Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1885 — The Haytien Revolution. [ARTICLE]

The Haytien Revolution.

The island of Hayti has been the scene of more than one bloody revolution. The first of these, and the most important in its results, broke out in 1790. At that time the population of the western, or French, part of the island—which had received the name of Hayti in 1777, when the boundaries between it and San Domingo; the Spanish part of the island, were fixed—numbered about 500,000. Of these, 38,360 were whites, 28,370 mulattoes, and the remainder negro slaves. The mulattoes were not held in slavery; many of them were well educated and owned large estates, but the laws of the island excluded them from all political privileges. The white people of the colony had taken mush interest in the French revolution, and sent deputies to the Assembly at Paris to declare their adhesion to the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. But when the mulattoes urged the application of these principles to their class as well as the whites, their request was contemptuously denied. Accordingly some 300 of their number rose in rebellion under the leadership of one Vincent Oge, but the outbreak was checked, its leader was broken on the tt-beeL and twenty-one of his followers were hanged. In France general svspathy was with the mulattoes, and a decree -was passed bv the National Assembly declaring all persons of color born of free parents entitled to all the privileges of French citizens. Though this decree did not interfere with slavery, it excited great opposition on the part of the planters, and they would no doubt have succeeded in preventing its operation, but for the unexpected occurrence of an insurrection on the part of the black slaves—a class that, up to this time, had been scarcely even considered by either of the contending parties. The whole colony was now involved in a fierce' civil war which lasted several years. The insurgents recreated to strong positions in the mountains which defied attack. The French were further distracted by invasions on the part of the British and Spanish, the former of whom conquered a large part of the colony. Meanwhile, in j 1793, the French National Assembly declared all slaves free. The British were driven from the island in 1797 bv 'iloussiant L’Ouvertnre, who subsequently governed the emancipated people with firmness and dhcretion for several years. -After the capture and death of L Ouverture, the riegroe3 rebelled again under Bessalines, who, on the formal assertion of the independence of the blacks, Jan. 1. 1804, was made governor for life. Since that time the country has been the scene of periodic revolutions. Sometimes consolidated into one State, and sometimes divided into two, the country has alternated between despotism and anarchy, between monarchy and republicanism. The constitution of the present republic was adopted June 14, 1867.— Inter Ocean.