A note on the text
An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti was first published in 1805 and never republished, except in German and Dutch translations. The only English edition contains a list of errata. We correct sentences as indicated.
We silently correct other typographical errors.
Rainsford’s spelling can be confusing, at times because it follows conven-tions that have since become obsolete, at other times because it is inconsis-tent. We stay as close to the original text as possible, so we retain Rainsford’s unorthodox spellings when they are consistent throughout. When he gives alternate spellings for the same word (“independent” with an “e” or an “a,”
for instance) we stick to the more common spelling. We also systematically use British instead of American spelling in his text, for obvious reasons. Our editorial endnotes, though, follow American spelling conventions.
Rainsford’s spelling often strays from accepted spellings of proper nouns.
We retain misspelled names when routinely misspelled in documents of the time, except in cases when the same name is spelled different ways through-out. Then we use the spelling closest to the accepted and keep to it. Thus Rainsford writes St. Mark in some instances and St. Marc in others. We use the second consistently. Because he spells Jean Rabell consistently, we retain it, even though the accepted spelling is Jean Rabel. In our notes we use con-temporary accepted spellings.
When Rainsford misspelled otherwise accurate quotations (usually in French), we correct them. We retain Rainsford’s inaccurate quotations in English (often from poems) and French (for instance the Marseillaise) and in-dicate mistakes and departures from originals in endnotes. We did not modify Rainsford’s misspellings of non- English words.
Rainsford uses English aristocratic titles for French people, but keeps the French particle (Count de Noé, count d’Artois). We retain this convention in both his text and our own notes.
We retain Rainsford’s original notes throughout his text. Marked by sym-bols, they appear as footnotes. Our comments on those notes appear beneath them between brackets. Our notes to Rainsford’s text are numbered and ap-pear as endnotes. Grégory Pierrot translated sections II, III, and V of the appendix from the original French.
Finally, we follow Rainsford’s usage in our introduction and endnotes: St.
Domingo indicates the French part of the island of Hispaniola and Santo Domingo the Spanish part.
1
2
Overleaf: Title page of the 1805 edition. Reproduced with the permission of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Special Collections Library, the Pennsylvania State University Libraries. The superscript note numbers were added editorially for this publication.
Excursion in St. Domingo. Reproduced with the permission of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Special Collections Library, the Pennsylvania State University Libraries.
∂
AdVertisement.
As all that is necessary to preface the following work will be found in the Introduction, nothing more is intended in this place than to advertise the reader of some circumstances which could not be so well communicated under any other head.
The sedentary attention so necessary to the production of a literary work, but ill comports with the character of a soldier; this, with other temporary inconveniences, and frequent migrations during their composition, will, it is feared, give occasion for apology in regard to some parts of the following sheets, where an inequality of style and occasional confusion of persons are perceptible, which must be attributed to the want of that tranquillity, the desire of the enlightened in all ages, so necessary to a correct view of men and things, and which polishes, while it imparts the utmost reach of intellect. A deficiency may, perhaps, be found in the part confessedly compilation: but it may, at the same time, be said, that to make a book nothing unnecessary is obtruded: and the writer may truly assert, that “he sat down to write, what he thought, (and saw) not to think what he should write.”3
It is pleasing to contemplate the kind attentions of those who disinterest-edly communicate what information they possess. Of these, the writer would wish to have mentioned many, who, with a delicacy equal to their intelli-gence, refused to be thanked in public: yet he resolves, without permission, to acknowledge his obligations to Admiral smith,4 whose local information, had it not been for the distance between them, might have conferred much more interest upon his work;—to john CAmPbell, Esq.5 of his Majesty’s navy, whose name will be found hereafter, and whose absence at sea he has never ceased to regret;—to williAm Curtis, Esq.6 of Cavendish- square, for the liberal communication of his plans, of which he is anxious to avail him-self further, in future;—to an AmeriCAn resident, at St. Domingo, of whose assistance he was proud in that island: and to another friend to whom he is indebted for the highest literary obligations.
