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THE 
 
 RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 BY 
 
 AUGUSTIN COCHIN, 
 
 EX-MATRE AND MUNICIPAL COUNCILLOR OF PARIS. 
 
 WORK CROWNED BY THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE 
 (ACADEMIE FRANCAISE}. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 MARY L. BOOTH, 
 
 TRANSLATOR OF COUNT DE GASPARIN s WORKS ON AMERICA, ETC. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 
 
 245 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 1863. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G2, by 
 
 WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 
 in the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 
 WELCH, DIGEI.OW, AND COMPANY, 
 P K i x T K R s . 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 THE stranger, visiting Paris and admiring its monu 
 ments of art, turns aside to examine its more noble monu 
 ments of public charity. He visits the Hotel-Dieu, found 
 ed by an Archbishop of Paris, endowed by Philip Augus 
 tus and St. Louis, enlarged by Henri IV., and enriched 
 by the benefactions of a long line of monarchs. He then, 
 in the Faubourg-Saint-Jacques, visits another hospital, 
 more airy, neater, more commodious, and better ordered, 
 with a smaller proportional mortality than the H6tel- 
 Dieu, giving annual relief to more than 2,000 patients, 
 founded during the last century by a single man, whose 
 name it still bears, the Hospital-Cochin.* Its founder, the 
 Curate of Saint- Jacques-du-Haut-Pas, was one of a family 
 distinguished for its services in the French magistracy, for 
 its administrative ability, and for its beneficence. Two 
 generations later a member of the same family, Augustin 
 Cochin, produces a work which, in far-reaching conse- 
 
 * This hospital was commenced in 1780 and finished in 1782, in the Rue du 
 Faubourg-Saint-Jacques, by the venerable M. Cochin, Cure" of Saint-Jacques- 
 du-Haut-Pas, who, to rescue his poor parishioners from the dangers to which 
 they were exposed at the Hotel-Dieu, over-crowded, ill-ventilated, and malari 
 ous, where 5,000 patients were huddled together in 1,400 beds, disposed of all 
 his property, and even his books, to furnish them a safer and more comfortable 
 asylum. It was first called the Hopital de Saint Jacques-du-Haut-Pas; the 
 name of its founder has since been appropriately bestowed on it by the Constil 
 des Hospices, who have placefl his marble bust in the principal hall. The hospi 
 tal contains some 150 beds, and is under the supervision of the Sisters of St. 
 Martha. 
 
iv TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 quences, generous purpose, and practical utility, stands 
 in noble rivalry with the earlier labors of his progenitors. 
 
 The possessor of an ample fortune, independent, 
 frank, averse to intrigue, and unpretending withal, M. 
 Cochin has persistently held aloof from all office, only 
 accepting a municipal councillorship and the mairie of 
 one of the arrondissements of Paris, a position furnishing 
 him an opportunity to do much good in an unostenta 
 tious way as almoner to its needy population. From his 
 earliest youth M. Cochin has been identified with the 
 cause of liberty in France. A Legitimist in principle, 
 the fast friend and ally of Count de Montalembert in his 
 efforts to raise up a Catholic liberal party for the devel 
 opment of republican sentiments and institutions, the 
 ardent coadjutor of Pere Lacordaire, Monseigneur d Or- 
 leans, Viscount de Melun, Prince de Broglie, and a host 
 of other reformers, he has long been distinguished for his 
 efforts and zeal in behalf of freedom. He is well known 
 as a publicist, has been for years an able contributor to 
 the Journal des Debats, one of the most enlightened and 
 influential journals in Europe, where his articles on 
 American affairs have lately attracted much attention, 
 and is at present editor-in-chief of La Correspondance, 
 the organ of the party represented by Count de Monta 
 lembert, Monseigneur d Orleans, and Prince de Broglie, 
 in opposition to Louis Veuillot and the Napoleonic party. 
 
 M. Cochin is now in the prime of life, scarcely forty 
 years old. His wife is the daughter of the well-known 
 Legitimist, Viscount Benoist d Azy, one of the most clear 
 sighted and practical men of France, who, possessed of 
 immense fortune, an extensive land-owner and proprietor 
 of iron-forges, has done more perhaps than any other 
 man to advance the material interests of his country, 
 by railway building, mining, and agricultural improve- 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. V 
 
 ments. M. Cochin is himself an eminently practical 
 man, with rare administrative ability, and his work, 
 which is here offered to the public, is no enthusiastic the 
 ory based on mere visionary speculation, but an array 
 of clear and well-digested facts, presented in a calm, un 
 prejudiced manner, and drawn from official sources to 
 which few men could have had so full access, and 
 which few men would have studied so diligently and 
 minutely. Indeed, the published and unpublished pa 
 pers and records of every ministry of Europe have been 
 placed at his disposal during the preparation of his work; 
 in England he has had all the unpublished documents of 
 the Board .of Trade, and the sagacious Nassau Senior, 
 one of the wisest counsellors of the British government, 
 has rendered him constant aid. The reliability of his facts 
 and conclusions cannot, therefore, be contested, and in 
 this respect the work is of the utmost value to the Amer 
 ican public, as there is no work extant in the English 
 language which sums up so fully and incontestably the 
 practical results of emancipation. 
 
 The present volume comprises the first volume of the 
 original work, IS Abolition de Vesclavaffe, and is wholly 
 distinct from the second volume, the Results of Slavery. 
 It has been thought advisable, having the author s con 
 sent, to publish this volume separately, trusting that 
 the public demand may justify us erelong in issuing 
 the second, the greater part of which is devoted to the 
 United States and its present condition. M. Cochin is a 
 warm advocate of the cause of the North, and of emanci 
 pation. In a recent letter he writes : " With what anx 
 ious and sympathizing emotion we follow the painful 
 trials which the United States are enduring ! European 
 opinion has great need of being sustained. On the one 
 hand, the material interests which are suffering, on the 
 
Vi TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 other, the passion of the English journals, delighted with 
 the misfortunes of so powerful a rival, and through which 
 alone your news reaches Europe, these are the two 
 causes which stifle the voices of the friends of justice and 
 human liberty. I thank God for having permitted me 
 opportunely to take a humble part in this great cause. I 
 firmly hope that, whatever may be the issue of the war, 
 slavery will be dishonored and stricken down ; this 
 would be the most glorious crown of the nineteenth cen 
 tury ; it deserves the warmest efforts. Count on my per 
 severance in acting within the narrow limits that I can, 
 and on my gratitude to the unknown but much loved 
 friends who do my work more honor than I had hoped 
 for it." 
 
 The estimation in which this work is held in Europe 
 may be judged from the fact that the French Academy, 
 at its last annual meeting, July 3, 1862, on the report of 
 its illustrious Perpetual Secretary, M. Yillemain, decreed 
 it the first prize, 3,000 francs. In his report M. Ville- 
 main says: 
 
 " Obliged to limit itself in its choice, the Academy 
 has designated the works which, through talent and pre 
 sumed influence, have appeared to answer best to the 
 idea of its founder and the varied destinations of its 
 work. It has placed first of all two books full of labo 
 rious knowledge and generous ardor. The one is a 
 study of religious history, philosophy, and eloquence 
 (that of M. de Pressense ). The other, recommended to 
 us by the interests of moral study as well as by the pres 
 ent lesson of events, is deserving the choice of the Acad 
 emy. This is U Abolition de Vesclavage, by M. Cochin, 
 former maire and municipal councillor of the city of 
 Paris. The distinctive feature, the eminent merit of the 
 author, is that of uniting scientific precision and philan- 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. vii 
 
 thropic ardor, of demanding with eloquent zeal the aboli 
 tion of slavery in the name of God and humanity, and of 
 demonstrating in minute detail all the advantages of this 
 useful moral reform. The author is at once an apostle 
 and an economist. This double power of fervor and of 
 science marks the Introduction, addressed to the Duke 
 de Broglie as the first promoter of the intervention of 
 France in the suppression of the slave-trade, and the con 
 stant and enlightened defender of emancipation in all 
 the stages through which this cause has passed, to the 
 complete abolition of slavery, abruptly proclaimed in the 
 French colonies in 1848, and even then as salutary as 
 irrevocable. 
 
 " Setting out from this too much disputed example, 
 M. Cochin shows what has been done for humanity in the 
 colonies of two powerful nations, and of two others no 
 less civilized ; and also how many slaves still remain in 
 the Christian world, more than 4,000,000 in a portion 
 of the republican States of America, where appears at 
 this moment that great civil war, that convulsion of an 
 empire substituted for a question of philanthropy, as if to 
 attest how great peril and calamity are comprised in so 
 cial injustice. We read the eloquent summary of facts 
 prior to the war, the fatal symptoms, the aggravated dif 
 ficulties which preceded the formidable crisis, the great 
 ness of which retards the catastrophe, without ceasing to 
 render it inevitable. The heart of the author does not 
 falter, but, in the face of the vicissitudes of war, while 
 invoking peace, he counsels, he demands, he predicts, the 
 abolition of slavery ; then, turning from a land desolated 
 by war, he more forcibly repeats the course that policy as 
 well as humanity should hasten to adopt where slavery is 
 not yet attacked and defended by arms, where it is still 
 at peace, and where it only risks drawing on the masters 
 
viii TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 
 
 the dangers of foreign conquest, and tempting other 
 slave states by calculations of ambition or solidarity. 
 
 " After this review of slavery in the Christian world of 
 our day, we take up with the author the question on its 
 own merits, according to the Mosaic law, philosophy, and 
 the Gospel. We see religion unceasingly active in the 
 lightening of this scourge. If, after having labored to 
 destroy it in antiquity and the Middle Ages, it sees it 
 spring up anew in modern times, it more than ever be 
 longs to it to se.cond policy and science united in render 
 ing it impossible under the latest form which it has 
 assumed. 
 
 " Such is this plea against slavery. Full of generous 
 sentiments and exact researches, a blending of moral and 
 statistical philosophy, this book is one of the best that can 
 be brought to the support of the great reform which the 
 genius of Modern Europe has begun in its colonies, and 
 which its mediation and example should extend through 
 out the world. 
 
 " The Academy decrees to each of these works a prize 
 of 3,000 francs." 
 
 Besides this flattering testimonial, the Pope has con 
 ferred an order of knighthood on the author in recom 
 pense for his work, and the most illustrious of the French 
 bishops, Monseigneur d Orleans, has addressed him a let 
 ter in eulogy of its merits. 
 
 Its value in this country can hardly be estimated, ap 
 pearing as it does on the eve of -a crisis of emancipation, 
 caused abruptly, as in the French colonies, by revolution, 
 and which, as in these, will wreck for a time the prosper 
 ity of the States in which it is wrought, or lead them with 
 out suffering to a more prosperous condition, according 
 as we profit by the experience of our neighbors. This 
 experience M. Cochin has lucidly summed up, proving 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. ix 
 
 beyond dispute, that emancipation by itself alone has 
 caused less disturbance than a hail-storm or a year of 
 drought would have done. He has shown more, that, 
 in the British West India Islands, with the single excep 
 tion of Jamaica, the result of emancipation has been to 
 increase the progress and wealth of the islands, and that 
 in Jamaica itself, while its general results have been most 
 beneficent, any apparent failure in the prosperity of the 
 island is to be traced to local causes and the home legis 
 lation upon sugar, the details and results of which are 
 fully explained. 
 
 Thanks are due, in conclusion, to Messrs. Orestes A. 
 Brownson and George Sumner, the friends and corre 
 spondents of the author, who have kindly furnished the 
 facts relating to his personal history. 
 
 MARY L. BOOTH. 
 
 BOSTON, December 1, 1862. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 DEDICATION AND INTRODUCTION 1 
 
 BOOK FIRST. 
 
 FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EMANCIPATION BY THE CONVENTION, AND THE UK-ESTABLISH 
 MENT OF -SLAVERY BY THE CONSULATE (1794-1802) . . 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 FROM THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF SLAVERY BY THE CONSULATE 
 
 (1802) TO ITS SECOND ABOLITION BY THE REPUBLIC OF 1848 51 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 EMANCIPATION BY THE REPUBLIC OF 1848 . . . .87 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION IN THE FRENCH COLONIES . . 98 
 
 CHAPTER V . 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 IN THE COLONIES .... 101 
 
 1. Martiuico . . ... . . . 101 
 
 2. Guadalotipe . - 7 1" 
 
 3. The Isle of Bourbon, or Reunion *- . . II- 
 4. Guiana . .117 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 LAWS . . . .121 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 MILITARY FORCE . . . . . . . .130 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 COURTS OF JUSTICE . . " . . . . . . . 133 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 INDEMNITY . .143 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 PRODUCTION AND COMMERCE. WAGES AND PROPERTY . .154 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 THE QUESTION or SUGARS . . . . . . .174 
 
 1. The Sugar Question before Emancipation . . * . 177 
 2. The Sugar Question from Emancipation to the Law of 
 
 May 23, 1860 . ... . . . .189 
 
 3. Coffee, Cocoa, Tea 198 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 LABOR AND IMMIGRATION . . .* . . 202 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE COLONIAL COMPACT . ... . . 233 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION . . . .241 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RELIGION, INSTRUCTION . . . , 254 
 
 1. Before the Abolition of Slavery . . . . 254 
 
 I. Guiana . . . . . . 265 
 
 II. Martinico . . . . . 268 
 
% CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 III. Guadaloupe ....... 269 
 
 IV. Bourbon ....... 270 
 
 2. After the Abolition of Slavery . . . . . * 275 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 RESUME 287 
 
 BOOK SECOND. 
 
 ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SLAVERY IN ENGLAKD AND ITS COLONIES UNTIL THE EMANCIPA 
 TION BILL or AUGUST 28, 1833 . . . . . . 305 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE FREED CLASSES . . 333 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE COLONIES . . . 342 
 
 1. Labor and Immigration . . . . . . 342 
 
 2. Production, the Sugar Law, Commercial Freedom . .356 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 RESUME . . . .381 
 
 BOOK THIRD. 
 
 COLONIES OF DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND HOLLAND. 
 
 I. Danish Colonies ....... 389 
 
 II. Swedish Colonies 395 
 
 111. Dutch Colonies . . -396 
 
XIV CONTENTS. . 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Tables of the Imports and Exports of the French Colonies before and 
 
 after 1848 . . . . . .. . . . 404 
 
 Comparative Condition of Imports and Exports from 1848 to 1857 406 
 
 Price of Colonial Sugar from 1819 to 1859 . ... . 408 
 
 Price of Native Sugar from 1830 to 1859 . . . . .. 409 
 
 ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 Statistics of the English Colonies in America . . . . .410 
 Sugars imported into the United Kingdom since 1851 . . . 411 
 Latin Text relative to the Conversion of England to Christianity . 412 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 TO M. LE DUO DE B$OGLIE. 
 
 MONSIEUR LE Due : 
 
 If I did not dedicate this book to you, I should think 
 myself doubly ungrateful. 
 
 I should forget that you had approved my designs, aided 
 my researches, encouraged my perseverance. 
 - I should forget, above all, that to you belongs the question 
 to which I devote my efforts. Your hand has contributed 
 more than any other to break at length, by repeated blows, 
 the heavy and unjust bond which held, under the shadow 
 of the French flag, in the face of Christian altars, in the 
 midst of the nineteenth century, two hundred and fifty 
 thousand human beings in slavery. 
 
 You it was that, March 28, 1822, proposed to the Cham 
 ber of Peers an address to the king, demanding that he 
 should prescribe measures suited better to secure the entire 
 abolition of the traffic in slaves. 
 
 You it was that, January 24, 182Y, on the occasion of 
 Article I. of the projected law for the suppression of the 
 negro slave trade, pronounced a memorable speech, the 
 memory of which has not perished with time.* 
 
 You it was that, March 26, 1840, was called to the pres- 
 
 * See the learned Memoir of M. Charles Giraud to the Institute upon Negro 
 Slavery, Comptes rendus de VAcademie des Sciences morales, 1861, p. 194. 
 
 1 A 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 idency of the celebrated commission charged with drawing 
 up the plan of emancipation for the colonies, and their polit 
 ical constitution. 
 
 You it was that, in March, 1843, after an immense inves 
 tigation, and prodigious labors, presented to the Minister of 
 the Marine the report of this commission. 
 
 You it was that, May 29, 1845, signed, after negotiat 
 ing the agreement concluded with her Britannic Majesty 
 for the suppression of the negro slave-trade, an agreement 
 which reconciled the interests of humanity with the just 
 national susceptibilitfes aroused by the treaties of 1831 and 
 1833 and the agreement of 1841. 
 
 You it was that, July T, 1845, supported, by a speech in 
 the Chamber of Peers, the bills designed to favor the re 
 demption, education, and well-being of slaves. 
 
 You it was that, January 13, 1846, defended the agree 
 ment of May 29, attacked in the Chamber of Peers. 
 
 After the abolition of slavery (March 4, 1848), when it 
 became imperative to establish in our distant possessions 
 the order endangered by the Revolution, it was you who 
 was called upon, November 22, 1849, to preside over the 
 commission charged with framing the new regime of the 
 colonies. 
 
 Ten years later, when a new colonial commission exam 
 ined the difficult questions raised by the enlistment of 
 negroes on the African coast, it was again to v you, in 1858, 
 that this commission turned, believing itself unable to dis 
 pense in such a matter with the authority of your incom 
 parable experience. 
 
 What would it be, if I were to add to the enumeration of 
 so many rjublic acts the results of your influence, con 
 stantly occupied during the past forty years with the 
 obscure interests of the humble clients of whom Provi 
 dence has made you counsel ? 
 
 You have encountered in this struggle obstinate oppo- 
 
INTKODUCTION. 3 
 
 nents, but also indefatigable allies. One need not complain 
 when he can associate* in the defence of the same cause the> 
 practical reason of MM. Passy and de Tracy, the authors* 
 of the first plans of emancipation, the admirable language 
 of MM. de Remusat and de Tocqueville, the supporters 
 of these projects, the eloquence of M. Guizot, M. de La- 
 martine, or M. Berryer, the zeal of M. de Gasparin, the 
 knowledge of M. Wallon, the democratic ardor of M. 
 Schoelcher, in a word, the co-operation of the various and 
 numerous soldiers of that vast army which justice has 
 power to raise up in France on every side. 
 
 There has not been a twelvemonth, scarcely a day, for 
 the last forty years, in which, in concert with these gen 
 erous auxiliaries, you have not kept awake the authorities 
 by interpellations, public opinion by publications, authors 
 by rewards, travellers by questions, France- and Europe by 
 continual discussion, the wide-spread and peaceful agitation 
 of mercy which England had already witnessed, and which, 
 growing by degrees and at length raising its voice above 
 the clamors of interest, has ended by inscribing in the 
 depths of every conscience the irrepressible condemnation 
 of slavery. By your memorable report of 1843, you wrote 
 the sentence, you pronounced the condemnation ; the Re 
 public of 1848 had the honor of carrying it into effect. 
 
 It is to you that emancipation in the French colonies 
 is chiefly due. After the fatigues of a long career, inter 
 spersed with triumphs and disappointments, "there is not 
 a drop of sweat upon the brow," in the beautiful language 
 of M. Guizot, "which such a palm-wreath cannot dry." * 
 
 Nevertheless, moved by the noise of the violent agita 
 tions of the United States, you follow, with an anxious 
 glance, slavery in its new aspects, no longer afflicting only 
 a few little second-rate communities, but aggrandized, en 
 venomed, menacing the peace, the very existence, of one 
 
 * Vie de Washington. 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the first nations possessed by earth and known in his 
 tory. You ask yourself whether in this sad life, in which 
 one bewails his affections, one by one, he must. in the same 
 manner wear mourning for his hopes ; whether he must 
 renounce emancipation ; what is the present position, what 
 the future, of this great question, one of the passions of 
 your soul. Where do we stand after a century of effort ? 
 
 I. 
 
 More than half a century ago, at the time when Mr. 
 Wilberforce was soliciting of the British Parliament the 
 abolition of the slave-trade, Mr. Pitt exclaimed : " Man 
 kind is now likely to be delivered from the greatest prac 
 tical evil that has ever afflicted the human race, from the 
 severest and most extensive calamity ever recorded in the 
 history of the world. This crown, which the eighteenth 
 century failed to gain, the nineteenth, already inclining 
 towards its closing years, does not yet hold in its hands, 
 for the great work of the emancipation of slaves in the 
 bosom of Christian nations is far from being accomplished. 
 
 The slave-trade, to say nothing of the special laws of each 
 country, has been condemned by three Congresses, a Papal 
 bull, twenty-six treaties, and more than a hundred agree 
 ments with the petty African sovereigns. Glorious days 
 have witnessed the birth to freedom of eight hundred 
 thousand slaves emancipated by England,* two hundred 
 and fifty thousand by France, f and several thousand by 
 Denmark and Sweden. 
 
 But the slave-trade is still carried on ; it defies laws, it 
 braves cruisers. The United States possess by themselves 
 alone more than four million slaves ; Brazil, at least two 
 million ; the Dutch colonies, more than a hundred thou- 
 
 * Exact number, 770,390, without including India and Ceylon. 
 
 t Exact number, 248,560, including Senegal, Nossi-bd, and St. Mary. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 sand ; the Spanish colonies, six hundred thousand. There 
 remain, therefore, upon Christian territory, without speaking 
 of the heathen world, nearly seven million baptized slaves ! 
 
 Why, then, is the voice of the illustrious men who have 
 carried the work of emancipation so far, and to whom re 
 verts the immortal honor of having insured one of the 
 most glorious triumphs which human communities have 
 ever won over themselves, why is it extinct or silent ? 
 
 It seems that this century, so quickly enthused by, and 
 so soon weary of, so many generous causes, again stands 
 still ; is it to repose or to repent ? 
 
 The silence of public opinion and its masters has another 
 cause. There is silence, because there is nothing more to 
 say. 
 
 The unlawfulness of servitude belongs, in fact, to the 
 few truths which the Gospel, science, and political liberty 
 have rendered rulers of the human conscience throughout 
 all Europe. 
 
 Philosophy accords to all slaves a soul equal to our own, 
 perhaps refused them by Aristotle.* Physiology declares 
 the white and black, despite important differences, mem 
 bers of the same family. History discovers between the 
 possessors and tile possessed no trace of lawful conquest. 
 The law no longer recognizes any validity to a pretended 
 contract whose title has no existence, whose object is 
 illicit, and whose parties are, the one without free will, 
 the other without good faith. f Ethnology raises to the 
 height of an admirable law the radical difference, which 
 places in the first rank on earth the races that work, like 
 the Northern Europeans, and in the last rank the races 
 that are served, like the Turks. Political economy affirms 
 
 * Wallon, Histoire de VEsdavage dans V Antiquite, Tom. I. Chap. XI. p. 356. 
 Moehler, Abolition de FEsdcwage par le Christianisme dans les guinze premiers 
 Siedes, Chap. II., translation, Symon de Latreiche, 1841, p. 199. 
 
 f Du Droit industries, by M. Eenouard, Part I. Chap. V. Paris, 1860. 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the superiority of free over forced labor, and condemns 
 everything that deprives man of the essential condition 
 of his moral and material life, the family. Policy and 
 charity, from different stand-points, accept the same con 
 clusion ; charity, more tender, detests slavery because it 
 oppresses the inferior race ; policy, more elevated, con 
 demns it especially because it corrupts the superior race. 
 
 Like sciences, parties, and faiths are in unison. 
 
 All nations, free or despotic, monarchical or republican, 
 all clergies, Catholic or Protestant, have been accomplices 
 of slavery. The nations which continue such are the 
 Southern United States and Holland, two Protestant na 
 tions ; Spain and Brazil, two Catholic monarchies. But 
 England and France, the Northern United States and Peru, 
 Sweden and Portugal, have renounced the participation. 
 The Anglicans, Baptists, and Wesleyans share as largely 
 as the Catholics in this salutary repentance. So great a 
 question is a happy ground where tolerance and union are 
 acquired properties and necessary forces. This remarkable 
 harmony is the triumph of our age : it is complete in the 
 domain of ideas ; the principal nations of Europe have con 
 formed their conduct to their conviction ; they are silent, 
 persuaded that time will do the rest. 
 
 Unhappily, it is the nature of slavery unceasingly to 
 spring up anew ; when stifled on one point of the earth, 
 it breaks forth and spreads on another. 
 
 It springs up anew a thing wellnigh incredible ! in 
 purely theoretical discussions ; it is not even entirely ex 
 pelled from reasoning. In America whole libraries are 
 composed of books in favor of slavery. A school is formed 
 for its defence, which JVf . de Gasparin pungently styles the 
 school of cottony theology.* In England, men dare write : 
 " Our grandfathers committed the crime, our fathers re 
 pented it, to us belongs reflection ; we may perhaps be 
 * The Uprising of a Great People, p. 76. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 mistaken/ 7 * In France they repeat, without examination, 
 that emancipation has killed the colonies. Public opinion 
 suffers itself to be influenced more than is believed by this 
 repentance for a good action. It is in the nature of the 
 human mind to doubt on the morrow its deeds of yester 
 day. The inconveniences of every infant act disturbs the 
 vision and revives objections ; errors the most thoroughly 
 uprooted have a speedy reaction, a second season, as it 
 were, a dangerous moment, when it is necessary to begin 
 again to justify evidence, and to demonstrate the common 
 place. 
 
 Moreover, among the most grievous consequences of a 
 wrong is the weariness, the indifference, induced by the 
 reiterated exposition of its evils. Declamation and satiety 
 have rendered the cause of the slaves fastidious, almost 
 suspicious, before it is won. There are those who have 
 the same contempt for the question of slavery as for the 
 slave himself. Insensible to these difficulties, I content 
 myself with repeating what Mr. Canning said to Mr. Dun- 
 das more than half a century ago : "So long as there are 
 no clear and positive refutations of the old arguments, I 
 shall continue to use them. 77 f 
 
 But new arguments abound, for slavery springs up anew 
 much more in facts than in ideas. 
 
 It is generally admitted that slavery almost entirely dis 
 appeared from Europe, under the influence of the Catholic 
 Church, about the twelfth century. J In the fifteenth and 
 sixteenth, it again revived. In the seventeenth century 
 kings encouraged it by treaties, and aided it by premiums. 
 In the eighteenth century it was attacked ; in the nine- 
 
 * London Times, 1861. 
 
 t Speech on the motion of Mr. Wilberforce, March 1, 1799. 
 
 t Michelet, Rapport a V Academic des Sciences morales, August 31, 1839. Nau- 
 det, Memoir es sur la Condition des Personnes. Wallon, Histoire de VEsclavage dans 
 FAntiquite, 1840. Edouard Biot, De V Abolition de VEsclavage ancien en Occident, 
 1840. Yanoski, De V Abolition de VEsdavage ancien au Moyen Age, 1860. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 teenth, it is effaced from the laws of England and France ; 
 at the same moment it is spreading, at a rate hitherto 
 unknown, in the two most powerful states of America, 
 the vast and flourishing empire of Brazil, and the young, 
 free, and great republic of the United States. 
 
 I write in 1861, which, during the same month, has seen 
 the Emperor of Eussia (March 19) proclaim the emancipa 
 tion of more than twenty million serfs, and, on another 
 continent, has witnessed the installation of the President 
 of the republic of the United States (March 4) greeted by 
 the separation of the slaveholding States, which have risen 
 in arms to save their living property at the expense of the 
 country. 
 
 In the face of such events, it is impossible to dispute 
 either the novelty, or the abundance, or the terrible oppor 
 tuneness of arguments. 
 
 Only, it is fitting to present them from a new stand-point. 
 
 As the systems invented by the human mind appear on 
 the scene of history in a certain regular order, as demon 
 strated by M. Cousin, so in a long-continued debate do 
 arguments also present themselves in a certain order, and 
 demonstrations, without changing their object, change form. 
 It is usual to begin with the extremes. Between feelings 
 and interests, between emotion and menaces, no agreement 
 is possible. By degrees, they are drawn nearer by reason 
 ing, facts are taken as arbiters, and harmony is established 
 on practical grounds. 
 
 The arguments of a hundred years ago for and against 
 slavery are no longer wholly in place. 
 
 In 1778, Sir Peter Parker, Governor of Jamaica, declared 
 that the abolition of the slave-trade would deprive England 
 of her colonies, half her commerce, and her rank as a mari 
 time power.* 
 
 * " The abolition of the African slave-trade would cause a general desponden 
 cy among the negroes, and gradually decrease population, aud consequently the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 The Abolitionists of the same epoch (1792) proclaimed, 
 in a sort of stupidly pious crusade, universal abstention 
 from the use of sugar.* 
 
 In France, during this time, the Minister of the Marine 
 wrote to the Governor of St. Domingo (1T11) : 
 
 " His Majesty thinks that it is important to good order not 
 to lessen in any degree the humiliation attached to the species, 
 a prejudice the more useful as it exists in the hearts of the 
 slaves themselves, and contributes mainly to the repose of the 
 colonies." f 
 
 On the other side, the Abolitionists, braving evidence and 
 history, accorded to the black race the most brilliant intel 
 lectual destinies, and Gre*goire composed a work on Negro 
 Literature. 
 
 We are no longer a prey to these exaggerations. Feel 
 ing keeps its place, reason has taken its stand, prejudice 
 has lost what did not belong to it. We are in the presence 
 of facts, in the presence of practical realities. It would be 
 too easy to enter into a pathetic appeal ; we must turn 
 aside from tears, and consult figures. 
 
 Let us institute an inquiry, therefore, on the comparative 
 results of emancipation in the countries which have proclaimed 
 it, and of slavery in the countries where it is maintained. J 
 
 produce of our islands, and must in time destroy nearly one half our commerce, 
 and take from Great Britain all pretensions to the rank she now holds, of being 
 the first maritime power in the world." 
 
 * An Address to his Royal Highness, the Duke of York, against the Use of 
 Sugar, 1792 : "As the slavery of the negroes is owing to the cultivation of sugar, 
 all the enemies of this slavery, all who wish its abolition, should altogether ab 
 stain from the use of this commodity till such time as effectual measures shall 
 be taken to prevent the further importation of slaves, and proper measures be 
 adopted to procure their freedom for such as are now in our plantations." 
 (Biblioiheque de I 1 Arsenal, Papiers de Gregoire, Vol. II.) 
 f May 27, 1771. (Histoire de la Guadeloupe, by M. Lacour, 1855 - 1860, p. 392.) 
 J The present volume, which is complete in itself, gives the results of eman 
 cipation wherever effected. The following volume, the translation of which is 
 not as yet published, depicts slavery in the countries where it still exists, treats 
 briefly of Africa and the slave-trade, and concludes with a chapter on Christi 
 anity and Slavery. TK. 
 
10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 II. 
 
 The outline of this inquiry is as follows.* 
 1. What has been the fate of the nineteen slave colonies 
 of England since the Emancipation Bill of 1834? Have 
 
 * The results of the English experiment have been fully set forth in the Parlia- 
 mentary documents, translations, and reports, published in 1840, 1841, and 1842, 
 by our Minister of the Marine and the Colonies ; lastly, and above all, in the mem 
 orable report of the President of the Colonial Commission, the Duke de Broglie. 
 We have only to continue the inquiry to our own time, an easy task, as Eng 
 land publishes all that she does, and lives in the midst of a perpetual investiga 
 tion. I owe my acquaintance with the Parliamentary documents to my honora 
 ble friend Mr. Monsell, member of Parliament, to two of the sons of William 
 Wilberforce, and lastly to the indefatigable and universal kindness of Mr. Senior. 
 
 The results of the French experiment are more recent and less known. 
 Thanks to the permission of the Count de Chasseloup-Laubat, Minister of the 
 Colonies, I have been admitted to researches throughout all the departments of 
 the ministry, and I owe the warmest thanks to the Minister, to the Baron de 
 Roujoux, the Director of the Colonies, to the continual encouragement of one 
 of the persons best acquainted with all colonial questions, M. Jules Delarbre, 
 Director of the Cabinet, and, lastly, to the helpful assistance of MM. Beau, 
 Guiraud, du Chayla, Roy, Farcy, Eguyer, Avalle, etc. 
 
 In the colonies I have consulted with the utmost profit M. Husson, Director 
 of the Interior at Martinico, M. Constant Mourette, and inhabitants of the vari 
 ous French possessions. Outside the ministry, the excellent writings of MM. 
 Jules Duval and Lepelletier Saint-Remy, who, more than any other, possess the 
 merit and talent of interesting France in her too often forgotten colonies, Galos, 
 Baudrillart, Lacour, de Chazelles, Legoyt, Richelot, Chemin-Dupontes, etc., 
 have been of no less service to me than the reports to the Chambers, old 
 and new, presented by superior men like MM. Dumon, Passy, de Tocqueville, 
 Rossi, Beugnot, Benoist-d Azy, Be"hic, Mestro, Kolb-Bernard, Ancel, Hubert-De- 
 lisle, Caffarelli, etc., without forgetting the memorable speeches of MM. de 
 Montalembert, de Gasparin, de Lamartine, de Tracy, de R4musat, de Lasteyrie, 
 d Haussonville, or the books and labors of MM. Schoelcher, Castelli, Lechev- 
 alier, Bayle-Mouillard, Barbaroux, Layrle, d Avrainville, and so many other en 
 lightened adversaries of slavery, or intelligent defenders of colonial prosperity, 
 industry, the navy, and national greatness. I owe thanks, lastly, to Mgr. Des- 
 prez, formerly Bishop of the Isle of Bourbon, now Archbishop of Toulouse, to 
 the venerable Abb Jean de la Mennais, founder of the brothers de Ploernel, 
 who conduct nearly all the colonial schools^ to the Abbe" Se"nac, to R. P. Gratry, 
 to the Abb Perreyve, and to the Abbe" Gaduel, who have kindly furnished me 
 with valuable information, or revised and approved the chapters relating to the 
 influence of Christianity. 
 
 As to historical documents, the archives of the Colonial Ministry have been 
 opened to me, with inexhaustible liberality, by M. Pierre Margry, those of the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 they progressed, or declined, since this epoch, in morals, 
 wealth, and happiness ? 
 
 Has France to repent of the law of 1848 ? Has she 
 sacrificed to vain humanitarian Utopias the last remnants 
 of her colonial grandeur? or, on the contrary, has she 
 
 Ministry of Foreign Affairs by M. Prosper Faugere, those of the Seminary du 
 Saint Esprit, so rich and curious, by the R. P. Schwindenhammer, the R. P. 
 Levavasseur, the Library of the Institute by M. de Landresse, and that of the 
 Arsenal by M. Paul Lacroix. 
 
 American documents superabound. Without speaking of the great book of 
 M. de Tocqueville, and the celebrated works of our writers and travellers, 
 MM. de Beaumont, Michel Chevalier, Ampere, de Gasparin, Marmier, de Witte, 
 etc., I have collected a considerable number of wholly special works. In the 
 choice of these I have been guided by the Count de Montalembert, an il 
 lustrious and obliging friend, who knows, reads, and learns without parallel, 
 with passionate curiosity; by M. Jules Carron, editor of foreign affairs; by the 
 eloquent emancipationist, Charles Sumner; by the learned writer, Brownson; 
 and by a devout French missionary of the diocese of Natchez, M. Buteux; and 
 I have been enabled to draw from other sources, thanks to M. Bailly, in the rich 
 and too little known collection of American books procured by M. Vattemare to 
 the library of the City of Paris. 
 
 Ignorance of the Spanish language, and the rarity of official publications of 
 the governments of Madrid, Lisbon, and Rio, have annoyed me, and will, I fear, 
 render somewhat incomplete, despite the obligingness of M. Fournier, First Sec 
 retary of the Embassy at Madrid, the information which I have been able to 
 gather on slavery in Cuba, the Portuguese possessions, and Brazil. 
 
 More fortunate here, I owe to M. de Frezals, Secretary of the French Legation 
 in Holland, M. Lux of Haye, and Professor Ackersdyk of Utrecht, abundant 
 documents on the state of the question in the Netherlandic colonies. 
 
 For twenty years the Revue Coloniak has collected all the facts relative to the 
 suppression of the slave-trade, and the exploration of Africa. This precious 
 collection, with the published accounts of the extensive travels of Livingstone, 
 Barth, etc., the excellent compends of M. Malte-Brun, the Bulletins de la Societe 
 de GeograpUe, the correspondence addressed by the Catholic missionaries to the 
 Societe de la Propagation de la Foi, the principal writings of the Protestant 
 missionaries, such are the sources of the too brief pages devoted to the last 
 part of the inquiry which I have undertaken. 
 
 I owe, lastly, deep gratitude to the Academie des Sciences morales, which has 
 kindly listened to a fragment of my work; to its Perpetual Secretary, M. Mignet, 
 who has aided, counselled, and encouraged me; to its President, M. Giraud, who 
 has been pleased to approve this work publicly in his learned Memoir e sur VEs- 
 clavage des Negres, 1861; to M. Albert de Broglie, whose friendship has been so 
 helpful to me from the beginning; to two members of the Institute, M. Cousin 
 and M. Saint-Marc Girardin, who have repeatedly accorded to me their valuable 
 opinion. 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 opened to these outside provinces of her empire, which 
 aspire to, and are bordering on, commercial freedom, a purer 
 and happier future ? 
 
 Has the abolition of slavery annihilated, or enriched, the 
 little colonial possessions of Denmark, Sweden, and Por 
 tugal ? * 
 
 2. On the other hand, what is the state of religion, of 
 politics, of morals, of justice, of literature, of wealth itself, 
 in the countries which preserve slavery ? 
 
 By what steps has the republic of the United States 
 descended to the situation which threatens it? Whence 
 comes it that, less than a century after the Revolution that 
 was so fruitful only because it w r as so just, we are forced 
 to tremble lest this great work should fail, and lest a young, 
 vigorous, and powerful nation should be on the point of 
 abandoning civilization ? Whence comes it, to use the 
 words of the eloquent William H. Seward, whence comes 
 it that thirty million men, European by origin, Christian 
 by faith, have not known how to combine prudence with 
 humanity in this perturbing question of slavery, in such 
 a manner as to preserve their admirable institutions, and 
 to preserve them in peace and harmony ? 
 
 In the bosom of the flourishing Catholic monarchy of 
 South America, Brazil, what are the results of slavery ? 
 What is the scope of the emancipation movement which is 
 manifesting itself there ? Will the Latins of South America 
 have the honor of setting an example to the Saxons of 
 North America ? 
 
 What is the economical position of the Spanish posses 
 sions, of Cuba, doubly privileged, loaded with gifts from 
 Heaven, and also enriched by the trials of the neighboring 
 
 * To this part of the inquiry might be attached the abolition of serfdom in 
 Russia. But the results of the memorable measure, which is being executed 
 without disturbance, cannot yet be appreciated, and so vast a subject should 
 not be treated incidentally. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 colonies, of Porto Rico, a country almost entirely culti 
 vated, despite the climate, by a free white race ? 
 
 By what means has Holland been able to avoid estab 
 lishing slavery in her magnificent East Indian possessions ? 
 By what experience has this intelligent and prudent people 
 been brought, at this very moment, to suppress it in its 
 colonies of Guiana and the Antilles ? 
 
 In an inquiry already so overburdened, I shall not enter 
 upon- slavery in the Mussulman or heathen countries. 
 Christians might find there more than one example. There, 
 at least, slavery is in its place .among other plagues, since 
 these nations have not received the Gospel. Progress has 
 its natural boundaries on the atlas ; it grows where shines 
 the torch -of Christianity, and barbarism extends its dark 
 ness over the rest of mankind. 
 
 3. A new series of questions is connected with the sup 
 pression of the traffic in slaves. What has been the effect 
 of the memorable efforts made by Europe for the abolition 
 of the slave-trade ? 
 
 What is the condition of Africa ? What is taught us of 
 its future by missionaries and travellers, Livingstone, 
 Baikie, Burton, Overweg, Barth, Raffenel, Faidherbe, all 
 the great explorers, the great benefactors of this unhappy 
 continent ? 
 
 In short, is slavery an indispensable, economical system ? 
 Is it an instrument of useful education ? Has emancipa 
 tion brought back the slaves to barbarism while leading 
 the colonies to ruin ? Is the African race really incapable 
 of labor without constraint ? Is it devoted to irredeemable 
 inferiority ? May what is morally wrong be materially 
 necessary ? o 
 
 I have endeavored to gather a few facts which may aid 
 in preparing the reply to these questions. 
 
 I may be reproached with not having observed these 
 facts by myself, and I do not conceal that herein is an 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 imperfection of my labor. I have made the tour of the 
 world only in books. But, under penalty of not treating 
 such a subject as a whole, one must indeed be resigned to 
 see with the eyes of those who have seen ; and if I am 
 accused of having visited neither Timbuctoo nor Cayenne, 
 nor even Senegal or Mississippi, I can answer that the 
 authors who write the history of the thirteenth century 
 have not apparently lived in it ; that every day men refer 
 the decision of the gravest interests to judges whose 
 opinion rests on the impartial confrontation of the testi 
 mony of others. I dare say, at least, that I have neg 
 lected nothing to collect, verify, and compare the most 
 abundant information and the most authentic documents. 
 
 You now know, Monsieur le Due, the programme of 
 my work and its instruments. What are its general 
 results ? 
 
 III. 
 
 This voyage around the world, from Africa to Asia, from 
 Europe to America, in search of freemen, how grievous is 
 it at first ! . 
 
 One third of the terrestrial globe is uninhabited ; it is still 
 on the fifth day of creation, it awaits man. 
 
 Two thirds of the inhabitants of the rest of the world are 
 where Europe was nineteen hundred years ago, they 
 await God. 
 
 By an inexplicable mystery, the sun, whose hottest rays 
 call forth in tropical lands the most luxuriant vegetation, 
 repels man thence. There is an intelligent race which 
 might form in these lands a civilized community ; it cannot 
 live there and labor. There is a vigorous race which might 
 inhabit and cultivate them ; it develops therein no civiliza 
 tion. At least, these two races might draw nearer together ; 
 from their united efforts might spring progress with labor ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 from their mixed blood might spring an intermediate race, 
 predestined to possess and people these regions, a race 
 providentially made for this climate by Him who made the 
 climate for it. No ! Slavery intervenes. 
 
 Slavery is, before everything, the negation of the family. 
 Now man is endowed with an astonishing capacity for 
 suffering. He knows how to live under ground or on the 
 water ; an Indian in the forests, a Chinaman in his boat, a 
 Laplander in his darkness ; but on condition of being able 
 to say, My wife, my child, my mother, my boat, my cabin, 
 my tools. The slave is without family ; he is not sure of 
 keeping his wife or of knowing his father, his canoe is not 
 his own, and when he lays his hand on his breast, he cannot 
 say, "This skin is mine." Now, without these rights, the 
 man is not a man, nature is violated in his person. 
 
 Instead of families, slavery forms herds. It pens up cap 
 tives, under the guard of jailers, in a little corner of one of 
 the most magnificent lands of creation ; this land will not 
 be peopled. For the relation of brother to brother it sub 
 stitutes that of drover to ox and master to cattle ; this land 
 will not be civilized. It inspires the races with mutual hor 
 ror and aversion for each other ; if ties are formed between 
 them, they are criminal ; the two races live together with 
 out mingling ; the race of heirs predestined to these coun 
 tries will not be founded. We shall see the inferior race 
 suffer, revolt or submit, never rise, become brutalized, then 
 die out. We shall see the superior race grow hardened, be 
 come corrupt, become infatuated with crime, seek wealth 
 therein, prefer it to everything, and find in it debasement, 
 dishonor, then ruin. On beginning to write, I was moved 
 by the fate of the oppressed, by the fate of that unhappy 
 race which has made the fortune of those who perpetuate its 
 misery ; on ending, I am seized with pit} for the oppressors, 
 I conjure them to have pity on themselves, and to put an 
 end to their evil-doing. 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Follow slavery under all latitudes, in all regions, what 
 ever the institutions, nations, or creeds, everywhere you 
 find the same origin, the same progress, the same law, the 
 same result; as monotonous and horrible as the life of the 
 slaves. The history of slavery knows no change. It is in 
 all places, it has been at every epoch, an obstacle to the 
 systematic peopling of the earth, an obstacle to the propaga 
 tion of the Gospel, an obstacle to the modest elevation of the 
 inferior races, an obstacle to the progressive civilization of 
 the superior races. The moralist calls it a crime, the his 
 torian and economist a scourge. 
 
 Yes, but what is to be done ? The evil is the work of the 
 past. To destroy it rashly would be another evil. Slavery 
 corrupts communities, but emancipation destroys them. 
 What is to be done? 
 
 The experiment of both systems has been made ; we may 
 therefore compare them. This comparison is the whole 
 scope of my work. 
 
 Assuredly, emancipation was the occasion of losses and 
 deplorable misfortunes. " The punishment of faults," says 
 M. Thiers, " would be too light, indeed, if to cease persisting 
 in them sufficed to abolish the consequences. 7 * These 
 troublesome consequences are not all ended. We are in 
 great haste, indeed ! We demand of twenty years of liberty 
 to repair the results of two hundred years of slavery ; we 
 cannot endure the idea of laboring without the hope of con 
 templating the result of our efforts. 
 
 Nevertheless, our impatience has already wherewith to 
 satisfy itself; after ten years, the fears for the colonies of 
 France and England have been dissipated. It seems as 
 though each colony had received the mission of represent 
 ing a distinct experience. We shall see in the investigation 
 which is outlined in this book the success of emancipation 
 depend, an Antigua, on religious education ; in Barbadoes, 
 
 * Histoire du Consulat et de I 1 Empire, Tom. XVII. Liv. LI. p. 80. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 
 
 on the numbers of the population ; in Martinico, on the intel 
 ligent activity of the colonists j. in St. Thomas, on commer 
 cial freedom ; in the Isle of Bourbon, on the precautions 
 taken from the beginning to maintain labor ; in English Gui 
 ana, on the progress of small estates ; in Mauritius, on the 
 facility of procuring laborers. We shall see, on the contrary, 
 long sufferings caused in Guadaloupe by political disturb 
 ances ; in Jamaica, by the ill-will of the former masters ; 
 in French Guiana, by the scarcity of capital and the insuffi 
 ciency of population on a vast territory. But whatever may 
 be these difficulties, we shall see all these little communities 
 finally uprise, emerge from the old system of the colonial 
 compact, confront commercial freedom, become more moral 
 as well as happier, and emancipation thus keep all its 
 promises. 
 
 Slavery, alas ! keeps all its promises also. 
 In Cuba, amidst an exceptional prosperity, the causes of 
 which we shall analyze, the gross profits do not liquidate 
 the debts ; the presence of a strong power does not preserve 
 the laws ; the reign of a uniform religion does not purify 
 morals ; the great number of slaves does not secure the pro 
 gress of the population ; the mildness of the relation does 
 not prevent insurrections ; the facility of redemption does 
 not advance liberty. 
 
 The same embarrassments, the same results, are found in 
 the well-managed colonies of prudent Holland. 
 
 But it is in the United States, above all, that facts demol 
 ish the systems of the partisans of servitude. 
 
 In the United States, strange moralists affirm that slavery 
 elevates the intelligence of the possessing race, and, freeing 
 it from all cares, devotes it to the pursuit of noble mental 
 labors, communicates to it the governing qualities, and ex 
 pands the heart, constantly moved by the spectacle of 
 weak and imperfect beings, whilst, discharging society 
 from the burden of these weak beings, it places them 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 
 
 under the patronage of the best citizens, who rear, guide, 
 and assist them ; a beneficent and productive organization, 
 superior to every combination, of relations between rich 
 and poor presented in the history of the world ! Experi 
 ence, pitiless experience, replies, that the master becomes 
 hard, indolent, and sensual ; that the habit of command takes 
 away all cordiality even towards free working-men ; that it 
 leads to confounding in the same contempt the labor and 
 the laborer ; that the plus value of lands cultivated by free 
 labor exceeds the capital represented by slaves ; that the 
 human intellect is developed only through activity, that 
 passive, it slumbers, constrained, it becomes soured or 
 degraded. In a word, in this detestable system, the owner 
 becomes a beast of prey, the owned a beast of burden, the 
 master is without calculation, the workman without pro 
 gress ; time, far from ameliorating this position, aggravates 
 it ; with time, instruction, the pretext of slavery, is inter 
 dicted by law ; affranchisement, the hope of the slave, is 
 interdicted by law ; the separation of classes widens and 
 becomes envenomed ; prejudice, created by slavery, sur 
 vives it to the degree that the North refuses equality to 
 the black, while the South refuses him liberty ; the pretended 
 political superiority of the South is only the unanimous and 
 persevering resolution to sacrifice to the maintenance of 
 the peculiar institution, everything, even honor, even peace, 
 even country. The sacrifice is made, the war declared, 
 not a war between slave and master, but" between whites, 
 between brethren, between fellow-citizens, war against 
 justice and nature, civil war! 
 
 Servitude is a poisoned river, flowing into evil from which 
 it takes its rise. Whilst its fatal consequences are rending 
 America, another continent, Africa, suffers from its criminal 
 origin. 
 
 The efforts of England and France to abolish the slave- 
 trade have been persevering and prodigious. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 International treaties ; special laws by each country ; 
 agreements with the native chiefs ; establishment of offices 
 and stations ; enlistment of free laborers ; correspondence 
 with ambassadors and consuls ; decisions of courts and 
 mixed commissions established by treaties ; such is the 
 part of politics, diplomacy, and justice. 
 
 The exercise of the mutual right of search ; systems of 
 permanent cruising ; seizures and confiscations ; military 
 expeditions ; such is the part of the navy. 
 
 Incontestable facts prove that immense results have been 
 obtained, and that the law which prohibits the slave-trade 
 has not, as foretold by the traveller Jacquemont,* con 
 demned the colonies to perish. The principal result has 
 been the rise in price of servile labor, which by degrees, 
 producing less than free labor, is coming to cost more. 
 The day when this result shall be evident will be the last 
 of slavery. Until this time, so long as it shall live, the 
 slave-trade will not be dead, and a most legitimate, most 
 desirable operation, the engagement of free blacks for the 
 European colonies, will remain equivocal and dangerous. 
 It is necessary, in order to destroy the slave-trade, to abol 
 ish, or at least diminish, two evils, slavery in America, 
 barbarism in Africa. 
 
 The frightful state of an entire continent, condemned 
 from the beginning of the world to be never civilized, 
 never free, never elevated to the love of labor and of the 
 arts, reduced beneath the level of all the others, destined 
 to furnish negro slaves to the rest of the earth, as a mine 
 produces charcoal, such is the first and last consequence 
 of slavery. By degrees, commerce teaches the chiefs that 
 it is more profitable to employ men than to sell them ; trav 
 ellers teach Europe what incalculable wealth and abundant 
 population have fallen on this continent from the hands of 
 the Creator ; missionaries, striving to efface the traces of 
 
 * Correspondance, Vol. I. 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 blood and scandal spread by Christians, plant the cross 
 on these dreaded shores. Europe is beginning to pay its 
 debt. It ends where it should have begun ; instead of ex 
 ploiting Africa, it thinks of exploring and civilizing it. 
 Perhaps the following century, happier than our own and 
 succeeding to its labors, will witness the re-establishment 
 between Africa and better known and analogous climates 
 of those systematic and free migrations of inhabitants 
 and products which people the world and mingle men, 
 obedient to the laws of Providence, the inevitable course 
 of which may be suspended by their faults, but not forever 
 checked. 
 
 Two of these august laws are evolved from these com 
 plicated and distant facts, the great law of solidarity 
 among men, the great law of the fundamental harmony 
 of interests with duties. 
 
 The memorable example given by England and France 
 honors all humanity ; the obstinacy of America and Spain 
 dishonors it ; here is moral solidarity. The slavery in these 
 nations threatens, by unequal competition, the prosperity 
 of our colonies ; it eternizes the slave-trade ; it fetters reg 
 ular emigration ; it exposes Europe, through the reaction 
 of the crises which it excites, to formidable misfortunes ; it 
 perpetuates the degradation of Africa ; nothing is done 
 when all is not done ; here is material solidarity. 
 
 It was once exclaimed, " Perish the colonies, rather than 
 a principle ! " 
 
 The principle has not perished, the colonies have not 
 perished. 
 
 It is not correct that interests should yield to principles ; 
 between legitimate interests arid true principles, harmony 
 is infallible ; this is truth. Those who look only to in 
 terests are sooner or later deceived in their calculations ; 
 those who, exclusively occupied with principles, are gen 
 erous without being practical, cease to be generous, for 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 they lead the cause which they serve to certain destruc 
 tion. It is the will of God that realities should mingle with 
 ideas, and that material obstacles should compel the pur 
 chase of progress by toil. Let us not be surprised, there 
 fore, behind every moral question to encounter a question 
 of budget and tariff, nor indignant if the arguments of 
 philosophers seem checked by sugar or cotton. 
 
 An obscure workman of the United States has effected 
 more against the slaves, by the invention of a machine for 
 picking cotton, than all the slave-traders. Cotton in Amer 
 ica is slavery ; cotton in Africa would perhaps be liberty ; 
 slavery will cease when we go to buy things where we 
 are accustomed to buy persons, and the progress of the 
 culture of peanuts and the traffic in palm-oil on the coast 
 of Africa will do more for emancipation, than numerous 
 meetings, speeches, and works like mine. Speeches and 
 books are efficacious in their turn ; while arousing in the 
 soul respect for eternal principles, they may at the same 
 time establish, by certain facts, that, while the evils of 
 slavery have surpassed everything foretold by the most 
 sinister predictions, even the material advantages of eman 
 cipation have risen in sPfew years above all that the most 
 partial hopes had conceived for them. 
 
 Before this glorious conclusion, interest, the last but 
 solid rampart of the peoples not yet persuaded by religion 
 and reason, crumbles to dust. France and England have 
 not to repent ; science and morality have not to bow their 
 heads ; the lowest race of men has not lost the inheritance 
 of freedom ; slavery is not a necessary evil ; always cen 
 surable, it ends by not being even useful. Once more, it 
 remains proven that God has established unison between 
 all things, that the science of political economy holds the 
 same language as morality, and that a steadfast harmony 
 intertwines with the phenomena of the world of matter the 
 sublime laws of the moral world. 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IY. 
 
 These conclusions, Monsieur le Due, will indicate to 
 you the spirit of this work. 
 
 I owe to Christianity the horror with which slavery 
 inspires me. My work would have seemed incomplete 
 to me, therefore, had I not concluded it by a chapter on 
 Christianity and Slavery, designed to demonstrate in the 
 sequel, and by the aid of so many learned writings, not 
 that Christianity has destroyed slavery by itself alone, 
 but that it would not have been, will not be, abolished 
 without, it. 
 
 Let those who speak, let those who write, never forget 
 that emancipation in the nineteenth century was and will 
 be the work of the Gospel, the rostrum, and the press. 
 
 The power of evil in this world is formidable. Centuries 
 after centuries pass over China and India without shaking 
 their empire. But, thanks to Christianity, the conscience 
 knows how to listen ; thanks to liberty, the conscience can 
 speak. Under the reign of this holy alliance, evil is not 
 easily surmounted, but it is unceasingly restless, it is for 
 bidden to make itself a tranquil domain in the bosom of a 
 regular community. 
 
 In 1773, ten years after the odious treaty of 1763, which 
 secured to England the monopoly of the slave-trade, Wil 
 liam Wilberforce, then on the benches of the school at 
 Poklington,* wrote for the first time against this infamous 
 traffic, the very name of which was an English word,f and 
 which a council held in the city of London in 1102, under 
 the presidency of St. Anselm, had interdicted eight hundred 
 years before the same object was debated in the same city 
 
 * The Life of William Wilberforce, by his Sons Robert and Samuel. Lon 
 don: Murray. 1838. 
 f Traite, from Trade. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 before Parliament.* In 1780, Thomas Clarkson proposed 
 to abolish the slave-trade. In 1787, Wilberforce renewed 
 the proposition. Seven times presented from 1793 to 1799, 
 the bill seven times failed. Successively laid over, it tri 
 umphed at length in 1806 and 1807. All the Christian 
 nations followed this memorable example. At the Congress 
 of Vienna, all the powers pledged themselves to unite their 
 efforts to obtain the entire and final abolition of a traffic so 
 odious and so loudly reproved by the laws of religion and 
 nature.-\ The slave-trade was abolished in 1808 by the 
 Northern United States ; in 1811, by Denmark, Portugal, 
 and Chili ; in 1813, by Sweden ; in 1814 and 1815, by Hol 
 land ; in 1815, by France ; in 1822, by Spain. In this same 
 year, 1822, Wilberforce attacked slavery after the slave- 
 trade, and won over public opinion by appeals and repeated 
 meetings, while his friend Mr. Buxton proposed emancipa 
 tion in Parliament. The Emancipation Bill was presented 
 in 1833. On the 1st of August, 1834, slavery ceased to sully 
 the soil of the English colonies. In 1846, Sweden, in 1847, 
 Denmark, Uruguay, Wallachia, and Tunis, obeyed the same 
 impulse, which France followed in 1848, Portugal in 1856, 
 and which Holland promised to imitate in 1860. An earnest 
 movement agitated Brazil. 
 
 Lastly, in 1861, the last form of servitude disappeared 
 in Russia ; Spain, in retaking a part of the island of St. 
 Domingo, promised never to re-establish slavery there, and 
 the antislavery cause obtained the majority in the general 
 elections which raised Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency 
 of the United States. 
 
 In a century, the initiative of Wilberforce has put slavery 
 to rout, or at least called it in question over the whole 
 surface of Christianity. 
 
 * Remusat, Vie de Saint-Anselme, p. 163. 
 
 t Declaration of February 4, 1815, and additional article of the agreement of 
 November 20. 1815. 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The destinies of servitude and liberty are at once at 
 stake in the crisis which is shaking the New World. This 
 combat is the rudest of all, but it will be the last. Instead 
 of suffering one s self to be overwhelmed by the incon 
 ceivable slowness of moral progress, it is precisely because 
 the last effort is difficult that it is necessary to enter into 
 it with all one s might, full of faith in the sure triumph of 
 the Christian religion, justice, and perseverance over the 
 conspiracy of interests, the obstinacy of prejudices, the 
 despotic torpor of habits. When Wilberforce begun, the 
 struggle was less advanced and the cause more desperate. 
 
 So memorable an example is worthy forever to strengthen 
 perseverance. The most obscure of men has his duty, and 
 this is my excuse for associating with great minds in send 
 ing forth a protest against evil, as a child does his duty in 
 joining with strong men to cast a drop of water upon a 
 conflagration. 
 
 " The eternal laws bind us to take the side of the 
 injured. On this point we have no liberty. To embody 
 and express this great truth is in every man s power, and 
 thus every man can do something to break the chain of 
 slavery." * 
 
 You, Monsieur le Due, have comprehended this duty ; 
 be pleased to permit me to dedicate and refer to you the 
 humble enterprise undertaken to follow the example which 
 you have set me. 
 
 AUGUSTIN COCHIN. 
 
 * Charming. 
 
BOOK FIRST. 
 
 FRENCH COLONIES. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EMANCIPATION BY THE CONVENTION, AND THE RE-ESTABLISH 
 MENT OF SLAVERY BY THE CONSULATE. 
 
 1794-1802. 
 
 THE history of the French colonies is well known, yet it 
 is so sad that we would gladly forget it. But the wrecks 
 remain to us of our ancient splendor. The war of the 
 Spanish Succession cost us Canada, Newfoundland, Aca- 
 dia, and Hudson s Bay (1713) ; the Seven Years War, 
 Louisiana (1763), far an instant retroceded to France (1800), 
 then sold by her (1803) ; the Revolution cost us St. Do 
 mingo ; the wars against Europe, St. Lucia, Tobago, the 
 Sechelles, the Isle of France, and the territory of our East 
 Indian possessions. 
 
 Since its occupation (1635), Martinico has been ceded to 
 two companies ; taken in 1762, surrendered in 1763 ; taken 
 in 1794, surrendered in 1802; taken in 1807, retaken in 
 1815. Guadaloupe has passed through the hands of three 
 companies (1626 - 1642) ; was sold for sixty thousand livres, 
 Tours currency, and a rent of six hundred pounds of sugar, 
 to the Marquis de Boisseret, redeemed for one hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand livres by Colbert ; attacked unsuccess 
 fully three times by the English (1666, 1691, 1703) ; taken 
 in 1759, surrendered in 1763 ; retaken in 1794, and erelong 
 valiantly recovered ; lost anew in 1810, ceded to Sweden 
 
26 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 in 1813, surrendered in 1814, retaken in 1815. More fortu 
 nate, Bourbon, remaining a century in the hands of the East 
 India Company, then reunited to the state (1767), succeed 
 ed in governing itself independently during the Revolution, 
 but was taken "in 1810 with Mauritius, and surrendered 
 alone in 1815. 
 
 Since this epoch, since the moment when the mother 
 country regained on the same day liberty and peace, a 
 better directed anxiety for the national greatness, a more 
 eager emulation of foreign strength, the living power of 
 complaints borne by the press and rostrum to the ear of 
 kings, Imve contributed, no less than the development of 
 means of communication and the progress of the navy, to 
 restore to the colonies some degree of favor and prosperity. 
 We owe to the constitutional government Algeria, the fair 
 est province of the world ; we owe to it our possessions of 
 the Mozambique Channel, Mayotte, Nossi-be, and St. Mary 
 of Madagascar, and those of Oceanica, Tahiti, the Mar 
 quesas, and New Caledonia, points useful for our stations, 
 exchanges, and missions. The continuance of the same 
 policy will procure us the occupation of Touranne and 
 Saigon in the empire of Annam, and the consolidation 
 of our power in Senegal. We are lastly indebted to the 
 same regime for a series of measures which have developed 
 what remains to us of our American colonies, Martinico, 
 Guadeloupe, Guiana, and the beautiful African colony, the 
 Isle of Bourbon, to which is left, without reason, the in 
 exact and insignificant name Eeunion. 
 
 Despite all this progress, our maritime possessions are 
 trifling. England possesses thirty-seven colonies, without 
 counting the East Indies, inhabited by nearly 4,000,000 
 subjects. France, Algeria apart, possesses fourteen colo 
 nies and fourteen secondary stations, occupied, over an 
 extent of less than 250,000,000 acres, by less than 600,000 
 inhabitants, in all, the territory of three great departments 
 and the population of three small ones. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 27 
 
 The internal history of these possessions offers a no less 
 mournful aspect than the annals of their conquests. The 
 colonial theory is beautiful, daughters of the greatest 
 nations, fulcrums of their influence, entrepots of universal 
 commerce, landmarks of civilization planted in the bosom 
 of the seas, scattered beacons of religion and progress, 
 the modern colonies, the stations of our fleets, are them 
 selves, as it were, fleets at anchor, displaying to the 
 farthest limits of the world tbe flag of Europe and the 
 standard of Christianity ! Alas ! facts do not faithfully 
 reproduce this enchanting vision of the political mind. 
 At the origin of the colonies we find, in general, two 
 men, a filibuster and a missionary. To go so far, one 
 must either have the Devil in his body or God in his heart. 
 When to these two men is joined a third, a ruler, all 
 goes well ; the first subjugates, the second converts, the 
 third organizes. But this organizer may be long in coming. 
 Thus, the beginning of settlements is a mixture of heroism 
 and disorder, of sublime devotion and savage cupidity. A 
 heroic navigator was D Enambuc, a younger son of Picardy, 
 who was the founder of the colonization of the Antilles. 
 A brave soldier was Captain 1 Olive, who, with -M. du 
 Plessis, in 1633, demanded of the Lords of the West India 
 Company a commission to occupy Guadaloupe. But it is 
 well known with what barbarity, after the death of his 
 companion, he fell upon the peaceful Caribs, declaring 
 against them, says the unpublished account of a mis 
 sionary,* a war as unjust as shameful, and thus hindering our 
 principal design, ivhich was no other than the promulgation 
 of the Gospel and the education of this poor people. A saint 
 was this Father Raymond, a Dominican like Las Casas, 
 who did his best to thwart this detestable design, and finally 
 
 * A curious MS. purchased by the author at the sale of the Erdevin Collec 
 tion, pp. 32, 40. See also the Histoire generate des Antilles, by the Kev. Father 
 du Tertre, of the Freres-Precheurs, 1654. 
 
28 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 so far won over H. V Olive that he promised, and even swore, 
 to do no harm to the savages unless he were first set upon ; 
 then, seeing himself deceived, went to find the governor, and 
 to insist with him, with a zeal that was not relished, that it was 
 no more lawful to make war without reason on a free nation, 
 than to wrest its property from it unjustly. But the soldier 
 triumphed over the missionary. 
 
 The extermination of the natives is almost everywhere 
 the first page of colonial occupation. The rapacious ex 
 ploitation of the soil by the occupants, by companies, and 
 by governors, is generally the second page. 
 
 Happy these distant possessions, when the mother 
 country does not exploit them in turn, like ar selfish owner 
 of distant estates, who extracts from them all he can, 
 complains of what they cost, and is represented thereon 
 by a relentless steward ; happy when they receive a ver 
 itable administrator, such as were M. de Poincy at the 
 Antilles, M. de la Bourdonnaye, M. Poivre, and M. Desbas- 
 sayns de Richemont at Bourbon, M. de la Barre and M. 
 Malouet at Guiana, with humane and intelligent inhabit 
 ants ! * But the greater part come so far from home only 
 to make a fortune at any price. Thus we see the colonies, 
 by the side of respectable and intelligent families, serve 
 as nests for corsairs enriched by rapine, or as prisons 
 without walls, for centuries detestable manufactories for 
 the production of tobacco, cotton, and sugar, and the con 
 sumption of slaves. 
 
 Like England, Holland, Spain, and Portugal, like all 
 nations, almost as soon as she had colonies, France had 
 slaves. Like all nations, she kept up the supply by the 
 infamous practice of the slave-trade. This traffic was 
 not only tolerated, but favored, encouraged, sanctioned 
 by treaties. On the 27th of August, 1101, his Host 
 Christian Majesty received from his Host Catholic Majesty 
 
 * Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 29 
 
 the monopoly of the slave-trade for ten years, and both 
 sovereigns took a personal interest of one fourth in the 
 business. In 1784, a premium was accorded to the slave- 
 trade by an order of the Council. 
 
 Let us pass quickly over these shameful details, and over 
 the history of slavery in the French colonies, since it is 
 abolished, since good has triumphed over evil. Humanity, 
 which, without greatly advancing, marches onward with 
 rapid strides, does not willingly pause at details ; when a 
 degree of progress is accomplished, it closes the account, 
 -as it were, and passes on to a new chapter. It looks at 
 results, rather than* means ; thus too often causing the 
 unjust popularity of despots, and the false greatness of 
 powers judged from a distance. To mankind, the mis 
 sionary and the slave-trader repose in the bosom of equal 
 oblivion. Doubtless, humanity needs to believe that crime 
 and virtue have received their wages ; but, knowing that 
 this distribution is not intrusted to its hands, it forgets, 
 and passes on. History, like all sciences, supposes God ; 
 without God, it would have no conclusion, no morality. 
 In its eyes nothing is small, nothing forgotten. It knows, 
 it has seen, it has numbered on the African coasts, under 
 the decks of ships, behind silent walls, the crimes of the 
 trader, the tears of the slave, the severities of the master, 
 as well as the prayers of unknown souls, the paternal 
 kindness of numerous masters, the zeal of an obscure 
 missionary, the outcry of a free conscience, the gift of a 
 generous heart, the humble labor of the writer, the coura 
 geous perseverance of the statesman. 
 
 Let us leave the whole past of this lamentable history 
 with God, and recount only the event which concluded, 
 and the consequences which survive it. 
 
 The first laws in Europe which assailed slavery came 
 from France; they were the work of the Revolution,* a 
 
 * Noble examples were given before these laws. In 1785, General Lafayette 
 
30 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 work which bears the mark of the greater part of the acts 
 of this period ; a work at first too long deferred, then 
 too much precipitated ; the decree of justice executed by 
 violence. 
 
 The Constituent Assembly dared do nothing, the Legis 
 lative Assembly could do nothing, the Convention risked 
 everything ; * the timidity of the first was as disastrous as 
 the ardor of the last. The colonies received from the 
 mother country their destinies ready made ; too great in 
 decision or too great violence were translated there into 
 like calamities. 
 
 Before slavery, the Constituent Assembly, so abundant, 
 moreover, in noble souls burning for justice, only recoiled 
 as from an abyss. It feared to meddle with these strange, 
 far-off communities, which were spoken of only with terror. 
 To hear Maloueljt, Maury, and Barnave, freedom was civil 
 war, with the skin for cockade ; it was, through the defeat 
 of the white race, the disruption of the tie which united 
 the colonies to the mother country. Divided between 
 justice and fear, the Assembly decided by a decree, March 
 8, 1790, and instructions, March 28, that the colonies 
 should continue to live under the regime of special laws, 
 and should make known their voice by the organ of the 
 Colonial Assemblies, to which alone belonged the initiative 
 of laws concerning the condition of persons. Article 4 of 
 the instructions reads : 
 
 11 All persons, who have attained the full age of twenty- 
 five, owners of real estate, or, in default of such property, 
 domiciliated for two years in the parish, and subject to 
 
 sent a M. dc Richepray to Cayenne to purchase an estate and divide it among 
 the negroes, for which purpose he conferred with the missionaries of Saint- 
 Esprit. A letter from the Marshal de Castries, dated June 6, 1785, proves that 
 Louis XVI. ordered similar experiments. 
 
 * See the excellent work published in the Revue coloniale, 1850, Tom. IV. 
 Series II. p. 149. under the title, Les Colonies et Ics Assemblies de la Revolution 
 (1789-1802), by M. Maurel-Dupeyre". 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 31 
 
 taxation, will unite to form the parish assembly." This was 
 Btyled the Colonial Assembly. 
 
 Abb<$ Gregoire asked whether the words all persons in 
 cluded persons of color. Charles de Lameth hastened to 
 urge the Assembly to close the debate on this indiscreet 
 interrogation, which was done. 
 
 Bloody disturbances in the colonies were the result of 
 this ambiguity, which the whites interpreted against the 
 free negroes, and which the latter invoked in their favor. 
 The Assembly was troubled. In the name of the com 
 mittee of the colonists, Barnave proposed that a Congress 
 of twenty-nine Commissioners, appointed by the Colonial 
 Assembly, should meet in the little island of St. Martin 
 to settle the question. f This was to remit the rights of 
 the blacks to the decision of a congress of whites. From 
 this incidental proposition sprung a passionate discussion, 
 which lasted three days. Before closing, under the influ 
 ence of a speech of the Abbe Maury, which dimly predicted 
 the loss of the colonies on the day that the domination of 
 the whites should cease, the Assembly decreed the follow 
 ing article : 
 
 " The Assembly decrees, as a constitutional article, that 
 no law on the condition of persons not free may be made 
 for the colonies, except on the formal and spontaneous de 
 mand of the Colonial Assemblies." 
 
 Moreau de Saint-Mery, deputy from Martinico, proposed 
 to say clearly, the condition of slaves ; Robespierre op 
 posed it ; the Assembly hesitated between cultivators, those 
 charged, with culture, and those employed in culture, then re 
 turned to the words, persons not free. 
 
 A like silence had disarmed, four years before, upon 
 another continent, the scruples of the framers of the Con 
 stitution of the United States. They dared not say that 
 there were no slaves, and they dared not say that there 
 should be none thenceforth. They abolished the word, 
 they did not abolish tho thing. 
 
32 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Reassured, the Constituent Assembly resumed the de 
 liberation on the rights of free men of color, and, after 
 several days, adopted, May 15, 1791, the following ar 
 ticle : 
 
 " The Assembly decrees that it shall never deliberate 
 on the condition of persons of color, which have not been 
 born of free parents on both sides, without the preliminary, 
 
 free, and spontaneous petition of the colonies ; but 
 
 that persons of color, born of free parents on both sides, 
 shall be admitted into all the future parish and colonial as 
 semblies, if they possess the requisite conditions besides." 
 At St. Domingo the whites resisted ; at Paris the deputies 
 of the colonies declared that they would thenceforth absent 
 themselves, and that the decree qf March 8, 1790, was 
 violated. The Assembly, troubled at its decision, decreed 
 that it should be explained by instructions, and these in 
 structions, framed by the Duke de Nemours, with cowardly 
 and hypocritical timidity, declared that the decree of May 
 15, far from violating that of March 8, restricted its appli 
 cation to men of color born of free parents on both sides. 
 The instructions were adopted on the 29th of May, and 
 were despatched to bear to the colonies the wishes of the 
 mother country and civil war. They were destined to cost 
 France St. Domingo.* 
 
 * Hostilities commenced anew. In 1792, the Convention put in force the de 
 cree of May 15, 1791, and sent the Commissioners Santhonax and Polverel to 
 St. Domingo. The island was stained with blood in 1790, 1791, and 1792, by 
 reason of the conflict between the whites and the free colored men, aided on 
 both sides by their slaves, but before there had been any question of freeing 
 these last. It was to prevent the effervescence from drawing in the slaves, it 
 was to re-establish tranquillity, that Polverel determined to announce emancipa 
 tion by a proclamation, Oct. 30,^793. This was confirmed by the decree of 1794. 
 No excesses thence resulted during the years 1795 and 1796, nor from 1796 to 
 1802, under the strict and intelligent administration of Toussaint 1 Ouverture. 
 (See the Memoirs of Clarkson and Macaulay on the events in Hayti.) Thus the 
 disturbances in St. Domingo broke out from 1790 to 1792, while emancipation 
 was not decreed there till the end of 1793 ; it is an error, therefore, to attribute 
 the disorder to the abolition of slavery. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 33 
 
 Five months after, the Constitution being finished, the 
 Constituent Assembly turned its attention again to the 
 colonies, and by the decree of September 24, 1791, reserved 
 to the Legislative Assembly the right of deciding exclusively 
 on the external regime of the colonies (Art. I.), abrogating 
 the decree of May 15, and leaving the internal regime to 
 the Colonial Assemblies, the propositions of which were to 
 be carried directly to the Icing for sanction, without any an 
 terior decree having power to throw obstacles in the way 
 of the full exercise of the right preserved to the Colonial 
 Assemblies. 
 
 Strange arrangement ! by which the Assembly stripped it 
 self with its own hands of power. It had well deserved it. 
 
 But it bequeathed, in dying, an impossible position ; to 
 the colonies, divisions ; to the Legislative Assembly, power- 
 lessness of intervention. Happily, while this intolerable 
 state of things called forth fiery but sterile debates in the 
 Assembly, in the colonies a better spirit prevailed, and, 
 January 20, 1192, a Congress of Commissioners from Guada- 
 loupe, Martinico, St. Lucia, and Mary Galante assembled 
 at Port Royal, and resolved that, contrary to the last decree 
 of the Constituent Assembly, men of color should be ad 
 mitted, by the same right as whites, into the electoral 
 assemblies. The same compromise was accepted at St. Do 
 mingo. The Legislative Assembly received the example 
 from the colonies, instead of setting it them, and abrogated 
 the decree of the Constituent Assembly by another decree, 
 March 24, 1792, which accorded political rights to all free 
 colored men, without distinction. 
 
 By a law of August 11, 1792, the Legislative Assembly 
 suppressed the premium accorded, by virtue of a decree of 
 the Council of 1784, to the negro slave-trade. The Conven 
 tion renewed this suppression by a decree, July 27, 1793, 
 rendered without opposition, on the proposal of Gre"goire. 
 
 But slavery still subsisted in the colonies. 
 
 2* C 
 
34 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Not only did slavery subsist, but, far from ameliorating 
 the lot of the slave, the superior agents of the Republic 
 endeavored to stifle and extinguish all that might prepare 
 him to become a freeman. Read the unpublished instruc 
 tions * of the Captain-General of Martinico and St. Lucia, 
 dated at Fort de France, 19th Brumaire, Year II. f 
 
 " THE CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF MARTINICO AND ST. LUCIA, 
 
 To the Commissioner of Government at the Court of Appeals in Session at Fort 
 de France. 
 
 " The French government has perceived, Citizen Com 
 missioner, that the philosophical systems on the necessity 
 of extending and generalizing instruction, suited, without 
 doubt, to the education of a free people, are incompatible 
 with the existence of our colonies, which reposes on slavery 
 and the distinction of color. In preserving to Martinico 
 the regime and laws of 1189, it has implicitly proscribed 
 everything that may tend to overthrow the ancient colo 
 nial organization, whether by physical force or by public 
 opinion. Now a deplorable experience has proved that the 
 abuse of enlightenment is often the principle of revolutions, 
 and that ignorance is a necessary bond for men fettered 
 by violence or blighted by prejudice. 
 
 " It would, therefore, be dangerous imprudence to con 
 tinue to tolerate in the colony schools for negroes and 
 persons of color. What will they learn in these establish 
 ments ? They will not draw thence the higher acquirements 
 which make of the enlightened man the most absolute slave 
 of the law ; and their intellect, inflated by an imperfect and 
 gross education, will unceasingly represent to them the 
 colonial regime as the code of tyranny and oppression. 
 
 * Communicated by M. Margry, Keeper of the Colonial Archives. 
 
 t The seal of the document bears France with a palm-tree at her side, behind 
 which is the sun ; she is surrounded by divers attributes, and carries a balance 
 in her hand, one side of which is weighed down. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 35 
 
 "These ideas, long diffused by perverse or mistaken men, 
 have sufficed to destroy our most flourishing settlements, 
 and the wisdom of a reparative government, which watches 
 over the prosperity of Martinico, cannot suffer the contin 
 uance there of a deceitful spark, which will, sooner or later, 
 light up the flames of a revolution. 
 
 "I have therefore judged it necessary, and I order you 
 expressly, citizen commissioner, to close all the public schools 
 in which negroes and persons of color are admitted. I shall 
 inform the colonial prefect of the order which I give you 
 in this respect, and concert with him on the measures to be 
 taken to insure and legalize the execution. 
 
 " I have the honor to salute you. 
 
 VlLLARET." 
 
 This most curious document is dated the 19th Brumaire,* 
 Year II. On the 16th Muviosef of this same year, almost 
 at the same moment, the abolition of slavery was decreed 
 in the midst of the National Convention, by acclamation, 
 but by surprise. 
 
 On the 4th of February, 1794 (16th Pluviose, Year II.), 
 a deputy from St. Domingo, a colored man, came to set 
 forth to the representatives of the people the sufferings and 
 reclamations of the slaves. 
 
 " I ask," cried LEVASSEUR (de la Sarthe), "that the Con 
 vention, without yielding to an impulse of enthusiasm, 
 however natural under such circumstances, but faithful to 
 the eternal principles of justice and equality which it has 
 consecrated, faithful to the declaration of the rights of 
 man, decree from this moment that slavery is abolished 
 over all the territory of the Republic/ 
 
 * The second month of the Republican Calendar, from October 25 to Novem 
 ber 21. 
 
 t The fifth month of the Republican Calendar, from January 20 t 
 18 or 19. 
 
36 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 LACROIX (d Eure-et-Loire) . "In laboring on the Constitu 
 tion of the French people, we failed to cast our eyes on 
 the unhappy men of color who are groaning in slavery in 
 America, and posterity may reproach us for this forgetful- 
 ness, which, involuntary as it is, is none the less culpable in 
 the sight of philosophy. It is in vain to say that we know 
 no slaves in France ; is it not true that we leave in slavery 
 sensible and brave men, who have reconquered their rights ? 
 Vainly shall we have proclaimed liberty and equality, if 
 there remain on the territory of the Republic a single 
 man who is not free as the air he breathes, if there 
 remain a single slave I Let us proclaim the liberty of men 
 of color ! 
 
 "Let this great example to the universe, let this prin 
 ciple, solemnly consecrated, re-echo in the hearts of the 
 Africans in chains under English dominion ; let them feel 
 all the dignity of their being, let ftiem arm themselves and 
 come to augment the number of our brothers and votaries 
 of universal liberty!" 
 
 Levasseur attempted to proceed to enlarge upon his mo 
 tion : "President," exclaimed Lacroix, "do not suffer the 
 Convention to dishonor itself by a long discussion." 
 
 Levasseur asked that his proposition should be put to 
 vote upon the spot. 
 
 The whole Assembly rose, and voted by acclamation. 
 
 The President pronounced THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
 
 Immediately, shouts of Long live the Republic! Long live 
 the National Convention! broke forth throughout the hall. 
 The deputies from St. Domingo were led by Lacroix to the 
 President, who gave them the fraternal kiss in the name 
 of all the French ; they then received it from each repre 
 sentative. The scene was repeated in the galleries ; the 
 colored citizens were embraced by their new brethren ; 
 tears of joy were in every eye, Long live liberty! on every 
 
 HP. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 37 
 
 A member requested that an advice-boat should be at 
 once despatched to bear the happy news to the colonies. 
 
 D ANTON rose : " Representatives of the French people, 
 hitherto we have decreed liberty only as egotists, for our 
 selves alone ; but to-day we proclaim it in the face of the 
 universe, and future generations will find their glory in 
 this decree, we proclaim universal liberty. The National 
 Convention has done its duty. 
 
 "... There exists between slavery ancl liberty a passage, 
 delicate and difficult to leap over. It is proposed to you 
 to send an advice-boat, on the spot, to make known the 
 beneficent law which you have decreed. I oppose this, and 
 request that the proposition be referred to the Committee 
 of Public Safety, which will present to you its views, but 
 that the report be made promptly, and that liberty be borne 
 to the colonies with the means to make it fruitful 
 
 " Citizens, to-day the Englishman is dead I (Loud ap 
 plause.) Pitt and his plots are foiled ! The English behold 
 their commerce annihilated ! France, which to this day 
 had, as it were, truncated her glory, at length resumes, in 
 the eyes of astonished and submissive Europe, the pre 
 ponderance which is due her through her principles, her 
 energy, her soil, and her population ! Activity, energy, 
 generosity but generosity directed by the torch of reason, 
 and steered by the compass of principles, will insure you 
 forever the gratitude of posterity." 
 
 LACROIX proposed the following formula: 
 
 The National Convention declares slavery abolished through 
 out all the colonies : consequently it decrees that all men, 
 without distinction of color, domiciliated in the colonies, are 
 French citizens, and entitled to the enjoyment of all the rights 
 secured by the Constitution. 
 
 Referred to the Committee of Public Safety for it to report 
 unceasingly on the measures to be taken for the execution of 
 the decree. 
 
38 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 The decree was unanimously adopted.* 
 
 Take away from this page, torn from the Moniteur, the 
 odious or ridiculous features, arid the emphatic bad taste 
 habitual to the violent orators of the Convention and the 
 whole epoch, take away the sensible and brave men, the 
 culpable forgetfulness in the sight of philosophy, the appeal 
 to arms, the votaries of universal liberty, the compass of 
 principles and torch of reason, and there remains in this 
 outburst of noble passions, mingled with grosser ones, a 
 scene everywhere touching and grandiose. I do not say 
 grand, since God does not appear therein, and since, when 
 the men embrace as brothers, they do not see the hand of 
 their common Father, or utter his name. 
 
 The Englishman is dead! exclaimed Danton. He mingled, 
 therefore, a war-cry with an emotion of humanity. In fact, 
 it had been announced to the Convention that the English 
 had just possessed themselves of Martinico and Guadaloupe, 
 a somewhat premature announcement, for the English at 
 tacked Martinico on the 3d of February, the day before 
 the session of the Convention, and rendered themselves 
 masters of it, bravely defended by General Rochambeau, 
 on the 22d of March ; and of Guadaloupe, on the 21st of 
 April, 1794. 
 
