The Colony of Sierra Leone, of which Free Town is the capital, is situated in 8 degrees 30 minutes north latitude, and is about 13½ degrees west longitude; was settled by the English, and was for a long time the most important place on the western coast of Africa. The three leading tribes on the coast of Sierra Leone are the Timanis, the Susus, and the Veys. The first of these surround the British Colony of Sierra Leone on all sides. The Susus have their principal settlements near the head-waters of the Rio Pongas, and are at some distance from the sea coast. The Veys occupy all the country about the Gallinas and Cape Mount, and extend back into the country to the distance of fifty or a hundred miles.
The Timanis cultivate the soil to some extent, have small herds of domestic animals, and are engaged to a greater or less extent in barter with the English colonists of Sierra Leone. They may be seen in large numbers about the streets of Free Town, wearing a large square cotton cloth thrown around their persons. They are strong and healthy in appearance, but have a muchless intellectual cast of countenance than the Mandingoes or Fulahs, who may also be seen in the same place. Like all the other tribes in Africa, especially the pagans, they are much addicted to fetichism,—worship of evil spirits,—administering the red-wood ordeal, and other ceremonies. They are depraved, licentious, indolent, and avaricious. But this is no more than what may be said of every heathen tribe on the globe.
The Veys, though not a numerous or powerful tribe, are very intellectual, and have recently invented an alphabet for writing their own language, which has been printed, and now they enjoy the blessings of a written system, for which they are entirely indebted to their own ingenuity and enterprise. This is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable achievements of this or any other age, and is itself enough to silence forever the cavils and sneers of those who think so contemptuously of the intellectual endowments of the African race. The characters used in this system are all new, and were invented by the people themselves without the aid of outsiders. The Veys occupy all the country along the sea-board from Gallinas to Cape Mount.
In stature, they are about the ordinary height, of slender, but graceful figures, with very dark complexions, but large and well-formed heads.
As the Veys are within the jurisdiction of Liberia, that government will be of great service to them. The Biassagoes, the Bulloms, the Dego, and the Gola, are also inhabitants of the Sierra Leone coast. Other tribes of lesser note are scattered all along the coast, many of which have come under the good influence of the Liberian government. Cape Coast Castle, thestronghold of the English on the African coast, has, in past years, been a place of great importance. It was from this place that its governor, Sir Charles McCarthy, went forth to the contest with the Ashantees, a warlike tribe, and was defeated, losing his life, together with that of seven others.
Here, at this castle, “L. E. L.,” the gifted poetess and novelist of England, died, and was buried within the walls. This lamented lady married Captain McLean, the governor-general of the castle, and her death caused no little comment at the time, many blaming the husband for the wife’s death.
The Kru people are also on the coast, and have less general intelligence than the Fulahs, Mandingoes, and Degos. They are physically a fine-appearing race, with more real energy of character than either of the others. It would be difficult to find better specimens of muscular development, men of more manly and independent carriage, or more real grace of manner, anywhere in the world. No one ever comes in contact with them, for the first time, without being struck with their open, frank countenances, their robust and well-proportioned forms, and their independent bearing, even when they have but the scantiest covering for their bodies.
Their complexion varies from the darkest shade of the Negro to that of the true mulatto. Their features are comparatively regular; and, though partaking of all the characteristics of the Negro, they are by no means strongly marked in their general outline or development. The most marked deficiency is in the formation of their heads, which are narrow and peaked, and do not indicate a very high order of intellectualendowment. Experience, however, has shown that they are as capable of intellectual improvement as any other race of men.[31]
In the interior of Youeba, some distance back from Cape Coast, lies the large city of Ibaddan, a place with a population of about two hundred thousand souls. Abeokuta has a population of more than one hundred thousand, and is about seventy-five miles from the sea coast, with a history that is not without interest. Some fifty years ago, a few persons of different tribes, who had been constantly threatened and annoyed by the slave-traders of the coast, fled to the back country, hid away in a large cave, coming out occasionally to seek food, and taking in others who sought protection from these inhuman men-hunters.
This cavern is situated on the banks of the Ogun, and in the course of time became the hiding-place of great numbers from the surrounding country. At first, they subsisted on berries, roots, and such other articles of food as they could collect near their place of retreat; but growing in strength by the increase of population, they began to bid defiance to their enemies.
A slave-hunting party from Dahomey, having with them a considerable number of captives, passing the cavern, thought it a good opportunity to add to their wealth, and consequently, made an attack upon the settlers. The latter came forth in large force from their hiding-place, gave battle to the traders, defeated them, capturing their prisoners and putting their enemies to flight. The captives were at once liberated, and joined their deliverers. In the course of time this settlementtook the name of Abeokuta. These people early turned their attention to agriculture and manufacturing, and by steady increase in population, it soon became a city of great wealth and importance. About thirty years ago, a number of recaptives from Sierra Leone, who had formerly been taken from this region of country, and who had been recaptured by the English, liberated and educated, visited Lagos for trade. Here they met many of their old friends and relations from Abeokuta, learned of the flourishing town that had grown up, and with larger numbers returned to swell the population of the new city.
The King of Dahomey watched the growing power of Abeokuta with an evil eye, and in 1853, he set in motion a large army, with the view of destroying this growing city, and reducing its inhabitants to slavery. The King made a desperate attack and assault upon the place, but he met with a resistance that he little thought of. The engagement was carried on outside of the walls for several hours, when the Dahomian army was compelled to give way, and the King himself was saved only by the heroism and frantic manner in which he was defended by his Amazons. This success of the people of Abeokuta gave the place a reputation above what it had hitherto enjoyed, and no invading army has since appeared before its walls.
Much of the enterprise and improvement of these people is owing to the good management of Shodeke, their leader. Coming from all sections near the coast, and the line of the slave-traders, representing the remnants of one hundred and thirty towns, these people, in the beginning, were anything but united. Shodeke brought them together and made them feel asone family. This remarkable man had once been captured by the slave-traders, but had escaped, and was the first to suggest the cave as a place of safety. Throughout Sierra Leone, Abeokuta, and the Yoruba country generally the best-known man in connection with the African civilization, is Mr. Samuel Crowther, a native, and who, in the Yoruba language, was called Adgai. He was embarked as a slave on board a slaver at Badagry, in 1822. The vessel was captured by a British man-of-war and taken to Sierra Leone. Here he received a good education, was converted, and became a minister of the Gospel, after which he returned to his native place.
Mr. Crowther is a man of superior ability, and his attainments in learning furnish a happy illustration of the capacity of the Negro for improvements. Dahomey is one of the largest and most powerful of all the governments on the west coast. The King is the most absolute tyrant in the world, owning all the land, the people, and everything that pertains to his domain. The inhabitants are his slaves, and they must come and go at his command. The atrocious cruelties that are constantly perpetrated at the command and bidding of this monarch, has gained for him the hatred of the civilized world; and strange to say, these deeds of horror appear to be sanctioned by the people, who have a superstitious veneration for their sovereign, that is without a parallel. Abomi, the capital of Dahomey, has a large population, a fort, and considerable trade. The King exacts from all the sea-port towns on this part of the coast, and especially from Popo, Porto Novo, and Badagry, where the foreign slave-trade, until withina very short period, was carried on as in no other part of Africa.