The work is now committed to the indulgence of the public “with all its imperfections on its head;”7 if truth be at all elucidated—if virtue derive one more friend from its aid,—or policy, quitting the frail basis of expedience, be further grounded on justice and humanity, the writer will not have recorded, in the first empire of the world, the simple annals of Hayti, in vain.
∂
introduCtion.
It has frequently been the fate of striking events, and particularly those which have altered the condition of mankind, to be denied that consideration by their contemporaries, which they obtain from the veneration of posterity. In their vortex, attention is distracted by the effects; and distant society recedes from the contemplation of objects that threaten a violation of their system, or wound a favourite prejudice. It is thus that history, with all the advantages of calm discussion, is imperfect; and philosophy enquires in vain for the un-recorded causes of astonishing transactions.
To remedy the evil in this enlightened æra, the disquisitions of the ob-server, and the relations of the traveller occur; but these are perused with the rapidity, with which they are necessarily made, and, although they teach us what regards our own nature, impress no other sense of the period described, than as relates to the fleeting objects of immediate import— furnishing, therefore, little more (if so much may always be expected) than frail docu-ments for the judgment of the future historian.
Such is precisely the case with the subject of the following pages. The rise of the Haytian empire is an event which may powerfully affect the condition of the human race; yet it is viewed as an ordinary succession of triumphs and defeats, interrupted only by the horrors of new and terrible inflictions, the fury of the contending elements, and destructive disease, more tremendous than all.
It will scarcely be credited in another age, that philosophers heard un-moved, of the ascertainment of a brilliant fact, hitherto unknown, or con-fined to the vague knowledge of those whose experience is not admitted within the pale of historical truth. It will not be believed, that enlightened Europe calmly witnessed its contrasted brilliancy with actions which, like the opaque view of night, for a sullen hour obscured the dazzling splendour.
It is on ancient record,* that negroes were capable of repelling their
ene-*leo AfriCAnus says, that the negroes between Senegal and Gambia, in Africa, (the parts from whence slaves are, at present, supplied,) lived in the utmost innocence and simplicity, till the armed Moors came among, and subjected them, teaching them after wards their religion, and the arts of life. About the fourteenth century, however, Heli Ischia, a native- negro, at the head of his countrymen, turning their own arts against them,
mies, with vigour, in their own country; and a writer of modern date* has assured us of the talents and virtues of these people; but it remained for the close of the eighteenth century to realize the scene, from a state of abject de-generacy:—to exhibit, a horde of negroes emancipating themselves from the vilest slavery, and at once filling the relations of society, enacting laws, and commanding armies, in the colonies of Europe.
The same period has witnessed a great and polished nation,8 not merely re-turning to the barbarism of the earliest periods, but descending to the char-acters of assassins and executioners; and, removing the boundaries which civilization had prescribed even to war, rendering it a wild conflict of brutes and a midnight massacre.
To attract a serious attention to circumstances, which constitute an æra in the history of human nature and of martial affairs, is the purpose of the present disquisition; which, it is hoped, will tend to furnish an awful, yet practical lesson, as well as to excite and gratify a laudable curiosity.
To this subject, the attention of the writer was peculiarly led, from a long acquaintance with the West Indies, and opportunities of considerable ob-servation of the colonies in that Archipelago. To the French colony of St.
Domingo, his notice was early and particularly attracted; several of his mili-tary friends were afterward employed on its shores, and ultimately an acci-dent caused a personal visit; the information resulting from which, on ac-count of its subsequent effects, could not fail to be deeply impressed on his memory.
Of Hispaniola, or St. Domingo,9 there is no particular history, in any lan-guage, similar to those of the British colonies, so ably executed by Sir hAns sloAne10 and others. The earliest accounts are incorporated with the voy-age of the great discoverer, his Spanish coadjutors, and the legends of the missionaries. Of these the description of Columbus,11 and that of Peter mArtYr,12 are the most intelligent, while the account of lAs CAsAs13 is par-ticularly interesting, and the History of herrerA14 acute and correct. That of VesPuCCi15 ought scarcely to be named, in retribution for his injury to Columbus. After the establishment of the French colony,16 when priests from the mother- country settled upon the island, they furnished accounts of the
bravely expelled their Moorish conquerors; This negro continued in power, and acted as king, leading them to several foreign wars, and establishing them in power over a great extent of Country. [Joannes Leo Africanus (c. 1494–c. 1554) was a Moorish diplomat, trav-eler, and author of Descrittione dell’Africa (1550).]