 It is well known that Martinico remained eight years 
 under English rule, until the peace of Amiens, in 1802 ; the 
 decree of emancipation was not even introduced there. 
 
 The Isle of Bourbon and Isle of France, on the contrary, 
 did not fall into the hands of the English until 1810. To 
 diminish the chances of disturbance, the Colonial Assembly 
 of Bourbon had, from August 8, 1794, forbidden the intro 
 duction of negroes by the slave-trade. The decree of the 
 Convention was known at the same epoch, but it was not 
 even published ; and in 1796, the executive power of the 
 
 * CJioix de rapports, opinions et discours prononces a la tribune nationale depuis 
 1789, (Paris, 1821,) Tom XIV. p. 425. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 39 
 
 Republic having sent two agents, Citizens Bacot and Bur- 
 nel, to promulgate the decree of emancipation, the whole 
 population opposed their landing. They were no better 
 received at Port Louis than at Bourbon, and were forced to 
 renounce their mission ; and for six years, until the arrival 
 of General Decaen in the name of the Consuls (1803), the 
 two islands, with alternations of calmness and agitation, of 
 prosperity and suffering, governed themselves without ceas 
 ing to be faithful to France,* without the whites having to 
 suffer any violence on the part of the blacks, who were or 
 ganized into companies designed to maintain order. f Now, 
 to speak only of Bourbon, there were but 16,000 whites 
 against 44,801 blacks. 
 
 Guiana was more unfortunate. No attempt at coloniza 
 tion had succeeded for two centuries in this colony, so vast 
 but always deserted, despite its magnificent elements, where 
 sixteen thousand men inhabited eighteen thousand square 
 leagues. It had prospered, or at least caught a glimpse of 
 the hope of prosperity, at the close of the seventeenth 
 century, under M. de la Barre, and at the close of the 
 eighteenth, under M. Malouet. But since 1178 it had lost, 
 with this able administrator, the best element of an always 
 tardy future, when the Revolution, represented by a nephew 
 of Danton, Jeannet, threw its slaves into vagrancy, its 
 priests into prison and exile, J its proprietors into bank 
 ruptcy, and brought it, instead of capital, nothing but po 
 litical offenders condemned to deportation. It is again and 
 again repeated that Guiana was then ruined by the aboli- 
 
 * In 1810 a party proposed to proclaim independence and demand protection 
 from the English. This project was vigorously and triumphantly combated by 
 a young officer destined one day to become President of the Ministerial Council 
 in France, M. Joseph de Villele. 
 
 t Revue coloniale, 1844, Tom. IV. p. 324, Notice by M. Voiart; 1846, Tom. 
 VIII. p. 20, Notice by M. Pajot; 1858, Tom. XX. p. 47, Notice by M. Roy. 
 
 J Memoire inedit sur I hisloire des missions aux colonies, p. 286. Archives of 
 the Seminary du Saint-Esprit. 
 
40 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 tion of slavery,* proclaimed without circumspection by 
 Jeannet on the day after the arrival of the frigate that 
 brought the decree. The only survivor, in 1834, of the per 
 sons deported without trial on the 18th Fructidor, V., the 
 Marquis de Barbe-Marbois, has given us the true reasons of 
 the ruin of the colony in which he then dwelt (1797). 
 
 " All the expenses of the government of French Guiana 
 were defrayed under the monarchy by funds sent annually 
 
 from France Cayenne was beginning to shake 
 
 off her languor, when suddenly the emancipation of the 
 slaves checked this flight. France having ceased at the same 
 epoch to pay the subsidy, these two causes concurred in 
 plunging the nation into distress. The colonists had re 
 nounced the labors necessary to the prosperity of young 
 colonies. " f 
 
 From 1800 to 1809, the colonists enriched themselves as 
 corsairs. In 1809 ; Guiana, attacked by an Anglo-Portu 
 guese expedition, fell, and remained for eight years in the 
 hands of the Portuguese. 
 
 While the blacks at Bourbon, far from revolting in order 
 to seize the liberty inscribed in the law, aided in the defence 
 of those who concealed this law from them, at Guadaloupe 
 they poured out their blood for the independence of the 
 national territory. On the 21st of April, 1794, the English 
 took possession of the island. On the 2d of June, the 
 agents of the Convention, Victor Hugues and Pierre Chrd- 
 tien, appeared in sight of the shores of Guadaloupe, with 
 two frigates, a brig, five transports, and twelve hundred 
 men. Being able to communicate with the land, they sent 
 forth the decree of the abolition of slavery, J with a fiery 
 
 * See the testimony of M. Vidal de Lingendes, who quotes a writing of M. 
 Armand Aubert, which we have been unable to find (Proces-verbaux de la com 
 mission de 1839, p. 135). See also Observations sur la colonie de la Guyane et sur 
 les negres, by J. J. Ay me", ex-legislator, Hamburg, 1800. 
 
 t Journal <Tun deporte nonjuge, Didot, 1834, Tom. II. Chap. VI. p. 103. 
 
 \ Revue coloniale, 1844, Tom. II. p 416; 1850, 2 Series, Tom. IV. p. 164. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 41 
 
 proclamation. On the 7th of June, the slaves flocked to 
 their aid, and, after seven months of heroic struggle, the 
 English were forced to yield before this fifteenth army of 
 the Convention. The colony was saved, but ruined ; for 
 with liberty entered revolution,* accompanied with all the 
 excesses produced by the double intoxication of indepen 
 dence and victory ; Pointe-a-Pitre had its revolutionary tri 
 bunal. When liberty has reached this point, dictatorship 
 is not far off, and with it terror, violent absolutism, and the 
 burden of those innumerable laws which dictatorship in 
 vents and multiplies, without success, to constrain the only 
 force which resists, and ends by overcoming it, the force 
 of realities. Chretien having succumbed to the yellow- 
 fever, Hugues, left sole master of an island blockaded by 
 the English, deserted by its inhabitants, and uncultivated, 
 heaped proclamations upon proclamations, ordinances upon 
 ordinances. The first spoke only of liberty and happiness ; 
 then it became necessary to forbid thefts and the forcible 
 seizure of provisions, under penalty of death (June 13, 
 1794), to prescribe labor under the same penalty (June 18), 
 to brigade the negroes, and man privateers with them to 
 capture on the seas the food which the land no longer 
 produced ; yet, by these violent means, to postpone famine 
 without resuscitating labor, and to compel the labors of 
 these pretended freemen (August 28, 1795). In 1796, cul 
 tivators and culture, vessels and cattle, were wellnigh 
 annihilated, and Victor Hugues, his energy and hope ex 
 hausted, refused to proclaim the Constitution. lie wrote 
 (August 9) a sad and sensible letter to the Colonial Min 
 ister, in which were these words : 
 
 " What can restrain ninety thousand strong, robust per- 
 
 * I point out the dates and principal facts without writing the history of the 
 Revolution in the Colonies. See the remarkable, complete, and curious work, 
 entitled, Ilistoire de la Guadeloupe, by M. A. Lacour, Councillor of the Imperial 
 Court, and especially Tom. II. Liv. VI. Chap. VI. (Basse-Terre, 1855 - 1860.) 
 
42 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 sons, imbittered by long misfortunes ? What can hinder 
 the baleful effects of the ignorance and brutishness into 
 which they have been plunged by slavery ? Can three 
 thousand persons, two thousand of whom detest the present 
 state of things as much as the Republican government ? 
 The Constitution, far from being a benefit to the colony, 
 
 will be its destruction It is only by degrees that 
 
 these unfortunates can be brought to the state to which the 
 government wishes to call them/ 
 
 A new Governor, General Desfourneaux, succeeded in 
 reanimating labor by a happy application of the system 
 of renting the lands for a portion of their produce (Order 
 of February 10, 1798), and the institution of inspectors of 
 culture. Replaced at the end of the year by divers agents 
 of the Directory, he left the colony in a more prosperous 
 state, prices higher, the national property more secure, the 
 Constitution effective. With the Consulate began the regime 
 of military dictatorship, preceded by the provisory govern 
 ment of an intelligent and firm colored man, Pe lage (1801). 
 An insurrection of outlaws and negroes * was the occasion 
 of proclaiming martial law in Guadaloupe. The insurgents 
 were judged by a council of war. General Richepanse ar 
 rived as a conqueror, took military possession of the colony, f 
 and from the beginning, by reserving to the whites alone 
 the title of citizens (Order of July 16, 1802), disarming the 
 blacks, and obliging them to return to their former habi 
 tations, clearly preluded the re-establishment of slavery. 
 
 Slavery, and even the slave-trade, were re-established, in 
 fact, by the law of the 30th Floreal, X. 
 
 We seek in vain in the immortal Eistoire du Consulat et de 
 V Empire, by M. Thiers, for a trace of this odious law. We 
 
 * Moniteur, Year X., p. 291 ; Report of Rear-Admiral Lacrosse, 
 f Moniteur, Year X., p. 22, and 25 Messidor; Report of 5 and 9 Prairial, of 
 General Richepanse. 
 J Moniteur of the 28th Floreal, Year X., p. 970. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 43 
 
 would glad^ efface it from this great year, 1802, which saw 
 the Concordat, the Consulate for life, the peace of Amiens. 
 We cannot comprehend that slavery and the slave-trade 
 should have been written anew in the laws of France by the 
 same victorious and wise hand which, at that very moment, 
 restored liberty to its country, peace to land and sea, com 
 merce to Martinico, St. Lucia, Tobago, the Isle of France, 
 Bourbon, and the East Indian possessions. But the vera 
 cious and pitiless Moniteur contains this mournful page. 
 This informs us that in the course of the session extraordi 
 nary convoked on the occasion of the peace of Amiens, and 
 which lasted from the 15th Germinal to the 30th Floreal, a 
 session the memory of which was consecrated by a medal 
 solemnly struck, a session rendered illustrious by the peace, 
 the Concordat, the Legion of Honor, the University, and the 
 framing of the Civil Code and the Code of Commerce, in 
 this session of the legislative body, the 27th Floreal, X., the 
 Councillors of State, Dupuy, Bruix, and Dessoles, preceded 
 by a message from the Consuls, presented the following 
 bill : - 
 
 ART. I. In the colonies restored to France, in the exe 
 cution of the treaty of Amiens, dated 6th Germinal, year 
 X., slavery shall be maintained conformably to the rules and 
 regulations anterior to 1789. 
 
 ART. II. The same shall be done in the other French 
 colonies beyond the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 ART. III. The traffic in negroes, and their importation 
 into the aforesaid colonies, shall take place conformably to 
 the rules and regulations existing before the said epoch 
 of 1789. 
 
 ART. IV. The colonial regime sh-atl be subject for ten 
 years to the regulations made by the government, all ante 
 rior laws notwithstanding. 
 
 " It is well known," said the government orator, Dupuy, 
 " what illusions of liberty and equality have been propa- 
 
44 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 gated with respect to these distant countries, ^vhere the 
 remarkable difference between the civilized and uncivilized 
 man, the difference of climates, of colors, of inhabitants, 
 and, above all, the safety of European families, imperatively 
 exact great differences in the civil and political condition 
 
 of persons The accents of a philanthropy falsely 
 
 applied have affected our colonies like the song of the 
 siren ; with them have come evils of every kind, despair 
 and death." 
 
 But we must read the report of the tribune Adet to the 
 session of the 29th Floreal, as a model of hypocritical 
 declamation.* 
 
 " It is," says he, " with slavery as with war. Long have 
 philosophers mourned the fury which inspires nations with a 
 
 thirst for blood Notwithstanding, all peoples make 
 
 war. What would be the condition of that people which, 
 abjuring war, should renounce the manufacture of arms, 
 their use, the support of an army ready for its protection ? 
 In breaking the equilibrium of the forces which counterbalance 
 it, would it not become accountable to other nations for the 
 evils which its renunciation of common usage might draw 
 upon them, and would it not be itself exposed to scourges 
 of every kind ? 
 
 "What I have just said of war may be applied to slavery. 
 Whatever may be the horror with which it inspires phi 
 lanthropy, useful in the present organization of European 
 communities, no people can renounce it without thereby 
 endangering the interests of other nations. It may be 
 regarded as one of the institutions which one is bound to 
 respect, even when wishing to free himself from them, 
 because they interest tfie safety of his neighbors." 
 
 The tribune Adet next expatiated on the interests of 
 the colonists, and of the negroes themselves. He rejected 
 progressive as well as immediate emancipation, because 
 
 * Moniteur of the 30th Floreal and 1st Prairial, Year X., pp. 988, 989. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 45 
 
 this would be the signal for a bloody insurrection : " Leave 
 to time alone the care of paving the way for, and effecting 
 in the colonial organization, the changes demanded by 
 humanity 
 
 " I am now about to speak, my colleagues, of the impor 
 tation of negroes into the colonies. If you carry your 
 thoughts to the coasts of Africa ; if you consider the blacks 
 attached to the soil which has witnessed their birth, sepa 
 rated from those whom Nature has bid them cherish, bend 
 ing their eyes, bathed in tears, on the shores which they 
 are about to quit forever, tormented by anxiety for the 
 future, rent by memories of the past, and erelong enclosed 
 in a floating prison to breathe a burning air, your hearts 
 will be wrung, and, listening only to pity, you will instantly 
 proscribe the slave-trade as the most barbarous of institu 
 tions. 
 
 " But should you suffer yourselves to be persuaded, as 
 magistrates, by a sentiment which does honor to you as 
 men? Alas! no. If, at the moment of giving battle, a 
 general yields, at the sight of blood, to the impulse of his 
 soul, though excusable in the eyes of the private man, he 
 will not be so in the sight of his fellow-citizens, who will 
 reproach him for ill-timed sensibility. You would sacrifice 
 to the blacks the interests of your country, by destroying 
 an institution necessary to the colonies, themselves become 
 necessary to our existence. 
 
 " Let us content ourselves with forming wishes that Eu 
 ropeans may wisely conciliate their interests with the duties 
 of humanity in the slave-trade. However limited may be 
 the intelligence of the Africans relatively to our own, what 
 ever may be the difference between their species and ours, 
 let us never forget that they are men. 
 
 "As to the colonial regime, let us repose with confidence 
 on the government. Each colony will erelong become by 
 its care a great family, all the parts of which will thence- 
 
46 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 forth offer to the philosopher, to the friend of humanity, 
 only those touching scenes of patriarchal life on which 
 the mind and heart of the good man repose with so much 
 delight." 
 
 The bill was adopted by the Tribunate, by a majority of 
 fifty-four votes against twenty-seven, on the same day that 
 the institution of the Legion of Honor was proposed. 
 
 In the meeting of the Legislative Corps of the 30th Flo- 
 real,* Jaubert (de la Gironde), the orator of the Tribunate, 
 was more summary than his colleague. 
 
 " Experience teaches us," said he, " what hands can alone 
 be employed in culture in the colonies. It tells us what 
 are the beings to which liberty is but a poisonous fruit. 
 Let us turn aside our eyes from the pictures which these ideas 
 
 recall to us, let us obey the great law of empires, 
 
 necessity. Let us not trouble the world with theories" 
 
 " Liberty in Rome," continued Bruix, " surrounded itself 
 with slaves. Milder with us, it banishes them afar. The 
 difference of color, of manners, of habits, might excuse the 
 domination of the whites ; but policy, the care of our great 
 ness, and perhaps of our preservation, binds us not to break 
 the chains of the blacks." 
 
 Regnaud de Saint- Jean-d Angely resumed : " Humanity 
 is unwilling that we should condescendingly pity the lot of 
 a few men, and procure them doubtful good by exposing a 
 
 part of the human race to certain and terrible evils 
 
 By the aid of the law which you have just passed, you may 
 be sure of the duration of the peace of the world." 
 
 The bill was adopted by two hundred and eleven votes 
 against sixty-three. It restored to the colonies f three 
 things, slavery, the slave-trade, and absolutism. 
 
 * Moniteur, p. 1015. 
 
 t The Archives of the Colonies contain the circulars which accompanied the 
 despatch of the decree to the Colonies. They are of the same style as the 
 speeches which preceded the vote. They style emancipation & philanthropic 
 error, an indiscreet measure. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 47 
 
 We would have gladly had the liberty of the negroes 
 borne to the tomb without the accompaniment of the false 
 and sentimental phrases which eight years before had re 
 sounded at its cradling. We are forced to blush once more at 
 encountering the same jargon in the service of other ideas ; 
 we comprehend, we share, the contempt of the First Consul 
 for these tribunes turned courtiers. We would gladly sup 
 press this law in history, but above all its commentaries ; 
 we would willingly exclaim, The slave-trade, but no phrases! 
 
 The law at least had some political reasons for its motive. 
 
 The public mind was deeply moved by the example of St. 
 Domingo, which it was sought to reconquer, and the Honi- 
 teur at this very moment was publishing the first reports 
 of General Leclerc and Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse. But why 
 forget that the insurrection was due, not to emancipation, 
 which it had preceded, but to the law which gave the same 
 rights to freemen of ev^ry color ? Why forget that the first 
 blood that flowed was the blood of whites, shed by whites ? 
 The law of the Constituent Assembly commenced the de 
 struction of St. Domingo ; the law of the Consulate con 
 summated it ; emancipation did not cause, and might have 
 prevented it. 
 
 The orators of the government regarded slavery as neces 
 sary to the safety of families, to their preservation ; affran 
 chisement, even progressive, as being necessarily the signal 
 for an insurrection. We have seen that in Bourbon and the 
 Isle of Prance the blacks had not even availed themselves 
 of their liberty ; at Guadaloupe they had fought for the in 
 dependence of the island. All these reproaches were calum 
 nious. 
 
 The example of the Constituent Assembly was alleged, 
 which had shrunk from emancipation. Sad example I All 
 the disorder of the colonies and the ruin of St. Domingo 
 arose from this wavering of the Constituent Assembly. It 
 was, unhappily, more just to plead the laws of the Constit- 
 
48 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 uent Assembly in excuse for confiding to the government 
 the right of ruling the colonies by simple regulations, a right 
 which this Assembly had given to the king with respect to 
 all the internal regime, reserving to the legislative power 
 the commercial regime. The Convention had exercised in 
 the colonies, as everywhere, absolute power. The Consti 
 tution of the year III. had completely assimilated the colo 
 nies to the French territory, and subjected their existence 
 to the same laws as that of the Republic. Wiser, the Con 
 stitution of VIII. declared that these colonies should be 
 regulated by special laws, but laws, not regulations. 
 
 The example of England was no more just. Doubtless this 
 great country entertained no thought of destroying slavery ; 
 but Pitt sustained the persevering efforts of Wilberforce for 
 the abolition of the slave-trade, and Regnaud de Saint-Jean- 
 d Angely was wrong in saying that the postponement voted 
 in 1800 was a dismissal, the limit of which would be known 
 alone to posterity ; for this limit, as is and might have been 
 seen, was not far off. 
 
 The truth is, that, among the colonies we had retained 
 and those which had been restored to us, some had pre 
 served slavery, others had abolished it ; it was difficult to 
 choose. To accept the chances of complete abolition was 
 perhaps to risk the return of commercial activity to which 
 we were so ardently aspiring ; it was to charge ourselves 
 with a distant, burdensome, complex question, the mere 
 thought of which was calculated to weary the impatience 
 of the impetuous genius who had espoused a Creole, who 
 detested ideologists, was irritated by petty difficulties, and 
 did not like to be distracted from the continent by interests 
 beyond the sea. Seduced for a moment by the great thought 
 of restoring the colonial and commercial power of France,* 
 he nevertheless soon came to prefer the Continental and 
 manufacturing system ; he would one day sell Louisiana, 
 
 * Thiers, Histoire du Consulat, Liv. XVI. Vol. IV. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 49 
 
 for which he had recently bartered Etruria, and already he 
 had just ceded Trinidad. He sent Leclerc to St. Domingo, 
 Richepanse to Guadaloupe. He re-established slavery by 
 force and by law ; had he abolished it, posterity would have 
 placed the anniversary above that of Marengo. 
 
 England was unwilling that the example should be pre 
 maturely set her colonies which she reserved later for ours. 
 The Convention, in emancipating, had intended to injure 
 England ; on re-establishing peace, slavery was re-estab 
 lished to please her. 
 
 Thus the work of the Convention was defeated by the 
 Consulate ; the law of 1794 marks a sombre epoch with a 
 luminous spot ; the law of 1802 sullies with a stain an 
 incomparable moment. 
 
 The signal of new disorders and new severities in the 
 colonies, this law came to recommence the evil at the mo 
 ment when it was wellnigh repaired ; it closed once more 
 the lamentable circle which men fatally follow from oppres 
 sion to revolt, and from revolt to oppression ; it punished 
 the slaves for not having known how to be free, it punished 
 the masters for not having known how to be just, yet left 
 unscathed another criminal, the law, by whose faults those 
 of men had been caused. Soldiers, threats, and severities 
 were needed to re-establish the order, which had not been 
 disturbed by liberty, let us not forget, in Bourbon or Marti- 
 nico ; it could not be re-established in St. Domingo, forever 
 lost to France.* 
 
 Guadaloupe had nearly shared the same fate. Taken, in 
 
 * The chief of brigade, Navery, wrote from St. Domingo to the Minister of 
 the Marine, 2 Ventose, XI. : 
 
 " I informed General Dugua that, although the negroes had returned to their 
 labor, they appeared to me fully resolved not to suffer themselves to be dis 
 armed, because we sought to deceive them with respect to their liberty 
 
 Even to the women, who, taking their children by the feet and drawing the 
 limbs apart, said to me, See what we will do ; we will rend our children asun 
 der rather than suffer them to become slaves! " Archives coloniales, unpiib- 
 liahed letter. 
 
 3 D 
 
50 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 1810, by the English, ceded to the Swedes (1813), given up 
 to France, retaken, it was finally restored, July 25, 1816 ; 
 three months after Martinico, given up in 1802, retaken in 
 1807, restored by the treaties of 1815. The same treaties 
 restored to us Bourbon, which, taken in 1810, returned to 
 us in 1815, but without the Isle of France, after having 
 sustained a blockade during the Hundred Days rather than 
 place themselves under English protection. 
 
 But it was with the liberty of the slaves as with so many 
 other principles proclaimed at the moment of the Revolu 
 tion. Once diffused through the world, principles will not 
 die, but their triumph will be disputed and laborious ; they 
 seem condemned to expiate by long compromises the ex- 
 cess of a too hasty outburst, and to become purified by 
 a sort of penitence ; we return to them with slow steps ; 
 we stretch our hand to them tremblingly ; not until two 
 generations have buried in the tomb the suspicions and 
 memories of melancholy days does time finally efface from 
 the brow of justice the stains which still rob the next half- 
 century of a portion of its beauty. 
 
 To England thenceforth passed the honor of the initia 
 tive in the movement, of which France, let us not forget, 
 had given the signal. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FKOM THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF SLAVERY BY THE CONSU 
 LATE (1802) TO ITS SECOND ABOLITION BY THE REPUBLIC 
 OF 1848. 
 
 WE are not to ask of the end of the Consulate, after the 
 too speedy rupture of the peace of Amiens, nor of the 
 Empire, new hopes in behalf of colonial progress. The 
 St. Domingo expedition took away all remaining interest in 
 the cause of the slaves ; it was forsaken, and, as it were, a 
 prisoner with Toussaint. In France, in Europe, the war 
 occupied the governments too constantly for them to have 
 time to think of acts of virtue ; on the seas, instead of 
 chasing slave-ships, it armed privateers ; before dreaming 
 of reforming the colonies, it soon became necessary to ask 
 whether it were possible to preserve them. The moment 
 seemed near when all commerce with them would be in 
 terrupted ; the government encouraged the culture of the 
 beet-root to replace by indigenous sugar the sugar of the 
 colonies, and asked of M. Parmentier instructions for this 
 new culture, the future progress of which it was far from 
 foreseeing. 
 
 Doubtless, public opinion might still have been moved 
 In the midst of national anxieties, the permanent interests 
 of humanity did not cease for a moment to occupy England. 
 It was from 1180 to 1799, from 1800 to 1805, that the per 
 severing agitation of Wilberforce and Clarkson occurred ; 
 it was in 1806 and 1807 that it triumphed. But in France, 
 at this epoch, public opinion was itself a slave awaiting 
 emancipation. 
 
52 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 We may, therefore, pass quickly, in our present study, 
 over the beginning of the nineteenth century, and content 
 ourselves with pointing out, as an echo of the Christian 
 thought, Article 1180 of the Civil Code, which reads : "All 
 persons are forbidden to let their services, except for a limited 
 time." 
 
 Overthrown by the excesses of the Revolution, restored 
 by the excesses of war, it was the wish of the Bourbons, 
 as well as their mission, to bring to France, wearied with 
 agitation, strife, and despotism, order, peace, and deliv 
 erance. It was their glory to proclaim the principle of 
 liberty, despite the memory of the crimes committed in 
 its name ; it was their inclination to seek in the past the 
 image of authority. The ocean does not separate two 
 continents and two peoples more entirely than the torrent 
 of the Revolution had separated the past from the present 
 to all Frenchmen, except to themselves alone. In the eyes 
 of contemporaries, everything was beginning ; to them, 
 everything was continuing. Belonging to the nineteenth 
 century by their loyal intentions, but very pardonably drawn 
 towards the institutions of another age by the weight of 
 illustrious traditions, we see them thus stamp the greater 
 part of their acts with a twofold character, according as 
 they obeyed the spirit of their times or their origin. This 
 double influence made itself particularly felt in the govern 
 ment of colonial affairs, left by the Charter to the regime of 
 special laws and regulations. 
 
 Thus, as soon as the government had retaken possession 
 of Martinico, Guadaloupe, Guiana, and Bourbon, the new 
 governors-general re-established there the institutions an 
 terior to 1789. The Court of Appeals resumed the name 
 of Superior Council; the courts of first instance, those of 
 Seneschal s and Admiralty Courts; and the edict of 1681 was 
 again put in force. The old colonial policy, which con 
 sisted, as is well known, in establishing between the mother 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 53 
 
 country and the colonies, as between a freeholder and his 
 country-house, a -free privileged exchange of products, re 
 established the so-called duty of the West Indian demesne, 
 the import and export duties, and the interdiction to for 
 eigners of all ports, with a few exceptions.* " If we 
 examine into the circumstances in which the government 
 found itself placed at this epoch/ says M. Eossif with 
 truth, "we shall frankly admit that it could neither think 
 of abandoning the colonies which had just been restored 
 to France by treaties, nor of applying to them at first sight 
 any other than the ancient colonial system. " But, at the 
 same time with the edict of 1681, the duty of the West In 
 dian domain, and the Seneschal s Courts, to the Restoration 
 belongs the credit, from 1805, of maintaining the Civil Code, 
 which was in force in the colonies, with the exception of 
 the clause of forced expropriation. J (Tit. XIX. Liv. III.) 
 The same government extended to Martinico the code of 
 civil procedure, introduced into Guadaloupe and Bourbon 
 subsequent to 1808, and regulated its application in these 
 two colonies. It established in all the observance of the 
 penal code and the code of criminal instruction, || and the 
 judicial organization of France.^" It regulated the mode of 
 procedure before the privy councils ; ** enlarged the permit 
 ted relations between the colonies and foreign countries ; f f 
 
 * Ordinance of December 12, 1814. A decree of the Council of State, August 
 30, 1814, declared the port of St. Pierre alone open in Martinico to foreigners. 
 (See the proclamations of the Marquis de Vaugiraud, Governor of Martinico; of 
 Baron Boyer de Piereleau, Governor pro tern, of Guadaloupe, until the arrival 
 of Admiral Linois. Moniteur, February 14, 1815.) 
 
 t Report to the Chamber of Peers on the bill of the Sugar Law, June 20, 1843. 
 
 f Martinico, Nov. 7 ; Guadaloupe, Nov. 9 ; Bourbon, Oct. 7 and 25 ; Guiana, 
 Sept. 23, 1805. The Code of Commerce, applied to Guadaloupe and Bourbon 
 subsequently to 1808 and 1809, was not introduced into Martinico until after 
 the law of Dec. 7, 1850. 
 
 Ordinances of Dec. 19 and 30, 1827; Oct. 12 and 29, 1828; Feb. 15 and May 
 10, 1829. 
 
 || Sept. 30, 1827; Sept. 24, 1828; Oct. 10, 1829. 
 
 T Aug. 31, 1828. ** Feb. 5, 1826. ft Aug. 30, 1826; Aug. 26, 1827. 
 
54 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 fixed the monetary regime ; * introduced the metrical sys 
 tem,! registration, and hypothecation. There was no 
 idea of assimilating the colonies to the mother country, 
 nor of re-establishing therein the Colonial Assemblies; the 
 example of the Revolution deprecated these two systems. 
 Nevertheless, in 1820, consultative committees were created. 
 By the ordinance of January 26, 1825, the expenses of ad 
 ministration were separated from the expenses of protection ; 
 the one being left to the charge of the colonies, the other 
 to that of the budget of the state. By the ordinance of 
 August 17, the local revenues of the estates of the domain 
 were made over to the colonies to defray their internal 
 expenses. But, above all, the colonies owe to the Resto 
 ration the three great ordinances of 1825, 1821, and 1828 ; || 
 which, modified by that of August 22, 1833, and by the 
 senatus-consultum of May 3, 1854, continue, notwithstand 
 ing, to be the veritable basis of the legal and administrative 
 regime in our trans-oceanic possessions. At the same time, 
 nothing was neglected by ministers such as MM. Portal, 
 de Chabrol, and Hyde de Neuville to impart a lively im 
 pulse to the commerce and agriculture of the colonies. 
 Banks created, premiums accorded to improvements of 
 every kind, numerous shipments of seeds and animals, 
 revision of the legislation of customs,^ innumerable ame 
 liorations of details, make of the period of the Restoration, 
 despite disasters generously repaired and petty insurrec- 
 
 * 1820, 1825, 1828. 
 
 t Dec. 31, 1828; June 14, 1829. The stamp was not in existence in Bourbon 
 till 1804. 
 
 J June 14, Nov. 22, 1829. 
 
 Ordinance of Nov. 22, 1821; Moniteur, 1821, p. 1447. 
 
 || Bourbon, ordinance of Aug. 21, 1825; Martinico and Guadaloupe, Feb. 9, 
 1827; Guiana, Aug. 27, 1828. The first, in 195 articles, and* the second, in 211 
 articles, were the work of M. de Chabrol; the third, in 196 articles, was signed 
 on the report of M. Hyde de Neuville. 
 
 T[ Ordinance of Oct. 25, 1829. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 55 
 
 tions without serious consequences, an era to the colonies 
 of great development and good administration. 
 
 The emancipation of the slaves was thought of, how 
 could it have been otherwise ? but it was not attempted. 
 They remained outside all the preceding laws. The ancient 
 monarchy had not abolished slavery ; the Revolution had 
 done so, but at the ill-omened date of 1794, a few days 
 before the President, Mole de Champlatreux, and the first 
 magistrates of the Parliaments of Paris and Toulouse, 
 mounted the scaffold. It had been re-established at the 
 same time with public order. The events of St. Domingo 
 even after the king had sent Baron de Mackau to recognize 
 the Presidency of General Boyer, and the independence of 
 the island (July IT, 1825)] had left in the public mind great 
 pity for the colonists, whose indemnity was being labori 
 ously effected, and great animosity against the negroes. 
 The colonists had suffered so much, that men dreaded for 
 their progress the mere announcement of a moral agitation. 
 The Restoration had so much to pay, that they feared for 
 its finances the demand of a new indemnity. 
 
 At length, the Congress of 1815, thanks to the initiative 
 of Lord Castlereagh, and the solicitations of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, despite the opposition of Spain, abolished the 
 slave-trade. It was erroneously supposed that slavery, 
 unable longer to recruit its forces from Africa, was about 
 to die. 
 
 These fears, these memories, these reasons, these illu 
 sions, united to postpone anew the liberty of so many 
 unfortunate beings who, rebellious or submissive, had 
 shown for so many years the facility of their race to suffer 
 guidance. 
 
 In short, under the Restoration the colonies received 
 from the government two precious boons, order and 
 repose. 
 
 We may judge by statistics of the prosperity that thence 
 
56 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 resulted :* in 1816, the total production of colonial sugars 
 was but 17,677,475 kilogrammes; in 1826, it reached 
 73,266,291 kilogrammes ; in 1829, 80,996,914 kilogrammes. 
 But the movement for emancipation was not carried for 
 ward during this epoch by the French government ; it 
 belonged to England and to public opinion. 
 
 After having generously lent herself to the abolition of 
 the slave-trade, France did little towards practically exe 
 cuting the solemn pledges of the Congress of Vienna ; and 
 it must be confessed that, despite the statutes of April 
 15, 1818, and April 25, 1827, the slave-trade, diminished, 
 watched over, and sometimes repressed, was not interrupt 
 ed until 1830. Mr. Clarkson repaired to the Congress of 
 Aix-la-Chapelle,f to demand that the crime of the slave- 
 trade should be assimilated to piracy, and that the powers 
 should unite to obtain of Portugal and Spain the cessation 
 of this odious traffic. The Emperor Alexander, the Duke 
 of Wellington, and Lord Castlereagh, were in favor of both 
 measures. In the discussion of the law on piracy and 
 barratry, (statute of April 12, 1825,) M. Benjamin Con 
 stant J asked why the slave-trader was not assimilated to 
 the pirate, and consequently punished with death, or hard 
 labor for life? "Whoever carries on or commands the 
 slave-trade," exclaimed he, energetically, "is a criminal, 
 an armed brigand, often an assassin. He is, besides, as 
 cowardly as ferocious ; he has not even the courage of the 
 pirate ; he deserves no less hatred, and greater contempt/ 
 But this measure failed to become law. 
 
 * Let us quote separately the statistics of Bourbon, the most prosperous of 
 the colonies since the loss of St. Domingo. In 1825, the product of the cultures 
 was 17,783,900 francs; thirty years after, with a population of 153,000, instead 
 of 63,000, it amounted to but 28,278,795 francs; in 1855, the joint imports and 
 exports amounted to 32,982,225 francs, while in 1825 the same sources already 
 amounted to 20,723,041 francs. (Essai statistique sur file de Bourbon, by M. 
 Thomas, 1826. Notices sur les colonies, by M. Roy, 1856.) 
 
 t Moniteur, Jan. 14, 1819. 
 
 J Session of April 5, Moniteur, April 6, p. 507. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 57 
 
 In vain, by reference to the budget of the Marine, or by 
 petitions, was the question of the slave-trade, and that of 
 slavery, carried before the public authorities. A last time, 
 in 1829, M. de Tracy mounted the rostrum to denounce the 
 continuance of the slave-trade,* and to demand the estab 
 lishment in the colonies of a regular civil state, so often 
 promised, which should permit the verification of the right 
 to slaves. But all these manifestations only ended in refer 
 ences to government, or, rather, in less sterile references 
 to public opinion, which did not cease for a single day, 
 by journals, books, academical prizes, societies, sermons, 
 and speeches, to raise to God the prayer which men had 
 rejected. 
 
 The Revolution of 1830, in bringing into public affairs a 
 number of the political personages who had solicited eman 
 cipation, imposed on them the duty, and furnished them the 
 means, of remaining faithful to themselves. Preoccupied 
 from its first steps with this noble end, the government 
 of July did not cease a single day to think upon and 
 promote it. It did for the internal reform of the colonies 
 what the Restoration had done for their repose and pros 
 perity ; it prepared them, in spite of all opposition and 
 predictions, to live and to grow without slaves, and with 
 out monopolies. What the government of July did for the 
 queen of our colonies, Algeria, the last gift of the Restora 
 tion to France, is well known. We owe to it also in Africa 
 the entrepots of Sedhiou (183T), Grand Bassam (1842)% 
 the Marquesas (1842), Gabon (1842), Assynia (1843) A 
 the islands of Nossi-be and Mayotte in the Mozambique i 
 Channel (1843), and the Tahitian Archipelago (1842 - 1< 
 1846). A great political thought, then sIPbngly contested, I ^, 
 had conceived the project of thus securing to France set- / K 
 tlements, planted at regular intervals around the globe, to /, 
 
 * Moniteur, p. 1221. 
 3* 
 
58 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 serve as a shelter to her flag, as stations to her commerce, 
 and as fulcrums to her influence. 
 
 Without setting forth here how much the government of 
 July expended, besides money, efforts, and perseverance, 
 and despite the most ardent opposition, to co-operate 
 earnestly with England for^the suppression of the slave- 
 trade, which it hastened to abolish by the statute of March 
 4, 1831, let us limit ourselves to examining rapidly its acts 
 for paving the way to the abolition of slavery, as numerous 
 as the years of its duration. 
 
 The Charter of 1830, like that of 1814, placed the colo 
 nies under a special regime, but indicated that it should be 
 regulated by laws, without adding and by regulations. All 
 the public authorities were thus more nearly associated in 
 this important task. They united in inscribjngjin the two 
 statutes of April 24, 1833, the equal rights ofjnen born 
 free afid those_emancipated, the re-establishment of colonial 
 councils and delegates, and the apportionment of patters 
 to be regulated by the law, by ordinances, or by local 
 decrees. 
 
 We shall see that the government knew how to make an 
 able and diligent use of the part assigned to it. 
 
 The ordinances of March 1 and July 12, 1832,* sup 
 pressed the tax on emancipations, and simplified their form. 
 The penalties of branding and mutilation were abolished by 
 the ordinance of April 30, 1833. Two ordinances of April 
 29, 1836, sanctioned the liberation, and created the civil 
 state, of emancipated slaves brought to France ; and another 
 ordinance, June 11, 1839, established cases of emancipation 
 by law. 
 
 Two ordinance August 4, 1833, and June 11, 1839, 
 obligated the regular registration and returns of the births, 
 marriages, and deaths of slaves. 
 
 * Codicil A to the proces-verbal of the colonial commission, meeting of June 
 4, 1840. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 59 
 
 An ordinance of January 5, 1840, regulated the primary 
 and religious instruction of the slaves, and placed them 
 under the patronage of public magistrates, charged with 
 examining regularly into the condition of their workshops 
 and plantations. 
 
 Two memorable facts emancipation in all the English 
 colonies (1834), and the publication of a bull by Pope"" 
 Gregory YVT (ISM), p.m^mnTpTig- ihe siaTfrtiraae ami slav 
 eryhad finally given an irresistible impetus to public 
 opinion. Ardent Democrats,* by force of believing in the 
 rights of man, zealous Catholics and sincere Protestants, 
 by force of believing in duties toward man, were of one 
 mind. The preparatory measures of the government were 
 taxed with insufficiency and slowness, and the interpella 
 tions addressed to M. de Rigny in 1833, in 1835 to the 
 Duke de Broglie and Admiral Duperre, and renewed almost 
 every year by M. Isambert, followed by solemn and sincere 
 promises, were not prompt enough to content the public 
 mind. 
 
 M. Hippolyte Passy had the honor first directly to at 
 tack the subject of emancipation, by presenting to the 
 Chamber, February 10, 1838, the following bill : f - 
 
 ART. I. From the date of the promulgation of the present 
 law, all children born in the French colonies shall be free, 
 whatever may be the condition of their parents. 
 
 ART. II. Children born of slave parents shall remain 
 under the care of their mother, and an indemnity of fifty 
 francs per head for each child shall be awarded to the 
 owners of the mothers for ten consecutive years. This 
 indemnity shall cease to be paid in case the child from 
 
 * L 1 Abolition, by M. Schoelcher; Christianisme et Esdavage, by l Abb<5 The"- 
 rou, etc.; VEsclavage colonial, by M. Castelli, apostolic prefect; Esclavage et 
 Traite,by M. Age"nor de Gasparin, 1838; Reflexions sur V affrancMssement de* 
 csdavcs aux colonies frangaises, by M. Lacharriere, President of the Court of 
 Guadaloupe. 
 
 t Moniteur, p. 271. 
 
60 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 whose birth the right to it arises shall die before attaining 
 the full age often years. 
 
 ART. III. All slaves shall have the right to purchase their 
 freedom, at a price fixed by arbiters, designated in advance 
 by the metropolitan authority. 
 
 The indemnity due to owners, for children born of slave 
 mothers, shall revert of right to such of the mothers as 
 may purchase their freedom. 
 
 Wedded slaves shall not be separated in case of sale. 
 Husbands or wives who buy their liberty shall pay but 
 two thirds of the price fixed by the arbiters ; the remaining 
 third shall be paid by the state. 
 
 ART. IV. Royal ordinances, which shall be communicated 
 to the Chambers in the session folfowing their promulga-. 
 tion, shall decide on the measures to be taken for the 
 registration and protection of children born of slave moth 
 ers, for the distribution and choice of arbiters charged 
 with regulating the conditions of redemption of freedom, 
 for the establishment of savings banks, and for all that 
 concerns the amelioration of the condition of the slaves, 
 and the execution of the present law. 
 
 This clear and complete bill deserved to be taken into 
 consideration, and was so, in fact. Its author sustained it 
 by eminently practical arguments (see meeting of February 
 15), and MM. de Lamartine, Guizot, and Barrot united in 
 supporting it. In vaiu the government declared the bill 
 inopportune, because of the condition of the English and 
 French colonies ; iniquitous, because it did not propose 
 a preliminary and sufficient indemnity ; and inhuman, be 
 cause it broke all bonds between the master and child. 
 The Chamber unanimously deemed it time to bring to light 
 what M. de Lamartine eloquently called " this great ex 
 propriation for the cause of public morality/ * 
 
 The bill of M. Passy was only a plan of incomplete 
 * Meeting of Feb. 15, 1838, Moniteur, Feb. 16, p. 817. 
 
HISTOKY OF EMANCIPATION. 61 
 
 emancipation. He opened three broad doors to freedom ; 
 children received it with life, men attained to it through 
 property, families received it through the aid of the state. 
 It was an excellent programme for the gradual abolition of 
 slavery under two conditions, little money, and plenty 
 of time ; the one was suited to please the mother country, 
 the other, the colonies. A report* one of the best 
 penned by one of our first writers, M. de Remusat, was the 
 eloquent commentary on the proposition of M. Passy. It 
 had been preceded by a profound study and serious and 
 prolonged inquiry on the legal condition of the slaves, the 
 economical condition of the colonies, and the first results 
 of the English experiment. f As firm in principle, the 
 commission tempered the conclusions of M. Passy, and, 
 yielding also to the thought of consulting the colonies, 
 and the desire of receiving a more complete lesson from 
 the example of the English colonies, limited itself to pro 
 posing. - 
 
 1. That the costs to which the measures destined to pave 
 the way for emancipation should give rise should be at the 
 expense of the state ; which was, by accepting a charge, to 
 reclaim a right. 
 
 2. That, in consequence, each year the finance law should 
 include in the budget the sums necessary to co-operate in 
 the extension of religious service, and the propagation of 
 primary instruction. 
 
 3. That, in three months, the government should make 
 ordinances on the forms, civil effects, and authorization of 
 marriage of persons not free. 
 
 4. That other ordinances should regulate the right of the 
 slaves to acquire money, and obligatory redemption. 
 
 5. That a bureau of inspection of the measures taken 
 should be created at the expense of the state. 
 
 * Moniteur, June 19, 1838, p. 1746. 
 
 t Members of the Commission, MM. Guizot, Croissant, Berryer, de Remusat, 
 Baron Roger, Laborde, H. Passy, Isambert, and Galos. 
 
62 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 6. That an annual account of the execution of the law 
 should be rendered to the Chambers. 
 
 At the present time, these conclusions seem very timid ; 
 they simply say to the state : " You shall demand money 
 of us to do as you like, you shall charge inspectors with 
 watching over what you have done, and when they have 
 rendered you an account of it, we shall render you an 
 account of it ourselves." 
 
 The dissolution of the Chamber of 1837 brought to 
 naught the proposition of M. Passy. But, reproduced in 
 exactly the same terms by M. de Tracy, June 7, 1839, dis 
 cussed on the 12th,* the very day after the ordinances for 
 the registration of slaves, and supported this time in the 
 name of the government by M. Passy himself, Minister of 
 Finance, the proposition was taken into consideration by 
 an immense majority, and referred to a commission, which 
 chose for its chairman M. de Tocqueville. 
 
 With that measure of sagacity and profundity which 
 stamps all his writings, M. de Tocqueville clearly demon 
 strated why the commission preferred the system of gen 
 eral and simultaneous to that of gradual emancipation, the 
 one, necessitating the intervention of the law, indemnity, 
 and administration, at once transforms, under the influence 
 of a vigorous, uniform, and far-seeing impulse, the whole 
 colonial society ; the other disorganizes labor, takes from 
 the colonists their best slaves, the love of work from these 
 last, and patience from those who remain captives, and 
 continues long to disturb, without emancipating. The 
 commission proposed a bill of three articles, which obliged 
 the government to produce a bill of complete emancipation 
 during the session of 1841. The report, presented July 24, 
 1839, had not been discussed at the end of the session, and 
 January 27, 1840, M. de Tocqueville demanded that the 
 proposition should be resumed. 
 
 * Moniteur of 1839, pp. 896, 950. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 63 
 
 The government, stimulated by this generous pressure, 
 had commissioned the Governors of the colonies * to con 
 sult the Colonial Councils with respect to the report of M. 
 de Kemusat. After that of M. de Tocqueville, which was 
 also sent to the Governors, f the Cabinet Council, J on the 
 report of Admiral Duperre, declared itself ready to adhere 
 to the basis of the plan set forth by the commission, and 
 instituted in the colonies a special council, composed of the 
 Governor, the Ordainer, the Director of the Interior, the 
 Attorney-General, and the Colonial Inspector, to furnish 
 the documents necessary to the presentation pf a bill. 
 
 At the same time it proposed, and the Chambers voted 
 to the budget of 1840 and 1841, an appropriation of 650,000 
 francs to increase the clergy, chapels, schools, and number 
 of magistrates, whom the ordinance of July 5 designated 
 as the protectofs of the slaves. (Ordinance of November 
 6, 1839.) 
 
 We were advancing slowly, but surely. What were the 
 colonies doing meanwhile ? It would have been supposed 
 that, warned by the progress of the movement of public 
 opinion aroused in France against slavery, warned, above 
 all, by the example of the English colonies, and pressed by 
 the solicitations of the government, our colonial possessions 
 would have prepared themselves by degrees for emancipa 
 tion. Nothing of the sort ; they prepared only for resist 
 ance. To believe interested theories, servitude is the 
 novitiate of liberty, but it is a novitiate which never 
 ends, and the sole result of which, on the contrary, is to 
 destroy in the slave all hope, and in the master the very 
 conception of liberty. 
 
 When the government intervened, it found minds closed 
 to all enlightenment, interests leagued together against the 
 least concession. 
 
 The ordinance of August 4, 1833, which prescribed the 
 
 * Aug. 21, 1838. f Aug. 9, 1839. J Dec. 16, 1839. 
 
64 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 general registration of the slaves, was considered as a 
 means of establishing a civil state for the blacks at Mar- 
 tinico ; the Royal Court, by thirty-eight decrees, refused to 
 pronounce the penalties declared against the delinquents, 
 and these decrees, annulled by the Court of Cassation, 
 were sent back to the Court of Guadaloupe, which again 
 acquitted all the prisoners.* 
 
 On being consulted, in 1835, on redemption, and the 
 means of facilitating the acquirement of money by slaves, 
 the Colonial Council replied, that the mother country had 
 no right to concern itself with these questions. 
 
 On the communication of the bill of M. Passy, all the 
 councils replied by demanding the rejection of the bill, and 
 even of the modest conclusions of the commission. 
 
 To the last appeal made by the government, in 1840, 
 it was replied : 
 
 By the Council of Martinico (March 2, 1841), that the 
 intervention of the mother country was illegal, and that it 
 protested against any emancipation at any epoch whatso 
 ever ; 
 
 By the Council of Guadaloupe, that slavery was a benefit, 
 and that voluntary emancipation and the blending of the 
 races would by degrees resolve the question ; 
 
 By the Council of Bourbon, that slavery was the provi 
 dential and permanent instrument of civilization ; that it 
 would be absurd and unjust to deprive the black of a ben 
 efit ; that this would be moreover to tread under foot the 
 rights of the colonies ; 
 
 By the Council of Guiana, that the work could only re 
 sult from time and patience ; that it was necessary to post 
 pone indefinitely all legislative measures. 
 
 What are we to think of this benefit which was to be 
 
 * Official proceedings of the commission of the Chamber of Deputies, 1838, 
 for the examination of the proposition of M. Passy. I am indebted to the Duke 
 dc Broglie for access to these reports. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. G5 
 
 gradually transformed by time and patience ? Where were 
 the colonies after two centuries of a patience assuredly 
 unequalled ? Had the blending of the races been wrought ? 
 Had civilization advanced ? 
 
 In 1855, there was at Martinico * one marriage in 137 
 whites, one in 221 free blacks, one in 5,577 slaves. 
 
 At Guadaloupe, 198 marriages in 31,252 freemen, and 14 
 marriages in 96,803 slaves. 
 
 At Bourbon, 284 marriages in 36,803 freemen, and mar 
 riage in 69,296 slaves. 
 
 At Guiana, a commission appointed in the Colonial Coun 
 cil, about the same epoch, to examine a projected ordinance 
 on emancipation, Article 4 of which prescribed that fathers 
 or mothers should not be emancipated without their chil 
 dren, nor husbands without their wives, had rejected the 
 article for this reason : 
 
 " The quality of father, among slaves, is till now a fact 
 indicated by no proof, unless by the allegation of whoever 
 may choose it, since no legal bond exists between the man 
 and woman. The benediction given by the Church to a 
 few unions forced among them, often without the consent 
 or knowledge of the masters, likewise demonstrates nothing 
 certain, and cannot produce on the slave an effect which it 
 does not produce on the freeman." (The slave not being 
 authorized, like the freeman, to contract marriage before the 
 officer of civil state.) "Otherwise," says the speaker, " in 
 virtue of his pretended ties of parentage, a slave might 
 claim his companions as his children or his progenitors, his 
 father and mother, and thus procure them their liberty, de 
 spite the master." 
 
 Aristotle is again stigmatized, for he supposed, three 
 thousand years ago, that there might be inequality of soul 
 between the races ; this is what Christians voted in the 
 nineteenth century of the Christian era. 
 
 * De FEsclavage, by M. Castelli, apostolic prefect of Martinico, 1844. 
 
 E 
 
66 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Such language was well calculated to make it the right 
 and duty of the mother country to go on and interfere open 
 ly, without expecting anything of the blindness which in 
 spired these base and selfish words. This part was taken 
 resolutely by the new minister, March 1, 1840, and was an 
 nounced by him, in answer to an interrogation, on the 13th 
 of May, to the Chamber of Deputies. 
 
 On the proposition of Admiral Roussin, a commission was 
 named, March 26, 1840, to look in the face the question of 
 the abolition of slavery. This was composed of the Duke 
 de Broglie, Count de Saint-Cricq, Marquis d Audiffret, and 
 Rossi, peers of France ; -Count de Sade, MM. Wustemberg, 
 de Tracy, Hippolyte Passy, de Tocqueville, Bignon, Reynard, 
 and Galos, deputies ; Vice-Admiral de Mackau, Rear-Admiral 
 de Moges, MM. Jubelin, de Saint-Hilaire, and Mestro. The 
 Duke de Broglie was president and framer of the report. 
 Interrogating facts with the most scrupulous minuteness, 
 without ceasing firmly to maintain principles, unravelling 
 justice and injustice through interests, it attained decisive 
 and practical conclusions, which it embodied in two dis 
 tinct bills, the one of progressive emancipation, the other 
 of simultaneous emancipation. The superior statesman who 
 directed these long labors, M. de Broglie, has summed 
 them up in a celebrated report. The learning of the juris 
 consult, the experience of the economist, the far-sighted 
 ness of the political legislator, the talent and method of the 
 finished writer, and everywhere, above all, the tone of the 
 upright man and Christian, make of this great work a mas 
 terpiece which forever honors the author and France. 
 
 The commission and the framer of the report have mer 
 ited m.uch of humanity. 
 
 The assemblage of the official proceedings, the vast col 
 lection of reports and documents gathered together by the 
 commission, form a precious repertory, like unto those mon 
 uments of learning and jurisprudence raised up by the 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 67 
 
 hands of our great jurisconsults to serve as a mine and 
 guide to all legislation. 
 
 The following is a brief summary of the labor of the 
 commission, the report, and the proposed bill. 
 
 From the beginning, M. de Broglie lighted the torches 
 that were to illumine his course, Christian philosophy and 
 practical experience. He united in a few pages, as in a 
 solid phalanx, all the great motives of religion, of con 
 science, of reason, and of right, that condemn slavery ; * 
 then, passing rapidly on, so simple is the cause and so 
 certain the victory before God and the modern mind, 
 he went straight to facts, and painted with a bold hand 
 the acquired results of the English experiment, f He con 
 cluded this preamble by demonstrating that so great an 
 example was decisive, but above all inevitable ; that, from 
 day to day, flight might give our slaves to the emancipated 
 possessions of England, and war might give them our 
 colonies themselves. Moreover, compromises would not 
 enlighten the colonists, but ruin them ; they would not 
 elevate the slaves, but agitate them. The time had come 
 to have done with these. 
 
 Before all things, it was necessary to take care that 
 emancipation did not disturb the moral and material order 
 of the colonies. J Now, in conferring rights on the slaves, 
 we took away duties from the masters ; the liberty of the 
 one involved the liberty of the other. It was important 
 that the authority of the state should replace both the 
 watchfulness and the kindness of the masters ; their watch 
 fulness, by increasing the number of courts of justice, 
 garrisons, || and prisons, ^[ and by preparing new regulations 
 of order and police ; ** their kindness, by multiplying schools 
 and hospitals. ff It was important, above all, to develop 
 moral order, and to this end to organize worship more 
 
 * Pp. 4-8. t Pp. 8-70. t P. 71. P. 84. 
 
 || P. 78. 1 P. 91. ** P. 103. ft P. 125. 
 
68 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 completely, to obtain the erection of bishoprics, to have 
 recourse, in fine, to a wider diffusion of those divine princi 
 ples of Christianity which are precisely fitted to emancipate 
 man from servitude of all kinds, by teaching him volunta 
 rily to impose on his reconquered liberty the light and easy 
 burden of moral duties. 
 
 These objects fill the first part of the work. The second 
 part is devoted to the interest of the slaves.* 
 
 There was to choose between three systems, immediate 
 emancipation, deferred but simultaneous emancipation, and 
 progressive emancipation. 
 
 Immediate liberty was objectionable in that it delivered 
 without transition the child to abandonment, the adult to 
 idleness, the aged to destitution. Liberty preceded by an 
 apprenticeship left the slave in an uncertainty as to his 
 fate, which he might be tempted to abuse, as it might be 
 abused against him. This intermediate system had been 
 attempted in the English colonies, but had not been per 
 sisted in to the end. To emancipate children and the aged, 
 and to leave adults to emancipate themselves by their econ 
 omy, was to create mixed families, children without parents 
 and parents without children ; to choose for adults an inter 
 minable path, as was proved by the example of Spain ; to 
 disorganize labor by mingling slaves and freemen together 
 on the plantations, and securing to the latter only their 
 worst workmen. The majority of the commission found it 
 preferable to fix a delay of ten years, after which freedom 
 would be universal, and during which all measures would 
 be taken among the slave population to prepare the family 
 by marriage, property by savings, savings by the institution 
 of one free day in the week, morality by religion, and intel 
 ligence by instruction. 
 
 The third part of the report considers emancipation in its 
 relations with the interests of the colonists. f 
 
 * Pp. 235-343. t Pp- 130-235. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 69 
 
 These interests were reduced to soliciting, 1st, a delay; 
 2d, protective duties ; 3d, measures securing labor. 
 
 1. Why a delay? The slaves had already waited two 
 centuries, and the burdens of the transition would be borne 
 by the state. The necessity of effecting the liquidation of 
 numerous colonial estates was the reply. How pay wages 
 without money, and where was money to be found ? In 
 savings ? The colonists had none. In loans ? The planta 
 tions were almost all hypothecated. In indemnity ? It 
 would remain in the hands of the creditors. In order that 
 the colonists or their creditors, regularly in possession of 
 the liquidated property, might be able to devote the indem 
 nity or new capital to labor, a law was needed that should 
 apply to Martiriico and Guadaloupe the forced expropriation 
 which was practised only at Bo urbon. This law was to be 
 prepared, adopted, then executed. A delay was therefore 
 indispensable. 
 
 2. The commission likewise regarded as equitable a pro 
 visory increase of the protective duties on colonial prod 
 ucts, in order to maintain the price of the latter, especially 
 of sugar, already so much threatened by the rivalry of 
 native sugar, and evidently exposed to the danger of a 
 diminution in the quantity produced. 
 
 3. As to indemnity, it was based upon no right. More 
 limited, more variable, more onerous, more precarious than 
 other kinds of property, even in the eyes of those who 
 recognized it, this right was held as naught by the commis 
 sion. But the good faith of owners, above all, the interests 
 of labor, and also the complicity of the laws and the state, 
 permitted the admission of an indemnity which should par 
 take of the nature of a fine and a tax. Upon what basis 
 should this be fixed ? Not in the arbitrary setting up of 
 indirect damages involved by the measure, but upon the 
 average value of the slaves during ten years, a value 
 nearly the same in our different colonies, and estimated 
 
70 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 largely at 1,200 francs per head,* which exacted, for 
 250,000 slaves, a sum of 300,000,000 francs. How was this 
 to be paid ? It was somewhat shrewdly calculated, that, by 
 immediately paying half to the colonists, the state would 
 also become co-proprietor of the slaves, and would be 
 consequently entitled to half their labor during the two 
 years preceding emancipation ; whence it was concluded 
 that giving up this half to the colonists would be pay 
 ing them a value equal in kind to half the indemnity, and 
 would thus release the state from it. It sufficed, there 
 fore, to enter to the indebtedness of the state the interest 
 of a capital of 150,000,0.00 at four per cent, or 6, 000,000 f 
 francs, which interest was to be left in deposit from 1853 
 to the moment of emancipation, through precaution, for the 
 sake of the creditors, whose claims might not be liquidated, 
 of the slaves, whose lot would be sad indeed if their 
 masters, ceasing to have any care in the matter, should no 
 longer find it for their interest to preserve them, and, 
 lastly, of the state, which would have indemnified to no 
 purpose if, before ten years, some unforeseen event should 
 modify the law. In short, it was to make the slaves them 
 selves pay in part for their liberty, and to exonerate the 
 state, as the family of a child pays for his apprentice 
 ship by giving time in default of money. The indemnity 
 was to be apportioned among the colonies by the pro rata 
 of their population ; then again apportioned among the col 
 onists, not per head, but, as was more just to the small 
 proprietors, according to age, sex, etc., in accordance with 
 detailed regulations to be established by royal ordinances. 
 Invalids already a burden on their masters were to con 
 tinue such. 
 
 * In the English colonies, they were valued at 1,400 francs a head; but this 
 did not include children under six years old, who were declared free without 
 indemnity. This difference brings back the sum to about the same amount. 
 
 t M. de Broglie calculated that the saving from the sinking fund, pledged 
 till 1853 for previous deficits and for the public works, would permit the reim- 
 bursal in two years of the capital of the indemnity. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. . 71 
 
 i 
 
 4. The experience of England proved the necessity of 
 taking measures in advance to secure labor after emancipa 
 tion. The indemnity was designed that labor should not 
 lack wages. What should be done that wages should not 
 lack labor, or that wages, becoming exaggerated, should not 
 swallow up capital, two paths leading equally to the same 
 abyss, absolute ruin ? 
 
 " In no country does man labor beyond his wants ; in no 
 country does man labor willingly for another, when he can 
 labor for himself. " Now there was reason to fear that the 
 negro, having few wants, easily satisfied in this beautiful 
 climate, would labor but little. In the English colonies 
 this anxiety had not been, in general, confirmed ; the negro 
 had shown himself active, industrious, a lover of comfort 
 and luxury, or avaricious, much rather than idle or lazy. 
 But having to choose between field-labor, so toilsome to him 
 and so truly irksome, and labor in the city, offering, with 
 better wages, the attraction of novelty, having to choose 
 between labor on the property of another, and the easy 
 acquirement of a portion of the uncultivated lands found 
 in almost all the colonies, with the joy of being at home, 
 and living there for himself, would not the negro fly the 
 land, the mere aspect of which filled his memory with all 
 the terrors of slavery ? The abandonment of the plantations 
 in all the colonies of extended territory, the emigration 
 from one colony to another in search of better wages, such 
 were the two perils which the commission proposed to 
 conjure down by suspending emancipation for five years, 
 and imposing on the freed slaves an obligation to enter into 
 a written engagement for the same length of time, leaving 
 them, moreover, the free choice of master, proper occupation, 
 and conditions ; the freed slave who found no engagement 
 was to be employed on the public works, and he who 
 refused to make one was threatened with forced labor 
 under surveillance. These conditions, borrowed from the 
 
72 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 code of Hayti, effected a prudent transition, which the 
 commission deemed sufficient to maintain labor, without 
 forcing an exaggerated rise of wages, the minimum and 
 maximum rates of which it empowered government to fix 
 in privy council, and perhaps without having recourse to 
 the costly and complicated system of immigration. 
 
 To give sanction to the proposed measures, it had ap 
 peared indispensable to prepare a new statute on the 
 judicial organization of the colonies. To this statute, which 
 remained to be made, as well as the law on forced expro 
 priation, the commission added a statute* on the political 
 constitution of the colonies, the text of which it proposed, 
 excluding all freed slaves from political rights. Before 
 possessing the quality of a citizen, it wished them always 
 to have exercised the rights and duties of a man. 
 
 Lastly, with the bill of simultaneous emancipation adopt 
 ed by the majority, the commission presented the bill of 
 progressive emancipation, preferred by the minority. Of 
 the forty-one articles which composed it, twenty-three were 
 the same as those of the majority. It differed, 
 
 1. In extending from ten to twenty years the duration of 
 the intermediate regime ; 
 
 2. In allowing a premium to adult slaves who should con 
 tract marriage during this delay, to aid in their redemption ; 
 
 3. In freeing infirm slaves, not all at once, after the ex 
 piration of the delay, but in proportion as their incapacity 
 for labor should be proved, and according an alimentary 
 pension to the colonist chargeable with their support ; 
 
 4. In freeing immediately all children born and under the 
 age of seven, or to be born, estimating at five hundred 
 francs the indemnity to be paid the master for the price of 
 the child and his education ; these children to be reared at 
 the expense of the state, and, when old enough to work, 
 apprenticed to their mothers masters, or placed in the pub 
 lic establishments. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 73 
 
 More favorable to the slaveholders than the first bill, and 
 less" onerous to the state, since it estimated the sacrifices 
 which it demanded of the treasury at 80,000,000 francs only, 
 apportioned over twenty years, this second bill was objec 
 tionable in that it retarded emancipation almost a quarter 
 of a century, and thus subjected it to unforeseen events, and 
 during this time transformed all children into foundlings, 
 pledging them to an apprenticeship strongly resembling 
 servitude^ and giving them for a mother a slave woman, 
 scarcely free to love them, scarcely worthy their respect, and 
 for a father the state, a far-off tutor, thinking little of their 
 youthful age and liberty. 
 
 The bill of the majority had also the defect of but half 
 accomplishing the work, and leaving it for ten years face to 
 face with the impatience of the slaves and the disquietude 
 of the masters. But this transition seemed indispensable, 
 and it was impossible to manage it with more justice, intel 
 ligence, and prudence. 
 
 It may be said that the commission of 1840 was the tri 
 bunal which decided the abolition of slavery beyond ap 
 peal. After its sentence, the thing was judged, and naught 
 remained but to execute the decree. 
 
 Why was this execution retarded ?. 
 
 This question was put to the government January 23, 
 1844,* and it was replied, that the bill would be taken up 
 in the course of a few weeks. The same day, a petition, 
 signed by 7,126 workmen of Paris and 1,704 workmen of 
 Lyons, in *all 8,830 persons, for the immediate abolition of 
 slavery, was brought before the Chamber of Deputies. The 
 session of May 4, when it was presented, showed clearly 
 how far the report of M. de Broglie had reanimated the 
 opposition of the adversaries of emancipation at the same 
 time with the efforts of its partisans. The Chamber, had 
 
 * By MM. de Gfosparin and Sade. The report of the Duke de Broglie bears 
 date March, 1843. (Revue coloniale, 1844, Tom. II pp. 231, 233.) 
 4 
 
74 THE FRENCH COLONIES 
 
 the pain of hearing a report against emancipation ; the colo 
 nial delegates still ardently maintaining that this great act 
 of justice would lead the colonies to ruin and the slaves to 
 barbarism, and the Minister of the Marine speaking of new 
 delays and of the intention of the government to seek in 
 dilatory measures a preparation deemed necessary before 
 adopting the resolutions of the colonial commission.* But 
 humanity was avenged by an admirable reply of M. Agenor 
 de Gasparin ; in answer to the pressing questions of M. 
 Ledru-Rollin and M. de Tracy, M. Guizot affirmed anew that 
 it was the steadfast design of the government to abolish 
 slavery ; yet, despite the commission, the Chamber voted 
 the reference of the petition to the ministry. f 
 
 Nevertheless, the persistence of the legislative power 
 resulted only in determining the government to adopt the 
 one or the other of the bills proposed by the colonial -com 
 mission ; but it at least dete-rmined it to propose serious pre 
 paratory measures without delay. 
 
 In fact, on the 44th of May, 1844, a bill was presented to 
 the Chamber of Peers, designed to amend the statute of 
 April 23, 1833. It is well known that this statute, which 
 organizes the political regime of the colonies, distinguishes 
 between matters whigh are within the jurisdiction of the 
 law, such as. measures relating to civil and political rights 
 (Art. 2) / to commerce, etc., and those which may be decid 
 ed by royal ordinances, colonial councils, or their authorized 
 delegates, such as administrative organization, the censor 
 ship of the press, etc. (Art. 3). 
 
 The bill proposed to elaborate and define some of the sec 
 tions indicating the measures of the second category. 
 
 Thus, to paragraph 3, framed in this wise : 
 
 * One of the reasons of postponement was perhaps the fearful disaster of 
 which Guadaloupe was the victim on the 8th of February, 1843, the earthquake 
 which, much more violent than that which overthrew Fort Royal (Martinico) 
 in 1839, destroyed 1,222 houses and a great number of lives. * 
 
 t fievie coloniale, 1844, Tom. III. p. 127. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 75 
 
 "Ameliorations to be introduced into the conditions of 
 persons not free, which shall be compatible with acquired 
 rights " ; - . 
 
 The bill added, - 
 
 " And in particular on the support and maintenance due the 
 slaves from their masters ; 
 
 " On the system of penal labor ; 
 
 " On the fixing of hours for labor and repose ; 
 
 " On the marriage of persons not free, and tJieir religious 
 and elementary instruction ; 
 
 " On the money acquired by slaves and their right of redemp 
 tion." 
 
 To paragraph 7, which reads : 
 
 " On the penal regulations applicable to persons not free, 
 in all cases which do not demand capital punishment " ; 
 
 The bill added, - 
 
 " And the penalties applicable to masters in case of their 
 infraction of their obligations towards their slaves." 
 
 Lastly, it committed to the government, by an amend 
 ment to Art. II. 4, the right of enacting by ordinance 
 on the creation of new justices of the peace and the compo 
 sition of courts of assizes, charged with applying the new 
 penalties. 
 
 We see that this bill prescribed nothing. It gave three 
 things, to the slaves a promise, to the masters a threat, to 
 the government a power. At first laid aside without dis 
 cussion, then, taken up again on the motion of M. Beugnot, 
 seconded by M. Montalembert,* it was deliberated on by a 
 commission with M. Merilhou for chairman, f and became 
 the subject of an animated debate. If the emancipation were 
 combated b} strange arguments, as, for instance, the humil 
 iation of yielding to the example of England, and the aver- 
 
 * Session of Feb. 5, 1845. 
 
 t Members: Messrs. Laplagne-Barris, Vice- Admiral Bergeret, Duke de Brog- 
 lie. Rossi, Baron Dupin, Marquis d Audiffret, Merilhou. The discussion com 
 menced on the 3d of April. 
 
76 THE FEENCH COLONIES. 
 
 age duration of the life of the slaves, who were declared to 
 live longer than the whites, doubtless as domestic animals 
 live longer than those at liberty, because better cared for, 
 the great cause found a most eloquent defender in M. Mon- 
 talembert. 
 
 " I declare," said he, " that we pure abolitionists wish 
 for immediate measures, while the circumspect abolitionists 
 and the temperate abolitionists wish for nothing at all. We 
 find all the transitionary measures good and acceptable, 
 even when they seem to us insufficient. It is quite different 
 with our rivals, who reject them all without distinction. 
 
 " As to the national honor, as to the political influence 
 of England, to which is attributed the design of imposing 
 emancipation upon us, I think that quite the opposite argu 
 ment may be built on this foundation. 
 
 " The humiliation to France will be found in the atti 
 tude of England, ^vho will stand before history, before pos 
 terity, and say, pointing the finger of contempt towards 
 France, Behold the liberal nation which pretended to free 
 the world ! Not only have I preceded her in the emancipa 
 tion of the negroes, but she has not even dared follow me, 
 shunning my mistakes and profiting by my lessons/ 
 
 Under the influence of these generous words, and thanks 
 to the able defenders of the same principle, such as MM. 
 Passy, Beugnot, and de Tascher, the scheme was changed. 
 However great was the embarrassment of incorporating into 
 a law details varying with the climate, for instance, of fix 
 ing the hour when the day s labor should begin and end, 
 without being able to fix the hour when the sun should rise 
 and set in each colony, the Chamber resolutely deter 
 mined to go further than the government, and to prescribe 
 thenceforth several measures by law which the bill, content 
 ing itself with pointing out, referred to future regulations. 
 The government had the good sense to enter into the views 
 of the Chamber, and to rally to the support of its propositions. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 77 
 
 Thus, not only the concession to the slaves of one free day 
 in a week, and the principle of the reunion of wedded slaves 
 belonging to different masters, were added to the measures 
 indicated in the original bill, but, instead of promises, pos 
 itive decisions on the duration of labor, the allowance of 
 a piece of ground, the right to personal property, obliga 
 tory redemption, followed by the prescription of a quinquen 
 nial engagement, the right to instruction and worship, the 
 observance of the Sabbath, the penalties applicable to mas 
 ters, the number of justices of the peace, and the composi 
 tion of assize courts., were inscribed in the bill. 
 
 The Chamber of Deputies, impressed by the bill of the 
 19th of April,* persevered in this course. Warmly sus 
 tained by MM. de Tocqueville, de Gasparin, and de Game", 
 and fully explained by the chairman, M. de Lasteyrie, the 
 government commissioner, M. Galos, and the Minister of the 
 Marine, M. de Mackau, the law was adopted by 193 votes 
 against 52, and was promulgated July 18, 1845. 
 
 In the course of the discussion, the Chamber had obtained 
 explanations of the government concerning the possession 
 of slaves by the magistrates, and promises that the bill 
 of forced expropriation would be resumed, that the meas 
 ures adopted would be erelong extended to Senegal, that 
 the last vestiges of the slave-trade in Algeria should disap 
 pear, and, lastly, that the slaves of the government, number 
 ing 1,469, should be freed. 
 
 This law definitively realized the greater part of the salu 
 tary measures which, according to the report of M. de 
 Broglie, were to find place in the preparatory delay of ten 
 years. Several of these measures were already in local 
 usage, but they became laws. The slave could hold prop 
 erty. The slave could obtain his freedom by paying his 
 
 * Members of the Commission: MM. Odillon-Barrot, de Tracy, Ternaux- 
 Compans, de Carne*, de Golbdry, d Haussonville, de Las Casas, Delessert; Jules 
 de Lasteyrie, Chairman. 
 
78 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 ransom, with or against his master s will ; if married, he 
 could rejoin his wife ; he was therefore no longer a chattel, 
 but a human being capable of elevating himself to person 
 ality, property, and family. Slavery, as M. Passy said, be 
 came serfhood, the rights over the person were transformed 
 into rights over labor. Lastly, the state was charged and 
 called upon more and more to intervene ; men were weary 
 of leaving the matter to the colonists, who refused every 
 thing, and to time, which resolved nothing. 
 
 A second bill, presented a few days after, and referred by 
 the Chamber of Deputies to the same commission as the 
 first, proposed a credit appropriated to the introduction 
 of European farm-laborers into the colonies. Passed, not 
 without opposition, in both Chambers, after two remark 
 able reports by MM. d Haussonville and de Gabriac, the 
 appropriation was happily increased to 400,000 francs, 
 designed to encourage and perfect redemption, especially 
 in case of the redemption of a husband without his wife, 
 a son without his father, an ill-treated slave, etc. The 
 sum total of the appropriation was 930,000 francs, thus 
 apportioned : 
 
 For the introduction into the colonies of European artisans Francs, 
 and farm-laborers . . . . . . ... 120,000 
 
 For tlie formation, by means of free and paid labor, of 
 agricultural establishments, serving as workshops and 
 
 schools . . . . 360,000 
 
 For the valuation of the personal property and real estate 
 
 of Guiana * 50,000 
 
 To aid in the redemption of slaves, by the judgment of 
 the administration, and in conformity with royal ordi 
 nances, to be decreed 400,000 
 
 Total ... . . . . . 930,000 
 
 These two statutes, which bear date the 18th and 19th 
 of July, 1845, appeared in the Moniteur on the same day, 
 
 * This was necessarily renounced. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 79 
 
 with a third statute, bearing date the 19th of July, and 
 appropriating extraordinary sums for the support of the 
 naval station on the coast of Africa.* 
 
 These statutes were real progress. Nevertheless, the 
 great word was not yet spoken ; they mitigated slavery, 
 they did not abolish it. 
 
 "The result of the acquirement of property by slaves, 
 and their redemption," said M. de Broglie, "will be good, 
 moral, an amelioration, as it were, of the system of slavery ; 
 but, as a means of emancipation, it is almost illusory. For 
 two hundred years this system has existed in the Spanish 
 colonies, without producing there even an appreciable 
 
 effect Ask yourselves what would be the result in 
 
 France, if you should put a day-laborer without property 
 in this position of being unable to acquire a privilege 
 except at the price of from two to three thousand francs ? 
 He would never acquire it. The number of slaves who 
 succeed in purchasing themselves from their own savings 
 will not probably amount to one hundred in ten years, to 
 
 one hundred and fifty in twenty years I think the 
 
 law good, as a law which will some day ameliorate the con 
 dition of the blacks, and render them worthy of liberty. 
 But I do not wish any one to draw from this law the con 
 clusion that all is done, and that now you have emancipated 
 the slaves as far as you can, or wish to do ; for in reality, as 
 
 to emancipation, you have done nothing If no more 
 
 were ever done, slavery would be perpetual." 
 
 Haste was made at least to accomplish what had been 
 voted. The government might have waited before promul 
 gating the laws for the drawing up of the executory ordi 
 nances ; it deserves credit for having promulgated them 
 without delay, after having sent detailed instructions to 
 the colonial governors on the 30th of July, with a full 
 report of the debates of the Chambers. These were 
 
 * Moniteur, Aug. 3, 1845, No. 215, p. 2219. 
 
SO TUF ri;rv H 001 ONIE& 
 
 promptly followed b\ the ordinances of tin- J. ul and - tith 
 of October, the one concerning the manner of fixing the 
 price of ransom when it could not be amicably tmngd 
 tho other on the employment of the appropriation allo\\ed 
 lo ,ud tn lodomption. At length, March til. ISU>. tlu miu 
 [tol VTM able to allinn, in a report to the king, that the 
 statute of July 18, 1845, Imd been put into execution ; that 
 lal>vn \\as regulated according to its enactments; that the 
 pOWOY i f the slaves to acquire property, obli^atoM n-Jcmp- 
 tion. the new penalties, and the new composition of the 
 Courts of Assixes, wore> now in full vigor; that a fe\\ 1 i 
 opi-an laborers (twenty-eight only) had already emigrated ; 
 that agricultural establishments hail been made the subject 
 of instructions, August 29; that the clergy and the schools 
 \\civ about to be increased ; ami that the ordinances on dis 
 cipline, maintenance, religious instruction, marriage, lands. 
 justices of the peace, and workshops, were all ready, lie 
 added, that these measures had occasioned some agitation 
 in the colonies, but without serious disturbance. More 
 o\ei, ho declared that accounts were expected concerning 
 slavery in the Kast Indies, where it no longer existed 
 in Senegal, when it was practised only by the Africans ; 
 and in Algeria, where the slave-markets had ceased, and 
 \\here but few sla\cs remained. lie promised, lastly, that 
 the emancipation of th, ! the domain, demanded by 
 
 the Chambers, should begin in ISItJ, and be accomplished 
 during live years.* 
 
 The parliamentary authorities did not sutler a demand 
 for appropriations to pass without urging forward the : ;o\ 
 eminent. Interrogated concerning the delay of the ordi 
 nances, and Igftia on the emancipation of the sla\ es of the 
 crown O > l . v ll and l.". IStoV the government accepted 
 an appropriation tor IS 17 of I .VOOO francs, proposed for 
 
 urban lalu-iors \w-io tYoovl in 1SU v Oi\lituuu-o ot . ills 
 vl? in Innnbou, J J in iUisulaloupo, ami 1 in Martinioo. 
 
HISTORY ol r.M \\. II- \TIoM. .,| 
 
 IS |(i by M. d llausson\ ille, in order to indemnify UK- 
 colonies Inr this emancipation, as was just. 
 
 Ill fact, the ordinance ..|" August 17, IN lift, Art. 8, had 
 transferred to Hie colonies the estates of tllO Crown ill fait 
 o// //rr.s////;, excepting the military works, hut including the 
 -mv//-or.s ami in<>r<i/>l<;i allachod to this property. 
 
 The illegality ( ,r this disposal was recognized, it being 
 impossible to alienate tlio property of tho ntato by a Hi inplo 
 ; Hn iu;o it was only nccoBHary to indemnify the 
 lor the enjoyiiiont of thcMii of which thoy wore 
 drpi ivcd, and to buy out tho interest of tho third partioH to 
 whom those ORtatcH and H!UVOH in part were farmed. 
 
 KVsmiird in 1H17 by jtH ptu Hevcring 1 author, the propo 
 sition \v;ts discussed anew, and resolved by the vote of an 
 appropriation of 142,145 francs, despite tho technical ob- 
 and Minister and ridiculous predictions on tho 
 which would bo produced^ by tho example sot by 
 the kintf in emancipating those who were still called Hit- 
 
 "II sugar-works in the neighborhood of UK; estates of 
 the crown wore oil orod me," wrote a colonist, "on condi 
 tion that I should Hiifl or my wilo and children to reside 
 then- niter the crown slaves wore liberated, 1 would refuse, 
 sure that poison would expiate my possession." 
 
 Three ordinances wore rendered during 1840, tho first on 
 the istli of May, concerning the religious and elementary 
 instruction of the slaves ; tho second on tho 4th of June, 
 concerning the disciplinary regime; and the third on tho 
 , r >th of , I nne, concerning food, maintenance, and medical 
 care 
 
 in a second report, March "21, 1847,* the Minister was 
 
 ,-il.le to declare that tin; execution of the two statutes of 
 
 !8-lf> was everywhere complete, everywhere satisfactory. 
 
 It lacked, however, several ordinances, especially on UK; 
 
 * Rf.vut coloniale, Tom. II. p. 026. 
 
82 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 marriage of slaves and the preservation of the property of 
 minors. 
 
 A few months previous, an ordinance, dated December 
 9, 1846, opened to the Minister of the Marine a credit ex 
 traordinary of 461,000 francs, and, May 7, 1847, the gov 
 ernment declared before the Chamber of Deputies that the 
 hitherto secret object of this credit was the liberation of 
 the slaves in our new possession of Mayotte. 2,733 indi 
 viduals of all ages and sexes were thus ransomed on con 
 dition of remaining bound to labor for five years to the 
 state. 
 
 On the 19th of May, 1847, the bill concerning hypothe 
 cation and the forced expropriation system in Martinico, 
 Guadaloupe, and Guiana, a plan solicited by the commission 
 of 1840 and already presented in 1842, was submitted anew 
 to the Chamber of Peers. On the 22d of May,* the Cham 
 ber of Deputies receive^ another bill, designed, 1st, to 
 compose the courts of assizes, in cases taking cognizance 
 of crimes committed on or by slaves, of at least four coun 
 cillors and at most two auditors, instead of four councillors 
 and three auditors ; 2d, to exact that the verdict of guilt 
 should be rendered by a majority of four votes at least, in 
 stead of five out of seven. The rumor of several scanda 
 lous acquittals rendered this modification of Article 111 
 of the statute of 1845 very urgent. There were, in 1845, 
 61 metropolitan magistrates, 61 magistrates natives of the 
 colonies, 14 slaveholders ; there was in 1847 very nearly 
 the same proportion. f 
 
 This bill, which was reported by MM. d Haussonville and 
 Foy, and adopted by 230 votes out of 234 in the Chamber 
 of Deputies, became a law, August 9, 1847. The bill con 
 cerning expropriation was destined still to remain without 
 result. 
 
 * These two bills were proposed by M. Guizot during his brief passage to the 
 Ministry of the Marine, 
 t Report of M. d Haussonville. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 83 
 
 At the same time that the government pursued the work 
 of legislation, on the sustained provocation of the parliamen 
 tary authorities, with the no less devoted co-operation of its 
 superior agents, excited by the zeal of a new Minister, the 
 Duke de Montebello, it developed administratively the con 
 sequences of the anterior acts. It published the good re 
 sults of the system of patronage, encouraged emancipation, 
 ameliorated the system of colonial customs and the sugar 
 legislation,* gave its attention to the happy efforts to let 
 the public lands for a portion of their produce, thought of 
 recruiting labor by others than European workingmen, con 
 tinued to free the crown slaves,f and, striving to multiply 
 the priests, the brothers de Ploermel, the number of chapels 
 and schools, negotiating with the Trappists for the estab 
 lishment of agricultural colleges, it sincerely entreated of 
 Christianity to guide the blacks to make a good use of lib 
 erty after bringing the whites to adopt its principle. 
 
 The Christian sense of right wrought without relaxation 
 upon public opinion. A grave discussion in the two Cham 
 bers was again called forth, in March and April, 1847, by a 
 petition signed by 3 bishops, 19 vicars-general, 858 priests, 
 86 pastors of the Reformed Church, 7 members of the In 
 stitute, 151 elective councillors, 213 magistrates or ad 
 vocates, and more than 9,000 freeholders, merchants, and 
 workmen. 
 
 At the same time, the journalists and publicists J brought 
 to the movement the tribute of their indefatigable efforts, 
 which the Academy of Moral Sciences called forth by its 
 prizes and rewards. 
 
