The Present State of Hayti (Saint Domingo) with Remarks on its Agriculture, Commerce, Laws, Religion, Finances, and Population

It is evident that sugar is not much cultivated, as in every district throughout the republic there are only a few plantations to be seen in the plains of Cul de Sac and vicinity of Port au Prince where sugar is produced. There were in the time of the French about one hundred and forty sugar estates, very few, if any, with less than one thousand acres of land, one-fourth of which would be in canes, and the remainder in pastures and other crops. Now in the same space there are not more than twenty estates, and in each of them there cannot be found more than from forty to fifty acres of canes, the remainder of the land being in a neglected state, overrun with different weeds. President Boyer has an estate within a small distance of Port au Prince, called Tor, the favourite residence of the late Petion. This plantation has upwards of two thousand acres of land attached to it, and, from the great strength of the soil, it is impossible to select a spot more eligible for the production of sugar. But there are not more than forty acres of the land in canes. This, however, is not singular; it is general throughout the island. When the sugar cane in Hayti was cultivated properly, and received the requisite care and attention in the several stages of its growth, it produced very abundantly. Bryan Edwards gives an average of two thousand seven hundred and twelve pounds of sugar per acre through the island; and at this period I have been informed, and in fact I have seen it calculated myself, that in the plains of Cul de Sac and Leogane the average does not exceed one thousand pounds of sugar per acre; and an experienced planter on looking at the canes when they are ripe for cutting, would conclude that they would not produce so much. Formerly a pound of sugar was obtained from a gallon of juice in some districts, in others sixteen pounds from twenty gallons, and in some sixteen pounds from twenty-four gallons: but now it requires nearly treble the quantity of juice to produce the same quantity of sugar: and this must remain so, until a new system of cultivation be tried, and the management of the plantations be entrusted to men of experience, men who have been practical planters, and who are conversant with the whole of its duties; men, I say, who have a perfect knowledge of the soil, its capabilities and its wants for the work of tillage, and who will devote their time and attention to all the minutiæ of plantation labour. If such a system should ever be pursued in Hayti, and there be labourers to cultivate, and capital can be invested securely, then sugar planting may be carried on with some chance of a successful issue: until this take place, I have great doubts whether the culture of the cane will prove profitable to the occupier of the soil.

The labour required for the cultivation of coffee is exceedingly light: I was therefore much surprised to see the very little progress the people had made in this branch of agriculture. When an individual, who has been accustomed to plantations in the British, French, and Spanish islands, visits the coffee plantations in Hayti, and observes the whole conducted without judgment or care, it impresses him with a most unfavourable idea of the people; and when he sees the easiest branch of agriculture so much neglected, it convinces him that their idleness is almost invincible. In the British islands every coffee plantation is arranged with the greatest exactitude. The lands are divided into fields as nearly equal as possible, and in those fields, in all probability, the coffee has been planted in successive seasons, so that when the period arrives in which the trees begin to exhibit a decline in their growth, the planter provides for the loss of them by planting others, and by this expedient manages always to keep up his crop. The fences which divide the fields are constantly kept up with regularity and order, the whole having the appearance of a garden laid out with neatness and precision. The plantation works for washing, drying, and preparing the coffee, are in the best condition, and with the barbacues, exhibit a well-arranged system for the production of the berry. In Hayti the scene is different: what is denominated there a coffee plantation, is neither more nor less than a large tract of land, throughout which grows spontaneously the coffee tree; not planted there by the people, but sprung from the seed which has fallen from those planted by the French, and which escaped destruction during the revolution. There is no such thing as a plantation established upon the same principle as in other islands. There are no divisions, no laying out of the lands, no order of planting in succession, nothing done towards improving and fertilizing the soil, in order to aid the growth of the tree, no lopping it of its excrescences, and pruning it to strengthen the parent stem; but every thing is left to nature, the pruning knife is sheathed, and the rank luxuriance of the tree is permitted to increase, whilst the hoe is seldom called into use, to extirpate those weeds which are so destructive to vegetation.