*Adanson, Voyage à l’Afrique, 1749–53. [Actually entitled Histoire naturelle du Sénégal (1757). Michel Adanson (1727–1806) was a French naturalist who spent several years in Senegal.]
establishment, and of the manners of its inhabitants, generally interesting and correct; the most celebrated of these are by the Fathers du Pers, ChAr-leVoix, du terte, and lAbAt.17 Neither are the accounts of the Buccaniers (the first founders of the French colony),18 by themselves—nor the observa-tions of an anonymous writer in the Histoire Générale des Voïages,* without merit. From these sources, with the assistance of the able compilation of the Abbé rAYnAl,19 and occasional reference to the most polished of modern historians, Dr. robertson,20 the facts with which the present work com-mences, are drawn.—For the different light in which some incidents will ap-pear, from their authorities, as well as the opinions or sentiments which are occasionally interspersed, the writer alone is answerable.
When the circumstances which ultimately led to the independence of the island commenced, the first English work, exclusively, on St. Domingo made its appearance;† and, though in the form of a pamphlet, contained a correct account of facts, with no other fault than an inflammatory style, easily imparted by such a subject at the period it was written. Not long after, Mr. brYAn edwArds,21 who had been successful in a General History of the British Colonies in the West Indies, and who had intended to write a similar one of the French colonies,‡ published a quarto volume on the sub-ject, comprising all the information he could collect. This work, however, although it contained documents of the most authentic kind, did not increase Mr. Edwards’s fame as an accurate writer; being, in point of fact, as well as topographically, incorrect; it provoked a volume of equal size in answer, from a gentleman, who, for many reasons, was well acquainted with his subject;
m. de ChArmillY,§ the commissioner empowered by a number of the
colo-*Paris, 1759. [Abbé Prévost (1697–1763) initiated the fifteen- volume Histoire Générale des Voyages (1746–1759), though the work was continued by other writers.]
†An Inquiry into the Causes of the Insurrection in St. Domingo, 1792. [Jean- Philippe Garran- Coulon, An Inquiry into the Causes of the Insurrection of the Negroes in the Island of St. Domingo (1792). De Coulon (1749–1816) was a leading member of the Paris Commune, the government of Paris during the French Revolution.]
‡Hist. Survey. Preface. [Bryan Edwards, An Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of St. Domingo (1797).]
§To Mr. Edwards he says, (in his “Lettre en Refutation de son Ouvrage sur St. Domingue”)
“You should have acknowledged, that all your information was derived from others, dur-ing a stay of a few weeks only, in a time of general disorder, shut up in the town of the Cape; while the inhabitants of the colony, and even the city, were divided into different parties; and that you could not speak the French language, or very badly.”
“‘II fallait dire—’ Pendant un séjour de quelques semaines seulement que j’ai demeuré enfermé dans la ville du Cap, aussitot après la révolte des nègres en 1791, j’ai rassemblé dans un tems de désordre et de troubles, les importans matériaux qui m’ont servi:—‘que vous aviez rien vu par vous- même,’” &c.
nists to offer a capitulation of St. Domingo to Great Britain. Though replete with errors arising from personal interest, and local prejudices, some facts are furnished by both these writers which could not be obtained by any other means. About the same time, there appeared at Paris, a work in two small vol-umes, in the form of Letters, under the name of the “Baron de wimPffen;”22 which, from external evidence, appear to be a collection of facts, arranged in an agreeable manner, on a subject occupying the attention of the French public, at the time. Whether it were or not a real voyage, among a variety of observations calculated to suit a temporary purpose, there are some that de-serve a much better character. To these were added in France, a short time after, a work containing some authentic facts in a memoir of Toussaint, and a life of that great man, distorted for the purposes of party, by a popular writer, du broCAs.23 The Remarks of Colonel ChAlmers,24 in England, succeeded;
from whose experience and local opportunities much was to be expected.* Of these, with a variety of private documents obtained from an extensive and intelligent correspondence, the writer has availed himself, in his third and fifth chapters, in a way, he trusts, neither injurious to their authors, nor un-acceptable to the public.