The Dahomian soldiery, for the past two hundred years, have done little less than hunt slaves for the supply of the traders.
The English blockading squadron has done great service in breaking up the slave-trade on this part of the coast, and this has turned the attention of the people to agriculture. The country has splendid natural resources, which if properly developed, will make it one of the finest portions of Western Africa. The soil is rich, the seasons are regular, and the climate favorable for agricultural improvements. Indian corn, yams, potatoes, manico, beans, ground-nuts, plantains, and bananas are the chief products of the country. Cotton is raised to a limited extent.
The practice of sacrificing the lives of human beings upon the graves of dead kings every year in Dahomey, and then paving the palace grounds with the skulls of the victims, has done much to decrease the population of this kingdom. As many as two thousand persons have been slaughtered on a single occasion. To obtain the required number, wars have been waged upon the surrounding nations for months previous to the sacrifice. There is no place where there is more intense heathenism; and to mention no other feature in their superstitious practice, the worship of snakes by the Dahomians fully illustrates this remark.
A building in the centre of the town is devoted to the exclusive use of reptiles, and they may be seen here at any time in great numbers. They are fed, and more care taken of them than of the human inhabitants of the place. If they are found straying away theymust be brought back; and at the sight of them the people prostrate themselves on the ground, and do them all possible reverence. To kill or injure one of them is to endure the penalty of death. On certain days they are taken out by the priests or doctors, and paraded about the streets, the bearers allowing them to coil themselves around their arms, necks, and bodies, and even to put their heads into the carriers’ bosoms.
They are also employed to detect persons who are suspected of theft, witchcraft, and murder. If in the hands of the priest they bite the suspected person, it is sure evidence of his guilt; and no doubt the serpent is trained to do the will of his keeper in all cases. Images calledgreegrees, of the most uncouth shape and form, may be seen in all parts of the town, and are worshipped by everybody.
In every part of Africa, polygamy is a favorite institution. In their estimation it lies at the very foundation of all social order, and society would scarcely be worth preserving without it. The highest aspiration that the most eminent African ever rises to, is to have a large number of wives. His happiness, his reputation, his influence, his position in society, and his future welfare, all depend upon it. In this feeling the women heartily concur; for a woman would much rather be the wife of a man who had fifty others, than to be the sole representative of a man who had not force of character to raise himself above the one-woman level.
The consequence is, that the so-called wives are little better than slaves. They have no purpose in life other than to administer to the wants and gratify the passionsof their lords, who are masters and owners, rather than husbands.
In nearly every nation or tribe, the wife is purchased; and as this is done in the great majority of cases when she is but a child, her wishes, as a matter of course, are never consulted in this most important affair of her whole life.
As both father and mother hold a claim on the daughter, and as each makes a separate bargain with the future son-in-law, the parent generally makes a good thing out of the sale. The price of a wife ranges all the way from the price of a cow to three cows, a goat or a sheep, and some articles of crockery-ware, beads, and a few other trinkets. Where the girl is bought in infancy, it remains with the parents till of a proper age. There are no widows, the woman being sold for life, and becomes the wife of the husband’s brother, should the former die. A man of respectability is always expected to provide a separate house for each of his wives. Each woman is mistress of her own household, provides for herself and her children, and entertains her husband as often as he favors her with his company.
The wife is never placed on a footing of social equality with her husband. Her position is a menial one, and she seldom aspires to anything higher than merely to gratify the passions of her husband. She never takes a seat at the social board with him.
Men of common standing are never allowed to have as many wives as a sovereign. Both the Kings of Dahomey and Ashantee are permitted by law to have three thousand three hundred and thirty-three. No one is allowed to see the King’s wives except the King’sfemale relatives, or such messengers as he may send, and even these must communicate with them through their bamboo walls. Sometimes they go forth in a body through the streets, but are always preceded by a company of boys, who warn the people to run out of the way, and avoid the unpardonable offence of seeing the King’s wives. The men especially, no matter what their rank, must get out of the way; and if they have not had sufficient time to do this, they must fall flat on the ground and hide their faces until the procession has passed. To see one of the King’s wives, even accidentally, is a capital offence; and the scene of the confusion which occasionally takes place in the public market in consequence of the unexpected approach of the royal cortege, is said to be ludicrous beyond all description.
At the death of the King, it is not uncommon for his wives to fall upon each other with knives, and lacerate themselves in the most cruel and barbarous manner; and this work of butchery is continued until they are forcibly restrained. Women are amongst the most reliable and brave in the King’s army, and constitute about one-third of the standing army in Ashantee and Dahomey.
One of the most influential and important classes in every African community is the deybo, a set of professional men who combine the medical and priestly office in the same person. They attend the sick and administer medicines, which usually consist of decoctions of herbs or roots, and external applications. A doctor is expected to give his undivided attention to one patient at a time, and is paid only in case of successful treatment. If the case is a serious one, he isexpected to deposit with the family, as a security for his good behavior and faithful discharge of duty, a bundle of hair that was shorn from his head at the time he was inaugurated into office, and without which he could have no skill in his profession whatever.
The doctor professes to hold intercourse with, and have great influence over demons. He also claims to have communications from God. No man can be received into the conclave without spending two years or more as a student with some eminent member of the fraternity. During this period he must accompany his preceptor in all his journeyings, perform a variety of menial services, is prohibited from shaving his head, washing his body, or allowing water to be applied to him in any way whatever, unless perchance he falls into a stream, or is overtaken by a shower of rain, when he is permitted to get off as much dirt as possible from his body. The doctor’s badge of office is a monkey’s skin, which he carries in the form of a roll wherever he goes, and of which he is as proud as his white brother of his sheep-skin diploma.
In their capacity as priests, these men profess to be able to raise the dead, cast out devils, and do all manner of things that other people are incapable of doing. The doctor is much feared by the common classes. No innovation in practice is allowed by these men. A rather amusing incident occurred recently, which well illustrates the jealousy, bigotry, and ignorance of these professionals.
Mr. Samuel Crowther, Jr., having returned from England, where he had studied for a physician, began the practice of his profession amongst his nativepeople. The old doctors hearing that Crowther was prescribing, called on him in a large delegation. Mr. Crowther received the committee cordially; heard what they had to say, and expressed his willingness to obey, provided they would give him a trial, and should find him deficient. To this they agreed; and a time was appointed for the test to take place. On the day fixed, the regulars appeared, clothed in their most costly robes, well provided with charms, each holding in his hand his monkey’s skin, with the head most prominent.
