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

If the people were industrious, and relaxed from those vicious courses in which they now too much indulge; if marriage were more generally diffused, and morality inculcated; if some system were adopted which would tend towards a removal of the evils which now prevail through the republic, the population would in all probability increase, but until these are accomplished, such a result is not to be expected.

It has often been argued that labour in the colonies is a check upon increase, and that may be possible when the labour is excessive. But I think it will be admitted that a moderate portion of labour has a contrary effect, and this is exemplified in those states of America where slavery exists. In those states the increase is very great, and excites considerable apprehension lest the slave population should become too powerful a body to be kept in subjection. Raymond, an American author, and a political economist, in his remarks on the population of the United States, gives the increase of the slaves at one and a half per cent. annually, which I think is a refutation of the opinion of labour being a check of so serious a nature as has been contemplated. In the British colonies I have seen instances of large families, though the parents have undergone the regular labour of the plantation; but in Hayti, where very little labour is performed, I was not able to discover a solitary instance of a large family in any part through which I had occasion to travel. In the slave states of the North American Union, the labour of the slaves is as severe as in the British colonies, and on travelling through them I saw as many cases of large families among the slave population as occur among the white people, so that even severe labour is not a check upon increase to such a degree as many are led to imagine.

It must also be remarked, that among the Haytians there are but very few instances of longevity, the males seldom exceeding forty or fifty years of age, and the women probably a year or two more. At the age of thirty, both men and women have the appearance of being prematurely afflicted by the weight of time; the effects, no doubt, of an unrestricted sensual intercourse and other vices, and greatly increased by sloth and indolence. In the slave colonies, on the contrary, men and women will be found at the age of fifty possessing all the health and vigour of their sex, whilst those who have been emancipated, and have imbibed the indolent habits, and pursued the licentious indulgences so characteristic of the negro in a state of uncontrolled liberty, exhibit the decrepitude of age even at forty.

I have offered the foregoing remarks on population with a view to shew that it is impossible that the census taken in 1824 can be correct; and I think it must appear conclusive, under all the circumstances connected with the state of society, that the large increase of population said to have taken place between the time of Dessalines and the present period, rests upon no authority whatever. The habits of the people manifestly oppose such a supposition. That for several years there has been no increase, I am persuaded; and so long as the people are permitted to indulge in all those excesses which are so prevalent in the country, I am convinced that their number will continue to decrease.

I have but little to advance by way of conclusion to my labours, further than to observe that I trust it will be seen that Hayti has been too much extolled; that the extraordinary and rapid strides said to have been made by its inhabitants, in wealth, morality, and knowledge, is a fiction which has not the slightest foundation; and that, before a change can be effected, ages must roll away and a new people be created. The present race are too hardened in vice to be improved by example, or taught the distinction between that which may benefit the country and that which must prove subversive of the public good. Let loose from restraint, without having been first taught how to enjoy freedom, they have given way to ungovernable passions, and plunged into every species of vice. Feeling only the few wants characteristic of the savage, and those wants easily supplied, they are careless of all consequences, and never bestow a thought on the future welfare either of their posterity or their country; but go on without the least constraint, fostering and pursuing every evil and pernicious habit. But such a state as this must bring on a crisis of no ordinary danger and difficulty, and Hayti may yet have to endure a repetition of those scenes of trouble and desolation which have marked her career from the revolution; which may shake or perhaps destroy the little fabric which she has raised, and finally bring upon her people all those fatal consequences which spring from morals and habits universally dissolute and relaxed.

Hayti affords us a strong instance of what may be expected from the emancipation of slaves before they have been previously prepared to receive this boon by moral and religious instruction, and a proof that agriculture cannot efficiently be carried on in the colonies if it depend on the labour of the enfranchised slave. Should it be therefore thought expedient to declare the slaves in the British colonies free before they have been prepared for such a measure, and provision be made against the consequences of that sudden ebullition which emancipation would excite, the colonies may be taken leave of for ever as a productive appendage to the crown. Hayti bears me out in this opinion; for that country presents a lasting monument of what may be expected from injudicious emancipation, or what may be effected by free labour. With the finest soil in the world for all the purposes of tropical agriculture, with seasons the most congenial, with a climate so varied in its temperature as to be peculiarly adapted for the production, of not only tropical plants, but those of America and of Europe also, with a population of labourers equal to her wants, were they moral and industrious, – with all these important advantages naturally adapted to raise her into eminence and wealth, yet has Hayti sunk into the lowest state of poverty and moral degradation. Without agriculture, for the country displays nothing but waste; without commerce, for her harbours are empty, and present no appearance of a revival of trade; with an exhausted treasury and a diminished revenue; with a heavy debt and a debased currency, Hayti must finally be overwhelmed in irretrievable ruin.

One plan however still remains to be tried, by which she may in time perhaps recover her shattered state. Let the people be roused to a sense of their abject condition, and if laws be enacted for the enforcement of cultivation, let them not sleep, but be executed with an unsparing hand, and the penalty which they impose be rigidly inflicted on the disobedient and the indolent. Those mistaken views of philanthropy upon which the government has hitherto proceeded have proved destructive to the country, and the effects of ill-judged leniency are now too heavy to be any longer borne. Coercive measures are now, it is said, to take the place of mild ones; the people are not to be permitted to pursue their own uncontrolled courses as heretofore, nor the indolent to slumber with impunity. All are to spring forward as with one impulse, to an extended culture of the soil, for the purpose of restoring the country to its ancient condition.

I wish the promise thus held out to the world may be realized, and that the government may still possess sufficient energy to give effect to its declared intention; but I have my doubts of both. The president is incompetent, and the government weak and imbecile; and whilst the present rulers are permitted to hold the reins of the state machine, I for one cannot hope that the country will emerge from that miserable condition into which an unwise policy, and an overstrained and mistaken philanthropy, have unfortunately thrown it. Time, it is said, effects wonderful changes, but I fear no change can take place for the better in Hayti until there be a new race of people, under the dominion of a chief competent to rule them with efficient energy.

THE END

1

Walton.

2

Anonymous.

3

Anonymous.

4

Anonymous.

5

Anonymous.

6

Letter to Sismonde.

7

Walton, Vol. I.

8

P. Saunders.

9

Extract from “The Courier.”