A person must be somewhat conversant with travelling in Hayti before he can discover on his road that a coffee plantation is near him. For my part, I could see nothing that resembled one, nor should I have known the coffee tree, growing as it did in a pyramidal form, surrounded by numberless other shrubs, had it not been for the appearance of a few red berries on one of its lower branches. I alighted from my mule to examine some trees just round the spot: as nearly as I could ascertain, every tree must have exceeded twelve feet in height, and I am convinced that each of them at the time would not have produced two pounds of coffee in the husk. I had the curiosity to go a little way into the interior of this settlement to see if there were any thing like cultivation, but I could discover nothing bearing the least resemblance to a plantation. I saw nothing but a hut, and four or five people in it, whom I found to be the proprietors of the place. They were inquisitive, and not much pleased that I should have intruded on their privacy, and therefore I had a hint from my guide that it would be prudent not to advance farther. I saw, however, enough to convince me that there was no regular system of cultivation pursued in this place, although there were twelve hundred acres of land in the Keen; and that the coffee grew in a wild state, the soil never being touched or disturbed, save, occasionally, by pigs, goats and asses, which range through the whole, and feed on the grass which grows luxuriantly in the intervals. Mills are not very common, and the few which exist are very small and turned by asses. Washing and pulping are not performed by machinery. Indeed I am inclined to suspect that they are dispensed with altogether, as I could not find any apparatus for these operations. My guide knew this plantation well, and he told me, that although the proprietor had this large tract of land, yet he was so poor that he could not afford to hire cultivators, who, when employed, never did work enough to pay for their hire. I was anxious to ascertain the annual quantity of coffee which this place produced, and I was told that it did not exceed four thousand five hundred pounds weight. I have mentioned this plantation because it is considered to be a settlement in a productive part of the country, the mountains of Leogane; and extraordinary as it may appear, it is a very good illustration of the coffee settlements in general, all of which exhibit negligence and want of that industry which characterize the Haytian planter and cultivator.

Cotton, which formerly was an article much grown in Hayti, is now greatly neglected, although the labour attending it is very inconsiderable, the people having no wish to extend cultivation to those products of the soil which require planting annually. It is both an annual and a perennial plant, but the former is esteemed as most productive, whilst the latter is somewhat out of repute from not affording such profitable returns. In some of the districts, when in possession of the French, from the extreme luxuriance of the soil, a planter could obtain, from the labour of one man, six thousand pounds of it annually; but in these more modern times, and under the free labour system, not more than six hundred pounds can be obtained, and even that is only partial, and not a general thing. In the vicinity of Gonaives it is more cultivated than in any other district, the soil in the uplands being more congenial for its growth than it is in any other part of the island. In the time of the French it produced about three millions and a half of pounds weight, but in 1825 the crop only amounted to five hundred and twenty thousand pounds. With lands so exceedingly fertile, so peculiarly adapted for the cultivation of this plant, it is not a very cheering prospect to see that free labour is able to accomplish so little in the production of an article of culture that requires such trifling exertion. What might not be accomplished by an industrious race of people in the production of cotton, in a country so favourable to its growth? If it were possible to waft the industry of the peasantry of Great Britain to the shores of Hayti, what an extraordinary effect would it have in the production of an article, the superior quality of which would so amply repay the tillers for their industry and care. But the Haytians care not for these things; they are totally unconcerned about the growth of any article for foreign consumption; they seem to have no desire beyond that of cultivating the few vegetables required for their own immediate use, leaving all other things to the effects of nature, even valuable articles of spontaneous growth being sometimes permitted to rise and fall into decay without becoming the object of the cultivator’s attention.