Mr. Crowther was prepared to receive them. A table was placed in the middle of the room, and on it a dish, in which were a few drops of sulphuric acid, so placed that a slight motion of the table would cause it to flow into a mixture of chlorate of potassa and white sugar. An English clock was also in the room, from which a cock issued every hour and crowed. It was arranged that the explosion from the dish, and the crowing of the rooster, should take place at the same moment.
The whole thing was to be decided in favor of the party who should perform the greatest wonder. After all were seated, Mr. Crowther made a harangue, and requested them to say who should lead off in the contest.
This privilege they accorded to him. The doors were closed, the curtains drawn, and all waited in breathless silence. Both the hands on the clock were fast approaching the figure twelve. Presently the cock came out and began crowing, to the utter astonishment of the learned visitors. Crowther gave the table a jostle; and suddenly, from the midst of the dish burst forthflame and a terrible explosion. This double wonder was too much for these sages. The scene that followed is indescribable. One fellow rushed through the window and scampered; one fainted and fell upon the floor; another, in his consternation, overturned chairs, tables, and everything in his way, took refuge in the bedroom, under the bed, from which he was with difficulty afterwards removed.
It need not be added that they gave no more trouble, and the practice they sought to break up was the more increased for their pains.[32]
In Southern Guinea, and especially in the Gabun country, the natives are unsurpassed for their cunning and shrewdness in trade; and even in everything in the way of dealing with strangers. The following anecdote will illustrate how easily they can turn matters to their own account.
There is a notable character in the Gabun, of the name of Cringy. No foreigner ever visits the river without making his acquaintance; and all who do so, remember him forever after. He speaks English, French, Portuguese, and at least half a dozen native languages, with wonderful ease. He is, in person, a little, old, grey-headed, hump-backed man, with a remarkably bright, and by no means unpleasant eye. His village is perched on a high bluff on the north side of the Gabun River, near its outlet. He generally catches the first sight of vessels coming in, and puts off in his boat to meet the ship. If the captain has never been on the coast before, Cringy will make a good thing out of him, unless he has been warned by other sailors. The cunning African is a pilot; andafter he brings a vessel in and moors her opposite his town by a well-known usage, it is now Cringy’s. He acts as interpreter; advises the captain; helps to make bargains, and puts on airs as if the ship belonged to him. If anybody else infringes on his rights in the slightest degree, he is at once stigmatized as a rude and ill-mannered person. Cringy is sure to cheat everyone he deals with, and has been seized half a dozen times or more by men-of-war, or other vessels, and put in irons. But he is so adroit with his tongue, and so good-natured and humorous, that he always gets clear.
The following trick performed by him, will illustrate the character of the man.
Some years ago, the French had a fight with the natives. After reducing the people near the mouth of the river to obedience by the force of arms, Commodore B— proposed to visit King George’s towns, about thirty miles higher up the river, with the hope of getting them to acknowledge the French authority without further resort to violence. In order to make a favorable impression, he determined to take his squadron with him. His fleet consisted of two large sloops-of-war and a small vessel. As none of the French could speak the native language, and none of King George’s people could speak French, it was a matter of great importance that a good interpreter should be employed. It was determined that Cringy was the most suitable man. He was sent for, accepted the offer at once—for Cringy himself had something of importance at stake—and resolved to profit by this visit.
One of Cringy’s wives was the daughter of King George; and this woman, on account of ill-treatment,had fled and gone back into her father’s country. All his previous efforts to get his wife had failed. And now when the proposition came from the commodore, the thought occurred to Cringy that he could make himself appear to be a man of great influence and power. The party set out with a favoring wind and tide, and were soon anchored at their place of destination. With a corps of armed marines, the commodore landed and proceeded to the King’s palace.
The people had had no intimation of such a visit, and the sudden arrival of this armed body produced a very strong sensation, and all eyes were on Cringy, next to the commodore, for he was the only one that could explain the object of the expedition. King George and his council met the commodore, and Cringy was instructed to say that the latter had come to have a friendly talk with the King, with the view of establishing amicable relations between him and the King of France, and would be glad to have his signature to a paper to that effect. Now was Cringy’s moment; and he acted his part well.
The wily African, with the air of one charged with a very weighty responsibility, said: “King George, the commodore is very sorry that you have not returned my wife. He wishes you to do it now in a prompt and quiet manner, and save him the trouble and pain of bringing his big guns to bear upon your town.”
King George felt the deepest indignation; not so much against the commodore, as Cringy, for resorting to so extraordinary a measure to compel him to give up his daughter. But he concealed the emotions of his heart, and, without the slightest changeof countenance, but with a firm and determined tone of voice, he said to his own people, “Go out quietly and get your guns loaded; and if one drop of blood is shed here to-day, be sure that not one of these Frenchmen get back to their vessels. But be sure and”—he said it with great emphasis, “let Cringy be the first man killed.”
This was more than Cringy had bargained for. And how is he to get out of this awkward scrape? The lion has been aroused, and how shall he be pacified? But this is just the position to call out Cringy’s peculiar gift, and he set to work in the most penitent terms. He acknowledged, and begged pardon for his rash, unadvised counsel; reminded his father-in-law that they were all liable to do wrong sometimes, and that this was the most grievous error of his whole life. And as to the threat of the commodore, a single word from him would be sufficient to put a stop to all hostile intentions.
The wrath of the King was assuaged. The commodore, however, by this time had grown impatient to know what was going on, and especially, why the people had left the house so abruptly. With the utmost self-possession, Cringy replied that the people had gone to catch a sheep, which the King had ordered for the commodore’s dinner; and as to signing the paper, that would be done when the commodore was ready to take his departure. And to effect these two objects, Cringy relied wholly upon his own power of persuasion.
True enough the sheep was produced and the paper was signed. King George and the French commodore parted good friends, and neither of them knew formore than a month after, the double game which Cringy had played; and what was more remarkable than all, Cringy was rewarded by the restoration of his wife.[33]
[31]Wilson’s “Western Africa.”
[32]“A Pilgrimage to my Motherland.” Campbell.
[33]“Western Africa.” Wilson.
The slave-trade has been the great obstacle to the civilization of Africa, the development of her resources, and the welfare of the Negro race. The prospect of gain, which this traffic held out to the natives, induced one tribe to make war upon another, burn the villages, murder the old, and kidnap the young. In return, the successful marauders received in payment gunpowder and rum, two of the worst enemies of an ignorant and degraded people.
Fired with ardent spirits, and armed with old muskets, these people would travel from district to district, leaving behind them smouldering ruins, heart-stricken friends, and bearing with them victims whose market value was to inflame the avaricious passions of the inhabitants of the new world.
While the enslavement of one portion of the people of Africa by another has been a custom of many centuries, to the everlasting shame and disgrace of the Portuguese, it must be said they were the first to engage in the foreign slave-trade. As early as the year 1503, a few slaves were sent from a Portuguesesettlement in Africa into the Spanish colonies in America. In 1511 Ferdinand, the fifth king of Spain, permitted them to be carried in great numbers.