 * Statutes of 1845. 
 
 t In 1847, 218. 
 
 t Situation des esdaves dans ks colonies f ranches, by M. Kouvellat de Cussac, 
 formerly colonial magistrate; VEsclavage coloniale, by M. Carnot, deputy; 7/w- 
 toire de VEsclavage pendant les deux dernieres annees, by M. Schcelcher, 1847; 
 Lettres sur PEsclavage, by the Abbe" Dugoujon; L Esdavage du paint de vut 
 theologique, by the Abbe" de 1 Estang; UEsdavage dans les colonies, by M. Wallc 
 
84 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 A noble spectacle was this continual action of the Chris 
 tian conscience of all parties and creeds on public opinion, 
 of public opinion on the Chambers, of the Chambers on the 
 ruling power, of the ruling power on the colonies, by the 
 double ascendency of law and government. 
 
 The statute of 1845, and the ordinances which followed it, 
 had been no better received in the colonies than the statutes 
 of 1833, the bills of 1839, and the questions of 1840. 
 
 The Colonial Council of Martinico declared the bill, before 
 its adoption, " odious to the colonists, fatal to the colonies, a 
 new step towards the abyss into which it was sought to precipi 
 tate them." (December 16, 1844.) 
 
 The Colonial Council of Guadaloupe called the statute "a 
 measure which shakes the colonial edifice to its foundation" 
 and declared that, " if it were free, it would again reject the 
 right of slaves to acquire property, and obligatory redemp 
 tion." (October 24, 1845). 
 
 This is what the colonies thought of the bill, which may 
 be reduced to what ? to diminishing the number of 
 lashes which a slave may receive, to securing to him the 
 right of owning what belongs to him, and the power of buying 
 himself with what he earns.* 
 
 It was impossible, however, that so vast a tide of public 
 opinion should not end by shaking opposition, and it must 
 have indeed been very powerful to move the Colonial Coun 
 cils. Towards the close of 1847, in fact, they voted ad- 
 
 * Schcelcher, 1847, Tom. I. p. 114. This impassioned, but well-informed writer 
 cites prodigious instances of the intolerance of the colonists. At Martinico, 
 November 18, 1845, fifty copies of the speech delivered by Coun: de Beuguot, 
 before the Chamber of Peers, were seized as dangerous. On October 2, 1843, 
 the electors having chosen two colored men to the Municipal Council of Fort 
 Royal, all Hie members except two presented their resignation. In 1845, one 
 of these colored men was made member of the Colonial Council. The Gov 
 ernor thought that he could only invite him to dine in private. He refused. In 
 1846, at the opening of a new session, the Governor invited this time all the 
 members. Out of twenty-seven, twenty-four refused to sit at the same table 
 with their colleague. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 85 
 
 dresses to the king, to ask a representation of the colonies 
 in the Chamber, and to propose systems of immigration, as 
 sociation, and central manufactures, in view of the social 
 transformation to which these Councils had always refused 
 to consent, and in which they had so long refused to be 
 lieve. 
 
 After thirty-three years of representative monarchy, 
 things stood in this wise at the beginning of 1848. 
 
 The colonies resisted liberty, but they doubted it no 
 longer. They opposed while preparing for it ; they still 
 contested the principle in order to flee the consequences, 
 and to render the indemnification more certain and more 
 ample. Opposition multiplied, the systematic non-applica 
 tion of the regulations and laws daily created new argu 
 ments against the delusion of those who persisted in ex 
 pecting liberty from the lessons of time and the good-will 
 of the masters, and contested the opportunity. "To wait 
 is wise," said M. de Broglie, appositely cited by M. de Mon- 
 talembert , (discussion of the statute of 1845,) " on condition 
 we wait for something ; but to wait for the sake of waiting, 
 to wait through pure carelessness or pure irresolution, for 
 lack of possessing enough good sense and enough courage 
 to set to work, is the worst of all resolves and the most 
 certain of all dangers." 
 
 In France, in Europe, the victory was complete in the 
 public mind. The public authorities were agreed, the oppo 
 sition favorable, the press unanimous, public opinion and 
 conscience had but one voice. The cause was so far gained 
 that men were weary of hearing "of it, weary of sustaining 
 it, they had become fastidious in evidence. Why, then, 
 hesitate so long to take the last step, to strike the last 
 blow? 
 
 This slowness, according as it is styled prudence or inde 
 cision, is at once the virtue or the defect, the advantage or 
 the objection, of free governments. By dint of weighing all 
 
86 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 interests, of listening to all reasons, they succeed marvel 
 lously in paving the way for the solution of questions, and 
 end with difficulty in resolving them. Too many motives 
 hinder determination, as too much light hinders sight. 
 
 It is for the government to triumph over the ordinary in 
 decision of regular assemblies ; if it partakes it, everything 
 stops short ; the moment comes when it is no longer ques 
 tions, but parties, with which we have to deal. 
 
 In this question, the assemblies determined energetically, 
 the government hesitated. 
 
 If slavery had been abolished on the morrow of the re 
 port of M. de Broglie, how many evils would have been 
 avoided ! 
 
 The government of July was cruelly punished for its 
 long delay, since it had the trouble of paving the way for 
 emancipation without the honor of proclaiming it. So rare 
 ly here on earth does progress flow peacefully from reason ! 
 Humanity is like poets who compose only in delirium. 
 
 Slavery in the French colonies was not abolished until the 
 morrow of the sudden revolution of February, 1848. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EMANCIPATION BY THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. 
 
 ON the 4th of March, 1848, the provisional government 
 of the French Republic rendered the following decree : 
 
 THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. 
 LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY. 
 
 In the name of the French People. 
 
 The Provisional Government of the Republic, considering 
 that no French territory can longer hold slaves, 
 
 Decrees : 
 
 A commission is instituted by the provisional Minister of 
 the Marine and Colonies, to prepare with the least possible 
 delay an act of immediate emancipation in all the colonies 
 of the Republic. 
 
 The Minister of the Marine will provide for the execution 
 of the present decree. 
 
 (Signed:) DUPONT (de PEure), GARNIER-PAG^S, 
 
 ARAGO, MARIE, 
 
 LAMARTINE, MARRAST, 
 
 Louis BLANC, FLOCON, 
 
 AD. CREMIEUX, ALBERT, 
 LEDRU-ROLLIN, 
 
 Members of the Provisional Government. 
 
 Paris, March 4, 1848. 
 
 On the 3d of March, the commission was composed, by a 
 decree of M. Arago, as follows : 
 
88 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 MM. V. ScH(ELCHER, Assistant Secretary of State of the 
 Colonies. 
 
 MESTRO, Director of the Colonies. 
 
 PERRINON, Major of Naval Artillery. 
 
 GATINE, Counsel of the Court of Appeal. 
 
 GAUMONT, Practical Clockmaker. 
 
 H. WALLON and L. PERCIN, Secretaries, empowered 
 
 to discuss, without voting. 
 
 On the 6th of March, the commission commenced its 
 labors, which it continued with ardor during two months. 
 
 Whatever may be the judgment of posterity on the revo 
 lution of February, it must justly proclaim the generous 
 impulse which signalized its beginning. Let us rejoice that 
 no moment of the history of our country has been lacking in 
 glory. The blast which overthrow political oaths, slavery, 
 the penalty of death for political offences, the red flag, was 
 assuredly pure and magnanimous. 
 
 We recognize, in the labors of the commission named by 
 the decree of the 5th of March, this noble inspiration mingled 
 with the inexperience, the prejudices, the Utopian schemes, 
 the rancors, the passions, which so soon corrupted the revo 
 lution of Februar} 1 -. The President brought to the mainte 
 nance of the principle of emancipation the laudable persist 
 ency which animates his writings. But more eager to invoke 
 without understanding the revolutionary tradition than the 
 experience of England and the studies of the monarchy, 
 more anxious to disguise the negroes as electors than to 
 make them men, distrusting the religion to which facts 
 forced it to render homage, the commission was often in 
 need of being brought back to the rules of political econo 
 my by a mechanic, who combated the minimum and maxi 
 mum of wages,* while extolling the right to labor ; by the 
 veritable principles of the honorable author of that excel 
 lent book, L Histoire de Vesclauage dans V antiquite ft and 
 
 * M. Gaumont, proces-verbaux, pp. 87, 122. 
 t M. Wallon. who was chosen Speaker. 
 
EMANCIPATION BY THE KEPUBLIC OF 1848. 89 
 
 by the. lamented Director of the Colonies,* who had lastly 
 to struggle at once against foolhardy experience and un 
 skilful obstinac} 7 ". 
 
 We cannot, in fact, qualify otherwise than by the last 
 word the attitude of the Chambers of Commerce and the 
 colonial delegates, with a few exceptions, before the com 
 mission. 
 
 The letters of the Chambers of Commerce contained noth 
 ing but menaces and complaints. 
 
 The city of Nantes announced the immediate cessation of 
 labor in the Isle of Bourbon ; "it affirmed that the decree 
 might endanger not only the commercial interests of the 
 mother country and colonies, but even the lives of the 
 planters." f 
 
 Curious admissions were mingled with these sombre prog 
 nostics. The delegate declared that "the slave-trade had 
 continued in Bourbon till 1830, and that consequently the 
 present generation of negroes, still brutish, were incapable 
 of comprehending the new duties of liberty, wherefore 
 serious disorder was to be feared." Thus the law had not 
 been respected, nor the race ameliorated. How then speak 
 of the humanity of the colonists, the happiness and educa 
 tion of the negroes ? 
 
 ^ The same dolorous complaints arose from the Chambers 
 of Bordeaux, Marseilles, Lyons, Montpellier, Dunkirk, St. 
 Brieux, Morlaix, etc. 
 
 The complaints and terrors of the delegates listened to 
 by the commission were no less excessive. I do not dis 
 pute their sincerity. But they could be productive of 
 but little effect, mingled as they were with loud protes 
 tations of adhesion to the principle of liberty, and reduced 
 to their true value by the testimony of the colonial func 
 tionaries. 
 
 The Chamber of Commerce of Toulon alone alleged that 
 
 * M. Mestro. t Proces-verbaux, p. 96. 
 
90 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 emancipation was illegal and inhuman, both for the master 
 and the laborer. 
 
 The abolitionists of yesterday were heard, declaring in 
 words that they desired emancipation, proving by protests 
 that they secretly detested it ; objections, prognostics, de 
 mands for indemnity and postponement accumulated ; it 
 was granted that liberty was inevitable ; it was hoped to 
 render it impossible. To the commission belongs the merit 
 of maintaining the great thought which it was charged with 
 carrying out, despite all these difficulties. It was even dis 
 posed to deny, which was not to resolve them. Happily, 
 precise information, true solutions, were furnished by the 
 administration, which here, as elsewhere, wisely rendered 
 so much service, as well as gained so much power, by link 
 ing itself by practical tradition to the innumerable govern 
 ments and ministers given to France by the mobility of its 
 revolutions.* . 
 
 It was glory enough for the Republic to accomplish what 
 the monarchy had made ready, without pursuing the recent 
 past with unjust ingratitude. It is the custom of heirs of 
 an unexpected fortune to execrate the prudent relatives who 
 have amassed it through a thousand trials. Nevertheless, 
 they do not long preserve it without recourse to the exam 
 ples of those whom they disdain. Such is too often the 
 conduct of new governments. 
 
 The proclamations of Victor Hugues afforded little infor 
 mation to the commission of 1848. Neither did the useful 
 attempts of General Desfourneaux to let the colonial lands 
 to negroes for a portion of their produce, renewed by a 
 projected association at Guadaloupc, present a more appli 
 cable solution. In fact, paid only at the end of the year, 
 held till then in constant distrust, exposed to losses which 
 
 * Opinion of M. Mcstro, in the name of the Colonial Ministry; of M. Feld- 
 mann, in the name of the Ministry of War; and of M. Lavollee, in the name of 
 the Ministry of Commerce. 
 
I 
 
 EMANCIPATION BY THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. 91 
 
 they did not comprehend, and to frauds which they knew 
 not how to avert, the negroes regarded this system as 
 disguised servitude. 
 
 It was necessary, therefore, to project practical meas 
 ures and to prepare bills of decrees and orders,* the best 
 of which were precisely analogous to those proposed by 
 the commission of 1840. What the government of July 
 had deemed it prudent to do before emancipation, the gov 
 ernment of February was constrained to do after it. We 
 cannot long dispense with common sense, even when we 
 care for it but little. 
 
 Twelve bills of decrees and two of orders were thus pre 
 pared, ( and promulgated simultaneously on the 2tth of 
 April. 
 
 The first proclaimed emancipation ; it was then incorpo 
 rated into Article 6 of the Constitution. 
 
 " The commission has not to discuss the principle ; 
 
 it lays it down, it no longer discusses it. The Republic 
 would doubt itself, could it hesitate for an instant to sup 
 press, slavery ; it would be false to its motto if it suf 
 fered slavery to pollute longer a single spot of the territory 
 over which its banner waves. Emancipation is decreed ; it 
 must be immediate." J 
 
 Two months were granted from the time of the promul 
 gation of the decree in the colonies, in order to effect the 
 gathering in of the year s harvest. But in the interval, all 
 sales of freemen and all corporal punishment were inter 
 dicted. (Art. 1.) 
 
 Slaves condemned to punishment for deeds which would 
 have involved no penalty if committed by freemen, were 
 pardoned ; persons sentenced to deportation by administra 
 tive measures, were recalled. (Art. 31.) 
 
 Everything resembling or leading back to slavery under 
 
 * P. 185 (session of April 7). t Moniteur, May 2, 3, and 4. 
 
 J Report of M. Wallon. 
 
92 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 disguised forms was strictly proscribed, and the pollution 
 of servitude was effaced both from the soil of France and 
 the persons of Frenchmen. Thus Article 2 suppressed the 
 system of bound labor for a given time, established in Sene 
 gal. Article 7 proclaimed anew the ancient principle that 
 the soil of France conferred freedom, and that, by a sort of 
 miracle, the mere contact with French territory gave birth 
 to liberty. Article 8 interdicted to all Frenchmen, under 
 pain of loss of citizenship, the purchase or possession of 
 slaves, even in a foreign country, and accorded a delay of 
 but three years to those rendered slaveholders by inheri 
 tance, gift, or marriage. 
 
 The governors or commissioners-general of the Republic 
 were charged with carrying out these important measures 
 in all the French possessions, expressly including Algeria, 
 where the original slavery still subsisted, the bill of an or 
 dinance for its abolition, dated June 2, 1847, not having yet 
 been carried into effect,* and Mayotte, Nossi-be, and St. 
 Mary, where, since emancipation, the freed slaves had re 
 mained bound by their five years engagements, and the 
 native masters still retained the right of emigrating with 
 those of their slaves who chose to follow them.f 
 
 No mention was made of the East Indian possessions, the 
 commission being assured that slavery had completely dis 
 appeared thence. 
 
 Article 5 reserved and referred to the National Assembly 
 the fixing of the indemnity to be accorded to the colonists. 
 
 Article 6 laid down the principle of the representation of 
 all the French possessions in the National Assembly, which 
 was decreed on the 27th of April. 
 
 An immediate letter of instructions from the provisional 
 government fixed the number of these representatives as 
 follows : 
 
 * P. 21, communication of M. Feldmann. 
 t P. 5, communication of M. Mestro. 
 
EMANCIPATION BY THE KEPUBLIC OF 1848. 1)3 
 
 Population. Representatives. Substitutes. 
 
 Martinico .... 126,691 3 2 
 
 Guadaloupe . . . 129,778 3 2 
 
 Reunion or Bourbon . .105,663 3 2 
 
 - Guiana . * . . 19,495 1 1 
 
 Senegal .... 18,540 1 1 
 
 The East Indian Possessions 183,097 1 1 
 
 The time of the elections was to be fixed with the least 
 possible delay by the Commissioners-General, and in the 
 making up of lists and the electoral operations the same 
 rules were to be followed as in the mother country. 
 
 The Colonial Councils and delegates were suppressed, 
 and the legislative power was intrusted provisionally to the 
 Commissioners-General of the Republic, by two immediate 
 decrees, prepared by the commission. 
 
 Another decree, promulgated May 2, abolished the cen 
 sorship of journals and writings, conferred on the adminis 
 trative authority by Articles 44 and 49 of the ordinance of 
 February 9, 1827, abolished at the same time the adminis 
 trative authorization, suspension, and revocation, and ex 
 tended the liberty of the press to the colonies. 
 
 Such was the political regime. The surplus of the meas 
 ures concerned the local and financial regimes. 
 
 A decree instituted the right to aid of aged and infirm 
 persons, orphans, and poor children ; and the foundation of 
 hospitals, infant asylums, infant schools, and professional 
 schools, but made them depend on very problematical re 
 sources ; to wit, the assessment of the freed slaves for the 
 support of their aged and infirm fellow-laborers (Arts. 1 
 and 2), and the product of the fines decreed by the justices 
 of the peace and cantonal juries (Art. 4). 
 
 In a subsequent decree, the primary, gratuitous, and ob 
 ligatory instruction of children of both sexes was imposed 
 on each commune, a school of arts and trades promised to 
 each colony, as well as a high school for girls to Martinico 
 .and a lyceum to Guadaloupe (Arts. 10 and 11). An order 
 
94 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 for the foundation of this lyceum at St. Christopher s was 
 prepared by the commission*. 
 
 The cantonal juries in question in the decree on the right 
 to aid, were the subject of another decree. Composed of 
 six members, three chosen from among the property hold 
 ers and manufacturers, and three from among the working 
 classes, drawn by lot, by the justice of the peace, from the 
 electoral list of the communes of the canton, two being 
 renewed each month, these juries, presided over in public 
 sessions by the justices of the peace, were charged in each 
 canton with conciliating or judging beyond appeal all differ 
 ences under 300 francs that might arise between masters 
 and workmen, and with punishing disorders in the work 
 shops, and coalitions. The same decree (Art. 6) abrogated 
 Article 1781 of the Civil Code in the colonies, declaring 
 that masters should be believed on affirmation in disputes 
 with those in their service. 
 
 The right to labor and the organization of national works 
 on the estates of the domain, or lands to be purchased by 
 the state, were the subject of another projected decree 
 and order. 
 
 A decree, likewise followed by an order concerning regu 
 lations, was destined to suppress vagrancy and mendicity 
 by means of penal works and a corps of field overseers. 
 
 The government prescribed by two decrees the establish 
 ment of savings banks in the colonies, and the annual cele 
 bration of festivals of labor, with the distribution of prizes 
 to laborers designated for their good conduct by the muni 
 cipal councils, mayors, and justices of the peace. 
 
 The Commissioners-General were charged with apportion 
 ing anew the poll-tax, which the taxpayer was authorized 
 to pay by three days labor, and to establish or raise taxes 
 on spirits and the rate of licenses to venders. 
 
 Property in the colonies was overburdened with enor 
 mous debts ; creditors were the true property-holders. 
 
EMANCIPATION BY THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. 95 
 
 From 1827, it had been repeatedly projected to introduce 
 forced expropriation. But the inconvenience of disorgan 
 izing labor by the mutation or division of estates, and the 
 difficulty of finding bidders or capital in the colonies, had 
 caused the postponement of the measure, the subject of a 
 last bill in 1847, as we have seen. In Bourbon alone, a law 
 had been promulgated on expropriation and the hypotheca- 
 tory system. In fact, the colonies were very nearly in full 
 enjoyment of the privilege of not paying their debts. The 
 indebtedness on mortgage in Martinico and Guadaloupe was 
 valued at 140,000,000 francs.* 
 
 The interest on money, according to official documents, 
 rose from 12 to 16, and sometimes from 24 to 30 per cent. 
 It was important that a bona fide liquidation should accom 
 pany emancipation, and that the soil as well as men should 
 be made free, in order that, the estates being liberated, the 
 indemnity might go to relieve labor, and not to pay debts, 
 and that interest might be reduced to a less exorbitant rate. 
 In this end, the tenth decree extended to the colonies the 
 expropriation law and the mortgage system (Civil Code, 
 Liv. iii. tit. 18, 19), with modifications. 
 
 An order of the commission of the executive power, de 
 signed to raise credit by another efficacious means, deter 
 mined the establishment of banks at St. Pierre, Pointe-u- 
 Pitre, St. Denis, Cayenne, and lastly at St. Louis in Sene 
 gal (Art. 3). These were to be founded by joint-stock 
 associations (Art. 2), controlled by a director appointed by 
 the government and a council of nine administrators and 
 three censors elected by the stockholders (Art. 8), and for 
 the first time, by the Ministers of the Marine and the Finan 
 ces (Art. 10). The capital was fixed at 10,000,000 francs. 
 (Art. 5), (3,000,000 for each island and 1,000,000 for Gui 
 ana,) divided into shares of 500 francs, of which the state 
 subscribed one half (Art. 9). They were authorized to emit 
 
 * Testimony of M. Lavolleo, proces-verbaux, p. 108. 
 
96 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 notes of from 5 to 1,000 francs, and to loan at a rate not ex 
 ceeding eight per cent (Art. 11), with the charge to possess 
 always a reserve fund of specie equal to at least one third 
 their indebtedness (Art. 7). They were to commence oper 
 ations on the subscription of one half the capital (Art. 15). 
 
 In the last place the commission prepared a bill of tariff 
 on sugars and coffees.* It was proposed to lessen the 
 duty on native sugar 5 francs, but to reduce the duty on 
 colonial sugar 15 francs, and the duty on coffee 31 francs. 
 It was calculated that the difference would suffice to reani 
 mate labor in the colonies, and to maintain the traffic of the 
 ports with the mother country with profit to the shipping. 
 Native sugar was held cheaply enough, and one of the mem 
 bers of the commission exclaimed, " The beet-root is dead." 
 It was hoped, by the diminution of price, to bring back an 
 increase of consumption which would compensate for the 
 losses of the treasury, valued, should it remain stationary, 
 at 17,000,000 francs on sugars, and 5,000,000 on coffees. 
 
 Another special commission, composed of members of the 
 administration, under the presidency of the general of the 
 naval artillery, de Coisy, had paved the way for the exten 
 sion to the colonies of the laws on the recruital of the navy, 
 maritime registry, and the national guard. This was the 
 subject of a decree, May 3, 1848. The measure was re 
 garded as an efficacious means for rendering the blending 
 of the races more complete, the education and discipline of 
 the blacks more prompt, the internal tranquillity more solid 
 
 The same day, the Moniteur recorded the decrees of April 
 27 and May 2 and 3, 1848, the order of the Minister for the 
 organization of disciplinary workshops, and the instructions 
 in forty-three articles concerning elections. The Commis 
 sioners-General, whom we shall follow into each of our colo 
 nies, set out to bear thither at once, and unexpectedly, sev 
 enteen decrees, emancipation, and the Republic. 
 
 * According to a clear and complete statement, presented by M. Lavoll5e. 
 
EMANCIPATION BY THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. 97 
 
 But the news of the Revolution of 1848 had preceded 
 them, and, as we are about to see, by a strange caprice of 
 events, if the Chamber and the monarchy had not the honor 
 of voting the emancipation which they had prepared, in re 
 turn, the honor of proclaiming it was almost everywhere 
 borne off from the agents of the Republic by the function 
 aries of the monarchy. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION IN THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 THERE was not a single colonist, there was not a single 
 partisan of slavery, who had not announced, with a deep- 
 rooted conviction, that emancipation would produce three 
 results : 
 
 The cessation of labor and the utter ruin of the colonies ; 
 
 The return of the blacks through idleness to barbarism ; 
 
 Pillage and murder. 
 
 The Colonial Councils replied by these sombre prognostics 
 to the wise and deliberate preparations of the government 
 of July.* The writers of the colonies wrongfully pretended 
 to rest these predictions on the results of English emanci 
 pation, f the example of St. Domingo, and the memories of 
 the Revolution. The commerce of the ports echoed these 
 anxieties, and even at the moment when emancipation was 
 already decided upon, threats were seen to succeed opposi 
 tion. " The seaports will not fit out ships for Bourbon, and 
 thus the colony will be given up to famine, "J said the me 
 morial addressed by the city of Nantes to the provisional 
 government. 
 
 These sinister prophets ill divined the future ; they no 
 more truly recounted the past. 
 
 M. de Broglie had fully demonstrated that production in 
 the English colonies had diminished scarcely one fourth 
 during the first years of liberty, a diminution explica- 
 
 * Report of M. de Broglie, p. 16. 
 
 t Le Travail libre et le Travail esclave, by M. Jollivet, Deputy, 1845. 
 
 J Proces-verbaux of the Commission of 1848, p. 93. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN 1848. 99 
 
 ble by many causes and compensated for by the rise in 
 prices.* 
 
 " It is a very great historical error," repeated M. de Tracy 
 in 1849, f " to attribute the revolutrbn of St. Domingo to 
 the negroes ; it was made by the mulattoes, and they made 
 it to enter into possession of the political rights accorded 
 them by the decree of 1791, which the whites had refused 
 to carry into execution." It was in J791, 1192, and 1793 
 that blood flowed in St. Domingo ; it was not till 1794 that 
 the Convention abolished slavery. 
 
 It was no more just to invoke the memories of the Revolu 
 tion, which commenced by reducing the duties on colonial 
 sugars to 4 fr. 25 c. per 100 kilogrammes, and increasing 
 from 10 to 14 francs the extra charge on foreign sugars, J and 
 ended by exempting colonial sugar from all duty (statute 
 of Sept. 11, 1793). We have briefly recounted the events 
 of this epoch. We are surprised to find, in the Notices Offi- 
 delles published in 1840 by the Ministry of the Marine, the 
 following affirmation : " The Convention speedily proclaimed 
 the freedom of the negroes. Civil war broke out in the col 
 ony of Martinico, commerce was interrupted, culture was 
 abandoned, and considerable emigrations took place. 77 
 
 We do not precisely know at what date to place these 
 direful events, for the Convention abolished slavery on 
 the 4th of February, 1794, while the English attacked the 
 island on the 3d of the same month, and entered it on 
 the 22d of March, so that the decree of the Convention 
 never reached it. 
 
 This style of writing the history of the past is calculated 
 to throw doubt on the aptitude of the colonists to foresee 
 that of the future. 
 
 * Report, p. 25 and following. 
 
 t Colonial Commission, proces-verbaux, p. 29. 
 
 J Statutes of March 15 and 29, 1791. Report of M. Beliic to the Council of 
 State, June 24, 1850, p. 13. 
 
 Notice sur la Martinique, Chap. I. p. 33. The same document informs us 
 that Louisiana was ceded in 1762 ! 
 
100 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Nevertheless, the most avowed partisans of emancipation 
 would assuredly have shared their fears, had they foreseen 
 that their design would be accomplished by violence, by a 
 democratic revolution? and that on the morrow those would 
 be disguised as citizens whom they had only with infinite 
 precautions dared transform into men. 
 
 Despite these predictions? despite these circumstances, 
 liberty, as we shall ^demonstrate, has not ruined the colo 
 nies, it has not brought back the negroes to barbarism, it 
 has not given birth to pillage and let loose vengeance. 
 
 To systematize an inquiry so complicated, we will group 
 the results into three great divisions, material, economical, 
 and moral. 
 
 We will first examine what have been the results in the 
 material point of view, and begin by recounting the first 
 events which followed the arrival in the colonies of the laws 
 and men of the Republic of 1848. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 IN THE COLONIES.* 
 1. MARTINICO. 
 
 WHEN the news of the abolition of slavery reached Mar- 
 tinico, the colony was not in a condition of thriving pros 
 perity. The competition of indigenous sugar, and the con 
 sequences of the bad harvests of 1846 and 184T in France, 
 had reduced Martinico to the necessity of asking loans and 
 assistance from the mother country. Security was no more 
 stable tfcan prosperity ; the means for defence had been "suf 
 fered to fall into a very bad condition. Doubtless, this 
 negligence testified strongly enough to the peaceful spirit 
 of 75,000 slaves scattered among 40,000 freemen. Never 
 theless, since emancipation in the neighboring English colo 
 nies, terror had exceeded danger ; for, in watching over the 
 seacoasts to prevent^escapes, the colonies expended not less 
 than 240,000 francs a year. 
 
 Despite these circumstances, the news of emancipation at 
 first caused no disturbance, a generous impulse, on the 
 contrary, drew men nearer each other, and the Municipal 
 Council and Chamber of Commerce of St. Pierre requested 
 the dissolution of the provisional government, f that they 
 might reorganize in a manner to admit colored men with 
 whites. A few years earlier, the majority of the Colonial 
 Council, it will be remembered, had given in their resigna- 
 
 * All the facts related in this chapter are taken from official correspondence, 
 imparted by the Colonial Ministry. It will be comprehended that a feeling of 
 delicacy causes us to avoid, as much as possible, the use of proper names. 
 
 t General Rostoland, who had replaced Rear- Admiral Mathieu. 
 
102 THE FBENCH COLONIES. 
 
 lion to avoid sitting with a colored man. Both whites and 
 negroes signed a petition that M. Bissette, a well-known 
 abolitionist, should be added to the government commis 
 sioners. 
 
 The elections passed off peaceably, under the happy influ 
 ence of this spirit of mutual concession.* The Revolution 
 of 1848 enjoyed there, as at Paris, a honeymoon of a few 
 days duration. 
 
 But it would have been a miracle if labor and peace had 
 been able to continue during these days of unquiet waiting, 
 when a whole populace, uncertain of its fate, hastened every 
 morning to the town or the sea-shore to receive a liberty, an 
 indemnity, an authority, which was announced, but which 
 did not come. 
 
 On the 21st of April, a rising was suppressed at St. Pierre 
 and the neighboring communes of Precheur and Case-Pilote, 
 occasioned by the ridicule cast on the burlesque attire of the 
 negroes, who had gone about beating an effigy, during the 
 Holy Week, which they called whipping Judas. A few ma 
 licious blacks took advantage of the incident to oppress and 
 stir up the well-disposed negroes. This first trouble was not 
 serious, and proved how great was the number of good ne 
 groes ; nevertheless, it consummated the falling off of com 
 merce and labor. Besides idleness arid discouragement, 
 the spirit of disorder had full play. On the 22d and 23d 
 of May, more serious disturbances broke out, on the occa 
 sion of setting at liberty a negro still retained in prison ; a 
 number of plantations were attacked, and, one of the plant 
 ers having fired at the assailants, bloodshed ensued, the in 
 cendiary torch was lighted, and all the measures taken at 
 St. Pierre and Fort de Francef did not exempt the authori 
 ties from accepting the responsibility of the only measure 
 
 * M. Pory-Papy, attorney, an influential colored man, was appointed assist 
 ant at Pointe-a-Pitre. 
 
 i Fort-de-France was the new name of Fort Royal ; Fort Bourbon was also 
 named anew Fort Desaix. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN MARTINICO 103 
 
 capable of appeasing the public mind, the immediate aboli 
 tion of slavery, which they proclaimed in fact on the 23d 
 of May, by the wish of the local authorities. 
 
 On landing, June 3, the Commissioner-General, M. Perri- 
 non, had not, therefore, to abolish slavery. The new com 
 missioner found the people well disposed ; a volunteer mili 
 tia and police organized themselves, and a large number of 
 the negroes entreated by petition the return of their former 
 masters, who had emigrated through fear of disorder. The 
 government was looked to for what it did not bring. The 
 journals of the colony were filled with eighteen decrees, 
 but no measures were taken to raise credit. The postpone 
 ment of maturities, loans, and discount offices were de 
 manded ; above all, indemnity was loudly called for. We 
 learn only that the Colurnbo arrived, bringing large chests 
 full of electoral registers, preparatory to balloting. Social 
 istic and communistic speeches, quarrels, and polemics en 
 venomed and agitated the unhappy island, more tossed by 
 the political tempests of the mother country than by the 
 storms of the ocean. As at Paris, more than at Paris, a 
 people, enslaved but yesterday, was master for four months 
 of the lives of a small and defenceless population. But such 
 were the relations of the majority of the two classes, let it 
 be said to the honor of both, that, after all, the colony had 
 less to suffer from their rancor than from the imprudent acts 
 of some few of the agents destined to maintain peace ; 
 playing upon the word, we may say that, in more than one 
 point, the agents made disorder of order. 
 
 From the 26th of July, the Moniteur was able to an 
 nounce a resumption in some degree of labor. The Com 
 missioner-General appointed rural commissioners to visit the 
 plantations and explain to the planters their new rights and 
 interests ; he himself made a general tour, and authenticat 
 ed some happy attempts at partnership between the mas 
 ters and the former slaves ; partnerships in which generally 
 
104 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 one third of the gross products, sometimes more, was given 
 for the share of the labor. He remarked especially a num 
 ber of plantations, like that of Perrinelle, where beloved 
 and intelligent masters retained the laborers, paying them 
 wages which varied from 50 c. to Ifr., 1 fr. 25 c., 1 fr. 50 c. 
 Above all, he heard everywhere the unanimous and ear 
 nest prayer for an indemnity, and a reduction of the duty 
 on sugars. 
 
 Assuredly the colony did not count electoral agitation 
 among the means of bringing back prosperity ; this was not 
 spared it. The elections were scarcely legal, for instruc 
 tions bearing date March 8, had left to the Assembly the 
 right of regulating the mode in which these elections should 
 take place. By a second letter of instructions, April 27, 
 the provisional government, contradicting the first, had set 
 tled this mode ; but the Assembly, meeting on the 4th of 
 May, had listened to a report from its colonial committee 
 which tended to exclude the new freedmen from the ballot- 
 box, and before the conflict was ended, while the debates in 
 the Assembly were known to the colonies, the Commis 
 sioner-General had summoned all citizens, without distinc 
 tion, to the elections to be held on the 9th, 10th, and llth 
 of August.* Moreover, more than one colored man was 
 admitted illegally, and more than one white man illegally ex 
 cluded, especially in the garrison and geridarmery. It was 
 proved that a pressure, too easily exercised on those who 
 neither knew how to read nor write, nor scarcely to think, 
 had not been lacking. The Journal Officiel of Martinico 
 had published odious menaces, drawn up, it is said, by the 
 Procureur of the Republic himself, ajid signed, among oth 
 ers, by his brother-in-law and the brother-in-law of the Com 
 missioner-General. One of the candidates elected, M. Bis- 
 sette, thought it incumbent upon him to tender his resigna 
 tion. Nevertheless, as, of 25,000 electors, 20,000 had voted, 
 
 * See the Report of M. Charamaule, Moniteur, 1848, p. 2878. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN MARTINICO. 105 
 
 and as, of the 20,000 voters, 19,000 had returned the can 
 didates elected, and as the disturbances and irregular pro 
 ceedings were far from equalling those which had convulsed 
 so many of the cities of France a few months before, the 
 Constituent Assembly refused to order an inquiry, and 
 sanctioned the election. 
 
 Six weeks after the elections (Sept. 28, 1848), the ap 
 pointment of Rear-Admiral Bruat put an end to all these 
 storms. During the month of November, he announced the 
 resumption of labor, estimated the future harvest at two 
 thirds the usual product, and demanded the reductidn of 
 taxes and indemnity. 
 
 A few months after, a commission, charged by the gover 
 nor with examining into the state of labor, summed up as 
 follows the facts gathered in twelve out of twenty-three 
 communes, from one hundred and sixty-four plantations, 
 situated under the most varied conditions, and employing 
 more than six thousand laborers. 
 
 "It is found by the Commission, as the constant result 
 of all its sittings, that culture on a large scale, already so 
 much injured by the transient legislation of 1845 and 1846, 
 was completely abandoned, with very few exceptions, during 
 the first two months following emancipation, but it is also 
 found that, since this epoch, labor has been gradually re 
 sumed and maintained in all parts of the colony. 77 
 
 This testimony bears date May 29, 1849,* that is, pre 
 cisely a year subsequent, almost day for day, to the mourn 
 ful days which had witnessed murder and incendiarism. 
 
 A month afterwards, June 9, the elections passed off 
 without serious disturbance, and sent to the Legislative 
 Assembly two partisans of order, one of whom, the Hon 
 orable M. Pecoul, had been a large slaveholder. Their 
 election was confirmed without difficulty, July 23, 1849. 
 
 * The report, which is dated May 29, 1849, was inserted in the Revue coloni- 
 ale, June, p. 247, and in the Moniteur, Oct. 14. 
 
106 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Admiral Bruat was appointed Governor-General of the 
 Antilles on the 12th of March. The statute regulating co 
 lonial indemnity was passed on the 4th of April. These 
 dates mark the beginning of an era of return, slow and 
 painful, but regular and increasing, towards order and pro 
 gress. V 
 
 During this stormy year of transition, what then was 
 responsible for the public calamities in Martinico ? Was it 
 emancipation ? Was it the Revolution ? 
 
 In March, news arrived of the events of February. The 
 first moment of astonishment was marked by no disorder. 
 
 In May, the absence of all authority, the annihilation of 
 labor, the excitement arising most of all from the mother 
 country and the free colored men, engendered a few days 
 of lamentable disorder, yet circumscribed and speedily sup 
 pressed. Proclaimed May 23, emancipation appeased the 
 disturbance, very far from causing it. 
 
 The arrival of the Commissioner-General, his tours of in 
 spection and good words sufficed to bring back and consoli 
 date order in June and July. But instead of restoring the 
 laborers to the fields, they were sent in August to the ballot- 
 box, so that the first months of this painful half-year were 
 passed in waiting and the last in voting, while agitation was 
 the only remedy brought by the government for anxiety 
 and ruin. 
 
 But from September, with a new power, confidence re 
 vived, and in October and November its first effects were 
 proved, although no measure had been taken by the mother 
 country to secure an indemnity. 
 
 Four months after, an investigation ascertained that labor 
 was everywhere resumed. In June, the partisans of order 
 triumphed in the new elections. 
 
 Let not liberty be accused, then, of the early misfortunes 
 in Martinico ; it was but one difficulty more, less great than 
 might have been expected, added to all the embarrassments 
 
EMANCIPATION IN GUADALOUPE. 107 
 
 which the mother country suffered herself and imposed on 
 her colonies. 
 
 It is to the Revolution of February that emancipation is 
 due, but it is not to emancipation that we are to attribute 
 all the consequences of the Revolution of February. 
 
 2. GUADALOUPE. 
 
 Appointed Governor after numerous voyages and labors 
 devoted to the study of the results of emancipation in the 
 English colonies, Captain Xayrle of the Marine was des 
 tined to attach his name to the proclamation of this great 
 measure in Guadaloupe, where, April 25, he had abolished 
 whipping and other corporal punishment. 
 
 Informed of the disorders which afflicted Martinico on 
 the 22d and 23d of May, 1848, on the 27th of the same 
 month, at seven o clock in the morning, he assenTbled the 
 Privy Council and resolutely proposed to proclaim emanci 
 pation without delay. The Municipal Council of Pointe-a- 
 Pitre expressed the same wish. Liberty was proclaimed, 
 and the following decree was everywhere to be read : 
 
 "LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY. 
 
 " We, Governor of Guadaloupe and its dependencies ; 
 
 " In view of the decree of the Provisional Government, 
 bearing date March 4, which proclaims that no French ter 
 ritory can longer hold slaves ; 
 
 " In view of the delay caused by circumstances in the 
 application of this principle to Guadaloupe ; 
 
 " Considering that, through the good spirit of which it has 
 given proof, the slave population has shown itself worthy 
 of the benefit of liberty ; 
 
 " Considering that everything announces that it will con 
 tinue to merit it by persevering in its habits of order and 
 labor, and in the accomplishment of all the duties of citi 
 zen, confiding in its intelligence and patriotism ; 
 
108 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 11 In view of Article 11 of the statute of April 24, 1833 ; 
 
 " By the unanimous advice of the Privy Council ; 
 
 "Have ordered and do order : 
 
 "Art. I. SLAVERY is A-BOLISHED. 
 
 " Art. II. The indemnity lawfully due to the owners of 
 slaves is placed under the safeguard of the national honor, 
 and recommended to the justice of the National Assembly. 
 
 " Art. III. The military commandant and heads of the 
 administration are charged with the execution of the pres 
 ent order. 
 
 " St. Christopher, May 27, 1848."* . 
 
 A solemn mass was celebrated by the Apostolic Prefect, 
 and after addresses by the Governor and prelate, and the 
 blessing of a tree of liberty, the excited and joyous crowd 
 dispersed without disturbance to the sound of shouts of 
 Long live the Eepublic ! Long live the Governor / Long live 
 Religion ! 
 
 The night, which came on a few hours after, was not, per 
 haps, exempt from fear, but its shadows fell on affranchised 
 souls and tranquillized consciences ; it fell on a day which 
 was perhaps to human beings the fairest one of life. 
 
 When M. Gatirie, appointed Commissioner-General by the 
 decree of April 27, arrived at Guadaloupe, May 15, 1848, 
 order had not been disturbed for a single instant. All his . 
 reports attest that it was equally tranquil afterwards. The 
 institution of cantonal juries and the establishment of penal 
 labor sufficed to appease the difficulties arising most espe 
 cially from the obstinacy of the negroes in keeping the cab 
 ins belonging to their former masters, and which they con 
 sidered as their own. 
 
 Doubtless, labor suffered at the beginning. It must not 
 be forgotten that three causes united in its disorganization. 
 
 * Signed: Layrle, Chaumont, Quillet, Jules Billecoq, Bayle-Mouillard, Bon 
 net, A. Lignieres, A. Mollenthiel, Laugier, L. Richard de Chicourt. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN GUADALOUPE. 109 
 
 The consequences of tho bad harvests of 1846 and 1847 had 
 forced the colonies to supply themselves with grain from 
 the United States, for which they had been obliged to pay 
 a high price in specie, and from which a crisis had resulted. 
 The stupor caused by the revolution was a second most 
 sufficient reason by itself alone for putting a stop to busi 
 ness. Lastly, the sudden liberation of the slaves compli 
 cated a position which it had not alone produced. ^ 
 
 They were naturally seen to abandon the large planta 
 tions, especially those where they had been worst treated, 
 and to divide into two classes, the idle, who thought them 
 selves called to the liberty of doing nothing, and the indus 
 trious, some of whom sought employment in the towns, 
 while others asked permission to settle on a portion of the 
 uncultivated public lands. Even among those who consent 
 ed to work on the plantations, a great lack of regularity 
 was remarked, a change of mind, position, and plans was 
 naturally the first fancy of beings always subjected to the 
 same labor, on the same field, and under the same authority. 
 
 The energetic colonists, who speedily made the best of 
 the new state of affairs, suffered less than those who were 
 discouraged, than those who had been accustomed to act 
 through the medium of expensive overseers, often harsh 
 and detested, or than those who, burdened with debts, were 
 forced to liquidate them at the most critical moment. 
 
 But it is very certain that disorder was not born at Gua- 
 daloupe with emancipation, but only through the conse 
 quences of revolution. Thus a great part of the loss of 
 time by the former slaves came from their subjection to 
 numerous formalities, not only in registering themselves in 
 the civil state and obtaining the emancipation papers, to 
 which they attached a rightful importance, but also in exer 
 cising political rights. They were not disturbed by their 
 recognition as men ; they were agitated by their improvisa 
 tion into citizens. 
 
110 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Here, again, the first elections passed, if not peaceably, 
 at least without incendiarism and vengeance.* 
 
 In two communes (Desirade and Anse-Bertrand) a terri 
 ble hurricane detained the voters at home ; in two others 
 (Grand-Bourg and Vieux-Fort), the tumult entirely put a stop 
 to the voting. But in the majority of the communes, they 
 were sufficiently regular to permit the Assembly to confirm 
 the result without discussion (Oct. 21, 1848). 
 
 Martinico suffered in 1848 ; in 1849 and 1850, Guadaloupe 
 was destined to have its turn. 
 
 The Commissioner-General was replaced at the close of 
 1848 by a new Governor, who, himself replaced in the begin 
 ning of 1849, returned at the end of the year. Appeased 
 by some painful examples of seventy in the mother coun 
 try, disorder attempted to emigrate to the colonies. Cul 
 pable incitements, arising from Paris, urged on the slaves 
 to conquer for themselves an absolute independence, as at 
 St. Domingo. Names served as rallying-points. An im 
 provised press multiplied appeals and instigations. The 
 clubs were open to orators who a few months before knew 
 nothing of schools, and were subject to the lash. It was 
 under this regime, with these seeds of tumult, that the col 
 ony was to proceed the same year to general elections, mu 
 nicipal elections, the installation of new municipalities, and 
 the judgment of grave and hotly contested suits. So much 
 fire could not be thrown upon so much powder with impu 
 nity. 
 
 At the moment of the elections, in June, 1849, M. Bis- 
 sette, made deputy by acclamation at Martinico, where the 
 ballot-box, opened fifteen days before, had produced results in 
 favor of order which the vanquished party wished to avenge 
 in Guadaloupe, M. Bissette came to Guadaloupe with the 
 intent of employing his great popularity in favor of order. 
 Accused of having sold himself to the whites, and of wish- 
 
 * Report of Aug. 10, 1848. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN GUADALOUPE. Ill 
 
 ing to return the negroes to slavery, he was assailed at 
 Santa Rosa, and nearly assassinated. At Mary-Galante, the 
 arrest of an agitator caused new disorders, which it was 
 necessary to repress by force. 
 
 The elections ended amidst so many menaces and criminal 
 intrigues, that 10,897 voters abstained from voting, and 
 the Legislative Assembly was obliged to pronounce the 
 elections void (Oct. 17, >849). 
 
 The journals envenomed these deplorable struggles dur 
 ing the course of the uits in which the crimes of June re 
 sulted. There were forty condemnations and twenty-six 
 acquittals (April 18, 1850). The disturbance that accom 
 panied these suits, with four successive incendiary fires, 
 obliged the Governor, three weeks after, to declare the city 
 and the arrondissement of Pointe-a-Pitre under martial law. 
 Approved by the Governor-General, and afterwards by the 
 President of the Republic and the Assembly, this measure 
 was even extended to the entire island by a statute of ur 
 gency, July 11, 1850.* 
 
 The firmness of the courts and government consum 
 mated the discouragement or punishment of the authors of 
 these disorders : it was ascertained that they were the work 
 of political passions ; that the negroes had labored with the 
 whites to extinguish the fires ; that the most peaceable 
 elections had been in the country ; that if the negroes had 
 not voted, the whites, opposed to the free mulattoes, would 
 have suffered much more ; in a word, that peace had been 
 troubled, not by emancipation, although it had served as 
 the pretext, but by the clubs, the press, the demagogues 
 and anarchical elections, that is to say, by the same 
 causes, the same passions, perhaps the same men, as at 
 
 Paris. 
 
 Prosperity did not return as speedily as tranquillity. The 
 "amount of importations, fallen from 41,759,712 francs in 
 
 * Moniteur, 1850, pp. 2253, 2294, 2334, 2370, 2376. 
 
112 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 1847 to 11,980,480 francs in 1848, had already risen to 
 22,724,413 francs in 1849.* 
 
 From the last quarter of 1849, the regular payment of 
 the indemnity had reanimated confidence and labor, and 
 despite fruitless endeavors, unsuccessful attempts, at part 
 nerships between the colonists and laborers, there was rea 
 son to hope for a revival, when the fires and disturbances 
 of 1850 renewed the alarm, and, *the commercial buoyancy 
 decreasing from one quarter to another, f the year 1850 was 
 marked by an extremely low figure. 
 
 Importation, 12,741,735 fr. 
 
 Exportation, 8,155,932 
 
 20,897,667 fr. 
 
 Guadaloupe, which was slower to suffer than Martinico, 
 was also slower to rise. Emancipation had been there a 
 day of rejoicing ; the elections brought days of mourning, 
 and politics remain responsible for tears and blood which 
 had not been caused by freedom. 
 
 3. THE ISLE OF BOURBON, OR REUNION. 
 
 Numerous reasons united to give rise to the fear that 
 emancipation would be the signal for a more painful crisis 
 on the Isle of Bourbon than anywhere else ; on the con 
 trary, it was milder. 
 
 On an island situated four thousand leagues from the 
 mother country, without support in the midst of foreign 
 nations, with feeble local resources, lately tried by hurri 
 canes, and by disease among the sugar-cane, which had 
 become its principal culture, was crowded a population of 
 37,000 whites, 66,000 slaves, and 7,695 bound laborers of 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1850, p. 130; 1851, p. 175. 
 
 t 2d quarter, importations . ... . 4,035,217 fr. 
 
 3d " " . .... 3,755,912 
 
 4th " " . ,. . . . , 1,915,659 
 
EMANCIPATION IN THE ISLE OF BOURBON. 113 
 
 all sorts, Caffres, East Indians, Madecasses, Malays, and 
 Chinamen. In the number of whites were reckoned the free 
 colored men, almost all opposed to labor, and incapable of 
 filling office or maintaining order. The bound laborers were 
 far inferior to the slaves. The criminal statistics * proved 
 that crimes and offences were committed in the propor 
 tion of 
 
 1 among 300 slaves, 
 
 1 " 60 East Indians, 
 
 1 " 13 Chinamen. 
 
 These bound laborers weighed no less heavily on the 
 wealth of the island ; for to support them, it was already 
 necessary to call on the East Indies for from 20,000 to 
 25,000 sacks of rice, which was paid for in specie. 
 
 The prosperity and security of the island were therefore 
 very imperfect. The means of material defence were far 
 from reassuring ; the garrison was tolerably strong, but on 
 bad terms with the militia ; the number of guns tolerably 
 large, but all without carriages. Without doubt, the kind 
 ness of the whites and the gentleness of the blacks facili 
 tated the relations between them. Happily, during the 
 past few years, the negroes had been evangelized with as 
 much success as zeal by excellent priests, whose personal 
 influence contributed powerfully to the union of classes. 
 But the uncertainty left hovering in the public mind by 
 schemes of emancipation, endangered these good relations. 
 The government showed itself neither clear nor decided 
 upon emancipation, nor yet upon indemnity ; the slaves 
 were as uneasy as the colonists, and among the latter there 
 were many who, wearied with this long hesitation, wished, 
 and even asked, that, whatever might be the decision, it 
 should be speedily made. There comes a moment when 
 the prisoner has but one wish, to be judged ; to endure 
 the sentence is nothing to the torture of awaiting it. 
 
 * Collected by Attorney-General Barbaroux. 
 
114 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 This agitation of the public mind, envenomed by malevo 
 lent journals, appeared for a moment on the point of break 
 ing out openly. On the king s birthday, May 1, 1848, the 
 prudent and firm Governor of Bourbon, Captain Graeb of 
 the Marine, thought it incumbent on him to postpone -the 
 usual review, in order to avoid an occasion of disturbance. 
 He was ignorant, however, that, two months before, the 
 king whose birthday they were celebrating had taken the 
 road to exile. The first rumors of the sudden change in 
 the French government reached Bourbon at the end of May. 
 After calming the public mind by a prudent proclamation, 
 the Governor, receiving official information, on the 9th of 
 June, proclaimed the Republic. 
 
 The three months that followed were painful. Letters 
 coming from France threw uncalled for doubts on the ques 
 tion of indemnity. Nothing less was talked of than of sepa 
 rating from France, as in 1794, and resisting, even by force, 
 the Commissioner-General on his arrival. Clubs and jour 
 nals were established. A general assembly of one hundred 
 and twenty delegates from the communes, a sort of regular 
 central club, was formed by election at the end of July ; 
 and when the news of the decrees of April 27 arrived at 
 Bourbon, this assembly declared them rendered by incom 
 petent authority, and drew up a plan to be submitted to 
 the mother country, which, without opposing the emanci 
 pation of the slaves, demanded, 1st, the postponement of 
 the measure, in order to give time to gather in the harvests, 
 and organize schools, hospitals, and penal labor ; 2d, the 
 preliminary re-establishment of the Colonial Assembly ; 3d, 
 the formation of a National Guard and Municipal Councils 
 before emancipation ; 4th, indemnity. The same unanimity 
 appeared in the public square at St. Pierre, where in Au 
 gust, an imprudent speech having exasperated the negroes, 
 five thousand inhabitants assembled on the instant to watch 
 over the maintenance of order. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN THE ISLE OF BOUKBON. 115 
 
 To guard against the diminution of labor, the Governor 
 resolved to abrogate the order given March 6, 1839, to 
 prohibit the future immigration of Indians, but he did not 
 consider himself obliged to promulgate prematurely the 
 abolition of slavery, though authorized to do so by a 
 despatch dated May 7 ; and when his successor arrived, 
 (October 13), the colony was at peace, and labor was 
 scarcely anywhere interrupted. 
 
 The Commissioner-General, M. Sarda-Garriga, published 
 the decrees of emancipation, October 18, in a solemn audi 
 ence of the court. He had the good sense to close the 
 clubs, to surround himself with enlightened counsels, and 
 to prescribe, by a provident order, that, before the 20th of 
 December, the end of the delay accorded by the decrees, 
 every slave should hire himself to labor for two years on 
 a sugar plantation, or for one year as a domestic, under 
 penalty of being regarded and punished as a vagrant. 
 
 Thanks to these measures, followed by an order to estab 
 lish penal works,* with the approbation of the planters, 
 and under the control of the former Governor and principal 
 functionaries, the transition was easier than had been hoped. 
 The proclamation of the final liberation of the slaves, De 
 cember 20, f was a day of rejoicing. The commissioner 
 and commandant of the naval station both affirmed, at the 
 end of the month, that the year would end without disorder, 
 almost without loss. 
 
 The elections which followed created little agitation, 
 since few attended them. Of 36,000 registered names, 
 there were but 5,200 voters. 
 
 The best proof of the speedy return of tranquillity, and 
 even of labor, despite the real losses and days of anxiety, 
 
 * Order of December 23, 1848, maintained in force by the order of September 
 18, 1852, as well as another order of May 24, 1849, which constituted a special 
 syndic in each commune to watch over and regulate the interests of the hired 
 laborers. 
 
 | Muniteur, April 6, 1849. 
 
3 1 6 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 are found in the statistics of productions. Idleness, the 
 first form of the independence of poor devils to whom the 
 right of doing nothing was the natural synonyme of freedom, 
 since servitude had been the duty of doing too much, the 
 lack of capital, the uneasiness born of twofold political and 
 social transformation, weighed upon production so as to 
 make the most important, that of sugar, fall from 24,000,000 
 kilogrammes, in 1847, to 21,700,000 kilogrammes, in 1848 ; 
 but in 1849, the first year of freedom, the amount had 
 already increased to 23,660,000 kilogrammes ; and in 1850, 
 had it not been for the terrible hurricane of the 1st of 
 March, the consequences of which were severe enough to 
 call from the mother country an aid of 100,000 francs, it 
 would have equalled the amount of 1847, of which it only 
 fell short 500,000 kilogrammes, and which it exceeded in 
 1851, when the production amounted to 26,000,000 kilo 
 grammes. 
 
 These results, due certainly, as was indicated at the 
 beginning by the Commissioner-General,* to the good spirit 
 of both classes, should be also attributed to the facility 
 of procuring labor possessed by the colony. More than 
 twenty thousand East Indians and some hundred Africans 
 were introduced during the first years ; an addition un 
 favorable to good order, morals, and even to wealth, 
 since the Coolies kept their wages to carry back to their 
 own country, instead of settling in the colony like the 
 negroes, but most valuable in making up for the deser 
 tion of the large plantations. 
 
 As in 1794, so in 1848, did the Isle of Bourbon find 
 means of passing through the evil days better than any 
 of the rest of our colonies ; an unheard-of success, if we 
 reflect on the great number of blacks assembled on their 
 native soil with the few whites far distant from their coun 
 try, and if we recall the sinister predictions which scarcely 
 
 * Address of December 20, 1848. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN GUIANA. 117 
 
 a year before announced violence and ruin. We shall have 
 the pleasure of seeing these prophecies contradicted in de 
 tail on every point. 
 
 4. GUIANA. 
 
 . 
 
 At Guiana, emancipation might easily have caused gen 
 eral disorganization. An immense territory, covered in 
 part with thick forests, offered to the negroes the tempta 
 tion of an easy flight and an impenetrable refuge, and, ac 
 cording to their tastes, the choice between a vagrant life 
 and squatting on lands. Great numbers of negroes, who 
 had already thus regained their independence, incited them 
 by their example. With few exceptions, the planters were 
 not rich in this colony, always languishing, although it had 
 cost the mother country, over 50,000,000 francs* from 1817 
 to 1848. The negroes could not, therefore, be restrained 
 by interest anymore than by fear, for there were 14,000 
 slaves to 6,000 whites. f The garrison had been diminished 
 since 1814. The Governor, Captain Pariset of the Marine, 
 vainly asked that it should be filled up, and also that the 
 clergy should be increased. " For ten priests/ 7 wrote he, 
 " are worth more to good order than two companies of 
 infantry." 
 
 In this little disarmed and suffering community fell the 
 news of the Revolution of 1848, brought in the beginning 
 of May by an American schooner. A wise and firm procla 
 mation from the Governor enjoined patience. The colpor- 
 tage of an address to the government produced a little agi- 
 
 * Exact sum: Expenses of the Colony, . . . 49,386,000 fr. 
 Flotilla, ... ". ... . 3,300,000 
 
 51,686,000 fr. 
 
 t Statistics of the census of 1844: Freemen, 5,902: 25 officials, 726 soldiers 
 (of whom 116 -were Africans), 21 gendarmes, 21 Sisters of St. Joseph, 8 lepers. 
 Slaves, 18,988; of whom 10,935 belonged to white, and 3,068 to colored owners, 
 and 525 to the domain, and 117 were lepers. 
 
118 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 tation at the end of the month. Notwithstanding-, when 
 M. Pariset, whom the Provisional Government had the wis 
 dom to maintain in office, proclaimed, on the 10th of June, 
 that all slaves would be free on the 10th of August, this 
 important measure occasioned no disturbance, although Au 
 gust was precisely the beginning of the harvest, and though 
 nothing was said to the colonists about indemnity. At the 
 end of July, the events in Martinico were known, but this 
 did not seriously affect tranquillity, neither did a protest 
 from the quarter of Approuague, subscribed by several func 
 tionaries, nor the opening of clubs and the manosuvres of 
 dangerous mulattoes. 
 
 If order did not suffer, it was impossible that it should 
 have been the same with labor. One intelligent and reso 
 lute planter * emancipated his slaves directly, without 
 awaiting the expiration of the two months delay, and 
 agreed with them for immediate wages. But, in general, 
 inconstancy, the love of small estates, the novelty of inde 
 pendence, and the incitement of the republican reunions, 
 estranged the negroes from labor. The letting of the colo 
 nial lands for a part of their produce was vainly essayed ; 
 the blacks distrusted any system which did not secure 
 them the fruits of their labor day by day. The cantonal 
 juries did not succeed. A commission appointed by the 
 Governor for the regulation of tasks had more success. 
 But in result (and we must in truth be astonished that so 
 many causes united produced no more injury) the harvest of 
 1848 produced but one half the harvest of 1847. It is true 
 that prices rose from IT to 24 francs per 50 kilogrammes. 
 The price of annotta increased still more, rising from 80 c. 
 to 2 fr. 50 c. per kilogramme ; so that the 215,000 kilo 
 grammes produced in 1849 brought more than the 521,000 
 produced in 1846. Despite this rise in prices, the enor 
 mous decrease in natural products, and consequently in the 
 
 * M. Roumy. 
 
EMANCIPATION IN GUIANA. 119 
 
 value of property, was calculated to dismay the colonists. 
 Never had Guiana been, never could it be, an important 
 sugar colony. The clayey and marshy lands of the sugar 
 plantations give a fine cane, but inferior sugar. Coffee, 
 nearly abandoned in the Antilles, might prosper there, 
 as well as cocoa, spices, and oil-bearing seeds. But how 
 produce them without hands, without money, and without 
 courage. If a great number of (blacks returned to Indian 
 life by installing themselves on bits of ground in the up 
 lands, they were not led there merely by an instinct of 
 vagrant independence. Averse to working the plantations 
 on shares, or to hiring the colonial lands for a part of their 
 produce, the tardy results of which inspired them with a 
 natural distrust, they wished to labor only for wages, and 
 their former masters had not capital wherewith to pay them. 
 Now, in the economical position in which this unhappy col 
 ony found itself placed, without wages there was no labor ; 
 without labor, no revenues ; without revenues, no purr 
 chases, no importations, no ships in the harbor ; and from 
 day to day the fear of a veritable famine, thoroughly aban 
 doned lands, sterile works, ruined machinery, and counter 
 manded shipments, produced such discouragement in the 
 public mind, that leading men were seen proposing to cede 
 Guiana to the United States. 
 
 There was no need of elections to complete this uneasi 
 ness ; the agitation might be increased by want, and this oc 
 casion for the negroes to know and compute their strength 
 was by no means reassuring. They passed off, however, 
 without disturbance, and added another proof to the demon 
 stration, furnished by these long months of crisis, of the 
 gentleness of these people, who lacked labor much more 
 than labor lacked them. 
 
 Affairs must be very flourishing in France for Guiana to be 
 prosperous ; the slightest embarrassment of the few houses 
 that carry on the traffic with this distant country extinguishes 
 
120 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 all its activity, i^ven though the revolution of February 
 had not carried emancipation there, it would indubitably 
 have caused its ruin ; and here again, it is not the abolition 
 of slavery, but. the abolition of commerce, which should be 
 justly accused of an injury which could only be remedied 
 by directing capital thither. Convicts were sent there in 
 stead. Since the decree of December 8, 1851, Guiana has 
 completely changed character, and, instead of a commercial, 
 become a penal colony. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LAWS. 
 
 WHILE these events were passing in the colonies, and to 
 remedy the sufferings which the transitory and violent state 
 of affairs created, not by emancipation, but by revolution, 
 less by the decrees than the agents of the Provisional Gov 
 ernment had drawn upon our possessions, the Minister 
 of the Marine and Colonies, Admiral Romain-Desfosses, pro 
 posed to the President of the Republic, November 22, 1849, 
 the appointment of a new colonial commission, the presi 
 dency of which^ by a choice as just as intelligent, was 
 confided to the Due de Broglie. This was composed of 
 MM. H. Passy, de Tracy, and Isambert, ancient and de 
 voted friends of emancipation and the colonies. Vice- 
 Admiral Cecil and Vice- Admiral Laine represented in it the 
 navy ; MM. de Laussat, de Lancastel, Fournier, Hubert- 
 Delisle, Sully-Brunet, Demoly, Ancel, and Barbaroux, the 
 ports and colonies ; and M. Le Pelletier Saint-Remy was 
 secretary. 
 
 The statement presented by the Colonial Director, M. 
 Mestro, called to sustain under a more regular regime the 
 same principles which he had so firmly sustained before the 
 commission of 1848, did not exaggerate the sufferings of 
 the colonies. 
 
 "The planters," said one of the members,* "need laws 
 for their protection ; the negroes, yielding to a very expli 
 cable impulse, at the first moment almost simultaneously 
 
 * M. de Laussat, Proces-verbaux, pp. 6, 18. 
 6 
 
122 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 discarded labor. But they have returned by degrees to the 
 
 culture of the soil ; they are at work. Let property 
 
 be protected, let labor be made active, and colonial society 
 
 will settle down on a solid basis A second example 
 
 will not, perhaps, be found in the world of this simultaneous 
 concession of civil and political rights to a population 
 which had been deprived of them traditionally by slavery. 
 There is reason to be astonished that such daring should 
 not have involved more disasters. We have not dared do 
 the same thing in Africa, although the Arabs are far superior 
 in civilization to the negroes." 
 
 Another member* added: "It may be maintained that 
 the planters have neither been the losers by the emancipa 
 tion of the negroes, nor by universal suffrage ; without 
 them, they would have found themselves face to face with 
 the mulattoes, who are much more hostile to them. In the 
 colonies, as in France, the best elections have been in the 
 rural districts." 
 
 Notwithstanding, if material order, despite local ex 
 cesses, was not profoundly disturbed, legal order appeared 
 wholly insufficient, and it was above all to the establish 
 ment of this that the commission had to give their atten 
 tion. 
 
 From its first steps are found the delays of the old par 
 liamentary spirit, with its honorable scruples and intermi 
 nable objections. Before everything, the commission in 
 vestigated its own competency. Article 109 of the Consti 
 tution declared that the colonies were ruled by particular 
 laws, until a special law placed them under the regime of 
 the Constitution itself. It was very clear that the colonial 
 territory was completely French, that all the inhabitants 
 were free and equal, and that no particular law could dero 
 gate from these two primordial principles, but that, concern 
 ing all besides, special regulations might be introduced into 
 
 * M. de Tracy, Ibid. p. 29. 
 
LAWS. 123 
 
 the colonial regime. Now five points appeared to the 
 Commission to demand, before all, an urgent examina 
 tion : 
 
 The regime of the press, 
 
 The legislative and organic regime, 
 
 The judicial organization, 
 
 The repression of vagrancy, 
 
 The immigration of new laborers. 
 
 In other words, government, repression, and labor. The 
 Provisional Government had, indeed, seriously compromised 
 these three highest interests of every regular community. 
 The elections to the Assembly were made, and for a long- 
 period. There was no thought of taking from the colonies 
 the right of representation. Completely assimilated to the 
 natives by the ordinance of 1642, the colonists, on the 
 opening of the States-General in 1187, had attributed to 
 themselves the right to send deputies ; they were received 
 in 1189, and thenceforth in all the great assemblies of the 
 Revolution. The Empire had taken away their franchises, 
 as well as those of France. If the Restoration and the 
 Charter of 1830 had not restored them, they at least had 
 endowed the colonies with local legislatures, and the cele 
 brated Commission of 1840 had proposed to restore them 
 the right of representation which 1848 returned to them so 
 abruptly and so amply. They had not made a bad use of 
 it ; but could it be admitted without fear that universal 
 suffrage should be exercised for the municipal and general 
 councils, and that the negroes, fresh from the lash, should be 
 admitted to the ballot-box without transition ? 
 
 Could it be tolerated, above all, that, in the midst of a 
 community exposed to civil war, an unbridled press should 
 be let loose, sustained by the lowest journalists, and held 
 in little restraint by ignorant, prejudiced, or trembling ju 
 ries ? Was it possible to perpetuate the decree of May 2, 
 1848, which, fully assimilating the colonies to the mother 
 
124 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 country, had abolished the system of censorship and pre 
 liminary authorization maintained in the Antilles by the 
 ordinance of February, 1847, in Bourbon by that of August 
 21, 1825, in Guiana by that of August 27, 1828, and had 
 thus hurled the freedom of the press on small communities 
 where it was either an illusion or a peril; an illusion, 
 where there were scarcely any readers, writers, or printers, 
 so that a monopoly was established by the impossibility of 
 competition ; a danger, on account of the antagonism of 
 religions, colors, opinions, and feuds ? Could the offences 
 committed by the press be left to jurors or assessors, when 
 the decree of May 2 declared eligible as assessors all citi 
 zens eligible to the National Assembly, that is, in the 
 terms of the decree of March 5, 1848, all individuals, even 
 those not knowing how to read and write French ? * 
 
 The Commission voted the promulgation in the colonies 
 of the repressive laws of August 11, 1848, and July 27, 
 1849 ; it exacted a security of from 5,000 to 10,000 francs, 
 according as the journal were weekly or daily, payable in 
 specie ; it interdicted the introduction into the colonies of 
 writings and periodicals condemned or seized in the mother 
 country, and prescribed the preliminary deposition of writ 
 ings relative to the colonies ; it authorized the provisional 
 suspension, by the Governors, of a prosecuted journal, and 
 its suspension for six months at most, or interdiction by the 
 Court of Misdemeanor ; it established special penalties for 
 the provocation or re-establishment of slavery, for the incite 
 ment of hatred between the former classes, and for public 
 insult to the Governor ; it remitted the cognizance of of 
 fences and crimes of the press to the Court of Appeal of 
 each colony, composed of the president and the six most 
 ancient magistrates, judging without the assistance of the 
 jury, and on direct citation, without the medium of the 
 chamber of indictment. 
 
 * Report of M. Tsamhert to the Commission, p. 50. 
 
LAWS. 125 
 
 This plan, submitted to the Assembly, became a law, May 
 7, 1850. 
 
 The Assembly deemed it best to leave to the Court of 
 Misdemeanor the cognizance of the offences of the press, 
 and to suspend the institution of the Court*of Magistracy, 
 just mentioned, until the complete organization of courts 
 of justice in the colonies. 
 
 This important organization occupied no less than twenty- 
 five Atings of the Commission. Dating back to 1827, the 
 ancient regime differed from the regime of the mother coun 
 try in four principal points : 
 
 1. The removability of the judicial magistracy. In a 
 country where the firmness of justice is the sole bulwark of 
 peace, removable, the magistracy is not respected ; immov 
 able, it might, by taking sides, paralyze all repression. It 
 was decided, as a mean term, that the judges seal might be 
 changed, but not revoked, except by the advice of a stand 
 ing commission of two Counsellors of State and three Coun 
 sellors of the Court of Cassation, appointed by their respec 
 tive bodies for five years. 
 
 2. Tribunals of the first instance, composed of a single 
 judge. 
 
 3. The absence of the first degree of jurisdiction in cases 
 of misdemeanor. 
 
 4. Criminal judgments by assessors joined with judges. 
 The colonial courts were assimilated on all these points 
 
 to the courts of the mother country, except in the institu 
 tion of the jury, which it was not dared establish. 
 
 Another chapter, devoted to labor and immigration, will 
 recount the labors of the Commission concerning this deli 
 cate subject. 
 
 But before these labors were finished, before the deliber 
 ated bills were transformed into laws, the change of the 
 government and the abrupt ending of the powers of the 
 Assembly interrupted the sittings of the Commission. 
 
126 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Thus twice, in 1840 and 1850, the same men had the cha 
 grin of seeing revolutions thwart their efforts and ravish 
 from their name the honor of being united to useful re 
 forms ; yet their pains were not without results. Not only 
 was a moral effect produced, for during the sittings of the 
 Commission the colonies regained confidence, knowing their 
 interests in intelligent, liberal, and firm hands ; but, further 
 more, the Commission of 1849, like that of 1850, in some 
 sort brought together and prepared the materials%f the 
 colonial legislature ; its plans have already been of service, 
 and when it is wished to complete the work, it will always 
 be necessary to have recourse to them. 
 
 The law of May f , 1850, has been abrogated by a decree 
 of February 20, 1852, which has placed the press again 
 within the discretionary powers of the Governors, con 
 formably to the ordinances of the Revolution ; but the ne 
 cessity of certain guaranties, especially concerning cases 
 of libel, has led to the re-establishment, by another decree 
 of April 30, 1852, of the competence instituted by the law 
 of May 7. 
 
 As to the twenty-seven decrees and orders of 1848, they 
 were not long-lived. 
 
 The ninth, on savings banks ; the tenth, on a new appor 
 tionment of taxation ; the seventeenth, on marine recruital 
 and registration ; the second, on charities ; and the third, 
 on schools, have never been executed, or else have been 
 replaced by measures adopted by the Governors. 
 
 Jhe fourth, relative to cantonal juries, was abrogated 
 by Article 11 of the decree of February 13, 1852, on bound 
 labor, which also replaced the seventh decree, on vagrancy, 
 and the eighth, which instituted a system of penal labor. 
 
 The fifth and sixth, on national works, have been nullified 
 by the energetic measure which licensed them in France. 
 
 The eleventh, which established a festival of labor, several 
 times solemnized, has fallen into desuetude. 
 
LAWS. 127 
 
 The twelfth, which suppressed the colonial and general 
 councils and the functions of delegates, useless since the 
 Constitution had admitted the colonies to the national rep 
 resentation, was abrogated by the Constitution of 1852, 
 which no longer admits them, as well as by the Instruction 
 for elections, rendered in execution of the decree of March 
 5, 1848. 
 
 The thirteenth decree, on forced expropriation, is still in 
 vigor, but is limited to giving effect to the bill under dis 
 cussion by the Chamber of Peers at the time of the Revo 
 lution of February. 
 
 The fifteenth, on the powers of the Commissioners-Gen 
 eral, ended with their mission. 
 
 The sixteenth, on the press, was replaced by the statute 
 of May 7, 1850. 
 
 There remains, therefore, of the legislative edifice of 1848, 
 but a single, yet indestructible stone, the immortal de 
 cree * which forever abolishes slavery, a civil law which is 
 only the final promulgation of the natural law. 
 
 * It again appeared necessary to abrogate, in part, Article 8 of this decree, 
 thus conceived : 
 
 " In future, even in foreign countries, it is interdicted all Frenchmen to hold, 
 buy, or sell slaves, or to participate, directly or indirectly, in any traffic or 
 profit of this kind. Any infraction of these prohibitions will involve the loss 
 of the quality of French citizen. 
 
 "Nevertheless, Frenchmen subject to these prohibitions at the moment of 
 the promulgation of the present decree shall have a delay of three years in 
 which to conform to them. Those who shall become possessors of slaves 
 in foreign countries by inheritance, gift, or marriage, shall, urttler the same pen 
 alty, emancipate or alienate them in the same length of time, dating from the day 
 when their possession shall have commenced." 
 
 The English law (George IV., June 24, 1834) subjects Englishmen who are 
 voluntarily holders of slaves to a fine of 100 per slave, with seizure, but tol 
 erates involuntary possession. (Art. 67.) 
 
 More logical and more moral, the French law declared that it would no longer 
 recognize a Frenchman in a slaveholder. The penalty of denationalization has 
 been maintained against the buyer or seller of slaves. 
 
 But, taking into consideration the embarrassing position of Frenchmen, num 
 bering, it is said, about 20,000, settled in a slave country, and often subjected 
 by the decree to the alternative of impracticable emancipation, a loss without 
 
128 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 This solemn declaration has been repeated by the Sena- 
 tus Consultum, May 3, 1854, an act which is the constitu 
 tion of the colonies, and the framing of which was confided 
 to the Senate by Article 21 of the Constitution of 1852. 
 
 By the terms of this Senatus Consultum, the Senate and 
 the Emperor, in a Council of State, share the legislative 
 power of the colonies. The latter send to France three sal 
 aried delegates, who compose, with four members appointed 
 by the government, a committee,* presided over by the Min 
 ister of the Marine, and purely consultative. General Coun 
 cils assist the Governors in the establishment of taxes and 
 the use of revenues, and have power to emit suffrages, like 
 the General Councils of our departments. 
 
 The Governors exercise ordinary and extraordinary pow 
 ers, under the direct authority of the Minister of the Ma 
 rine. There is no longer a Colonial Council. There are 
 no longer deputies. There is no longer a military com 
 mandant. 
 
 In short, the colonies are ruled on the one hand by the 
 great ordinances of the Restoration, and on the other by 
 the Senatus Consultum of 1854.f The same administration 
 as before 1830, and a more concentrated power than after 
 wards, such is the result of these political revolutions. 
 
 indemnity, and the forfeiture of the title of Frenchmen, the Legislative As 
 sembly accorded ten years for emancipation. 
 
 This delay was on the point of expiring, when another statute, May, 185S, 
 definitively excepted from the application of the decree of 1848, French slave 
 owners whose possession had been anterior to this decree, or had resulted from 
 inheritance, donation, or marriage. 
 
 Thus a Frenchman may hold slaves in a foreign country, but can neither buy 
 nor sell them, a singular arrangement, as impracticable as Art. 8 of the 
 decree of 1848, but much less moral. The absolute principle hampered the 
 practice, neither more nor less, and did more honor to the French law. 
 
 * Decree of July 29, 1854. 
 
 t Other laws have been especially designed to extend to the colonies the 
 civil state, the Code of Commerce, the civil legislature, and the civil and crim 
 inal procedure of the mother country. ( Statutes of Dec. 6 and 7, 1850, decrees 
 of Jan. 22, 1852, Jan. 15. 1853. etc.) 
 
LAWS. 129 
 
 As to the social revolution which set free the slaves, what 
 exceptional or new laws has it exacted ? None ! Of the 
 preparatory laws of the Monarchy of July, the seventeen 
 decrees of the Republic of February, the measures prepared 
 by the Commission of 1840, the plans elaborated by the 
 Commission of 1849, nothing remains. 
 
 We may be permitted to deplore the unfruitfulness of so 
 much pains ; from the special stand-point I occupy, I can 
 not complain of it. 
 
 For it had been thought that the so-much-dreaded act of 
 the abolition of slavery could not be accomplished without 
 a complete alteration of the laws, without being pre 
 ceded, accompanied, and followed by infinite precautions, 
 combinations, and guaranties, prepared with consummate 
 art and multiplied cares ; events have taken it upon them 
 selves to annul or to crush all legislative measures, and 
 things have happened, through a thousand vicissitudes, in 
 a manner to prove that a single and only law was neces 
 sary, the law thus couch%d : Slavery is abolished. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MILITAEY FORCE. 
 
 RESPECT for the laws is a sentiment belonging to civilized 
 communities ; the fear offeree is the only curb of imperfect 
 ly developed nations. We readily conceive, therefore, that 
 the government would not have sent laws to the newly 
 freed men which they would not have understood, but sup 
 pose that it sent them gendarmes instead. Emancipation 
 has ffbt exacted exceptional laws, but perhaps it has ex 
 acted the use of exceptional force, perhaps security is only 
 the fragile result of continued intimidation. 
 
 In the report of 1840, to whish it is necessary constantly 
 to revert, M. de Broglie inquires what force would be de 
 manded for the maintenance of order in each colony when 
 emancipation should be proclaimed, after a slow prepara 
 tion ; he had no doubt that this great event would necessi 
 tate the increase of the garrisons. What would he have 
 demanded, then, could he have foreseen that it would be the 
 immediate result of a revolution ? 
 
 Let us compare the effective force of the garrisons in 
 1840 with that which figures in the budget of 1861.* 
 At Martinico, there were, in 1840, 3,026 men, viz. : 
 Troops of the line ....... 2,512 
 
 Gendarmes ........ 143 
 
 Workmen 366 
 
 Total . . . 3,026 
 
 * These figures do" not include the garrisons of ports, the sanitary service, 
 and the militia. 
 
MILITARY FORCE. 131 
 
 The Commission demanded : * 
 
 500 gendarmes, 
 
 500 mountain chasseurs. 
 
 In 1860, the garrison was only 1,384 men,f viz. : - 
 8 companies of infantry, 115 men each, and their staff 964 
 Mounted gendarmes . . . . . . .142 
 
 Gendarmes on foot ....... 24 
 
 2 companies of artillery 204 
 
 Workmen 50 
 
 Total 1,384 
 
 At Guadaloupe, there were, in 1840, 2,912 men, viz. : 
 
 1 regiment of infantry 2,512 
 
 1 company of gendarmery . . . . . 148 
 
 2 companies, artillery and workmen . . . . 252 
 
 Total 2,912 
 
 The Commission J demanded a foot company of gen 
 darmes, and a third company of artillery. 
 
 The budget of 1861 establishes the effective force at 
 1,384 men, as at Martinico, viz. : 
 
 Line ... .* 964 
 
 Gendarmes 166 
 
 Artillery and workmen ...... 254 
 
 Total 1,384 
 
 To which are added 150 native troops. 
 
 At Guiana, there were, in 1840, 985 men, viz. : 
 
 1 battalion of infantry and one black company . .868 
 -| company of artillery and workmen . . . 67 
 
 ^ company of gendarmery . . . . . .50 
 
 Total . . . . . . . 985 
 The Commission of 1840 found this garrison, recently 
 augmented, sufficient. 
 
 * F. 78. t Budget, p. 106. f Report,^. 76. Budget, p. 111. 
 
132 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 In 1860, the garrison, including that of the penitentiary, 
 which holds 4,000 convicts, was 1,121 men, viz. : 
 
 Infantry and negroes 868 
 
 Artillery 76 
 
 Gendarmes . . 177 
 
 Total 1,121 
 
 At Bourbon, the garrison, in 1840, was 1,T19 men, 
 viz. : 
 
 12 companies of infantry . . . . . .1,412 
 
 1| companies of artillery . . . . 156 
 
 ^ company of workmen . . . . . . 51 
 
 1 company of mounted gendarmes .... 100 
 
 Total 1,719 
 
 The Commission was also satisfied with this garrison, 
 doubled in the preceding two years. 
 In 1860, it was composed only of 691 men, viz. : 
 
 4 companies of infantry ...... 480 
 
 1 company of artillery . . . . . . 71 
 
 1 detachment of workmen . . . . . .34 
 
 Gendarmes ........ 106 
 
 Total 691 
 
 M. de Broglie, in estimating at 3,328,000 francs the first 
 expense necessary to this augmentation of the armed force, 
 adds these significant words * : 
 
 " This sum does not constitute an expense suited to 
 emancipation ; it is necessary to augment the armed force 
 in any hypothesis ; the maintenance of slavery will hence 
 forth exact at least as many precautions as the establish 
 ment of freedom." 
 
 He was right. 8,642 soldiers were not sufficient to guard 
 249,408 slaves, dispersed among 120,472 masters or freed- 
 men. 4,791 soldiers hold in peace 400,000 freemen. 
 
 * Report, p. 79. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COUKTS OF JUSTICE. 
 
 IF the law be not exceptional, if the force be not aug 
 mented, perhaps repression has been exorbitant, and we 
 .shall find in the severity of the tribunals the explanation 
 of the peace. 
 
 The organization of the courts of justice, which inspired so 
 much distrust in the friends of liberty before 1848,* and so 
 much uneasiness in the friends of order after 1848, has been 
 modified only by the decrees of August 9 arid 16, 1854. 
 
 The justices of the peace, whose increase was foreseen 
 and solicited by the Commission of 1840, in view of the 
 numerous difficulties of detail which emancipation would 
 excite and bring before their conciliating and prompt au 
 thority, the justices of the peace have been scarcely 
 increased in number. 
 
 There were at Martinico 4 justices of the peace for 26 
 communes ;f the Commission demanded 26 ; J in the budget 
 of 1861, 8 are found. 
 
 At Guadaloupe, 6 justices of the peace for 24 communes, 
 in 1840 ; the Commission proposed 24 ; there are 10. 
 
 At Guiana, 3 for 14 communes ; the Commission demanded 
 14 ; there are 7. 
 
 At Bourbon, 6 for 14 communes ; the Commission de 
 manded 14 ; there are 8. 
 
 * See Schoelcher, 1847, Tom. II. p. 146. 
 
 t See theproces-verbaux of the Commission of 1849, Part II. Report of M. 
 Isambert, p. 292, and Discussions. 
 
 | Report, pp. 84, 85. Budget, p. 64. 
 
134 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Have these 33 tribunals of peace, the 16 tribunals of first 
 instance, and the 4 Courts of Appeals been more busy in 
 condemning since 1848 than before it? 
 
 This is somewhat difficult to ascertain, as the Marine 
 Department published in 1845 and 1846 the report of the 
 administration of colonial justice for the years 1837, 1838, 
 and 1839 ; in 1855 it published the reports for 1850, 1851, 
 and 1852 ; but the blank from 1839 to 1849 has not been 
 filled up, and since 1852 no report has been published. 
 
 Nevertheless, the comparison between the years 1837 - 
 1839 and 1850 - 1852 is not without interest ; perhaps even 
 the parallel between the years nearer and more distant from* 
 emancipation would be less instructive. In fact, 1846 and 
 1847 were signalized by suits in which the partiality of the 
 magistrates towards the masters was signalized as scan 
 dalous, even in the Chambers. " I am ashamed to say," 
 exclaimed M. Jules de Lasteyrie, in the meeting of May 7, 
 1847, " that there is no wish to suppress crime in the colo 
 nies."* 
 
 M. Ternaux-Compans added : " The Minister spends his 
 life in hoping and regretting. He always hopes that some 
 one will execute his orders, then comes to tell us that he 
 regrets that they have not been executed." 
 
