eight, after which time they were free. The census of 1840 shows sixty-four still in slavery.1

In New York a similar act was passed in 1799, emancipating the future issue of slaves, males at the age of twenty-eight, females twenty-five years. In 1817, another act was passed, declaring all slaves free on the 4th July, 1827. In 1790, there were 21,324 slaves in this State. In 1800 (before the emancipating act could take effect), there were only 20,343. In 1840, four only remained.

New Jersey, in 1790, held 11,423 slaves. In 1804, the prospective extinction of slavery was provided for by a similar statute to those of New York and Pennsylvania. The process, however, must have been slower, as the census of 1840 gives her 674 slaves, and that of 1850, 236.

Notwithstanding the ardent temperament of the Southern people, and their early zealous advocacy of universal liberty, practical emancipation with them was a much more momentous question. Virginia alone in 1790 contained 293,427 slaves, more than seven times as many as all the foregoing States combined. Her productions were almost exclusively the result of slave labor. Her white population exceeded her slaves only about twenty-five per cent. Her soil and climate and (in a much greater degree), those of the more Southern States, were not only peculiarly fitted for negro labor, but almost excluded white labor from agricultural pursuits. The problem was one of no easy solution, how this " great evil," as it was then called, was to be removed with safety to the master and benefit to the slave. It would have doubtless remained a problem perplexing the thoughts and paining the hearts of the

1

'A negro woman slave was sold by the sheriff, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to pay debts, in the year 1823. Lynch v. The Commonwealth, 6 Watts, 495.

good and wise to this day, had not the Northern and foreign fanaticism forced upon the South an investigation back of the stand-point which was then occupied, and with it the conviction that the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe has not permitted this "great evil" to accumulate until it is beyond control, but has exhibited in this, as in all his dealings with man, that overruling wisdom and providence which causes man's wrath to praise Him.

CHAPTER XII.

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN HAYTI, OR ST. DOMINGO.

WE will refer hereafter to the subsequent history of the abolition struggle in the United States. We turn now to the West Indies, to trace hurriedly the progress of emancipation there.

Prominent among them stands Hayti, or St. Domingo. Originally belonging to Spain, by gradual encroachment it became partially under the French dominion, until, in 1789, the latter nation owned about one-third of the island. Voluntary manumission, granted generally to the half-breed or mulattoes, the fruit of the illicit intercourse of the whites with the slaves, had, at the time of the French Revolution, placed in the French portion of the island a population of 21,808. At that time the whites numbered only 27,717, while the slaves amounted to 405,564.' The cry of "Liberty and Equality" of the French metropolis was taken up and echoed by the whites of Domingo, especially the poorer classes, who looked with envy and hatred upon the immense estates of the landed proprietors. The free mulattoes also (many of whom were possessed of slaves and other property), rejoiced in the cry, for though free they had never been admitted to any political privileges, and the "prejudice of color" existed to a remarkable degree,

1 These are the estimates of M. Barbė-Marbois, in 1788. See Rees's Cyclopædia, Domingo. Others estimate the slaves at 700,000. Schoelcher, Colonies Etrangères, tom. ii, p. 86.

where nothing but color and these political privileges distinguished the one class from the other.

The first outburst of the French Revolution found three distinct parties in Domingo: the wealthy landed proprietors, who were averse to change, and desired at least to act in subordination to the Government of the metropolis; Les Blancs, or the white Republicans, who desired to set up an independent government in the island; and the mulattoes, who were clamorous for equality, whatever might be the extent of the privileges gained. The first dissension arose between the two former classes, and so great was the prejudice of color, that neither would accept of the aid of the mulattoes unless they would wear a badge, of a color different from the whites.1 The latter petitioned the National Assembly for a recognition of their rights, and the reply was, that "no part of the nation should appeal in vain for its rights before the assembled representatives of the French people," and on the 8th March, 1790, a decree was passed, granting political privileges to all free persons of the age of twenty-five years, and who were proprietors of land. Both factions of the whites combined to defeat this decree, and succeeded in inducing the Governor of the island to construe it as applying only to white persons. The fraud was subsequently discovered by a young mulatto, Vincent Ogé, while in France, and upon his return home he assembled eighty or ninety of his class, and boldly demanded the execu tion of the decree. He was routed by the chief of the National Guard, and he and his followers taken prisoners and executed. But the "prejudice of color" would not allow the scaffold to be erected where the whites were usually executed."

In the meantime each party of the whites were at

'Schoelcher, Colonies Etrangères, tom. ii, 95. 3 Schoelcher, tom. ii, pp. 95, 96.

2 Ibid.

p. 91.

The Governor,

tempting to set up a government. Peynier, at St. Domingo, represented the metropolitan party. The Assembly of the Reformers was held at St. Mark.

Pending these difficulties, the slaves in the north began to talk of liberty.' The 24th of August, 1791, witnessed a formidable insurrection among them. They carried fire and devastation in their route. The National Guard, however, soon dispersed them, and the head of their leader, Boakmann, was placed on a pike in the midst of the public square. The punishment inflicted by the whites was excessive. They confined it not to those engaged in the revolt, but considering every black an enemy, massacred without distinction all that fell in their way. In this insurrection it is supposed that two thousand white persons perished; twelve hundred families were reduced to indigence; one hundred and eighty sugar and nine hundred cotton plantations destroyed, and the buildings consumed by fire.3

About this time, there reached the island the decree of the National Assembly of the 15th May, 1791, which, in plain terms, granted equal political privileges to all freemen born of free parents, without regard to color. The whites resolved that they would not submit to its provisions; the mulattoes to obtain, by force, their legal rights. Each party armed themselves, and each party armed also a body of their faithful slaves, to do

'Insurrectionary pamphlets had been previously distributed among them, issued by the abolitionists of Paris (Amis des Noirs), who counted among their numbers, Mirabeau, Robespierre, Abbé Grégoire, and other leaders of the Revolution. See Speech of the Deputies, before the National Assembly, Nov. 3d, 1791, in which the insurrection is attributed entirely to this cause.

2 See Schoelcher, pp. 99–101. Some palliation for this is found in the barbarous cruelty of the revolting negroes. Their standard was the body of a white child, elevated on a pole. Their murders and rapes were brutal in the extreme. See Speech of Deputies, as above.

Rees's Cyclopædia, Domingo.

1