Ferdinand, however, soon saw the error of this, and ordered the trade to be stopped. At the death of the King, a proposal was made by Bartholomew de las Cassas, the bishop of Chiapa, to Cardinal Ximenes, who held the reins of the government of Spain till Charles V. came to the throne, for the establishment of a regular system of commerce in the persons of the native Africans. The cardinal, however, with a foresight, a benevolence, and a justice which will always do honor to his memory, refused the proposal; not only judging it to be unlawful to consign innocent people to slavery at all, but to be very inconsistent to deliver the inhabitants of one country over for the benefit of another.
Charles soon came to the throne, the cardinal died, and in 1517 the King granted a patent to one of his Flemish favorites, containing an exclusive right of importing four thousand Africans into the islands St. Domingo, Porto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica. In 1562 the English, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, commenced the importation of African slaves, which were taken to Hispaniola by Sir John Hawkins. The trade then became general. The French persuaded Louis XIII., then King of France, that it would be aiding the cause of Christianity to import the Africans into the colonies, where they could be converted to the Christian religion; and the French embarked in the trade.
The Dutch were too sharp-eyed to permit such an opportunity to fill their coffers to pass by, so theyfollowed the example set by the Portuguese, the English, and the French. The trade being considered lawful by all countries, and especially in Africa, the means of obtaining slaves varied according to the wishes of the traders.
Some whites travelled through the country as far as it was practical, and bartered goods for slaves, chaining them together, who followed their masters from town to town until they reached the coast, where they were sold to the owners of ships. Others located themselves on the coast and in the interior, and bought the slaves as they were brought in for sale.
A chief of one of the tribes of the Guinea coast, who had been out on a successful marauding expedition, in which he had captured some two hundred slaves, took them to the coast, sold his chattels to the captain of a vessel, and was invited on board the ship. The chief with his three sons and attendants had scarcely reached the deck of the ship when they were seized, hand-cuffed, and placed with the other Negroes, which enabled the captain to save the purchase money, as well as adding a dozen more slaves to his list.
Had this happened in the nineteenth century, it would have been pronounced a “Yankee trick.”
Some large ships appeared at the slave-trading towns on the coast, ready to convey to the colonies any slaves whose owners might see fit to engage them. Their cargoes would often be made up of the slaves of half a dozen parties, on which occasions the chattels would sometimes become mixed, and cause a dispute as to the ownership. To avoid this, the practice of branding the slaves on the coast before shipping them,was introduced. Branding a human being on the naked body, the hot iron hissing in the quivering flesh, the cries and groans of the helpless creatures, were scenes enacted a few years ago, and which the African slave-trader did not deny.
There on a rude mat, spread upon the ground,A stalwart Negro lieth firmly bound;His brawny chest one brutal captor smites,And notice to the ringing sound invites;Another opes his mouth the teeth to show,As cattle-dealers aye are wont to do.Hark, to that shrill and agonizing cry!Gaze on that upturned, supplicating eye!How the flesh quivers, and how shrinks the frame,As the initials of her owner’s nameBurn on the back of that Mandingo girl;Yet calmly do the smoke-wreaths upward curlFrom his cigar, whose right unfaltering handLights with a match the cauterizing brand,The while his left doth the round shoulder clasp,And hold his victim in a vise-like grasp.
There on a rude mat, spread upon the ground,A stalwart Negro lieth firmly bound;His brawny chest one brutal captor smites,And notice to the ringing sound invites;Another opes his mouth the teeth to show,As cattle-dealers aye are wont to do.Hark, to that shrill and agonizing cry!Gaze on that upturned, supplicating eye!How the flesh quivers, and how shrinks the frame,As the initials of her owner’s nameBurn on the back of that Mandingo girl;Yet calmly do the smoke-wreaths upward curlFrom his cigar, whose right unfaltering handLights with a match the cauterizing brand,The while his left doth the round shoulder clasp,And hold his victim in a vise-like grasp.
There on a rude mat, spread upon the ground,A stalwart Negro lieth firmly bound;His brawny chest one brutal captor smites,And notice to the ringing sound invites;Another opes his mouth the teeth to show,As cattle-dealers aye are wont to do.Hark, to that shrill and agonizing cry!Gaze on that upturned, supplicating eye!
There on a rude mat, spread upon the ground,
A stalwart Negro lieth firmly bound;
His brawny chest one brutal captor smites,
And notice to the ringing sound invites;
Another opes his mouth the teeth to show,
As cattle-dealers aye are wont to do.
Hark, to that shrill and agonizing cry!
Gaze on that upturned, supplicating eye!
How the flesh quivers, and how shrinks the frame,As the initials of her owner’s nameBurn on the back of that Mandingo girl;Yet calmly do the smoke-wreaths upward curlFrom his cigar, whose right unfaltering handLights with a match the cauterizing brand,The while his left doth the round shoulder clasp,And hold his victim in a vise-like grasp.
How the flesh quivers, and how shrinks the frame,
As the initials of her owner’s name
Burn on the back of that Mandingo girl;
Yet calmly do the smoke-wreaths upward curl
From his cigar, whose right unfaltering hand
Lights with a match the cauterizing brand,
The while his left doth the round shoulder clasp,
And hold his victim in a vise-like grasp.
As cruel as was the preparation before leaving their native land, it was equalled, if not surpassed, by the passage on shipboard. Two thousand human beings put on a vessel not capable of accommodating half that number; disease breaking out amongst the slaves, when but a few days on the voyage; the dead and the dying thrown overboard, and the cries and groans coming forth from below decks is but a faint picture of the horrid trade.
“All ready?” cried the captain;“Ay, ay!” the seamen said;“Heave up the worthless lubbers—The dying and the dead.”Up from the slave-ship’s prisonFierce, bearded heads were thrust;“Now let the sharks look to it—Toss up the dead ones first!”
“All ready?” cried the captain;“Ay, ay!” the seamen said;“Heave up the worthless lubbers—The dying and the dead.”Up from the slave-ship’s prisonFierce, bearded heads were thrust;“Now let the sharks look to it—Toss up the dead ones first!”
“All ready?” cried the captain;“Ay, ay!” the seamen said;“Heave up the worthless lubbers—The dying and the dead.”Up from the slave-ship’s prisonFierce, bearded heads were thrust;“Now let the sharks look to it—Toss up the dead ones first!”
“All ready?” cried the captain;
“Ay, ay!” the seamen said;
“Heave up the worthless lubbers—
The dying and the dead.”
Up from the slave-ship’s prison
Fierce, bearded heads were thrust;
“Now let the sharks look to it—
Toss up the dead ones first!”
Slave-factories, or trading-pens, were established up and down the coast. And although England for many years kept a fleet in African waters, to watch and break up this abominable traffic, the swiftness of the slavers, and the adroitness of their pilots, enabled them to escape detection by gaining hiding-places in some of the small streams on the coast, or by turning to the ocean until a better opportunity offered itself for landing.