 " We are assured," said M. Dupin a few days before, 
 "that care will be taken that it shall be different, if such 
 facts happen again. Are none but second offences pun 
 ished, then, in the colonies ? The report declares that jus 
 tice is incomplete in the colonies. Where there is not com 
 plete justice, there is no justice." The Court of Cassation 
 admitted thirteen appeals at once against thirty decisions 
 of the Colonial Courts, on questions of emancipation, April 
 27, 1847. The Chamber of Deputies refused the appropria 
 tion demanded to increase the personnel of the public Min 
 istry, May 7, 1847. M. Guizot, Minister of the Marine pro 
 
 * Report on the Administration of Colonial Justice, 1855, p 6. 
 
COURTS OF JUSTICE. 135 
 
 tern., presented a bill of reform in the composition of the 
 Colonial Courts of Assizes, May 21, 1847. 
 
 It will be understood, therefore, that we do not wish to 
 take as a standard of comparison years wherein justice de 
 served such reproaches. 
 
 On the other hand, 1848 and 1849 were probably too much 
 or too little repressive ; too much, where the courts were 
 disorganized or intimidated ; too little, where they were 
 forced to intimidate in turn, by making examples or by 
 giving place to councils of war. 
 
 There are, in short, good reasons, therefore, for being 
 contented with the published documents, and comparing 
 regular years, like 1837-1839, with the years 1850-1853, 
 which may be regarded as the beginning of the normal ex 
 istence of the new society. 
 
 We will endeavor to answer these two questions : - 
 
 1. Is colonial society afflicted by more crimes and mis 
 demeanors since the abolition of slavery than before it ? 
 
 2. Is colonial society dishonored by more crimes and mis 
 demeanors than French society ? 
 
 I. It must be remembered, that before 1848 the misde 
 meanors of the slaves were rarely carried before the courts ; 
 each plantation had its penal law, its judge, and its execu 
 tioners. One thing was lacking in these tribunals, judging 
 with closed doors, the defence. Ordinances intervened to 
 mitigate the application of the lash and other corporal pun 
 ishments, but did not suppress them. The lash was the last 
 article in that odious series of self-evident axioms which 
 was, as it were, the second credo of all slaveholders, even 
 the best, sugar is necessary to man, the slave to sugar, 
 the lash to the slave. 
 
 We must expect, therefore, to see an enormous increase 
 in the number of crimes carried before the courts, and of 
 which they were not before cognizant. 
 
 Distrust, fears, and rancors must also, during the first 
 
136 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 years, have inevitably increased this number, especially 
 that of complaints, official reports, and denunciations, which 
 must be carefully distinguished from the number of condem 
 nations. 
 
 In fact, the number of complaints in 1837 - 1839 was 
 8,099. 
 
 We have the statistics for 1845-1847 ; in these years of 
 feeble repression, it was 12,000. 
 
 In 1850-1852 it amounted to 14,m. 
 
 The number of indictments likewise rose from 1 in 249 
 inhabitants to 1 in 186. 
 
 But, of 14,000 cases, more than half, about 7,000, were 
 classed by the parquets as not giving rise to prosecutions, 
 either because the facts were not serious enough or not 
 sufficiently proved, because they constituted neither crime 
 nor offence, or because the criminals remained unknown.* 
 
 Of less than 4,000 cases brought in the three years before 
 the Chambers of Indictment, there were nearly 800 decisions 
 of non-jurisdiction, or about 20 per cent ; a high figure, yet 
 inferior to that of 1837-1839, which had been 40 per cent. 
 
 1682 cases were referred to the Court of Misdemeanors ; 
 1427 only were brought before the Court of Assizes, which 
 thus received exactly one tenth of the complaints and de 
 nunciations. 
 
 Among the crimes prosecuted are found fraudulent bank 
 ruptcies, forgeries, embezzlement of the public funds, coun 
 terfeiting of money, corruption of officials, numerous rapes 
 and attempted violations, crimes which evidently are not 
 all imputable to the former slaves, and armed assaults, 
 rebellion, etc., which were the result of political troubles. 
 
 But what is characteristic is the proportion of the number 
 of crimes against the person, compared with that of crimes 
 against property. 
 
 In 1837-1839, 47 per cent of the indictments were for 
 
 * Report, pp. 22, 23. 
 
COURTS OF JUSTICE. 137 
 
 crimes against the person ; in 1850-1852, there were but 21 
 per cent. In the first period, on the contrary, but 53 per 
 cent of the indictments were for crimes against property, 
 which rose to 79 per cent in the second ; and almost all of 
 these crimee were thefts. Thus there was less hatred, less 
 revenge, after than during slavery, a great result, 
 while there were more thefts, at least more prosecutions for 
 theft ; for every one knows how frequent were larcenies 
 under the system of slavery, but the lash took satisfaction 
 for them. Theft is not a result of emancipation ; it is a 
 habit acquired in slavery. When one has nothing of his 
 own, he must necessarily take that which is another s. 
 One only respects property when he has the enjoyment or 
 hope of it. The privation of freedom makes murderers ; 
 the privation of property makes thieves. 
 
 The increase in the number of indictments of all kinds/ 
 says the Minister in his report, " arises from the fact that a 
 host of misdeeds which, before the abolition of slavery, 
 found, for the most part, disciplinary and purely arbitrary 
 repression within the plantations, have since come before 
 
 the Courts of Assizes Almost all of these are thefts 
 
 committed by the former slaves This frequency of 
 
 theft needs to be repressed ; yet the penal legislation should 
 be mitigated,* for it is due to justice and humanity not to 
 apply too severe penalties to deeds which lose their gravity 
 by reason of the backward state of morality of the social 
 class to which the delinquents belong." f 
 
 Another grievance against slavery, not only had it en 
 couraged theft, but it had not moralized the slave. Despite 
 so many fine promises and wise regulations, instruction 
 went on diminishing from day to day. In 1837-1839, 75 
 per cent of the accused could not read ; in 1850-1852, 90 
 per cent. 
 
 * This took place at Guiana, by a decree, Aug. 16, 1854. 
 f Report, p. 26. 
 
138 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Of 2,000 accused, about one fourth were acquitted, and, 
 of the 1,500 found guilty, more than 1,000 were sentenced 
 only to penalties for misdemeanor. 
 
 The number of cases carried before the Courts of Misde 
 meanor, police courts, and justices of the peace, increased 
 in a larger proportion than that of cases brought before the 
 Court of Assizes. " This increase," says the Minister,* 
 " arises, as with crimes, from the twofold circumstance, 
 that, on one hand, the measure of emancipation was in the 
 beginning the occasion of excesses appearing in the form 
 of vagrancy or misdemeanors, to those to whom it was ap 
 plied, and, on the other, the cognizance of these deeds, 
 which, before emancipation, belonged to the disciplinary 
 power of the plantation, has since been necessarily brought 
 within the ordinary penal jurisdiction." 
 
 It must be added, that the statute on vagrancy, and the 
 local laws on livrets,^ disciplinary works, etc., have given 
 rise to a host of special misdemeanors, unknown during the 
 period of 183T-1839. 
 
 In short, since 1852, the reports of the criminal courts 
 establish, that, if the number of prosecutions has increased, 
 it is rather on account of the suppression of the lash than 
 of tlje increase of crimes and misdemeanors ; there is more 
 theft, but the courts are less surprised at it than at the ig 
 norance in which the masters had left their slaves ; there is 
 less murder, arid freedom has disarmed vengeance. 
 
 The first effervescence of emancipation turned many heads, 
 but they are now calmed again ; there is not one second 
 offence in a hundred among crimes, not even one in a hun 
 dred among misdemeanors. J 
 
 * Report, p. 24. 
 
 t Small books, carried by the workmen, containing an ordinary passport, 
 with the date of entering and leaving the places where they work, and subject 
 to the inspection of the police. 
 
 f Report, p. 34. 
 
COURTS OF JUSTICE. 139 
 
 In the nomenclature of crimes and misdemeanors, there 
 is not a single coalition to raise wages. 
 
 In the nomenclature of commercial cases, there are one, 
 two, or three bankruptcies a year in each colony. 
 
 I repeat that the statistics since 1852 have not been pub 
 lished. Statements are contained in the reports or opening 
 addresses of the Procureurs-General. These documents 
 comprise useful information, but such as we must despair 
 of presenting in a methodical manner ; they are not drawn 
 up in a uniform style, neither do they all embrace the same 
 periods. Moreover, since 1854, the law has extended the 
 competence of courts of the first instance and justices of 
 the peace. From this result changes in figures which do 
 not correspond to changes in facts. 
 
 It was at this time, too, that immigration commenced in 
 the Antilles. Now all admit that the presence of immigrants 
 has increased crimes, especially murders, in a deplorable 
 manner. 
 
 However this may be, I read in the reports of the Isle of 
 Bourbon, that the gendarmery effected 1,868 arrests in 1854, 
 1,782 only in 1859 ; and of this number official reports 
 point out : 
 
 In 1854, 579 vagrants; 635 in 1856. 
 
 " 290 without livrets; 124 " 
 
 " 5 refusing to labor ; 34 " 
 
 These figures, which are nearly the same, are not, assur 
 edly, excessive. 
 
 At Guadaloupe, I read*in the reports of 1853-1856, that 
 the number of complaints diminished until 1854, then in 
 creased, then diminished anew ; that crimes against prop 
 erty increased ; that crimes against the person diminished ; 
 that the number of civil and commercial suits increased, 
 a progress which attests the resumption of activity. At 
 Martinico, the same facts are more methodically presented. 
 
140 
 
 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Justices Courts. 
 
 Courts of the First Instance. 
 
 Number of Complaints. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Cases. 
 
 Civil Suits. 
 
 Commercial 
 Suits. 
 
 Court of 
 
 Assizes. 
 
 Tribunals. 
 
 1852 
 
 1486 
 
 999 
 
 267 
 
 755 
 
 1206 
 
 1853 
 
 1692 
 
 780 
 
 467 
 
 653 
 
 1046 
 
 1854 
 
 2294 
 
 895 
 
 473 
 
 529 
 
 1169 
 
 1855 
 
 3446 
 
 736 
 
 503 
 
 241 
 
 1470 
 
 1856 
 
 2771 
 
 687 
 
 419 
 
 203 
 
 1442 
 
 1857 
 
 2227 
 
 559 
 
 464 
 
 188 
 
 1424 
 
 Years 
 
 Crimes sentenced by the Court of Assizes. 
 
 
 Against the Person. 
 
 Against Property. 
 
 1852 
 
 31 
 
 87 
 
 1853 
 
 21 
 
 87 
 
 1854 
 
 29 
 
 89 
 
 1855 
 
 30 
 
 88 
 
 1856 
 
 21 
 
 75 
 
 1857 
 
 27* 
 
 69 
 
 Always the same result, diminution till 1854 ; then, in 
 consequence of a more lively impulse given to prosecutions, 
 a change of cognizances, and the presence of immigrants, 
 increase till 1854, attaining its maximum in 1855, then dimi 
 nution. 
 
 Always an enormous excess of crime against property 
 over crime against the person, always an enormous propor 
 tion of illiterate criminals, nine tenths at Guadaloupe, four 
 fifths at Martinico, and among women, the whole. 
 
 II. If now, making use only of the figures published offi 
 cially in 1855, we compare them with the figures of the last 
 General Statistics of Criminality in France for 1856, we ascer 
 tain that theft is not a misdemeanor reserved to the colonies. 
 In France, from 1826 to 1850, the number of qualified thefts, 
 thanks to the indulgence of the magistrates, diminished, but 
 that of simple thefts tripled. Theft grows with the progress 
 of wealth and covetousness, and decreases with the pro- 
 
COURTS OF JUSTICE. 141 
 
 gress of morality and instruction. The crimes against the 
 person brought before the Court of Assizes in France in 
 creased 31 per cent, while the population increased only 12 
 per cent ; the crimes against property diminished 16 per 
 cent, inversely to the colonies. Arsons and attempts at 
 violation increased more than in the colonies. There was 
 1 prisoner held for misdemeanor in 171 inhabitants ; in the 
 colonies, only 1 in 186. 
 
 But in the colonies, 90 per cent of the accused were 
 illiterate ; in France, 55 per cent only. 
 
 In short, if emancipation has increased the number of 
 misdemeanors and crimes, it is rather in appearance than in 
 reality, and because the regular course of justice has taken 
 the place of repression ; but even the number revealed by 
 the statistics goes on decreasing or remains nearly station 
 ary ; it is proportionally inferior to that of misdemeanors 
 and crimes in France, and colonial society, on the mor 
 row of an unheard-of transformation, which has set at 
 liberty propensities, revenges, and cupidities, sleeps more 
 tranquilly than the civilized population of the mother 
 country. 
 
 The crimes still committed are individual faults ; slavery 
 was a social crime. The latter, at least, exists no longer. 
 
 It is difficult to dispute what passes in the streets in broad 
 daylight. It will therefore be willingly admitted, I hope, 
 that freedom is not responsible for the disorders of 1848 and 
 1849, and that since this time it has exacted, for the main 
 tenance of tranquillity in the colonies, no exceptional law, 
 no extraordinary force, no abnormal repression. 
 
 Yes, reply the colonists, we are not massacred, but we 
 are ruined. The negroes do not pillage us, but they do not 
 work. We have been able to save ourselves only by in 
 demnity, a large reduction of duty on sugars, coffees, &c., 
 and a costly immigration, and, despite these measures, our 
 
142 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 ancient prosperity has forever vanished ; we are afflicted by 
 continual crises ; we lack capital, labor, and credit. 
 We will take up each one of these points : 
 
 1. Indemnity; 
 
 2. Production and commerce ; 
 
 3. The question of sugars ; 
 
 4. Labor and immigration. 
 
CHAPTE R IX. 
 
 INDEMNITY. 
 
 To hear the colonists who demanded indemnity, they 
 were expropriated ; they should have been paid, not only 
 the value of their property, but a sum for the damage 
 caused the property of the soil by this dispossession of 
 implements. If these pretensions had been listened to, it 
 would have been necessary to repurchase the colonies in full. 
 
 But the slave is not property, and it is precisely for this 
 that he is freed ; emancipation is not the deprivation of the 
 right of property, it is the negation of it. 
 
 If we carried out these principles to their extent, it is to 
 the slave that indemnity would be due, as he has been de 
 prived violently of the fruit of his labor. The slave-trade 
 having been abolished by law in 1848, it would only have 
 been necessary to institute a strict search into the origin of 
 all the slaves held in 1848,* to declare a great number of the 
 masters in the very act of criminal possession. 
 
 This pretended property does not rest on the principles 
 of veritable property ; neither has it the essential character 
 istics thereof. The right of property is absolute, perpetual, 
 indefinite, incommutable ; the possession of slaves implies 
 duties, conditions, variations, no guaranty of duration. f 
 
 In fine, veritable property is founded on natural right. 
 The work of the law, slavery may be destroyed %y the law. 
 The government of Denmark, when it proclaimed emancipa- 
 
 * This proposition was made in the Commission of 1848. Proces-verbaux, 
 p. 65. 
 t Report of M. de Broglie, pp. 263 - 265. 
 
144 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 tion, set out from the principle that every state has a right 
 to modify the conditions which it imposes on commerce, 
 arts, and manufactures, and even the conditions of property, 
 when they are not in harmony with morality and the gen 
 eral good.* Without going so far as to apply this doctrine 
 to the right of property, since it is anterior and superior to 
 the law, it is just to extend it to exceptional kinds of prop 
 erty, which are the work of the law, as charges and offices, 
 monopolies resulting from a tariff, in fine, as slavery, a 
 strange fiction which the state has created, an exorbitant 
 favor which the state has conceded.")" This fiction, this fa 
 vor, it has the power to destroy, since it has made them ; 
 it has the right, since it has the duty. 
 
 The right to indemnity, therefore, is in no wise of the 
 same order as the right to freedom ; the second is claimed 
 by nature, the first is sustained only by considerations of 
 equity. 
 
 If slavery be not a legitimate fact, it is at least a legal fact. 
 The law has known, authorized, encouraged it. The pos 
 sessor is such in good faith, his error has been caused by 
 the error of the legislator, arid this double error has en 
 dured two hundred years. The commerce of the mother 
 country encouraged this baleful institution because it prof 
 ited by it. Subsequently, the treasury favored indigenous 
 sugar, because it profited by it also. France had thus been 
 an accomplice in different ways, both in the faults of the 
 colonies and in their ruin. It was equitable that it should 
 indemnify them. 
 
 Furthermore, this was useful, and before all useful to the 
 interests of the slaves. Freedom would be misery to them, 
 if on the morrow the ruined colonists could not pay them 
 their wages. Indemnity is a subsidy to free labor, it is an 
 advance of wages. 
 
 * Despatch of the French Minister at Copenhagen, Aug. 27, 1847, cited in 
 the proccs-verbaux of the Commission of 1848, p. 136. 
 t Report of M. de Kroglie, p. 273. 
 
INDEMNITY. 145 
 
 From this stand-point, which is the true one, it was im 
 portant that the indemnity should be both prompt and large ; 
 it obtained neither f^omptness nor generosity. 
 
 Article 5 of the decree of April 27, 1848, left to the Na 
 tional Assembly the care of regulating the quota of the 
 indemnity. 
 
 All the colonists heard by the Commission of 1848 had 
 demanded a delay before emancipation, in order to be able 
 to gather in the crops and to take precautionary meas 
 ures, and no delay before indemnity, in order that wages 
 might serve as the immediate attraction to free labor, and 
 that aid might be secured to children and the infirm.* They 
 reminded the Commission that it had been possible to main 
 tain labor in the English colonies because indemnity had 
 preceded emancipation.f They added, that the negro would 
 distrust his freedom, so long as his former master were not 
 indemnified, and that he would thus be impelled to go far 
 from the plantations. 
 
 The Commission presided over by M. de BroglieJ pro 
 posed a delay of ten years, during which the interest of the 
 indemnity would be received by the consignment fund for 
 the benefit of the colonists, but not by themselves individu 
 ally, their rights being only certain and liquidated at the 
 moment of emancipation. 
 
 The Commission of 1848 dared not impose on the Republic 
 a burden before which the Monarchy had recoiled. Eman 
 cipation, therefore, came to the colonies without indemnity. 
 This suffices to exonerate emancipation from all the calami 
 ties of the first moments ; labor was disorganized, not only 
 on account of the absence of servitude, but on account of 
 the absence of wages ; not only because the hands of the 
 former slave were free, but because the hands of the former 
 master were empty. 
 
 * Opinion of M Froidefonds, p. 31. 
 
 t Opinion of M. Pf coul, p. 24. . J Report, p. 279. 
 
146 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 The indemnity was accorded, but more than a year after 
 wards, by the statute of April 30, 1849. 
 
 If the indemnity was not prompt, wflfe it at least large ? 
 By no means. . 
 
 The commission of 1840 * had calculated the indemnity 
 according to the market value of the negroes, and this 
 value according to the average rate of sale in each colony 
 during a period of ten years, chosen during prosperity, in 
 an epoch when emancipation was not talked of (1825-1834). 
 This labor gave as its result : 
 
 At Guadaloupe, an average of 1,102 francs 43 centimes 
 per head for slaves of all sexes and ages ; 
 
 At Martinico, 1,200 francs ; 
 
 At Guiana, 1,361 francs 99 centimes ; 
 
 At Bourbon, 1,600 francs. 
 
 The Commission fixed on the general average of 1,200 
 francs, f which, multiplied by 250,000, the number of slaves, 
 produced a sum total of 300,000,000 francs, to be distrib 
 uted, half, or 150,000,000, in money, and half in a guaranty 
 of labor for ten years. 
 
 Before the Provisional Government, M. Cremieux and M. 
 de Lamartine demanded 150,000,000 francs. The most en 
 lightened among the colonists asked 7,500,000 in three per 
 cents. J But the government proposed only 90,000,000. It 
 was calculated that, the wages of the freedmen being 75 
 centimes, and representing double the amount that the slave 
 would cost, the half of 75, or 37 centimes, was the differ 
 ence between the price of free and of servile labor ; this 
 figure, 37 centimes, was multiplied by the number of able- 
 bodied slaves, computed at 198,000 ; and this figure, multi 
 plied in turn by the number of working days, 250, for five 
 years, produced a total of 91,575,000 francs, or, in round 
 
 * Report, p. 275. 
 
 | In England, 1,400 francs; but this did not include children under six years 
 of age, who were declared free without indemnity. 
 
 f Opinion of M. Reiset, Commission of 1848. Proces-verbaux, p. 71. 
 
INDEMNITY. 147 
 
 numbers, 90,000,000. The Commission, taking 1,085 francs 
 as the average value, and reducing the number of slaves 20 
 per cent, arrived at 214,000,000 ; but, considering that a 
 relative indemnity only was in question, it reduced the pro 
 posed sum to 120,000,000. This it proposed to divide into 
 80,000,000 capital, and 2,000,000 a year, payable in ten 
 years.* The government obstinately refused to add any 
 new indebtedness to the finances. This mode prevailed, 
 notwithstanding, and by the terms of the law passed April 
 30, 1849, ( the indemnity was fixed as follows : 
 
 1. 6,000,000 francs in five per cent government stocks. 
 
 2. A sum of 6,000,000 francs payable in cash thirty days 
 after the decree. 
 
 The apportionment among the colonies was based on the 
 figure of the slave population, viz. : J 
 
 Number of Slaves. Indemnity. 
 
 fr. c. 
 
 Martinico .... 74,447 1,507,885 80 
 
 Guadaloupe .... 87,087 1,947,164 85 
 
 Guiana 12,525 372,571 88 
 
 Bourbon .... 60,651 2,055,200 25 
 
 ( 9,800 slaves > 
 
 Sene S al 1 550 bound laborers I 10 380 105 > 503 41 
 
 Nossi-be, St. Mary . . 3,500 11,673 81 
 
 248,560 6,000,000 00 
 
 The very incomplete statute of 1849 did not determine, 
 as had been done by the statutes on the indemnity of the 
 emigrants and colonists of St. Domingo, whether the in 
 demnity should be considered as real estate or personal prop 
 erty, and reserved to mortgage creditors, or distributed be 
 tween the latter and the ordinary creditors ; a vexatious 
 omission, which occasioned innumerable suits, and caused 
 a great part of the indemnity to pass, not into the hands 
 of the newly hired laborers, the true end to be attained, 
 
 * 20 per cent was deducted for children and old people. 
 t Report of M Cre"mieux, Sept. 30, 1848. 
 t Report of M. Crdmieux, Jan. 15, 1849. 
 
148 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 but to the seaports of the mother country, where the col 
 onists owed an enormous commercial debt. The same 
 statute omitted to regulate the sub-apportionment in each 
 colony, the mode of payment, and the proofs to be ex 
 acted, and a new statute was necessary, November 15, 
 1849, followed by a decree on the 24th of the same month, 
 to fix all these important points.* 
 
 A special commission instituted in each colony pro 
 nounced on claims, without excluding recourse to the Privy 
 Council, arid the certificates delivered were, except in case 
 of attachments, transformed, through the agency estab 
 lished by the colonial ministry, into government stocks. 
 The work proceeded very regularly, and is now terminated, 
 save as to a few indemnities in litigation. The government 
 bonds date from 1852. We cannot help remembering that 
 by the conditions of the report of M. de Broglie, the pay 
 ment of the indemnity was to commence in 1843 and to be 
 ended in 1853, at which date slavery was to cease. The 
 opposition of the colonies has resulted, therefore, only in 
 causing them to receive a speedier emancipation, and a 
 longer deferred, but above all smaller indemnity. 
 
 The colonists, in short, received only about 500 francs per 
 slave. This indemnity was really insufficient. The calcu 
 lation made by the government would have been a better 
 basis, if it had been possible exactly to estimate the differ 
 ence in price between free labor and slave labor. But what 
 did slave labor cost ? What would free labor cost ? Noth 
 ing was known about it ; the formula was ingenious, the ele 
 ments of the calculation were purely hypothetical. 
 
 The Commission of 1840 estimated the market value at 
 1,200 francs, that of 1848 at 1,085 francs. The first, by a 
 subtlety difficult to understand or explain, made a reduc 
 tion of one half, giving half in money and half in labor ; a 
 
 * Report of M. Bdhic to the Council of State; Report of M. Fourtanier to 
 the Legislative Assembly, Nov. 10, 1849. ^ 
 
INDEMNITY. 149 
 
 strange and contradictory system ; for the Commission de 
 clared that the indemnity was not a true repurchase, yet 
 notwithstanding attributed to the state, for each fraction 
 paid, a right over the person and labor of the slave ; the 
 state denied the right of property, became co-proprietor, 
 and forced payment for its right. 
 
 The second Commission, the procedure of which is still 
 less comprehensible, changed the market value after having 
 established it, and, by a purely arbitrary reduction, instead 
 of 1,085 francs, estimated it at 500 francs. It would have 
 been better to be logical, and, since it was proved that the 
 former slaves, still more than their masters, had need that a 
 large indemnity should be paid, since there was an oppor 
 tunity, at the same time, to revive the colonies, so crushed 
 by the rivalry of indigenous sugar, not to haggle about 
 this indemnity. We spend 500,000,000 for a war that 
 slays 50,000 men, we dared not spend 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 
 to free 250,000 men, and to save the colonies at once from 
 shame and ruin. 
 
 Did this meagre indemnity serve, at least in great part, to 
 pay the expenses of free labor ? 
 
 By the terms of Article 1 of the statute of April SO, 1849, 
 one eighth was deducted from the indemnity of all the colo 
 nists of Guadaloupe, Martinico, and Bourbon, except those 
 who had received less than 1,000 francs, to serve for the 
 establishment of loan and discount offices. 
 
 This deduction was truly in conformity to the spirit of the 
 law, which considered the indemnity as a subsidy to labor. 
 Some even proposed to leave it as a common loan fund for 
 the colonists, without apportioning it among them.* 
 
 But what became of the rest of the indemnity ? The 
 major part passed into the hands of creditors of all kinds, 
 and not into those of the laborers. 
 
 We may say, therefore, that the indemnity was not 
 
 * Proccs-verbmuc of the Commission of 1848. 
 
150 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 prompt enough, not large enough, and that it failed in its 
 end. Doubtless it served to liquidate propert}^ and conse 
 quently to revive credit ; but it assuaged the past, it did 
 not pave the way for the future. 
 
 Prompter, it would have averted in part the crisis of 
 labor ; larger, it would have permitted a less distressing 
 liquidation ; reserved to the mortgage creditors alone, it 
 would have directly fed agriculture. 
 
 In this point, as in many others, we come again to the 
 same conclusion : 
 
 If emancipation has been followed by some evils, let not 
 the blame be cast on it, but on the unskilfulness, the slow 
 ness, or the insufficiency of the measures which might have 
 averted these evils. 
 
 Let it not be said that the colonies have been unable to 
 reanimate labor, despite indemnity ; for the indemnity has 
 served creditors more than laborers, debts more than wages. 
 
 This is the proper place to devote a few words to the in 
 fluence of the emancipation of the slaves upon the budget 
 of the state. 
 
 The emancipation of the slaves had one grave objection 
 in the eyes of the financiers of the ancient Chambers, 
 it would cost dear. The Due de Broglie had, so to say, 
 made the estimate. 
 
 Indemnity to the proprietors for 249,508 slaves, at 
 
 1,200 fr. each,* 300,000,000 fr. 
 
 First expenses,! 8,000,000 
 
 * Report, p. 276. 
 
 t Ibid. p. 129. Armed force 3,326,000 fr. 
 
 Tribunals Memorial 
 
 Prisons 1,620,000 
 
 Educational institutions . . . 1,740,000 
 
 Charitable, etc. . . ... . 678,000 
 
 Religious worship . . . . . * Memorial 
 
 7,364,000 
 
INDEMNITY. 151 
 
 Annual expense * -. . . . .i . . . . . 2,718,500 
 
 They recoiled before so costly a good deed. 
 
 Now the indemnity has cost the treasury but 126,000,000, 
 and a part of this has served to form the capital of the 
 colonial banks. 
 
 There have been no first expenses. The annual expenses, 
 far from increasing, have diminished. 
 
 If we compare, in fact, the accounts of 1846 and 1847 
 with those of 1848 and 1849, we establish the following 
 figures. 
 
 General service and common expenses of the colonies of 
 Guadaloupe, Martinico, Bourbon, and Guiana : 
 
 1846 5,097,429 fr. 
 
 1847 6,167,309 
 
 1848 5,679,578 
 
 1849 5,289,466 
 
 As to the local service, the difference is still more sen 
 sible : 
 
 1847 6, 167,309 fr. 
 
 1848 5,679,568 f 
 
 If we compare, article by article, the accounts of 1846 
 with those of 1850, we shall see that there are a few more 
 police agents iii the towns after than before emancipation, 
 and, strangely enough, a few less in the country ; that the 
 expenses of the courts have increased, but that the ex 
 penses of jail-fees and flight have diminished ; that religious 
 worship costs somewhat more ; that subsidies to parishes 
 
 * Ibid. p. 130. Armed force 1,829,000 fr. 
 
 Tribunals 269,500 
 
 Prisons 34,000 
 
 Education 488,000 
 
 Charity . . . . . . 80,000 
 
 Religious worship ..... 18,000 
 
 2,718,500 fr. 
 f Accounts of 1848, p. 59. 
 
152 
 
 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 and hospitals have somewhat increased ; that the expenses 
 for the recovery of taxes are still the same, and that, in 
 fine, the total expense has diminished. 
 
 It is difficult to establish comparisons with the accounts 
 of subsequent years, as, since the Senatus Consultum of 
 May 3, 1854, the decree of July 31, 1855, and that of 
 September 29, 1855, the financial system of the colonies 
 has been modified. The new legislation abandons to the 
 colonies all the imposts which may be collected by them, 
 and leaves them the full disposal of their revenues,* but 
 also the burden of expenses in which the state has not a 
 direct interest. 
 
 Notwithstanding the state continues to pay for the army,- 
 the government, the courts, and religious worship, it con 
 tributes only by a subsidy to public instruction. f 
 
 Now, adding together the services retained in the state 
 budget, J we find that these civil and military services of 
 the four colonies cost, in 1846, 10,289,136 francs, and, in 
 1858, but 9,521,244 francs. 
 
 In short, apart from the indemnity, emancipation has 
 
 * The accountability has been at the same time decentralized. (See the 
 instructions of April 15, 1856.) 
 
 t Religious worship 
 Courts of justice 
 
 
 
 1846. 
 . 358,08! 
 982,601 
 . 505,161 
 
 1848. 
 2 687,973 
 J 938,976 
 ) 200,000 
 
 Guiana. Bourbon. 
 672,691 1,023,067 
 81,734 382,726 
 586,201 1,291,578 
 
 J 1846. 
 Military service, Personnel . 
 " " Material 
 Civil service 
 Total . 
 1858. 
 Civil and military service . 
 Material .... 
 Total .... 
 
 General total, 1846 
 " " 1858 
 Less difference 
 
 Martinieo. 
 1,650,235 
 545,077 
 1.512,853 
 
 Guadaloupe. 
 1,576,271 
 464,098 
 1,602,705 
 
 3,708,165 
 
 2,212,836 
 499,365 
 
 3,643,074 
 
 2,413,597 
 655,813 
 
 1,240,626 
 
 1,512,233 
 307,462 
 
 2,697,371 
 
 1,548,008 
 371,930 
 1,919,933 
 
 2,712,201 
 
 3,069,410 
 
 1,819,695 
 
 10,289,136 
 9,521,244 
 
 767,892 
 
INDEMNITY. 153 
 
 passed over the budget of the state* without leaving a 
 trace on it. 
 
 * As to the colonial budgets, mark the result, in the three principal ones, 
 of the decree of 1855, as regarded the budget of 1856.* 
 
 Martinico had 2,038.600 fr. 
 
 It had to pay 2,078,803 
 
 It lost . 40,203 fr. 
 
 Guadaloupe had 1,723,300 fr. 
 
 It had to pay. ....... 1,865,928 
 
 It lost 142,628 fr. 
 
 Bourbon had 2,240,900 fr. 
 
 It had to pay 1,959,020 
 
 It gained 281,880 fr. 
 
 The state lost 99,049 fr. 
 
 * This information is due to the able chief of accounts in the collection of the coloni-js, 
 M. Eguyer. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PRODUCTION AND COMMERCE. WAGES AND PROPERTY. 
 
 THE colonies have been ruined by emancipation. 
 
 It seems as if we had only to pass sentence on this point, 
 on which the declared partisans of the abolition of slavery 
 and its enemies are agreed. 
 
 " Public tranquillity in the colonies leaves nothing to be 
 desired/ wrote the reporter of the sugar law, M. Beugnot, 
 in 1851, " but the conditions of production are completely 
 changed."* The reporter of the sugar law in 1860, M. 
 Ancel, likewise affirms, ten years after, "the profound trou 
 ble which the suppression of slave labor, violently pro 
 claimed, had brought to add to an already calamitous situ 
 ation, "f 
 
 Are we to rely on these affirmations, passed in some sort 
 into commonplaces, and be content with repeating by way 
 of consolation, that, whatever may have been the losses 
 experienced by men enriched by slavery, freedom is a bless 
 ing worthy such a price, a reparation deserving such a 
 penance ? 
 
 No. It becomes us to penetrate into details, and to as 
 certain scrupulously the exact extent and different causes 
 of the loss of which the colonies complain. Most real and 
 most serious, nevertheless it has been neither so grave, 
 nor so absolute, nor so long, as is commonly asserted. 
 Above all, it has other causes, of longer standing, and 
 more profound than the abolition of slavery. 
 
 But how assure ourselves of this ? 
 
 * P. 63. f P. 17. 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 155 
 
 When I read the colonial journals, when I consult the 
 writings of the colonists, when I consult the memorials, 
 petitions, and bills, I hear nothing but complaints and 
 mourning. Besides, I lose myself in infinite details, in 
 contestable calculations, in contradictory opinions. To 
 what end can this difficult path conduct me ? To a picture 
 of the existing situation of the colonies, their agricul 
 tural, financial, and commercial situation. This picture will 
 never be either complete or like ; we may make a resem 
 blance in the portrait of a man, never in that of a whole 
 community. But, moreover, such a picture would not be 
 important to the special end which I propose, which is ex 
 clusively to demonstrate that the emancipation of the slaves 
 has not ruined the colonies. Now, for this, it suffices to 
 prove, first, that they are not ruined ; in the second place, 
 that the evils from which they suffer are from other causes 
 than emancipation. 
 
 To what documents can we definitely refer ? 
 
 Propounding the same questions in regard to the English 
 colonies, M. de Broglie* said well : 
 
 " In an event of this immensity, what is true in this place 
 is not in that ; what is true at one time is no longer so 
 in another ; there is room for facts of all sorts, all opinions 
 may draw thousands of examples from it in their favor, ac 
 cording to the bias of the thoughts of the observer ; what 
 strikes this one, that one fails to see, and vice versa. All 
 
 design to be impartial, each one is prejudiced at heart 
 
 There is a shorter and surer means, to place one s self on 
 an entirely neutral ground, where the basis of calculation 
 shall be as it were disinterested, the figures having been 
 neither prepared nor grouped in any determined end. 
 
 " In England, as in France, the mother country is the 
 chief market of the colonies ; it is to this market that al 
 most all of the products of colonial labor drift ; it is to this 
 
 * P. 19. 
 
156 THE FEENCH COLONIES. * 
 
 market that the colonists go to provide themselves with all 
 the articles of their consumption. Before coming in or 
 going out, the commodities pass through the custom-house, 
 and are inscribed on its registers day by day with a view to 
 true fiscal accountability. The figures extracted from these 
 statements are witnesses indifferent to any consequences 
 that may be drawn from them, and on which no one can 
 read a lecture before interrogating them." 
 
 We will follow this method, and summon these witnesses. 
 
 This interrogation is long, dry, and inevitably confused. 
 For these witnesses scarcely agree between themselves. The 
 figures of the tables of the customs, those of the tables of the 
 population, culture, commerce, and navigation of the colonies, 
 those of the quarterly statements and comparative resumes, and 
 those of the statistics of France, or other special works, are 
 not precisely the same. From this results a veritable embar 
 rassment, which it does not depend on us to surmount, and 
 which can be diminished at least by drawing always from 
 the same source. This will be by preference the series of 
 documents contained in the collection of the Revue coloniale. 
 
 We will begin with a bird s-eye view, and descend after 
 wards to details. We will first compare the total fluctuation 
 of imports arid exports united, before and after 1848, in each 
 colony, then the exports taken separately. 
 
 After values, we will examine quantities, especially the 
 quantities of sugar made or exported by each colony. Here 
 in lies the true thermometer of the progress or decline of 
 production. 
 
 We will close by some statistics concerning wages, the 
 price of lands, and net costs. 
 
 I. In the first place, what has been the general range of 
 colonial fluctuation before and since 1848 ? 
 
 If we confine ourselves to comparing the aggregate of the 
 imports and exports of the colonies in 184Y with the aggre 
 gate in 1848, the digression appears enormous. 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, JVAGES. PROPERTY. i57 
 
 1847. 1848. 
 
 Martinico . . . 41,165,012 fr. 23,366,287 fr. 
 Guadaloupe . . 41,759,713 20,854,020 
 
 Guiana . . .. . 4,501,747 3,396,720 
 
 Bourbon , . . . 28,267,698 19,676,882 
 
 Total. . . 115,694,170 fr. 67,293,909 fr. 
 
 67,293,909 
 
 Diminution . . 48,400,261 fr. 
 
 This is a diminution of nearly one half, or 41 per cent ; 
 still more, if we calculate only the production of sugar, fall 
 en from an average of 80,000,000 to 90,000,000 kilogrammes* 
 (1838 - 184T) to 63,000,000 in 1848, 57,000,000 in 1849, arid 
 40,000,000 in 1850, or 50 per cent. 
 
 But several things must be remarked : 
 1. The year 1841 was an exceptional one, exceeding the 
 preceding year by more than 5,000,000 francs. Compared 
 with 1856, the fall of the aggregate of 1848 stands : - 
 
 Martinico 37,789",353 fr. 
 
 Guadaloupe .. .... 34,627,632 
 
 Guiana 4,619,861 
 
 Bourbon 33,472,393 
 
 Total 110,509,239 fr. 
 
 1848 . . 67,293,809 
 
 43,215,430 fr. 
 or only 40 per cent. 
 
 2. Was it emancipation, or the Revolution, that caused 
 this considerable loss ? 
 
 In fact, we have seen that it was not freedom that dis 
 turbed order, which it was the sole means of restoring ; it 
 was the ballot-box that caused labor to be deserted, armed 
 parties, and stained the soil with blood. 
 
 Besides, the result produced in the colonies was produced 
 at the same moment, by the same cause, in the mother 
 country. While the production of colonial sugar fell from 
 80,000,000 to 40,00*0,000 kilog., the production of a similar 
 
 * Kilogramme = 2.2055 Ibs. avoirdupois, or nearly 2| Ibs. 
 
158 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 commodity, beet-root sugar, fell from 60,000,000 kilog. in 
 1847 to 56,000,000 in 1848, and to 44,000,000 in 1849 ; 27 
 per cent, or nearly one third. 
 
 The total loss of the external commerce of France at the 
 same epoch is estimated at no less than 600,000,000 fr., or 
 one fourth.* 
 
 In Paris alone, it was computed that the Revolution of 
 February caused a decline of from 53 to 75, and even 83 
 per cent, according to the occupation, amount of business, 
 and quantity of labor, f 
 
 Lastly, in studying closely the tables of customs, we see 
 that the imports into the colonies from foreign countries had 
 diminished less, in 1848 and 1849, than the imports from 
 France, if they had not even increased. At Guadaloupe, 
 there was increase ; at Guiana, a diminution of 18 per 
 cent only, while the entrance duties from France fell 25 
 per cent ; at Bourbon, 12 per cent only, against 33 per 
 cent.J Thus the crisis of the mother country weighed, 
 before all, on the colonies ; in the earliest days of eman 
 cipation, they ceased less to buy than the mother country 
 to sell. 
 
 * GENERAL, COMMERCE. 
 
 1847 2,613,600,000 fr. 
 
 1848 2,014,900,000 
 
 SPECIAL, COMMERCE. 
 
 1847 1,867,000,000 fr. 
 
 1848 1,390,600,000 
 
 (Decennial table published by the Administration of Customs in 1848.) 
 But these figures, rising again from 1850, exceed, dating from 1852, all that 
 precede them; and this magnificent commerce, carried from 1,300,000 to 
 2,000,000,000 from 1827 to 1847, reached 5,000,000,000 in 1857, having thus in 
 creased nearly 60 per cent in thirty years. 
 
 t Statistique de V Industrie parisienne, published in 1851, pp. 41, 42. 
 The sum of exports from the custom-house at Paris, which 
 
 was, in 1847 . . 168,572,187 fr. 
 
 had fallen in 1848 to ....... 149,288,979 
 
 Or about one eighth . . . * . . . 19,283,208 fr. 
 t Comparative abstracts inserted in the Revue colonials, 1851, pp. 20, 100, 
 153,161. 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 159 
 
 
 
 3. If the quantities produced have decreased, the prices 
 have risen so as to diminish the loss of the colonists. In 
 the decennial period 183Y-184T, the average price of colo 
 nial sugar at the entrepot of Havana was 68 fr. 50 c., 
 duties not included ; the price had risen in 1850 to 87 fr. 
 50 c. ; or 19 francs increase, that is, 22 per cent.* If the 
 loss of the colonists was, therefore, in these first years, 40 
 per cent in quantity, it was really but 18 per cent in value, 
 or less than one fifth, while, in respect to the English colo 
 nies, it reached one fourth. 
 
 4. It is true that the loss did not stop, as regarded 
 colonial sugar, at 1850 ; whilst, as regarded indigenous 
 sugar, the rise of prices raised the production, this year, 
 to 64,000,000 kilogrammes, and also permitted. the introduc 
 tion of large lots of foreign sugar, despite the extra charge 
 of 22 francs, f The presence and progress of these two 
 rivals weighed upon the production of the colonies in pro 
 portion as the consequences of the Revolution became 
 effaced. An insignificant reduction was accorded only in 
 1852. The political crisis finished, the commercial crisis, 
 born indeed before 1848, commenced anew. Let us not 
 forget this, and confound these two crises with the crisis 
 of freedom. 
 
 Be it as it may, let us also remark that 1848, 1849, and 
 1850 were not only years in which politics overthrew labor, 
 but, furthermore, that the meagre harvests of this year were 
 still in part the product of servile labor ; it is in 1851 and 
 1852 only that we can ^udge of the results due to free 
 labor. Now, from 1852, before the reduction, the amount 
 of the aggregate of commerce (imports and exports) at 
 
 * Report of M. Beugnot, 1851, p. 55. Document fourni au Conseil general de 
 I agriculture, 1850, Annexe, No. 8. 
 
 Price current at Havre, 1839 . . . 115 to 120 fr. pe0100 kiloe. 
 
 1849 . . 130 " 135 " 
 t 1849 . . . . . . ". . 27,941,622 kilog. 
 1850 . . . . . . . 43,723,405 " 
 
160 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 
 
 Bourbon exceeded that of 1847 ; at Martinico, and even 
 at Guiana, that of 1846 ; Guadaloupe alone had not yet 
 regained its footing.* Here are the comparative results 
 of the five years that preceded emancipation, and the five 
 years that followed it : 
 
 QUINQUENNIAL AVERAGE. 
 
 1843-1847. 1848-1852. 
 
 Martinico . . . 39,226,503 fr. 36,676,505 fr. 
 
 Guadaloupe . . 39,226,912 28,461,649 
 
 Guiana .... 4,081,799 4,427,460 
 
 Bourbon . . . 33,074,648 34,708,672 
 
 115,609,862 fr. 104,274,286 fr. 
 Difference . . . 11,335,576 fr. 
 
 If we go further, if we compare the period 1843 - 184Y 
 with the period 1853- 1857, then the advantage is entirely 
 on the side of freedom. 
 
 QUINQUENNNIAL AVERAGE (1853-1857). 
 
 Martinico 51,546,959 fr 
 
 Guadaloupe 39,904,671 
 
 Guiana . .... 7,954,376 
 
 Bourbon .... . . 72,324,705 
 
 Total 171,730,711 fr. 
 
 Average (1843-1847) . . 115,609,862 
 
 Increase 56,120,849 fr. 
 
 Thus, five years after emancipation, the diminution is only 
 11,000,000 fr., resting almost entirely on a single colony, 
 Guadaloupe ; ten years after, tbfe increase is 56,000,000 ; 
 in the four colonies, the figure is exceeded, at Martinico by 
 more than a third, at Bourbon, more than double.f 
 
 II. We will now distinguish the imports from the exports, 
 
 * See Tablfe A and B, Appendix. 
 
 f We also join (Table C, Appendix) the tables of the French custom-house, 
 where the figures are still more significant. At Bourbon they rose from 
 23,711,051 fr., in 1848, to 99,584,130 fr., in 1857. (Revue coloniale, 1858, p. 898.) 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 161 
 
 instead of presenting united the figures which express 
 them. 
 
 We observe that nearly all the increase bears upon the 
 imports, while the figure of the exports remains almost con 
 stantly, on one hand, below the figures anterior to emanci 
 pation, on the other, below the figure of the imports ; in 
 other words, the colonies produce less than they formerly 
 produced, and receive more than they produce, a double 
 loss. 
 
 It is just, moreover, to distinguish some colonies from 
 others, for the-variation does not follow the same course in 
 all. Now the general table of customs (pp. 58 - 60) proves 
 that the decennial average 1837-1846 of exports is above 
 the decennial average 1847 - 1856, viz. : 
 
 1837-1846. 1847-1856. 
 
 Martinico . . . 15,158,394 fr. 14,027,763 fr. 
 
 Guadaloupe . . 18.575,225 12,685,654 
 
 Guiana .... 1,830,006 861,370 
 
 It is only at Bourbon that the average rises from 
 18,712,281 francs to 21,577,330 francs. 
 
 The answer to these objections is this : 
 
 There is one country in which the total commercial move 
 ment has increased, but in which the amount of exports has 
 so far diminished that it may be said to cease to figure 
 among the colonies which provision the mother country ; 
 namely, Guiana. Is this to say that it is destroyed ? No ; 
 it has changed character. Already very unproductive, aban 
 doning or resuming the culture of the cane, according to the 
 rise or fall of the price of sugar, and producing more anotta 
 than sugar, it has become a penal colony, consuming, with 
 the exception of its woods, nearly all that it produces, es 
 pecially cattle, the export of which, moreover, has been 
 several times forbidden ; but, after all, employing nearly as 
 many laborers and transacting as much business as before 
 the day when, by reason of the statute of May 30, 1854, it 
 
162 
 
 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 received 4,000 convicts, then 5,000 (1858), 6,000 (1859), 
 and 1,000 (I860).* 
 
 As to Bourbon, it is not denied that all the figures ante 
 rior not only to 1836-1847, but also to 1826-1837, are 
 largely exceeded. 
 
 As to Martiriico and Guadaloupe, it is forgotten that the 
 decay was anterior to 1848, for the decennial average of 
 exports 1836-1847 was already below the average 1826- 
 1837, viz. :- 
 
 Martinico 1826-1837 .... 16,015,171 fr. 
 
 1836-1847 . . . 15,158,394 
 
 Guadaloupe 1826 - 1837 .... 20,451,685 
 
 1836-1847. . . . 18,575,225 
 
 It is not just, besides, to take as a whole the average 
 1847 - 1856, which comprises the disastrous years 1848, 
 1849, 1850, and 1851. What should be done is to ascertain, 
 by the figures of the last years of this period, at what epoch 
 the years that preceded emancipation and those that fol 
 lowed it were again on a level. Now thislevel was attained 
 at Bourbon after five years, then doubled after eight years, 
 and tripled after ten years ; at Martinico, attained after seven 
 years, then exceeded by one third after nine years ; at Gua 
 daloupe, attained after ten years, though since diminished. 
 
 ExPORTS.f 
 
 1847. 1848. 1849. 1850. 1851. 
 
 Bourbon 12,620,602 9,107,507 13,939,032 28,881,893 38,423,669 
 
 1847. 1848. 1854. 1857. 
 
 Martinico 18,323,921 9,212,554 18,636.070 24,830,093 
 
 1847. 1848. 1857. 
 
 Guadaloupe 20,420,522 8,873,539 23,319,277 
 
 Imports . 
 
 1847. 
 
 2,878,628 
 1,622,919 
 
 1857. 
 
 6,420,789 
 961,272 
 
 4,501,547 7,382,061 " 
 
 t All the figures given by the Table of Customs are much higher. (Appen 
 dix, Table C.) 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 163 
 
 Thus, therefore, it is not true that the figure of exports 
 has remained inferior, since emancipation, to what it was 
 before. 
 
 But it is remarked, with reason, that it remains constantly 
 inferior to that of imports. It is thence concluded that, the 
 balance being to the detriment of the colonies, they are on 
 the way to ruin. 
 
 There are two answers to make ; the one general, the 
 other special. 
 
 1. "The balance of trade is, for small countries as for large 
 ones, only a document for consultation. Its data are too 
 incomplete, the values which it establishes have too much 
 uncertainty, to permit them to be brought in proof of the 
 poverty or wealth of communities." * 
 
 These observations of an experienced colonist are per 
 fectly just, and it is long since science has relied on the 
 theory, once so popular, of the balance of trade. It is useful 
 information, it is not an infallible argument. It founds af 
 firmations in fact upon variable values, it says nothing of 
 the origin, nature, or end of expenses and receipts ; it takes 
 account of what comes in and what goes out, not of what 
 is consumed on the spot, not of what is a source of power 
 without appearing in figures. A country which exports 
 largely seems very wealthy. It is not so ; it turns eve^- 
 thing into money in order to pay debts. We have a very 
 tangible proof of this assertion in the examination of the 
 total commerce of France after 1848. 
 
 While the imports fell to 1,343,000,000 fr. in 1847, and to 
 862,000,000 in 1848, and did not rise again until 1852 above 
 the figure of 1847, the exports did not fall until 1848, and 
 rose again from 1849, without stopping, above the figure of 
 184T ; the equilibrium between the imports and exports was 
 not attained until 1856. What does this mean ? Was France 
 richer in I%d than in 184T ? By no means ; she bought lit- 
 
 * La Question commerciale a la Guadeloupe, by Count de Chazelles. 
 
164 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 tie and sold all she could, exhausted all her supplies, and 
 did not replace them. 
 
 On the contrary, a country that imports more than it 
 exports seems poor ; it is not so if it import machinery, 
 manures, and laborers that increase its capital, or if it have 
 wealth enough to consume largely ; a rich man brings 
 more into his house than he sends out from it. Reasoning 
 founded on the balance of trade must therefore be fragile. 
 More just, though subject to numerous exceptions, is the 
 universally accepted formula, Products are exchanged only 
 for products. If a man buys, it is because he can pay ; if 
 he pays, it is because he has produced. 
 
 2. But we forget before all the special position of the 
 colonies. 
 
 The continual excess of imports over exports is the nor 
 mal condition among small communities, which only produce 
 certain special commodities, and receive all the rest from 
 abroad, and whence fortunes, once made, almost always emi 
 grate. This is so true, that when, in 1857, the exports in 
 Martinico exceeded the imports, it was necessary to go back 
 to 1828 to encounter the same phenomenon.* 
 
 The same cause is the principal explanation of the mone 
 tary crises, so frequent and so distressing in the colonies, 
 and of which there has been especial complaint during the 
 past few years. 
 
 Well-informed writers see the origin of the last monetary 
 crisis, some in the establishment of banks, very useful in 
 reducing the rate of interest and making loans to agricul 
 ture, but which they accuse of having replaced specie in 
 local circulation by paper, which, cannot be exported, and 
 which comes at length to be no longer redeemable ; others 
 in the measures taken to exclude foreign coin, Spanish 
 doubloons and piasters, American dollars and eagles. f But 
 
 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1858, p. 682. 
 
 f See the writings of MM. de Chazelles, Lepelletier de Saint-Remy, de Cri- 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 165 
 
 the real cause is that exchanges in kind, rather than sales, 
 are made between the colonies and the mother country ; 
 the importation exceeding the exportation, the colonists 
 have to pay a balance in cash. Not producing food for their 
 population in sufficient quantity, they pay again a balance 
 to foreign countries. " The money sent from France to the 
 Antilles in payment for sugar," said M. Reiset * to the 
 Commission of 1848, " goes only to benefit Porto Rico and 
 America, whence our colonists obtain cattle, beasts of bur 
 den, wood for building, etc., etc., without being able to pay 
 in sugar. 7 Add, that fortunes, once made in the colonies, 
 emigrate with their possessors, who are eager to go to enjoy 
 them in France. Remember, too, the amount of debts to 
 the seaports, the habit of speculating on Change, here are 
 many causes, in addition to the necessity of paying cash for 
 wages, to explain the frequency of monetary crises. It may 
 be said that they are almost the normal condition in the 
 excess of imports over exports. 
 
 But is this excess a proof of impoverishment? Yes, 
 if debts be incurred. How are we to ascertain if this be 
 the case ? By the rate of interest. Now, it is well known 
 that the rate of interest is much lower to-day than before 
 emancipation. Once more, what is imported is paid for, 
 and ^o pay it is necessary to have, and to have it is neces 
 sary to produce or to have produced. Is not the capital of 
 the colonies in other hands than those of the exporters ? 
 Are not the imports destined in part for others than they, 
 and the exportable articles employed in part for something 
 else than exportation ? 
 
 This is true, in fact. 
 
 If large estates have suffered, small freeholds have in- 
 
 senoy, and Basiege, 1859, 1860. See also VAvenir de la Gaudeloupe, Nov. 29, 
 1859, and the articles of MM. Courcelle Seneuil and Jules Duval in the Journal 
 des Economistes. 
 
 * Proces-verbaux, p. 18. 
 
166 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 creased. If the labors of the fields have been deserted, the 
 arts and manufactures of the towns have been filled up ; 
 the class which made large profits has diminished, the class 
 which made none has made small ones, importation has 
 gone on faster than exportation, because consumption has 
 increased, because the comfort of the former slaves has in 
 creased. 
 
 These explanations seem to me to demonstrate sufficiently 
 that the excess of imports over exports is not a proof of 
 poverty, but rather a proof of the increase of local consump 
 tion, and consequently of comfort. 
 
 But although, despite well-founded arguments, I admit 
 this excess, in default of sufficient information, from induc 
 tions rather than certainty, it is at least incontestable : 
 
 1. That this balance was already the normal condition of 
 the colonies before emancipation ; 
 
 2. That the value of exports has increased since this 
 epoch ; that it amounted to less than 53,000,000 francs in 
 184T, and that it exceeded 82,000,000 in 1857. 
 
 III. It is admitted, beside, that " the exports verified by 
 the customs, not in their values but in their quantities, are 
 susceptible of no dispute. 7 * 
 
 Let us leave values, therefore, and consult quantities, and 
 since it is claimed that the loss has weighed above all on 
 the principal colonial product, sugar, let us indicate the 
 quantities of sugar. 
 
 The comparative tables of the quantities of sugar brought 
 to France by the colonies present the following results : 
 
 Quinquennial average, 1843 - 1847 f . 80,570,800 kil. 
 " " 1848-1853 . . 58,946,830 
 
 A diminution of more than one fourth. 
 
 * Ibid., M. de Chazelles. 
 
 t Comprising exceptional years, as 1845, 102,000,000 kil. ; 1847, 99,000,000 kil. ; 
 while none of the years from 1825 to 1844 had reached beyond a maximum of 
 89,000,000, realized only twice in twenty years. 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 167 
 
 But 1853 reaches already . . . 65,682,080 kil. 
 
 1854 rises to. . . ... .. 82.211,428 
 
 1855 . . . . . .; . 90,747,276 
 
 1856 . . .-.-" . . 93,531,027 
 
 1857 . . . . . . . 84,961,781 
 
 1858 ... . . . 116,245,177 
 
 1859 112,701,138* 
 
 So that from 1854 the average amount of production an 
 terior to 1848 is exceeded, even in sugar. 
 
 It is true that the progress was accomplished more or less 
 slowly in each colony, as is proved both by the Tables of 
 Commerce published by the Ministry of the Marine and 
 Colonies, and the Official Table of Customs, published by 
 the Minister of Finance. But, after ten years, the very 
 high figures of 184T were exceeded in the Antilles as well 
 as in Bourbon, viz. : 
 
 SUGAR MANUFACTURED.! 
 
 Bourbon. Martinico. Guadaloupe.^ 
 
 1847 24,063.689 kil. 1847 29,318,175 kil. 1847 38,00 7,80 7 kil. 
 1857 64,649,170 1856 30,344,650 1854 38,180,200 
 
 RAW SUGAR IMPORTED INTO FRANCE. J 
 
 Bourbon. Martinico. Guadaloupe. 
 
 1847 17,359,825 kil 19,247,079 kil. 24,225,756 kil. 
 
 1848 15,279,875 11,838,865 12,191,904 
 
 1849 12,978,406 11, 034,983 11,515,545 
 
 1850 13,180,666 8,545,310 7,808,5./4 
 
 1851 13,491,119 11,829,555 10,148,075 
 
 1852 19,807,142 14,717,577 10,645,556 
 
 1853 19,000,326 12,419,440 8,884,377 
 
 1854 25,036,845 14,624,649 13,254,673 
 
 1855 34,224,912 11,117,530 12,690,933 
 
 1856 32,946,224 15,981,976 13,003,032 
 
 1857 51,006,067 23,679,905 18,390,842 
 
 1858 57,522,342 27,334,585 28,675,144 
 
 * Revue coloniale, April and October, 1860. 
 
 t Revue coloniale, Dec., 1860, p. 943. 
 
 t Decennial Table of Customs, 1846, 1847, pp. 58-68. Annual Table, 1857, 
 
 1868. 
 
168 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 What matters it, say the planters, that our lands produce 
 as much, if their market value be lowered, if the net income 
 be lessened by the increase of wages and the diminution of 
 selling prices. 
 
 It is very difficult to obtain precise documents on these 
 p oints. 
 
 In the Antilles transactions are not numerous enough 
 to make a well-established price-current concerning land, 
 which varies in price according to situation. Before 1848, 
 little was sold, and debts were incurred without fear of dis 
 possession. The price of a plantation depended more on 
 the value of its negroes and its annual yield, than on that 
 of the land itself; of which every one had always more than 
 he cultivated. The negroes not being able to hold property, 
 there were in each colony 70,000 or 80,000 less buyers or 
 sellers. How compare such diverse elements ? 
 
 Is it possible to take as certain the figures enunciated in 
 the f^vo official publications of the Colonial Ministry, the 
 two Notices printed in 1840 and 1848, and relating, the first 
 to 1835, a year of great prosperity, the second to 1855, only 
 seven years after the Revolution and emancipation ? In 
 1835, the capital involved in the colonies was estimated at 
 796,403,641 francs ; but deducting the value of the slaves, 
 estimated at 274,304,150 francs, or about 1500 francs per 
 head, there remained 522,099,591 francs for the capital of 
 lands, plantations, goods, and cattle. 
 
 Now the Notice of 1858 estimates the same capital in 
 1855 at 374,173,405 francs. This would be a difference of 
 147,926,186 francs, or about one fourth. 
 
 This difference would bear entirely on Guadaloupe, Gui 
 ana, and Martinico, for at Bourbon the capital involved is 
 estimated above what it was worth, including the slaves, 
 before emancipation. 
 
 But is it possible to admit the figures given by the Notices 
 officielles? Do they not refute themselves ? For they inform 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 169 
 
 us that the number of plantations has increased. The 
 number of head of cattle is sensibly the same. The number 
 of laborers has diminished very little, whatever may be as 
 serted.* The interest on money, it is not denied, has fallen. 
 The banks are flourishing, the loans on the crops have 
 brought great relief to property, f The stock of implements 
 has been improved, and consequently the capital involved 
 has largely increased. The establishment of central mills 
 has increased profits by lessening expenses. Lastly, and 
 above all, property is consolidated. Always suspicious and 
 of fragile tenure while the abolition of slavery weighed on 
 it as a menace, and loaded with debts, property has been 
 liquidated by indemnity, regulated by expropriation, reha 
 bilitated by emancipation. Surer and more honorable, it 
 must offer more attraction to capital. 
 
 If we consult the position of the plantations of the 
 
 1835. Slaves. Laborers. - 1855. 
 
 * Martinico 56,556 48,970 
 
 Guadaloupe 55,416 51,660 
 
 Guiana 13,727 7,291 
 
 Bourbon 56,059 71,094 
 
 181,758 179,015 
 
 t At Guadaloupe, the Bank, with a capital of 3,000,000 fr., has seen its opera 
 tions increase, from 7,176,347 fr. in 1853-1854 to 21.962,212 fr. in 1858-1859. 
 The advances on crops, at 4 per cent, have reached 2,861,897 fr. The net 
 profit is 14 per cent. (Report of July 28, 1859.) 
 
 At Martinico, the Bank, in 1858-1859, has discounted to the value of 
 27,000,000 fr.; advanced on crops, 1,602,512 fr., instead of 154,000 fr.; and dis 
 tributed a dividend of 8 81 per cent. (Report of July 19, 1859). 
 
 At Guiana, with a capital of 300,000 fr., the Bank has discounted on 1,832,622 fr. 
 of effects ; it has made no advances on crops, " because the large proprietors 
 have not needed credit, and the others do not offer sufficient guaranties." It 
 has realized a net profit of 16.27 per cent. (Report of July 24, 1859.) 
 
 At Bourbon, the Bank, with a capital of 3,000,000 fr., has loaned from 1853 - 
 1854,12,354,612 fr.; and its operations, rising to 19,896,118 fr. in 1854-1855, 
 remained the same in 1858-1859. The loans on crops have reached 1,945,694 fr., 
 and tended to exceed 2,500,000 fr. The dividend has been 9.57 per cent. (Re 
 port of July 20, 1859.) 
 
 I am indebted for this information to the kindness of M. Lepelletier de Saint- 
 Remy, central agent of the colonial banks. 
 
170 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 crown, we find that they let higher than before 1848, 
 some of them for double.* 
 
 If we follow the sales in the colonial journals, we see that 
 for some years the selling prices have notably increased. f 
 
 If, moreover, the capital represented by agricultural 
 property were greater, the mortgage and commercial debts 
 were greater in a proportion exceeding the plus value 
 acquired, rendered illusory from the impossibility of its 
 realization.! 
 
 It is not, therefore, rash to affirm, that the position of 
 property, and its selling or locative value, have improved 
 since emancipation, not only in Bourbon but also in the 
 West Indies. 
 
 Have wages greatly increased ? 
 
 This has been the case in the greater part of the English 
 colonies, and the result seemed inevitable. Nevertheless, 
 emancipation in our French colonies has been remarkably 
 effected. Now, as M. Mestro truly said in 1848, negro labor 
 is, above all, a question of remuneration, and the latter it 
 self is only a question of credit. 
 
 We will continue to except Bourbon, where the rise of 
 wages has necessarily followed the enormous increase of 
 production.^" 
 
 In the Antilles the cost of a slave was computed in 1842 
 at from 50 to 60 centimes per day, for food (whether he re 
 ceived the ordinary allowance, or took Saturday instead), 
 
 * Report of the Director of the Interior of Martinico. 
 
 t M. Lepelletier de Saint-Remy, in the Colonies franqaises, 1859, cites a 
 plantation at Guadaloupe, valued at 29,000 fr. in 1854, at 131,000 fr. in 1858. 
 
 | M. de Chazelles, p. 157, note. 
 
 Commission of 1848, p. 94. 
 
 If At Bourbon, where immigration is effected without the financial interven 
 tion of the government, the transfers of immigrant contracts, which were nego 
 tiated in the beginning at the rate of 300 fr., have reached 800 and 1,000 fr. 
 Thus the power of free labor multiplying by itself, the planter finds himself 
 rich enough to pay, for a hire of five years, a much higher sum than he re 
 ceived from the state for the ownership of a slave. (Lepelletier de Saint-Remy, 
 p. 43.) 
 
PEODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 171 
 
 clothing, medical care, and the expense of supporting the wo 
 men, children, and infirm, without including lodging.* 
 
 According to another calculation made in 1847, after the 
 adoption of laws for ameliorating the condition of slaves, 
 they cost annually about 400 francs per head.f Regarding 
 these two calculations as extremes, we may adopt a mean 
 of from 200 to 250 francs. 
 
 The average wages of farm laborers is, at Martinico, 1 fr. 
 25 c. ; at Guadaloupe, 1 fr., without including the cabin and 
 garden. J But there are only about 250 working days, 300 
 at most ; while the slave costs the same every day of the 
 year. Moreover, the burden of the children and infirm falls 
 no longer on the proprietor. Now their number is estimated 
 at ^nore than one fourth of the population of a plantation. 
 Between 250 or 300 fr. with these burdens, and 300 or 375 
 without such incumbrance, we see that the difference is not 
 enormous. 
 
 The immigrant costs 12 fr. 50 c. per month, besides board, 
 or from 60 to 80 centimes per day. 
 
 In short, the free laborer at the Antilles costs very nearly 
 the same as did the slave laborer. 
 
 In consideration of adding to his floating capital the sum 
 necessary to the increase of wages, the planter has the ad 
 vantage of a more ready credit, and a higher sale price, 
 thanks to the reduction of taxes and the increase of con 
 sumption. 
 
 In fact, the average actual net cost at the entrepot || of 100 
 kilog. of sugar was : 
 
 From 1840 to 1844 . . . . 64 fr. 25 c. 
 " 1845 " 1849 .... 59 73 
 
 It has risen : 
 
 * Computations joined to the report of M. de Broglie, pp. 238, 239. 
 t Article of M. Jarnier, Revue coloniale, 1847, Tom. XII. p. 161. 
 I Lepelletier de Saint-Remy, 1859, p. 41. 
 $ Broglie, p. 239. || See Table No. 3. 
 
172 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 From 1849 to 1854 . . . . 69 fr. 10 c. 
 " 1854 " 1859 77 58^ 
 
 In short, whatever road we take, we always come to the 
 same result. 
 
 In the four slave colonies, the aggregate of commerce, im 
 ports and exports united, has risen above the figures ante 
 rior to 1848. 
 
 The sum of exports, and consequently production, is 
 higher than before 1848, except in Guiana, which is trans 
 formed into a penal colony. The increase is inconsiderable 
 at Guadaloupe, important at Martinico, extraordinary at 
 Bourbon. 
 
 The quantity of sugar, the principal, almost exclusive 
 product of the colonies, long below the average which pre 
 ceded 1848, has attained, and since surpassed it. 
 
 Credit is easier, wages are but little higher, the sale-price 
 has. risen, even before the reduction effected by the law of 
 1860. 
 
 In 1847, the French colonies employed 2,022 vessels of 
 every kind and destination in a total transportation of 
 115,694,170 francs. 
 
 In 1857, the colonies employed 2,488 vessels in a total 
 transportation of 166,057,692 francs. 
 
 In 1859, the colonies employed 3,342 vessels gauged at 
 593,929 tons, and manned by 37,487 men, in a total trans 
 portation of 172,355,614 francs.* 
 
 Let us cease to repeat, therefore, that the colonies no 
 longer labor, that they no longer produce, since the abo 
 lition of slavery. 
 
 * Revue coloniale, July, 1860, p. 135. 
 
 1847. 1857. 1859. 
 
 Martinico . . .673 vessels 711 1,180 
 
 Guadaloupe ... 847 956 1,2.18 
 
 Guiana .... 113 98 215 
 
 Bourbon ... 389 723 729 
 
 2,022 2,488 3,342 
 
PRODUCTION, COMMERCE, WAGES, PROPERTY. 173 
 
 Is this to say that their condition is prosperous, and that, 
 imaginary invalids, they complain without reason ? 
 
 By no means. The condition of colonial property is still 
 far from enviable. 
 
 But this chapter already establishes, and we shall con 
 tinue to prove from our special stand-point, that this con 
 dition is not the result alone of the abolition of slavery, and 
 that this great measure has not exaggerated wages, has not 
 for a long time diminished production ; that property is more 
 substantial and less involved, production as abundant, the 
 condition of commerce more flourishing. 
 
 Why are the culture of the cane and the manufacture of 
 sugar still stagnant ? At Guadaloupe, especially, the fig 
 ures, after surpassing those of 1847, do not stand firm. Is 
 this the fault of the abolition of slavery ? This sugar ques 
 tion, go complicated and so much debated, merits a sepa 
 rate examination, which will be the object of -the following 
 chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE QUESTION OF SUGARS 
 
 THE history of a lump of sugar is a whole lesson of polit 
 ical economy, of politics, and also of morality. 
 
 To man, sugar is not even a need, it is only a pleasure. 
 But since man, by his industry, has extracted this product 
 first from the cane where the Creator has deposited it in 
 such great abundance, and next from the beet-root, he can 
 no longer dispense with it. The production and traffic of 
 sugar have become the origin of an incredible amount of 
 labor and an infinite diversity of interests. I will endeavor 
 to recall their nomenclature :* 
 
 1. The interest of France to possess colonies; -an in 
 terest of power, since they serve in time of war as a refuge 
 to her flag, in time of peace as a fulcrum to her influence ; 
 
 an interest of wealth, since the impost on colonial pro 
 ducts is one of the most productive resources of the pub 
 lic treasury, the amount of this tax attaining 99,000,000 
 francs in 1858. 
 
 2. The interest of the colonies to enjoy by privilege the 
 commerce of France, and to furnish the mother country 
 with a product which is their principal wealth ; for sugar 
 represents 68,000,000 in the 72,000,000 francs worth which 
 they export ; it employs 250,000 out of 375,000 inhabitants, 
 
 * Consult the report?, statements, and speeches of MM. de Saint-Cricq, 
 Humann, Gauthier de Rumilly, d Argout, Chegaray, Bugeaud, Charles Dupin, 
 Dumon, Rossi, Benoist d Azy, Beugnot, Behic, Dumas, Buffet, Ancel, Kolb- 
 Bernard, Lavollee, etc. 
 
THE SUGAR QUESTION. 175 
 
 and occupies 168,300 out of 3H,351 acres of cultivated 
 land.* 
 
 3. The interest of the merchant shipping, the nursery of 
 the navy. Coal is the principal transport of the English 
 shipping ; cotton, of the American shipping ; wood, of the 
 Swedish shipping ; sugar, of our own. Our sugar colonies 
 employ eight hundred of our finest vessels, and about eleven 
 hundred sailors, the elite of the service. 
 
 4. The interest of commerce in the colonies, which ex 
 port, in the seaports which build, man, fit out, and commis 
 sion, and in the towns where commerce imports, stores, 
 re-exports, sells, and retails. 
 
 5. The interest of a host of secondary arts and manufac 
 tures which have sugar for their basis, refineries, distiller 
 ies, confectioneries, the manufacture of liquors, drugs, etc.f 
 
 6. The interest of science, which unceasingly perfects the 
 processes of fabrication, invents the means of separating 
 crystallizable from uncrystallizable matter, of heating in 
 vacuum, arid of drying by turbines, improves apparatus, 
 increases the quantity extracted, | utilizes the residuum, and 
 demonstrates more and more the healthfullness of sugar and 
 coffee by analyses which reveal their elements. 
 
 7. The interest of the immense capital involved in all 
 these operations. 
 
 8. The interests of the numerous workmen which it em 
 ploys. A ship is not launched without having given labor and 
 
 * Report of M. Be"hic to the Council of State, 1850. 
 
 t At Paris alone, the single commune of Villette, annexed to Paris by the 
 statute of June 24, 1859, contained at that time 7 refineries, consuming annually 
 30,000,000 kilog. of Coal; and 100 distilleries, employing 1,000 workmen, and 
 doing a business of 10,000,000 fr. ( Observations du Conseil municipale de la 
 Villette, dans Venquete de 1859. 
 
 J The cane contains from 15 to 20 per cent of sugar; but 5 or 6 per cent is 
 as yet extracted from it. The beet contains 80 per cent water, 10 per cent pulp, 
 and 10 per cent sugar; 5 or 6 per cent is extracted. 
 
 Works of MM. Dumas, Payen, etc., which establish the chemical analogy 
 of sugar with wine, fecula, and butter. 
 
176 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 wages to 600 or 700 workmen, carpenters, joiners, calkers, 
 blacksmiths, locksmiths, sailmakers, ropemakers, coopers, 
 painters, nailsmiths, tinsmiths. The number of workmen 
 employed directly or indirectly in the service of a lump of 
 sugar is immense, from the negro who plants the cane to 
 the grocer who sells the loaf, from the porter who unloads 
 to the cook who grates it. 
 
 9. Lastly, the interest of the consumers,* whose demand 
 is increasing, since France contented herself in 1810 with 
 4,000,000 kilogrammes, arid in 1816 with 24,000,000, while 
 she now consumes more than 120,000,000, constantly de 
 manding a greater quantity, but a lower price, so as to 
 make the use of a healthful product possible among the 
 poorer classes. 
 
 This list is the incomplete picture of the effects produced 
 here on earth, because it pleased the Divine Creator to hide 
 in an obscure vegetable, exiled to a torrid corner of the 
 earth, a saccharine juice which pleases our palates. We 
 willingly wander from this little object of human labor to 
 the contemplation of those beautiful laws, so well set forth 
 by masters of moral philosophy and political economy, the 
 freedom of the gifts of God, the creation of all things in 
 view of an enjoyment rendered legitimate by effort, the 
 fruitful division of labor, the close solidarity of all interests 
 from one end of the planet to the other, the fraternity, even 
 commercial, of all members of the family of men, the neces- 
 
 * It follows, from a table joined to the Decennial Table of Customs, 1858, 
 p 47, that sugar has borne an almost incredible part in the progress of public 
 consumption and revenue during the last half-century. If we add the quantity 
 which France has fabricated to that which she has received, and deduct that 
 which she has exported, the exact amount remains of the quantities which she 
 has consumed. 
 
 These quantities are 542,317 metrical quintals in 1827 
 
 They rose ten years after to 1,128,999 1837 
 
 " * " 1,280,640 " 1847 
 
 " " 1,651,799 " 1856 
 
 The consumption has more than tripled, therefore, during thirty years. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 177 
 
 sary union of intellect, capital and labor. Yes ! we should 
 admire without reserve, if so many interests had not re 
 posed for three centuries upon two conditions regarded as 
 indispensable, slavery and the slave-trade. 
 
 Thtfs, no nation without shipping and commerce, no ship 
 ping and commerce without colonies, no colonies without 
 culture, no culture without slaves ; this is the odious 
 series of reasonings passed into the rank of political axioms, 
 and substituted, during three centuries, for these beautiful, 
 too ideal harmonies. 
 
 The slave-trade has been condemned ; have the colonies 
 perished ? 
 
 Slavery has been abolished ; have production and com 
 merce been annihilated ? We have demonstrated the con 
 trary. * 
 
 Is it at least true that the special production of sugar, 
 the most important by far in the colonies, has been sub 
 jected, since the abolition of slavery, to ruinous conditions? 
 Is emancipation to be held responsible for this situation ? 
 
 -Yes, if it did not commence until 1848. No, if it were 
 already critical before 1848. We will examine separately 
 the history of these two periods. 
 
 1. THE QUESTION OF SUGARS BEFORE EMANCIPATION. . 
 
 
 
 The true knot of the question is, as is well known, the 
 competition of the beet-root sugar, which was not thought 
 of in 1820 ; which already produced 10,000,000 kilog. in 
 1830, approached 30,000,000 kilog. in 1840, and exceeded 
 60,000,000 kilog. in 1847, precisely the year when the duty 
 on both sugars became equal by law, August 1, 1847, six 
 months before the Revolution of February. 
 
 The history of this competition is another very curious 
 lesson in political economy. 
 
 It owes its birth in part to the Continental blockade, its 
 
 8* L 
 
178 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 progress to the excessive protection obtained by the colo 
 nies, its triumph to their improvidence. " Indigenous sugar 
 is a creation of taxation/ said M. Rossi.* 
 
 At the time of the blockade, our colonies were lost or 
 ruined, and debarred from selling to the mother country, to 
 friends, to enemies, or to neutrals ; misfortune, as usual, 
 was inventive, and obstacles served progress. It was then 
 that men set to work to extract sugar from the beet-root ; 
 but, despite the ministerial circulars, the instructions of M. 
 Parmentier, and the encouragements amply tempered by 
 licenses of importation, this sugar long remained an experi 
 ment of the laboratory rather than a product of manufac 
 ture. The processes were imperfect ; the net cost was too 
 high. 
 
 While scientific men continued their experiments on in 
 digenous sugar, colonial sugar was subjected to the essays 
 of financiers. 
 
 From the statute of May 15, 1791, to and including the 
 decree of November 1, 1810, we count eighteen statutes or 
 decrees which altered or rather tormented the. tariff on su 
 gars, carrying the duty on colonial sugars from to 35, 45, 
 and 90 fr. per 100 kilog., and the duty on foreign sugars 
 from 36 fr. 22 c. to 7 fr. 34 c., then to 30, 75, 100, 200, and 
 400 fr.f 
 
 * The firs^t movement of the Restoration was to enter upon 
 a liberal path, and an ordinance of Monsieur, dated April 
 23, 1814, subjected French and foreign sugars to the same 
 duty, a measure demanded by the consumption, which the 
 colonies could not satisfy, but which excited their com 
 plaints to such a degree that, on the 17th of December of 
 the same year, a statute fixed at 60 and 95 fr. the duties on 
 raw or clayed sugars of foreign production, maintaining at 
 40 and 70 fr. the duties on similar French sugars. 
 
 * Eeport to the Chamber of Peers, June 20, 1843. 
 
 t Question of the tariff on sugars, General Council of Commerce, session of 
 1850. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 179 
 
 The statute of April 28, 1816, raised to 45 fr. the duties 
 on French sugars, to 75 fr. the duties on. foreign sugars im 
 ported by French ships, and to 80 fr. those brought under 
 a foreign flag. The extra charge, which was thus 30 fr., was 
 raised to 50 fr. by the statute of July 22, 1822.* In 1826, 
 all privilege was taken away from sugars produced by the 
 French East Indian possessions. A premium on exporta 
 tion had been accorded to refined sugars, June 7, 1820, and 
 this premium, suppressed to make way for a simple draw 
 back duty in 1822, was also re-established in 1826. 
 
 We thus digressed more and more from the starting-point, 
 not ceasing to profess the doctrines of free trade, and not 
 ceasing to practise while setting forth exceptional necessi 
 ties, and declaring that they should be provisional a pro 
 gressive system of protection, even of privilege. 
 
 Doubtless, the colonies, if sick, became convalescent un 
 der this regime ; they produced in 1816 above 17,000,000 
 kilog., while France consumed 21,000,000 kilog. ; in 1818, 
 30,000,000 kilog., while the consumption attained 36,000,000 
 kilog. ; thus leaving but 6,000,000 kilog. to be furnished by 
 foreign countries. In 1822, the production, more than tri 
 pled in six years, was 52,000,000 kilogrammes. 
 
 Doubtless also the Treasury found its account in this 
 progress, no less than the shipping and commerce. 
 
 Doubtless, lastly, the consumers saw with pleasure the 
 prices fall from 90 and 93 fr. per 50 kilog. to 74 fr. 50 c. 
 and even to 63 fr. 85 c. in 1822. But the colonists, to whom 
 this rate still left a remunerative price higher by 20 fr. per 
 50 kilog., complained and obtained new favors (statute of 
 May 17, 1826), which finally expelled foreign sugar, arid 
 carried the price to 83 and even 106 francs. 
 
 Foreign sugar was vanquished, profits were enormous, 
 the premiums on the exportation of refined sugars paid by 
 
 * From April 21, 1818, a reduction of 5 fr. had been accorded on sugar from 
 Bourbon, on account of the distance. 
 
180 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 the Treasury, carried from 90 to 110 fr. by the statute of 
 June 7, 1820, were raised from 300,000 fr. to 2,128,000 fr. 
 in 1822 ; replaced by the simple restitution of duties (stat 
 ute of July 27, 1822), but re-established by the statute of 
 May 17, 1826, they attained 6,300,000 fr. in 1828, and ex 
 ceeded 19,110,000 fr. in 1832.* 
 
 The colonies flattered themselves that they triumphed by 
 these exorbitant privileges ; but one does not triumph over 
 the laws of nature by the laws of society. These privi 
 leges had their baleful results to the colonies : 
 
 1. The high prices kept away consumers ; 
 
 2. They decided the colonists to plant sugar-cane in lands 
 unfitted to this culture, and to sacrifice the production of 
 commodities which had no rivals in France, and exempted 
 them from the care of seeking less costly and more effica 
 cious processes of manufacture ; 
 
 3. They encouraged the producers of indigenous sugar, 
 who in a little time profited more than the colonists by the 
 premiums on exportation. 
 
 When the statute of April 26, 1833, returning to the 
 drawback system for the exportation of refined sugars, di 
 vided raw sugars into two classes, white and brown, reduced 
 the tariff on each class, and lowered the extra charge on 
 foreign sugars, it was no longer with the latter that colonial 
 sugar had to contend. The production of indigenous sugar, 
 which in 1828 did not amount to 3,000,000 kilog., was 
 9,000,000 in 1831, 12,000,000 in 1832, 19,000,000 in 1833, 
 and was destined to reach 50,000,000 in 1836. f 
 
 * The impossibility of fixing the exact proportion of the conversion of raw 
 into refined sugar, leaves a margin for enormous profits in re-exportation, and 
 this explains the prodigious increase. 
 
 t From 1816 to 1835, the number of acres employed in the culture of tho 
 sugar-cane rose, in Martinico, to ...... 13,587 
 
 Guadaloupe 17,924 
 
 Guiana 2,484 
 
 Bourbon 35,336 
 
SUGAR QUESTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 181 
 
 Too many favors, by raising up rivals, had paved the way 
 for the ruin of the colonies. 
 
 The beet-root sugar was taxed in turn, but after fourteen 
 years of freedom ; it was for the interest of the colonies 
 that it should be subjected to a tax, it was for the interest 
 of the Treasury that this tax should be light, to encourage 
 the growth of the taxable material. The tax was at first 10 
 fr. per 100 kilog., and was raised, two years after, to 15 fr. 
 (Statute of July 18, 183T.) This insignificant tariff , which 
 was adopted, however, by a majority of but one, did not 
 prevent the manufacturers from throwing 50,000,000 kilog. 
 of sugar into market in 1838 ; the crops having been abun 
 dant this same year in the colonies, the fall was excessive, 
 and the embarrassment became such that the Governors 
 of the Antilles and the government took the responsibility, 
 in 1839, the one of authorizing the colonies to sell else 
 where than in France, the other of making a reduction, by 
 ordinance, of 13 fr. 50 c. on colonial sugars. 
 
 Indigenous sugar was subjected to a duty of 25 fr. by the 
 statute of July 3, 1840, which fixed at 45 fr. the duty on 
 colonial sugar. This reaction in a different direction struck 
 a death-blow to numerous small mills. 
 