The culture of cocoa is not now attended to, except, I believe, in the vicinity of Jeremie. It is a plant the nature of which is peculiarly delicate, and requires shade as well as moisture, and it is material to its growth, that it should be defended against the powerful rays of the sun. The labour of cultivating it is very trifling; the most important duty which it requires is to guard it during its approach to perfection against the macaw and the parrot, for wherever they touch the pod, destruction ensues. It may be considered a perennial plant, for the fruit is found upon it throughout the greater part of the year, though there are two principal crops, which are gathered in June and December. After it is gathered great care must be taken of it, for before it is prepared for market it receives a sweat by the application of salt water, which destroys any vermin that may have got into it, and, it is said, preserves its hue. Any vegetable production requiring so much care in the culture and preparation of it will never become extensively cultivated in Hayti, although it may be exceedingly profitable. The Haytians cannot confine themselves to any settled system of planting; and cocoa therefore requiring the greatest possible aid through the whole progress of its growth, as well as much attention after it is picked, will never be an article of very general culture, however valuable it may be to the planter.

Although there are a great many fields in which the indigo grows wild, and settlements in which it was once extensively cultivated still exist, yet at this period but very little is produced. Its cultivation requires the greatest care, for it has to go through a very long process, from the picking of the leaves on which the blue is found until it is fit to be removed into chests. This is too much for the fickle Haytian planter to undergo. It is said to be a plant that cannot be cultivated without shade and moisture, and that it will not bear any other vegetable near it without sustaining great injury. It is a plant also that exhausts the soil very considerably indeed, and at the end of two years it has not only become degenerated, but the land which bore it becomes weak and unfit to be again used for its production. After the loss of Hayti to the French, they made experiments on its growth in some parts of their dominions in Europe, and they are I think stated to have been successful, but the quantity which they raised was small. The indigo from Guatemala is esteemed the finest, and in that republic is an article of very extensive cultivation, and a source of great wealth to the people who cultivate it; but the native Spaniards and the Indians of that country are a very industrious race of people, and leave nothing untried which may improve their country, or enrich themselves.

I am astonished that the cochineal insect was never extensively sought after, and the raising of it more generally attended to in Hayti, as the cactus, or prickly pear, on which it feeds, grows throughout the whole of the country, and forms a common fence round gardens in many parts of the island. So precious an insect, and requiring no labour in the preservation of it, must be a valuable acquisition to those who would devote their time in looking after it; but the attention which it absolutely requires causes the Haytians to neglect it. It is said to have been in the time of the Spaniards an indigenous insect, and that in the districts of St. John’s and Ocoa they usually collected large quantities for the European market.

The cultivation of tobacco has declined exceedingly, although the districts of St. Jago and the whole of the banks of the Yague, as well as the plains of La Vega, produced an article very little inferior in its quality to that of Cuba. The large quantities of this commodity which found their way to Jamaica were a source of great wealth to the Spaniards who cultivated it; but that vent being closed, it has now become much neglected; and as the Spanish cultivators of it have mostly left the island, and have gone to the Spanish Main or to Cuba, a little is still produced by the Haytian planters; but, as with respect to every other article derived from the soil, they are quite careless about the culture of it, and often leave it to decay, rather than undergo the toil of preparing it for market. There are other territorial productions which formerly were considered important to raise, and which gave the planter very handsome returns, such as ginger, pimento, rice, vanilla, palma christi oil (ricinus Americanus), and sarsaparilla, as well as many indigenous plants that contain qualities which might make a valuable addition to the number of useful drugs now comprised in the Materia Medica. All these may now be said to be totally disregarded, with the exception of rice, which is occasionally grown, for I could never ascertain that any individual devoted the least of his time to cultivating them, nor did I ever see any of them exhibited as articles of commerce in any part of the country.