Calabar and Bonny were the two largest slave-markets on the African coast. From these places alone twenty thousand slaves were shipped, in the year 1806. It may therefore be safe to say, that fifty thousand slaves were yearly sent into the colonies at this period; or rather, sent from the coast, for many thousands who were shipped, never reached their place of destination. During the period when this traffic was carried on without any interference on the part of the British government, caravans of slaves were marched down to Loango from the distance of several hundred miles, and each able-bodied man was required to bring down a tooth of ivory. In this way a double traffic was carried on; that in ivory by the English and American vessels, and the slaves by the Portuguese.
All who have investigated the subject, know that the rivers Benin, Bonny, Brass, Kalabar, and Kameruns, were once the chief seats of this trade. It is through these rivers that the Niger discharges itself into the ocean; and as the factories near the mouths of thesedifferent branches had great facility of access to the heart of Africa, it is probable that the traffic was carried on more vigorously here than anywhere else on the coast.
But the abolition of the slave-trade by England, and the presence of the British squadron on the coast, has nearly broken up the trade.
The number of vessels now engaged in carrying on a lawful trade in these rivers is between fifty and sixty; and so decided are the advantages reaped by the natives from this change in their commercial affairs, that it is not believed they would ever revert to it again, even if all outward restraints were taken away. So long as the African seas were given up to piracy and the slave-trade, and the aborigines in consequence were kept in constant excitement and warfare, it was almost impossible either to have commenced or continued a missionary station on the coast for the improvement of the natives. And the fact that there was none anywhere between Sierra Leone and the Cape of Good Hope, previous to the year 1832, shows that it was regarded as impracticable.[34]
Christianity does not invoke the aid of the sword; but when she can shield from the violence of lawless men by the intervention of “the powers that be,” or when the providence of God goes before and smoothes down the waves of discord and strife, she accepts it as a grateful boon, and discharges her duty with greater alacrity and cheerfulness.
Throughout all the region where the slave-trade was once carried on, there is great decline in business, except where that traffic has been replaced by legitimate commerce or agriculture. Nor could it well beotherwise. The very measures which were employed in carrying on this detestable traffic at least over three-fourths of the country, were in themselves quite sufficient to undermine any government in the world. For a long term of years the slaves were procured on the part of these larger and more powerful governments by waging war against their feebler neighbors for this express purpose; and in this way they not only cut off all the sources of their own prosperity and wealth, but the people themselves, while waging this ruthless and inhuman warfare, were imbibing notions and principles which would make it impossible for them to cohere long as organized nations.
The bill for the abolition of the British slave-trade received the royal assent on March 25, 1807; and this law came into operation on and after January 1, 1808. That was a deed well done; and glorious was the result for humanity. To William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and a few others, is the credit due for this great act.
Although the slave-trade was abolished by the British government, and afterwards by the American and some other nations, the slave-trade still continued, and exists even at the present day, in a more limited form, except, perhaps, in Northern and Central Africa, and on the Nile. In that section the trade is carried on in the most gigantic manner. It begins every year in the month of August, when the traders prepare for a large haul.
All the preparations having been completed, they ascend the Nile in a regular squadron. Every expedition means war; and, according to its magnitude, is provided with one hundred to one thousand armedmen. The soldiers employed consist of the miserable Dongolowie, who carry double-barrelled shot-guns and knives, and are chiefly noted for their huge appetites and love of marissa (beer). Each large dealer has his own territory, and he resents promptly any attempt of another trader to trespass thereon.
For instance, Agate, the most famous of all African slave-traders, knew, and his men frequently visited, the Victoria Nyanza, long before Speke ever dreamed of it. Agate’s station is now near the Nyanza, and he keeps up a heavy force there, as indeed he does at all his stations. When the expedition is ready, it moves slowly up to the Neam-Neam country, for instance, and if one tribe is hostile to another, he joins with the strongest and takes his pay in slaves. Active spies are kept in liberal pay to inform him of the number and quality of the young children; and when the chief believes he can steal one hundred he settles down to work, for that figure means four thousand dollars. He makes a landing with his human hounds, after having reconnoitred the position,—generally in the night time. At dawn he moves forward on the village, and the alarm is spread among the Negroes, who herd together behind their aboriginal breastplates, and fire clouds of poisoned arrows. The trader opens with musketry, and then begins a general massacre of men, women, and children. The settlement, surrounded by inflammable grass, is given to the flames, and the entire habitation is laid in ashes. Probably out of the wreck of one thousand charred and slaughtered people, his reserve has caught the one hundred coveted women and children, who are flying from death in wild despair.They are yoked together by a long pole, and marched off from their homes forever. One-third of them may have the small-pox; and then with this infected cargo the trader proceeds to his nearest station.
Thence the Negroes are clandestinely sent across the desert to Kordofan, whence, they are dispersed over Lower Egypt and other markets. It not unfrequently happens that the Negroes succeed in killing their adversaries in these combats. But the blacks here are not brave. They generally fly after a loss of several killed, except with the Neam-Neams, who always fight with a bravery commensurate with their renown as cannibals.
The statistics of the slave-trade are difficult to obtain with absolute accuracy, but an adequate approximation may be reached. It is safe to say that the annual export of slaves from the country lying between the Red Sea and the Great Desert is twenty-five thousand a year, distributed as follows: From Abyssinia, carried to Jaffa or Gallabat, ten thousand; issuing by other routes of Abyssinia, five thousand; by the Blue Nile, three thousand; by the White Nile, seven thousand. To obtain these twenty-five thousand slaves and sell them in market, more than fifteen thousand are annually killed, and often the mortality reaches the terrible figure of fifty thousand. It is a fair estimate that fifty thousand children are stolen from their parents every year. Of the number forced into slavery, fifteen thousand being boys and ten thousand girls, it is found that about six thousand go to Lower Egypt, two thousand are made soldiers, nine thousand concubines, five hundred eunuchs, five thousand cooks or servants, while ten thousand eventually die fromthe climate, and three thousand obtain their papers of freedom. They are dispersed over three million square miles of territory, and their blood finally mingles with that of the Turk, the Arab, and the European. The best black soldiers are recruited from the Dinkas, who are strong, handsome Negroes, the finest of the White Nile. The other races are thickly built and clumsy, and are never ornamental; the Abyssinians, for whatever service and of whatever class, excel all their rival victims in slavery. They are quiet and subdued, and seldom treacherous or insubordinate. They prefer slavery, many of them, to freedom, because they have no aspirations that are inordinate. The girls are delicate, and not built for severe labor. Though born and bred in a country where concubines are as legitimate and as much honored as wives, they revolt against the terrors of polygamy.