 Despite this blow, despite these burdens, such was the 
 progress of indigenous sugar-making,* placed within the 
 reach of science, capital, and markets, that production, 
 at first lessened, resumed its upward movement, f and the 
 
 The number of acres devoted to the culture of coffee, cotton, cocoa, and 
 spices diminished to 3,268 in Martinico, 
 
 5,506 in Guadaloupe, 
 
 404 in Guiana, 
 
 7,561 in Bourbon. Notice Officielles, 1840, 1 pp. 35, 143. 
 * To produce 3,000,000 kilog. in 1828, the indigenous sugar manufacture em 
 ployed 6,800 acres, while in 1836 it produced 50,000,000 kilog. with 4,207 acres 
 only, thus producing sixteen times as much with less than half as much land, 
 f 1840 ....... 23,000,000 kilog. 
 
 1841 . . . .".- . 27,000,000 
 
 1842 . / - . . . . 31,000,000 
 
182 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 uneasiness of the colonies, shared by the government, was 
 so lively, that, January 10, 1843, a bill proposed the absolute 
 interdiction of the manufacture of beet-root sugar, except in 
 consideration of preliminary indemnity. 
 
 An interdiction pronounced at the beginning might, per 
 haps, have been comprehensible. England, in establishing, 
 at first sight, without circumspection, equality of duties for 
 all sugars, had stifled a manufacture in its cradle, the de 
 velopment of which might endanger her maritime interests, 
 her colonies, and her revenue,* while agriculture had as yet 
 no need of this new product. The same might have been 
 done in France. Labor and capital did not lack employ 
 there, while the new manufacture menaced our colonies, 
 shipping, and exports as much as our importations. 
 
 But at the point which things had reached, the position 
 was much more complicated, and both causes had witnessed 
 the growth of the importance of their motives and the num 
 ber of their advocates. Thus the struggle was terrible. 
 
 On one side the colonies and ports, on the other the man 
 ufactures and agriculture, ranged their arguments in battle. 
 
 The colonies said : 
 
 Either free us from the colonial compact, and let us sell 
 and buy in all places ; or else, if you preserve the monopoly 
 of our purchases, guarantee us the monopoly of our sales ; 
 there is but one means to do this, absolutely to suppress* 
 indigenous sugar. Whatever may be the tax, it will either 
 suppress it indirectly and without indemnity, or it will suf 
 fer it to live ; iniquitous in the first case, it is insufficient in 
 the second. Equality of taxation does not involve equality 
 of position ; now we have not the resources of indigenous 
 sugar, yet we support the burdens of transportation, com 
 mission, and waste, to which it is not subject. 
 
 The ports added : Threatened with being deprived of 
 
 * Rossi, p. 13. This branch of manufacture has nevertheless since assumed 
 great importance. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 183 
 
 coasting, by the rapid growth of railways, we lose, by the 
 rivalry of indigenous sugar, the principal homeward freight 
 of our distant navigation. The weakening of our merchant 
 shipping endangers the navy, and reduces more laborers to 
 want than are employed in the culture of the beet-root and 
 the manufacture of indigenous sugar, a culture and manu 
 facture which are yearly reducing the quantity of wheat pro 
 duced by French soil. 
 
 But the agriculturists replied, that 75,000 acres of beet 
 root would produce more sugar than France could con 
 sume, _ and w hat were 75,000 acres out of our 100,000,000 
 acres of arable land ? This culture of a tap-rooted, weeded 
 plant was excellent to prepare the earth for the production 
 of wheat, and wheat sown after a crop of beets would pro 
 duce a tenth more than after any other crop.* The alliance 
 of agriculture and the arts and manufactures, the mainte 
 nance of the country population, the augmentation of wages, 
 the increase of the yield and market value of lands, the im 
 provement of the food of cattle, the production of manures, 
 were favored by this important innovation. The manufac 
 turers added that the production of 100,000 kilog. of sugar 
 corresponded to the distribution of 43,500 francs wages ; 
 that an enormous sum had been employed in improving 
 processes and apparatus ; that, if indigenous sugar were 
 ;ree from certain charges, property in France was subject 
 to much heavier charges than in the colonies ; that the 
 produce of these colonies had attained its maximum ; that 
 the ports would have no reason to complain if the ships re 
 ceived a less value in a greater bulk. Lastly, and above 
 all, indigenous sugar presented itself as the benefactor of 
 the nation, since it had enriched the Treasury, lowered 
 prices, increased consumption, improved agriculture. 
 Some devised a sort of mobile scale which was to equalize 
 
 * Analyse de la question des sucres, by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Fortress 
 of Ham, August, 1842. 
 
184 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 conditions, raising or lowering the duties on either sugar, 
 according as their comparative production was greater or 
 smaller. But this sort of financial dynamics, operating 
 blindly in the future, had few partisans. 
 
 A glimpse was also had of a simultaneous reduction on 
 both sugars, and the liberty to introduce foreign sugars.* 
 The shipping interest demanded this liberty without re 
 nouncing the privilege of the flag. The refiners f also 
 demanded it, complaining that the duties paid on 100 kilo 
 grammes of raw sugar were restored on 70 per cent of 
 refined sugar, and pretended that the production was below 
 60 per cent, while scientific men affirmed that it was over 
 80 per cent. But the Treasury, greatly embarrassed be 
 tween these diverse claims, since indigenous sugar had 
 made it lose more than 200,000,000 francs which it would 
 have collected on colonial sugar, but in turn brought it 
 in nearly 10,000,000 francs yearly, the Treasury relied 
 little on the uncertain increase which the extension of con 
 sumption would bring it in exchange for a certain loss ; 
 it was admitted, that, to influence the habits of the peo- 
 
 * In January, 1837, a bill, in which M. Duchatel took the initiative, and which 
 was reported by M. Dumon, proposed a reduction of 20 fr. It was rejected by 
 the Chamber of Deputies. 
 
 f For the sake of brevity, we do not begin the history of the struggle until 
 the birth of indigenous sugar. But all know how much it had long been ham 
 pered by the trade of refining. 
 
 Refining on the spot diminishes the quantity of exportable matter, but in 
 creases its value, reduces the expense of transportation, and leaves to the pro 
 ducer the profits of the rum and molasses produced by the distillation of the 
 coarser materials arising from the sugar. 
 
 But it was to the advantage neither of the refineries nor the harbors of the 
 mother country. Leaguing together, they obtained a prohibition of the estab 
 lishment of new refineries by the colonies, by a decree of council, Jan. 21, 1684, 
 and a tax on colonial refined sugars, which was increased from 8 liv. to 22 liv. 
 10 sols per quintal; then lastly an absolute prohibition, Nov. 26, 1698, renewed 
 by the statute of Dec. 17, 1814. 
 
 In default of refining, the colonies adopted claying, a more imperfect process; 
 but the same interest procured the taxation of clayed sugars in 1791, and the 
 extra charge imposed by the statute of April 28, 1816, was almost prohibitory. 
 
 See L Etude sur le systeme colonial, by M. de Chazelles, Chap. II. p. 76, etc. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 185 
 
 pie, the reduction must be considerable, and this was es 
 timated at one half, or 25,000,000 on 50,000,000 francs. 
 Now it was not to be supposed that the population of a 
 country rich in wine and fruits were about suddenly to 
 prefer coffee to beer, tea to cider, lemonade to wine. 
 
 These two systems of a reduction and a mobile scale 
 being set aside, there remained only the systems of equal 
 izing duties and of suppressing indigenous sugar, with an 
 indemnity. The government had strongly proposed the 
 second, the Chambers preferred the first. 
 
 The indemnity had the advantage of settling the difficulty 
 forever, by buying out the interest of the sacrificed rival. 
 But, in principle, how comprehend that the state should 
 pay an indemnity for exercising its right ? in practice, how 
 assign this indemnity so that it should not fall arbitrarily 
 into the hands of the manufacturers, instead of those of the 
 laborers and freeholders ? How kill a hardy, intelligent, 
 and useful business, and sacrifice its interests with those 
 of the consumers to the dissatisfied interests of the colo 
 nies ? 
 
 They preferred, and the statute of July 2, 1843, sanc 
 tioned, a system of equality, leaving indigenous sugar but 
 four years to wait for it. From August 1, 1847, the duty 
 was therefore 45 francs per 100 kilogrammes on sugars of 
 the first type, colonial or indigenous, with the exception of 
 a reduction of 7 fr. 50 c., by reason of distance, on those 
 of Bourbon ; from 65 to 85 francs on foreign brown sugars, 
 according to the production and flag ; from 80 to 105 francs 
 on the same white sugars. 
 
 The next day witnessed the closing of the mills which 
 
 * There was an increase of one tenth for superior types. The type is not a 
 model, but a limit. A first type being given, those inferior to it pay the same 
 duty, those superior, pay more. The decree of June 13, 1851, which was not 
 put into effect until the end of 1852, substituted for the system of types, tax 
 ation according to saccharine matter and production. 
 
186 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 had reopened or had exaggerated their production in view 
 of an indemnity, but the gradual augmentation of duties* 
 did not arrest the progress of indigenous sugar. 
 
 We will sum up in a few lines the condition matters had 
 reached in 1847, the eve of emancipation. 
 
 Both sugars paid equal duties. The colonial sugar, pro 
 tected little, then much, then too much, had seen this fa.vor 
 raise up a dangerous rival. This rival, unperceived, dis 
 dained, then dreaded, taxed more and more, and threatened 
 with total interdiction, had conquered equality before the 
 Treasury. 
 
 But this was the only equality between the two rivals. 
 The same force of impulse did not regulate their progress, 
 the one made rapid strides, the other nearly stood still. 
 
 SUGARS CONSUMED OR REFINED IN FRANCE. f 
 
 Foreign Sugar. Colonial Sugar. Indigenous Sugar. Total. 
 
 Met. quintals. Met. quintals. Met. quintals. Met. quintals 
 
 1827-1836 13,983 708,651 130,500 853,134 
 
 1837-1846 80,829 773,079 366,763 1,220,671 
 
 Thus, in twenty years the quantity consumed or refined 
 had increased one fourth. 
 
 In this sum total, foreign sugar represents a quantity seven 
 times larger, indigenous sugar has tripled, colonial sugar has 
 not increased even one seventh. 
 
 In 1827 Colonial sugar furnished . . . 593,733 m. q. 
 Foreign sugar ..... 9,444 
 
 Indigenous sugar ..... 
 
 of a total quantity of 603,177 m. q. subjected to duties, or 
 almost the whole consumption. 
 
 In 1847, colonial sugar no longer furnished even one half. 
 
 * While the collection of the tax on exotic sugar was effected without diffi 
 culty, that of the tax on indigenous sugar gave rise to enormous frauds, and to 
 numerous legislative measures. (See the excellent reports of M. Damon, April 
 29, 1842, and M. Benoist d Azy, July 16, 1844, April 12 and June 16, 1845.) 
 
 f Decennial Table of Customs, 1858, p. 67. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 187 
 
 Colonial sugar . . . 878,201 
 
 Foreign sugar 
 
 Indigenous sugar ... . 523,703^ 
 
 Total . . . 1,498,225 m.q. 
 
 And indigenous sugar absorbs by itself alone almost the 
 whole of the increase attained in consumption. 
 
 Meanwhile, the price of sugar, which had been 73 fr. 50 c. 
 per 50 kilog. in 1820, fell to 55 fr. in 1847.* 
 
 Diminished to 22,748,204 kilog. in 1.840, under the empire 
 of a statute which no longer permitted any to make indige 
 nous sugar, except those who had a monomania for it, as 
 exclaimed Marshal Bugeaud,f the indigenous production 
 remounted in 1847 to 60,169,000 kilog. % The beet-root, 
 which did not occupy 50,000 acres before 1840, extended 
 over nearly 75,000 in 1847, and employed more than three 
 hundred mills. 
 
 In short, in 1847 the beet-root had conquered the sugar 
 cane, a production which may be infinitely extended, 
 
 which can lack neither labor nor ground, in an orderly 
 community, within reach of markets, science, and credit, 
 threatened more and more a production which was limited 
 at once by a confined territory, the insufficiency of labor, 
 and the defects of a state of society exposed to inevitable 
 transformation. || 
 
 Thus the condition of commerce and property in the 
 colonies was every year represented to the public authori 
 ties of the mother country as in decline, arid in peril of 
 death. 
 
 * See Table No. 3. 
 
 t Report of Count Beugnot, 1851. 
 
 t In 1836. M. Crespel declared before the Commission of the Chamber of 
 Deputies, that the establishment of a duty would result in destroying indigenous 
 manufacture; that it would close all its factories and transport them to foreign 
 countries. (Report of M. Dumon.) 
 
 Report of M. Dumon, 1848. 
 
 II Exposition of the reasons of M. Guizot in the Chamber of Peers, May 19, 
 1847. 
 
188 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 To form an idea of the condition of colonial property be 
 fore 1848, read the reports of M. Rossi to the Chamber of 
 Peers, and of M. Dalloz to the Chamber of Deputies, on 
 the bill relative to mortgages and forced expropriation in 
 the Antilles, and the discussion in the Chamber of Peers.* 
 All the testimony agrees in confirming the estimate given by 
 an official document, f which fixes at one fourth or one third 
 of the territorial value the amount of mortgage debt in the 
 colonies of Martinico and Guadaloupe, or 140,000,000 or 
 150,000,000 francs on a value of 500,000,000, while the 
 mortgage debt of France did not exceed 23 per cent of its 
 landed capital. It was asserted that the expenses of civil 
 courts in Martinico amounted to 1,700,000 francs per year, 
 nearly the sum of the appropriation inscribed in the budget 
 for the colony. The absence of credit and the scarcity of 
 ready money had raised the rate of interest in the colonies 
 to 12, 16, 24, and 30 per cent. One of their defenders re 
 jected the application of the expropriation law for fear of 
 what he called patting them up at universal auction ; and 
 in fact, this law, postponed, except at Bourbon, at the time 
 of the promulgation of the Civil Code (1805), deliberated 
 on in 1822 and 1839, proposed in 1840, then withdrawn, 
 presented in 1842, discussed and voted by the Chamber of 
 Peers, reported in the Chamber of Deputies, postponed 
 anew, then again brought up in 1847, was not destined to 
 precede the abolition of slavery. The colonists were to 
 lose at once what an ardent abolitionist J called the privi 
 lege of owning men and of not paying their debts. A graver 
 authority, Admiral Roussin, in 1842, had summed up the 
 position in these strong words : 
 
 " At Martinico, Guadaloupe, and Guiana, it may be said 
 
 * Moniteur, 1848, pp. 106, 459, 471, 479, 481, 490. 
 t Report of M. Lavollee, Inspector of Finances. 
 
 J M. Gatine, proces-verbaux de la Commission de 1848. The word white/washing 
 was commonly used to express liquidation without expropriation. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 189 
 
 with certainty, that, save very rare exceptions, private 
 property exists no longer, and is only a word devoid of 
 meaning. Those who own property there have no more 
 credit than those who own none, so general is the opinion 
 that all estates are encumbered with debts above their 
 value. I do not seek here into the cause of this condition, 
 but I affirm the fact," * 
 
 The learned defender of the colonies, M. Charles Dupin, 
 sought the cause, but did not deny the condition, and 
 seemed unable to find expressions strong enough to char 
 acterize such excess of want, such immensity of suffering. f 
 
 In 1822, M. Portal verified the same trials. In 1822, the 
 Minister of the Marine addressed a report to the king, con 
 taining these words : " The suffering of our colonies is a 
 veritable public calamity." J 
 
 It is known by what laudable efforts the Restoration and 
 the Monarchy of July combated and diminished these suf 
 ferings, but in 1847 they are seen again as poignant as 
 before. 
 
 The complaints of the colonies equalled, and even sur 
 passed, their sufferings, and they demanded with one voice, 
 not only equality of taxation, but a large reduction in favor 
 of colonial sugars. 
 
 Such was the state of affairs in 1847. It is important to 
 characterize it clearly, so as not to suffer to be imputed to 
 the abolition of slavery the responsibility of the evils which 
 preceded it. 
 
 2. THE SUGAR QUESTION FROM EMANCIPATION TO THE LAW 
 OF MAY 23, 1860. 
 
 After the Revolution, emancipation, and universal suffrage 
 had fallen simultaneously upon "this most suffering, most 
 
 * Chamber of Peers, March 8, 1842, Moniteur, p. 471. 
 
 f Ibid. p. 460. 
 
 $ M. de Chazelles, p. 102. 
 
190 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 delicate, and most fragile body," as styled by M. Rossi in 
 1841, immediate indemnity and reduction of duties were 
 loudly demanded. It was justice, it was necessity. 
 
 From 1850, government had proposed a bold and radical 
 reform.* The overthrow of the colonies seemed regarded 
 as almost admitted and irremediable. Their production, 
 which had surpassed 102,000,000 kilog. of sugar in 1845, fell 
 to 63,000,000 in 1848, to 51,000,000 in 1849, to 40,000,000 
 in 1850. Doubtless, the indigenous manufacture had also 
 fallen from 60,000,000 kilog. in 1847, to 56,000,000 in 1848, 
 and to 44,000,000 in 1849, but to rise again, in 1850, to 
 64,644,994 kilog. 
 
 The consumption had followed the same decline, descend 
 ing from 132,000,000 kilogrammes in 1847 to 98,000,000 
 in 1848, to return to 116,000,000 in 1849 and 121,000,000 in 
 1850, checked by a rise of 17 fr. 4 c. per kilogramme. The 
 receipts of the Treasury, from 59,000,000 francs in 1847, 
 were but 46,000,000 in 1858, and 58,000,000 in 1849. 
 
 It was clear that the equality of taxes corresponded to 
 extreme inequality of conditions ; it was necessary to 
 change them. To lower the duties on colonial sugars 6 
 francs ; to increase the consumption by a large reduction, 
 from 45 to 25 francs, but progressively and at stated 
 periods, so as to popularize the use of so salutary a pro 
 duct, while restoring to the Treasury what it abandoned ; 
 to open the door somewhat wider to the introduction of 
 foreign sugars, to the same end, and also to indemnify 
 the shipping for the diminution of colonial transporta 
 tion, such was the policy of the bill in which a dis 
 tinguished Minister, M. Buffet, took the initiative, and of 
 which Count Beugnot was the intelligent, complete, and 
 impartial reporter. 
 
 Some went further, and MM. Levasseur and Desjobert 
 proposed to declare the colonial compact broken, and to 
 
 * See the two remarkable reports, already cited, of MM. Behic and Beugnot. 
 
SUGAE QUESTION AFTER. EMANCIPATION. 191 
 
 leave to the colonies full internal and external liberty, pre 
 serving only the national sovereignty and political bonds. 
 A bold, logical, but premature proposition, it was at least 
 entertained at a moment when the mother country and the 
 colonies were scarcely in a condition to support, after so 
 many shocks, the experience of new economical theories. 
 
 The law on sugars, worked over, discussed, at length 
 passed, June 13, 1851, after three deliberations, by 450 votes 
 against 228, appeared in the Moniteur on the 26th of June. 
 But it was not to take effect until January 1, 1852. 
 
 Before this epoch, the Assembly had ceased to exist, and 
 from March 27, 1852, a decree* returned to the old duty of 
 45 fr., fixed in 1816 on colonial sugars, and 5t fr. on foreign 
 sugars, according for four years a detax of T fr. on colonial 
 sugars. Continued by the law of June 28, 1856, but re 
 duced gradually to 3 fr., this detax was to end June 30, 
 1861, but has been prolonged by the law of May 23, 1860, 
 till June 30, 1866. f 
 
 Boldly resuming the idea of 1851, in the face of a con 
 sumption which amounted to 200,000,000 kilog. in 1848, 
 and to 185,000,000 in 1849, and poured into the treasury 
 99,000,000 fr. net in 1858 and 94,000,000 in 1859, this law 
 ventures on a sudden diminution of four ninths (from 49 to 
 25 fr.), which will cost the treasury nearly 50,000,000 the 
 first year, counting confidently that the consumption en 
 couraged by the fall of prices will descend to the work 
 ing classes, and restore to the treasury what it hazards. 
 This confidence is reasonable, since in England the con 
 sumption is 15 kilog. per head, in Switzerland 8 kilog., 
 in Holland t kilog., in France 3 kilog. only. At the same 
 time, the colonies will be released from a duty nearly equal 
 to half the value of the product, and will continue to be pro 
 tected against indigenous sugar, as the latter was formerly 
 against them. Indigenous sugar, pursuing its progress 
 
 * Moniteur, March 29, p. 809. t Report of M. Ancel. 
 
192 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 after having braved duties, will brave, as M. Dumas an 
 nounced in the discussion of 1851, the foreign sugar that 
 will be introduced more freely. The shipping, still pro 
 tected, will profit by a double element of transportation. 
 The consumer who paid 11 fr. per kilog. in 1810, and 3 fr. 
 in 1816, will pay less than one franc.* 
 
 These reductions of tariff are bold, risking as they do more 
 than 50,000,000 francs of the resources of the Treasury, 
 but intelligent and popular. The example of England en 
 courages them, as we shall see. Financial science approves 
 them, demonstrating more and more, that the reduction of 
 taxes makes cheap markets, when the reduction is notable 
 and sudden enough for its insensible action not to be lost 
 on the way in the adroit profits of middlemen, f and that 
 cheapness makes bulky duties and draws large sums out 
 of small profits. Imprudent, sterile, when accorded to 
 products the use of which cannot be extended, as wine, 
 salt, etc., the reduction of duties is wise and profitable 
 when it suffers commodities to come within the reach of 
 all, which all desire and do not consume. Hygiene also 
 approves it. Politics cannot complain of it, since this meas 
 ure results from no international engagement. Humanity 
 felicitates it on seeing comfort descend among all ranks. 
 
 As to the colonies, the time for receiving great benefit 
 from it had gone by. For twelve, or rather twenty years, 
 they had demanded a large reduction on their commodities. 
 Proposed in 1837, then again in 1850, they have at length 
 obtained it. If they do not profit by it, it is not emancipa 
 tion that they should blame, but themselves -; for it is found 
 that this reduction came at a moment when emancipation 
 had finished its work, when labor and production had at 
 tained or surpassed the figures of 184T. Neither let it be 
 
 * We refer to the close of the chapter for the conditions of the law of 1860, 
 concerning coffees, cocoas, and teas, 
 t The middlemen here are unfortunately very powerful and very numerous. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 193 
 
 said that emancipation had done so much harm that it was 
 necessary to make the reduction. The reduction was not 
 obtained for the first time until 1852, when it could no 
 longer repair the early disasters ; and was effected the 
 second time after these disasters had been effaced. 
 
 All secondary cultures have been sacrificed to the sugar 
 cane, and this sugar, protected to excess, has been con 
 quered by indigenous sugar, the birth of which grew out 
 of this very protection. Such is the truth. Not freedom, 
 but the beet-root, has caused the present position. 
 
 But, lastly, why and how has colonial sugar been con 
 quered by indigenous sugar to such a degree that it is ne 
 cessary to-day to protect it ? It is interesting to press the 
 question more closely, and to elicit, not the only, but the 
 principal cause of this inferiority of long standing. 
 
 Two essential lessons, if I mistake not, may be drawn 
 from it ; the one interests political economy, the other es 
 pecially concerns the question of slavery. 
 
 Extreme protection, the search after a chimerical equi 
 poise, equality, interdiction, are wellriigh vain formulas. 
 We can neither revive an expiring trade, nor kill a hardy 
 one by a blow of the tariff. Dams do not make a running 
 stream of stagnant water. Barriers do not prevent the river 
 from flowing, should it wear itself a new bed. 
 
 Now colonial sugar was the stagnant water, indigenous 
 sugar the running stream. An exaggerated protection has 
 killed the colonies, which sacrificed everything to the cul 
 ture of the sugar-cane. At the same time it has killed the 
 sugar-cane, by raising it up an unlooked-for rival. Contin 
 ual changes in the laws have hampered this rival greatly, 
 yet in vain. Neither the treasury, nor the colonies, nor 
 business, has been benefited by these essays. 
 
 "In this long table/ said M. Benoist d Azy,* admirably, 
 "in this long table of the successive variations, or rather 
 
 * Report of July 16, 1844. 
 
194 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 alternations, of opinions and decisions, we see with pro 
 found regret how distressing these continual oscillations 
 must have been to all the trades which are bound up with 
 these great questions, and there is reason to be astonished 
 that the evil is not greater than it is. Who could have 
 been daring enough to invest capital in real estate in far-off 
 colonies, to change all the processes of fabrication, to build 
 ships, to apply his mind to distant trade and navigation, to 
 fix his fortune and children there, or even to attempt 
 with sufficient help, on the national territory, great and ex 
 pensive enterprises, uniting agriculture and manufactures, 
 in the face of this species of intermittent fever, which every 
 year called in question the existence of those who devoted 
 themselves to such operations ? We often seek the cause 
 of the suffering or comparative weakness of some one of 
 our branches of trade ; it comes, in great part, from the 
 everlasting inconstancy of our doctrines concerning the pro 
 tection which is due them. 
 
 " Uncertainty in the commercial and industrial govern 
 ment of a country is a hundred times worse than a bad sys 
 tem, for nothing is more opposed to all spirit of enterprise 
 or progress, to all generous and useful effort." 
 
 There comes a time when, weary of this long uncertainty, 
 of these barriers which check nothing and these favors 
 which develop nothing, all interests are wellnigh united in 
 demanding of freedom of production that formula which 
 all the financial combinations have been unable to find.* 
 
 But there is a lesson more directly applicable to the 
 subject which occupies our attention. 
 
 Of the two countries which produce sugar, on which side 
 has Nature placed the advantage ? 
 
 Evidently on the side of the colonies ; the soil is more 
 fruitful, the sun more ardent, the seasons more regular, the 
 
 * It was demanded by M. Passy in 1832, and report of M. Bdhic, 1830, p. 9, 
 and by M. Humann in 1826. (Moniieur, p. 298.) 
 
SUGAR QUESTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 195 
 
 sugar-cane twice as saccharine and easier worked than the 
 beet-root. 
 
 What, then, have the colonies lacked ? 
 
 Not time, for during two centuries they had the monop 
 oly. Not favor, for, before the first Revolution, the colonies 
 paid only 5 fr. duty per 100 kilogrammes.* After the first 
 abolition, they ceased to pay any tax ; f since the Restora 
 tion, they have had fifteen years 7 monopoly and thirteen 
 years protection. Not labor, for, till 1830, they had the 
 slave-trade, till 1848, slavery. Not wealth, J for they long 
 sold sugar at high prices, not only at 1,100 fr. per 100 
 kilogrammes during the blockade, an epoch when smugglers 
 profited more by these prices than the colonies, but during 
 the Restoration at 88, 91, 99, and even 116 fr. per 100 
 kilogrammes ; lastly, even after the rivalry of indigenous 
 sugar, very often at a price superior to the net cost, a 
 price burdened, doubtless, with charges of transportation to 
 which this rival was not subject, but obtained by laborers 
 who demanded no wages, on estates protected against dis 
 possession. 
 
 During this long endurance of privilege and prosperity, 
 what prevented the colonists then from improving their 
 processes of manufacture, from securing the immigration 
 of first-rate mechanics and artisans, from extracting a more 
 abundant and less costly yield from the admirable plant 
 placed in their hands by the Creator, in a word, from 
 doing beforehand through interest what they courageously 
 did afterwards through necessity ? 
 
 "With the stationary capital, uselessly lavished on the 
 colonies/ 7 said M. Rossi, "more sugar might have been 
 made than the five continents consume. Two thirds of the 
 
 * Letters patent of 177T. 
 t Statute of 1793. 
 
 J To hear the former colonists of St. Domingo, there was not one that had 
 not lost from 50,000 to 100,000 livres income. 
 Report, 1843, p. 49. 
 
196 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 sugar of the cane escapes in the operations of a manufac 
 ture yet in its infancy." 
 
 "Such is the state of agriculture/ said M. de Broglie, 
 "that, by the aid of easy reforms, the colonies might, 
 without additional expense, obtain an increase of one third, 
 perhaps even one half, of their present yield. The processes 
 of manufacture are still what they were one hundred and 
 
 fifty years ago It is astonishing that it is possible 
 
 to obtain any sugar by working in this manner."* 
 
 See, on the contrary, the manufacture of indigenous 
 sugar. By reason of the high prices, this beautiful branch 
 of industry departed from the hands of science, and passed 
 into the mills. The imposition of a tax suppressed ill- 
 begotten works, but stimulated those which were viable ; 
 favored, the business grew ; fettered, it became transformed, 
 changed apparatus, f changed markets, and such was the 
 progress that 283 mills, in 1848, produced 56,000,000 kilo 
 grammes, while 386 mills, in 1841, produced only 26,000,000 
 kilogrammes ; the same number of acres, sown at the two 
 given periods, produced in the second a yield superior to 
 that of the first ; the same quantity, 100 kilogrammes, ex 
 acted 14 fr. 80 c. in the first, and 5 fr. only in the second. J 
 Lastly, the same product which, in 1837, objected to 5 fr. 
 50 c. duty per 100 kilogrammes, supported 54 fr. in 1859. 
 
 Who then, once more, prevented the colonists, before 
 this formidable rivalry, from realizing all this progress ? 
 
 A competent and well-informed witness, in 1847, wrote 
 words from Martinico which may be applied to all the slave 
 colonies, and which are the best reply to this question : 
 
 " Agriculture here is in an almost savage state, and also 
 demands emancipation. With incredible exuberance of 
 
 * Report, p. 69. 
 
 t Processes of Rousseau, Melsens, Dubrunfaut, etc. Remark, however, that if 
 the substitution of large mills for small ones be a progress in manufacture, it is 
 not a happy change in an agricultural point of view. 
 
 J Report of M. Be"hic, p. 28. See Table D. 
 
SUGAR QUESTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 197 
 
 labor, scarcely a third of the lands are improved. Pro 
 ductive estates are daily abandoned for new clearings ; the 
 slave toilingly attempts the most barbarous cultivation with 
 impossible implements, and, the processes of manufacture 
 aiding, there is obtained from the soil scarcely one fourth 
 of its product What can matter agricultural amelio 
 ration to men whose condition seems destined never to be 
 ameliorated ? And how fail to comprehend the disgust 
 of the colonist at unsuccessful experiments ? The slave 
 detests the soil, the mulatto and the freedman despise it, 
 and the white works it hastily, as one eagerly searches a 
 mine, thinking soon to abandon it." * 
 
 In 1843, the illustrious M. Rossi summed up the leading 
 feature of the picture in these words : 
 
 "What the colonist should dread are his own habits, "f 
 
 The colonist is indolent, the Frenchman is active ; the 
 colonist follows Routine, the Frenchman is in quest of 
 progress ; the colonist takes his pleasure and runs in debt, 
 the Frenchman speculates and undertakes new enterprises ; 
 to one, idleness is the sign of wealth, to the other, labor is 
 the condition of it. The first drives slaves, the second 
 employs machinery ; on one side is servile labor, and Creole 
 society, its work ; on the other is free labor, and French 
 society, its offspring. 
 
 Let no one repeat, then, that the abolition of slavery has 
 killed the colonies ; so many proofs establish that they had 
 already long been dying of a disease which was no other 
 than slavery. 
 
 If ever economists seek a proof of the superiority of free 
 labor over servile labor, of a community that labors over a 
 community that makes others labor, let them study this 
 
 * M. Gamier, employed in the Direction of the Interior at Martinico. Revue 
 coloniale, p. 138, 1847, Tom. XII. 
 
 t See also the excellent pages 18, 19, and 22 of the report of M. Benoist 
 d Azy 
 
198 THE FRENCH COLONIES. . 
 
 curious history of the struggle between the sugar-cane and 
 beet-root ; the demonstration is striking, and is worth the 
 trouble it gives the mind to make its way through these 
 rebutting and confused details. 
 
 3. COFFEE, COCOA, TEA. 
 
 EMANCIPATION is not to be accused of having diminished 
 the coffee plantations of our colonies ; as we have already 
 seen, the exaggeration of the protective duty on sugars has 
 caused the sacrifice of coffee, indigo, and cotton to the 
 planting of the sugar-cane and the large revenue that it 
 promised. "Warnings have not been lacking/ 7 said.M. 
 Berioist d Azy, in 1844. " It has often been told the colo 
 nies, that it would be more prudent for them to return to 
 the culture of coffee, cotton, and indigo, which find no ri 
 valry on French soil, and which, perha^, will be better 
 suited to the coming condition of the population. These 
 counsels have not been followed." A most grievous result, 
 especially as it concerns coffee ; for it is well known that the 
 culture of this little shrub, transported from Persia or Ara 
 bia, at the close of the seventeenth century, to Java, and 
 afterwards to Surinam and the Antilles, exacts less labor, 
 less capital, and a less fertile soil than the culture of the 
 sugar-cane ; that, once in full bearing, after three or four 
 years the coffee shrub, if the victim of no insect, lasts fif 
 teen years and more, and bears in abundance the berry 
 which comes to us rid of its outer envelope, keeps, improves 
 with age, and gives us an exquisite, and at the same time 
 healthful drink, if we are to believe chemistry, which af 
 firms that a quart composed of equal parts of milk and 
 coffee represents five times as much solid substance and 
 three times as much azote substances as the same quantity 
 of soup.* 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1853, article translated from the Tropical Agriculturist, pp 
 410.447. 
 
COFFEE, COCOA, TEA. 199 
 
 It is also known that the consumption of coffee has as 
 sumed an enormous growth. England consumes forty times 
 as much as at the beginning of the century. Brazil, where 
 coffee was not introduced until 1774, now produces 
 173,000,000 kilogrammes of the 338,000,000 which repre 
 sent the total production of the globe. The consumption 
 is, in Belgium and Holland, 4 kilog. per head ; in the 
 United States, 2 kilog. 445 gr. ; in the Zollverein, 1 kilog. 
 600 gr. ; in England, 6 kilog. 40 gr. ; and in France, but 
 750 gr. per head. 
 
 Of 35,415,000 kilog. imported in 1847, our colonies 
 furnished us but 1,274,000 kilog., while Brazil sent us 
 10,123,000 kilog., Hayti, 7,108,000, Cuba and Porto Kico, 
 5,057,000, etc., etc. The amount fell to 728,000 kilog. in 
 1848. It rose again to nearly 1,000,000 kilog. in 1857, 
 in the three colonies of Martinico, Guadaloupe, and Bour 
 bon, without including Guiana.* 
 
 Coffee has not nor can have an indigenous rival like 
 sugar. f For this reason little attention was paid to it, and 
 the duty which burdened it was not once changed until 
 lately from the tariff at which it was fixed in 1816. At 
 this epoch, coffee was worth 300 fr. the 100 kilog. ; to-day, 
 it is worth about 60 fr. The duty nevertheless remained 
 60 fr. on colonial coffees, 95 fr. on foreign coffees imported 
 by French vessels. Equal to the value of the commodity, 
 it did not stimulate the colonies ; higher than that of foreign 
 coffees, it did not hinder their importation ; it only threw 
 an obstacle in the way of a greater fall of price, and con 
 sequently of an extension of consumption. The law of 
 1860 has reduced the duty one half, from 60 fr. to 30 fr., 
 and from 95 fr. to 42 fr. ; the colonies and foreign countries 
 
 * Formerly, St. Domingo alone exported 37,000,000 kilog. of coffee. 
 
 | " Chicory cannot be honored with this name, though it is pretended that 
 from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 kilog. of chicory coffee are sold annually, a mix 
 ture of coffee, chicory, burnt roots, pulp of the beet-root, and often earth or 
 clay." Report of M. Beugnot, 1843. 
 
200 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 will produce more ; the shipping, which already employs 
 34,000 tons in the service of foreign coffee, the principal 
 resource, after sugar, of our distant navigation, will see its 
 transportation increase ; the treasury will recuperate its 
 sacrifices (one half our 28,000,000 fr. collected in 1858), 
 if, as is probable, so sudden a fall, decreasing the price of 
 coffee 32 centimes per pound, popularizes this excellent 
 production, already widely diffused by the habits of our 
 soldiers of the Crimea and Italy. This reduction is com 
 bined with that of the price of sugar ; both concur in the 
 same end, as 1 kilogramme of coffee consumed causes the 
 consumption of 6 or *7 kilogrammes of sugar. 
 
 The same law diminishes one half the duties on cocoa, 
 which formerly amounted to 30 per cent of the value of the 
 commodity.* It also aids in the consumption of sugar, 
 which is mingled with the cocoa in nearly equal parts in 
 the manufacture of chocolate. It gratifies an indisputable 
 desire for consumption, since, despite the high duties, the 
 importation of cocoa into France, which did not exceed 
 2,008,000 kilog. in 1830, amounted to 4,091,000 kilog. in 
 1859. It may be hoped that this large reduction will re 
 store this culture to favor in our colonies, where it is now 
 unimportant, having been sacrificed like that of coffee to 
 the production of sugar. Doubtless the West Indian cocoa 
 has not the reputation of that of Martinico or Maracaybo. 
 Doubtless, too, the preparation of a cocoa plantation de 
 mands six or eight years ; but after this first labor, it lasts 
 fifty years on the sea-coast and thirty years in the interior, 
 and the owner can walk under the shade of his trees, analo 
 gous to our cherry-trees, with no other trouble than that of 
 seeing that they are watered. The culture is very easy, 
 
 * By French ships .... Colonies 20 fr. per 100 kil. 
 
 "... . Elsewhere 25 " " 
 
 . . Entrepots 35 " " 
 
 By foreign ships . ... . . 40 " " 
 
COFFEE, COCOA, TEA. 201 
 
 since the Mexicans had no difficulty in cultivating the cocoa- 
 tree, abandoned at the moment of the Spanish conquest, the 
 seeds of which they used as money ; while the savage tribes 
 of America, according to Humboldt, throw them away, and 
 suck the acid pulp which surrounds them. This culture 
 has, above all, the advantage of requiring little labor, and 
 also of being suited to small families. One man is suffi 
 cient to take care of one thousand trees, which yield 1,320 
 pounds of cocoa in average years. 
 
 The colonies reap no direct profit on the duty on teas, 
 reduced by the law of May 23, 1860, from 120 fr. on teas im 
 ported from China or Manilla, and 150 fr. on all others, to a 
 uniform rate of 75 fr., with the exception of an extra charge, 
 diminishing according to the production and flag, until 1866. 
 Even though the soil were suited to the culture of the tea- 
 shrub, how could it be disputed with the vast empire of 
 China, which consumes it in so great quantity that, it is 
 said, if the consumption of all the rest of the world were 
 suppressed, the price would not decrease there, and which 
 pays its wretched laborers but five or six pence a day ? But 
 the production of colonial sugar will profit by this reduc 
 tion, for the consumption of this leaf of a sort of small 
 orange-tree, unknown in Europe two hundred years ago, 
 has already become popular to an almost incredible degree. 
 In England, it amounted to 13,601,109 kilog. in 1831, to 
 more than 25,000,000 kilog. in 1859, and brings no less than 
 140,000,000 fr. into the Treasury. The French show the 
 same slowness in taking from the English their teas, as from 
 the Hollanders their coffee, and from the Spanish their choco 
 late ; we decidedly prefer our wine.* Nevertheless, the im 
 portation of tea has risen from 92,500 kilogrammes in 1850 to 
 283,570 in 1859. It is still an article of luxury, like cocoa, 
 but was not sugar also an article of luxury fifty years ago ? 
 
 * Annals of the Agricultural Society at Martinico, Tom. II. p. 474, quoted by 
 the Revue coloniale, 1853, p. 98. 
 9* 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 THE reduction of the impost on colonial products is not 
 the only remedy necessary for the salvation of the colonies. 
 A large immigration is earnestly solicited ; there is need of 
 new laborers, it is said, because the old ones will no longer 
 work, because the abolition of slavery has been the aboli 
 tion of labor. 
 
 This question merits the most attentive examination. 
 
 We briefly style immigration the contract for free laborers 
 or immigrants in divers countries, their transportation to the 
 colonies, and their engagement for a term of years for agri 
 cultural labor. This operation is costly and complicated, 
 but before all it raises many scruples. 
 
 Can the contract be made, at the starting-point, with pre 
 cautions sufficient to insure clearly the consent of the con 
 tracting party ? In offering employment to a numerous 
 population, does it not encourage the petty covetous and 
 ferocious sovereigns of thickly peopled countries to make 
 war, take captives, and resort to inhuman measures in order 
 to procure this advantageous commodity ? 
 
 Is not the transportation difficult to watch over, difficult 
 to distinguish from that of the slave-traders, to whom it 
 also offers another means of accomplishing their ends in 
 disguise ? 
 
 If this spring be imprudently opened, wifl the waters 
 that escape from it be pure ? Will not the colonies, if in 
 haste to receive laborers, have erelong to mourn for having 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 203 
 
 introduced on the soil, in the midst of their families, an in 
 ferior, ignorant, and heathen population ? 
 
 Thus, at the departure, during the voyage, and after the 
 arrival, three perils, arise three questions, questions 
 of supreme importance, the solution of which makes of the 
 same thing a crime or a benefit, a pollution or a progress, a 
 future of life or of death. 
 
 The question of immigration thus touches, on the one 
 side, the slave-trade, and, on the other, the question of 
 labor and good order in the colonies. The latter only we 
 shall examine here. 
 
 Good or evil, has not immigration become a necessity 
 since the abolition of slavery ? Is it not the proof and re 
 sult of the repugnance manifested by the former slaves to 
 labor ? This is daily repeated, and in terms which seem ir 
 refutable, because in appearance nothing is more specious. 
 Why is there need of a multitude of new laborers ? Because 
 it is no longer possible to count on the old ones. 
 
 Such an affirmation proves great ignorance of the history 
 of our colonies, or rather of all colonies. 
 
 I. Immigration is not a result of emancipation, but of 
 slavery. 
 
 From all time, the colonies have complained of the lack 
 of labor ; a very natural complaint, so long as a portion of 
 these fertile and vast territories remained unworked. We 
 know that in our four principal colonies more than half the 
 soil remains waste. 
 
 In Martinico, 163,351 acres out of 244,491. 
 
 In Guadaloupe, 217,564 acres out of 346,451. 
 
 In Bourbon,* 394,839 acres out of 620,996. 
 
 In Guiana, of about 138,650,000 acres, but 14,241 acres 
 are cultivated. 
 
 Nevertheless, the colonies have received an enormous in- 
 
 * It must be remarked that at Bourbon a large portion of the uncultivated 
 land is not susceptible of cultivation. 
 
204 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 crease of laborers. The number of Africans brought thither 
 during two centuries of the slave-trade is computed at sev 
 eral millions. The number of Africans sold in the different 
 slave countries from 1788 to 1848 is estimated at not less 
 than from 100,000 to 150,000 per year. What cities have 
 these men built ? What countries have they civilized ? 
 What forests, what savannas, have they cleared ? Where 
 do they live happy, instructed, Christian, progressing ? At 
 least, what descendants, what family, what population, 
 have they formed? 
 
 One half of these human beings died on the voyage or 
 during the first year s labor. Moreover, it is proved that 
 the deaths outnumbered the births by reason of the dispro 
 portion of the sexes, and that, while freedom and prosperity 
 multiply races, slavery subjects them to a continual and 
 rapid decrease. 
 
 It may be added, that, through his obsolete and miserable 
 routine of culture, the colonial agriculturist multiplied his 
 hands in vain.* 
 
 Thus the demand for hands in all the colonies has always 
 had three causes, the disproportion between the territory 
 and population, the diminution of the laboring class under 
 the system of slavery, and the bad system of cultivation en 
 gendered by slavery. 
 
 Before the abolition of the slave-trade, hands were already 
 lacking ; the slave-traders brought but few, to keep up the 
 price. f 
 
 After the abolition of the slave-trade, the need of new 
 laborers was naturally more felt ; at the same time the com- 
 
 * " Why do you leave half your lands fallow? " was asked of the overseer of 
 a plantation. " Because we lack hands." " That is, you lack a harrow, a 
 horse-hoe, a double plough, and a little strength of will to make your slaves 
 use these instruments, which cost 250 fr. in France." For three years tho 
 overseer had been writing to the proprietors in France for a harrow. (Revue 
 coloniale, 1847, p. 170.) 
 
 f Notices (^fficielks, 1840, p. 138. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 205 
 
 fort of the slaves was somewhat increased, as each master 
 had a little more interest in taking care of an implement dif 
 ficult to replace. 
 
 The colonies of all countries have not ceased for a single 
 day to seek the means of procuring new laborers without 
 having recourse to the slave-trade. On the other hand, ex 
 cess of population or excess of misery urges the people of 
 certain countries to flee a soil where they have received 
 wretchedness with birth ; the spirit of adventure and desire 
 of gain attracts other nations from home. The negroes, 
 captured or hunted like flocks, repair every year to the 
 eastern or western coast of Africa. The Philippine Isles, 
 the Dutch East India Islands, the peninsula of Malacca, 
 Siam, and Cochin China, overflow with Chinamen. They 
 are also found at the remote points of the globe, at the 
 Cape, in Guiana, but in far the greatest numbers in Califor 
 nia and Australia. Multitudes of Indian laborers, known by 
 the name of Hill Coolies, descend to the principal towns 
 of the coast to procure occupation there. 
 
 It is natural, and doubtless conformable to the mysterious 
 laws of Providence, that a current should be established, 
 when distance does not render it too costly, between these 
 races which are seeking labor and these lands which aro 
 awaiting it. 
 
 On the 18th of January, 1826, an order of the Governor 
 of Bourbon provided regulations for the introduction of East 
 Indians, and before 1830, 3,012 were already introduced 
 there. In 1843, another order provided for the introduc 
 tion of 1,000 Chinamen.* In the Isle of Mauritius, neigh 
 boring to Bourbon, the Indians were imported for the first 
 time in 1834 ; and from 1834 to 1839, more than 25,000 were 
 brought thither by private speculation. The immigration 
 was interdicted, then authorized anew, and 46,000 were in 
 troduced in 1843. The African immigration, demanded by 
 
 * Memorial of M. Challaye. (Revue coloniale, 1844, Tom. III. p. 552.) 
 
20G THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 the English colonies in 1842, and authorized with restric 
 tions in 1843, then more largely in 1841, despatched numer 
 ous laborers to Guiana, Jamaica, and Trinidad. A law was 
 proposed by the French government, April 22, 1845, to de 
 vote 600,000 fr. to the introduction of European laborers 
 into the West Indies. The statement of the reasons veri 
 fies and defines the position which we wish to sketch. 
 
 "The advantage which a few of the planters of Guada- 
 loupe and Martinico have already derived from the intro 
 duction of European laborers on their plantations, indicates 
 that the first attempts should be made in this direction, 
 Without excluding from the scheme French Guiana and the 
 Isle of Bourbon, we must acknowledge that these two colo 
 nies are found in conditions which imperatively demand 
 another mode of immediate assistance. At Guiana, the 
 population is sensibly decreasing, hands are lacking, estates 
 formerly cultivated are left in a state of almost complete 
 
 ruin At Bourbon, the births no longer keep pace 
 
 with the deaths, and the progressive movement which has 
 been manifested for a few years in cultivation, daily proves 
 the insufficiency of the working population. But the geo 
 graphical position of the Isle of Bourbon places it within 
 reach of the labor which it lacks. It has already taken the 
 initiative, in 1828, in procuring hired Indians More re 
 cently, again, regulations have been made for the introduc 
 tion of a thousand Chinamen. These immigrations may be 
 extended. Instructions have been given in this direction. 7 * 
 
 Thus, twenty years before the emancipation of the slaves, 
 European, African, Chinese, and Indian immigration had 
 been essayed or solicited by the colonies of all nations ; it 
 has not been an invention of emancipation. 
 
 II. Is it true that, since tfiis emancipation, it has become 
 absolutely indispensable ? Is it true that labor has almost 
 entirely ceased ? 
 
 * Revue colonial?, 1845, p. 436. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 207 
 
 One of the best informed and most able writers among 
 those that occupy themselves with colonial questions, M. 
 Jules Duval, wrote, December 1, 1859 * : 
 
 " The great matter of emigration is beginning to be set 
 tled. On condition of taking no account of the former slaves 
 and their descendants, who, abandoned to themselves, with 
 out the paternal solicitude of their former masters, fall back 
 into savage life, the solution seems found. " 
 
 In a more recent and more profound work,f devoted 
 solely to the Isle of Bourbon, the same writer thus ex 
 presses himself : 
 
 " Of about sixty thousand slaves freed in 1848, it is esti 
 mated that not more than one fourth are attached to any 
 plantation. 77 
 
 This opinion sums up the most wide-spread assertions. 
 The necessity of two special laws, the decrees of February 
 13 and March 21, 1852, on the labor police, vagrancy, and 
 immigration, followed by numerous and severe measures by 
 the Governors, is often also alleged as a proof of the diffi 
 culty of obtaining regular labor from the former slaves. J 
 
 It is very natural that minute and severe measures should 
 have been needed to prevent th*abuse of a wholly new con 
 dition ; it was at the same epoch that a law was made in 
 France subjecting workmen to the obligation of the Iwret. 
 It is forgotten that, from all time, the colonial governors 
 had been obliged to impose bounds on vagrancy, in a coun 
 try where half the lands are unoccupied, as well as rules 
 respecting change of residence and permits of sojourn, on a 
 soil where so many distinct races were landing, embarking, 
 and mingling together pell-mell. 
 
 * Journal des Debats. 
 
 t La Colonie de la Reunion. Revue des Deux-Mondes, April 15, 1860, p. 862. 
 
 t Bourbon: Orders of Oct. 24, 1748, Dec. 23, 1848, May 24 and June 13, 1849, 
 July 7 and Sept. 18, 1852; Circular of Sept, 21, 1852. Guadaloupe: Order in 
 147 Articles of Dec. 2, 1857. Martinico: Order in 88 Articles of Sept. 10, 1855. 
 This last order, due to Admiral de Gueydon, is admitted to have exercised a 
 most beneficial influence. 
 
208 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 It is also forgotten that the decree of February 13, 1852, 
 only gives a stricter definition to vagrancy,* but purely and 
 simply refers the penalty to the penal code (Art. 18), abro 
 gating the special rules of the decree of April 27, 1848. 
 
 It is forgotten, lastly, that one of the causes of the aver 
 sion of the freed slaves for .large estates has been precisely 
 the severity "of the measures taken to bring them back to 
 them, the Imrets, engagements, etc. To the law that 
 said, " The laborer is free ," regulations have added, " The 
 labor is compulsory." It will be admitted that the shade of 
 difference was not easy of comprehension to the newly freed 
 men. Escaped from constraint, they distrusted all that re 
 sembled it. 
 
 But is it correct that the labor of the former slaves and 
 their descendants is no longer to be taken into account, or that 
 scarcely one fourth remain attached to the plantations f 
 
 If we speak of the first years, this result is true, at least 
 in part. 
 
 Here is an impartial witness : - 
 
 "In the Isle of Bourbon, the new citizens accomplished 
 scrupulously, and without stirring from their respective 
 glebes, an engagement of firee labor which they had been 
 obliged to contract before the promulgation of the new de 
 cree. In the West Indies, even on the few planta 
 tions which were not completely disorganized, there was a 
 marked impulse of change of place and dispersion. It 
 seemed as if the negroes were feeling themselves to be fully 
 convinced that this freedom at length proclaimed was not 
 an illusion. They passed continually from one plantation 
 to another." 
 
 Notwithstanding, it must be said that, even in these first 
 
 * Art. 16. Vagrants, or unacknowledged persons, are those who, having no 
 means of subsistence and habitually exercising neither trade nor profession, 
 do not give proof of habitual labor by an engagement for a year at lease, or by 
 their livrel. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 209 
 
 days of intoxication, there was, properly speaking, no ces 
 sation of labor. It was in the midst of harvest in the West 
 Indies, and large quantities of the sugar-cane, already cut, 
 had remained for some days in the mill under process of fer 
 mentation. Almost all the planters succeeded in making 
 their hands understand that it was necessary to begin by 
 putting to mill, after which they could rejoice with full hearts 
 over the freedom proclaimed." * 
 
 The years 1849 and 1850 were much more calamitous 
 than 1848. We have seen that the diminntion of labor dur 
 ing these years should be attributed in great part to political 
 excitement ; but it is perfectly true that it was also among 
 the first effects of emancipation. 
 
 This was natural. What prisoner does not escape when 
 his prison door is broken ? What bird does not take flight 
 when his cage is opened ? What ! we expect of an igno 
 rant, wretched being, less intelligent than a gamin of Paris, 
 less virtuous than a Regulus, what none of those who speak 
 or write on these subjects would assuredly have done ! We 
 expect of him to make his freedom consist in resuming, un 
 der another title purely ideal, the same tool, in the same 
 place, under the same authority, to content himself with 
 changing name without changing condition, and to receive 
 this precious boon, freedom, the object of all his dreams, 
 without endeavoring to make use of it ! 
 
 Not only was the contrary natural, but it was foreseen. 
 " The culture arid preparation of colonial commodities have 
 always been a labor left exclusively to the hands of slaves. 
 For this reason alone, this labor has become in their eyes 
 the very token of slavery. Doubtless, one of the first uses 
 that the negroes will make of their freedom will be to ab 
 stract themselves from this kind of labor. "f This extract 
 from a report of M. d Haussonville, and the foresight which 
 
 * Lepelletier de Saint-Remy, Les Colonies depuis V abolition de Vesclavage. 
 t Moniteur, May 24, 1845, p. 1478. 
 
210 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 it expresses, will be also found in all the reports devoted to 
 colonial questions for fifteen years before emancipation. 
 
 Let it not be said, therefore, that it is emancipation that 
 has caused culture to be shunned ; it is the horror of 
 slavery, it is the spectacle of the idleness of the whites. 
 Slavery and labor, sloth and freedom, these words were 
 synonymous in the colonies, and the phrases, to work like a 
 negro, beaten like a negro, slothful as a Creole, had become 
 proverbs. If it is freedom that has made them flee labor, 
 it is slavery that rfas made them detest it. 
 
 There is reason to be surprised, not that the former slaves 
 deserted their labor, but that they returned to it. 
 
 Now they have returned to it in great numbers, and, 
 without entering into the details of multitudinous corre 
 spondence carried on regarding this between the colonies 
 and the government, here are two incontestable proofs 
 of it. 
 
 At Martinico, according to the notices published by the 
 government in 1858,* the number of laborers employed in 
 cultivation is 48,970. The indemnity was accorded for 
 56,556 slaves, of whom one third at least were infirm per 
 sons, women, and children, f 
 
 * It is not exactly clear Avho the notices style laborers ; whether they are 
 only those who work continuously on the same plantation, or also those who 
 hire by the day here and there, as in France. The statistics of these notices 
 appear inexact; for they indicate a diminution of 30 per cent at Martinico in 
 the number of laborers from 1847 to 1856, and of 13 per cent only for Guada- 
 loupe. Now, Guadaloupe has produced less than Martinico. This is impossi 
 ble. We will take the figures, however, as they are given us. The abstract is 
 as follows : 
 
 1835 . . 181,758 slaves. 1857 . . 179,015 laborers. 
 
 t Declarations des dc legues des Colonies devant la Commission Parlementaire, 
 July 10, 1839, proces-verbaux, p. 418. 
 
 Delegate from Guadaloupe, : Scarcely two thirds of the slaves labor effectively. 
 
 Delegate from Martinico : My opinion is the same. 
 
 Delegate from Guiana : Of two hundred blacks, from sixty to seventy labor 
 ers may be counted. 
 
 Delegate from Bourbon : Of three hundred slaves, there are about two hun 
 dred laborers. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 211 
 
 Who, then, form the present contingent of laborers ? Im 
 migrants ? In ten years, 1848-1851, but 4,578 were in 
 troduced into "Martinico. The great majority must be, 
 therefore, the former slaves, unless they may be the former 
 masters. 
 
 At Guadaloupe,* the number of laborers was 51,660 ; the 
 indemnity was computed on 55,416 slaves. Now, before 
 1856, but 1800 immigrants were introduced ; the former 
 slaves and their children are not therefore idle. 
 
 At Guiana, f 7,291 laborers ; indemnity had been accorded 
 for 13,727 slaves ; there were 1,312 immigrants, the result 
 is not so good, but far from void. 
 
 At Bourbon, the number of hired laborers has been in 
 comparably greater. Since 1852, it has been about 7,000 
 a year, amounting in 1856 to 50,227, and in 1857 to 
 53,000;J that is, nearly to the number of the former 
 slaves, 56,059. But of these 53,000 hired men, a number 
 bitve died or returned ; as in the 56,000 slaves, at least one 
 third may be counted as women, children, and infirm ; there 
 are therefore about 35,000 able-bodied slaves, to which may 
 be added, up to 1856, about 40,000 hired laborers ; now at 
 this epoch, the number of workmen indicated by the official 
 notice is 71,094. 
 
 There is another manner of measuring labor, by the 
 amount of product. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the cultivation of the 
 sugar-cane, from the time of planting to that of maturity, 
 demands from sixteen to eighteen months, and that the 
 immigrants need acclimation. The product of their labor 
 does not commence, therefore, until about two years after 
 their arrival. Now in the Antilles, East Indian immigra 
 tion commenced at the close of 1854, and African immi 
 gration not till 1857 ; the latter has only been considerable 
 
 * Ibid, p. 28. f P. 42. 
 
 t M. Duval, Revue des Deux-Mondes, p. 868, 1860. P. 55. 
 
212 
 
 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 since 1855 at Bourbon, where that of the East Indians re 
 mains stationary, as is proved by the following table, for 
 which I am indebted to the Colonial Direction. 
 
 MARTINICO. 
 
 East Indians. Madeirians. 
 
 Africans. 
 
 June 30, 1854 
 
 889 58 
 
 .... 
 
 Dec. 31, 1854 
 
 1,247 60 
 
 .... 
 
 1855 
 
 1,563 34 
 
 .... 
 
 " 1856 
 
 2,987 33 
 
 .... 
 
 " 1857 
 
 4,037 
 
 541 
 
 1858 
 
 5,279 
 
 1,248 
 
 " 1859 
 
 6,748 
 
 2,976 
 
 
 GUADALOUPE. 
 
 
 Numerical 
 
 Position of Laborers in 
 
 tlie Colony. 
 
 
 East Indians. Chinamen, 
 
 Africans. 
 
 June 30, 1854 
 
 . . 
 
 
 December, 1854 
 
 314 
 
 . . 
 
 " 1855 
 
 691 . . 
 
 
 January, 1856 
 
 1,646 
 
 
 December, 1857 
 
 2,884 
 
 6-9 
 
 " 1858 
 
 3,989 . . 
 
 1,138 
 
 November, 1859 
 
 4,155 184 
 
 2,995 
 
 Total.* 
 1,234 
 1,594 
 2,885 
 3,307 
 4,578 
 6,527 
 10,256 
 
 Total.f 
 
 189 
 
 495 
 
 855 
 
 1,790* 
 
 3,094 
 
 5,264 
 
 7,334 
 
 BOUEBOX. 
 
 Numerical Position of Foreign Laborers in the Colony. 
 
 East Indians. 
 
 Africans. 
 
 Total.J 
 
 December, 1854 
 
 1855 
 
 " 1856 
 
 " 1857 
 
 " 1858 
 
 " 1859 
 
 It is only since 1857 and 1858, therefore, that the pres- 
 
 * Including a few hundred Europeans and laborers from the English colonies, 
 and 500 Chinamen, arrived in 1859. 
 f Including a few Europeans. 
 J Including a few Chinamen. 
 
 34,461 
 
 6,366 
 
 41,287 
 
 35,201 
 
 10,265 
 
 45,914 
 
 36,071 
 
 13,701 
 
 50,227 
 
 36,144 
 
 16,580 
 
 53,175 
 
 36,251 
 
 24,143 
 
 60,839 
 
 36,025 
 
 25,636 
 
 62,104 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 213 
 
 ence of the immigrants has had power to exert an apprecia 
 ble influence on the value of the products. Now we have 
 seen that the product of the years subsequent to slavery, 
 after five inferior years, rose, during the following quin 
 quennial period, above the product of the years anterior to 
 slavery. Let us refer again to the statistics. 
 
 AGGREGATE OF COMMERCE. 
 
 1843-1847. 1852-1857. 
 
 Martinico . . . 39,226,503 fr. 51,646,959 fr. 
 
 Guadaloupe . . 39,228,912 39,904,671 
 Guiana 4,081,799 7,954,376 
 
 Bourbon . . . 33,074,648 72,324,705 
 
 To be still more precise, we will compare%nly the statis 
 tics of exportations ten years distant. 
 
 1847. 1S57. 
 
 Martinico . . . 18,323,921 h. 24,830,093 li. 
 
 Guadaloupe . . 20,420,522 23,319,277 
 Guiana . . . 1,622,919 961,272 
 
 Bourbon . . . 12,620,602 33,130,125 
 
 Except at Guiana, where immigration is also almost void, 
 the product has been everywhere higher. Now at Marti 
 nico and Guadaloupe, the number of immigrants before this 
 epoch was insignificant ; the product was therefore almost 
 wholly the result of the labor of the former slaves. At 
 Bourbon, we will admit the hired men to have doubled the 
 number of laborers ; but the product has tripled, the 
 former slaves count for something in it, therefore, without 
 forgetting machinery. 
 
 It is objected, that the number of acres under cultivation 
 has diminished in three colonies. 
 
 1846. 1856. 
 
 Martinico . ..... . 85,257 acres 78,253 acres 
 
 Guadaloupe . . . 108,163 58,844 
 
 Guiana 21,766 14,161 
 
 Bourbon .... 152,140 227,209 
 
214 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 We see that the extent of culture has diminished in the 
 colonies, except at Bourbon ; especially at Guadaloupe and 
 Guiana, where it has fallen off nearly half, although the 
 amount of the products has been increased. 
 
 But it is impossible to escape from this dilemma. Since 
 the products of the labor have increased, either the greater 
 part of the slaves have worked, in which case it is unjust 
 to accuse emancipation of having killed labor ; or else the 
 number of laborers has diminished, in which case less 
 hands have sufficed for more products, which is the best 
 proof of the superiority of free labor over slave labor. 
 
 It must therefore be concluded, that free labor is more 
 productive than slave labor, and that better management 
 of plantations and improved processes of cultivation have 
 been brought about by the spur of necessity. It is evident 
 that the diminution of hands was one of the most important 
 advantages of all others to realize. "It is surprising/ 7 
 wrote an already-cited observer in 1859, " to see hundreds 
 of slaves and droves of mules and oxen employed on a hun 
 dred acres, and cultivating an estate which in France 
 
 would be tilled by a few farm servants and half a dozen 
 horses." Let no one complain, therefore, of the diminution 
 of hands, without remembering that they were formerly in 
 superabundance, with fewer, more is produced. 
 
 But it must be admitted, at the same time, that important 
 cultures have been abandoned. Coffee has continued to be 
 neglected, perhaps because the soil is too far exhausted ; 
 but the sugar-cane, to which so much has been sacrificed, 
 has been in more than one place abandoned, as I do not 
 deny.* 
 
 Let us directly remark, that this proceeds from three 
 causes, and not from one alone. 
 
 * Mark the statistics of 1856, the last year of which they are officially known, 
 as compared with those of 1846. These statistics are extracted from the Notices 
 sur les colonies, by M. Ray, and from the Tableaux de population, de culture, de 
 commerce, et de navigation, for the year 1856, published in 1860, Nos. 12-17. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 215 
 
 1. It is not only the negroes that flee the plantations, but 
 also the whites. Labor has been less in demand, but also 
 
 Number of he 
 Sugar-cane . 
 Coffee 
 
 MartLnico. 
 1846. 1856. 
 
 sctares under cultivation 34,530 31,723 
 . . - . 20,232 h. 18,202 
 V . . . . 1,856 h. 625 
 
 Guadaloupe. 
 184G. 1856. 
 44,813 23,876 
 14,189 22,349 
 4,736 2,206 
 1,139 656 
 134 122 
 10 311 
 16,379 6,360 
 3,562 3,963 
 51,522 51,659f 
 
 3,861 3;385 
 892 430 
 9,114 4,485 
 23,450 8,075 
 27,238 8,427 
 6,142 8,057 
 9,023 9,331J 
 
 159 h. 
 
 47 
 423 
 345 
 12,081 
 4,748 
 43,794 
 62 
 2,954 
 205 
 4,460 
 15,094 
 11,145 
 3,644 
 9,249 
 
 Cocoa 
 Tobacco 
 Provisions 
 
 592 h. 
 
 19 h. 
 11,672 
 3,256 
 
 Workmen 
 Machines . 
 Horses 
 
 65,228* 
 28 
 2,293 
 152 
 
 Mules 
 Cattle . 
 
 5,483 
 16,661 
 
 Sheep 
 
 13,578 
 
 Goats . 
 Hogs 
 
 1,388 
 3,902 
 
 * In the report of the table of population (p. 12), it is stated that this number, 
 65,228, includes the women, children, and infirm, while the effective laborers 
 number 43,794. The same table proves that the number of children under six 
 years old exceeds one third. Without speaking of women, if one third, or 
 21,742, be subtracted from 65,228, but 43,000 slaves remain; the exact number 
 of 1846. 
 
 t For Guadaloupe the deduction has been made. Now, the statistics of 1846 
 and 1856 are precisely the same. This makes it difficult to admit the figure in 
 dicated for cultures. How could 23,000 hectares employ as many laborers as 
 44,000 ? The error is confirmed by the amount of products.. Would the 22,000 
 hectares planted with cane in 1856 produce, in raw and clayed sugars, syrup, 
 molasses, and tafia, only 31,892,050 fr., and the 11,000 hectares of 1856 have 
 produced 33,912,780 fr. ? The prices having generally fallen, this rise could not 
 be attributed to their variation. 
 
 J In the sequel of the excellent report of M. Jules Duval, in behalf of the 
 special jury of the colonies and Algeria, at the general exhibition of agricul 
 ture in 1860 (Revue coloniale, Dec., 1860), is found a resume of the statistical 
 documents concerning the colonies, for 1837, 1847, and 1857, which is full of 
 interest. But, although drawn from official sources, it contains (as the author 
 takes care to Avarn us) more than one hypothesis and more than one inaccuracy; 
 and especially several figures, which it is impossible to reconcile either with each 
 other, with the Tableaux of 1856, or with the notices which serve us as a guide. 
 These disagreements are vexatious, but irremediable, on account of the imper 
 fection of the statistics sent by the colonies. See also the Statistique de la 
 France, published in 1860, by M. Maurice Block, Tom. n. chap. xx. 
 
216 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 less to be had. The moment of the payment of the indem 
 nity was that of a general liquidation. 
 
 I read in a despatch of Vice-Admiral Fourichon, Gov 
 ernor of Guiana : 
 
 " The planter who was involved in debt before emancipa 
 tion, and who in general sacrificed his indemnity to satisfy 
 his creditors, has been constrained, for want of capital to 
 furnish wages, to let his old laborers go. From this results 
 stoppage of manufactories and decrease of works, canals, 
 and dikes." 
 
 2. Hands are lacking at Bourbon, which produces more, 
 as lat Guiana, which produces less ; the same effect must, 
 therefore, ensue from two opposite causes, the diminution 
 of laborers and the increase of labor. 
 
 3. It is not only in the colonies, but everywhere, that, 
 under the sway of an impulse more easy to comprehend 
 than to fetter, the working classes quit the fields for the 
 towns. Hands are lacking in the environs of Paris, as in 
 the environs of Cayenne ; the labor of the fields seems for 
 saken ; the amount of labor is the same ; labor is not de 
 stroyed, it has changed place. The petty urban branches of 
 trade and fishery thus receive numbers of former slaves, 
 disgusted with the rude labor of the fields. It is known 
 that from all time the mulattoes and colored men, both free 
 and freed, have preferred the trades to culture, and their 
 example has naturally influenced the newly freed men. To 
 general reasons the attraction of higher wages, the love 
 of change, the desire for the unknown, the temptation of a 
 less monotonous life is joined in the colonies the special 
 reason already given, the horror of their ancient condi 
 tion and the fear of falling back into it, or, above all, of see 
 ing their wives do so, which is so great, that the negroes, 
 it is everywhere remarked, hasten to escape from the labor 
 of the soil ; then, lastly, the facility of possessing a little 
 freehold and supporting themselves from its profits. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 217 
 
 For a double movement is wrought; the one towards 
 populous centres, the other towards unoccupied space. 
 There, alone with his family, the negro lives on little, on a 
 soil fructified by the sun, and measures his labor by his 
 needs, which are almost nothing, and his enjoyments, which 
 are precisely idleness and a roving life. But it is the admi 
 rable moral mechanism of freedom, that its duties support 
 and are linked one with another ; because he has a famity, 
 man wishes property, to acquire it he devotes himself to 
 labor ; if he shuns labor, he is constrained to it by priva 
 tion ; that this labor may be advantageous, he labors for 
 another, and is thus brought back by the desire of his per 
 sonal advantage to contribute to the common good. 
 
 In a report on English Guiana, in 1840, I read that the 
 number of negro freeholders, including the members of 
 their families, was already 15,906 individuals ; having con 
 structed on their lands, at their own expense, 3,322 houses. 
 The report adds : "When the peasant of Guiana rises a 
 degree in the social scale, and becomes the proprietor of a 
 little plot of fertile soil, there are few conditions so worthy 
 of envy as his, few countries so happily apportioned. At 
 the sight of this prosperity of the laborers of English Gui 
 ana, one is tempted to say of the cultivated part of the col 
 ony, as Goldsmith said of Old England and its products, 
 Each inch of ground supports its man. 
 
 I do not assuredly pretend that this picture, drawn six 
 years after emancipation, is the portrait of our colonies. 
 Let us not hasten to believe, however, that emancipation 
 has transformed all slaves into vagrants who have been 
 unwilling to cultivate sugar-cane ; a great number do 
 other things, busy themselves in the towns, or raise their 
 support from a bit of ground. I repeat it, labor has 
 changed place rather than been destroyed. 
 
 The statistics of the customs transform this hypothesis 
 into a real fact. At Martinico and Guadaloupe, while the 
 10 
 
218 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 amount of sugar imported into France produced on large 
 plantations diminished after 1848, almost all other industrial 
 or agricultural products increased. At Martinico, rum, 
 cocoa, cassia, hides, wood, and divers articles. At Guada- 
 loupe, rum, anotta, wood, copper, hides, cotton, and divers 
 articles . 
 
 Another thing attests the same fact. Where are the 
 paupers ? where the mendicants ? Emancipation has im 
 pelled one portion of the slaves towards the towns, another 
 towards the unoccupied lands, very few towards the prisons 
 and hospitals ; it has made artisans and small freeholders, 
 some vagrants, few beggars, and few criminals. 
 
 Large plantations have suffered without causing the en 
 tire community to suffer. But as it is possible that the 
 desertion of the cultures, less considerable than is affirmed, 
 may still increase, and that the scarcity of hands may raise 
 wages, how revive the large plantations, how triumph, 
 without raising wages, over so many causes of desertion 
 of the laborers ? A common voice answers, By immi 
 gration. 
 
 Yes, immigration is necessary, provisionally, to develop 
 production and diminish its expense. It is a means of 
 lowering wages by the competition of labor, and of dimin 
 ishing the costs of manufacture by manufacturing on a 
 larger scale. 
 
 Herein is the true end, the true reason, to render the 
 labor of the former slaves less costly, to lessen the net cost. 
 
 We repeat it, hands are demanded less to replace the for 
 mer workmen than to stimulate them, to. lower wages and 
 to develop cultures ; not substitutes, but competitors, are 
 sought. 
 
 I admit so evident a necessity ; it explains all the de 
 mands of the colonists, all the efforts of the French govern 
 ment to obtain new laborers. 
 
 III. It is known that the government did not authorize 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 219 
 
 recruital on the African coast until 1852, and that it reg 
 ulated minutely all the conditions of immigration by the 
 two decrees of March 13 and 27, 1852.* 
 
 A first agreement was made between the Minister of the 
 Marine and two shipping merchants of Granville, in 1854= 
 and 1855. Others less important followed. A more recent 
 treaty was concluded, March 14, 1857, between Admiral 
 Hamelin and the celebrated house of MM. Regis, of Mar 
 seilles, which has agents all along the African coast. Here 
 is the literal text of the first articles of this curious agree 
 ment : 
 
 Art. 1. M. Regis, Sen., binds himself to introduce into 
 Martinico and Guadaloupe 20,000 hired Africans suited to 
 agriculture. 
 
 Art. 2. The introduction shall commence in 1857. The 
 whole number of 20,000 shall have been introduced by Jan 
 uary 1, 1863. 
 
 Art. 3. The contingent for each colony shall comprise 
 women from twelve to twenty-five years of age, in a pro 
 portion which, in the aggregate immigration of each year, 
 shall not be less than one fifth, nor exceed one half. 
 
 * The immigrant engages himself in the presence of a government agent, 
 and for five years only. He must be assured of his freedom, and must under 
 stand the contract that is proposed him. He is entitled to his homeward ex 
 penses, with those of his wife and children, if he wishes to return, or to a 
 premium equal to these expenses if he prefers to re-engage himself. 
 
 During the passage everything is regulated, his bed, his food, the space to 
 which he is entitled, his clothing, his treatment if sick. 
 
 A cruising squadron is kept, at great expense, on the coast of Africa, and the 
 commandant watches with extreme solicitude over frauds, infractions, or en 
 croachments through negligence or cupidity in these complicated operations. 
 
 At the place of disembarkation, the immigrant is placed under the care of 
 another government agent,* and his wages, premium, and return are guaranteed 
 by this protection. He is vaccinated, cared for, fed, and clothed in the man 
 ner provided for by the regulations.- Those who fail in their engagements to 
 him are menaced with severe penalties. 
 
 To undertake the transportation of immigrants, an authorization is necessary. 
 
 * This agent is generally a surge on of the navy, chosen as best acquainted with the 
 details of salubrity and hygiene. 
 
220 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Art. 4. The immigrants can only embark on the ships 
 of M. Regis in a state of freedom. 
 
 This agreement is in full execution. The colonists antici 
 pate the most happy results from it. 
 
 But what ! is not this a most remarkable fact from the 
 stand-point that we take ? It is from the African race that 
 laborers are borrowed, destined to replace other Africans 
 who are accused of caring only for idleness. 
 
 Europeans, East Indians, Chinamen, and Africans have 
 been successively tried. 
 
 In 1845, as we have seen, the French government desired 
 to encourage European immigration. This was a wise and 
 far-seeing measure, for the colonists were lacking most of 
 all in choice artisans, mechanics, overseers, and agricultural 
 managers, to perfect their stock of implements, and direct 
 or train less intelligent workmen. It is often said, that this 
 attempt failed because it is impossible for Europeans to 
 labor under a tropical sun, and a proof is frequently al 
 leged in the lack of success of the former bound whites, 
 who were the first laborers of the colonies. But it is for 
 gotten that these bound men labored nevertheless for 148 
 years, from 1626 to 1174.* It is, above all, forgotten 
 that, chosen at random by sea-captains, transported with 
 out calculating for these Frenchmen, as is done for an 
 Indian, the height of the deck of the vessel, and the quan 
 tity of respirable air and drinkable water, treated during 
 the eighteen months or two years of their engagements like 
 true slaves, badly fed, and often without wages, these bound 
 laborers nevertheless became the heads of numerous fami 
 lies who still inhabit the colonies. They were not destined 
 to labor, but to people, and the decree of 17H checked 
 immigration because the end was attained, because the 
 white population was sufficiently augmented. The bound 
 men ended, therefore, not because they had failed, but be- 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1847, p. 217. Hist, du travail avx colonies, by M. Maurel. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 221 
 
 cause they had succeeded. In any case, there is nothing 
 comparable between the two epochs, unless it be the cli 
 mate, which has remained the same. Now whites have 
 been seen to labor even at Guiana ; there are many at Porto 
 Rico ; the railroad from Kingston to Spanish Town, in Ja 
 maica, was constructed by whites, in 1845, without a single 
 one having died in the task.* Doubtless the whites have 
 more difficulty than the blacks in becoming acclimated ; 
 but after all, if French or European immigration tends lit 
 tle towards the colonies, it is less because Frenchmen can 
 not live there, than because they like better to live in 
 France. It is kncvwn that, for various reasons, the French 
 is the least emigrating of nations, f Moreover, they are 
 accustomed to wages and food which renders their employ 
 ment very costty. But the introduction .of good European 
 workmen into the colonies should not be renounced, even 
 at great expense ; there is greater need of heads there 
 than hands. 
 
 The races accustomed to emigration and adapted to labor 
 under a tropical sun are, in Asia, the Chinamen and the 
 East Indians ; in Africa, the negroes of both coasts, and the 
 inhabitants of Madeira, the Azores, and Madagascar. 
 
 The East Indian is sober, more intelligent than the black, 
 but less robust. Ill treated in his own country, he emi 
 grates willingly, but with the intention of returning. 
 
 The immigration of East Indian laborers, known under 
 the name of Coolies, was easy to England, since she found 
 them in her own possessions. More than 150,000 have been 
 hired and transported to her colonies. 
 
 France has naturally been tempted to imitate her exam 
 ple. A first convoy was organized in 1852 by the Louis 
 
 * Revue, coloniale, 1845, pp. 7, 216. 
 
 f Of 400,000 persons that annually quit Europe, England counts more than 
 240,000; Germany, 100,000; France, "from 17,000 to 18,000. (Report of M. Hu 
 bert-Delisle to the Senate on the law of immigration, July 10, 1860.) 
 
222 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Napoleon, with infinite precautions for the health, liberty, 
 and family reunion of the engaged Coolies. Several convoys 
 followed, with satisfactory success, and 12,000 East Indians 
 were thus despatched to our colonies, principally to Bour 
 bon. The East Indians sailed from our stations of Poridi- 
 cheriy and Karikal ; but the territory of these wrecks of our 
 former power is exceedingly circumscribed, and nearly all 
 the Coolies came from the interior, and were natives of the 
 vast Britannic possessions. 
 
 Now, what has England resolved ? She has constantly 
 refused legally to sanction this immigration ; and our re 
 cruiting agents have been more than once-, even at the time 
 of the Crimean war, seized, fined, and imprisoned. She 
 demands that we shall renounce Africans, and refuses us East 
 Indians. For several years, things have stood in this wise. 
 It needed the skilful energy of the delegate from Bourbon, 
 M. Imhaus, to obtain of the English government, in 1860, a 
 treaty insuring to this colony 6,000 Coolies. 
 
 China does not give us what was refused us in the East 
 Indies. More remote from our possessions, closed, de 
 spite constantly violated treaties, to all relations with Eu 
 rope, it offers us but insufficient resources. England had 
 counted greatly on Chinamen ; * and in 1851 Mr. George 
 Barclay wrote to Earl Grey, "We shall find laborers in 
 China more capable of enduring the climate than the Ma- 
 deirians, more energetic than the East Indians, and more 
 tractable than the Kroomans " (free Africans from the Kroo 
 coast). 
 
 Another agent, Mr. White, wrote, at the same epoch, from 
 Macao : 
 
 " The Chinese population in the south is superabundant. 
 Its means of existence are- not in proportion to its daily 
 increase ; a superhuman effort is needed for it to procure 
 the prime necessaries of life. In spite of the regulations, 
 
 * Parliamentary papers. Reports to the Committee of Emigration, 1851. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 223 
 
 which strictly prohibit emigration, the Chinamen desire to 
 quit their country, and are ready to go wherever there is 
 a chance of earning their livelihood. Thousands go from 
 Singapore yearly, and spread over the neighboring islands. 
 There are several hundred thousand in Java. They swarm 
 at Manilla. They are found in masses in Australia and 
 California." 
 
 The climate of the south of China is, moreover, the same 
 as that of the Antilles. Sugar-mills and well-cultivated, su 
 gar-cane plantations are to be seen near Amoy. At Singa 
 pore and Penang, under the same latitude as that of Guiana, 
 the Chinamen have cleared forests, planted spices, etc. 
 
 Moreover, they are generally robust and laborious. De 
 spite these advantages, while the Chinamen become easily 
 acclimated at Cuba, accept in Peru the repugnant labor of 
 loading guano, and finish the Panama Railroad under the 
 tropical sun, it appears that they have not wholly succeed 
 ed in the English colonies, unless it may be in Guiana and 
 Trinidad, nor in the French possessions, either because the 
 length of the voyage has rendered the price high arid the 
 mortality fearful,* or because the obligation to recruit only 
 at open ports has created too many difficulties, f or, lastly, 
 because the danger of mutinies on shipboard, which were 
 very frequent, has compelled the ship-owners to raise the 
 price of freight very high, or to refuse their vessels. 
 
 Abuses besides have been numerous ; they were the ori 
 gin of serious disturbances at Arnoy, and the English pa 
 pers contain abominable details of the illicit embarkation of 
 young girls under the Portuguese flag, and of cruelties of 
 which Chinamen transported under the English flag to the 
 Chincha Islands were the victims, to the point of commit 
 ting suicide to escape their fate. J 
 
 * 24 ships took on board 7,356 Chinamen for Peru, and landed but 4,754. 
 t The glorious treaty signed at Pekin, Oct. 25, 1860, removes these difficul 
 ties; emigration and engagements are free. 
 
 t Correspondence of Lord Clarendon and Sir John Bowring, 1854. 
 
224 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 But the principal obstacle to the immigration of the Chi 
 namen, as the East Indians, rose from the ruling cause in 
 every question of race, the cause on which religion alone 
 can act, morals. The East Indian after arriving in the 
 colony, restrained by his prejudices of caste, will not mar 
 ry ; he founds no stock, and as it is impossible to bring as 
 many women as men, a revolting immorality ensues.* The 
 Chinamen have not the same scruples, and numerous half- 
 breed Chinese are seen at Borneo and the Philippine Islands. 
 But, in our colonies, few are disposed to marry Chinamen, 
 and the condition of women in China renders their emigration 
 impossible. The English correspondence is full of curious 
 information on this head, perfectly in conformity with the 
 accounts of our missionaries. The Chinese pride themselves 
 on having ancestry, and consequently on leaving children ; 
 but the female ancestry is naught in their eyes ; the infan 
 ticide of female infants is very common, the sale of young 
 girls for prostitution has nothing shocking ; women are 
 bought, and marriage is only a bargain, a great number 
 of them are slaves. There is no other means, according to 
 the testimony of Mr. White, of procuring them for the col 
 onies than to buy them. But we comprehend that Sir John 
 Bowring energetically opposed this traffic ; we also com 
 prehend the immorality induced by the immigration of Chi 
 namen without family, and heartily applaud the language 
 of Sir George Bonham : " If no means are found of obtain 
 ing an immigration of women, that of men should directly 
 cease, morality, and the duties which it imposes on us, 
 command it " ; f and the words of the Duke of Newcastle, 
 writing to the colonial governors : "If the proportions of 
 
 * The filthiness of the East Indians is no less repulsive. I read in an interest 
 ing report of M. Leclerc, a surgeon delegated by the government to accompany 
 429 emigrants who left Pondicherry, Aug. 2, 1859, for Guadaloupe, on the Siam 
 (Revue coloniale, March, 1860): " The itch is a very common affection, and one 
 verv difficult to destroy among the Indians, who regard it as a useful eruption, 
 necessary to the health. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 225 
 
 the two sexes cannot be re-established, an end must be put to 
 immigration, however lamentable may be the necessity."* 
 This immorality of the Chinamen and Indians, and these in 
 veterate usages, one power alone could conquer. But these 
 are the races of all others most difficult to convert to Chris 
 tianity. At Bourbon, a special chapel for the Indians, 
 adorned in the style of their country, has been erected by 
 the care of the bishop ; and two Jesuit missionaries and a 
 cure devote themselves to the laborious task of instructing 
 more than 30,000 Indians. But their apostleship extends 
 only to a very small number, and ends with the duration of 
 their stay. The greater number live heathen and like 
 heathen. 
 