Two other works have arisen out of the subject more recent than the fore-going, which deserve to be mentioned: that of m. d’ArChenholtz25 on the Buccaniers, published in Germany; and Mr. dAllAs’s26 English History of the Maroons,27 furnished from the materials of their superintendant, Mr. Quar-rell,28 of Jamaica. On the former, while it furnishes illustrations of human na-ture, little dependence is to be placed in point of historical fact; for it follows the Spanish accounts of the people of whom it treats, and conveys an obvious
M. de Charmilly, at the same time, views the conquest of St. Domingo by the English as very easy—ridicules the idea of the blacks ever attaining any force, and hangs the fate of the whole of the Antilles on the prosecution of his favorite project.
*It is amusing to see the confidence with which the subjugation of St. Domingo con-stantly inspired its advocates. Col. Chalmers, in other respects, a well- informed soldier and gentleman, is incautious enough to have the following assertion in his preface:—“The late events in St. Domingo have been much misunderstood, or highly exaggerated: he trusts that he has clearly proved that the temporary misfortunes sustained by France were occasioned by her impolicy, cruelty, or other causes, totally independent of the power of her black enemies, whose strength, as stated, is utterly inadequate to render them inde-pendent of that empire, or of any other much less formidable power. If so, it is humiliating to hear senators gravely pronounce that France has lost St. Domingo.” The colonel adds, from Homer,—
“To few, and wonderous few, has Heaven assign’d
“A wise, extensive, all- considering mind!!!” [Pope’s Illiad, bk. 13. Rainsford substitutes
“Heaven” for “Jove.”]
calumny on their most respectable members.* From the latter, some infer-ences are to be drawn, applicable to the subject of this volume, though the source, enveloped in interest, and the prejudice inseparable from a favourite project, is not so pure as could be wished on such an important occasion.
To the abstracts of these works may be added a variety of temporary pro-ductions (including the foreign and English public journals), to which proper reference has been had, with the caution necessary for consulting such an heterogeneous mass of materials. Thus, no correct or comprehensive ac-count, has been given in our language, of this interesting country; even those who have enlightened the public mind on other great occasions, falling in with the general apathy, have forborne on this wonderful revolution.† To supply this omission, in a small degree, the writer, on a former occa-sion,‡ submitted to the public his ideas in a crude and imperfect state; and the attention they received from some intelligent minds, afforded sufficient proof, that the public only required to be roused to entertain the consider-ations they suggested; while the adoption of his humble narrative in the jour-nals of those countries§ that might be supposed to possess the priority of in-formation, evinces the necessity of such a communication as the present.||
In it will be found a succinct, and he trusts candid, view of the early history of the Spanish colony, in which the impolicy of cruelty, and the errors of injus-tice, are exposed, in preference to any national prejudice, or habit. The same ideas are continued, regarding the French establishment; and a reference to human nature is preferred, when considering the character of those, whose actions of terrific splendour could be tried by no other test. In regard to the height of the French colonial prosperity, he has not dilated the account by so minute a view of their domestic life as by some might be wished; but, in what is necessary to give a correct idea of manners and conduct, it is hoped no de-ficiency will appear. In any case where the question of slavery interferes,
con-*Of the intrepid, generous, and intelligent Morgan (among others), M. d’Archenholtz asserts, “The horrors he committed are more dreadful than those of any of his colleagues.
This monster filled the highest posts in the (British) state, and enjoyed with perfect
This monster filled the highest posts in the (British) state, and enjoyed with perfect