Having now adverted to the productions of the soil in Hayti, and the decline of agriculture through the country, it may not be improper, by way of a conclusion to this subject, to offer a few remarks on what is termed free labour, and the consequences which have arisen from it in Hayti. It seems to me quite clear that this subject is by no means well understood in Europe, and that its advocates are much too sanguine and enthusiastic when they expect that it would be found practicable to keep up the tillage of the colonies if their present sable cultivators were to be set free. It is indisputable that the declaration of freedom to the slave population in Hayti was the ruin of the country, and that it has not been attended with those benefits which the sanguine philanthropists of Europe anticipated. The inhabitants have neither advanced in moral improvement, nor are their civil rights more respected; their condition is not changed for the better. They are not slaves, it is true, but they are suffering under greater deprivations than can well be imagined, whilst slaves have nothing to apprehend, for they are clothed, fed, and receive every medical aid in the time of sickness. The free labourer in Hayti, from innate indolence and from his state of ignorance, obtains barely enough for his subsistence. He cares not for clothing, and as to aid under sickness he cannot obtain it; thus he is left to pursue a course that sinks him to a level with the brute creation, and the reasoning faculties of the one are almost inferior to the instinct of the other, and will be so until moral instruction effect a change. Had the Haytians been prepared for freedom by moral and religious education, emancipation might have done them some good; but even then, they would not have made much progress unless agriculture had been legally imposed as a duty, and the government enforced all the laws enacted for punishing negligence and disobedience. I have never yet been able to discover in Hayti, that the blacks since their emancipation have improved in the extraordinary degree which they are sometimes represented to have done. It is probable that those blacks who live in the towns may have improved a little. Their intercourse with the strangers who visit the country and their avocations afford them opportunities of improving, which are denied to their brethren in the interior parts. But to calculate the increase of improvement from the progress of those in the towns, is wrong. The whole mass of the people must be taken, and then, if the measure of moral improvement be ascertained, it will not be found to exceed one in fifteen. The state of ignorance prevailing among the people in the mountains and the interior parts is almost inconceivable. It appears as if the work of civilization had not commenced, and that the people had not taken one voluntary step towards improving themselves in any one thing. Neither is there one step taken by the government to force some degree of attention to those duties that may eventually improve them, unless, since the conviction of their own impolitic system of governing, the Code Rural should effect that change which ought to have been accomplished before.

If any one suppose for a moment that the present race of free labourers in Hayti resemble the free labourers of any other part of the world, he will be most egregiously deceived. There cannot be a greater distinction between two classes of people than there is between the free labourers in Hayti and those of Cuba and the southern states of North America. The first are in a state of profound ignorance, inheriting all those vices of idolatry and heathenism so peculiar to the African race; whilst the second, before they received the boon of freedom, had been taught how to value it, had received the blessings of a moral and religious education, and, although they were not admitted into the general community of free persons, but formed a class of their own, yet they were respected and became valuable as labourers. In the United States the incitements to labour are great, the most important being that of want; and until the Haytians are impelled by a stimulus equally powerful, they will not work; and that such a stimulus will be found is not probable, while we know that the labour of a few days will furnish a negro with sustenance for a month. Experiments may be tried, laws may be enacted, and encouragement given, but nothing short of coercion and want will impel the Haytian to labour; and I have my doubts as to the practicability of enforcing labour in Hayti until the people have been better instructed, and their characters become changed. As to want, the fertility of the soil is so great that it offers every security against its occurrence, by the most simple exertions. It is evident to me, that unless constant labour be required for the support of the negro, he never can become like the free labourers in other countries; and to imagine that he will work for hire without coercion, is absolutely to imagine that to be practicable which is physically impossible. I am well aware that it has been often asserted that the Haytians are always found willing to contract, or engage to perform any proportion of the work required on a plantation, on being fairly and equitably remunerated for their labour; but I am bold to pronounce such an assertion, come from what quarter it may, to be unfounded. It was, I aver, out of the power of a proprietor to obtain labourers, although the most liberal offers were made to them to undertake a proportion of such work as he wished to be performed.