 In Africa, the islands of Madeira and the Azores fur 
 nished, in 184T and 1848, 15,000 persons to the English, and 
 a few hundreds to our colonies ; but this evidently is not a 
 sufficient source. 
 
 Bourbon might have recourse to the Malgaches, inhabit 
 ing the coast of the large island of Madagascar ; they are 
 born free, and regarded as hardy and intelligent ; but the 
 tribe of Hovas holds them under their yoke, and as long as 
 this oppression lasts, their engagement will be always im 
 possible or precarious. 
 
 The vast African continent lay yonder, fronting by 
 its east coast our American possessions ; by its west, 
 the Isle of Bourbon and our settlements in the Comoros. 
 Moreover, the negro was already familiar to our colonists, 
 more submissive than the Indian, more moral than the Chi 
 naman, more o^pen to religious influences than either, more 
 easily established and mingled with the population. 
 
 This race has been, and is still, universally preferred. 
 
 Is it not curious, from our present stand-point, to see the 
 colonies return by preference to the African race ? 
 
 At the close of a memorial written in 1844, on the advan- 
 
 * Correspondence of the English Government, 1864, pp. 22 - 25. 
 10* O 
 
226 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 tages of Chinese and East Indian immigration,* I read these 
 words : 
 
 " We shall witness, perhaps, the elucidation of the fact 
 that the providential march of events has in store for the 
 human race. 
 
 " The black population, driven and crowded back on all 
 sides by other families placed a degree higher in the devel 
 opment of the human species, will disappear from the coun 
 tries subject to the sovereignty of the whites." 
 
 The contrary is realized. These higher families bow less 
 willingly to toil, and open themselves less readily to Chris 
 tianity, than this always despised race ; and after having 
 carefully sought how to replace the freed negroes, we have 
 been forced to conclude that it must be by other freed 
 negroes. 
 
 Does not this immigration, which seems the remedy for 
 all the evils of the colonies, menace them -with serious 
 eyils, which will endure longer than the transient services 
 they can render ? 
 
 The evils induced by immigration were pointed out at 
 first, and have been realized ever since the day that it 
 was accomplished. It is baleful to the freedmen, the col 
 onies, the colonists, and the hired laborers. 
 
 Immigration weighs on the wages of the freedmen, and, 
 designed to supply the place of those who do not labor, it 
 comes in competition with those who do labor ; far from 
 encouraging labor among them, it consummates its discour 
 agement. 
 
 It imposes on the colonists expenses f which would be 
 
 * M. de Challaye, ex-consul in China, fievue colonink, 1844, pp. 3, 557. 
 
 t L Avenir, Guadaloupe, Dec. 2, 1859, states that the colony had already 
 received 5,773 East Indians, 188 Madeirians, and 3,205 Africans, in all, 9,166 
 immigrants, since 1854; but that, the immigration fund failing, it became neces 
 sary to replenish it, in part, from the engaged laborers, and in part by a poll- 
 tax. Is it not iniquitous to lay this tax on those to whom it is designed to raise 
 up competitors? 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 227 
 
 better employed in improving their stock of tools and pay 
 ing the freedmen higher wages ; it accustoms them to re 
 main in the old routine of bad management. 
 
 In his report on the administration of Jamaica, in 1845, 
 the Governor, Lord Elgin, declared that he had but indiffer 
 ent confidence in the effect of the introduction of immi 
 grants, viewing it, says he, " as a means of not admitting 
 the improvements dictated by experience, and also of low 
 ering the price of labor by the creation of a factitious com 
 petition."* 
 
 The Governor of Bourbon, M. Darricau, exclaimed in 
 1858, with laudable frankness : " They ask me everywhere 
 for hands, and everywhere I see nothing but abuse of hands. 
 They remember very well that they have a rival in indige 
 nous sugar when the regulation of the differential duties is 
 in question ; they think little of it when the question is to 
 regulate the industrial economy of the sugar production."! 
 
 Baleful to the freedmen, an evil counsellor to the colo 
 nists, immigration creates above all a permanent danger to 
 the social and moral state %f the colonies. On thinking of 
 these nooks of the globe, where crowd and mingle to 
 gether masses of negroes, Indians, Chinamen, and Malays, 
 with a handful of whites, one shudders for the race, threat 
 ened by deplorable mixtures, and for morality, and good 
 order, afflicted by this invasion of a heathenism which 
 Christianity has not time to break through. By the admis 
 sion of all, J this new population is shamefully immoral ; to 
 its presence the magistrates attribute the progress of crim 
 inality, arid how should it be otherwise ? Of 25,458 East 
 Indians introduced into Mauritius by private speculation, 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1847, No. 11, p. 323. 
 
 t Journal des Debuts, Sept. 18, 1859. 
 
 J At no epoch, not even in the worst times of slavery, has the country had 
 to mourn heinous crimes so numerous and so various, as since the East Indian 
 immigration. (Jules Duval, Bourbon, Rev. des Deux-Mondes, April 15, 186 G, 
 p. 868.) 
 
228 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 from 1834 to 1839, there were 500 women ; of -16,000 intro 
 duced in 1843, 6,000 women. No priests of their tongue, 
 no chiefs, no schools, no examples among these laborers, 
 the lowest of their country, which the priests are attempt 
 ing with infinite pains to evangelize. Mauritius has 
 already received more than 107,000 East Indians, a num 
 ber superior to that of the entire population ; Bourbon 
 more than 50,000. If these men return, their costly trans 
 portation ruins the finances ; * their wages, which they carry 
 with them, swallow up capital ; their fleeting stay intro 
 duces no progress, agricultural and moral instruction 
 must constantly begin again for the new-comers, as the 
 art of war for conscripts ; if they remain, they end by being 
 the stronger, and can rule over everything after having cor 
 rupted everything, unless mortality, enormous both during 
 the passage f and after the arrival, should serve as remedy. 
 
 This last danger threatens neither the freedmen, nor the 
 colonists, nor the colonies, but the immigrants themselves. 
 They are exposed to many more dangers in Africa and the 
 East Indies, if it be true that thfc temptation of the certain 
 hire of human merchandise resuscitates the slave-trade, 
 slave-hunts, and the crimping of East Indians. 
 
 Considering here exclusively the colonial interest and the 
 question of the emancipation of slaves, we come, in brief, 
 to these conclusions : 
 
 It is not true that the desire of introducing new labor 
 ers into the colonies was born on the morrow or in con 
 sequence of the abolition of slavery ; it was conceived, 
 expressed, and realized long before. 
 
 It is not true that emancipation has wholly suppressed 
 labor, and rendered this immigration absolutely necessary. 
 
 * In 1845, the immigration of Mauritius had cost the colony 9,500,000 fr., 
 and the government, 8,116,300 fr. The colony still owed the mother country 
 7,119,350 fr., and was forced to expend 1,250,000 fr. annually for new immigra 
 tion: Revue coloniale, 1846, p. 511. 
 
 t Revue, coloniale, 1844, p. 57. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 229 
 
 Labor has fallen off as much on account of the general 
 position of affairs, and the special position of colonial es 
 tates, as on that of the first impulse which impelled the 
 freedmen to flee agricultural labor, which was to them the 
 sign of servitude, and the plantations, which had been its 
 scene. 
 
 It is not true that this falling off of labor endured much 
 longer than in the mother country, nor that it increases 
 more and more ; for the statistics of labor and production 
 prove that the greater part of the former slaves take part in 
 the labor. 
 
 But it is true that labor has changed place, that the 
 trades, small freeholds, and, lastly, vagrancy, have taken 
 many hands from the large plantations, and that the freed 
 men distrust the liuret, engagements, and measures which 
 remind them of their past. 
 
 It is true that wages are somewhat higher ; that a greater 
 increase is to be feared ; that the price of products, particu 
 larly of sugar, which rose at first, has since fallen ; that the 
 demand of consumption has greatly increased ; that the col 
 onies are in need of new hands, at some points, to save the 
 cultures ; at others, to develop them ; at all, to diminish 
 the net cost by competition. This need still continues, 
 and justifies the measures taken to facilitate immigration. 
 
 But it is demonstrated that this expedient, difficult, cost 
 ly, and equivocal, is dangerous to the future of colonial so 
 ciety, and, if not strictly limited to the proportion necessary 
 to re-establish the equilibrium between the population and 
 capital, will make inhabited Babels, gatherings of all races 
 and all creeds, of Paganism and Christianity, of Caffres and 
 Chinamen, Hindoos and Malgaches, vast factories where 
 workmen and mastei will be eager only to make the most 
 of each other and flee. I cannot suppose that a hundred 
 years from hence the number of Chinamen and Indians will 
 have centupled in our colonies, without believing at the 
 
230 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 same time that the number of Europeans will have dimin 
 ished in proportion. Fancy a St. Domingo peopled by Coo 
 lies ! 
 
 It is also demonstrated, that the best immigrants are 
 Africans. 
 
 If the Africans are the race of all others easiest assimi 
 lated to our manners and faith, if it is to this robust and 
 vigorous race that we always return after so many trials, 
 why then go afar to seek Africans more brutish and igno 
 rant than the former slaves ? Because there is obtained of 
 the new-comers engagements, a livret, forced services, in 
 a word, what may be called provisional slavery. Would it 
 not be better to attempt with the freedmen, and above all 
 with their children, who have not the same reasons for 
 distrust, measures calculated to attract and retain them, 
 through greater sacrifices and better treatment ? It is said 
 that the freed negro is prejudiced to believe that freedom is 
 the right to idleness. Is not this also the prejudice, the 
 conviction, of the former masters ? Apart from intelligent 
 exceptions, what have they done to diminish in practice the 
 distance which the law has just effaced between the classes ? 
 
 It is certain that more anxiety has been shown to replace 
 the former slaves than to retain them. Functionaries have 
 been appointed to protect and watch over immigrants, who 
 make minute reports on the mode of life, food, labor, and 
 well-being of these new-comers ; it is surprising that no 
 analogous patronage has been organized for the freedmen. 
 Yet there has from all time been a firm conviction that the 
 Creole negro is superior to the African negro.* 
 
 " The 24,000,000 francs," says M. Duval, very truly, 
 " which Bourbon has expended in eight years to bring 
 Coolies from India, if applied in premiums to labor, and in 
 the elevation of wages, would certainly have not been 
 
 * See especially the declaration? of the colonial delegates before the Com 
 mission of 1S39, p. 109. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 231 
 
 sterile It would be well also to modify local cus 
 toms, if there remain in them any vestige wounding to the 
 pride of men who, without fully appreciating the conditions 
 of liberty, know very well how to escape from slavery ; 
 though it should cost a sacrifice of money or self-love, the 
 immense advantage of constituting a homogeneous com 
 munity, and retaining the amount of wages in the country, 
 would be worth some trouble." 
 
 There is another means of replacing labor ; namely, to 
 improve the economy and stock of the colonial cultures 
 and manufactures, to copy the processes of the makers of 
 indigenous sugar, and to diminish general expenses by 
 the establishment of central factories. The central sugar- 
 mill is to the sugar-plantation what the central grist-mill is 
 to the wheat-field, one mill serves for a hundred farmers ; 
 until very lately, each planter had his own mill. The im 
 provement of sugar-works has made the fortune of Bour 
 bon. Guadaloupe and Martinico possess central sugar- 
 works, -the result of which is admirable ; according to the 
 latest statements,* the yield of the cane has been increased 
 from 5 to 13 per cent, and it is hoped to obtain still more. 
 The planters who make no sugar, but sell their cane, are no 
 longer in debt ; the tenants of the sugar-works pay large 
 rents, and make fine profits. At the same time, the ma 
 chinery and mechanism imported figures more largely every 
 year in the tables of customs. f At the exhibition of 1860, 
 the Bourbon sugars were as fine as the refined sugars ; its 
 coffees, vanillas, tobaccos, and nutmegs, the coffees of 
 Guadaloupe and the cottons of Desirade, the cocoas, rums, 
 and taas of Martinico, proved that great and small cul- 
 tures were progressing, J and medals accorded to the 
 
 * Revue alyerienne et coloniale, Sept., 1860, p. 350. 
 
 t At Martinico, in 1856, of 542 plantations, only 62 possessed steam-mills; 
 while at Bourbon, 113 out of 118 were moved by steam. Bourbon imported 
 530 000 fr. worth of machinery; Martinico, 40,000 fr.; Guadaloupe, 50,000 fr. 
 
 \ M. Jules Duval, Journal de* Debats, July 6, 1860. 
 
232 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 former slaves demonstrated that many among them only 
 needed freedom to equal their masters. 
 
 To attract the former laborers, while furnishing a fresh 
 supply of new ones, to return to the old cultures, to 
 adopt new processes, and (as we are about to see) to en 
 large the market, such should be the future of the 
 colonies. 
 
 To summon an inferior population without circumspection, 
 to sacrifice products which have no competitors in France 
 obstinately to sugar, to persist in abortive attempts to re 
 suscitate an accursed past, to fall back into old habits, to 
 seek in a disguised slave-trade, followed by a provisional 
 servitude, the better organization of labor, this would be 
 a path full of sharne, deception, and peril. 
 
 To the honor of the colonists, it is just to say, that most 
 among them do not hesitate between the two paths. " The 
 emancipation of the slaves," says an enlightened witness, 
 " which dealt the colonies for a moment so rude a blow, 
 must be to them in the future a source of fruitful and salu 
 tary results, by forcing the planters to shake off the apathy 
 into which they had fallen, by the facility of production and 
 its trifling net cost."* 
 
 * Etude sur la situation economique des Antilles franqaises, by J. de Crisenoy, 
 1860, p. 43. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE COLONIAL COMPACT.* 
 
 THE colonies have received an indemnity, the average 
 production has increased, the impost on colonial products 
 is reduced, the body of laborers is augmented. Is this all ? 
 Is this enough ? 
 
 The colonies go further, and loudly demand the rupture 
 of the colonial compact. Formerly they solicited a growing 
 protection, forced labor, reserved flag, protective tariff, 
 privileged sale. To-day labor is free, and the colonists 
 claim, as a logical sequence, the freedom of the products 
 of labor. This is an entire revolution, the indirect and 
 unlooked-for result of the abolition of slavery, and merits 
 our attention for a moment. We shall only sum up some 
 excellent writings, especially the "Studies" of a highly 
 respected colonist, M. de Chazelles. 
 
 The meaning of the colonial compact is well known. 
 
 The colonies were at first undivided tracts conceded to 
 companies. The representatives of these companies sub 
 divided a portion of the soil among themselves. This appro 
 priation continued, either through grants or under the form 
 of sale, after the reunion of the colonies to the domain of 
 the state. Receiving everything from the state, it was just 
 that the colonies should bring back everything to the state. 
 In proportion a3 the planters began to support themselves, 
 
 * Etude sur le sysieme colonial, by Count de Chazelles, Guillaumin, 1860. 
 Le Libre Echange colonial, by Lepelletier de Saint- Reiny, Journal des Ecunomistes, 
 June, 1860. Baudrillart, Journal des Debats, Aug. 3, 1860. Count Caffarelli, 
 Rapport au Corps legislatif, June SO, 1860, etc. 
 
234 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 the state had less burdens, with less rights. But the state, 
 as well as the colonies, found it to their advantage to remain 
 united by the bonds of a reciprocal monopoly ; to the 
 state, the monopolies of transportation and supplying the 
 colonies with European products ; to the colonies, the mo 
 nopoly of supplying the mother country with colonial com 
 modities. The shipping owed its prosperity to this assured 
 transportation, the most important part of which to it, as to 
 the colonies, was the slave-trade. The outward voyage was 
 thus as certain as the return voyage the commerce of the 
 ports and that of the colonies was limited to a simple and 
 easily regulated operation ; the obligations were mutual, 
 the interests common ; and in a time when intercourse be 
 tween nation and nation, between province and province, 
 was checked by severe prohibitions, each country attached 
 the greatest importance to opening thus, by the foundation 
 of distant colonies, vast outlets for its ships and exchange. 
 
 Spain, Portugal, and France entered successively upon 
 the same course. 
 
 Other nations, like Holland, intelligently placed their 
 shipping at the service of others; and the Dutch vessels, 
 thanks to the moderation of their rates of freight, had 
 obtained the greater part of the transportation of the Eng 
 lish colonies, when, December 1, 1651, a first bill inter 
 vened, followed by the celebrated Navigation Act of 1660, 
 entitled, An Act to declare by whom Merchandise may be im 
 ported, by the terms of which it was interdicted the English 
 colonies to carry their products to foreign countries, to 
 receive from foreign countries any product, or to make use 
 of foreign means of transportation. 
 
 France adopted the same system : and from the edict of 
 December, 16T4, which revoked the charter of the West 
 India Company, and reunited to the domain of the crown 
 the lands, islands, and countries of America, to the regula 
 tion of August 30, 1784, the last act rendered on colonial 
 
THE COLONIAE COMPACT. 235 
 
 customs by the old monarchy, the whole commercial 
 legislation of the trans-oceanic settlements constituted, by 
 the absolute exclusion of foreign commerce and flags, the 
 system of reciprocal exchange between the colonies arid 
 mother country which is still called the colonial compact* 
 
 This is not a compact, a contract, a treaty, properly 
 speaking, since the mother country alone makes the law ; 
 but for the very reason that it acts alone in a question in 
 which it is interested, it is bound to be more equitable ; and 
 this reciprocity has always been regarded as a sort of 
 pledged word, which holds more firmly than all writings. 
 
 This system made the prosperity of our colonies. In the 
 midst of the eighteenth century, the provisioning of Europe 
 passed almost entirely to French commerce. When, under 
 the empire of a hackneyed prejudice, men accuse the French 
 of not possessing the genius of colonization, they forget 
 that, masters of St. Domingo, Martiriico, Guadaloupe, Bour 
 bon, the Isle of France, Guiana, and Louisiana, even after 
 the loss of Canada (1*765), the aggregate of their commerce 
 surpassed that of all the European states, including Eng 
 land. In 1787 this aggregate represented 600,000,000 fr., 
 while that of Great Britain did not exceed 450,000,000 fr. 
 The merchant marine was flourishing, and was protected by 
 a powerful military marine. 
 
 A quarter of a century after, there was no longer either 
 Dutch or Spanish marine, the marine of the United States 
 was only merchant, the marine of Russia was in. its infancy, 
 the Ottoman marine did riot venture beyond the Sea of Mar 
 mora, France had lost her marine and nearly all her colonies. 
 England had become the sovereign of the seas.f 
 
 It may be thought that, the smaller the colonial pos 
 sessions, the greater was their need of protection from the 
 mother country, by the aid of the system which had caused 
 
 * Etude sur h system e colonial, by M. de Chazelles, p 9. 
 f M. de Clmzelles, pp 23-37. 
 
236 THE FRENCH! COLONIES. 
 
 their prosperity ; but circumstances were changed, and the 
 colonial compact had had its day. 
 
 It was good so long as it was respected.* But the sys 
 tem daily became onerous, impracticable, and unjust. It be 
 comes onerous to the colonies, if they produce more than 
 the mother country can consume, f or if they find better con 
 ditions under which to buy or sell elsewhere, onerous to 
 the mother country if it can itself produce the commodities 
 brought it by the colonies, or can buy them cheaper of for 
 eign countries, J unjust, if conditions change, if, to benefit 
 the Treasury, a constantly increasing impost is laid on colo 
 nial products, or if the shipping exacts a higher and higher 
 freight, impracticable, lastly, if circumstances prevent 
 the colonies from selling to the mother country, or the 
 mother country to the colonies. 
 
 Circumstances and interests are modified daily, the in 
 terests of shipping, of consumption, arid of humanity. When 
 confined to colonial commerce, the merchant shipping is apt 
 to fall into routine, and to neglect the spirit of enterprise, 
 sure of an easy and perpetual outward and homeward freight. 
 If China, Australia, and California call it to a wider diffusion, 
 it neglects the colonies. || The series of monopolies which 
 the product passes through before reaching the consumer, 
 raises the price to its detriment. Either the colonies become 
 too large markets to feed the mother country, or they de- 
 
 * Before the Revolution the duty on colonial sugars was, in 1777, 5 fr. ; in 
 1791, 4 fr. 28 c. per 100 kilog. ; it did not even compensate for the expenses of 
 the state in the colonies. 
 
 t M. de Chazelles affirms that there was a time when it was the custom to 
 set fire to the surplus crops. 
 
 \ The net cost of sugar per quintal is from 24 to 25 fr. in the Antilles; 17 fr. 
 in Cuba. (Journal des Economistes, June, 1860, p. 435, art. of M. Lepelletier de 
 Saint-Reniy.) 
 
 From 1831 to 1848 freight from the Antilles did not once reach 100 fr. per 
 ton; from 1854 to 1860 it has been but once below this figure (1857), and usually 
 higher. (Ibid., p. 432.) 
 
 || A circular of the Minister of the Colonies (1860), urges the ports to send 
 ships to Guadaloupe, the roadsteads of which are empty. (Ibid., p. 433.) 
 
THE COLONIAL COMPACT." 237 
 
 mand, if small, too great sacrifices for a slender result. It 
 thence follows, that they are now attacked, now sustained, 
 by public opinion and political science ; on no subject is in 
 fatuation sooner followed by discouragement. Around the 
 colonies form new communities, rich, powerful, and active, 
 with power to enrich them if free, or to crush them if do- 
 pendent. Wars arise that transfer them from one nation 
 to another, and from prosperity to ruin. 
 
 By degrees, the colonial compact has thus been rent by a 
 thousand changes, all realized without exception. 
 
 England, at first logical, prohibited within her own bounds 
 the culture of tobacco (1652), then that of the beet-root ; 
 but the too rigorous application of the Navigation Act 
 cost it the United States, and we see it, in 1845, abolish 
 this act, and accept the doctrine of universal commercial 
 freedom. 
 
 Holland makes French ports of her little colonies in the 
 Caribbean Sea, like the Danish and Swedish islands. Spain 
 has accorded, since 1805, the commercial franchise to Cuba 
 and Porto Rico. 
 
 France has been drawn, step by step, into the same path. 
 After the loss of Canada, which furnished the Antilles with 
 timber, it became necessary to suffer them to procure it 
 from the United States. The regulation of August 30, 1784, 
 permitted this importation, with some others. Revolution, 
 war, and conquest disturbed all laws during twenty years. 
 On the return of order, it was really necessary to accord 
 favors to the distracted colonies. The list of foreign pro 
 ducts admitted to entry increased by degrees, and foreign 
 flags appeared habitually by the side of the French colors. 
 The mother country itself passed through years of famine or 
 dearth, which prevented it from supplying its colonies with 
 corn and flour, especially the most distant, Bourbon. So 
 many events, so many exceptions, authorized sometimes, in 
 cases of urgency, by the governors, sometimes by ordinances 
 
238 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 and statutes ! * Foreign wheat, prohibited until 1826, then 
 admitted in consideration of a duty of 21 fr. 50 c. per barrel, 
 fajling by degrees to 2 fr. per quintal (25 c. for maize) in 1853, 
 for one year, then two, then seven, is now admitted with this 
 duty of 2 fr. by the provisions of the statute of 1860, which 
 for the first time has admitted foreign grain at the same 
 duty, and lowered the tax on rice from 4 fr. to 25 c. per 
 quintal. A statute of the same month reduces the premium 
 on cod imported into the colonies by foreign fisheries from 
 7 fr. to 3 fr. per 100 kilogrammes. f 
 
 We have read the history of indigenous sugar, and that 
 of the impost on colonial sugar, and on foreign sugar, 
 which, free to enter France by paying only 3 francs per 100 
 kilogrammes by the provisions of the statute of May 23, 
 1860, is released even from this extra charge by the decree 
 of January 13, 1861. 
 
 Lastly, we are not ignorant that the obligation to supply 
 themselves from France imposes on the colonies the bur 
 den of paying the agents of improvements in the manufac 
 ture of sugar, twice as much for machinery, four times as 
 much for bone-black, and six times as much for coal, as is 
 paid them in the mother country. J It does not occur to 
 us, that the price current of articles of great consumption 
 in the Antilles is, by the effect of the same system, main 
 tained about one third higher than the prices of the same 
 articles in the neighboring English and Spanish colonies. 
 
 All the clauses of the colonial compact are therefore at 
 once effaced. The colonies demand its abolition by this 
 irrefragable reasoning, We are deprived of the advan 
 tages of the compact, deliver us from the burdens. 
 
 * Ordinances of Jan. 5, 1826, Nov. 9, 1832, Dec. 8, 1839, Dec. 2, 1846; Statute 
 of April 29, 1845 ; Decree of Sept. 30, 1853. See the remarkable report of Count 
 Caffarelli to the Legislative Corps, June 30, 1860. 
 
 f Keport of M. Ancel, July 6, 1860. 
 
 | Chazelles, p. 265. 
 
 4 Journal den Kconomistes, June, I860; Libre tchanye colonial, by M. Lepelle- 
 tier de Saiut-Remy, p. 434. 
 
THE COLONIAL COMPACT. 239 
 
 Already the General Councils of Guadaloupe, Martiriico, 
 and Bourbon have uttered this prayer, to which the ne\v 
 economical system of France gives more opportuneness and 
 force. 
 
 The statute which lowers the tariff on corn and rice im 
 ported into the colonies fixed June 30, 1866, as its limit, 
 with the thought that the question of colonial free trade 
 would from this time be resolved.* " For," says the re 
 port, " we consider the solution of urgent importance." 
 
 This disquieted the ports, and a report read a few days 
 after gave assurance that "the government does not in 
 tend to give to the laws presented a more extended scope 
 than they express ; the colonial compact is not in question, 
 but simpler measures suited to facilitate the alimentation of 
 the colonies. "f 
 
 In fact, the shipping interest an interest of prime im 
 portance alone can check it. For the colonies cannot 
 attract foreign capital and dispose of their products to for 
 eign countries without making use of foreign shipping. It 
 does not enter into the object of the present study to take 
 sides on so grave a question. J 
 
 But we can affirm without temerity, what so many poli 
 ticians have long foreseen, that the colonial compact is 
 drawing near its end, and that time will speedily complete 
 the transformation of the consequences which still survive 
 the principle. 
 
 We can also affirm that the colonies, less protected, will 
 
 * Report of M. Caffarelli. t Report of M. Ancel, 17. 
 
 \ It may be observed, that for seven years past the importation of foreign 
 flour into the colonies has been nearly free; yet they have not ceased to supply 
 themselves, by preference, from France, because the quality is superior and the 
 relations better established. Even Mayotte, Avhere commerce is free, trades 
 only with France. On the other hand, the franchise, and a protective duty of 
 40 fr. per ton, have not sufficed to insure a supply of rice to the Antilles by 
 French vessels. It is probable, therefore, that, habits being stronger than laws, 
 the change of tariff will have no influence on the movement of navigation be 
 tween France and its colonies. 
 
240 THE FRENCH COLONIES 
 
 aspire to be less governed, and that political freedom will 
 quickly follow the establishment of commercial freedom. 
 
 " The Antilles are no longer either the gardens or the fiefs 
 of Europe," exclaimed General Foy in 1822.* "We must 
 renounce this youthful illusion. Nature has placed them on 
 the shores of America. With America is their future. It 
 is as entrepots of commerce, as great markets placed be 
 tween the two hemispheres, that they will henceforth figure 
 on the world s stage." 
 
 If the enlargement of the colonial market correspond to 
 a large growth of production, a new future, full of magnifi 
 cent promise, opens before the colonies. f 
 
 Would it have been possible for them to pretend to it 
 without the abolition of slavery ? 
 
 This great act has consummated the destruction of the 
 colonial compact. The maintenance of slavery was one of 
 the privileges secured by the mother country to the colo 
 nies, and, as it were, the corner-stone of the structure. 
 Furthermore, emancipation has killed routine, and wrested 
 colonial society from its stupor by a violent but salutary 
 awakening. The affranchisement of labor will thus have 
 contributed to the franchise of the product, and, like 
 France, which uprises from fearful concussions with con 
 stantly increasing energy, the colonies, her offspring, will 
 succeed in drawing more power and wealth from freedom 
 than were ever given them by protection. 
 
 * Cited by M. de Chazelles, p. 102. 
 
 f Bourbon, which before 1848 had never exceeded 30,000,000 kilog. of sugar, 
 now exceeds 61,000,000. At Guadaloupe, with central works, the production 
 may be doubled. The same is true of Martinico. The colonies might furnish 
 200,000,000 kilog. of freight. St. Domingo gives but 115. (Lepelletier de Saint- 
 Remy, loc. cit. t p. 441.) 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION. 
 
 I. WE need not question whether there is a law that 
 presides over the propagation of the human species among 
 the Mahometans, Chinese, Indians, or those heathen races 
 which occupy two thirds of the surface of the habitable 
 globe. There is no regular law, but precepts in which self 
 ishness has more share than morality, polygamy, corrup 
 tion, voluptuousness, infanticide, crimes without name, 
 maladies without number. These horrors teach us to take 
 literally the text, "The Devil is the prince of this world." 
 We no longer doubt it when we see in reality evil keeping 
 the gates of life, debauchery drawing man from nothing-, 
 ness, crime, or contagion, to fling him back again into 
 death. 
 
 In the bosom of Christianity, communities are perpetu 
 ated by a few pure and simple laws, which corruption dis 
 turbs, yet does not succeed in overruling. Regular fami 
 lies compose the community ; they find their source in 
 legitimate marriages, alliances recognized by the laws, 
 blessed by religion, formed by the free consent and perpet 
 ual vow of a single man and a single woman. The propor 
 tionate number of men and women favors moriogomy. The 
 habitual excess of births over deaths progressively in 
 creases the population, and such is the regularity intro 
 duced into a series of facts, ruled notwithstanding by the 
 most mysterious laws, that it has been possible, without 
 greatly erring, while making allowance for inevitable per 
 turbations, to fix, in figures sufficiently exact to form the 
 
242 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 basis of financial calculations, the laws of increase of the 
 human family, and the common rules of births and deaths. 
 
 To draw moral information from these figures, we usually 
 consult the number which expresses the equal proportion 
 of men and women, that which indicates the statistics of 
 legitimate marriages and births, and that which verifies the 
 excess of births over deaths ; the first proves that the pop 
 ulation is moral, the second that it is honorable, the third 
 that it is growing. 
 
 One of the effects of slavery, in whatever place it exists, 
 is to cause perturbation in these laws, thus at once attack 
 ing, the regularity, morality, and vitality of nations. 
 
 Wherever slavery reigns, there is no proportion between 
 the number of men and that of women. 
 
 Mark what was the population of the slave colonies, De 
 cember 31, 1841. 
 
 MARTINICO. 
 
 ( Men, 4,451 
 
 White population . . .| Womeaf 5?091 
 
 Mulatto population . . -j ^^ 2 l e58 j 38 > 729 
 
 ( Men, 34,432 ) 
 
 Slave population . . J > 72,859 
 
 | Women, 38,427 ) 
 
 Total ...-.. 121,130 
 
 GUADALOUPE. 
 
 (Men, 18,955) 
 
 White and mulatto population j Womerij 22,402 ]" 
 
 (Men, 41,915) 
 
 Slave population . . . 1 _ Af ,oo 7 [ 8^,752 
 
 ( Women, 45,837 ) 
 
 Total 129 > 109 
 
 GUIANA. 
 
 (Men, 692) 
 
 White population . . -j^^ 
 
 ( Men, 
 
 Mulatto population . . 1 
 
 (Men, 6,645 
 
 Slave population . . . J 
 
 ( Women, 6,298 , 
 Total . 19,375 
 
POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION. 243 
 
 BOURBON. 
 
 (Men, 16,182) 
 
 White population . . . 1 fKflQfi f 31,818 
 
 (Women, 15,636) 
 
 ( Men, 5,544 ) 
 
 Mulatto population . S r KCC _?-11.211 
 
 (Women, 5,667) 
 
 (Men, 37,136) 
 
 Slave populate . . . 23>m j 0,260 
 
 Total ....... 103,289 
 
 GENERAL TOTAL. 
 
 White and free mulatto population . . . 139,089 
 Slave population ...... 233,814 
 
 General total ..... 372,903 
 
 In all the colonies, among the white and the niulatto pop 
 ulation, the number of women is nearly equal to that of 
 men, in general a little exceeding it. Among the slave 
 population, the latter is in the ascendency, two thirds at 
 Bourbon, one thirtieth at Guiana. This is explained by 
 the slave-trade, which imported more men than women. In 
 the Antilles, on the contrary, the women outnumber the 
 -men. Is it because the labor in the sun kills the men, 
 while the women work generally within doors ? Is it be 
 cause proximity to the African coast has perpetuated the 
 slave-trade at Bourbon, while, since the suppression of this 
 traffic, the proportion of the sexes has regained at the An 
 tilles a more normal equilibrium ? Be this as it may, it is 
 demonstrated that slavery destroys in the slave race the 
 proportion which exists in the two free races. 
 
 Which race, among the three, progresses with greatest 
 rapidity ? Unfortunately, the statistical tables, since 1848, 
 have ceased to make any distinction. But let us compare 
 the years anterior to emancipation, taking a single colony, 
 Martinico, to avoid complication : * 
 
 * Notice offidelle, 1840, p. 33. 
 
244 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 
 
 Whites. 
 
 Mulattoes. 
 
 Slaves. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Jan. 1, 
 
 1790 
 
 10,635 
 
 5,235 
 
 83,414 
 
 99,284 
 
 u 
 
 1836 
 
 9,000 
 
 29,000 
 
 78,076 
 
 116,076 
 
 
 
 1845 
 
 9,139 
 
 36,626 
 
 76,117 
 
 121,882 
 
 a 
 
 1848 
 
 9,542 
 
 38,729 
 
 72,859 
 
 121,130 
 
 The white population has remained almost stationary foi 
 sixty years. 
 
 The mulatto population has increased prodigiously. 
 
 The slave population has continually diminished. 
 
 It is true that two causes co-operate in the variations of 
 the last two classes ; not only the fluctuation of births and 
 deaths, but also that of emancipations, which causes a trans 
 fer from the third to the second. The number of these is 
 known ; from 1836 to 1848, 8,538 slaves were freed in Mar- 
 tinico.* Now the mulatto population, despite the deaths, f 
 which we do not take into account, has increased 9,726, or 
 1,188 individuals more than the number freed, while the 
 white population has not increased 400. The mulatto pop 
 ulation, therefore, is the only one that has progressed. 
 
 But how has it grown, through marriage ? 
 
 The answer is in the colonial proverb: "The white is 
 God s child, the black is the Devil s child, the mulatto is 
 nobody s child. " It is also in the well-known repugnance 
 of the whites to any alliance with the blacks. It is lastly 
 in the statistics of the civil state. 
 
 From 1838 to 1847, there were 6,175 marriages among 
 the free population, and 1,754 marriages among the slave 
 population, that is, only one third as many marriages in the 
 population twice as large as the other. Again, we have 
 chosen a period signalized by prodigious efforts to initiate 
 the negroes into the family relation. The official table which 
 contains these results informs us that in Bourbon, till 1840, 
 trouble was not even taken to authenticate regularly the 
 number of marriages among the slaves. 
 
 * Table of 1847, published in 1850, p. 33, No. 13. 
 t About 5 per cent a year, Table No- 11. 
 
POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION. 245 
 
 " It is a system of universal promiscuousness and concu 
 binage/ said M. de Broglie.* " The child has no faher, 
 the father no family. .... The negresses are in general 
 abandoned by the men who have rendered them mothers ; 
 the children are always abandoned by their fathers, and 
 sometimes by their mothers. " 
 
 At least, do the births furnish a notable increase to the 
 population, and a greater number of laborers to agricul 
 ture ? f 
 
 Among 139,089 free inhabitants, the average number 
 of births from 1838 to 1847 was 4,076 per year, or 1 
 in 33. 
 
 Among 233,814 slaves, there were 5,994 births only, or 1 
 in 39. 
 
 Is the influence of comfort and good care seen to prolong 
 the duration of the life of the slaves, rid, it is said, of all 
 anxieties ? 
 
 At the same epoch, the births among the freemen amount 
 ed to 4,076, the deaths to 3,797. There were less deaths 
 than births. 
 
 On the contrary, the births among the slaves amounted 
 to 5,994, the deaths to 7,443. There were more deaths than 
 births. 
 
 Thus, in short, the only part of the population which in 
 creased in the colonies before emancipation was the mixed 
 breed ; it increased by illegitimacy. Among the slaves were 
 few marriages, few births, and many deaths. 
 
 Are we to attribute these results to the law ? Not at all ; 
 the law, especially towards the last, encouraged marriage 
 by every means, and forbade the sale of husband and wife 
 separately. To the masters ? Not at all ; they favored 
 marriages, and married slaves were the objects of their pre 
 dilection. 
 
 * Report, p. 151, etc. 
 
 t Official tables of population, 1847, p. 28, No. 10. 
 
246 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 M. de Tocqueville gives us, in his beautiful language, the 
 true reason.* 
 
 " There exists a profound and natural antipathy between 
 the institution of marriage and that of slavery. A man does 
 not marry when he is disabled through his condition from 
 ever exercising conjugal authority ; when his children must 
 be born his equals, and irrevocably destined to the same 
 miseries as their father ; when, having no power over their 
 fate, he can know neither the duties, nor rights, nor hopes, 
 nor cares which accompany paternity. It is easy to see that 
 almost all that induces the freeman to consent to a legiti 
 mate union is lacking to the slave through the sole fact of 
 slavery. The particular measures of which the legislator or 
 master may make use to stimulate him to do what he pre 
 vents him from desiring, will therefore be always futile." 
 
 II. Have these melancholy facts been modified since the 
 abolition of slavery ? 
 
 It could not be demanded of emancipation to exercise 
 any influence on the proportion between the sexes ; the fig 
 ures remain in this respect as the} 7 were. The immigration 
 of laborers has even resulted in increasing the number of 
 men, without bringing in an equal number of women. 
 
 The tables of population having, since 1848, confounded 
 all classes, it is impossible to ascertain whether the differ 
 ence pointed out between the number of births and deaths 
 among the whites and that among the blacks has subsisted. 
 Notwithstanding, if we rely on a general, and consequently 
 approximative, comparison between the total aggregates 
 of the colonial population in 1836, 1846, and 1856, without 
 including the number of immigrants, we ascertain that this 
 population, which diminished during the first period, in 
 creased, on the contrary, during the second. 
 
 * Report on the proposition of M. de Tracy, Proces-verbaux of the Cham 
 ber of Deputies, Session of 1840, p. 39. See also the report of M. de Broglie, 
 p. 135. 
 
POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION. 247 
 
 1836 ... ,. . ... 376,296 
 
 1846 374,548 
 
 1856 . , . . . . 387,821* 
 
 At Martinico, the excess of births over deaths rose in 
 
 1848 447 
 
 1849 135 
 
 1850 1,051 
 
 At Guadaloupe, the excess of deaths was in 
 
 1848 259 
 
 1849 196 
 
 The excess of births was in 
 
 1850 513 
 
 Thus, from the very beginning, in these two colonies, the 
 law of population resumes its regular course, slavery de 
 populated, freedom populates the land. 
 
 The same tables make no distinction between legitimate 
 and illegitimate births. These last must still be numerous, 
 since the repugnance between the two classes is the same, 
 and since the number of celibates continues to prevail over 
 that of married persons. 
 
 But marriages, legitimations, and acknowledgments have 
 increased in a most startling proportion. 
 
 In ten years, from 1838 to 1841, there were 1,154 slave 
 marriages, or about 250 a year, of which 29 were in Marti- 
 riico, 61 in Guadaloupe, 24 in Guiana, and 135 in Bourbon. 
 With that of marriages between free persons 6,175 
 the total amount was 7,929. In nine years, from 1848 to 
 1856, there were 38,468 marriages ; the first years saw 
 from 1,000 to 3,000 marriages contracted between freed 
 persons in the colonies, instead of 50 or 60 between the 
 slaves, j" The average is naturally less since this first flood. 
 It is still, if we compare 1846 with 1856, at Martinico, 
 
 * Notices of 1840, Official Tables for 1846 and 1850. 
 f Revue coloniale, 1852, p. 284. 
 
248 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 631, instead of 46 ; at Guadaloupe, 901, instead of 101 ; at 
 Guiana, 138, instead of IT ; at Bourbon, 62T, instead of 225. 
 
 At the same time, according to another document; which 
 verifies the results accomplished from May, 1848, to Au 
 gust, 1855, in the three principal colonies only,* the num 
 ber of legitimations during these six years has attained 
 nearly 20,000, that of acknowledgments nearly 30,000. 
 
 40,000 marriages, 20,000 legitimated children, 30,000 ac 
 knowledged children, such is the glorious gift offered, in 
 less than ten years, to colonial society by emancipation. 
 We may close our chapter with statistics like these, and 
 this is its conclusion. On the same day, at the same hour, 
 the colonies witnessed the birth of two divine things, 
 liberty and the family ! 
 
 III. We will add a few more words on the happiness of 
 these families made free. 
 
 It may seem superfluous to ask whether they are happier. 
 Moreover, a dangerous confusion arises, which should be 
 avoided. Freedom and happiness are two different things. 
 They even appear to exclude each other ; for freedom is 
 struggle : is not happiness repose ? This confusion is ha 
 bitual in the colonies. It was said of the slaves, " They 
 are happier than if they were free." It is said of the 
 freedmen, "They were happier when they were slaves. " 
 Once more, the question is not of felicity, but independence ; 
 not of the belly, but the soul ; not of a being that eats arid 
 sleeps, but a being that thinks, wills, and loves. 
 
 It is in vain to draw the most seductive pictures of what 
 is called the patriarchal life of the plantations ; the true 
 picture of the colonies is sketched in a few bold strokes in 
 a letter from Bailly de Suffren to Madame d Alais, written 
 from Fort Royal, February 8, ITTQ.f 
 
 " The country is most beautiful, nature, always ani- 
 
 * Revue coloniak, 1856, p. 310. 
 
 f Letters published by M. Ortolan, Moniteur, Nov. 2, 1859. 
 
POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION. 249 
 
 mate, keeps the trees and plants in continual vegetation. 
 Almost all have flowers and fruit at the same time. All 
 that is necessary to the nourishment of man comes of itself. 
 Foreign productions alone are forced by industrious avarice 
 to yield, such as sugar and coffee, which exact great labor. 
 The inhabitants may be considered as divided into two 
 classes, hard masters, and slaves brutalized by slavery. " 
 
 What was true in 17 19 was true in 1839, was true in 
 1848. The masters were not willingly hard ; but was not 
 labor imposed without remuneration, under the most severe 
 penalties, a hard condition ? They did not wish to brutalize 
 their slaves, but it was for their interest that they should 
 pass as brutish and incapable of freedom ; and is not ser 
 vitude brutalizing of itself? It impels to theft, for the 
 slave lives in the midst of luxury without possessing any 
 thing ; to idleness, for labor, always painful to man, be 
 comes hateful to him as soon as he is forced to it ; to false 
 hood, through fear of punishment ; to drunkenness, because 
 it produces the momentary forgetfulness of sufferings ; to 
 debauchery, because, in a climate which stimulates the pas 
 sions, to say nothing of the masters who excite them, it is 
 the only enjoyment which demands neither money, which 
 the slave has not, nor the permission which it is necessary 
 to solicit for marriage. 
 
 A comparison strikes me forcibly. There is a horror of 
 the Black Code, which ruled the colonies from 1685 to the 
 statutes of the Restoration. It is affirmed that its rigors 
 fell into disuse. I believe it, but the same is true of its be 
 neficent provisions. When the ordinances of 1833, 1839, 
 and 1846, and the statutes of 1845, were prepared with so 
 much care, it was regarded as a great good to re-enforce 
 several of the humane and Christian articles of the Black 
 Code ;* its framers dared not go as far even as this stigma- 
 
 * Or the ordinance of Oct. 15, 1786, cited by the statute of July 18, 1845, 
 Art. 2. 
 
 11* 
 
250 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 tized law, for example, to punish the master who debauched 
 his slave. Thus, despite the law, despite good intentions, 
 slavery had inevitably produced disorders and evils which 
 it was sought to prevent in 1685, and which were still to be 
 cured in 1845, two centuries after. 
 
 Freedom does not destroy in a moment the vices engen 
 dered by three centuries of concubinage, humiliation, and 
 oppression ; but these vices are no longer a sort of necessity 
 of position. 
 
 Is not this great happiness ? 
 
 But perhaps the slaves do not avail themselves of it ; per 
 haps they return to a vagrant, idle, depraved, savage life ? 
 Do they seek to instruct themselves ? Are they seen at 
 church, or in prison ? We have viewed the state of crimi 
 nality, we will see the progress of religion and instruction. 
 
 Is it necessary to take the word happiness absolutely in 
 its lowest sense ? Is it believed that the comfort of the 
 freedmen is less than was that of the slaves ? 
 
 We are not always to take model plantations as standards 
 of comparison. Let us not forget that wealthy proprietors 
 were a first exception, virtuous proprietors a second excep 
 tion, proprietors living on and managing their estates a 
 third exception. The bulk of the slaves were divided into 
 small groups of ten, twenty, or fifty at most,* let to others 
 or laboring on the plantations of proprietors too poor to es 
 tablish hospitals, and to feed or clothe their slaves properly. 
 
 If a statute (statute of July 18, 1845, Art. 1), an ordi 
 nance (ordinance of June 5, 1846), a circular from the Min 
 istry (June 13, 1846), and orders from the Governors (Oc- 
 
 * At Martinico there are 335 small sugar plantations to 60 large ones ; at 
 Guadaloupe the number of small estates is still greater; at Bourbon there were 
 in 1838, 
 
 196 owners of from 50 to 500 slaves. 
 1,150 " " 10 " 50 " 
 
 4,063 " " 1 " 10 " 
 
 5,409 (Broglie, p. 242.) 
 
POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION. 251 
 
 tober, 1848), were needed to prescribe that the master 
 should give his slave six pounds of tapioca flour and three 
 and a half pounds of codfish and salt meat a week (Art. 1), 
 and two shirts, a pair of trousers, a jacket, and a hat every 
 six months (Art. T), it was apparently because the common 
 allowance of food and clothing remained almost everywhere 
 below these modest proportions. 
 
 One day in the week was generally accorded them instead 
 of their food ; and such was the superiority of free over ser 
 vile labor, let us say in passing, together with the fertility 
 of the soil, that the day s earnings sufficed to support the 
 slave a week. 
 
 This still suffices, it is said, and is precisely the reason 
 why the freedman does not work. Few wants, little labor. 
 He satisfies his needs, then reposes. To this I have noth 
 ing to say, except that he does like the immense majority 
 of mankind. After all, the want is the motive and measure 
 of the labor. 
 
 But in the state of freedom the wants increase daily, and 
 to satisfy them comes increase of labor. This is what hap 
 pens to the negro who has a taste for comfort, luxury, even 
 for dress ; he labors to enjoy, and at the same time to pay 
 for these. Meanwhile, the freedman participates in the 
 collective burdens ; he pays imposts and town dues, and 
 to pay, to spend, it is necessary to labor. 
 
 Is material proof demanded ? 
 
 It results from several documents. 
 
 We might compare the land-taxes, but the statistics are 
 not at our disposal. 
 
 Two elements remain : 
 
 The tables of population and culture include the number 
 of cattle in the colonies. It is remarked that the num 
 ber of mules, asses, and horses has decreased, because 
 they have been economized or have been replaced by ma 
 chinery, while that of hogs and goats has increased ; now 
 
252 THE FKENCH COLONIES. 
 
 the hog and goat are the fortune of the small freeholder, on 
 the lowest round of the ladder. 
 
 Another item of information is more significant, the 
 amount and nature of the importations, from which may be 
 deduced the influence of emancipation on the consumption 
 of the products of the mother country. 
 
 In 1848 and 1849, the commodities that advanced in the 
 midst of the general decline were wines and tobaccos, wheat- 
 flour, lard and salt meats, soaps and oils, cotton cloths, um 
 brellas, watches, hats, and shoes. The former slave wishes to 
 drink and smoke, to eat better, to wash better, to dress 
 better, to imitate the gentleman who carries an umbrella, 
 not to go always with bare head and feet. He takes a par 
 ticular pride in torturing his feet in shoes, which may be 
 ridiculous, but is easily understood, if we remember that 
 letters-patent, of 1123, revived would one believe it? 
 by an ordinance of May 18, 1819, forbade the slave to wear 
 coverings for the foot. 
 
 It cannot be denied that this change in the manners of 
 the newly affranchised individuals influences production, 
 and the movement of commerce. On one hand, much labor 
 is done outside of agriculture, the products of which figure 
 only in official statistics, and do not go to swell the column 
 of exports ; on the other, many small resources which did 
 not formerly exist create a demand for imports. As we 
 have already said, labor has rather been transformed than 
 diminished. The wealth is not destroyed, it is only differ 
 ently divided. Whatever may be said in dispute of the 
 arguments to be drawn from the two statistical statements 
 of imports and exports which we have previously cited, the 
 first proves that these idle people produce largely,* the 
 second proves that these poor people consume largely. f 
 
 * But the increase of wines in the four colonies bears only upon 1849; the 
 amount fell again, and has since remained below that of 1847, even at Bourbon. 
 (See General Table of Customs, pp. 58, 59.) 
 
 t Revue coloniale, 1851, p. 195. 
 
POPULATION, FAMILY, SOCIAL CONDITION. 253 
 
 But perhaps, while satisfying their appetites, the slaves 
 return to the nomadic, idle, savage life ? Do they seek to 
 be instructed ? Are they seen at church, in school, or in 
 prison ? We have witnessed the condition of criminality, 
 Let us examine the progress of religion and instruction. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RELIGION, INSTRUCTION. 
 
 " Therein is the safety of our colonies." BROGLIE, p. 125. 
 
 " Christianity is a religion of freemen." DE TOCQUEVILLE, p. 41. 
 
 1. BEFORE THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
 
 I THINK I can affirm that no one in the colonies was hap 
 pier at the emancipation of the slaves, after the slaves 
 themselves, than the priests worthy the name. Among 
 them, the great majority were opposed to slavery. It fet 
 tered the ministry, and degraded the conduct of those even 
 whose conscience it did not wound. 
 
 If I were asked what is most beautiful on earth, I should 
 answer, Christianity ! If I were asked what appears to me 
 most odious among Christian nations, I should answer, 
 Slavery ! 
 
 But I should directly add : Slavery is impossible with 
 Christianity. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is again and again repeated that slavery 
 was introduced into the French colonies by the monarchy 
 and the clergy. 
 
 Montesquieu, who combats slavery with so much force 
 and spirit, has written, after Father Labat : * 
 
 " Louis XIII. troubled himself extremely about the law 
 which rendered the negroes of his colonies slaves ; but 
 when it had been fully gotten into his head that this was 
 the surest way to convert them, he consented to it." 
 
 This error in so great a writer is incomprehensible. The 
 
 * Esprit des lois, Liv. XV. Chap. IV. p. 182. Father Labat, Nouveaux Voyages 
 aiix ties de FAmerique, Tom. II. p. 114, 1772. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 255 
 
 first legislative act that emanated from the mother country 
 concerning- the slave-trade is dated November 11, 1673, thir 
 ty years after the death of Louis XIII.* 
 
 It is also commonly repeated that the Dominican Las 
 Casas gave the fatal counsel to introduce negroes into the 
 Antilles to relieve the natives. A single historian, Herrera, 
 long subsequent to Las Casas, has accredited this calumny. 
 In the discussions which he was forced to sustain against the 
 slavery of the Indians with Quevedo, Bishop of Darien, or 
 with the confessor and historian of Charles V., Sepulveda, 
 this opinion is found neither on his lips nor on those of his 
 adversaries. He wrote his eloquent protests in 1514. Ne 
 groes were already sold at Seville in 1403, at Lisbon in 
 1442 ; there were slaves at St. Domingo in 1500 ; Charles V. 
 accorded the privilege of the slave-trade to the Flemings in 
 ISll.f 
 
 It is not, therefore, a Christian king, it is not a monk, 
 whom we are to accuse of having originated slavery. 
 
 Who then, in fine, introduced slavery into the colonies ? 
 
 This point of history is very obscure ; it is never known 
 who has sown tares in a field, and no one boasts of having 
 been the originator of evil. Nevertheless, it is possible to 
 seize in ancient documents and particularly in the col 
 lection of printed acts and manuscript notes made by M. 
 Moreau de Saint Mery, and bequeathed to the Archives of 
 the Colonies, J and in the archives of the Community of the 
 Holy Spirit, so long charged with the religious service of 
 the colonies some indices which will set us on the 
 track of the true origin of slavery in the colonies. 
 
 * Lacour, Hisioire de la Guadeloupe, Tom. I. Chap. IX. p. 104. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 102. Moehler, translated by the Abbe" de la Treiche. (Euvres ae 
 Johannes Genesius Sepulveda, 4 vols. in fol. A fine copy is in existence in the 
 valuable library of M. Cousin. Robertson s History of America, Book III. 
 
 J I am indebted for the knowledge to the kindness of the present keeper of 
 the archives, the worthy and intelligent successor of Moreau, M. Pierre Margry. 
 
 These archives have been opened to me with a liberality for which I can 
 not show myself too grateful, by the Rev. P6re Schwindenhammer, Superior, 
 and Pfere Levava??eur. 
 
256 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 These documents prove that the clergy had no share 
 in it. 
 
 We scarcely ever go farther back than the edict of 1685, 
 known under the name of the Black Code, -issued in the 
 same year with another deplorable law, the revocation of 
 the edict of Nantes. This edict, with which the son of 
 Colbert, the Marquis de Seignelay, and King Louis XIV 
 are so justly reproached, came to correct the abuses of 
 slavery, while unhappily sanctioning some few of them ; 
 it resembles rather the laws of 1845, which reformed 
 slavery, than the law of 1802, which re-established it. It 
 is necessary to refer to prior documents. 
 
 The act of Association of the Lords of the American 
 Islands (1626) is a contract by which M. d Enambuc and 
 his associates engage to form a capital of 45,000 livres, and 
 to freight three ships to colonize the islands of St. Christo 
 pher, Barbadoes, and others, at the entrance of Peru, from 
 the llth to the 18th degree of latitude, in order to instruct the 
 inhabitants of the said islands in the Catholic, Apostolic, and 
 Roman religion, as well as to traffic there. 
 
 When the Cardinal de Richelieu, created Grand Master 
 of Navigation in 1626, secured the authorization of this 
 first company in the same year, the letters-patent declared 
 that the first end of the enterprise was to plant the Christian 
 faith to the glory of God and the honor of the Icing, and was 
 authorized on condition of carrying priests and of cultivat 
 ing and working in all sorts of mines and metals, in consid 
 eration of a duty of one tenth to the state. The question 
 was not of slaves, but of European laborers. 
 
 The new contract of February 12, 1635, which extended 
 the privilege of the company from the 10th to the 30th 
 degree, contained analogous measures. Conversion re 
 mained the principal end (Art. II.). The company was to 
 settle 4,000 persons in twenty years (Art. III.). All of 
 these were to be Frenchmen and Catholics (Art. IV.). But 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 257 
 
 here are two very significant articles : "Art. XI. The de 
 scendants of the colonists and the converted savages shall 
 be reputed native-born Frenchmen, capable of all charges, 
 honors, successions, and donations." "Art. XIII. Artisans 
 shall, after six years, be reputed master-workmen, and 
 eligible to open shops in any of the cities of France, even 
 at Paris, after ten years." 
 
 It appears that the conditions were at first fulfilled, since 
 an edict of March, 1642, confirms the company, and de 
 clares that it has introduced 7,000 colonists, instead of 
 4,000, with a good number of monks. 
 
 It is known that Pope Alexander VI., by a bull of May, 
 1493, addressed to the kings of Castile, forbade any other 
 than Spaniards to approach the American islands, under 
 pain of excommunication.* 
 
 On the demand of Cardinal de Richelieu, Pope Urban 
 VIII. raised these censures, and, July 12, 1635, gave power 
 to four Dominican monks to repair thither, f under the pro 
 tection of the king of France, a power which was con 
 firmed a number of times to the same order, then shared 
 with several others. Father Du Tertre, from whom we 
 borrow these details, made part of the second expedition 
 of Spanish missionaries. Before this permission, before the 
 settlement of Frenchmen, Dominican monks had already 
 
 * Father Du Tertre, Histoire generate^ 1st ed., 1654, p. 30, gives a portion of 
 the text of this curious bull: " Quibuscumque personis, cujuscumque dignitatis, 
 etiam imperialis et regalfs status, gradus, ordinis, vel conditionis, sub excoin- 
 municationis latas sententise poena, quani eo ipso, si contra fecerint, incurrant, 
 districtius inhibemus, ne ad insulas et terras farinas inventas, et inveniendas, 
 detectas et detegendas, versus occidentem et meridem, fabricando et construendo 
 lineam, a polo artici ad polum antarticum, sive terras firmas et insulae inventas 
 et inveniendas sint versus Indiam, aut aliam quamcunque partem, qua; linea distet 
 a qualibet insularum quse vulgariter nuncupantur de los Azores y CapoVerd, cen 
 tum leucis versus occidentem et meridem, ut prsefertur, pro mercibus habendis, 
 vel quavis alia de causa accedere praesumant, absque vestra ac hasredum et suc- 
 cessorum vestronim licencia speciali." 
 
 f Fathers Pelican, Griffon. Nicolas, and the excellent Father Raymond, who 
 devoted himself to protecting and evangelizing the Caribs. Du Tertre, p. 29. 
 
 Q 
 
258 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 attempted to evangelize the Antilles, and had met their 
 death.* The islands had martyrs before having colonists. 
 
 On the 16th of August, 1661, the privilege of the Company 
 of the Islands was revoked. It had degenerated; instead 
 of working the lands, it sold them ; instead of civilizing the 
 savages, it exterminated them, despite the remonstrances 
 of the missionaries. It was necessary to reconstitute an 
 other, the West India Company. 
 
 The edict of May 28 -July 31, 1664, which approves it, 
 and accords (Art. XVI.) a premium of 30 livres per ton to 
 the colonies and 40 livres per ton imported, continues to 
 make the interest of religion its first care (Art. I.), and, in 
 assuring to the associates seignorial rights (Art. XXIII.), 
 repeats that artisans and converted savages shall be reputed 
 native-born and French citizens. Thus, very far from organ 
 izing servile labor in view of compulsory conversion, all 
 these edicts proclaim ennoblement by labor, and provide for 
 the employ of no other workmen than the colonists and 
 the natives. 
 
 But there is not a single spot on earth inhabited by men 
 where slavery does not appear as a universal fact. The 
 savages had slaves through their wars with each other ; 
 even, if Du Tertre is to be believed, those Caribs whom he 
 pictures as so gentle, so simple, so little vicious, so sociable, f 
 although drunken, polygamous, and anthropophagous, after 
 having killed their enemies, J reduced their women to servi 
 tude, then married them, and, if they had male children, 
 killed and ate them. The mountains were inhabited by 
 fugitive slaves. As soon as the colony began to be pro 
 ductive, the same historian relates that it attracted French 
 men to dwell there and merchants to sell slaves, which are, as 
 it were, the two bases of a colony. 9 ^ 
 
 The inhabitants had reduced the savages to servitude ; 
 
 * Six in 1603 and six in 1604. Du Tertre, ibid. 
 
 t P. 397. J P. 449. P. 403. If P. 26. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 259 
 
 they bought negroes ; they treated the hired whites like 
 slaves ; there were thus three kinds of slavery. 
 
 But we have seen that the royal edicts anticipated and 
 permitted nothing of the sort. The missionaries opposed 
 the extermination of the Caribs with all their might. " The 
 first obstacle to the conversion of the savages, 7 said Du 
 Tertre, "is the abhorrence which they have conceived for 
 the name of Christian, on account of the extreme cruelties 
 practised by the Christians on them and their fathers/ 7 * 
 
 As to the negroes, the same monk well expresses the 
 opinion of his coadjutors, by stigmatizing the shameful traffic 
 which the inhabitants of the Indies t make of their fellow-he- 
 ings, and the manner in which they treat these poor wretches, 
 
 neither more nor less than we treat horses in France, 
 
 beating them on the naked flesh, neither more nor less than the 
 
 Turks, and saying, that to beat a negro is to feed 
 
 him J He then exclaims, in touching language : 
 
 "I must at last ingenuously confess, and with all humility 
 adore, the profound and inconceivable mysteries of God, for 
 I know not what this unhappy nation has done, that God 
 has attached to it a particular and hereditary malediction, 
 not only the blackness and ugliness of the body, but 
 slavery and servitude. 77 
 
 Avaricious and cruel passions were stronger than these 
 charitable sentiments, which themselves were not without 
 mixture and alteration. 
 
 The negro slaves multiplied in little time. The Dutch 
 expelled from Brazil brought 1,200 to Guadaloupe in 1635. 
 These unfortunates were sufficiently numerous to necessi 
 tate an ordinance of the Governor of Martinico, July 13, 
 1648, prescribing the cultivation of food for the slaves. On 
 June 19, 1664, M. de Tracy, Lieutenant-General of the 
 American Islands, made a regulation to prevent masters 
 from hindering hired men and negro slaves from going to 
 
 * p. 460. t P. 473. t Pp. 475, 481. P. 480. 
 
260 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 mass, under penalty of a fine of 120 pounds of tobacco, or, 
 in case of a second offence, of seeing them sold, to be 
 placed in more Christian hands, and to forbid their debauch 
 ing them, under penalty of from twenty to fifty blows, and 
 the branding of a fleur-de-lis on the shoulder. 
 
 We also see, by an ignoble order of March 2, 1665, the 
 Council of Martinico negotiate with a certain negro, 
 Francisco, to hunt fugitive slaves, with his band, in consid 
 eration of 1,000 pounds of tobacco and his freedom, arid the 
 same Council (October 4, 1667) punish the receiving of 
 negroes, indigo, sugar, cocoa, ginger, ivearing apparel, uten 
 sils, furniture, and other merchandise, by corporal punish 
 ment, and a fine of 4,000 pounds of sugar, then (July 17, 
 1679) invent atrocious penalties against fugitive slaves, 
 such as slitting the nose, cutting the legs, etc. 
 
 Thus, by an infallible and rapid logic, cupidity and idle 
 ness had engendered oppression and barbarism. It was 
 then that the edict of March, 1685, or the Black Code, in 
 tervened, designed, says the preamble, to maintain the dis 
 cipline of the Church, and to regulate what concerns the 
 condition and quality of slaves. 
 
 This edict did wrong in not abolishing slavery, but it did 
 not create, and was designed to alleviate it. It left subsist 
 ing odious penalties, whipping, slitting of ears, branding 
 of lilies on the shoulder, hamstringing, death, penalties 
 which justly shock us, as well as the penalties inflicted by 
 more ancient edicts, such as piercing through the tongue 
 of blasphemers with a hot iron, slitting the tongue, slit 
 ting the lips in case of a second offence (edicts of De 
 cember 5, 1487, and July 10, 1493), and whipping till blood 
 was drawn for offences of the chase (edict of March, 
 1515). But the Black Code gives to the slaves baptism 
 (Art. 2), marriage (Art. 8), religious worship (Art. 3), 
 Sunday (Art. 4), burial in consecrated ground (Art. 14), 
 emancipation (Art. 55), and recognizes to the freed slaves 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 201 
 
 the same rights as to freemen (Art. 59). It prescribes the 
 employment of Christian commanders, punishes debauch 
 ery, permits slaves to be appointed guardians, etc. This 
 act is a shame, and nevertheless a progress. After a cen 
 tury and a half, men would be scarcely more advanced, 
 milder, but no more just ; they would still attempt to pre 
 vent evil from being evil, but again without succeeding. 
 Several articles of this Code and of the letters patent of 
 December, 1123, would be still in force, and a commentator 
 of 1844, in relating the provision by which a master who 
 should debauch his slave was punished by a fine of 300 
 livres, would content himself by saying, " This article is 
 not curried into effect." * 
 
 Whatever may be the consequences, the examination of 
 the origin of slavery proves that neither the monarchy nor 
 the clergy are responsible for its establishment in the colo 
 nies. It is to the monarchy, and in part to religion, that 
 France owes the colonies. It is not to the government and 
 the clergy that the colonies owe servitude. They are 
 guilty of having tolerated, then shamefully practised it.f 
 This is enough, arid too much. It is not true that they in 
 troduced it. What called it ? the cupidity of the first 
 colonists. What introduced it? the slave-trade. Who 
 organized the slave-trade ? the seaports and the mother 
 country. Innocent of slavery, the government of the mon- 
 
 * Code de Bourbon, by Delabarre-Nanteuil, 1844. 
 
 t Minutes of the meetings of the Company of the Islands, held on the first 
 Friday of every month, at the house of M. Daligre. Meeting of May 5, 1645 : 
 
 "The monks of St. Domingo, residing on the island of Guadaloupe, demand 
 twelve negroes for the service of their houses. The Company requested Sieur 
 Houel, governor of the said island, to give four of the first negroes who should 
 come to the island to the said monks, who are entreated carefully to instruct in 
 the faith the negroes and savages upon the said island. 
 
 " And respecting the proposition of the said monks to be empowered to have 
 a lot of the negroes exposed to sale on their arrival in the said island, by pay 
 ing the same price as others, the said Sieur Houel shall be written to to give 
 liberty to the said monks to purchase the said negroes like other private indi 
 viduals." .Colonial Archives.) 
 
262 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 archy was, as we shall see, directly guilty of having author 
 ized and encouraged the slave-trade in the interest of the 
 commerce of the ports, and it succeeded in coloring this 
 abomination by religious pretexts ; but the responsibility 
 of the Church is here again out of the question. 
 
 The same Pope Urban VIII., who gave to the Antilles, in 
 1635, missionaries of the order most hostile to slavery, pro 
 tested in 1639 against the Portuguese, the great organizers 
 of slavery and the slave-trade, and a century after, in 1741, 
 Benedict XIV. called the attention of Brazil to the same 
 principles, which another century later, 1839, Gregory 
 XVI. repeated to Europe and the world. 
 
 Thus, thank God ! the clergy have not propagated slav 
 ery, but whatever motives may justify their conduct, it is 
 a lamentable misfortune that they did not reprove it more 
 severely, and that they ended by disgracefully accepting 
 it for their own use. 
 
 Religion has been the victim of this fault, which the 
 clergy have grievously expiated, for slavery has corrupted 
 the priesthood, and, even where it has not corrupted it, has 
 fettered its preaching, perverted its position, and degraded 
 its ministry. 
 
 " Christianity is a religion of freemen," said M. de 
 
 Tocqueville, admirably "How succeed in elevating 
 
 and purifying the wishes of him who does not feel the re 
 sponsibility of his own act ? How give the idea of moral 
 dignity to him who is nothing in his own eyes ? Do what we 
 may, it will always be difficult to enlighten and spiritualize 
 the religion of a slave, whose life is filled with coarse and 
 incessant toil, and who is naturally and invincibly plunged 
 
 into ignorance by the very fact of his condition If 
 
 we look with care, we shall be convinced that the negro is 
 entirely indifferent to religious truths, or else that he makes 
 of Christianity an ardent and gross superstition." * 
 
 * Report of 1839, p. 41. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 2G3 
 
 But, besides the moral incompatibility, slavery opposes 
 material obstacles to religious preaching. 
 
 When and how shall religious instruction be given ? If 
 the priest asks of the master an hour devoted to labor, will 
 he obtain it ? If he asks of the slave an hour devoted to 
 rest, will he, can he, obtain a hearing ? What will he say, 
 moreover ? Distrusted by the master if he awakens an 
 instinct of freedom, distrusted, detested by the slave if 
 he makes himself the sanctifier of slavery, the priest is 
 reduced to hold in turn one half of the Gospel in slavery, 
 and to preach a lame justice and virtues not exacted by 
 Heaven. Facts confirm these predictions. I draw at ran 
 dom from the documents around me, and read in the official 
 proceedings of the commission appointed in 1838* to exam 
 ine the proposition of M. de Passy, these answers of the 
 witnsses interrogated : 
 
 " Parish priests have been expelled on complaint of the 
 masters, under the pretext that they inculcated ideas of 
 freedom on the negro population, and the Catholic prefects 
 have been obliged to recommend to their priests to abstain 
 from all allusion to the subject of liberty." 
 
 "Moreover," said the Batonnier of the barristers of Fort 
 Royal (Martinico), "the negroes have regarded the priests 
 as charged with a mission to deceive them, and exclusively 
 to defend the interests of the masters. It is, perhaps, to 
 this that we are to attribute their present incredulity." 
 
 So false a position was not o a nature to inspire many 
 vocations. The clergy of the colonies, therefore, was air 
 ways insufficient ; consequently, imperfectly recruited and 
 thus mingled with corrupt elements, the refuse of the dio 
 ceses of Europe, it became the disgrace of colonial com 
 munities. 
 
 This calamity was averted as soon as an appeal was made 
 to associations, the subjects of which, prepared by a special 
 
 * Library of M. de Broglie. 
 
264 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 education, easily replaced, and received in their old age, were 
 moreover subject to more efficacious authority than that of 
 apostolic prefects over priests from every corner of France. 
 The great labors of the Jesuits, the Dominicans, the Car 
 melites, the Capuchins, the brothers of Saint Jean-de-Dieu,* 
 and lastly, the members of the Congregation of the Holy 
 Spirit at Guiana, Martmico, and Guadaloupe, are not for 
 gotten. 
 
 Not only did these monks form a pure and efficacious 
 clergy for the colonies, but they managed their plantations 
 in a manner to make them models. A good example which, 
 for my part, I dare call a scandal, so repugnant is it to me 
 to accept the idea of a model, virtuous, and lucrative slav 
 ery practised by priestly sugar and coffee planters. 
 
 In so false a position and despite aggravated obstacles, 
 sometimes by the reactions of the revolutions of the mother 
 country, at others by difficulties with the local -governments, 
 such is the beneficent power of Christianity, and such the 
 zeal of the greater part of its ministers, that, notwithstand 
 ing, much religious good has been done at all times in the 
 colonies from the day of their foundation. 
 
 The Gospel rendered the masters milder, the slaves hap 
 pier. Of all races, the negro is perhaps the most eager for 
 religion, and the Catholic worship, exclusively recognized 
 
 * Commission of 1839, Proces-verbaux of the Chamber of Deputies, session 
 of 1840, p. 108: 
 
 Delegate from Marlimco : " On the plantations of the monks, the number of 
 families was greater, and the arrangement of labor more perfect ; and this has 
 continued. The good effect produced by these monastic orders makes itself 
 felt wherever their useful influence is exercised." 
 
 Delegate from Guadaloupe : " I have precisely the same testimony to render." 
 
 Delegate from Guiana : " There were considerable plantations in Guiana be 
 longing to monks. These plantations were well administered. The monks had 
 even civilized the Indians, who are more difficult to civilize than the negroes." 
 
 Delegate from Bourbon : " There never were any monastic orders in the Isle 
 of Bourbon [the delegate is here in error], but the colonial workshop where re 
 ligious instruction was most common ranked highest of all others in morals, 
 and labor there was active and regular." 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 26o 
 
 by the edict of 1685, and since remaining that of the major 
 ity of the inhabitants, has incomparable attraction for them. 
 Despite some little distrust, how could it be otherwise ? 
 Keligion not only gives hope to wretched souls, abandoned, 
 if they do not look for a better world, to the spirit of re 
 bellion, the desire of flight, the dejection of sadness, or 
 the stupefaction of a carelessness maintained by deprava 
 tion ; it gives, through baptism, godfathers and godmothers 
 to beings without family ; it elevates their freed conscience 
 to the serene heights of moral liberty ; it transforms their 
 misfortune into a merit.* They have, in the priests, de 
 fenders, confidants, and- friends ; at the altar, they receive 
 equality before God ; a family is given them in His name ; 
 festivals occur to break their monotonous existence ; 
 the church was the place of refuge of the slaves, it was the 
 only spot in the world where they were really free or mo 
 mentarily happy. 
 
 It is not useless to show, by an extremely brief history 
 of religionf in each of the slave colonies, what were its ca 
 lamities, its labors, and its progress, unto the moment of the 
 abolition of slavery. 
 
 I. GUIANA. 
 
 Before the Revolution, the mission of Guiana was intrust 
 ed to the Jesuits. They had but a single parish in Cayenne 
 when visited by Father Labat in 1694 ; nevertheless, their 
 labors had not been sterile. The missionaries had a great 
 and salutary influence over the negroes, who were most de- 
 
 * A merit often heroic ! Negroes, worn out, aged, sure of being punished on 
 the morrow, were seen to walk a league at night, three times a week, to go to 
 catechism. 
 
 t This history is the summary of published writings, such as La Mission de 
 Cayenne, by Father de Montezon; Lettres sur fesclavage, by M. Dugoujon, 
 Apostolic Prefect of Guadaloupe; V Esclavage awx colonies, by M. Castelli, Apos 
 tolic Prefect of Martinico; the Annales de la Propagation d&la foi; and, lastly, 
 MS. memorials and unpublished letters addressed to the Department of the 
 Marine and to the Community of the Holy Spirit. 
 12 
 
266 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 voted and docile to those whom they styled the Monperes. 
 It is still remembered in the colonies, that, under the gov 
 ernment of M. d Orvilliers, a considerable number of ne 
 groes having gathered together on a mountain and in the 
 forests, the planters and all the troops marched against 
 them, but without success. A general rising of those who 
 had remained tranquil was feared, when a Jesuit, Father 
 Poque, went alone into the midst of the fugitives, brought 
 them back, and effected a reconciliation. These zealous 
 priests did not neglect the Indian tribes, in general gentle, 
 laborious, distrustful because they had been deceived, but 
 who had been* and could still, by better treatment, be 
 civilized and made useful. Three special missions were 
 organized for these tribes in 1*782 by Father Jean-Xavier- 
 Padilla. 
 
 " The Indians descend the rivers/ says a missionary, f 
 "they brave the waves in their frail periaguas, and present 
 
 their children for baptism It is touching to see the 
 
 proud Indian, his neck adorned with a collar of tiger s or 
 alligator s teeth, with bow arid arrows in one hand, and 
 tomahawk in the other, witness the baptism of his child 
 
 with the greatest respect, then, after the ceremony, 
 
 joyful, and blessing the father, place his infant in the little 
 periagua and dart again upon the waves." 
 
 The priests of the Holy Spirit, dispatched after the ex 
 pulsion of the Jesuits (1773), under the ministry of M. de 
 Sartines (1776), to the number of twenty, with an apos 
 tolic prefect, continued their good work with success. 
 Thanks to this influence, the relations of the two classes 
 were exceptional in this colony,! and so harmonious that 
 the first outbreak of the Revolution passed without disturb- 
 
 * Aper$u de la situation des peuplades in/Henries a la Guyane frangaise, by M 
 Devilly. Revue coloniale, July, 1850, p. 45. 
 
 f Mission de Sinnamary, by M. Hardy. 
 
 J Observations sur Vetat de la colonie de Cayenne, by M. Terrasson, planter (MS. 
 of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit). 
 
KELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 267 
 
 ance. But erelong, labor being checked by the causes 
 indicated elsewhere, the negroes dispersed through the 
 forests. The priests, having courageously refused to take 
 the oath, were arrested, and condemned to deportation. 
 Thirty-two were in fact deported from Guiana, while other 
 French priests were, on the contrary, deported to Guiana, 
 arid came thither to die of fever and want, and to find a 
 humble, to-day venerated tomb. The churches were fired. 
 The re-establishment of slavery, in 1802, finished what 
 emancipation ^ by violence, had begun. "A great part of 
 the blacks/ 7 says a colonist,* "take refuge in the forests, 
 especially those who have lost all principle of religion, and 
 become true negro Jacobins. When they have provisions 
 and see themselves in sufficient numbers, they attempt 
 incursions on our settlements, maltreat and assassinate the 
 proprietors, carry off the faithful slaves, and, not content 
 with abandoning themselves to plunder, make use of poi 
 son, a fearful weapon in their hands. 7 
 
 During this time, the deported priests were dispersed by 
 Providence to serve, revive, or second, after a thousand tri 
 als, arrests, and shipwrecks, religion on other points, some 
 at Guadaloupe, others at Martinico, one at St. Christopher, 
 another at St. Croix. 
 
 Of all the priests deported, one alone, M. Legrand, re 
 turned to Guiana, but not until 1809, where he exercised his 
 ministry with the title of Apostolic Prefect, even under the 
 Portuguese occupation. He wrote, at the close of 1816, to 
 the Duke de Luxembourg, Ambassador of France to Portu 
 gal : -j- "I am the only French priest at Cayenne. I do 
 what I can in the town, but the country is almost aban 
 doned. Besides, my age and infirmities give me reason to 
 believe that the end of my career is not far distant. En 
 treat the government to send us co-workers. " He had the 
 
 * MS. of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 f Archives of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit. 
 
268 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 joy of witnessing the arrival of three priests, in November, 
 1817, then died in January, 1818. Deplorable administra 
 tive dissensions retarded the effects of the mission, without 
 rendering them wholly fruitless, thanks to the impregna 
 ble zeal of M. Guillier, the successor of M. Legrand, until 
 the beneficent administration of M. Jubelin, who, happily 
 for the colony, governed six years (1829-1835). 
 
 The brothers and sisters were re-established, the churches 
 rebuilt, the parishes increased, and, when the revolution of 
 1848 broke .out, it had been preceded by an evangelization 
 which, although incomplete, contributed, nevertheless, pow 
 erfully to the maintenance of the public peace. 
 
 II. MARTINICO. 
 
 We find again at Martinico the same founders of the 
 mission, the Jesuits, and, by a touching coincidence, 
 the same restorers of religion as at French Guiana. The 
 Jesuits arrived there at the beginning of the French occu 
 pation (1649). In 1694 Father Labat found there with them 
 the Dominicans and Capuchins, who remained alone after 
 17*73, with an apostolic prefect for each order. The broth 
 ers hospitallers of Saint Jean-de-Dieu had established there 
 the admirable plantation of Saint Jacques. The religious 
 condition was tolerably satisfactory at the moment of the 
 Revolution, followed so speedily by English occupation. A 
 few priests remained during the. duration of this occupation. 
 We find M. Legrand there in 1807, deported from Guiana, 
 to which he was soon to return. Several years passed with 
 a disorganized clergy, under superiors whose delegation 
 was contestable, until the moment when the venerable head 
 of the Community of the Holy Spirit, M. Bertout, who 
 may be called the spiritual father of the colonies, for he 
 raised up the priesthood in all of them, sent two priests 
 in 1819, and obtained the appointment, by an ordinance of 
 December 31, 1821, of two apostolic prefects, one for Mar- 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 2G9 
 
 tinico and the other for Guadaloupe. The first, M. Carraud, 
 did immense good there, which would have been still greater 
 had it not been for the inadequateness in every respect of 
 nearly all the colonial clergy, and the administrative diffi 
 culties which, at the time of the Revolution of 1830, caused 
 a long and distressing interim. From 1834 to 1848, the 
 prefecture was confided to a priest well known for his abo 
 lition sentiments, M. Castelli. They were not the only, 
 but the principal * cause of the obstacles which, after having 
 fettered his ministry, determined his removal. He had the 
 pleasure of being restored to his functions at the moment 
 when the slaves were about to be freed. Despite these 
 trials and faults, good was done. Religion had long since 
 effected in many parishes the habits of prayer, instruction, 
 and moralization which the law came to enjoin ; and, if the 
 preparation for the abolition of slavery w T as not further 
 advanced at Martinico, it was not the majority of the clergy 
 of the colony that were to blame for it. 
 
 III. GUADALOUPE. 
 
 With the first colonists, MM. Duplessis and POlive, four 
 Dominicans landed in 1635. The story of the efforts of one 
 of them, Father Raymond, to protect the unfortunate Caribs, 
 has been preserved to us in a very curious manuscript, f and 
 in the history of Father Du Tertre, another Dominican sent 
 shortly after. When the island was sold to M. de Boisseret 
 and M. Houel, the latter, after a difficulty with the Domin 
 icans, invited thither the barefoot Carmelites of Touraine 
 (1664). Father Labat also found Jesuits and Capuchins 
 there thirty years after. The great lepers hospital of Desi- 
 rade was established in 1128. All the statements authorize 
 the belief, that, at the end of -the eighteenth century, the 
 
 * Letter from a missionary, 1841: "What completes his destruction is his 
 < bolition opinions, which he has not sufficiently concealed." 
 
 t Purchased by the author at the sale of the Erdeven collection. 
 
270 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 religious and moral condition of the colony had made as 
 much progress as its material prosperity. After the Revo 
 lution, religion had to pass through continual trials ; pro 
 scribed and overthrown at first, then represented by an 
 incapable or even scandalous clergy ; at length intrusted for 
 long years to the direction of a respectable apostolic pre 
 fect, whose charity was admirable during the yellow-fever 
 of 1838, and at the moment of the terrible earthquake of 
 1843, but timid, and instructing his clergy to repair to the 
 plantations only when they were summoned there. As he 
 said himself in- his correspondence, "The religious instruc 
 tion of the slave class does not make great progress 
 
 Tire colonists of an important part of the colony seem to 
 have given each other the cue to receive neither the visits 
 of priests nor of magistrates." There was less indifference 
 or opposition at some points. It seemed, above all, as if 
 the great trials which overwhelmed the colonies opened 
 souls to better resolutions, encouraged towards the -last by 
 instructions and law s from the mother country. The patient 
 zeal of the clergy, directed by a new superior, obtained, in 
 fact, the most satisfactory results, but the ill-will of the 
 masters remained the same, w T ith some noble exceptions, 
 until the Revolution of 1848. It was the destiny of Gua- 
 daloupe to arrive at moral progress more tardily than the 
 other colonies, and more tardily also, by an equitable coin 
 cidence, at material progress. 
 
 IV. BOURBON. 
 
 The Isle of Bourbon was more fortunate. When, a cen 
 tury after its discovery by the Portuguese Mascarenhas, it 
 was colonized by the French, the Gospel was carried thither 
 by Capuchin monks ; one of whom, Father Hyacinth, after 
 the compulsory departure of the Governor, in 1675, gov 
 erned the island for three years. The religious worship 
 was intrusted to the Lazarists from 1136, and when, during 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 271 
 
 the Revolution, the colony administered itself, the goods of 
 the Lazarists were confiscated, but worship was not abol 
 ished. Nevertheless, it may be said that religion expired. 
 The divorce law disorganized the families of the whites ; if 
 it had not the same effect upon the blacks, it was because 
 marriage was unknown to them. The missionaries of the 
 Holy Spirit found on their arrival, in 1818, three cures va 
 cant out of eleven, no instruction, arid no piety ; progress 
 was very slow, the chief obstacle being the opposition of 
 the greater part of the masters, an opposition to which they 
 were condemned by falsity of position rather than hardness 
 of heart. 
 
