declared independence in 1804, the second American country to do so. Its path since then has been rockier than our own, to put it mildly, but it overcame more difficult challenges than we did, including the opposition of nearly every nation on earth, the United States among them. There were voices, then as now, that saw some justice in bringing the two independent nations into closer orbit. Timothy Pickering of Salem, secretary of state from 1795 to 1800, considered the revolution’s leader, Toussaint Louverture, “a prudent and judicious man possessing the general confidence of the people of all colors.” Under John Adams, there was a flourishing trade, and even some US naval support for Toussaint’s maneuvers. In return, Toussaint’s supporters began to call Americans “the good whites.” On rare occasions, Americans even saw some similarity between the revolutions that each country experienced. In 1791, as the Haitian Revolution was just getting underway, a young Pennsylvania politician rose to defend the slaves fighting for their freedom, arguing, “if the insurrection of the Negroes were treated as a rebellion what name could be given to that of the Americans which won their independence?” In 1804, a Boston newspaper, the Columbian Centinel, wrote, “their case is not dissimilar to that of the people of the United States in 1778- 1800.” But in 1806, the Jefferson administration succeeded in a ban on all trade with the newly independent nation of Haiti, extinguishing its hopes for prosperity, at the beginning of its new history. But the story does not end there.... How many Americans live in the great heartland that stretches from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains? They owe a debt not only to Thomas Jefferson, Louisiana’s purchaser, but to Toussaint Louverture and the Haitians who fought so tenaciously for their freedom that Napoleon was forced to cash out of America. (He exclaimed, on hearing of the death of his best general, “damn sugar, damn coffee, damn colonies!”) How many Americans have been moved by the prints of John James Audubon, or the writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, or the many other descendants of Haitian families, white and black, who came here in the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution? How many of us have admired the iron balustrades of New Orleans and Charleston, wondering where the artisans came from who designed them?... HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
2015
June 17, Wednesday night: A white youth entered the African Methodist Episcopal church in Charleston, South Carolina and sat next to its pastor for an hour at a Bible study meeting (Mark 4) marking the 193d anniversary of the day on which Denmark Vesey had planned to set sail with his enslaved wife and children from Charleston harbor for refuge in Haiti. Then the young white man yelled “I’ll give you something to pray about” and, pulling his birthday Glock .45 automatic pistol out of its fanny pack, killed 9 black worshippers, putting in a new clip 5 times. He left after explaining to a survivor that he needed for her to be alive to explain because he was going to kill himself. What he wanted her to communicate was “Y’all are raping our women and taking over the country. This had to be done.” He was immediately arrested in North Carolina when sighted by a florist who recognized his dark 2000 Hyundai Elantra sedan with its Confederate-flag license plate and his “bowl” haircut, from news reports. Now the talking heads are engaging in a discussion of whether this young white man should or should not be described as a “terrorist.”73 Our inquiring minds want to know. 16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. 18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, 19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. 20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2016. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley Street, Durham NC 27701. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
73. Bear in mind that when a statute honoring Denmark Vesey was recently erected in Charleston, one of the objections that were recorded was that the person they were thus honoring had been a terrorist. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI
Prepared: December 22, 2016 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAINT-DOMINGUE HAYTI X