It is perhaps unfortunate that the local authorities in Hayti are individuals without decision, and too apt to submit to the will of the people; mere nonentities, without resolution sufficient to command obedience in their several districts, although invested with power to commit, or inflict summary punishment. Hence there is much reason to presume that the enactments of the Code Rural will become inefficacious for a more general and extensive cultivation of the soil, and that agricultural pursuits will not be the least encouraged or promoted by its clauses, because the task of enforcing them devolves on the very imbecile class of persons who constitute the executive part of the government.

Before I conclude this part of my observations, I cannot avoid repeating, that Hayti must not be held up as an example of what can be accomplished by free labour; but that it ought rather to be the beacon to warn the government of England against an experiment which may prove absolutely fatal to her colonial system. If it be not wished that a fate similar to that which has befallen Hayti should overtake our own colonies, that they should be rendered totally unproductive to the revenue of the country, and that the property invested in them should be preserved from destruction, the advisers of the crown must pause before they listen to the ill-judged suggestions of enthusiasts; for they must banish from their minds the idea that the work of cultivation can be made productive by means of free labour. Such a thing appears to me impossible. The negro, constituted as he is, has such an aversion from labour, and so great a propensity for indulgence and vice, that no prospect of advantage can stimulate him, and as for emulation it has not the slightest influence over him. Without force he will sink into lethargy, and revert to his primitive savage character, and the only feasible and effectual plan to promote his civilization is to persist in those measures which compel him to labour, inculcate morality, and tend to extirpate those vices which are inherent in the descendants of the African race. This has been often exemplified in cases of Africans who have been taken from their native soil and educated in England. When they have returned to the spot of their nativity, and have beheld their kindred indulging in all the habits of savage life, they have thrown off all traces of civilization, and embraced with all their primeval ardour the vices of their native country. As Africa has presented various instances of this, so has it occurred also among the Indian tribes, not only of North but of South America.

I trust that my readers will not for a moment consider that I am advocating the cause of slavery; that I have the most distant wish that freedom should not be conceded to the slave population of the world; but that, if it were possible, the whole of the British colonies should be cultivated by free labourers. Nothing can be more opposite to my feelings than such a supposition, for I should be one of the first to exult were the measure practicable, and were the condition of the slave to be changed for the better by it. But I have Hayti before me as an example, as a forcible illustration of the evils likely to attend such an experiment; for I am convinced that to attempt it, would inevitably ruin all interests, be a signal for general insurrection, and the colonies would then be lost for ever as a productive possession of the crown, without improving the condition of the slave. I venture to make this declaration from a knowledge of the character of the slave. From having, during an intercourse of twenty-two years with those countries in which slavery exists, minutely examined him in all his essential qualities, I have been only able to arrive at the conclusion, that it will be found an undertaking of extreme difficulty to change his nature so as to make freedom a good to him; and even assuming that such an attempt should be considered practicable, it is evident that it must be the work of time, and not the result of any sudden and precipitate act. But I would, with great deference, call upon my countrymen to deliberate before they venture upon further experiments, unless they wish to subvert their colonial establishments; and not to be hurried into the adoption of any measure without the most serious consideration of the consequences which are likely to ensue from it. I would call upon them to examine into the state and condition of the Haytian people, before they adopt any plan, or devise any means, for attempting to cultivate their colonies by free labour. The state of the population of this island is calculated to excite the most painful sensations, and their abject sloth, indolence, and ignorance, would, I should think, induce the warmest philanthropists of England to form the wish that their condition were rendered equal to that of the slave population of the British colonies. Their condition has not been improved by the change from slaves to free labourers. In point of fact, the slave is infinitely better off than the free labourer of Hayti; in physical circumstances he is particularly so; and even as regards morality, the former has the advantage. I say again that Hayti, instead of being an example of what may be done by free labour in the tropics, or a proof that agriculture can be successfully carried on by it, stands as a beacon to caution us against the rock on which the prosperity of the colonies is likely to be wrecked.