 I read still in the correspondence of this epoch the same 
 state of affairs. A few colonists were exceptions, and are 
 models ; to them, and above all to their wives, the slaves 
 were a family ; to others, they were cattle. When the slave 
 had labored enough to pay for what he was worth, he might; 
 die for aught they cared. Between these two extremes, it 
 pleased many masters to choose among the Christian vir 
 tues, to detach from the Gospel the pages on patience while 
 blotting out those on equality, and to walk abroad accom* 
 panied by two men, the one bearing a crucifix to preach 
 submission, the other a lash to enforce it. They were will 
 ing to accept the instruction which develops the faculties, 
 provided it did not elevate the sentiments. They were will 
 ing to give an hour to the school, provided it were not taken 
 from the work. 
 
 Is it necessary to add, that the superior authority did lit 
 tle for a long time to change a state of affairs which seemed 
 in some sort admitted and without remedy ? 
 
 The faults, the vices of a fraction of the clergy were re 
 sponsible at Bourbon, as elsewhere, for a part of this deplora 
 ble sterility. Instead of converting others, more than one 
 priest suffered himself to become corrupted ; above all, more 
 than one suffered himself to become discouraged. To preach 
 
272 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 chastity in such a climate, fraternity under such a system ; 
 to talk of disinterestedness to men burning to make a for 
 tune, and of divine goodness to wretches bowed down by 
 force to toil ; to please two parties which detested each 
 other, to be suspicious to none ; to inculcate the subtle 
 truths of the Gospel on young Creoles, bachelors of the col 
 leges of Paris, and young Africans reared on the coast of 
 Zanguebar, mingled with Pariahs from India and China, 
 ah ! this was, it will be granted, an ungrateful mission ! 
 
 It demanded Christian heroes, they were found at Bour 
 bon. The Abbe Monnet, who arrived in the island in 1840, 
 resolved to devote himself exclusively to the moralization 
 of the blacks ; he obtained the co-operation of some of his 
 confreres, and his success won a signal notice in the report 
 of the Duke de Broglie, who thus sums up the testimony 
 of the Apostolic Prefect of Bourbon, heard by the Colonial 
 Commission, April 29, 1842.* 
 
 " Instruction has truly taken a new impulse at St. Denis 
 and the surrounding localities. The Abbe Monnet has dis 
 played admirable zeal and rare intelligence. There are 
 to-day not less than 10,000 blacks catechised by his cures. 
 
 He has found B powerful auxiliaries in a few pious 
 
 negroes, who have become sufficiently advanced in religious 
 instruction to teach the Catechism and repeat the lessons 
 on the plantations. For three years past the number of 
 first communions has been considerable, even among adults. 
 
 The masters take the initiative most honorably in 
 
 this respect A great impulse has been given to mar 
 riages More than 400 have been contracted in two 
 
 years among the black population. 7 
 
 The movement which rejoiced some masters filled others 
 with consternation. We know that M. Monnet, as is said 
 in a correspondence, " like a true priest of Jesus Christ, 
 desired nothing so much as to see the day of liberty and 
 
 * Report, p. 153. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION BEFORE EMANCIPATION. 273 
 
 spiritual regeneration dawn at length upon the unhappy 
 negroes. 7 On his return to Bourbon in 1847, after a short 
 sojourn in France, the opposition of the colonists was such 
 that the Governor ordered him directly to set out again for 
 home. He died on his way to evangelize Madagascar. 
 
 Happily, his work was not abandoned. God raised up, 
 no longer a few men, but a whole community, for its contin 
 uance and extension. 
 
 A few years subsequent to 1830, there were found in the 
 Seminary Saint-Sulpice, at Paris, a Creole from Bourbon, a 
 Creole from Mauritius, arid a Creole from St. Domingo.* 
 They confided to each other their idea of devoting them 
 selves to the evangelization of the negroes. This was the 
 origin of the Community of the Sacred Heart of Mary. 
 " The general end of our society/ 7 wrote one of the three 
 founders with sublime simplicity, in an unpublished docu 
 ment, " is to care for the poorest arid most forsaken people 
 of the Church of God. The negroes being found at this 
 moment in this position, more than any other people, we 
 have offered ourselves to evangelize them. 77 
 
 Having become a priest, the first of these men was sent 
 to Bourbon, the second to Mauritius, and the third died in 
 sight of St. Domingo. They had taken for their superior 
 a holy man, Father Libermann, a converted Jew, who pre 
 pared the foundation of the community destined, in the idea 
 of its institutors, to evangelize the negroes in Hayti and the 
 Antilles, as well as in the two Guianas, Senegambia, and 
 the rest of Africa. 
 
 We cannot read without emotion the memorial addressed 
 by Father Libermann to the congregation of the Propa 
 ganda, on the general condition of the black population in 
 the world. 
 
 " Within reach of Europe, 77 says he, " millions of men 
 are wallowing in ignorance and wretchedness, yet no one 
 
 * MM. Levavasseur, Laval, and Tisserant. 
 
 12* R 
 
274 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 thinks of rescuing them. Nevertheless, these men, as well 
 as others, are created in the image of God 
 
 " In the very country where a merciful Providence seems 
 to have conducted them to free their souls, by subjecting 
 their bodies to a toilsome servitude, in these countries, 
 where they should find the riches and consolations of 
 grace, their souls are perishing of want in the midst of 
 abundance, and there is no one to aid them." 
 
 The labors of the missionaries at Bourbon were an in 
 valuable preparation for emancipation, and the principal 
 cause of the union and peace which reigned when it was 
 declared. 
 
 In short, the statesmen who labored in France for this 
 great work were not mistaken when they summoned relig 
 ion to their aid ; * the colonists who opposed it were not 
 mistaken when they distrusted it. Religion is not freedom, 
 but it is the mother of freedom. 
 
 But the history of religion in the four slave colonies of 
 France, until emancipation, ends in this conclusion : 
 
 1. All the effort, all the credit, all the encouragement, 
 did not succeed in drawing a sufficient number of laborers 
 
 to the ungrateful mission of carrying the Gospel into the 
 bosom of servitude. 
 
 Before the ordinance of September 6, 1839, there were in 
 our four colonies but 82 priests, scarcely 1 to 4,500 inhab 
 itants on a considerable surface. f After the ordinance of 
 May 18, 1846, there were only 127, or 1 for about 3,000 in 
 habitants. It was hoped that the lists would be filled in 
 184.74 
 
 2. Christianity, which brings duty and hope to all condi 
 tions, has power to alleviate and moralize even slavery ; 
 
 * Ordinances of 1839 and 1846. 
 f Report of the Duke de Broglie, p. 122. 
 
 j: 6th Supplement to the Report of the Minister of the Marine to the King, 
 March, 1847. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 275 
 
 the black population has a soul peculiarly open to its teaqh- 
 ings, which bear fruit when the master is exceptionally 
 good, the apostle exceptionally holy. But in general, the 
 slave, the master, and the priest are depraved by servitude. 
 Keligion itself seems perverted and corrupted. Its progress 
 is impossible before emancipation, infallible after. 
 
 2. AFTER THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
 
 IN all the colonies, liberty was proclaimed before the 
 altar. The negroes received it as a sacrament, in one of 
 those rare, sublime, and joyous hours in which justice tri 
 umphs here on earth. God was taken to witness the recon 
 ciliation of men. 
 
 "Some young negroes of the town," writes the Apos 
 tolic Prefect of Guiana,* " came to entreat me to say mass 
 that grace might be given them not to abuse their free 
 dom." 
 
 "God be praised!" exclaims the Apostolic Prefect of 
 Martinico,t "we have here now but a free people, a peo 
 ple of brethren, whom we are all called on to console, to 
 
 enlighten, and to direct The harvest is great ; let 
 
 us enlarge our hearts ! " 
 
 " The colonial missions are becoming admirable and 
 worthy of envy," writes the Apostolic Prefect of Guada- 
 loupe.J And in a report to the Minister of the Marine, he 
 declares that " the negroes repair with eagerness to relig 
 ious instructions, marriages are multiplied, and so many 
 scholars flock to the schools that it is necessary to triple 
 the number." 
 
 At Bourbon, where the missionaries wrote already be 
 fore 1848, "We are the mediators of the two popula- 
 
 * Unpublished letter of 1848. 
 
 f Pastoral letter of August 15, 1848. 
 
 | Circular of June 17, 1848; Report of Aug. 22, 1848. 
 
276 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 tions ; they feel the need of our presence, and 
 
 we profit by it to do good/ only a handful of negroes 
 were seen to go tumultuously to cast chains into the sea ; 
 all remained patient and confiding ; they had waited ten 
 years for their freedom, they waited two months longer 
 for the Commissioner-General who brought the decree, then 
 another two months without trouble or disorder for the 
 proclamation of this decree, which took place in the tem 
 ples of God ; they entered into liberty as it were by a 
 second baptism. 
 
 "It would doubtless have been better," wrote Father 
 Libermann, in 1850, " if the slaves had been well prepared ; 
 but as they never would have been sufficiently so, on ac 
 count of the opposition of their masters, this sudden eman 
 cipation may be regarded as a gift from God." * 
 
 But, far from being finished, the moralizing work of re 
 ligion was beginning. Not only was it necessary for it to 
 pass through days of revolution and ruin, to transfuse into 
 manners the fraternity which had just been inscribed in the 
 law, and to struggle against ardent rancors and guilty in 
 citements ; but before all it was fitting to reform the clergy 
 itself, inefficient, too scanty, and imperfectly organized. 
 For a long time the colonies had demanded bishops. The 
 apostolic prefects were invested with simple administrative 
 supremacy. They had neither the external dignity, nor 
 the real authority of bishops, nor the independence which 
 results to them from immovability. The Colonial Commis 
 sion of 1840, f while demanding bishops, had hesitated be 
 fore this condition, through a love of excessive centraliza 
 tion. Placed face to face with an all-powerful Governor, a 
 dependent bishop would have been without influence, and 
 this dependence was precisely what lowered the character 
 of the prefects. 
 
 * Unpublished memorial, Archives of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit, 
 t Meeting of Feb. 22, 1843. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 277 
 
 The Community of the Holy Spirit, charged with main 
 taining the supply of the colonial clergy, had rendered the 
 greatest services. Its missionaries were already evange 
 lizing Canada and Acadia at the moment of the expulsion 
 of the Jesuits (1773). Guiana was then confided to it 
 (1776), next, Senegal (1779), recovered, thanks to two of 
 its missionaries, and the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. 
 Founded in 1703, suppressed in 1793, re-established in 1805 
 by Napoleon, who suppressed it anew in 1809, re-established 
 in 1816, installed at the expense of the state in 1820, and 
 endowed with a subsidy, which the July government sup 
 pressed in 1830, then restored in 1839, the Community of 
 the Holy Spirit had made the greatest effort to augment 
 the number and quality of the colonial priests. When the 
 ordinance of September 6, 1839, placed an annual appropri 
 ation at the disposal of the government for the increase of 
 the clergy and churches, the community could support, 
 
 At Martinico, 44 priests, serving 28 parishes ; 
 
 " Guadaloupe, 46 " " 32 " 
 
 " Bourbon, 30 " " 14 " 
 
 " Guiana, 10 " " 14 quarters; 
 
 to say nothing of fifteen priests at Senegal, St. Pierre, the 
 East Indies, and Madagascar. This was one priest for 
 some 2,000 or 3,000 inhabitants. 
 
 But the clergy continued to have for superiors only pre 
 fects and vice-prefects. The Superior of the Community 
 of the Sacred Heart of Mary, united by the Pope to that 
 of the Holy Spirit, Father Libcrmann, as wise as dis 
 interested, took immediate measures, although unfavorable 
 to the influence of his community, that bishops should be 
 finally given to the colonies. His prayers were granted 
 by the decrees of June 22 and July 12, 1850. 
 
 Under the inspiration of a minister to whom the Church 
 and society owe so much, M. de Falloux, men ceased 
 thus to haggle for the true conditions of religious power. 
 
278 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 Three bishoprics were created by the decrees of June 22 
 and July 12, 1850, at Basse-Terre (Guadaloupe), Port Royal 
 (Martinico), and St. Denis (Bourbon).* The National As 
 sembly repeatedly f declared itself in favor of their insti 
 tution, and, by statutes of November 6 and December 16, 
 1850, J provided for the expenses of their installation. The 
 Holy See approved and hastened to sanction this important 
 measure, which was definitively regulated by a decree of 
 February 3, 1851. Guiana alone remained under the ancient 
 regime. 
 
 At this time, the effective force of the colonial clergy was 
 raised, 
 
 At Martinico, to 80 priests. 
 
 " Guadaloupe, " 85 " 
 
 " Bourbon, " 65 " 
 
 Total, . .230 
 
 The bishops of the colonies were attached to the diocese 
 of Bordeaux, as belonging to the mother country, and con 
 sequently called to the councils of that province, held, the 
 one at Rochelle in 1853, the other at Perigueux in 1856. 
 The acts of these councils subjected the colonial dioceses 
 to the rules established by the preceding council, held at 
 Bordeaux in 1850, and which had expressed wishes for their 
 erection. The first movement of the fathers of the Rochelle 
 Council was to bless God for the foundation of the colonial 
 bishoprics and the emancipation of the slaves. The terms 
 in which this was done deserve to be cited : 
 
 "Before all, we render thanksgivings to God the Father 
 for the mercies which, disposing everything with gentleness, 
 have happily ended, through his providence, an affair so neces 
 sary to the salvation of souls, and likewise to the sovereign 
 
 * The bishops appointed were M. Lacarriere, for Guadaloupe; M. Leherpeur, 
 for Martinico; M. Desprez, for Bourbon, 
 t May 4, July 29, 1850. 
 t On the report of M Dariste, Moniteur, 1850, p. 3G01. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 279 
 
 pontiff, Pius IX., who, acceding to the religious prayers of 
 the Prince-President of the Republic, and changing simple 
 apostolic prefectures into veritable and perpetual bishop 
 rics, as he has done for England and Holland, despite the 
 resistance and anger of heretics and politicians, thus refutes, 
 by the most evident facts, the pretended discoveries, calum- 
 niously spread, of a change of bishops into papal vicars." * 
 
 As to emancipation, this admirable declaration, approved 
 by the Holy See, should also be retained : 
 
 " Numerous constitutions of the Roman pontiffs, dating 
 back several centuries, attest how much the holy mother, 
 the Catholic Church, has always deplored the hard slavery 
 in which a multitude of men were retained to the loss of their 
 
 " * 
 
 souls, and by what efforts she has unceasingly labored to 
 remedy so great an evil. Now, thanks to God, whose prov 
 idence does not err in its designs, a new order of things 
 has broke forth, and we rejoice in the Lord for the capital 
 benefit accorded to so many men, who, though of a differ 
 ent color, are our brothers in Adam, and appear to wish to 
 use the liberty so long desired to acquire the liberty of the 
 children of God. 
 
 " But alas ! the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are 
 few! (Matt. ix. 37.)" 
 
 The bishops did not reach their dioceses until the close 
 of 1851, nearly three years after the abolition of slavery. 
 Here, again, what should have taken place before was not 
 done till afterwards, and long enough afterwards for the 
 good and harm of emancipation, abandoned to itself, to be 
 already effected and judged. 
 
 But the religious good has begun, and continues more 
 and more to prevail. 
 
 The clergy could not be suddenly augmented ; it has, nev 
 ertheless, been increased. 
 
 * Decrota concilii provincse Burdigalensis, Rupellse celebrati, anno Domini 
 1833. Cap. V. p. 48. 
 t Ibid., Cap. VI. p. 50. 
 
280 
 
 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 The official list is still : 
 80 for Martinico ; 
 85 for Guadaloupe ; 
 74 for Bourbon. 
 
 But, besides this list, there are parochial chapels, curacies, 
 and almonries unrecognized. One priest is computed for 
 about 2,500 inhabitants ; now it will be remembered that, be 
 fore 1848, there was but one for 3,000 ; before 1839, but one 
 for 4,500. The present number is, moreover, far from .suffi 
 cient. In France, there is one priest for 700 inhabitants, and 
 the distances are much less, no diocese having 60 leagues, 
 as at Bourbon, 65, as at Martinico, or 85, as at Guadaloupe. 
 The number of churches is considerably increased. Sev 
 eral Tiave been built by the negroes. But the parishes are 
 still too large and the churches too scarce. 
 
 The moral good wrought has been immense. This has 
 been judged, in a preceding chapter, from the number of 
 marriages ; it will also be judged from the progress of 
 schools. 
 
 Before the ordinance of June 5, 1840, and the financial 
 encouragement in the budget of 1839, the report of the 
 Duke de Broglie * stated that the elementary and moral in 
 struction of slave-children in our colonies was deplorably 
 neglected, and, so to say, null. There was not one child in 
 twenty-five that could even follow the Catechism. The im 
 pulse given in 1840 by the Apostolic Prefects and the Gov 
 ernors produced some happy results. Nevertheless, the 
 Colonial Commission demanded an expenditure of 1,740,000 
 francs for the foundation of indispensable schools. In the 
 English colonies, during the three first years of apprentice 
 ship, the government had appropriated 75,000 to the 
 schools, and such had been the zeal of the missionaries 
 and authorities, that the English colonies possessed 1 school 
 for 600 inhabitants, instructing 1 child in 9, at the same 
 
 * Report, p. 92, etc. 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 281 
 
 time that France counted only 1 school for 1,000 inhabit 
 ants, instructing 1 child in 12. 
 
 What the Colonial Commission proposed in France in 
 1840 is not yet everywhere realized. 
 
 It demanded, at Martinico, 47 Brothers de Ploermel, in 
 stead of 14 ; in the budget of 1860, 50 are paid from the 
 local fund ; 54 Sisters of St. Joseph, instead of 6 ; there 
 are 40. 
 
 At Guadaloupe, it considered it necessary to raise the 
 number of brothers from 15 to 54 ; there are 50 ; the 
 number of sisters, from T to 54 ; there are 53. 
 
 At Guiana, 23 brothers were proposed instead of 5 ; there 
 are 14 ; 31 sisters, instead of 9 ; there are 14. 
 
 At Bourbon, where the boys schools are superintended 
 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, it was wished to 
 increase the number of these and of the girls schools to 12 
 each ; the number has been increased, but in a less pro 
 portion: 
 
 We see that a perceptible progress has been accom 
 plished ; but it is lamentable that still greater sacrifices 
 have not been made. The programme drawn in 1840 is 
 not yet carried out, twenty years after. 
 
 The eagerness of the freed population to profit by teach 
 ing has been lively and lasting. A school-fee might be 
 imposed almost without lessening it.* 
 
 Primary instruction is progressing ; let us not forget that 
 it was null twenty years ago ; it is relished, desired, and 
 encouraged, it was rejected, fettered, and distrusted. 
 
 The religious good, strictly speaking, is no less. The 
 letters of the bishops are full of the most admirable de 
 tails of the number of communions, the attendance of the 
 churches, and the progress of works of charity and re 
 ligious associations. 
 
 * The full statistics of the number of pupils, xinhappily, have not been col 
 lected. 
 
282 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 I open a simple collection, entitled, " Religious Alma 
 nac of the Isle of Bourbon, for I860, 7 and mark what I 
 find : - 
 
 The island is divided into two districts, the Windward 
 district and the Leeward district ; the first comprises 21 
 parishes, and the second 24. The population being about 
 140,000, without including 40,000 immigrants, there are 
 therefore about 3,000 souls to a parish. There are, more 
 over, 42 chapels. 
 
 In these 45 parishes exist : 
 
 Two ecclesiastical colleges ; 
 
 Fifteen schools of the Brothers of Christian Schools ; 
 
 Seventeen infant schools of the Sisters of St. Joseph ; 
 
 Two military hospitals ; 
 
 A hospital for the aged ; 
 
 An insane asylum ; 
 
 A penitentiary, kept by the Monks of the Holy Spirit ; 
 
 Two Malgache establishments ; 
 
 A special parish for the Indians ; 
 
 Two communities of the Sacred Heart and the Christian 
 Mothers ; 
 
 Two societies of the Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul ; 
 
 Three institutions of the Sisters of Charity ; 
 
 Eight orphan asylums, lepers hospitals, schools, or other 
 establishments of the Daughters of Mary ; 
 
 Twenty-three societies of St. Francis Xavier ; 
 
 Sixteen institutions of Our Lady of Good Succor. 
 
 These last societies are associations for mutual aid, the 
 first among working-men, the second among working-wo 
 men, to assist each other in case of sickness, and to combine 
 with the church. Drunkenness is a cause of exclusion. At 
 St. Denis, the Society of St. Francis Xavier contains more 
 than 1,000 working-men, and exists in almost every parish. 
 The Daughters of Mary are an order founded since 1848 ; 
 the Sisters are both white and black, and the former slaves 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 283 
 
 have been seen to become the superiors of the daughters 
 of their ancient mistresses. Can the triumph of Christian 
 equality go further ? * 
 
 I add this sentence, extracted from an unpublished letter 
 from one of the first bishops of the island : " Almost all 
 
 the freedmeri of 1848 are practical Christians It is 
 
 said that they are idle and in want ; I should not need a 
 hundred francs a year to succor all these paupers." 
 
 A work of special evangelization has been established for 
 the East Indians and Malgaches ; but, ill chosen, maltreated, 
 and without wives, these Indians are the scourge of a dio 
 cese, and often the disgrace of humanity. (Pcrigueux, IV.) 
 At Martinico, before 1848, there existed only charitable 
 boards. Since this epoch, the Society of Saint Vincent de 
 Paul, the Workingmen s Society of St. Joseph, two work 
 shops, societies of the Sisters of Charity, and missions for 
 the moralization of the blacks, have diffused their benefits. 
 There are 3,000 or 4,000 first communions a year, at least 
 one half among adults and the aged. Morality is progress 
 ing ; marrages and legitimations, thanks to the diminu 
 tion of the prejudice of color, continue to be numerous. 
 The progress is no less perceptible in instruction. A large 
 seminary was founded in 1851 at St. Pierre. The same town 
 and Fort-de-France contain a small seminary college. The 
 schools of the Brothers de Ploermel,t for boys, and of the 
 Sisters of St. Joseph, for girls, together contain from 3,000 
 to 4,000 pupils ; and the document from which this in 
 formation is borrowed contains this sentence : " It is only 
 
 * Some are astonished that priests are not formed from a population which 
 has so much inclination for religion. Ten years have not been sufficient to 
 give enough consistency or enlightenment to the. family of the freedman. The 
 chief obstacle is in the prejudice of cojpr. The whites would scarcely respect 
 a black priest, and the blacks themselves would not turn to him. 
 
 f This admirable order, which transforms Breton peasants into apostles of 
 the Antilles, Senegal, Guiana, and India, has just lost its venerable founder, the 
 Abbe" Jean de la Mennais, whom God destined to do more good than his unfor 
 tunate brother made noise. 
 
284 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 since 1848 that moral progress has begun to be perceptible. 
 The former state of things by no means favored it." * 
 
 The religious movement at Guadaloupe has been no less 
 decided since the same epoch. Schools in every parish, 
 evening classes for adults, the Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, the workshops at Basse-Terre, Pointe-a-Pitre, and 
 Mary Galante, numerous first communions of adults, 
 such are the facts signalized by most veracious docu 
 ments. f 
 
 Lastly, the Guiana mission has founded new residences, 
 and the admirable priests who go, braving death, to evan 
 gelize convicts, Indians, and negroes, are full of consolation 
 and hope.J 
 
 It is in this manner that, with the forces of a clergy in 
 adequate and not always irreproachable, although greatly 
 improved, the Church struggles on in these distant lands 
 against ignorance, drunkenness, concubinage, idleness, the 
 hostility of classes, sad results of our nature, aggravated 
 by three centuries of slavery. Compare these colonial dio 
 ceses with a diocese in the heart of France, the French 
 diocese will unite more resources, the colonial diocese will 
 bear more fruits. Compare the hopes conceived since 1848 
 and the sterility verified before. How is it that so little 
 good was effected in the first period in so many years ? how 
 is it that so much was effected in the second in so few 
 years ? From the beginning of the chapter, we have indi 
 cated the true reply, no liberty, no religion. 
 
 The progress is so much the more satisfactory, inasmuch 
 
 * Archives of the Seminary of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 t In 1840, an energetic effort raised for the first time to 10,237 the number 
 of freed persons and slaves, both over and under fourteen, attendant upon paro 
 chial instructions. In 1860, the number; of adults knowing the Catechism was, 
 according to the report of the Governor, 23,761. 
 
 J " I have 18 missionaries at my disposal," wrote the Apostolic Prefect, Sep 
 tember 18, 1860, " several of whom have to officiate over 10 or 12 leagues. Three 
 quarters, two of which comprise 20 and 40 leagues, are without pastors. The 
 number should be doubled! " (Archives of the Propagation of the Faith.) 
 
RELIGION AND INSTRUCTION AFTER EMANCIPATION. 285 
 
 as the means of the bishops are still extremely inadequate, 
 as it cannot be too often repeated. 
 
 " The cures almost all lack vicars," said the fathers of the 
 Council of Rochelle,* " and the parishes are for the most 
 part too extended. The heats are overpowering ; the ac 
 clivities are steep and continual, and as the priest toilingly 
 surmounts them, he sees crowds of freedmen besieging the 
 church doors to marry and to prepare for the first commun 
 ion, so that one may say of these people, with the prophet : 
 The children lack bread, and there is none to give it 
 them/-" 
 
 There are not enough priests, nor enough missionaries, nor 
 enough brothers, nor enough sisters, nor enough churches. 
 
 Despite this mournful destitution, the colonial dioceses 
 are rapidly progressing Christian communities. 
 
 "It is scarcely six years," we read in the acts of the 
 Council of Perigueux,f held in 1856, with the concurrence 
 of the Holy See and the French government, " since three 
 new dioceses were erected in our colonies. It is marvel 
 lous what abundant fruits the Church has already gathered 
 from them." 
 
 Returning to emancipation, the fathers of the same Coun 
 cil exclaimed : 
 
 " It delights us to recall here the opinion of the Apostle 
 Paul, in whose eyes there were neither Greeks nor Scythi 
 ans, so that, united in Jesus Christ, the faithful may forget 
 nation, and be all of one body with Christ and members of his 
 members." J 
 
 Will religion work this desirable and difficult harmony ? 
 It has God and the future on its side. These words of the 
 Council at least measure the whole distance which sepa 
 rates the system of freedom from that of slavery. For- 
 
 * Archives de la Propagation de lafoi, p. 53. 
 t P. 61, Cap. I. Tit. 4. 
 J P. 55, Cap. III. Tit. 5. 
 
286 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 merly, religion said to the masters, " Be clement !" to the 
 slaves, " Be patient I" It can say at length to both, " Be 
 brethren I" 
 
 This word can fall sincerely from the lips of the priests 
 only since the abolition of slavery. 
 
 In short, religion did all the good that it could to the 
 colonies before this epoch. The colonies had not yet 
 European colonists when it counted martyrs. When the 
 Caribs were unjustly slaughtered, it defended them. When 
 slaves were introduced, it protected them, instructed them, 
 enjoined their kind treatment, and counselled their fieedom. 
 The masters owed to it the tranquillity of the slaves ; the 
 slaves owed to it the gentleness of the masters, and by de 
 grees the only joys that could raise their souls above the 
 rigors of their condition. But religion did not penetrate 
 beyond this. 
 
 The complete evangelization of this unfortunate race ex 
 acted the freedom of the soul, the freedom of preaching, the 
 freedom of marriage. Without the first, there was no re 
 sponsibility for the moral being ; without the second, no 
 enlightenment for the mind ; without the third, no good 
 morals. The master held the will captive, refused the time 
 necessary for preaching and the authorization necessary for 
 marriage. Such was, such is, in all places, the narrow part 
 left by servitude to the Gospel. 
 
 On the day when the slaves were emancipated, religion, 
 with them, was set at liberty. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RESUME. 
 
 BEFORE the emancipation of the slaves, every step taken 
 towards this solemn hour was lighted by immense labors, 
 reports, discussions, and inquiries. A father does not fol 
 low with more vigilant eye, from day to day, the minute 
 notes which attest the progress of his child, than the public 
 authorities brought care, passionate curiosity, and active 
 perseverance to ascertain the results of the measures ob 
 tained of the government. 
 
 To-day the work is accomplished, and no one seeks to 
 verify the results of an experiment which was the object of 
 such generous expectation. The most ardent promoters of 
 emancipation are like the architects who go every day to 
 see a house while it is building, and never set foot in it after 
 it is finished. It would, however, be most useful if public 
 opinion would call on the government to prescribe and pub 
 lish an extended inquiry into the results of the abolition of 
 slavery in our colonies. 
 
 The study of an isolated writer can be only an imperfect 
 sketch of this desirable work ; it has no other merit than to 
 group together scattered documents, doubtless incomplete, 
 yet already numerous enough to lead to precise conclusions, 
 which it is fitting to sum up. 
 
 It will be thought that it is too soon to judge well of so 
 recent events. Those who, in 1849 or 1850, groaned over 
 the first outbreaks of reconquered freedom, deserve the re 
 proach of being in too great haste. If the always painful 
 consequences of a great social transformation still weighed 
 
288 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 upon the colonies, one could have a right to say of them, 
 Wait I Is it surprising that ten years of freedom have not 
 effaced the evils accumulated in two centuries of servitude ? 
 But if these evils are almost entirely healed, is not such 
 promptness a remarkable fact, and does it not deserve that 
 we should hasten to establish it ? It would be too soon to 
 complain, it is not too soon to congratulate ourselves. 
 
 Another motive for choosing the present moment is added 
 to the first reason. The statute of May 23, 1860, which ef 
 fected a large reduction of imposts on colonial commodities ; 
 the statutes of July and August, 1860, which, by facilitat 
 ing the provisioning of the Antilles and Bourbon, con 
 ducted to the rupture of the colonial compact, a rupture 
 which is becoming the prayer and watchword of the colo 
 nies ; the treaties enactej. to increase the laboring popula 
 tion, all these circumstances are to the colonies like the 
 beginning of a new era, and of a transformation which will 
 not be effected without complaints from many in behalf 
 of the treasury and marine of France. The abolition of 
 slavery will be accused, if this great experiment succeeds, 
 of having rendered it necessary, and if it does not succeed, 
 of having rendered it sterile. It was useful to pause at this 
 stage, to fix the first effects of emancipation, and to demon 
 strate that, before the important laws of 1860, and without 
 their aid, the French colonies had already returned to a state 
 of prosperity exceeding that of the previous period. 
 
 It will give rise to astonishment, perhaps, that, in a gen 
 eral work, so large a place should have been accorded to the 
 French colonies. They are so small that the experiment 
 attempted on this narrow theatre seems indecisive. What 
 are two or three hundred thousand slaves, belonging to a 
 few thousand masters ? Their affranchisement is a benefit, 
 it is not an argument. 
 
 I believe the contrary. 
 
 The French colonies merit a place apart ; first, because 
 they are French ; furthermore, because their example is a 
 
RESUME. 289 
 
 doubly shining demonstration, a triumphant condemnation 
 of slavery, an irrefragable justification of emancipation. 
 Never, in fact, will better conditions be encountered to 
 soften, regulate, and in some sort civilize slavery ; never 
 could it be abolished in worse conditions. 
 
 Humanity and intelligence were not lacking to the mas 
 ters ; will and force were not lacking to the government, or 
 the governors, almost always admirably chosen. Statutes, 
 ordinances, despatches, regulations, translating all the fears 
 of the public conscience, seemed to anticipate everything, 
 and to leave no room for abuses. Despite so many cares, 
 the situation of colonial society was really pitiable. Amidst 
 laments, resistance, and threats, combated by passionate 
 accusation, it was difficult to grasp the truth ; yet, notwith 
 standing, an involuntary agreement between the most dis 
 similar testimony was established on some points. The com 
 plaints of the colonists and the pictures of the abolitionists 
 vied with each other in demonstrating that the colonies were 
 ruined. While the sentences of the courts revealed odious 
 excesses, scandalous acquittals arraigned the corruption of 
 the courts. Figures, those impassible tale-bearers, teach 
 that the population grew only by illegitimacy, and that con 
 cubinage was universal. In vain the laws had multiplied 
 emancipations ; under the influence of the ordinances of July 
 12, 1832, April 29, 1836, and June 11, 1839, they had in 
 creased ; but their number did not exceed from 1,500 to 
 2,000 a year, from 300 to 500 only among the agricultural 
 population. The aggregate, from 1830 to 1847, was 50,240, 
 of which more than half were in Martinico ; scarcely 6,000 
 in seventeen years in Bourbon.* At. this rate, it would have 
 
 * Martinico . . . . . . . 25,661 
 
 Guadaloupe . . , . . . . 16,111 
 
 Guiana . . ... . . . . 2,603 
 
 Bourbon . . . ... . ... . 5,865 
 
 Total 50,240 
 
 Table of Population for 1S47, No. 13, p. 33. 
 13 H 
 
290 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 required more than a century to finish it, in a manner often 
 immoral and always dangerous ; for the false position of 
 these freednnen, who distrusted labor and were forced to 
 chaffer for equality, increased the uneasiness without ad 
 vancing its solution.* 
 
 The permanent conflict of two hostile races, the smoth 
 ered war of abuses and rancors, the corruption of morals, 
 luxury in the face of abject want, idle-ness conducting the 
 whites to apathy and routine, compulsory labor leading the 
 blacks to brutishness ; no public life, no country ; the earth 
 and sky unweariedly lavishing abundance, but the soil, treat 
 ed also like a slave, wearing out and unceasingly deserted ; 
 the absent proprietors represented by hard and covetous 
 agents ; wealth endangered, involved, and disgraced ; jus 
 tice suspicious and halting; religion debased and perverted ; 
 the laws sometimes inhuman, at others cavilling ; the slave 
 holders themselves the slaves of the law, which penetrated 
 in an intolerable manner into their abode, struck the hours, 
 weighed out all rations, and abolished property without 
 abolishing servitude ; in the midst of such a community 
 lived a number of good, intelligent, sincere masters, victims 
 of a situation which they had not made, which grieved 
 them, yet the end of which they dared not anticipate, much 
 less solicit, so firmly rooted was the belief that the emanci 
 pation of the slaves was to the colonies perhaps massacre, 
 certainly ruin. 
 
 The sinister prophecies troubled those even whom they 
 did not check, and the most resolute partisans of emanci 
 pation, in the government and in the chambers, took infi 
 nite precautions, and proceeded slowly, like a man carrying 
 a lighted torch near a barrel of gunpowder. 
 
 Events made sport of this resistance and slowness. The 
 colonists wished a preparatory delay, there was no delay. 
 
 * The number of emancipations, says M. de Broglie (Report, p. 132), the most 
 frequent cause of which is a secret to no one, increases from day to day, to the 
 great detriment of public order. 
 
RESUME. 291 
 
 They wished, by the preliminary application of the law 
 on expropriation, to secure a regular liquidation of the 
 enormous colonial debt : it was sudden and violent. 
 
 They wished that the indemnity should be preliminary, 
 - it was not paid until after emancipation ; that it should 
 be at least prompt, it was waited for two years ; that it 
 should be large, 1,200 francs had been rejected, it 
 scarcely amounted to 500 francs ; that it shoujd serve as 
 a subsidy to paid labor, it was swallowed up by debts. 
 
 They wished to found hospitals, schools, and prisons, for 
 which appropriations were voted ; there was no time to 
 increase the former, scarcely to apply the latter. 
 
 They wished a wide-spread outpouring of Christianity 
 and instruction, a sort of preparatory training for the dig 
 nity of freemen, arid demanded a better governed, more nu 
 merous, and purer clergy; the colonial bishoprics were 
 not established until three years after. 
 
 They wished to fortify the garrisons and tribunals, and 
 to proclaim freedom in the midst of a fully armed peace ; 
 it was proclaimed in the midst of a revolution let loose. 
 
 They wished, by the introduction of free workmen, to 
 conjure down in advance the desertion of the works, and to 
 set an example of labor without constraint ; capital re 
 mained unemployed ; they had to organize labor in the 
 colonies while essaying socialism in France. 
 
 They wished, by a heavy reduction of imposts, to encour 
 age production and indemnify the producers ; the reduction 
 was not obtained until after four years, and did not become 
 complete until after twelve years. 
 
 They wished slowly to initiate the freedman into civil 
 life; the slave, scarcely made man, was made voter, and 
 was endowed, without transition, with the unlimited liberty 
 of the press and universal suffrage. 
 
 In a word, the abolition of slavery was contemporaneous 
 with the abolition of order and the abolition of commerce. 
 
292 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 In such circumstances, if colonial society had been over 
 thrown, stained with blood, and plunged into ruin, who 
 would have been surprised ? 
 
 Now, at Martinico, in 1848, at Guadaloupe, in 1849, blood 
 was shed and the incendiary torch was lighted. But the. 
 revolution, not emancipation, is responsible for these fleet 
 ing disorders. What would have happened without it ? 
 This is what we should justly ask. It was invoked with a 
 common voice as the only means of calming the revolution, 
 and of transforming vengeance into gratitude, wrath into 
 gentleness. Where, since the first moments, are the vic 
 tims which freedom has made ? Where are the reprisals 
 which it has let loose ? Where are the prisons which it has 
 necessitated ? Where are the regiments whose presence it 
 has rendered necessary ? At Martinico, at Guadaloupe, the 
 social revolution has done less harm than in thirty depart 
 ments of France. At Guiana, no disturbance, despite the 
 facility of fleeing and hiding ; at Bourbon, not an incendi 
 arism, not an act of vengeance, not a bankruptcy. Every 
 where noisy elections, yet everywhere conservative. 
 
 Doubtless production has been reduced, but has never 
 been annihilated ; labor has been diminished, but has never 
 wholly ceased ; property has suffered ; that this last blow 
 has consummated the ruin of the proprietors involved in debt, 
 is incontestable; but these sufferings were felt in France 
 and the rest of the world at the same time as in the colo 
 nies. They have lasted longer ; nevertheless, five years 
 had scarcely elapsed when the aggregate of commerce ex 
 ceeded, in the four colonies, the amount anferior to 1848 ; 
 after ten years, the amount of exportation alone was tripled 
 at Bourbon, exceeded at Martinico, attained at Guadaloupe. 
 
 Guiana, scarcely a producing colony, transformed into a 
 penal colony, supplied with inhabitants by the deportation 
 of from 4,000 to 6,000 consumers, exported less, without 
 the aggregate of its commerce having ceased increasing. 
 
RESUME 293 
 
 The facilities for procuring new laborers by immigration 
 do not alone explain the success of Bourbon and the pro 
 gress of the Antilles ; for at Bourbon the products have in 
 creased more than the laborers ; at the Antilles, the former 
 figures had been attained before immigration could have 
 contributed perceptibly thereto. 
 
 Doubtless, numerous blacks refuse to labor, flee to the 
 mountains, and regard freedom as the right to do nothing. 
 
 Cast the blame of this on the nature of the soil, and the 
 nature of man. In no country of the world does man labor 
 more than is necessary to satisfy his needs, tastes, and de 
 sires ; in no country of the world does man labor willingly 
 for others, when he can find it to his advantage to labor for 
 himself.* 
 
 Cast the blame of it, above all, on slavery. Whence comes, 
 then, this abhorrence by the former slaves of their former 
 labor ? Freedom is the occasion of it, but servitude the 
 cause. A man visited an abandoned plantation, about 
 which the freed slaves were lazily sleeping. " See what 
 freedom has made of labor," said his companions. " See 
 what servitude has made of laborers/ was his reply. 
 
 But the number of laborers has diminished much less 
 than is affirmed, and, furthermore, labor is rather trans 
 formed than diminished. The peasant has become an arti 
 san, or, rather, a freeholder ; he has not always become a 
 vagabond. Dispute as one will arguments drawn from the 
 progress of imports and exports, the lowest figure proves 
 that these pretended paupers consume largely, and thafc 
 these pretended idlers produce largely. 
 
 Now one of two things is true ; either so many laborers 
 are needed for so many products, in which case the num 
 ber of laborers has not diminished so largely as is affirmed, 
 or many less free men, working less hours a day, have 
 produced more than a large number of slaves ; in which 
 
 * Broglie, p. 823. 
 
294 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 case the superiority of free over servile labor is demon 
 strated. 
 
 This last hypothesis is the true one, in a double point of 
 view. 
 
 The labor of the white is no less improved than that of 
 the black. Now this is the gist of the matter. The intel 
 lect of the whites, the vigor of the blacks, these are 
 the first two elements of wealth to the colonies. St. Do 
 mingo is an example of a country abandoned to blacks 
 alone ; but if it had been abandoned to whites alone, with 
 out their former slaves, what could they have done with it ? 
 During slavery the indolence of the whites was proverbial ; 
 they let themselves be conquered while sleeping. 
 
 We say it to the honor of freedom and the colonies. 
 Since emancipation, they have courageously resigned them 
 selves, they have ceased to mourn in order to act. At 
 Bourbon, implements have been changed, and processes of 
 manufacture improved ; the income is doubled ; they are 
 not afraid to pay for five years hire of a laborer double 
 what they received as the price of a slave. Those who 
 confidently bought plantations in 1848 have realized im 
 mense fortunes ; progress has followed wealth, and the last 
 Agricultural Exhibition showed us sugar from Bourbon 
 which did not need refining. At the Antilles, they no 
 longer content themselves with execrating indigenous .su 
 gar, they imitate it ; they have established central works, 
 they are introducing machinery and manures, attempting 
 drainage, taking out patents, demanding landed credit, 
 availing themselves of agricultural credit, and calling for 
 free trade. In a word, they are departing from hackneyed 
 and ruinous traditions, the fatal companions of slavery, 
 and are seeking to realize those first four conditions of 
 all economical progress, the improvement of processes, 
 the abundance of hands, the facility of credit, and the en 
 largement of the markets. 
 
RESUME. 
 
 295 
 
 The following fact has always struck me : - 
 
 The prosperity of the Isle of Bourbon is incontestably 
 far superior to what it was before the abolition of slavery. 
 It is, furthermore, impossible to pretend that this island has 
 received from nature a perpetual advantage over the rest. 
 For, before 1848, Guadaloupe was the most flourishing of 
 our colonies, Martinico next, Bourbon last ; the order is 
 now exactly reversed, Bourbon comes first, then Mar 
 tinico, lastly Guadaloupe. 
 
 However disagreeable, therefore, may have been the se 
 quel of emancipation, it is not justifiable to affirm that the 
 ruin of the colonies has been the infallible and inevitable 
 consequence of this measure, since this consequence has 
 been averted at Bourbon. 
 
 In the second place, since three colonies, under the influ 
 ence of the same cause, are in wholly different conditions, 
 this cause has not been the only thing that has acted on 
 
 them. 
 
 Either it is joined to other evils, or it has prevented other 
 remedies. It is unjust to say that this cause has done all 
 the harm, since the same cause elsewhere has not done the 
 same harm. Facts fully justify this reasoning. 
 
 At Bourbon, the government was more far-sighted ; con 
 tracts for labor were effected through its care without 
 delay. The negroes were more religious. The colonists, 
 more numerous, have shown themselves more active and 
 more resolute ; they have counted more upon themselves ; 
 they have reduced the number of sugar-mills, but have 
 increased the machinery. Of 118 mills, 113 are worked 
 by steam-engines (1856). They have brought in laborers, 
 and purchased guano ; with 116 sugar-works, they work 
 more than 100,000 acres. 
 
 Martinico, with 544 sugar-works, does not work 50,000 
 acres; it has received but 50,000 francs worth of ma 
 chinery (1856), while Bourbon has received 530,000 francs 
 
296 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 worth. Nevertheless, this colony has uprisen. An ener 
 getic governor, Admiral de Gueydon, has given the most 
 intelligent attention to the re-organization of labor. Mar- 
 tiriico has surpassed Guadaloupe, to which, -formerly, it re 
 mained inferior. The latter has, notwithstanding, more 
 laborers, more land, and better conditions. In short, the 
 activity of the whites has repaired at Bourbon, and might 
 have repaired everywhere, the consequences of the free 
 dom of the negroes. The superiority of the manufactures 
 is the cause of the prosperity of this island, much more 
 than the facility of manual labor. It suffices that a coun 
 try without exceptional conditions prospers with free labor 
 ers, to destroy all excuse elsewhere for retaining them in 
 servitude. 
 
 No one will accuse me of having forgotten material inter 
 ests, while I r^sk astonishing or wearying those who will 
 not see clearly enough the close tie which unites the ques 
 tion of wealth and that of moral progress. It might have 
 been said, After all, it was not in favor of the colonists 
 that freedom was proclaimed ; they profited by slavery, they 
 have suffered by emancipation ; it is an expiation sanctioned 
 by justice. There are two or three million kilogrammes less 
 of sugar in the world, which is a misfortune ; but three 
 hundred thousand human beings who were enslaved are 
 free. Whatever may be the loss, the gain exceeds it, and 
 there is too much pity in the face of so magnificent a pro 
 gress. 
 
 This reasoning consoles the moralist, but does not per 
 suade the interested. Now, the question is in the hands of 
 the interested. At Cuba, at Richmond, at Porto Rico, at 
 New Orleans, at Surinam, at Madrid, at the Hague, they 
 wilL not be satisfied with such an argument. To interests 
 we must use the language of interests. 
 
 The moralist himself would be wrong to be contented 
 
RESUME. 297 
 
 with moral progress. What it is important for him to de 
 monstrate is, that what is morally bad is not materially good. 
 
 Nevertheless, moral progress takes evidently the first 
 rank. Now, in tin s point of view, the success of emanci 
 pation is complete. 
 
 The number of marriages, of acknowledgments, of legiti 
 mations, has been enormous. In the beginning, these acts 
 may have been a fashion ; the slaves hastened to be called 
 Mr. or Mrs. ; the oldest, especially, fell back into former 
 habits ; concubinage is far from having disappeared. But, 
 after all, the impulse has lasted ; the freeman has resumed 
 his rank in the esteem of the woman, whom formerly the 
 desire of freedom, the need of protection, the love of dress 
 or of comfort, and the satisfactions of vanity, as well as the 
 ascendency of dependence, impelled to concubinage. Chil 
 dren are no longer abandoned. The family is constituted ; 
 the love of property consolidates the family ; the small 
 freehold extends ; the negro pays taxes, learns to under 
 stand French institutions, and easily adapts himself to them, 
 enters at Bourbon into mutual-aid societies, and would make 
 deposits in savings banks if such were established. 
 
 The schools are full, though instruction is neither compul 
 sory nor gratuitous. Religion is respected, relished, and 
 practised, and, under the authoritative direction of the 
 bishops, has regained its dignity, while extending its be 
 neficent influence. 
 
 " Three classes are to be remarked in the slave popula 
 tion/ wrote the authorities of Guadaloupe in 1840.* " The 
 first, having an inkling of civilization, is tolerably inclined 
 to labor and economy, and would not be greatly averse 
 
 to the family spirit These are the sedate negroes, 
 
 married, or living as if they were so ; unfortunately, they 
 are in a small minority. 
 
 " The second is composed of active, vigorous men, but 
 
 * Report of M. de Broglie, p. 134. 
 13* 
 
298 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 without morals or behavior ; these are the most numerous. 
 If they work, it is only to procure the means of satisfying 
 their passion for women and drink. 
 
 " The third is that class of indifferent idlers who devote 
 to sloth and sleep every moment that is not their master s. 
 Without passions as without desires, they would let them 
 selves starve if it were necessary to obtain the means of 
 existence by hard labor." 
 
 It may be to-day affirmed, that the class of sedate, mar 
 ried slaves, which was in the minority, has become much 
 more numerous ; that the class of drunken and licentious 
 slaves has diminished ; and that the idle slaves remain idle, 
 yet do not beg or die of hunger. I do not know whether 
 a more satisfactory picture could be drawn of several of 
 the agricultural regions of France, to say nothing of the 
 manufacturing counties. 
 
 Is this to say that the colonies are a paradise ? No ; but 
 they are much further than they were from resembling a 
 hell. 
 
 Is it to say that their situation is without peril, and their 
 prosperity without shadow ? 
 
 Not at all. 
 
 In a moral point of view, the reconciliation of the races 
 is far from being complete. The immigration of new races, 
 without family, without morals, without God, is a serious 
 danger, which would be fatal if this immigration were not 
 essentially provisional and strictly superintended. It would 
 aid the colonists to fall back into their old habits, to discuss 
 the price of Coolies as they did formerly that of negroes, 
 and, under the names of voluntary enrolment and tempo 
 rary engagement, to practise the slave-trade and slavery, 
 minus the words and appearances. It is already every day 
 increasing immorality and criminality, and paving the way 
 for the degeneration of the race. 
 
 In a material point of view, the colonies, like European 
 
RESUME. 299 
 
 communities, have to struggle against the general difficul 
 ties born of the present condition of the laboring classes, 
 more capricious, more mobile, more enlightened, and more 
 fastidious than heretofore ; since emancipation the fact 
 is most remarkable the wages of the laborer have not per 
 ceptibly risen in price, but less reliance is evidently to be 
 placed on his labor. They have to struggle, besides, with 
 the special difficulties of their position in the world, a pop 
 ulation too slender for the extent of territory, a territory 
 which produces with incomparable fertility the valuable 
 commodities which are nevertheless produced also, and in 
 constantly increasing quantities, in countries a hundred 
 times larger and a hundred times more populous, and the 
 principal one of which, sugar, has become on the soil of the 
 mother country itself the object of a thriving manufacture. 
 
 This was their misfortune forty years ago ; it is still the 
 same,. emancipation has no share in it. But, thanks to 
 emancipation, these little communities come to the conflict 
 more upright, stronger, more active, and freed from the 
 anxiety of a constantly threatening crisis, which weighed 
 at once upon positions and consciences. 
 
 They can brave, and they solicit, instead of a single mar 
 ket, the free sale of their products on every spot of the 
 globe. 
 
 This commercial affranchisement is not the rupture of the 
 tie which binds the colonies to the mother country, even 
 commercially. Habits, existing relations, the avenues of 
 credit and transportation, survive tariffs and regulations*. 
 Politically, is it to be feared that our colonies will ever 
 think of separating from France ? The fear is chimerical 
 If they were not French, they would wish to be so. A 
 great nation, a great marine, is necessary to the protection 
 of these little communities, which would not exchange, for 
 the lot of islets lost in the immensity of the seas, the 
 honor and advantage of being styled external provinces 
 of France. 
 
300 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 But it is clear that the emancipation of the slaves has 
 loosened one of the knots of the colonial compact ; the ex 
 istence of indigenous sugar, the admission of foreign sugar, 
 the lowering of the import duties, the decree which char 
 ges the colonies with all local expenses, break another 
 mesh. The state no longer guarantees to the colonies 
 either the sale of their commodities or the enslavement of 
 their laborers. Freedom of products will be the conse 
 quence of freedom of labor. 
 
 This inevitable crisis is the accomplishment of what may 
 be styled the law of colonial growth. 
 
 The history of the colonies presents three successive 
 phases. In infancy they received everything from the 
 mother country. Stronger, they exchanged everything 
 with her, as a garden yields its fruits to the one who 
 has planted it. Grown with time, they emerge by degrees 
 from these protecting leading-strings, and provide inde 
 pendently for the satisfaction of their needs, and the sale of 
 their products ; whether powerful enough to free themselves 
 enth-ely from the sovereignty of the mother country, like 
 the United States and Brazil, or, weaker, they remain like 
 Cuba, and the English colonies which are left, subject to the 
 sovereignty of a mother country, but only in the political 
 order. 
 
 Communities, in the development of their commercial or 
 political destinies, begin thus by monopoly, and rise to lib 
 erty. Men have thought to found colonies for the exclusive 
 interest of a nation ; this narrow-sighted patriotism is in 
 evitably thwarted by time. If they had sought to labor for 
 the general good of humanity, they would not have been 
 disappointed. The colonies are to great nations what 
 foundations are to large families. The day comes when 
 they cease to depend exclusively on these, but only when 
 they can exist of themselves ; humanity profits by them, 
 and leaves them the name of the founders. 
 
KESUME. 301 
 
 Let us rise to higher lessons, while casting a general 
 glance on the long history of slavery and emancipation in 
 the French colonies. 
 
 Slavery, in conclusion, is defended in a moral point of 
 view by but a single motive, the education of an inferior 
 race. This motive calmed the scruples of Louis XIII. and 
 the remorse of Louis XVI. ; it was on the lips of the ad 
 versaries of Wilberforce and Clarkson, and, three centuries 
 before, in the speeches of the antagonists of Las Casas,* it 
 was the sole argument of the colonists of Guadaloupe and 
 Jamaica ; it is the habitual answer of the tender-hearted 
 ladies of Havana, it is the pretext in the sermons of the 
 preachers of South Carolina, the thesis amplified by the 
 writers of Baltimore, the summary excuse of the planters 
 of New Orleans. 
 
 They do not fail to add, that slavery is a means of con 
 verting a heathen race to Christianity. 
 
 The slaves, therefore, are scholars and catechumens, the 
 masters are instructors and preachers, the plantations are 
 boarding-schools and little seminaries, slavery is a method 
 of education and conversion. 
 
 After three centuries of this system, freedom is talked of. 
 " Take care ! " exclaim the masters with oiie voice ; " you 
 are about to thrust ignorant and depraved beings into soci 
 ety ! " What! the education and conversion of your schol 
 ars is not finished? Either the pupils are incorrigible, or 
 
 * It is known that Charles V. presided, in 1513, at Barcelona, over a solemn 
 conference, to listen to Quevedo, Bishop of Darien, and Barthelemy de Las Casas, 
 the illustrious and indefatigable protector of the Indians, in the presence of the 
 Admiral of the Indies, Don Diego Columbus. The Bishop of Darien declared 
 that all the inhabitants of the New World whom he had observed appeared to 
 him a species of men designed for servitude, through the inferiority of their 
 intellect and natural talents, and that it would be impossible to instruct them, 
 or caiase them to make any progress towards civilization, unless held under 
 the continual authority of a master. Las Casas rose with indignation at the 
 idea that there was any race of men born for servitude, and attacked this 
 opinion as irreligious, inhuman, and false in practice. Robertson, History of 
 America, Book 111. 
 
302 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 the method is bad ; it is time to change it and to renounce 
 this pitiful argument. The fears of the masters give the 
 lie to their promises. 
 
 By the grace of God, servitude is decidedly not a means 
 of civilizing or converting any member of the human 
 family. The true doctors of the faith know this well. To 
 one of the sovereigns who had suffered himself to be touched 
 by this hope of conversion, John, king of Portugal, mark 
 what Pope Benedict XIV. wrote, December 20, 1741 : 
 
 " Men who call themselves Christians so far forget the 
 sentiment of charity diffused in our hearts by the Holy 
 Spirit as to reduce to servitude the unhappy Indians, the 
 people of the eastern arid western coasts of Brazil, and 
 
 other regions Much more, they sell them, they despoil 
 
 them of their goods, and the inhumanity which they display 
 against them is the chief cause which turns them away 
 from embracing the faith of Christ, by making them look 
 on it only with horror." 
 
 A century before, in 163*7, one of the first missionaries 
 and the first historian of the colonies, Du Tertre, pointed 
 out the same cause as the principal obstacle to the promul 
 gation of the Gospel. 
 
 Two centuries after, in 1853, the first Council held in 
 France, after the emancipation of our colonies, the Council 
 of Rochelle, pronounced these noble words : " The Catholic 
 Church has always mourned the harsh servitude imposed on 
 innumerable human beings, to the great detriment of their 
 souls, in animarum suarum perniciem." * 
 
 Bow is it that the partisans and adversaries of slavery 
 invoke, on both sides, the support of the Christian religion? 
 The benefactor of men in servitude, it alone teaches how to 
 endure so great an evil ; the moderator of men restored to 
 freedom, it alone teaches not to abuse so great a good. Re 
 ligion, after having taught the master kindness and the slave 
 
 * Acta Concilii Rupellctisis, Cap. VI. I. p. 51. 
 
RESUME. 303 
 
 patience, inspires both with the desire of affranchisement ; 
 and it is to it again that we turn to arrange the transition 
 to freedom, and to temper its consequences. Religion is not 
 liberty, but the mother and first instructress of liberty. 
 
 How is the slave raised to the rank of freeman ? By three 
 degrees, religion, family, and property. How does the 
 freeman descend to the level of the slave? By losing 
 property, family, and religion. What does Socialism make 
 of men, therefore, by ravishing from them these essential 
 goods ? Slaves. 
 
 Slavery would never have disappeared from the French 
 colonies without a very strong central power T we see this 
 clearly from the United States ; it is one of the cases in 
 which the initiative cannot come from the individual inter 
 est, since it is this interest itself which it is in question to 
 subdue. But the central power would have done nothing 
 if public opinion had not been free and greatly excited ; we 
 see this clearly from the roign of Louis XV. or of Napoleon. 
 We see it also from Spain. A concentrated power works 
 out great designs, on condition that they are counselled by 
 a free public opinion. Power has the virtues, but also the 
 faults of experience, from which come incredulity, tardiness, 
 and an easy resignation to what are called necessary evils. 
 Public opinion is the conscience ; it experiences remorse, it 
 looks to the ideal, and is generous, even in chimeras. If 
 slavery had not caused the remorse of public opinion, eman 
 cipation would not have become the design of power ; the 
 latter pronounced emancipation, the former desired it. 
 
 What is the best mode of emancipation ? 
 
 The experience of the French colonies answers us, im 
 mediate and simultaneous emancipation. 
 
 By waiting, we obtain nothing ; by venturing, we risk 
 nothing. For two centuries the colonies waited for the hour 
 to strike, and it never came. Twice freedom was hurled 
 upon them with revolution ; twice revolution did much 
 
304 THE FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 harm, freedom very little. The negro race is so gentle, 
 that under the yoke it makes no resistance ; free from the 
 yoke, it commits no abuses. Liberty has not the virtue 
 of restoring to it the faculties denied it by the Creator ; 
 alone, deprived, as at St. Domingo, of the intellect of the 
 whites, it will return to a slothful life, and give birth to a 
 very inferior state of society. But, after all, under this cli 
 mate, which enervates the whites, after essaying all the races 
 one after another to replace the negro race, we are forced to 
 return again to the latter ; we find none more vigorous or 
 submissive, more capable of devotion, more accessible to 
 Christianity/ more happy to escape its native degradation. 
 This race of men, like all the human species, is divided 
 into two classes, the diligent and the idle ; freedom has 
 nothing to do with the second, while it draws from the labor 
 of the first a better yield than servitude. 
 
 Slavery was so little founded on nature, that, created by 
 brute force, it was maintained only by legal force, that is to 
 say, by the constraint of an infinite number of laws and 
 regulations. To pave the way for the transition to liberty, 
 a no less number were framed ; eighteen decrees were pro 
 mulgated for the guidance of freedom in its infancy. Now 
 all laws against the dangers of servitude have been impo 
 tent, all measures against the perils of freedom have been 
 useless. Doubtless, the ancient kings, who were Christian, 
 humane, and sincere, said to themselves in permitting slav 
 ery, " Let us take the greatest precautions that the evil 
 may do good." In abolishing it, the reformers said, in their 
 turn, with equal good faith, " Let us take care that the 
 good does no evil." Twofold error ! Evil engenders evil ; 
 good does nothing but good. 
 
 But we do not pass from evil to good without expiation, 
 and we do not make expiation without suffering. The his 
 tory of the abolition of slavery in the French colonies is an 
 almost scientific proof of these great laws of morality. 
 
BOOK SECOND. 
 
 ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 GHAPTER I. 
 
 SLAVERY IN ENGLAND AND ITS COLONIES UNTIL THE EMAN 
 CIPATION BILL OF AUGUST 28, 1833. 
 
 THE history of slavery is connected with the history of 
 England by five memorable dates. 
 
 What Africa is to-day, England was in former times. 
 What the English think to-day of the Africans, the Romans 
 thought in former times of the English. 
 
 Caesar tells us that the Britons sacrificed human victims,* 
 Diodorus Siculus affirms that they ate human flesh, f Cicero 
 writes, that the only booty to be brought back from this 
 barbarous land was brutalized slaves,J Strabo relates that 
 these slaves were sold like cattle, and often offered in the 
 markets of Rome. 
 
 The historian Lingard, in recounting this testimony, adds : 
 "The savages of Africa sell to the Europeans negroes taken 
 in war or the chase ; more barbarous, the conquerors of 
 Britain sold without scruple their fellow-countrymen, and 
 even their own children." 
 
 To what does Great Britain owe the disappearance of 
 these abominable crimes ? To Christianity. To whom is 
 
 * Bell Gall, Lib. VI. Cap. 16. 
 t Lib. V. Cap. 32. 
 \ Ad. Alt, Lib. IV. Cap. 16. 
 
 Buxton, The Slave-Trade, Introduction, p. 14, according to Henry. History 
 of England, Vol. II. p. 225. 
 
306 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 she indebted for her conversion to Christianity ? To a Pope 
 and to slaves. 
 
 In the beginning of the fifth century (403), an Irishman, 
 named Cothraige, made a slave at sixteen among the Gauls, 
 twice delivered and twice enslaved, became St. Patrick, the 
 apostle of Ireland. Half a century after, he smote a petty 
 king of Britain, named Carotic or Caractacus, with anath 
 ema, and commanded Christians no longer to eat or drink 
 with a prince guilty of having reduced to slavery the ser 
 vants of Jesus Christ.* 
 
 The venerable Bedef recounts that, in 577, St. Gregory 
 the Great, thirteen years before becoming Pope, was walk 
 ing in the market of Rome, when he spied among the ob 
 jects exposed for sale some children with fair skin, fine 
 features, and light, curling hair. He asked from what 
 country they came, and was told that they were from the 
 island of Britain. He then asked of what .religion they 
 were, and was informed that they were heathens. " What 
 a pity," exclaimed he, sighing, "to see the prince of dark 
 ness rule over so transparent a skin, and so beautiful a 
 brow cover a soul wholly devoid of grace ! What is the 
 name of their nation ?" " They are Angles, Angli." "It 
 is well said, for they resemble angels, Angeli ; I wish that 
 the angels had such Christians in heaven. What is the 
 name of their province ? " " Dcira." " Which signifies 
 de ira eruti, snatched from the heavenly wrath and called 
 to the mercy of Christ. How is their king called ? " 
 " Aella." "Alleluia, the praises of God must be sung 
 in these regions." Immediately after this ingenious and 
 charitable dialogue, Gregory went to entreat the Pope to 
 
 * Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, Vol. I. Chap. IV. 9 Mgr. England, Letter 
 VIII. 141. 
 
 t See the original, complete in Appendix. See also the Moines d 1 Occident, 
 by Count de Montalembert. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 307 
 
 send missionaries to the Angles, and offered himself to bear 
 to them the Word of God. The pontiff gave him permis 
 sion, but the people of Rome were unwilling to let him 
 undertake so distant a journey. On becoming Pope, in 
 580, he followed out his generous project, ransomed the 
 young English slaves, and placed them in a monastery, in 
 order to fit them to become missionaries to their country. 
 Their progress was not rapid enough to satisfy his impa 
 tience, and he despatched forty missionaries to Britain, 
 under the guidance of St. Augustine. On reaching Aix, in 
 Provence, the recitals which they heard of the barbarity of 
 the kings of the Heptarchy made them pause. They sent 
 to represent to the Pope the difficulties and probable abor- 
 tiveness of such a ^mission among a ferocious people, of 
 whom they did not even know the language. He enjoined 
 them to proceed, and recommended them to the French 
 bishops and the kings Theodoric and Theodebert. A few 
 years after, the island of Britain was converted.* 
 
 Servitude did not disappear immediately, but rapidly soft 
 ened under the breath of the Gospel preached everywhere 
 by ardent missionaries. The conquered became assimilated 
 to the conquerors. Humanity tempered the fierceness of 
 strife. Property became more secure, human life more 
 sacred. The lovo of fraternity, the proof of equality, the 
 idea of liberty, entered into souls, while the baptismal waters 
 traced their majestic symbol upon every brow. The child 
 and the servant found a hitherto unknown protection in the 
 law.f Marvelous examples dazzled the eyes of the behold 
 ers. Bishop Wilfrid received of the king of Sussex the 
 island of Anglesea, with two hundred and fifty slaves ; he 
 baptized and freed them. Lanfranc obtained of William the 
 Conqueror the interdiction of the slave-trade. There, as in 
 
 * England, Letter IX., On Domestic Slavery. Blatey, Temporal Benefit of 
 Christianity. 
 
 t Lingard, Ant. Anglo-Saxon England, loc. cit. 
 
308 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 the rest of the world, the Church did not rudely break the 
 bond of servitude, but she profited by it ; she did not im 
 pose on the master a constraint which he would have vio 
 lated ; she did not precipitate the slave into an independence 
 which he would have abused, and from which he would have 
 suffered : she proclaimed the truth ; she showed the way ; 
 she brought fresh life. Nevertheless, the inflexibility of the 
 Saxon character, foreign invasions, and the disorders which 
 they involved, prolonged the existence of servitude in Eng 
 land two centuries longer than in France, Italy, arid Ger 
 many.* The sale of slaves to foreign countries was pro 
 scribed in 1009 by the Council of Aenham,f convoked by 
 King Ethelred at the entreaty of Archbishops Elfeag of 
 Canterbury and Ulstan of York. The sale of slaves within 
 the dominion was solemnly condemned by the Council of 
 1102, | convoked by Henry I., at the prayer of St. Anselm, 
 and held, under his presidency, in that city of London 
 where, seven years after, the Parliament hesitated before 
 the same prohibition. 
 
 In a third Council, that of Armagh, || held by Henry II., 
 
 * Moehler, Abolition de Pesclavage par le Christlanisme dans les quinze premiers 
 siedes, translated by the Abbe" de la Treiche, Chap. IX. pp. 289, 290, and notes 
 63, 54. 
 
 t Cone. Achamense, Lib. I. c. 77: " Sapientes decernunt ut nemo christianum 
 et insontem pretio tradat extra patriam." 
 
 J Cunc.il. Land. Hard., Tom. VI. Pars II. p. 1863, Lib. I. Cap. 27: " Ne quis 
 illud nefarium negotium, quo hactenus in Anglia solebant homines sicut bruta 
 animalia venumdari deinceps ullatenus praesumat." 
 
 Re"musat, Saint-Ansehne, p. 163. 
 
 || Cone. Lond., Girald Cambreus. Hibern. Expug., Cap. XXVIII.: " Convocato 
 apud Ardmachiani totius Hiberniaa clero, et super advenarum in insulam ad- 
 ventu tractato diutius et deliberate, tandem communis omnium in hac sententia 
 resedit propter peccata silicet populi sui, eoque prcecipue quod Anglos olim, tarn 
 a mercatoribus quam a prasdonibus et piratis, emere passim et in servitutem 
 redigere consueverant, divinae censura vindictae hostis incommodum, ut et ipsi 
 
 quoque et eadem geute in servitutem vice reciproca jam redigantur De- 
 
 cretum est itaque in prasdicto concilio et cum universitatis consensu publico 
 Btatutum, ut Angli ubique per insulam, servitutis vinculo mancipati, in pristi- 
 uam revoceutur libertatem." 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 309 
 
 the Irish bishops loudly proclaimed that all the misfortunes 
 of their country were the just punishment of the perpetuated 
 crime of slavery, and freed all the English captives in the 
 island. 
 
 Servitude had nearly disappeared from England at the 
 end of the eleventh century, at the epoch of the Norman 
 Conquest.* Five hundred years afterwards, this nation, 
 emancipated from slavery, converted "through slaves, ar 
 rived at the highest degree of power, did not blush in its 
 turn to reduce men to servitude. On that vast continent 
 of North America, which she received from Providence as 
 a gift as magnificent as unexpected, won to the mother 
 country by those whom she proscribed, England, in the 
 seventeenth century, imposed slavery. In the eighteenth 
 century, she employed her vessels to transport slaves ; 
 she made this monopoly the object of her covetousness, 
 and, at the time of the treaty of Utrecht, one of the con 
 ditions of the peace of Europe. By an agreement of May 
 26, 1713, known by the name of the treaty of Asientofi 
 negotiated by John, Archbishop of Bristol, and Lord 
 Strafford, his Britannic Majesty received of his Catholic 
 Majesty the ignoble privilege of transporting to Spanish 
 America 144,000 head of Indians, in consideration of 33 
 piasters a head, and numerous other advantages. Both 
 kings reserved an interest in the affair. 
 
 Thus the race which was the first in Europe to suffer 
 slavery, and the last to emerge from it, was the first 
 to impose it on other nations, but the first to rise again 
 from it. It had owed its affranchisement to Christianity, 
 it owed to it its repentance. It is well known that to the 
 heroic perseverance of a handful of Christians reverts all 
 the honor of the abolition of the slave-trade, in 1807, then 
 
 * Yanoski, De I 1 Abolition de Pesclavage au moyen age, Paris, 1860. 
 t Tratados, etc., by Alejander de Cantillon, Madrid (Archives of Foreign 
 Affairs). 
 
310 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 of slavery, in 1834. Before studying the results and influ 
 ence of these measures on the Britannic possessions, we 
 will rapidly sketch the imposing picture of the colonial 
 greatness of the first maritime power in the world. 
 
 It is a known fact, that the immense development of the 
 English colonies dates no further back than the last two 
 centuries, witnesses of the parallel decrease of the colonial 
 greatness of Spain, Holland, and, it must be added, France. 
 
 In 1578, Queen Elizabeth authorized Sir Humphrey Gil 
 bert to discover and occupy distant countries peopled by 
 idolaters. In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh formed a settlement 
 in Virginia. But it is only from the time of James I. and 
 Charles I., before the Civil War, then of Cromwell and 
 Charles II., that we can date the infant, yet erelong vast, 
 impulse of the foundations of England beyond the seas. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1860, two sons of the Queen 
 of England set out, the one to inaugurate a bridge on the 
 St. Lawrence in Canada, the other to lay the- corner-stone 
 of a jetty at the Cape of Good Hope, while their father, 
 Prince Albert, offered congratulations, in a public speech, 
 for this incomparable greatness of a nation, mistress at 
 once of the northern boundary of America and the south 
 ern point of Africa. The same flag is planted on English 
 ground in the most extended regions of Asia and Oceanica. 
 An Englishman cannot know the territory of his country 
 without unrolling entire the map of the world. 
 
 In ASIA, the merchants who, under the name of the East 
 India Company, established warehouses at Bantam (1602), 
 at Surat (1612), on the coast of Coromandel (1640), and on 
 the Hooghly (1656), with the assent of the mother country, 
 showed themselves by degrees bellicose and encroaching 
 Warehouses were transformed into fortresses ; possessions 
 swelled into provinces ; soldiers were armed, kings de 
 throned, peoples subdued or purchased ; Mogul was in 
 vaded (1687) : Bombay, Madras, and Bengal became English 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 311 
 
 presidencies. The company received charters, and its enter 
 prises presented England, in less than seventy-five years, 
 with more than 130,000,000 subjects. 
 
 In 1796, Colonel Stuart took Ceylon from the Dutch. 
 
 Half a century after (1843), China was forced to cede 
 Hong Kong, and, in 1860, the territory of Coolon. In 1857, 
 Europe suffered the invasion, in the Red Sea, of the island 
 of Perim, occupied, it was said, for the purpose of building 
 a light-house, but rather -to lodge there a keeper of the 
 gates erelong to be opened through the Isthmus of Suez. 
 
 New conquests brought new annexations in India. This 
 great empire, convulsed by a rebellion which is not yet 
 completely subdued, passed, in 1858, from the hands of the 
 company to the direct government of the state. 
 
 By dint of energy or astuteness, by arms or policy, and 
 in different conditions of prosperity or agitation, of faithful 
 or fragile attachment, England possesses, in this part of the 
 world, an aggregate population of 171,000,000 inhabitants, 
 an army of 300,000 men, a revenue of 14,000,000 francs, and 
 a commerce whose transactions exceed 1,000,000,000 francs, 
 and employ nearly 30,000 vessels.* 
 
 In AFRICA, the East India Company took possession 
 (1651) of St. Helena, abandoned by the Dutch, the rocks 
 of which were to be the living tomb of the great captain 
 whose triumphs and reverses would one day destroy, then 
 aggrandize, the colonial power of England. 
 
 Gambia, polluted by a traffic in slaves, the profits of 
 which were shared by England and Spain, fell from one 
 
 * Revue cokniak, 1858, p. 820. Ibid., 1847, No. 17, p. 86. Official Statistics 
 of 1855. 
 
 Superficies . . . . , - . . 1,367,193 sq. miles. 
 Population .... . , . ... 171,859,055 
 Army . . . . . . ... 281,910 
 
 Revenue . : 1,406,672,300 fr. 
 
 Imports^ .... . . , . . .. 1,000,000,000 fr. 
 
 Exports > 
 
 Navigation, 26,000 vessels, gauged at from 3,000,000 to 4,000 000 tons. 
 
312 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 bankruptcy to another, from the hands of the company, who 
 surrendered it in 1713 to this infamous trade, to the hands 
 of tne crown (1821), already placed in possession of the 
 Gold Coast (1772) by a treaty with France, and of Sierra 
 Leone by a treaty with the native princes (1787). 
 
 Taken (1797,) restored (1799), then retaken from the 
 Dutch (1805), the colony of the Cape of Good Hope be 
 came an important possession, to which the crown, by 
 simple declarations, annexed in 18-44 Natal, and in 1847 
 Caffraria, which received (1848-1854) distinct governors. 
 
 The fairest of all the African colonies, the island of 
 Mauritius, possessed by France, whose name it bore for 
 a century (1710-1810), was wrested from us by General 
 Abercrombie, and the treaty of Paris ratified this conquest 
 (1814). _ 
 
 Less important than the colonies of Asia, the African col 
 onies give to England nearly 1,000,000 subjects. About 
 3,000 vessels serve a commerce which exceeds 160,000,000 
 francs. 
 
 NORTH AMERICA belonged almost entirely to England, be 
 fore belonging to itself. If it has lost this vast and mag 
 nificent domain, England has at least preserved or acquired 
 twenty-five colonies in this part of the world. It owes 
 them to the adventurous audacity of its sons ; as the Barba- 
 does (1605), the three hundred little islands which form the 
 group of the Bermudas (1611), St. Christopher (1628), Ne 
 vis (1628), Monserrat (1632) ; or to the sagacious grasp 
 of its kings ; as Antigua, given by Charles I. to Lord Car 
 lisle ; the fifty Virgin Islands (1648), given by Charles II. to 
 Sir William Stapleton; Barbadoes, given to the Codding- 
 ton family, in consideration of a certain number of turtle 
 (1684) ; Hudson s Bay, conceded to Prince Rupert and a 
 company of merchants by Charles II. (1668-1713); Van 
 couver s Island, annexed by Queen Victoria (1849); New 
 Brunswick (1783); the Falkland Islands (1833); or to the 
 
PISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 313 
 
 more or less loyal conquests over the Spaniards ; as the 
 valuable island of Jamaica, one of the four large Antilles 
 (1655); Honduras Bay (1714); Bahama (1783); Trinidad 
 (1797); or over Holland and France; as Guiana (1803); 
 Nova Scotia (formerly Acadia), and Cape Breton (1714- 
 1758); the ever to be regretted land of Canada (1759); 
 Prince Edward s Island, Dominica, St. Vincent, Granada 
 (1763); Tobago (1794); St. Lucia (1815). 
 
 The twenty-five American colonies represent in the offi 
 cial statistics a population of 2,500,000 inhabitants, and a 
 commerce employing 15,000 vessels, and transporting the 
 value of 800,000,000 francs. 
 
 Captured and recaptured, several of our colonies returned 
 to their first possessor, but to be soon lost again, and each 
 of the fatal treaties which terminated our great wars the 
 treaty of Utrecht (1713), the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
 (1748), the treaty of Paris (1763), and lastly, the treaties 
 of 1814 and 1815, let our colonies fall, as a sort of odd 
 change . and balance, into the hands of England ; they 
 brought to it, and ravished from us, perhaps for long cen 
 turies, the empire of the seas and sceptre of the world. 
 
 The nineteenth century was destined to open to England 
 a new part of the world, and to continue the astonishing 
 dissemination of the Saxon race over the surface of the 
 earth. 
 
 France discovered AUSTRALIA, the Hollander Tasman dis 
 covered Van Diernen s Land ; England occupies, peoples, 
 and possesses these vast regions. From 1788 to 1840, it 
 sent 80,000 convicts to the eastern coast of Australia, and 
 founded Sydney. At the same epoch, it cut off New Zea 
 land from New South Wales, but sent no colonists there 
 until 1814. In 1803, it deported convicts to Tasmania, and 
 founded Hobart Town. Norfolk Island was annexed in 
 1834 ; Western Australia had been occupied five years pre^ 
 vious (1829), and the town of Perth settled. In 1834 South- 
 
 14 
 
314: THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 ern Australia was declared an English colony, and received 
 for its capital the town of Adelaide. 
 
 In less than a quarter of a century, on this land vaster 
 than Europe, cities are founded, churches and schools dif 
 fuse moral civilization, railroads offer themselves to inter 
 course, an empire rises like ancient Rome from a den of 
 robbers, and England counts there 700,000 subjects, a 
 budget of 80,000,000 francs, a transportation of 4,000 ves 
 sels, a commerce of 400,000,000 francs. 
 
 We will mention, to be complete, the colonies of EUROPE, 
 the islands which guard our coast of La Mancha, Gib 
 raltar, which weighs on Spain and shamefully protects Mo 
 rocco, Malta, and the Ionian Isles, whose name, language, 
 spirit, arid prayers belong to Greece, all these ports, 
 which are not colonies, all thes"e lands, which are- rather 
 the captives of English policy than the offspring of its 
 civilizing genius. 
 
 In a speech delivered February 8, 1850, Lord John Rus 
 sell thus enumerated the colonial acquisitions of England, 
 in chronological order. From 1600 to 1700, Nova Scotia, 
 New Brunswick, Prince Edward s Island, Newfoundland, 
 the Bermudas, Jamaica, Honduras, the Bahamas, Barba- 
 does, Antigua, Montserrat, St. Christopher, Nevis, the 
 Virgin Islands, Gambia, St. Helena, sixteen colonies. 
 From 1700 to 1793, Canada, St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago, 
 Dominica, Gibraltar, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, New 
 South Wales, ten colonies. From 1793 to 1815, St. 
 Lucia, Guiana, Trinidad, Malta, the Cape, Van Diemen s 
 Land, Mauritius, Ceylon, eight colonies. 
 
 If Western and Southern Australia and the Falkland Isl 
 ands be added, there is, without counting the Indian Em 
 pire, and after the loss of the United States, a total of 
 thirty-seven colonies, acquired in two hundred and fifty 
 years. Taking them in geographical order, there are : 
 
 In Asia, three presidencies, embracing eighty-live king- 
 
HISTOKY OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 doms or provinces, with an extent of 1,367,193 square miles, 
 and 1U, 859, 055 inhabitants ; with an island and harbor on 
 the territory of China ; 
 
 In Africa, six continental colonies and two islands ; 
 
 In America, six continental colonies, 2,480,326 inhab 
 itants, and nineteen islands ; 
 
 In Australia, three vast continental colonies and two isl 
 ands. 
 
 In the whole, one fourth of the civilized world, pec 
 pled by nearly 2,000,000 men, furnishing to the industry 
 of the mother country outlets worth, at the present time, 
 1,500,000,000 francs, and to its commerce a business ex 
 ceeding 1,000,000 francs, and corresponding to the naviga 
 tion on the seas of more than 100,000 vessels of all nations.* 
 
 The aggregate expenditures of the English colonies, with 
 out including India, are 220,983,000 francs, viz. : 
 
 Local expenses of the chartered colonies . . 69,705,000 fr. 
 
 Local expenses of the colonies of the crown . 
 
 Expenses of the state or sovereignty f . 88,958,00 
 
 Total 220,983,000 fr. 
 
 The receipts are 117,904,000 francs, viz. :- 
 
 For the state . 
 
 chartered colonies .... 72,423,000 fr. 
 colonies of the crown . . . 45,481,000 
 
 Total 117,904,000 fr. 
 
 The excess of receipts over expenditures is, therefore, 
 103,079,000 francs. 
 
 In an administrative point of view, the colonies are di- 
 
 * Statistical Tables relating to the Colonial and other Possessions of the 
 United Kingdom, 1856. Revue coloniale, 1857, p. 85; 1858, p. 833. Colonial 
 Constitutions, by Mr. Mills. See also the Tables of Montgomery, Martin, and 
 Porter in the sequel of the Report of Jules Lechevalier. 
 
 t Military expenditures . . . .... . 75,082,000 fr. 
 
 Civil " , 
 
 Maritime " .... 
 
 (Official Statistics of 1851, 1852. Revu 
 
1 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 vided into military and maritime stations, settlements and 
 colonies, and penal settlements. 
 
 In a more special point of view, they are divided into 
 chartered colonies, and colonies of the crown* 
 
 The chartered colonies are Antigua, Bahama; Barbadoes, 
 Guiana, , the Bermudas, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Ja 
 maica, Honduras, Montserrat, Nevis, Newfoundland, Nova 
 Scotia, New Brunswick, New Wales, Prince Edward s 
 Island, St. Christopher, St. Vincent, Tobago, the Virgin 
 Islands, and Victoria. 
 
 The colonies of the crown are the Cape, Ceylon, the 
 Falkland Islands, Gambia, Gibraltar, the Gold Coast, Hong 
 Kong, Labuan, Malta, Mauritius, Natal, New Zealand, St. 
 Helena, St. Lucia, Sierra Leone, Trinidad, Southern and 
 Western Australia, and Van Diemen s Land. 
 
 Among these possessions, some were free colonies, others 
 
 * It is said, It is despotism that is new; liberty is old. This saying applies 
 precisely to the system of the English colonies. A new contradiction of that 
 historical theory which considers liberty as a fruit slowly matured on the vigor 
 ous stem of absolute power! When the king of England gave Barbadoes to 
 Lord Carlisle, in 1627, he authorized hirn, as well as his heirs, to frame such laws 
 as they might deem useful, with the consent, assent, and approbation of the 
 free inhabitants of the said province, or a majority among them. " We wish, 
 moreover," adds the patent, " through a sovereign concession, which shall bind 
 our heirs and successors, that all the inhabitants of the said province, them 
 selves and their children born or to be born, shall enjoy the same liberty as if 
 they had been born in England; so that they may receive, take, keep, purchase, 
 possess, give, sell, and bequeath, according to their good pleasure, and also freely 
 enjoy all liberties, franchises, and privileges enjoyed by our subjects in England, 
 without hinderance, molestation, annoyance, damage, or trouble on our part, and 
 on the part of our heirs and successors." 
 
 Who thus insures liberty to Barbadoes? Charles I. Cromwell gave a mili 
 tary government to Jamaica; it received a constitutional government from the 
 hands of Charles II. ; and the counsellors of James IF. opposed the levying of 
 any subsidy without the consent of the inhabitants or an act of Parliament. 
 The same liberties were assured to Grenada in 1763. (Speech of Lord John 
 Russell, already quoted.) Unfortunate kings! why did they not love liberty in 
 the British Isles as well as in the West Indies? 
 
 But, thenceforth, the colonies acquired preserved the Spanish, Dutch, or 
 French institutions by which they were ruled, and were considered as depend 
 ing directly on the crown. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 317 
 
 
 
 slave colonies. We will cite, in order to study them by them 
 selves alone, the colonies which held slaves before 1834. 
 