In Abyssinia there is a feature of the slave-commerce which does not seem to exist elsewhere. The natives themselves enslave their own countrymen and countrywomen. Since the death of Theodore, the country has been the scene of complex civil war. Each tribe is in war against its neighbor; and when the issue comes to a decisive battle, the victor despoils his antagonist of all his property, makes merchandise of the children, and forwards them to the Egyptian post of Gallabat, where they find a ready and active market. All along the frontier there is no attempt to prevent slavery. It exists with the sanction of the officials, and by their direct co-operation. Another profession is that of secret kidnappers. The world knows little how much finesse and depravity and duplicity are required in this business. The impression is abroad,that the slave-trade provokes nothing more than murder, theft, arson, and rape. But it is a disgraceful fact that some traders habitually practice the most inhuman deception to accomplish their end. They frequently settle down in communities and households in the guise of benefactors, and while so situated they register each desirable boy and girl, and afterward conspire to kidnap or kill them, as chance may have it. Such is the story of the African slave-trade of to-day.
[34]Wilson’s “Western Africa.”
The Republic of Liberia lies on the west coast of Africa, and was settled by emigrants from the United States in 1822.
The founders of this government met with many obstacles: First, disease; then opposition from the natives; all of which, however, they heroically overcame.
The territory owned by the Liberian government extends some six hundred miles along the West African coast, and reaches back indefinitely towards the interior, the native title to which has been fairly purchased.
It has brought within its elevating influence at least two hundred thousand of the native inhabitants, who are gradually acquiring the arts, comforts, and conveniences of civilized life. It has a regularly-organized government, modelled after our own, with all the departments in successful operation. Schools, seminaries, a college, and some fifty churches, belonging to seven different denominations, are in a hopeful condition. Towns and cities are being built where oncethe slave-trade flourished with all its untold cruelty, bloodshed, and carnage. Agriculture is extending, and commerce is increasing. The Republic of Liberia numbers to-day among its civilized inhabitants, about thirty thousand persons, about fifteen thousand of which are American Liberians; that is, those who have emigrated from the United States with their descendants. More than three hundred thousand aborigines reside within the territory of Liberia, and are brought more or less directly under the influence and control of her civilized institutions. There are churches in the Republic, representing different denominations, with their Sunday Schools and Bible classes, and contributing something every week for missionary purposes. The exports in the year 1866, amounted to about three hundred thousand dollars.
The undeveloped capacities for trade, no one can estimate. With a most prolific soil, and a climate capable of producing almost every variety of tropical fruit, the resources of the land are beyond computation. A sea-coast line, six hundred miles in length, and an interior stretching indefinitely into the heart of the country, offer the most splendid facilities for foreign commerce.
For a thousand miles along the coast, and two hundred miles inland, the influence of the government has been brought to bear upon domestic slavery among the natives, and upon the extirpation of the slave-trade, until both have ceased to exist.
The interior presents a country inviting in all its aspects; a fine, rolling country, abounding in streams and rivulets; forests of timber in great variety, abundance, and usefulness; and I have no doubt quitesalubrious, being free from the miasmatic influences of the mangrove swamps near the coast.
The commercial resources of Liberia, even at the present time, though scarcely commenced to be developed, are of sufficient importance to induce foreigners, American and European, to locate in the Republic for the purposes of trade; and the agricultural and commercial sources of wealth in Western and Central Africa are far beyond the most carefully-studied speculation of those even who are best acquainted with the nature and capacity of the country. The development of these will continue to progress, and must, in the very nature of things, secure to Liberia great commercial importance; and this will bring her citizens into such business relations with the people of other portions of the world as will insure to them that consideration which wealth, learning, and moral worth never fail to inspire.
From the beginning, the people of Liberia, with a commendable zeal and firmness, pursued a steady purpose towards the fulfilment of the great object of their mission to Africa. They have established on her shores an asylum free from political oppression, and from all the disabilities of an unholy prejudice; they have aided essentially in extirpating the slave-trade from the whole line of her western coast; they have introduced the blessings of civilization and Christianity among her heathen population, and by their entire freedom from all insubordination, or disregard of lawful authority, and by their successful diplomacy with England, France, and Spain, on matters involving very perplexing international questions, they haveindicated some ability, at least for self-government and the management of their own public affairs.
The banks of the St. Paul’s, St. John’s, Sinoe, and Farmington Rivers, and of the River Cavalla, now teeming with civilized life and industry, presenting to view comfortable Christian homes, inviting school-houses and imposing church edifices, but for the founding of Liberia would have remained until this day studded with slave-barracoons, the theatres of indescribable suffering, wickedness, and shocking deaths.
Liberia is gradually growing in the elements of national stability. The natural riches of that region are enormous, and are such as, sooner or later, will support a commerce, to which that at present existing on the coast is merely fractional. The Liberians own and run a fleet of “coasters,” collecting palm-oil, cam-wood, ivory, gold-dust, and other commodities. A schooner of eighty tons was built, costing eleven thousand dollars, and loaded in the autumn of 1866, at New York, from money and the proceeds of African produce sent for that purpose by an enterprising merchant of Grand Bassa County.
A firm at Monrovia are having a vessel built in one of the ship-yards of New York to cost fifteen thousand dollars.
An intelligent friend has given us the following as an approximate estimate of the sugar-crop on the St. Paul’s in 1866: “Sharp, one hundred and twenty thousand pounds; Cooper, thirty thousand pounds; Anderson, thirty-five thousand pounds; Howland, forty thousand pounds; Roe, thirty thousand pounds; sundry smaller farmers, one hundred and fiftythousand; total, five hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds. The coffee-crop also is considerable, though we are not able to state how much.”
During the year 1866, not less than six hundred tons of cam-wood, twelve hundred tons of palm-oil, and two hundred tons of palm-kernels, were included in the exports of the Republic. And these articles of commercial enterprise and wealth are capable of being increased to almost any extent.
The Colonization Society, under whose auspices the colony of Liberia was instituted, was, as the writer verily believes, inimical to the freedom of the American slaves, and therefore brought down upon it the just condemnation of the American abolitionists, and consequently placed the people in a critical position; I mean the colonists. But from the moment that the Liberians in 1847 established a Republic, unfurled their national banner to the breeze, and began to manage their own affairs, we then said, “Cursed be the hand of ours that shall throw a stone at our brother.”
Fortunately, for the colony, many of the emigrants were men of more than ordinary ability; men who went out with a double purpose; first, to seek homes for themselves and families out of the reach of the American prejudice; second, to carry the gospel of civilization to their brethren. These men had the needed grit and enthusiasm.
Moles, Teage, and Johnson, are names that we in our boyhood learned to respect and love. Roberts, Benson, Warner, Crummell, and James, men of more recent times, have done much to give Liberia her deservedly high reputation.
With a government modelled after our own constitution and laws, that are an honor to any people, and administered by men of the genius and ability which characterizes the present ruling power, Liberia is destined to hold an influential place in the history of nations. Her splendid resources will yet be developed; her broad rivers will be traversed by the steamship, and her fertile plains will yet resound to the thunder of the locomotive. The telegraph wire will yet catch up African news and deposit it in the Corn Exchange, London, and Wall Street, New York.
