limit his powers. He put to death many of the senators, and alienated all of his friends. About 1810, Rigaud returned from France, and assuming the title of Restorer of Liberty, headed an army in the South to put down Pétion. They met, and agreed to hold separate dominions; a small part of the island being set apart for Rigaud, as General-in-chief of the South. He died suddenly, shortly thereafter, and a mulatto, General Borghella, was named as his successor. On the approach of Pétion he surrendered. In 1816, Pétion was nominated President for life; and on 29th March, 1818, he died, having, during his long exercise of power, done no act to entitle him to a higher commendation than that he was an ambitious sluggard. Boyer, a French mulatto, who accompanied Le Clerc, was elected President in his stead. We have seen how he was indebted to Richard for the possession of the North. Upon a false charge of conspiracy he caused him to be shot, on 28th February, 1821. Five or six others of the most prominent of his subjects shared a similar fate. About this date, the Spanish colony of Domingo revolted from the mother country and set up an independent republic. This fell an early prey to Boyer, who thus became master of the whole island. Upon the restoration of the Bourbons, negotiations were opened, and efforts made to restore this most prized colony to the French throne. It would be tedious to pursue the details. In April, 1827, Charles X sent his last propositions, and accompanied them with a fleet of thirty sail. Boyer, intimidated by the fleet, accepted of the terms proposed. By these, the independence of Hayti was acknowledged upon the payment of an indemnity of 150,000,000 francs. Thus was effected the first great effort of liberating the slaves of the West Indies.' We will consider its consequences hereafter. 1 Colonies Françaises, par M. Schoelcher. CHAPTER XIII. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY BY GREAT BRITAIN, SWEDEN, DENMARK, AND FRANCE. In the year 1823, a society was formed "for the mitigation and gradual abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions." Clarkson, who had been so instrumental in calling public attention to the slave-trade, devoted his time and pen to this consummation of his work. During the same year, the subject was brought before Parliament by Mr. Buxton, and immediate abolition urged by him, Wilberforce, and others. Compromise resolutions, recommending judicious reforms, were proposed by government and finally passed. In 1826, the same gentlemen renewed the subject in Parliament, and numberless petitions were presented from various portions of the kingdom, especially from the manufacturing cities; the latter praying particularly that equal facilities be afforded for commerce to the East Indies, with those extended to the West Indies. The motion was renewed in various shapes from year to year. Commissioners were appointed by the government to inquire into the state of affairs in the colonies, and especially into the administration of civil and criminal justice; and their elaborate reports gave minute information as to the condition of the islands. From forfeitures and escheats sundry slaves had become the property of the 1 See substance of the three reports, published in 1827. London. The reports, complete, make a dozen folio volumes. government. These were termed "crown slaves." In 1830, these were liberated by an order in council. The number, however, was very small, not exceeding a few thousand. The efforts being made for their liberation could not be concealed from the slaves. The colonists charged that it was not only industriously circulated, but that the slaves were incited to insurrection by various Baptist and Methodist missionaries, who were sent out among them from the mother country. Certain it is, that insurrection and rebellion did follow, and that numbers of the slaves lost their lives in consequence thereof. The missionaries were arrested, imprisoned, and some of them driven from the islands. In 1832, committees were appointed in both Houses of Parliament to inquire and report such measures as were expedient on the subject of emancipation. These spent some time in examining witnesses, and reported their investigations. In 1833, was finally passed the act providing for the abolition of slavery. Fearing the result of immediate abolition, the act postponed its operation for one year (till 1st August, 1834), and then substituted a system of apprenticeships, varying from four to six years, prescribing the number of hours per week the apprentices should labor for their former masters, allowing one-third of their time for themselves, restricting the infliction of corporal punishment, except by order of special justices of the peace, and giving minute specifications of the powers and rights both of the masters and the apprentices. The sum of £20,000,000 was appropriated to make compensation to the owners for the loss of their property. This act was the result of the wisdom and philanthropy of the British nation, and great expectations were entertained of the beneficial results to flow from this tutelage of the slave, before investing him with per fect liberty. That it failed of its object is universally admitted, and the emancipationists attributed to this apprentice system the many evils growing out of this violent uprooting of an entire social system. The colonists complained bitterly, and their opponents (perhaps not without cause), accused them of seeking to evade all of its provisions. They again accused the negroes of miserable evasions under pretence of sickness and otherwise. On the day before perfect liberty was granted, the infirmaries of Jamaica, says an intelligent French writer, were crowded with negroes professing to be sick. The next day they were all cured. What worked this miracle? The arrival of liberty.' The English abolitionists appealed to Parliament to cut the Gordian knot and grant immediate freedom. The rights of the proprietors were laughed to scorn. It is possible that this movement would have succeeded, but it was rendered unnecessary by the colonies themselves, who, sick of their apprentices, granted entire freedom before the day appointed. Antigua led in this movement contemporaneously with the commencement of the system. Bermuda and other smaller islands followed the example soon thereafter. Barbadoes came next early in 1838, others followed, and on 1st August of that year, the apprentice system ended in Jamaica. Some insignificant outbreaks had attended its workings, but on the whole it was effected peaceably.2 In another place we will examine the results of this abolition in its effects upon these colonies. It may be well here to remark, that the character of the slavery of the negro in the British West Indies and in the United States, differs widely. That the negroes were not improving physically in the former, is proven conclusively by the fact, that instead of increasing in numbers, they 1 Cassagnac's Voyage aux Antilles, i, 275. were rapidly decreasing. Before the abolition of the trade, twenty years were estimated as the average labor of a healthy negro. It is estimated, that at least 700,000 negroes were imported and retained in Jamaica before the trade was checked. Yet, in 1834, there were liberated only 311,000, showing a destruction of life almost unparalleled. That this annual decrease continued to the last days of slavery, is evident from the registry of deaths and births kept by requisition of law. These show a plurality of deaths for almost every year. The same results are shown from the statistics of Barbadoes, St. Vincents, British Guiana, Trinidad, and Grenada. The whole number of slaves imported into the British West Indies is estimated at 1,700,000. There were emancipated 660,000, a little over one-third of the importations. The decrease for the last five years, before emancipation, was nearly one per cent. per annum. On the other hand, for 333,500, estimated as imported into the United States, there were, in 1850, 3,800,000; showing a steady increase of population itself almost unparalleled. Had the negroes imported into the British West Indies increased in the same ratio as they increased here, instead of the sum paid, it would have required from the British treasury the enormous sum of £500,000,000 to have compensated the masters at the same prices. And so, had the negroes decreased with us as they did in the British colonies, every master could now be compensated, at the same rates paid there, with the small sum of £4,000,000.1 Sweden and Denmark, by various provisions, ameliorated greatly the condition of the slaves in their respective colonies. The hours of work were prescribed, their food and clothing, the amount of chastisement, and the instrument. The right of the slave to his peculium, and to make complaint against his master, was secured by See Carey's Slave-Trade, Foreign and Domestic, ch. ii, iii. |