That moral wilderness is yet to blossom with the noblest fruits of civilization and the sweetest flowers of religion. She will yet have her literature, her historians and her poets. Splendid cities will rise where now there are nothing but dark jungles.
It is a pleasing fact to relate that the last fifty years have witnessed much advance towards civilization in Africa; and especially on the west coast. This has resulted mainly from the successful efforts made to abolish the slave-trade. To the English first, and to the Liberians next, the praise must be given for the suppression of this inhuman and unchristian traffic. Too much, however, cannot be said in favor of the missionaries, men and women, who, forgetting native land, and home-comforts, have given themselves to the work of teaching these people, and thereby carrying civilization to a country where each went with his life in his hands.
Amongst the natives themselves, in several of the nations, much interest is manifested in their own elevation. The invention of an alphabet for writing their language, by the Veys, and this done too by their own ingenuity, shows remarkable advancement with a race hitherto regarded as unequal to such a task.
This progress in civilization is confined more strictly to the Jalofs, the Mandingoes, and the Fulahs,inhabiting the Senegambia, and the Veys, of whom I have already made mention. Prejudice of race exists among the Africans, as well as with other nations. This is not, however, a prejudice of color, but of clan or tribe. The Jalofs, for instance, are said by travellers to be the handsomest Negroes in Africa. They are proud, haughty, and boast of their superiority over other tribes, and will not intermarry with them; yet they have woolly hair, thick lips, and flat noses, but with tall and graceful forms. In religion they are Mohammedans.
Rev. Samuel Crowther has been one of the most successful missionaries that the country has yet had. He is a native, which no doubt gives him great advantage over others. His two sons, Josiah and Samuel, are following in the footsteps of their illustrious father.
The influences of these gentlemen have been felt more directly in the vicinity of Lagos and Abeokuta. The Senior Crowther is the principal Bishop in Africa, and is doing a good work for his denomination, and humanity.
Native eloquence, and fine specimens of oratory may be heard in many of the African assemblies. Their popular speakers show almost as much skill in the use of happy illustrations, striking analogies, pointed argument, historical details, biting irony, as any set of public speakers in the world; and for ease, grace, and naturalness of manner, they are perhaps unsurpassed. The audiences usually express their assent by a sort of grunt, which rises in tone, and frequently in proportion, as the speaker becomes animated, and not unfrequently swells out into a tremendous shout, andthus terminates the discussion in accordance with the views of the speaker. He has said exactly what was in the heart of the assembly, and they have no more to say or hear on the subject.[35]Civilization is receiving an impetus from the manufacturing of various kinds of goods as carried on by the people through Africa, and especially in the Egba, Yoruba, and Senegambia countries. Iron-smelting villages, towns devoted entirely to the manufacturing of a particular kind of ware, and workers in leather, tailors, weavers, hat, basket, and mat-makers, also workers in silk and worsted may be seen in many of the large places.
Some of these products would compare very favorably with the best workmanship of English and American manufacturers.
Much is done in gold, silver, and brass, and jewelry of a high order is made in the more civilized parts of the country.
The explorations of various travellers through Africa, during the past twenty-five years, have aided civilization materially. A debt of gratitude is due to Dr. Livingstone for his labors in this particular field.
I have already made mention of the musical talent often displayed in African villages, to the great surprise of the traveller.
The following account from the distinguished explorer, will be read with interest. Dr. Livingstone says: “We then inquired of the King relative to his band of music, as we heard he had one. He responded favorably, saying he had a band, and it should meet and play for us at once. Not manyminutes elapsed until right in front of our house a large fire was kindled, and the band was on the ground. They began to play; and be assured I was not a little surprised at the harmony of their music. The band was composed of eight members, six of whom had horns, made of elephant tusks, beautifully carved and painted. These all gave forth different sounds, or tones. The bass horn was made of a large tusk; and as they ascended the scale the horns were less. They had a hole cut into the tusk near its thin end, into which they blew the same as into a flute or fife. They had no holes for the fingers, hence the different tones were produced by the lengths of the horns, and by putting the hand into the large, open part of the horn and again removing it. I noticed that one small horn had the large end closed and the small one open. The different tones were produced by the performer opening and closing this end with the palm of his hand. They had also two drums; one had three heads placed on hollow sticks or logs, from one to two feet long; the other had but one head; they beat them with their hands, not sticks. I however saw a large war-drum, about five feet high, made on the principle of the above, which was beaten with sticks. The band serenaded us three times during our stay. They played different tunes, and there was great variety throughout their performance; sometimes only one horn was played, sometimes two or three, and then all would join in; sometimes the drums beat softly, then again loud and full. The horns used in this band are also used for war-horns.
“At about eleven o’clock we were awakened by music,—a human voice and an instrument—right before ourdoor. “What is it?” “A guitar?” “No; but it is fine music.” “Ah! it is a harp. Let us invite him in.” Such conjectures as the above were made as the old man stood before our door and sang and played most beautifully. We invited him in; and true enough, we found it to be a species of harp with twelve strings. He sang and played a long while, and then retired,—having proven to us that even far out in the wild jungles of Africa, that most noble of all human sciences is to a certain degree cultivated. We were serenaded thrice by him. He came from far in the interior.”
One of the greatest obstacles to civilization in Africa, is the traders. These pests are generally of a low order in education, and many of them have fled from their own country, to evade the punishment of some crime committed. Most of them are foul-mouthed, licentious men, who spread immorality wherever they appear. It would be a blessing to the natives if nine-tenths of these leeches were driven from the country.
[35]Wilson’s “Western Africa.”
In sketching an account of the people of Hayti, and the struggles through which they were called to pass, we confess it to be a difficult task. Although the writer visited the Island thirty years ago, and has read everything of importance given by the historians, it is still no easy matter to give a true statement of the revolution which placed the colored people in possession of the Island, so conflicting are the accounts.
The beautiful island of St. Domingo, of which Hayti is a part, was pronounced by the great discoverer to be the “Paradise of God.”
The splendor of its valleys, the picturesqueness of its mountains, the tropical luxuriance of its plains, and the unsurpassed salubrity of its climate, confirms the high opinion of the great Spaniard. Columbus found on the Island more than a million of people of the Caribbean race. The warlike appearance of the Spaniards caused the natives to withdraw into the interior. However, the seductive genius of Columbus soon induced the Caribbeans to return to their towns, and they extended their hospitality to the illustrious stranger.
After the great discoverer had been recalled home and left the Island, Dovadillo, his successor, began a system of unmitigated oppression towards the Caribbeans, and eventually reduced the whole of the inhabitants to slavery; and thus commenced that hateful sin in the New World. As fresh adventurers arrived in the Island, the Spanish power became more consolidated and more oppressive. The natives were made to toil in the gold-mines without compensation, and in many instances without any regard whatever to the preservation of human life; so much so, that in 1507, the number of natives had, by hunger, toil, and the sword, been reduced from a million to sixty thousand. Thus, in the short space of fifteen years, more than nine hundred thousand perished under the iron hand of slavery in the island of St. Domingo.
The Island suffered much from the loss of its original inhabitants; and the want of laborers to till the soil and to work in the mines, first suggested the idea of importing slaves from the coast of Africa. The slave-trade was soon commenced and carried on with great rapidity. Before the Africans were shipped, the name of the owner and the plantation on which they were to toil was stamped on their shoulders with a burning iron. For a number of years St. Domingo opened its markets annually to more than twenty thousand newly-imported slaves. With the advance of commerce and agriculture, opulence spread in every direction. The great tide of immigration from France and Spain, and the vast number of Africans imported every year, so increased the population that at the commencement of the French Revolution, in 1789, there were nine hundred thousand souls on the Island.Of these, seven hundred thousand were Africans, sixty thousand mixed blood, and the remainder were whites and Caribbeans. Like the involuntary servitude in our own Southern States, slavery in St. Domingo kept morality at a low stand. Owing to the amalgamation between masters and slaves, there arose the mulatto population, which eventually proved to be the worst enemies of their fathers.
Many of the planters sent their mulatto sons to France to be educated. When these young men returned to the Island, they were greatly dissatisfied at the proscription which met them wherever they appeared. White enough to make them hopeful and aspiring, many of the mulattoes possessed wealth enough to make them influential. Aware, by their education, of the principles of freedom that were being advocated in Europe and the United States, they were ever on the watch to seize opportunities to better their social and political condition. In the French part of the Island alone, twenty thousand whites lived in the midst of thirty thousand free mulattoes and five hundred thousand slaves. In the Spanish portion, the odds were still greater in favor of the slaves. Thus the advantage of numbers and physical strength was on the side of the oppressed. Right is the most dangerous of weapons—woe to him who leaves it to his enemies!
The efforts of Wilberforce, Sharp, Buxton, and Clarkson, to abolish the African slave-trade, and their advocacy of the equality of the races, were well understood by the men of color. They had also learned their own strength in the Island, and that they had the sympathy of all Europe with them. The news of the oath of the Tennis Court, and the taking of the Bastileat Paris, was received with the wildest enthusiasm by the people of St. Domingo.
The announcement of these events was hailed with delight by both the white planters and the mulattoes; the former, because they hoped the revolution in the Mother Country would secure to them the independence of the colony; the latter, because they viewed it as a movement that would give them equal rights with the whites; and even the slaves regarded it as a precursor to their own emancipation. But the excitement which the outbreak at Paris had created amongst the free men of color and the slaves, at once convinced the planters that a separation from France would be the death-knell of slavery in St. Domingo.
Although emancipated by law from the dominion of individuals, the mulattoes had no rights; shut out from society by their color, deprived of religious and political privileges, they felt their degradation even more keenly than the bond slaves. The mulatto son was not allowed to dine at his father’s table, kneel with him in his devotions, bear his name, inherit his property, nor even to lie in his father’s graveyard. Laboring as they were under the sense of their personal social wrongs, the mulattoes tolerated, if they did not encourage, low and vindictive passions. They were haughty and disdainful to the blacks, whom they scorned, and jealous and turbulent to the whites, whom they hated and feared.
The mulattoes at once despatched one of their number to Paris, to lay before the Constitutional Assembly their claim to equal rights with the whites. Vincent Oge, their deputy, was well received at Paris by Lafayette, Brisot, Barnave, and Gregoire, and wasadmitted to a seat in the Assembly, where he eloquently portrayed the wrongs of his race. In urging his claims, he said if equality was withheld from the mulattoes, they would appeal to force. This was seconded by Lafayette and Barnave, who said: “Perish the Colonies, rather than a principle.”
The Assembly passed a decree, granting the demands of the men of color, and Oge was made bearer of the news to his brethren. The planters armed themselves, met the young deputy on his return to the Island, and a battle ensued. The free colored men rallied around Oge, but they were defeated and taken, with their brave leader; were first tortured, and then broken alive on the wheel.
The prospect of freedom was put down for the time, but the blood of Oge and his companions bubbled silently in the hearts of the African race; they swore to avenge them.
The announcement of the death of Oge in the halls of the Assembly at Paris, created considerable excitement, and became the topic of conversation in the clubs and on the boulevards. Gregoire defended the course of the colored men and said: “If liberty was right in France, it was right in St. Domingo.” He well knew that the crime for which Oge had suffered in the West Indies, had constituted the glory of Mirabeau and Lafayette at Paris, and Washington and Hancock in the United States. The planters in the Island trembled at their own oppressive acts, and terror urged them on to greater violence. The blood of Oge and his accomplices had sown everywhere despair and conspiracy. The French sent an army to St. Domingo to enforce the law.
The planters repelled with force the troops sent out by France, denying its prerogatives, and refusing the civic oath. In the midst of these thickening troubles, the planters who resided in France were invited to return, and to assist in vindicating the civil independence of the Island. Then was it that the mulattoes earnestly appealed to the slaves, and the result was appalling. The slaves awoke as from an ominous dream, and demanded their rights with sword in hand. Gaining immediate success, and finding that their liberty would not be granted by the planters, they rapidly increased in numbers; and in less than a week from its commencement, the storm had swept over the whole plain of the north, from east to west, and from the mountains to the sea. The splendid villas and rich factories yielded to the furies of the devouring flames; so that the mountains, covered with smoke and burning cinders, borne upward by the wind looked like volcanoes; and the atmosphere as if on fire, resembled a furnace.
Such were the outraged feelings of a people whose ancestors had been ruthlessly torn from their native land and sold in the shambles of St. Domingo. To terrify the blacks and convince them that they could never be free, the planters were murdering them on every hand by thousands.
The struggle in St. Domingo was watched with intense interest by the friends of the blacks, both in Paris and in London, and all appeared to look with hope to the rising up of a black chief, who should prove himself adequate to the emergency. Nor did they look in vain. In the midst of the disorder that threatened on all sides, the negro chief made hisappearance in the person of a slave named Toussaint. This man was the grandson of the King of Ardra, one of the most powerful and wealthy monarchs on the west coast of Africa. By his own energy and perseverance, Toussaint had learned to read and write, and was held in high consideration by the surrounding planters, as well as their slaves.
In personal appearance he was of middle stature, strongly-marked African features, well-developed forehead, rather straight and neat figure, sharp and bright eye, with an earnestness in conversation that seemed to charm the listener. His dignified, calm, and unaffected demeanor would cause him to be selected in any company of men as one who was born for a leader.
His private virtues were many, and he had a deep and pervading sense of religion; and in the camp carried it even as far as Oliver Cromwell. Toussaint was born on the Island, and was fifty years of age when called into the field. One of his chief characteristics was his humanity.