 They were nineteen in number : Antigua, Barbadoes, 
 Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher, Tortola, Anguilla, Ba 
 hama, and the Bermudas, colonies of English origin ; 
 
 Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, and 
 Mauritius, colonies conquered from France ; 
 
 Jamaica, Trinidad, and Honduras, conquered from Spain ; 
 
 Guiana and the Cape of Good Hope, conquered from 
 Holland. 
 
 Thirteen* were chartered colonies ; six, f colonies of the 
 Crown. 
 
 All of these colonies possessed, at the beginning of this 
 century, nearly 800,000 slaves, J owned by less than 150,000 
 whites, who annually increased the slave population by 
 the horrors of the slave-trade. 
 
 As is well known, the slave-trade was attacked and 
 abolished before slavery. 
 
 * Antigua, Bahama, Barbadoes, the Bermudas, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, 
 Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher, St. Vincent, Tobago, and the Virgin Islands, 
 
 t Trinidad, the Cape, Guiana, Honduras, Mauritius, and St. Lucia. 
 
 t Jamaica . 311,070 
 
 Trinidad 20,757 
 
 Tobago 11,589 
 
 Grenada 23,640 
 
 St. Vincent 22,266 
 
 Barbadoes 83,150 
 
 St. Lucia 13,291 
 
 Dominica 14,175 
 
 Antigua 29,121 
 
 Nevis . . 8,815 
 
 Montserrat . . . . .. ... 6,401 
 
 St. Christopher . . * ..... .. . . 19,780 
 
 Tortola. . .V ...".. 5,135 
 Bahama . .... . . . 10,086 
 
 The Bermudas . . . . . .- . 4,026 
 
 Guiana . - 82,824 J> 
 
 Honduras . . . ..... 1,901 
 
 The Cape ." . 35,750 
 
 Mauritius - . 66,613 
 
 Total " . 770,390 
 
318 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 
 
 Nevertheless, the immortal authors of the abolition of 
 the slave-trade did not for a moment abandon the thought 
 of instigating the abolition of slavery. This was announced 
 by Wilberforce in 1792. But a double motive restrained 
 them. 
 
 They hoped that, in default of fresh supplies, slavery 
 would become extinct, as a brook dries up when its 
 source is cut off. They thought that it was wise to arrive 
 at liberty step by step, by gradual ameliorations, and " that 
 this celestial plant could only spring up on a soil fitted to 
 receive it.* 
 
 Such was for twenty years the dominant opinion ; no 
 project prevailed against it, and so great was still the as 
 cendency of these ideas, that, when Buxton, in his own 
 name and that of Wilberforce, formally proposed abolition 
 in Parliament, May 15, 1823, he dared only speak of gradual 
 abolition, and Mr. Canning, adhering in behalf of the gov 
 ernment to this proposition, amended it by a celebrated 
 formula, in which the word freedom is not pronounced, and 
 the word abolition is replaced by the promise of decisive 
 and effectual measures to ameliorate the condition, of the slave 
 population.-^ It was on the 15th of May, 1823, that the 
 proposition of Mr. Buxton was adopted ; it was on the 15th 
 of May, 1833, that Lord Stanley, ten years after to a day, 
 introduced into Parliament the Act of Emancipation. 
 
 In the interval, great efforts and a curious experience 
 took place. 
 
 On the 9th of July, 1823, Lord Bathurst, Secretary of 
 State of the Colonies, addressed a circular to the Gover 
 nors, commanding them to submit definite ameliorations to 
 the legislatures, a sort of preparatory programme of the 
 measures adapted to bring about freedom, of which the fol 
 lowing is a summary : 
 
 * Wilberforce, session of April 2, 1792. 
 
 t Abstract of the Abolition of Slavery in the Colonies. Royal Printing House- 
 1840, Tom. I. p. 4. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 319 
 
 1. Before all, to strengthen and diffuse religion, " the 
 source of all true amelioration " ; the government should 
 make free those whom religion has made men. They should 
 contribute to the support of a more numerous clergy as soon 
 as the legislature should have rendered the action of this 
 clergy possible by the abolition of Sunday markets, and 
 the concession to the slave of another day instead of Sun 
 day, in which to cultivate their own fields. 
 / 2. To accord to slaves the right to testify in court, to see 
 in their word conscientiousness and reason, as soon as re 
 ligion should have taught these regenerated beings to re 
 spect the name of God. To admit no slave to testify except 
 those provided with a certificate of piety from the ecclesi 
 astic of his plantation or parish ; in case of doubt, the pre 
 sumption to be in favor of freedom. 
 
 / 3. To encourage marriages, especially among slaves of 
 the same plantation, as soon as religion should have re 
 vealed to the slaves the dignity and duty of father, mother, 
 and spouse ; to establish the Christian family, the true basis 
 of society, the corner-stone of civilization and crowning 
 work of Christianity. 
 
 4. To encourage emancipation ; to abolish the taxes by 
 which it was fettered ; to take measures that infants and the 
 infirm should not be abandoned, under pretext of emancipat 
 ing them ; that the act, once registered, should not be lost ; 
 that the capacity of transacting business should not be de 
 nied the slave ; and lastly, that the rights of thirds estab 
 lished on his person should be purged, and should not indefi 
 nitely hold his liberty in suspense and his security in peril. 
 
 5. Without absolutely forbidding the sale of slaves in 
 payment of their masters debts, (for the greater part of the 
 slaves mortgaged and substituted belonged less to the mas 
 ters than to their creditors,) not to sell the slaves in gen 
 eral without the land ; to accord sequestration rather than 
 sale ; to sell everything, slaves, implements, and plarita- 
 
320 
 
 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 tions, as far as possible without division ; to prohibit the 
 sale of the husband without the wife, or the mother without 
 the children under fourteen ; and to appoint commissioners 
 or protectors for husbands, wives, and children reputed such, 
 in consideration of the custom of non-marriage among the 
 slaves, to watch over these provisions. 
 
 6. To lessen punishment, to exempt women from the 
 lash, to abolish the use of the whip as a stimulus to field 
 labor, to punish no offence until the next day, and then in 
 the presence of the one by whom the punishment was or 
 dered, and of a free person to keep a register of the cause, 
 the time, and the degree of the punishment, and to inflict 
 penalties on masters who abused it. 
 
 Y. To secure to the slaves the enjoyment of such prop 
 erty as it was eligible for them to possess ; to this end, to 
 establish savings banks, and permit the depositor to declare 
 to whom the deposit should revert after himself. 
 
 Curious provisions, still timid, but wise and well fitted to 
 demonstrate, on the one hand, how freedom proceeds from 
 religion, and is based on right ; on the other, how all abuses 
 are born inevitably of slavery. The statesman who wrote 
 this page of philosophy, as well as policy, seems a physician 
 treating at once of the diseases and remedies of human 
 nature, deep-seated diseases, simple remedies, and with 
 out equivalent. 
 
 Not a colony had anticipated these counsels ; not a colony 
 accepted them pacifically or fully. The chartered colonies 
 declared the intervention of government unconstitutional ; 
 the colonies of the crown offered resistance. The hopes of 
 the slaves were raised as far as the resistance of the mas 
 ters ; there were insurrections, incendiarisms, and capital 
 executions, especially at Guiana (1823) and Jamaica (1824). 
 After seven years, eight * colonies had adopted none of 
 
 * Honduras, Mauritius, Antigua, the Bermudas, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Chris 
 topher, and the Virgin Islands. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 321 
 
 the reforms prescribed. The twelve others had absolutely 
 refused the measures relative to religious instruction and 
 the amelioration of justice ; three* only had abolished the 
 Sunday markets. All the chartered colonies refused the 
 appointment of protectors, the concession of one day in 
 the week to the slaves, the savings banks, the restrictions 
 on sales, and the modification of punishment. Except at 
 Trinidad and St. Lucia, no important amelioration was 
 accepted, and those which were adopted remained wellnigh 
 without effect. 
 
 It was really necessary that the government should exact 
 what it must despair of otherwise obtaining. This duty 
 was fulfilled. The g-overnment commenced by setting the 
 example. A circular from Lord Goodrich, March 12, 1831, 
 informed the colonies that all the slaves of the crown do 
 mains were free. 
 
 Eight months after, the king, by an Order in Council dated I 
 November 2, 1831, prescribed and elaborated all the meas- / 
 ures enunciated in the circular of 1823. 
 
 Officers, under the name of protectors or assistant pro 
 tectors of slaves, were instituted in all the colonies (Arts. 
 1-26), paid by the crown, and invested with extended 
 authority ; they were to be in no wise interested in slave 
 property. 
 
 Sunday markets were declared illegal (Arts. 21-31), 
 and labor on Sunday was punished (Arts. 31-35). It 
 was no longer permitted to use the whip on the plan 
 tations to stimulate the slaves like horses, to whip a 
 woman, or to give a man more than fifteen lashes on the 
 spot without witnesses, or on unhealed wounds ; and pun 
 ishments were to be recorded (Arts. 36-53). 
 
 Marriage between slaves was permitted and regulated 
 (Arts. 54-59). The slave was declared eligible to be 
 
 * The Cape, Barbadoes, and Tobago. Published Statement of the Secretary 
 of the Navy. 
 
 14* u 
 
322 THE ENGLISH COLONIES.- 
 
 cited in court, and to hold all property, except boats, in 
 struments of flight, arms and ammunition, instruments of 
 insurrection, or other slaves, through shameful forgetfuluess 
 of his own hopes (Arts. 60-62). 
 
 Courts of petition were instituted for slaves, a spe 
 cial, summary, inexpensive, and decisive mode of justice 
 (Art. 63). 
 
 The separation of families by sale or bequest was pro 
 hibited (Arts. 66-69). Emancipation was rendered easy, 
 and exempted from taxation, and its renunciation made im 
 possible (Arts. 70, 71). The slaves were empowered to 
 ransom themselves (Arts. 74-85).* The legal presumption 
 in favor of freedom was sanctioned (Art. 86), and the tes 
 timony of slaves admitted in law (Art. 87). Minute pro 
 visions regulated the food, maintenance, clothing, lodging, 
 bedding, medical attendance, and religious liberty due 
 slaves from masters, and the duration of labor due masters 
 from slaves (Arts. 88-104). Severe penalties (Arts. 105- 
 110) served as sanctions to these prescriptions, placed 
 under the guard of the protectors and judges (Arts. 105- 
 116), bound in their turn to make frequent reports to the 
 Governors, who were not to order the payment of their sal 
 aries until after having received their reports (Art. 118), 
 and who were, moreover, themselves bound to the crown 
 by the obligation to submit their ordinances to its approba 
 tion (Art. 119), and bore a responsibility equal to their 
 authority. 
 
 The order of 1831 aroused the most violent opposition. 
 In all the colonies the masters protested against this viola 
 tion of their property. 
 
 They were right indeed ! 
 
 The law prescribed to the colonist at what hour his prop 
 erty should rise and go to rest ; what it should receive a 
 week, that with twenty-one pints of flour, or fifty-six bana 
 nas, seven herring or shad, it should have a hat of bark, 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 
 
 straw, or leaves, a cloth jacket, two shirts, two pairs of 
 trousers, or two Osnabruck skirts ; that it should also have 
 a woollen blanket, two pairs of shoes, a knife or scissors, 
 razors, a stove, and an iron pot (Order, Art. 97). The 
 law added, that .the colonist could no longer sell this prop 
 erty at his will, or lash it at his caprice, or hinder it from 
 marrying or emancipating itself. It was clear that this 
 property was no longer a chattel, nor even an animal, but 
 a person, a human being, a soul. What an outrage on 
 property ! 
 
 Yes, if the master had a right, the law was abusive ; but 
 if the master s right were no right, the law was just, it 
 failed to be logical ; it was necessary to proclaim liberty, 
 this was done. 
 
 The policy of the government led to it, the opposition of 
 the colonists compelled it. 
 
 A committee of inquiry, appointed by the House of Com 
 mons, to investigate the means for attaining the abolition 
 of slavery, made a report, August ll, 1832, which called 
 for the most urgent attention of legislation. The gov 
 ernment, placed between the excited hopes of the slaves, 
 and the obstinate resistance of the colonies, resolved to 
 proclaim a general emancipation, with the double condition 
 of an indemnity and an apprenticeship. Lord Stanhope, 
 the Secretary of State for the Colonies, introduced this 
 memorable measure, May 14, 1833. 
 
 On the 20th of May it announc.ed this determination to 
 the colonial governments by a despatch containing these 
 words : 
 
 " The government regrets taking the initiative in this 
 measure. But it has been forced to yield in this respect to 
 the declared wish of public opinion, after having lost a|l 
 hope of seeing itself anticipated and seconded by eoloniaSI 
 legislation. The security of the colonies, moreover, per-^ 
 mits no longer hesitation/ 7 
 
324 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 The act was passed June 12, 1833, by the House of 
 Commons, and June 25 by the House of Lords, and was 
 promulgated, with the sanction of the crown, August 28, 
 1833. 
 
 This noble law, which delivered a great nation from the 
 opprobrium of a crime, and 800,000 men from the weight 
 of servitude, is composed of sixty-six articles. 
 
 Article 3 declares all slaves instantly free who shall be 
 transported upon English soil. 
 
 Articles 1 and 2 transform, from August 1, 1834, all 
 slaves inhabiting the soil of the colonies into apprenticed 
 laborers, bound to labor for the benefit of their former 
 masters. 
 
 The apprenticeship was to last : 
 
 1. For rural apprentices attached to the soil, that is, habit 
 ually employed on the plantations of their masters, until 
 August 1, 1840. (Arts. 4 and 5.) 
 
 2. For rural apprentices not attached to the soil, that is, ha 
 bitually employed on plantations not belonging to their 
 masters, until the same date. (Arts. 4 and 5.) 
 
 3. For other than rural apprenticed laborers, until Au 
 gust 1, 1838 (Art. 6) ; these delays were prolonged four 
 months for the Cape of Good Hope, and six months for the 
 Isle of Mauritius. (Art. 65.) 
 
 The apprentice might be liberated before the expiration 
 of these dates (Art. 7), or might redeem himself (Art. 8). 
 \ But emancipation did not release the master from his duties 
 vtowards the aged and infirm. The law also protected chil 
 dren, by charging the justices of the peace to prepare for 
 them special contracts of apprenticeship. (Art. 13.) 
 
 In this still incomplete state of freedom, the apprentice 
 was placed under the guardianship of special justices of 
 the peace (Arts. 14, 15, 18, 19). It was forbidden to sepa 
 rate families (Art. 10), to defraud liberty by transporting 
 the apprentice from the colony to which he belonged (Art. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 325 
 
 9), and to degrade the dignity of manhood in him by the 
 punishment of the lash (Art. 17). The observation of 
 Sunday, the grant of the necessaries of life, or of a spot 
 of ground on which to raise them, was secured to the 
 former slave (Arts. 21, 11). The classification of appren 
 tices, the forms and conditions of redemption the regula 
 tions necessary to public tranquillity, the suppression of 
 vagrancy, the allowance of lodging, clothing, food, and 
 medical care, the appointment of the hours of labor and 
 repose, in a word, all the measures fitted to secure the exe 
 cution of the law and contracts, were intrusted to the local 
 legislatures or authorities (Arts. 16, 23). 
 
 To facilitate these measures, the plan of an Order in 
 Council, rendered October 19, 1833, and divided into twelve 
 chapters, was addressed to the colonies, a sort of regulation 
 of public administration was proposed as a model. 
 
 These authorities remained free to exclude from the rank 
 of citizens those who had just been admitted to the rank of 
 men ; they could exempt them from certain military services, 
 or declare them ineligible to the enjoyment of certain polit 
 ical franchises (Art. 22). The law secured to the former 
 masters, at once as a compensation for the services of which 
 they were about to be deprived and a subsidy to labor, an 
 indemnity of 20,000,000, to be apportioned by commit 
 tees of arbiters, appointed by the crown, among the nine 
 teen slave colonies, islands, and lands depending thereon, 
 according to the number of slaves enumerated in conformity 
 with the terms of Statute 59 George III., and to the average 
 sale price computed during the eight years preceding 1834 
 i Arts. 24-60).* 
 
 The Indies, Ceylon, and St. Helena were excepted from 
 
 * Number of slaves freed . /. ,-/..-; 770,390 
 Average value from 1822 to 1830 . . . 56 8s. 
 Average rate of indemnity per head . . . 25 15s. 
 Total amount of indemnity . . . 19,950,066 Os. 
 
826 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 the application of the law, which, on the contrary, was de 
 clared applicable at the colony of Honduras as soon as the 
 registration of the slaves should have been accomplished 
 there (Art. 62). 
 
 Such was the celebrated law which devoted 20,000,000 
 to the ransom of 800,000 men. 
 
 There was reason to fear tha-t too much prudence had ren 
 dered it imprudent. It loosened knots without untying 
 them. It inflamed all passions and contented none. The 
 right of the master was recognized and broken ; more ex 
 tended duties and narrow limits were imposed on its enjoy 
 ment ; interested in order, he was almost as much so in the 
 disorder that would ensue to justify his sombre predictions 
 arid make liberty distrusted. The slave received the name 
 of liberty without its use, a postponement very short to 
 him who enjoys, very long to him who suffers, rendered un 
 certain this hope, which a reaction easily to be feared might 
 yet retard or suddenly destroy, he saw the shore without 
 touching it. A perilous transition, which exposed the colo 
 nies to disorder, property to ruin, liberty to a costly and 
 bloody check ! 
 
 The wisdom and firmness of the Governors, the influence 
 of religion on the negroes, and the intelligent resignation 
 of the masters, secured, on the contrary, a marvellous 
 .success. 
 
 I" Wherever the planters wish the thing to succeed, it is 
 successful," wrote the Governor of Jamaica, September 19, 
 1835. To this Governor, the Marquis of Sligo, his prede 
 cessor, Lord Mul grave, and his successor, Sir Lionel Smith, 
 reverts the honor of having directed so difficult a work in 
 this beautiful colony, which represents by itself alone one 
 half of the revenues of the British colonies, and contained 
 nearly half the slaves possessed by English hands ; 35,000 
 whites being found face to face with 322,421 slaves on a 
 territory of 750 square leagues. . 
 
HISTOKY OF EMANCIPATION. 327 
 
 At Antigua and its dependencies Montserrat, Barba- 
 does, St. Christopher, Nevis, Anguilla, the Virgin Islands, 
 and Dominica the clergy and missionaries, consulted by 
 the Governor, Sir Evan Murray MacGregor, declared that 
 the moral and religious instruction of the slaves was suffi 
 ciently advanced to entitle them to an immediate liberation, 
 which was pronounced June 4, 1833, by the counsel of the 
 Assembly.* 
 
 At Guiana, despite the extent of territory and the neigh 
 borhood of more than 10,000 refugees in the interior, order 
 reigned, labor was maintained, production increased, schools 
 multiplied, a few disturbances were repressed without shed 
 ding blood, thanks to the zeal, firmness, and kindness of 
 the Governor, Sir J. Carmichael Smyth, whose death, oc 
 curring March 4, 1838, was mourned as a public calamity. 
 
 At Mauritius, where the act of 1833 was not carried into 
 effect until 1835, the consequences were somewhat more 
 distressing, but the facility of procuring Indians sustained 
 production. The government refused to authorize the im 
 portation of hired laborers from the coast of Africa and 
 Madagascar, for fear of reviving the slave-trade, but encour 
 aged the measures taken by the Governor, Sir William 
 Nicolay, to attract the Coolies thither ; and, at the close of 
 183T, the island already contained 8,690 immigrants. 
 
 We breathe freely, and thank God, when, after having 
 gone through the immense collection of despatches, circu 
 lars, orders, and decisions of the crown, which put into 
 execution, with as much effect as intelligence, the act of 
 1833, we open a despatch of Lord Glenelg, dated November 
 6, 1838, f which, nearly five years after the beginning of the 
 apprenticeship, thus sums up its effects : 
 
 "Hitherto, the results of the great experiment of the 
 abolition of slavery have justified the most ardent hopes 
 
 * Abstract IV. Part III. p. 258. 
 
 t Abstract I. Part I. p. 63; and Part II. entire. 
 
328 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 of the authors and advocates of this measure. On examin 
 ing attentively the abuses which have grown out of its 
 execution, it seems to me that they should be attributed, in 
 great part, to the ancient colonial system. No one who had 
 reflected on human nature and the history of slavery could 
 have expected such a reform to be wrought without incon 
 veniences. I esteem myself happy, therefore, in being able 
 to affirm, that, in this short lapse of time, a progress has 
 been effected in the social condition which will add to the 
 happiness of humanity, and of which history has never 
 offered a greater example. The distinguishing feature 
 above all of this progress is, that it has been accomplished 
 without the smallest disturbance, without the slightest com 
 motion, without the overthrow of any social institution, or 
 the least weakening of sovereign authority. On the con 
 trary, greater respect has surrounded laws which offered a 
 more equal protection to the rights of all classes of society. 
 With the feeling of growing security, the value of property 
 has increased to such a degree that there is reason to hope 
 that the final crisis which is now so near will be effected 
 without the disturbance of good order. 7 
 
 Lord Glenelg proceeded to indicate to the Governors the 
 inquiries and precautions by which they should pave the 
 way for the moment of definitive emancipation, a moment 
 which he awaited with visible anxiety. 
 
 In fact, by an apparent contradiction which will only 
 surprise a superficial mind, the nearer the denouement ap 
 proached, the more formidable it seemed, despite the admi 
 rable tranquillity which had followed the act of 1833. 
 
 This act had divided the slaves into three classes, and 
 fixed distinctive dates for the liberation of the first two and 
 the third ; a difference based on slight motives, and leav 
 ing room for practical difficulties and numerous frauds. 
 It had abandoned numberless details to local regulations ; 
 now life is made up of details, through which it is materi- 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 329 
 
 ally happy or unhappy, and under the shelter of which 
 abuses, ill-will, dissimilation, and rancors take refuge. 
 Either the regulations were incomplete, or the masters 
 failed in their observance, or such failures were not re 
 pressed, so that the slaves were in many places maltreated 
 or mutinous. In proportion as the moment of freedom 
 approached, some broke loose prematurely from their du 
 ties, others aspired prematurely to their rights. Patience 
 long delayed is easier than patience whose end is approach 
 ing ; it is at the last moment that one grows weary of 
 waiting. 
 
 M. de Tocqueville says that the very prosperity of the 
 reign of Louis XVI. hastened the Revolution.* 
 
 " It is said that the French found their position the more 
 insupportable, the better it became It often hap 
 pens that a people which has endured the most oppressive 
 laws without complaint, and as if it did not feel them, 
 throws them off violently the instant the burden is light 
 ened, and experience teaches that the most danger 
 ous moment to a bad government is usually that in which 
 it begins to amend. The evil which one suffers patiently, 
 as inevitable, seems insupportable as soon as he. conceives 
 the idea of escaping it. All that is then taken from abuses 
 seems to uncover what remains, and render the feeling of 
 it more poignant ; the evil has become less, it is true, but 
 the sensibility is keener." 
 
 The colonies then presented this spectacle. 
 
 On the other hand, public opinion in the mother country 
 availed itself sometimes of the abuses, at others of the 
 good effects of the apprenticeship, to demand that it should 
 be abridged, and that freedom should be proclaimed defin 
 itively and without distinction, from August 1, 1838. In 
 numerable petitions uttered this prayer ; one, addressed to 
 the queen, was signed by 600,000 names. From the halls 
 
 * L Anden Regime et la Revolution, Chap. XVI. p. 269. 
 
330 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 of meetings, public opinion crossed the threshold of Par 
 liament, and petitions became motions. 
 
 In the Upper House, on the 20th of February, 1838, Lord 
 Brougham proposed the final suppression of slavery on the 
 ensuing 1st of August. 
 
 Analogous motions were made in the House of Commons, 
 by Sir G. Strickland, Mr. James Steward, and Sir Eardley 
 Wilmot. In 1836, Mr. Buxton had obtained the appoint 
 ment of a committee of inquiry.* Important discussions 
 followed the report, and the most radical motions. " It 
 would be easier to turn back the Thames in its course/ 
 exclaimed O Connell, " than to keep the negroes in slavery 
 against the unanimous wish of the English people." The 
 cabinet of Lord Melbourne, supported in its hesitation by 
 Lord Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and Mr. Gladstone, 
 sustained the system of apprenticeship because it had suc 
 ceeded, and because it constituted a sort of pledge to the 
 colonists. It preferred, moreover, to leave to the local 
 legislatures the merit and popularity of emancipation. 
 But, admitting the abuses and insufficiency of the act of 
 1833, it proposed a modifying act, which regulated all 
 which that of 1833 had omitted or abandoned, abrogated 
 the measures injudiciously taken by the colonial powers, 
 and interposed the will of Parliament and the crown with 
 greater authority in all the relations between masters and 
 apprentices. This act was dated April 11, 1838. 
 
 Upon its promulgation, the colonial legislatures and gov 
 ernment councils hesitated no longer to declare in favor of 
 immediate emancipation, already accepted at Antigua. 
 
 It was proclaimed at Jamaica, Trinidad, Dominica, Bar- 
 badoes, St. Lucia, and Guiana, in June, July, and August, 
 1838 ; and at Mauritius, March 11, 1839. f 
 
 * Composed of Messrs. Buxton, Sir George Grey, O Connel], Gladstone, 
 Baines, Sir Stratford Canning, Labouchere, Andrew, Johnston, Thornly, Patrick 
 Stewart, Charles Lushington, Oswald, Sir James Graham, Lord Sandon, and 
 Lord Henrick. See Report of August 13, 1886. Abstract III. p 3. 
 
 t Abstract of the Abolition, etc., II. p. 16. 
 
HISTORY OF EMANCIPATION. 331 
 
 
 
 The act of August 28, 1833, which promised freedom after 
 an apprenticeship destined to last until 1840, was there 
 fore anticipated ; prudence itself counselled that patience 
 should not be so far prolonged. 
 
 The partisans of a gradual preparation for emancipation 
 may draw an argument from the manner in which the pe 
 riod of apprenticeship transpired. In fact, from the state 
 ments which fill the preceding pages, and the despatch of 
 Lord Glenelg, which we have cited, it results : 
 
 1. That the transition of the negroes from slavery to free 
 dom was effected without commotion ; 
 
 2. That, from 1834 to 1838, the crimes and misdemeanors, 
 null or very nearly so with respect to the person, continually 
 diminished with respect to property ; 
 
 3. That production, less on certain points, equal or supe 
 rior on certain others, was maintained in general during the 
 four years of apprenticeship. 
 
 But the end of the apprenticeship was abrupt, and those 
 who have no fears of an immediate solution of the question 
 of slavery may in their turn draw an argument from this 
 unexpected cessation ; for it has been followed by a no less 
 satisfactory success, as we are about to see. 
 
 It is difficult, and would be useless, to enter into the de- / 
 tailed history of each of the nineteen slave colonies of 
 England. Documents are superabundant. From 1834 to 
 1840 only, the English government published fifteen folio 
 volumes containing 7,256 pages. Under the impulse of the_ 
 Commission presided over by M. de Broglie, the French 
 government, from 1840 to 1843, followed this great experi 
 ment with praiseworthy attention, and published reports, 
 translations, and official documents of the highest interest.* 
 
 * See Abstract of the Abolition of Slavery in the English Colonies, pub 
 lished by order of Admiral Duperre 1 , 5 vols., 1841, and especially in the 4th and 
 5th volumes; the Reports of Procureur- General Bernard and Captain Layrle on 
 Jamaica (1834-1842), Barbadoes (1834-1841), St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Granada, 
 and St. Christopher (1838-1840), Antigua (1836-1841); of MM. Aubert, Ar- 
 
332 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 % 
 
 We cannot sufficiently thank these two governments for 
 having given so much importance to this genesis of the ele 
 vation to liberty of a part of the human family. 
 
 To guide ourselves without being lost in this forest of 
 documents, but one means will avail ; namely, to open bold 
 ly two or three broad roads, and to plant at the entrance, 
 as so many guide-boards, the two or three principal ques 
 tions which overlook the whole history, then to go on our 
 way gathering up all the facts, the aggregate of which will 
 be the answer to the questions propounded. 
 
 What has been the influence of emancipation on the con 
 dition of the former slaves ? 
 
 What has been the influence of emancipation on the pro 
 duction, labor, and prosperity of the colonies ? 
 
 All the documents may be classed, with a few subdivis 
 ions, under these two capital heads. 
 
 So long a study would be wearisome, if it had not a vast 
 compensation in store. It is with the affranchisement of a 
 slave as with the education of a child ; nothing is more mo 
 notonous in detail, but when we see that all these petty 
 cares have made a man, we feel no regret for the fatigue 
 which they have caused. I do not complain of the pains 
 which have led me to irrefragable conclusions, raised, in 
 spite of interested denials or objections drawn from partial 
 observations, to the height of historic truths. They repose 
 at once on the testimony of the most eminent and diverse 
 English statesmen, and on the authority of figures, impas 
 sive witnesses which can no more be accused of sentimen 
 tality than of imposture. 
 
 mand, and Arnous on Trinidad (1839, 1840); Vidal de Lingendes and Guillet 
 on Guiana (1838, 1839); and Dejean de la Batie on the Island of Mauritius 
 (1838-1840). See the extended Report, in two volumes, fol., of M. Jules Leche- 
 vallier to the Duke de Broglie. Consult, above all, the documents so usefully in 
 serted in the Revue colonials, 33 vols., from 1842 to I860. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE FREED CLASSES. 
 
 AT the*end of 1838, after five years experience, Lord 
 Glenelg, Secretary of State of the Colonies, recounted the 
 happy transition from servitude to apprenticeship. The 
 same facts were verified by the committee charged with 
 directing the inquiry of 1836, and which counted among its 
 members Mr. Buxton, Mr. O Connell, Sir James Graham. 
 M. Labouchere, and Sir George Grey. 
 
 After three more years, Lord Stanley, Secretary of State 
 of the Colonies, characterizes in the following terms, March 
 22, 1842, the transition from apprenticeship to full liberty.* 
 
 " Upon the whole, the result of the great experiment of 
 emancipation, attempted upon the collective population of 
 the West Indies, has surpassed the most lively hopes of even 
 the warmest friends of colonial prosperity ; not only has the 
 material prosperity of each of the islands greatly increased, 
 but, what is still better, there has been progress in industri 
 ous habits, improvement in the social and religious system, 
 and development, among individuals, of those qualities of 
 the heart and mind which are more necessary to happiness . 
 
 than the material objects of life The negroes are 
 
 happy and satisfied, they give themselves to labor, they 
 have ameliorated their manner of living and increased their 
 comfort, and, while crimes have diminished, moral habits\ 
 have become better. The number of marriages has in 
 creased and, under the influence of the ministers of relig 
 ion, instruction has been diffused. Such are the results of 
 
 * Report of M. Lechevallier, Part II. Chap. XIV. 3, p. 929. 
 
334 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 emancipation ; Us success has been complete, as to the princi 
 pal end of the measure." 
 
 The salient facts which appear, from all inquiries, are these : 
 complete tranquillity ; no vengeance, no tumult, no incen 
 diarism, no civil war ; a prodigious number of marriages ; 
 schools and churches filled to overflowing ; lastly, a grow 
 ing love of property. 
 
 This last feature is worthy of remark. 
 
 "The number of negroes become freeholders through their 
 industry and economy amounted, in the whole island of Ja 
 maica, to 2,114, in 1838 ; two years afterwards, in 1840, 
 
 they numbered 7,340.* At Guiana, from 150 to 200 
 
 negroes associate together to buy estates worth 150,000, 
 250,000, and even 400,000 francs. Considerable villages f 
 "have been formed, composed of pretty cottages, with a good 
 church, and occupied by numerous inhabitants, industrious 
 and well clad. 7 J 
 
 Lord Stanley completed these testimonials concerning the 
 happiness and progress of the freedmen by another proof 
 drawn from the value of the exportations of England to the 
 colonies. 
 
 During the last six years of slavery it was . . 69,575,000 fr. 
 During the apprenticeship (1835 - 1838) it amount 
 ed to 89,450,000 
 
 In the first year of freedom it attained . . 100,061,575 
 
 The second year . .- . . ... 87,318,350 
 
 On all these points the French testimony accords com 
 pletely with the English reports. 
 
 * The lots generally comprise two or three acres, and sometimes do not ex 
 ceed a few fathoms. Revue coloniale, 1843, p. 27. Ibid., p. 830. 
 
 t On the 1st of January, 1843, the negroes had built, in the county of Berbice 
 alone, 1,184 houses since emancipation, and had brought under cultivation 
 nearly 7,000 acres of land purchased by them. Revue coloniale, p. 30. 
 
 t In the other colonies, in Trinidad, for instance, a host of negroes set 
 tled illegally as squatters on the crown lands, and a proclamation of the Gov 
 ernor was needed to prohibit this. Ibid., p. 634. 
 
INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE FREED CLASSES. 335 
 
 Captain Layrle of the Navy wrote from Jamaica : * 
 
 "The negroes have not abandoned cultivation, this is a 
 fact ; now if by labor is understood that which refers to 
 the planter, that which, under the preceding system, prof 
 ited a handful of whites who monopolized it, less labor is 
 done, it is true ; but if the labor of the negroes on their own 
 lands be brought into the computation (for it is notorious 
 that purchases to the value of 2,500,000 francs have been 
 made during the past three years by the freedmen), it is 
 found that the diminution of labor is not as considerable 
 as it first appeared ; only labor has taken another direc 
 tion." 
 
 To the declarations of Lord Stanley is added the report 
 of the Committee of Inquiry, the appointment of which 
 his speech was designed to call forth. The first conclusion 
 of this report, July 25, 1842, is as follows :f- 
 
 " The, religious, moral, and material amelioration of the 
 negroes is incontestable. 
 
 "The seven years (1842-1848) which followed these be 
 ginnings witnessed the comtinuance of the same progress, 
 but with characteristic phases. 
 
 "At Jamaica, to which it is necessary to give special 
 attention, because it was the most important of the slave 
 colonies of England, and because the differences which 
 arose between the local legislature and the mother country 
 rendered the work of emancipation more difficult there 
 than everywhere else, at Jamaica, the number of free vil 
 lages settled by the freed negroes before 1843, on an extent 
 of at least 10,000 acres, was estimated at from 150 to 200. J 
 About 10,000 heads of families had constructed more than 
 3,000 cabins, and expended in four years, for the purchase 
 
 * Publications of the Marine, Vol. V. p. 21, and Broglie, p. 42. 
 f Report of M. Lechevallier, Part II. p. 992. 
 
 \ Past and Present Condition of Jamaica, by James Philippe, Baptist Mission 
 ary in this colony for twenty years. 1843. Revue coloniale, 1844, II. p. 489. 
 
336 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 of lands and erection of houses, more than 4,000,000 francs. 
 About 14,800 marriages of freed persons were celebrated 
 annually, or 1 in 29 individuals. The negroes had imposed 
 great sacrifices on themselves for the foundation of a con 
 siderable number of chapels and schools. Concubinage and 
 drunkenness had become exceptional, and a journal of 
 Kingston could announce, at the beginning of 1843, that 
 the prison had not received a single inmate for five days, a 
 fact which had never occurred before since the settlement 
 of the town. Lord Elgin, in 1844, continues to signalize 
 the progress of the population in morality, the improve 
 ments brought about in the construction and interior 
 arrangement of the cabins, and the abandonment of super 
 stitious practices.* 
 
 In a report addressed to the political court of Guiana by 
 the special magistrates of the different districts, in 1843, 
 we read that the number of negro freeholders .was* 15, 906, 
 and that they had constructed more than 3,000 houses. f 
 A law was necessary to prescribe the immediate sale of 
 lands occupied without sufficient titles. 
 
 The freedmen had been accused of having kindled the 
 incendiary fires which, in 1844, filled Guiana with conster 
 nation ; an inquiry demonstrated that they had, on the 
 contrary, contributed with all their might to extinguish 
 them. The same was true of the burning of Bridgetown, 
 in Barbadoes.J 
 
 In June, 1844, a negro insurrection broke out in Domi 
 nica, but only in a very limited part of the island. The 
 negroes had mistaken the taking of the census for a re 
 turn to slavery. The insurrection was prompted by a few 
 malefactors, and, it is alleged, a few negroes escaped 
 from the French colonies. After three days order was 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1844, III. p. 192; 1845, V. p. 181. 
 f Ibid., IV. p- 265; 1845, V. p. 431. 
 \ Ibid., 1845, VI. p. 122. 
 
INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE FREED CLASSES. 337 
 
 re-established, and a capital execution served as an ex 
 ample.* 
 
 In 1844 a portion of the freedmen had returned to the 
 plantations, and the documents of this year inform us 
 that at Jamaica the proportion of land under cultivation 
 was nearly the same as in the time of slavery, and that 
 wages had fallen again to Is. Qd. per day of nine hours. 
 A speech of the secretary of the government at Gui 
 ana contains this saying : "In no other part of the 
 world are laborers better, wages lower (from 1 fr. 25 c. 
 to 2 fr. 5 c.), and provisions cheaper, than in English 
 Guiana. 77 
 
 In the other colonies, such as St. Lucia, Barbadoes, 
 Trinidad, St. Vincent, and Antigua, in 1844, as before this 
 epoch, results no less satisfactory are described. At Trini 
 dad especially the planters did not waste their time in 
 vain recriminations, or enter into coalitions to reduce wa 
 ges or increase the rent of the cabins and gardens ; they 
 directly created competition by immigration, and wages 
 at 2 fr. 60 c., and even 5 fr. 20 c. in the time of harvest, 
 fell quickly to 2 fr. 50 c. and 3 fr. 10 c. It is well known 
 that at Antigua the production speedily exceeded that of 
 the years of servile labor. 
 
 In general, the progress of civilization was in a direct 
 ratio to that of religious instruction. The zeal which the 
 Baptist, Moravian, Wesleyan, and Anglican missionaries 
 displayed to lead the negroes to freedom, then to virtue, is 
 worthy of admiration. And where religion was not encour 
 aged, at Mauritius, where the English government sup 
 ported but eight, then ten clergymen for 80,000 souls, 
 because the population was Catholic, religion and morality 
 were seen to flourish among the freedmen, evangelized by 
 heroic priests like the founder of the mission, M. Laval ; 
 
 * RevitK colon uue, 1844, III. pp. 420, 552. 
 t 7iW., 1845, VII. pp. 80, 90. 
 
 15 T 
 
338 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 but outside this salutary influence, the greater part of the 
 negroes were devoted, through ignorance, to every vice, 
 above all to drunkenness.* 
 
 t When, in 1846, the government presented to the Houses 
 a summary of the reports of all the Governors, f a uniform 
 picture was presented of the excellent effects of freedom 
 on the conduct of the freed negroes at Jamaica,! St. Lu 
 cia, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, Nevis, and St. Chris 
 topher. 
 
 The chief share in these results was due to these Governors 
 and to the government itself. I take pleasure in citing the 
 admirable words of Lord Grey. Scarcely arrived at power, 
 he charged the Committee of Public Instruction in the Colo 
 nies to examine the question of the moral and industrial 
 education of the freed negroes, and by a circular of Janu 
 ary 27, 1847, warmly recommended education, in order 
 that emancipation might be, he said, "the beginning of au 
 era of enlightened liberty, resting on a more solid basis 
 than human laws, and inaugurating the progress of Chris 
 tian virtues and public felicity," and also instruction, 
 "which makes the laborer intelligent and sedate, -creates 
 new needs, increases the action of the body and mind, 
 and is the best means of bringing labor into connection 
 with the wants of the planter." 
 
 These sentiments, these efforts, were not the exclusive 
 appanage of the Whig party ; the ministers were changed, 
 without the devotion to this great work experiencing the 
 least change. Never was more persevering ardor conse 
 crated to the service of a juster cause. Success encouraged 
 these noble actions by surpassing all hopes ; and when, 
 February 7, 1848, Lord Bentinck, shortly before his death, 
 
 * Annales de la propagation de la foi, Letter of March, 1845 
 t Revue coloniale, 1846, X. p. 425. 
 
 J See specially for Jamaica in 1845 and 1846, the Reports of Lord Elgin. 
 Reme coloniale, 1847, p. 316; and 1847. XII. p. 231. 
 Re-cue coloniale, 1847, XII. p 124. 
 
INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE FREED CLASSES. 339 
 
 demanded of the House of Commons the appointment of a 
 committee* to investigate the condition of the colonies, 
 Lord John Russell, on opening the discussion, June 16, 
 on the conclusions of the report of the committee, was 
 able to sum up the history of the results of emancipation 
 at this epoch in these words : 
 
 "The object of the act of 1834 was to give liberty to 
 800,000 persons, and to secure the independence, pros 
 perity, and happiness of those who were slaves. No one 
 denies, I think, that this has been accomplished. I believe 
 that there is nowhere a happier class of laborers than in the 
 West Indies. This satisfactory condition is the consequence 
 of the act of 1834." 
 
 Let us interrogate the history of the ten years following, 
 and we encounter the same facts verified by the most severe 
 or the most indulgent testimony. 
 
 At Guiana, a magnificent province of 60,000 square miles, 
 traversed by the beautiful river Essequibo, 21 miles broad 
 at the mouth, and inhabited by more than 120,000 souls, 
 a colonist, who is, moreover, very much of a pessimist, 
 writes : f 
 
 " The portion of the native population which, in other 
 countries, constitutes the laboring class, is estimated at 
 70,000 souls. They present the singular spectacle, which 
 can be contemplated in no other part of the world, of peo 
 ple scarcely emerged from slavery, yet already possessing 
 property in houses and lands for which they have paid more 
 than a million pounds sterling." 
 
 A French commission, charged, in 1853, by the govern 
 ment of Martinico, with visiting the two islands of Barba- 
 does and Trinidad, writes : J 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 184.8-1849, p. 6. 
 
 t La Guyane anglaise apres quinze cms de Kberte, by a Proprietor, Revue coloni- 
 ale, 1854, XII. pp. 132, 223. 
 
 J Report of MM. Northumb-Percin and Hayot, Revue coloniale, 1854, XL 
 p. 253. 
 
340 THE ENGLISH COLONIES 
 
 " The aspect of Barbadoes is dazzling in an agricultural 
 and manufacturing point of view ; the entire island is one 
 vast field of sugar-canes standing evenly one after the other, 
 planted at an average distance of six square feet. Not a 
 weed sullies these beautiful and regular plantations The 
 sugar-works are extensive and neat, and all the arrange 
 ments for manufacture are exquisite The population 
 
 of the island is immense, amounting to 136,000 souls on 167 
 square miles, on a soil which does not and cannot belong 
 to it 
 
 "Trinidad has endured harder trials, from which she has 
 emerged, as we shall see, by replacing her 20,000 freed ne 
 groes in part by Indians ; but the happiness and tranquillity 
 of its freedmen are the same. 7 
 
 Behold the picture which a colonist of Jamaica drew, at 
 the same epoch, of the state of the colored community, 
 which almost entirely composes the population of this isl 
 and, occupied, on a surface of 6,400 square miles, by 369,000 
 blacks and only 16,000 whites : * 
 
 " It may be supposed that the whites have the pre-emi 
 nence there But, apart from that pre-eminence which 
 
 results from wealth and intelligence in every community, 
 
 the whites have no privilege over their fellow-citizens 
 
 The colored man holds a position in no wise inferior, and we 
 find no reason to complain that he is on the same footing 
 
 with ourselves Our bar is not crowded, but colored 
 
 lawyers hold the first places there. Colored physicians 
 
 practise in concurrence with the whites These are 
 
 facts which it is important to establish, for all this progress 
 has been accomplished since the abolition of slavery in the 
 island. We have proved by experience that the colored 
 man can raise himself to the first rank of civil society, 
 and hold his place there as well as any European by 
 origin. 7 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1851, VII. p. 459. 
 
INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE FEEED CLASSES. 341 
 
 If we consult the reports on education, religion, arid 
 criminality, in the different colonies, we verify everywhere 
 the progress of the family through marriage and property, 
 the zeal in attending and even founding churches and 
 schools, the perfect tranquillity enjoyed by person and 
 property from the earliest date. Doubtless these senti 
 ments arid these efforts are not universal ; over a great 
 number of human beings depraved at once by their nature 
 and by slavery, idleness has resumed its rights, debauchery 
 and drunkenness have not lost their dominion. " Great in 
 dulgence is needed/ 7 wrote a colonist,* "towards those 
 who have experienced in their life both the weight of the 
 chains of slavery, and the boundless joys of freedom ; their 
 memories are not sufficiently effaced, their sentiments not 
 sufficiently changed, for them not to continue to seek the 
 enjoyment of idleness after a long day of labor ; but it will 
 be the fault of the colonists if the children of these men are 
 suffered to grow to become a reproach and danger to the 
 country, as has already been the case with too great a 
 number." 
 
 But, in conclusion, five years, ten years, twenty years 
 after the abolition of slavery, we have the right to re 
 peat : 
 
 Liberty has not led 800,000 men to barbarism. Their 
 moral, intellectual, and religious amelioration is incontest 
 able ; the earth has several thousand more freeholders, hu 
 manity counts several hundred thousand men elevated a 
 degree in the scale of being. A great action has been ac 
 complished by a great people. 
 
 * Revue coloniak, 1854, XII. p. 226. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF EMANCIPATION ON THE COLONIES. 
 
 To have set men at liberty is not all ; it is necessary 
 to place them in society. Now, the former slaves have 
 eagerly acquired property ; they have in great numbers 
 desired and they relish family life ; but have they con 
 tinued to labor, or have they broken off all connection with 
 their old masters, and withdrawn far from cities and inhab 
 ited places ? 
 
 It is affirmed that this has been so ; and the necessity of 
 renewing the agricultural force of the colonies by a large 
 immigration, as well as the disastrous diminution of their 
 production, are given as proofs of the assertion. 
 
 It is fitting to reply separately to these two exaggerated 
 affirmations. 
 
 1. LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 
 
 The- economical condition of colonial society is very dif 
 ferent from that of European society. 
 
 In Europe, the territory is occupied by a considerable, 
 sometimes superabundant population. The first labor of 
 this population is to cultivate the soil which yields them a 
 support. When hands are scarce, and wages increase under 
 the influence of a large demand for labor, either the compe 
 tition of laborers intervenes to maintain a reasonable rate, 
 or it is decided to reduce production in proportion, without 
 going to a distance to seek foreign labor at great expense. 
 
 In the colonies, vast territories are occupied by an insuffi- 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 343 
 
 cicnt population, whose principal production is commodities 
 for exportation, instead of food destined for the support of 
 the inhabitants. It is necessary, therefore, to obtain every 
 thing from without, and consequently impossible to reduce 
 the production without being exposed to famine. Besides, 
 if the scarcity of hands increases the price of labor, there 
 is not a neighboring population at hand to reduce it by 
 competition ; whence it follows, that the more the price of 
 labor increases, the more the quantity of labor diminishes ; 
 if the price of the product be protected by monopoly, the 
 producer does not fear to pay high, but he sells high, and 
 the consumption suffers or is checked ; if the monopoly be 
 destroyed, it being impossible to reduce the price of labor, 
 the commodity is produced at a loss, and the producer is 
 ruined. But it is much worse when labor is wholly lack 
 ing. Now, the colonies always live under this menace. 
 How fix the laborer in one place ? By wages ? lie can sup 
 ply his own needs by laboring for himself on a land and un 
 der a sky which labor for him. By property ? The parcel 
 ling out of lands is unfavorable to large production ; sugar 
 especially, the true wealth of the colonies, can only be pro 
 duced on a large scale. It seems as if we were reduced to 
 a single means, slavery, which holds the laborer by force to 
 his work. 
 
 This serious difficulty explains the obstinacy of the colo 
 nists in maintaining so disgraceful an institution. They 
 always believed that they had to sacrifice fatally either their 
 conscience or their wealth, and conscience was worsted in 
 the struggle ; but, at the same time, this economical posi 
 tion gives the true reason of one of the incontestable 
 consequences of emancipation in the English colonies, as 
 everywhere else, namely, the desertion of a part of the 
 plantations, and consequently the decline of* production, 
 and the ruin of some proprietors. 
 
 It is said that freedom has urged the negroes to idleness ; 
 
344 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 
 
 this is not correct. The idle have become vagabonds ; but 
 the diligent have become freeholders and artisans. Labor 
 has been transformed, not destroyed ; that has happened 
 which happens in every place where a scanty popula 
 tion has before it an extended and fertile territory, at 
 tracting it by the temptation of property, and towns, 
 offering it a more varied, more agreeable, and more lucra 
 tive existence. 
 
 Herein is the great difficulty of the emancipation of the 
 Russian serfs ; the lands will cease to be cultivated if the 
 cultivators change place, and it is quite natural that they 
 should change place if they find elsewhere what every man 
 seeks, greater happiness. Let it not be said, therefore, 
 that freedom has killed labor ; it has produced what it was 
 naturally destined to produce in the economical condition of 
 colonial society ; and this is so true, that, on asking in 
 which of the English colonies the labor of the former slaves 
 has most diminished, and in which it has least changed, it 
 is found that there has been serious perturbation at Guiana, 
 where the proportion of the population to the territory is 
 smallest, and none at all at Barbadoes, where the propor 
 tion of the population to the territory is greatest. 
 
 We must also take into account the natural wish of every 
 man to flee the place where he has suffered, and fully to 
 secure himself by flight from being brought back to it ; 
 what released prisoner chooses lodgings within two paces 
 of his prison ? This repugnance is the more keen as the 
 freedman has suffered more and is less intelligent. Wher 
 ever the slave had been well treated, wherever freedom had 
 been preceded by a solid intellectual and religious educa 
 tion, the transition was easy, as at Antigua, Trinidad, and 
 St. Lucia.* Wherever the treatment had been harsher, 
 as in so many places that might be named, wherever edu 
 cation had been neglected, as at Tobago and Mauritius, 
 
 * Revue eoloniale, 1843, pp. 26, 38. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 345 
 
 the desertion was almost universal and continuous. Was 
 this the fault of liberty ? No, it was the fault of slavery. 
 
 In conditions so formidable and so easy to foresee, it was 
 due at least to take some precautions in advance. The in 
 termediate state of apprenticeship was designed to smooth 
 transition, but it ended abruptly, and neither the local 
 powers nor the government took any effective measures 
 against vagrancy. 
 
 "It is generally admitted/ 7 wrote Lord Grey in 1853,* 
 " that the measure of the abolition of slavery voted in 1833 
 was unhappily very defective, inasmuch as it contained no 
 adequate prescription to oblige the negroes to labor at the 
 time when the means of direct constraint to which they 
 had been subjected as slaves were about to be withdrawn 
 from the masters. " 
 
 It did not occur to the legislators, as at the Isle of Bour 
 bon, to propose to the negroes engagements for a term of 
 years. A few years later, the same Lord Grey ingeniously 
 advised the colonies to force the inhabitants to labor by 
 taxation, a means of creating resources to the colonies, and 
 rendering living so expensive that it would be impossible to 
 escape labor ; but these taxes were not at first established. 
 Furthermore, instead of retaining or recalling the slaves by 
 kind treatment, and concerting together to effect this end, 
 some brutally haggled with them for the cabin and garden 
 which attached them to the plantations ; others consented to 
 exorbitant wages, which exaggerated the pretensions of the 
 laborers and the prices demanded of the consumer. This 
 took place especially at Jamaica, where so many years 
 were wasted in unreasonable struggles. 
 
 It may be said, that in all places labor was wellnigh 
 abandoned to itself, and that the freed slaves of yester 
 day were placed face to face with the condition of labor 
 ing for others without being forced to it either by con- 
 
 t Revue cokniale, 1854, p. 256. 
 15* 
 
S46 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 straint or necessity. In truth, if anything can be surprising 
 in the midst of these facts and errors, it is, not that labor 
 has diminished, but, on the contrary, that it has not wholly 
 disappeared. Now as we see, in the first years of freedom, 
 the production of some colonies, instead of diminishing, has 
 increased ; in others, it is true, it has been reduced one 
 half; in all, on the average, it has decreased only one 
 fourth ; in none has it been entirely interrupted. 
 
 Be it as it may with respect to these causes and effects, 
 it is evident that the colonies feel after freedom more than 
 before what is at all times their great necessity, the need 
 of increasing the population by a large immigration of new 
 laborers, in order to bring back wages to a reasonable rate 
 and production to a high standard. On all sides, the colo 
 nists demand of the government to authorize and favor this 
 immigration. 
 
 This wish and the preceding considerations are precisely 
 the conclusions of the Keport of the Committee of Inquiry 
 appointed in 1842, as we have said, on the motion of Lord 
 Stanley, and which so loudly proclaimed the religious, 
 moral, and material progress of the freed classes ; the com 
 mittee added : 
 
 "1. 
 
 " 2. Labor has ceased, because the negroes have applied 
 themselves to work more profitable to them than field labor, 
 and because, for the most part, they have been able, espe 
 cially in the large colonies, to procure lands with facility, 
 live at their ease, and enrich themselves without being 
 obliged besides to give to the planters three or four days 
 of seven hours labor in each week. The low price of 
 lands, the consequence of a fertility which yields beyond 
 the needs of the population, the ill-will of the proprietors, 
 and the severity of the laws which regulate the relations 
 between the laborers and their employers, these are the 
 principal causes of the difficulties experienced. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 347 
 
 "3. The scarcity of hands and the high price of wages 
 have ruined many large estates, especially at Jamaica, 
 Guiana, and Trinidad, and diminished the export products. 
 
 "4. It is expedient to make more equitable arrangements 
 with the laborers, to revise the laws, and, under the sur 
 veillance of responsible public officers, to encourage the 
 immigration of a new population." 
 
 But how effect this immigration ? Both before and since 
 emancipation, it had already been undertaken by private 
 enterprise, but on a somewhat small scale ; Indians, China 
 men, Madeirians, and lastly a few free or liberated Africans,* 
 had been brought to the various colonies, and this immigra 
 tion had been regulated by numerous acts of the govern 
 ment and local legislatures, f But the colonies by addresses, 
 and the ports by petitions, unceasingly demanded that it 
 should be more freely authorized and more largely encour 
 aged. Here begun in the mother country, in public opin 
 ion and the authorities, a lively struggle between the prac 
 tical needs of the colonies, the honorable scruples of the 
 abolitionists, and the political spirit of the government. 
 
 Lord Stanley had demanded the appointment of a second 
 committee to examine into the state of the English settle 
 ments on the coast of Africa and the possibility of an im 
 migration of laborers from this coast to the West Indies ; 
 this committee asked that these settlements, instead of be 
 ing administered by English merchants, should be replaced 
 under the government of the crown. These merchants in 
 fact, if they did not carry on the slave-trade, at least facili- 
 
 * England derived great advantage from liberated Africans ; that is, from the 
 slaves seized by her cruisers on slave-ships, who were declared free, but held 
 to an engagement towards their liberator. A doubtfully legitimate procedure, 
 it will be granted, of a subtle and contestable philanthropy ! 
 
 f See the acts on the Abstract of Abolition, published by the Secretary of the 
 Navy, III. p. 491, especially the despatch of the Secretary of the Colonies, Lord 
 John Russell, to the Governor of Sierra Leone, March 20, 1841 (Ibid., p. 506), 
 and the Order in Council of September 7, 1838, which exacts that contracts shall 
 not be closed until after the arrival in the colony. 
 
348 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 tated it by selling to the slave-traders the cargoes which 
 the latter afterwards exchanged for slaves. The committee 
 did not doubt the immense advantage which a sojourn in 
 the West Indies would assure to the Africans ; civilized 
 and Christianized, they would carry back to their country 
 the benefit of new enlightenment, if they returned ; if they 
 remained in the colonies, they would lower the price of 
 labor by their competition, a most important result, for 
 on the day when free labor should be cheaper than servile 
 labor, the latter would receive its death-blow. But the 
 committee believed this supply possible only from among 
 free Africans, of which it was estimated there were 40,000 
 or 50,000 in Sierra Leone, a few hundreds in Gambia and 
 the other English settlements on the Gold Coast, and some 
 thousands among the tribes without slaves, as the inhabit 
 ants of the Kroo Coast* 
 
 The committee no more than- Lord Stanley admitted 
 that immigrants could be redeemed, an operation which too 
 closely resembled the slave-trade not to lead to the same 
 abuses. 
 
 In 1842, the planters of Guiana had wished to purchase 
 slaves on the Gold Coast, who were to be immediately 
 emancipated and taken to Demerara as free laborers. The 
 Governor communicated this plan to Lord Stanley, who 
 consulted the judicial counsel of the crown, and received 
 the following curious reply :f 
 
 " The^purchase of slaves on the Gold Coast, even for the 
 purpose of emancipating them immediately and transport 
 ing them with their full consent to Guiana, would be illegal ; 
 the parties engaged in this transaction would be guilty of 
 having infringed Statute 5 George IV., ch. 113, and lia 
 ble to the penalties pertaining thereto. 
 
 " The purchasers of slaves are declared guilty by Art. 
 
 * Report cf M. Lechevallier, II. 933. 
 t Revue colonial*, 1843, p. 151. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 349 
 
 10 of this statute, and sentenced to fourteen years depor 
 tation. 
 
 " In our opinion, the terms of this statute clearly in 
 clude the case of the purchase of slaves, even in the end of 
 their emancipation. It probably wished at the same time to 
 discourage the traffic in slaves and favor the civilization 
 of Africa ; but it is evident that, if the purchase of slaves 
 is an evil, in the sense that it induces those who sell them 
 to procure them in order that they may be redeemed, the 
 detriment is the same whether the ransomed slaves receive 
 freedom or not." 
 
 The committee arrived at similar conclusions. The re 
 sult of these counsels was the despatch dated February 6, 
 1843, by which immigration of free or slave Africans was 
 permitted only from three places, where the surveillance of 
 slaves was possible, Sierra Leone, Bonavista, and Loando. 
 Immigration by means of redemption remained absolutely 
 prohibited. 
 
 The immigration of Indians had not been interdicted, and 
 England had in her own possessions an enormous popula 
 tion of men accustomed to tropical labors, an incomparable 
 resource for those of her colonies who were not prevented 
 by distance from profiting by it. 
 
 Since 1815, the convicts of Calcutta had been trans 
 ported to Mauritius, and the inhabitants of this colony had 
 adopted the habit of availing themselves of these Indians, 
 which they preferred to making the efforts or sacrifices ne 
 cessary to utilize the freed negroes, less civilized, as we 
 have seen, at Mauritius than anywhere else. In 1837, 
 20,000 Indians had been already introduced.* Whether the 
 Governor-General of India was terrified at this emigration, 
 which raised the price of labor and of rice in India, f or 
 whether the government of the mother country was ter- 
 
 * Documents of the Secretary of the Navy, II. 252 ; V. 473. 
 t Revue coloniale, 1843, p. 461 
 
350 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 rifled at the idea of the future which such competition was 
 preparing for the freedman, East Indian immigration was 
 prohibited in 1838. 
 
 But in 1842 it was re-established by an Order in Council, 
 dated January 15, then by an act of Parliament, dated De 
 cember 2, and subjected to minute formalities ; * then, after 
 numerous abuses, reduced to the single port of Calcutta, 
 beginning from January 1, 1844, and intrusted to govern 
 ment. From 1834 to 1841, 94,004 Coolies were introduced 
 into Mauritius, which formerly employed only 23,000 slaves 
 in field labor. f The colony, during this time, exceeded the 
 statistics of production anterior to emancipation, carried 
 from 73,000,000 pounds of sugar, in 1832, to 80,000,000 
 pounds, in 1846, but by spending 11,493,340 francs, burden 
 ing itself with an enormous debt,J exposing itself to fearful 
 immorality, and becoming an Asiatic instead of an African 
 colony. The other principal colonies followed this example 
 somewhat slowly. Jamaica received, in 1844, 250 Indians, 
 Guiana 556, and Trinidad 220 ; these numbers increased 
 during the two following years : || 
 
 1845. 1846. 
 
 Jamaica . . . . . . 1,735 2,515 
 
 Guiana .-.-... 3,497 4,120 
 
 Trinidad. . . . . . 2,083 2,076 
 
 Guiana also received 2,548 in 1841, and Trinidad 1,024, 
 but the operation was then discontinued. It was inter- 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1843, III. p. 559. 
 
 t Ibid., 1845, VII. p. 205; 1847, XII. p. 354; 1848, I. p. 168. The Coolie costs 
 from 10s. to 14s. per month. 
 
 J The expenses for the annual introduction of 6,000 immigrants were esti 
 mated, in 1844, at 50,000 (Revue coloniale, 1845, VII. p. 475). Now 6,000 per 
 year scarcely sufficed to make up for the deaths and departures; the real ex 
 pense was from 180 to 250 fr. per head. Ibid., 1849, p. 143. 
 
 From 1834 to 1839, of 25,468 Coolies, there were 727 women; of the 40,318 
 introduced from 1842 to 1844, 453 women; of the 5,092 introduced in 1845, 646 
 women; in all, of 94,004 Indians, 13,284 women. 
 
 || Revue coloniale, 1847, XIII. p. 154; 1848, I. p. 170. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 351 
 
 rupted with respect to Jamaica, in 1846, bf the Legislative 
 Assembly. 
 
 The Chinese immigration, attempted after the example of 
 Java, and authorized in 1842 by Lord Stanley,* did not de 
 velop to any great extent. 
 
 The African immigration, reduced within narrow limits, 
 produced insignificant results. In 1847, Lord Grey permit 
 ted immigration from every part of the African coast, espe 
 cially from Kroo, but still prohibited redemption. The 
 colonies did not receive, therefore, more than 7,000 or 
 8,000 African immigrants, free or liberated, from 1840 to 
 1847. f If to this number be added about 14,000 natives of 
 Madeira,^ received in 1846 and 1847, it is seen that, before 
 1848, immigration had not brought into the eighteen slave 
 colonies other than Mauritius more than 30,000 immigrants, 
 which does not mean 30,000 effective laborers. Thus, there 
 fore, if Mauritius be excepted, the 3,200,000 quintals pro 
 duced by these colonies in 1847, inferior only by 400,000 
 quintals to the average product of 1814 and 1815, were 
 really very nearly the same as the product of the labor of 
 the former slaves. 
 
 The colonists demanded that immigration by way of re 
 demption should be authorized. The abolitionists still 
 maintained, some, that this operation was a return to the 
 slave-trade ; others, that it was the best means of discour 
 aging it. The government resisted, and it did rightly, for 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1843, p. 514/ 
 
 t 1840-1842 . . . .... 3,045 
 
 1844-1845 1,390 
 
 1846 from 3,000 to 4,000 
 
 (Revue coloniale, 1848, 1. p. 173.) 
 $ Guiana . . . . , . . , . . r 9,750 
 
 St. Vincent . - . 1,762 
 
 Antigua . . . . - . , ..--. . .... 1,068 
 
 Small colonies 1,945 
 
 In an excellent work on African emigration (Revue coloniale, January, 1858), 
 M. Delarbre affirms that Sir Robert Peel was of this opinion. On reading the 
 
352 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 it thus forced th% colonies to seek elsewhere the diminution 
 of the net cost, to multiply machinery, and to take pains to 
 retain the freed negroes in the fields by treating them better, 
 instead of completing their estrangement from labor by an 
 overwhelming competition. 
 
 They will show themselves broader when, exposed to for 
 eign rivalry by the reduction of tariffs, they will have need 
 of more favors. 
 
 But, except at Mauritius, immigration does not assume 
 vast proportions. 
 
 The total number of immigrants introduced into the Eng 
 lish colonies of the West Indies and Mauritius, from the 
 abolition of slavery to the end of 1849, is 179,223,* and in 
 this number Mauritius represents 106,638 ; there remain, 
 therefore, for the other colonies, but 72,585, thus appor 
 tioned : 
 
 Guiana . . ... . . . 39,043 
 
 Jamaica ....... 14,519 
 
 Trinidad 13,356 
 
 Grenada 1,476 
 
 St. Vincent 1,197 
 
 Antigua 1,075 
 
 Dominica 732 
 
 St. Lucia 665 
 
 Nevis . . . . . ., . 427 
 
 St. Christopher . . . * . . . . 95 
 
 From 1849 to 1855, the colonies received 31,861 new im 
 migrants, of whom 19,519 were for Guiana, while the island 
 of Mauritius alone received 76,342 immigrants. f 
 
 On grouping these immigrants according to nativity, we 
 
 speech delivered by this illustrious orator, July 27, 1846, we see that he speaks 
 only of free, laborers, and that he declares that he has not great confidence in 
 the introduction of free labor. Jbid., 1846, IX. p. 361. 
 
 * Eeport of the Committee of Emigration, March, 1850. Revue coloniale, 1850, 
 V. p. 220. 
 
 t Revue coloniale, 1858, XIX. p. 178. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 353 
 
 see that the English colonies had received, at the end of 1.855, 
 an aggregate of 235,999 immigrants, of which 
 
 27,906 were Africans, 
 26,533 " Madeirians, 
 
 2,107 " Chinese, 
 151,191 " Indians. 
 
 This table proves several important points : 
 
 1. England has held a firm hand in persisting to interdict 
 the immigration of ransomed Africans ; in twenty years, its 
 colonies have only received about 1,000 annually, all free 
 or liberated Africans ; and this is so true, that, although 
 it may be presumed that fraudulent transportations have 
 evaded the orders of government, the African immigration 
 from Sierra Leone has ceased to figure in the official statis 
 tics since 1853, because the captures have diminished, and 
 the Africans are no longer willing to emigrate.* 
 
 2. It is true that England had, in her East Indian posses 
 sions, a resource which was not at the disposal of other na 
 tions. More than 150,000 immigrants, out of 235,000, are 
 of this origin. 
 
 3. Mauritius absorbs more than half the immigration ; 
 less than 100,000 immigrants are left for the other colo 
 nies. f . 
 
 Now, at Mauritius, the production of sugar has tripled, 
 while its population has quadrupled ; a part of the agricul 
 tural force has therefore been renewed, and a large number 
 of the former slaves have changed occupation. But in the 
 other colonies, an increase of less than 100,000 immigrants 
 in the face of the former slave population, which attained 
 the number of 703,677 persons, is truly insignificant. It 
 is evident, therefore, that in the West Indies the principal 
 element of labor is, and will long be, the black population. 
 
 * From 1841 to 1851, 14,113 sailed from Sierra Leone. Revue coloniale, 1852, 
 VIII. p. 291. 
 f Revue coloniale, 1854, XII. p. 456. 
 
354 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 The public opinion that consists in believing that, since 
 emancipation, immigration alone has rescued labor, is a 
 prejudice, as is formally declared by the English Committee 
 of Immigration, in its report presented to Parliament in 
 1853.* 
 
 The success of emancipation, said Lord Stanley in 1842, 
 has been complete as to the principal end of the measure ; 
 the same thing may be said of immigration. The success 
 has been complete as to the principal end of the measure, 
 which was the lowering of wages and the increase of pro 
 duction, the progress of which will be presented in the 
 following chapter ; but it is equally true that, in the moral 
 point of view, immigration has been, and is, a scourge, not 
 only at the epoch when it was an unwatched enterprise of 
 private speculation, but even after the intervention of the 
 government. Admirable indeed are all these regulations 
 by which humanity strives to protect, by the most minute 
 precautions, the life arid liberty of the most degraded of 
 beings, of a poor Indian, or a wretched negro ; but, in 
 practice, how are these regulations executed ? The colo 
 nists of Mauritius address themselves to the commercial 
 houses of Calcutta, f and the latter employ Indians, known 
 by the name of duffadars, a sort of traffickers in men, or 
 crimpers, who speculate on the laborer, speculate on the 
 merchant, and, by more or less disgraceful manoeuvres, pro 
 cure for the colonists what workmen? vagabonds, stroll 
 ers of the bazaar, the offscourings of the population. 
 
 It is impossible to induce Indian women of an honorable 
 class and irreproachable morality to quit their native soil. 
 All the reports agree that, in consequence, the relations be 
 tween the sexes have the most marked character of degra 
 dation ; that concubinage is becoming more frequent and 
 more open, and that the passions which result from it 
 
 Revue coloniale, 1858, XIX. p. 165. 
 t IUd., 1844, HI. p. 458. 
 
LABOR AND IMMIGRATION. 355 
 
 lead to fatal quarrels and bloodshed.* It was hoped that 
 at Mauritius the number of women would reach 50 per 
 cent in 1860 ; but in 1851 there were still seven men to 
 two women. 
 
 In the other colonies, vices and crimes have likewise en 
 tered in with the immigrants. 
 
 Upon the whole, the result of the English experiment as 
 to immigration is as follows. 
 
 The only moral and effective immigration would be that 
 of families ; but with family, a man is unwilling to quit 
 his country ; without family, he roves from place to place 
 instead of settling. In families, immigration is expensive ; 
 without families, it must be constantly begun anew. It is 
 an experiment useful to production, prejudicial to civiliza 
 tion. After half a century of population, the colonies will 
 have a surcrease of population, which will be a great ad 
 vantage; but this population will be wretched, mongrel, 
 and vicious, if not recruited from other sources, or formed 
 into families. 
 
 Now of all immigrants, which is the best ? The one who 
 settles most willingly, labors best, becomes civilized most 
 speedily, and most easily establishes the family relation, 
 is the African ; the Indian cannot replace him. But how 
 obtain African families? In the colonies, by the wide 
 spread influence of the Christian religion ; in Africa, by the 
 foundation of extended settlements, where free arid con 
 verted families can establish themselves by degrees. Until 
 this is done, immigration will be void, if confined to Afri 
 cans already free ; distrusted, if procuring them by the way 
 of purchase. 
 
 But, without speaking of the future, we will confine our 
 selves to verifying from the past these two results, fitted 
 to gladden the hearts of the partisans of the abolition of 
 slavery. 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1858, XIX. p. 165. 
 
356 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 In the first place, the slaves who have become free are, 
 wherever they labor, better workmen and more moral men 
 than all the immigrants that are compared with them ; in 
 the second place, although their labor may have dimin 
 ished, especially at Jamaica, Guiana, and Trinidad, never- 
 thelfss the immigration into the English colonies, with the 
 exception of the island of Mauritius, has been inconsider 
 able, and to the labor of the former slaves is due almost the 
 whole of the present production. 
 
 We shall now see what production in the English colonies 
 has become since the Act of Emancipation. 
 
 2. PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 
 
 Prior to the epoch when slavery was abolished in the 
 English colonies, their condition was far from prosperous, 
 and the inquiry instituted in 1832* established that this 
 distress, aggravated by the uncertainty which weighed on 
 property, through the influence of the debates on emancipa 
 tion, dated back to more real and profounder causes, the 
 gravest of which was the debasement of prices, resulting 
 from the excess of production. The net cost of sugar was 
 estimated at 30 fr. 20 c. per 100 pounds, including the 
 freight, but without calculating anything for the interest of 
 the capital ; and the selling price at 29 fr. 60 c. ; thus mak 
 ing a deficit of 60 c. The sum of the colonial products 
 being greater than the consumption of the mother coun 
 try, it had been necessary to confront competition in other 
 markets with products less burdened with expenses. The 
 measures for ameliorating the condition of slaves and the 
 abolition of the slave-trade had at once raised the cost 
 and the maintenance of laborers. The continuance of the 
 restrictions imposed on importations by the colonial sys- 
 
 * Rapport sur les questions coloniaks, by M. Jules Lechevallier, Tom. II. p. 331. 
 Report made in the English Parliament, April 10, 1832. 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 357 
 
 tern, the interdiction of refineries, and the establishment of 
 high duties, embarrassed the colonies. The inquiry re 
 vealed an almost universal distress, and the committee con 
 cluded on the removal of several prohibitions, and on a 
 considerable reduction of duties. 
 
 To those who pretend that these evils had been caused 
 by the abolition of the slave-trade, it may be answered 
 that a preceding inquiry, instituted in 1807,* before this 
 measure, had revealed the same distress. Only it was true, 
 that the maintenance of this traffic preserved to foreign col 
 onies a disgraceful advantage to the detriment of those that 
 abstained from it. 
 
 The English colonies, at the time of emancipation, re 
 ceived the advantages and endured the burdens of the 
 system of reciprocal monopoly, known under the name of 
 the Colonial Compact. Obliged to receive English pro 
 ducts under the English flag, they carried to the mother 
 country nearly the whole of their products, by favor of a 
 prohibitory tariff. Colonial sugar especially paid a duty 
 of 24s. per quintal only, while foreign sugar had to pay 
 a duty of 63s. This tariff was not changed for ten years 
 after emancipation ; the first modification, in fact, was in 
 1844. Thus the whole period of apprenticeship, and the 
 first six years of freedom, were passed under favor of a 
 protective duty. 
 
 The average quantity of sugar imported annually from 
 the West Indies f during the six years preceding emancipa 
 tion had been 3,965,034 quintals. J During the four years 
 of apprenticeship, it was 3,058,000 quintals ; during the 
 first year of freedom (1839), 2,824,000 quintals ; during the 
 
 * See, in the same document,%e Report of the Committee of 1807, p. 287. 
 
 t Speech of Lord Stanley, 1842. 
 
 | If we take the average of four years (1831-1834), it is only 3,841,837 
 quintals; if we take the average of twenty years (1814-1834), only 3,640,712 
 quintals. These averages are taken, in turn, as the standard in the official 
 tables. 
 
358 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 second (1840), 2,210,000 quintals ; and during the third 
 (1841), 2,151,111 quintals. 
 
 From this minimum the figures again ascended, and 
 reached : 
 
 In 1842 2,473,715 quintals. 
 
 1843 2,503,577 
 
 184 4 . . . . . . 2,444,811 " 
 
 1845 : ". . : . < . . 2,847,698 " 
 
 But under the influence of this diminution of quantity, 
 the prices rose from 119 fr. 50 c. in 1831, and 134 fr. 70 c. in 
 1834, successively to 143 fr. 90 c., 162 fr., and even to 
 185 fr. 60 c. in 1840. 
 
 So that the gross income of the colonies increased, since, 
 according to the calculations of Lord Stanley, the sale pro 
 duced, during the six years prior to emancipation, an aver 
 age of 26,600,000 fr. ; for the four years 7 apprenticeship, 
 31,115,000 fr. ; for the first year of freedom, 32,650,000 fr. ; 
 and for the second year of freedom, 29, 120, 000 fr. 
 
 In his memorable report of 1843 on the colonial questions 
 in France,* M. Broglie presents the same calculations, with 
 other elaborations, which he sums up as follows : 
 
 "A reduction of one fourth in the importation of sugar 
 produced by slave colonies, a reduction of one third in the 
 importation of rum and coffees ; such are the facts which 
 at present correspond to the introduction of free labor into 
 these colonies. 
 
 "The colonists, taken as a whole, have received the in 
 demnity, sold at a higher price, and obtained a gross reve 
 nue superior to that which they obtained before/ v 
 
 If we examine the production of each colony, we see that 
 at Mauritius, where immigration w^s, and continued to be, 
 in great activity, the figures were, from the first year of 
 freedom, higher than before. 
 
 * P. 23. 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAB LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 359 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 1814-1834 < -". <- - 538,954 quintals. 
 
 APPR ENTICESHIP. 
 
 1835-1838 
 1839 
 1810 
 1841 
 1842 
 1843 
 1844 
 1845 
 
 . 549,872 quintals. 
 
 618,705 " 
 
 . 545,007 " 
 
 696,652 " 
 
 . 676,237 " 
 
 477,124 " 
 
 . 540,515 " 
 
 716,338 " 
 
 Almost all the loss falls on Jamaica, Guiana, Grenada, 
 St. Vincent, and Tobago. On the contrary, Antigua, Bar- 
 badoes, Dominica, St. Christopher, St. Lucia, and Trinidad 
 are progressing. At Montserrat, Nevis, and Tortola the 
 staUstics are unimportant. 
 
 But during the same time the production of the East 
 Indies rises from 109,596 quintals to 1,103,181 quintals. 
 
 Here is the general table : 
 
 Places of 
 Importation. 
 
 Period of 
 Slavery, 
 1831-1834. 
 
 Period of 
 Apprentice 
 ship, 
 1835-1838. 
 
 Period of 
 of Liberty, 
 1839 - 1845. 
 
 1846. 
 
 1847. 
 
 Antigua 
 
 Quintals. 
 
 180,802 
 
 Quintals. 
 
 143,878 
 
 Quintals. 
 189,406 
 
 Quintals. 
 102,644 
 
 Quintals. 
 249,201 
 
 Barbadoes 
 
 356,254 
 
 409,354 
 
 314,501 
 
 302,496 
 
 469,022 
 
 Dominica 
 
 54,214 
 
 35,660 
 
 45,497 
 
 52,700 
 
 65,451 
 
 Grenada 
 
 193,156 
 
 161,308 
 
 87,161 
 
 76,931 
 
 104,952 
 
 Jamaica 
 
 1,343,506 
 
 1,040,070 
 
 646,255 
 
 572,883 
 
 751,416 
 
 Montserrat 
 
 22,283 
 
 11,032 
 
 11,842 
 
 5,316 
 
 7,657 
 
 Nevis 
 
 47,950 
 
 28,510 
 
 26,523 
 
 26,714 
 
 41,833 
 
 St. Christopher 
 
 92,079 
 
 79,823 
 
 101,336 
 
 91,022 
 
 149,096 
 
 St. Lucia 
 
 57,549 
 
 51,427 
 
 57,070 
 
 63,566 
 
 88,370 
 
 St. Vincent 
 
 204,095 
 
 194,228 
 
 127,364 
 
 129,870 
 
 175,615 
 
 Tobago 
 
 99,579 
 
 89,332 
 
 52,962 
 
 38,822 
 
 69,240 
 
 Tortola 
 
 16,863 
 
 12,036 
 
 6,180 
 
 6,786 
 
 8,285 
 
 Trinidad 
 
 316,338 
 
 295,787 
 
 292,023 
 
 353,293 
 
 393,537 
 
 The Bahamas 
 
 4 
 
 175 
 
 832 
 
 3,356 
 
 
 Guiana 
 
 857,165 
 
 935,849 
 
 542,907 
 
 325,756 
 
 635,622 
 
 Total average 
 
 3,841,837 
 
 3,508,469 
 
 2,501,859 
 
 2,152,155 
 
 3,209,297 
 
 Mauritius 
 
 536,134 
 
 549,872 
 
 618,906 
 
 845,304 
 
 1,193,849 
 
 East Indies 
 
 109,596 
 
 244,630 
 
 1,103,181 
 
 1,425,114 
 
 1,418,682 
 
360 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 We are astonished at the disparity of the figures ; we 
 had expected to see the same cause produce everywhere 
 the same effects. If they differ, it is probable that they are 
 not all due to the same cause. In fact, on entering into de 
 tails, we ascertain that the diminution of one fourth in the 
 products is explained, apart from the influence of emancipa 
 tion, by a succession of bad seasons, the abandonment of 
 numerous plantations by the owners themselves, encum 
 bered with debts or discouraged, the absolute lack of cap 
 ital or credit wherewith to pay wages, and the unfriendly 
 behavior of many of the planters, especially at Jamaica, 
 towards their former slaves, as much as by the tendency of 
 the latter to go to dwell in towns and to form villages.* 
 
 Taking general results, we see, therefore, that, in 1845, 
 that is, during the first ten years of freedom, production 
 was not ruined in the English colonies by the emancipation 
 of the slaves. It increased in a few, and diminished in a 
 few others. The total average reduction was one fourth. 
 
 But wealth results much less from the quantity produced 
 than from the net cost and selling price of the product. 
 
 Now has the net cost been raised by emancipation ? 
 Probably it has ; nevertheless, this point is strongly con 
 tested, especially in so far as it concerns Jamaica. Is it 
 really true that wages have attained an exorbitant rate ? f 
 If this be true, what are we to blame for it ? 
 
 * Report of M. de Broglie, pp. 30-42. 
 
 t The opinion of Lord Elgin, Governor of Jamaica, in his report of 1846, is as 
 follows: "I cannot admit that the rate of wages has been exorbitant; except 
 in a few instances where the scale has been established by the planters them 
 selves, labor has never cost more than Is. Qd. per day." At Barbadoes, wages 
 were 10c?. per day ; at Antigua, from Qd. to Is. ; at St. Christopher, Is. 4d. ; at 
 Guiana, Is. 4d. ; at Trinidad, 2s. Id. ; in the small colonies, Qd. (Revue coloniale, 
 1843, p. 13.) It must not be forgotten that distress and complaints in Jamaica 
 are of long standing. From 1772 to 1792, 177 estates were sold for debt, 55 aban 
 doned, 92 occupied by creditors, an*d the clerk s office had witnessed the record 
 of 80,121 executions. In 1807, 65 plantations had been abandoned during the 
 past six years. In 1812, the Assembly declared to the king, that "the distress 
 was so great that it could no longer increase." " Ruin is imminent," wrote the 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 361 
 
 Is it the desertion of labor that has caused wages to 
 rise ? Is it the lack of money to pay them ? Is it the folly 
 of planters who have accorded exorbitant wages in order to 
 monopolize laborers ? Is it the ill-will of other planters, 
 who have estranged the free negroes, especially by exacting 
 high rents for the cabins and gardens of which they had 
 peaceable possession, or by paying them irregularly for 
 their labor ? We will grant that all these causes have acted 
 at once ; there is no doubt that, under their disastrous influ 
 ence, the lack of hands and the lack of money, the net cost 
 at first increased perceptibly, and a considerable number of 
 proprietors were reduced to the necessity of ceasing culti 
 vation. But in any case this excessive rise did not last 
 long, and after a few years the net cost diminished by de 
 grees, especially in the colonies where the immigration of 
 new laborers aroused competition with the freed negroes. 
 
 By way of compensation (and herein doubtless lay the 
 chief cause of the distress of the English colonies) the 
 selling price, also very high during the first years, as we 
 have seen, since it rose in 1840 to 185 fr. 60 c. per metrical 
 quintal, a price which had not been reached since 1815, 
 the selling price fell, despite the progress of consumption, 
 in proportion as the introduction of foreign sugars came to 
 compete with -colonial sugars in the market of the mother 
 country ; the high prices attracted this competition, and 
 the changes in the tariff opened the door to its admission. 
 It may be affirmed that, if the same protective tariff had 
 secured the sale of colonial sugar at high prices a few 
 years longer, production would have rapidly revived, and 
 the colonists would have really had nothing of which 
 to complain. 
 
 But this was precisely the epoch at which England en- 
 planters to Parliament in 1832. Such was the position of affairs under the 
 system of slavery, monopoly, and premiums. (Revue coloniale, 1847, XII. p. 
 231; XIII. p. 317.) 
 
 16 
 
362 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 tered upon the path of her great economical reforms. In 
 studying the results of the emancipation of the slaves in 
 the English colonies in the point of view of production, it 
 is proper not to forget these most important facts, which 
 complicate investigations. 
 
 England attempted two bold experiments at the same 
 time, the freedom of slaves and the freedom of trade. These 
 two kinds of freedom passed from public opinion into Par 
 liament, from books into the laws, from minds into facts, 
 almost at the same moment. It was from 1820 to 1831 that 
 commercial liberty was personified in Mr. Huskisson, and it 
 was in 1823 that Mr. Buxton made the first motion for the 
 abolition of slavery. When, after the death of George IV. 
 and the accession of William IV. (June, 1830), Lord Grey 
 came into office with the Whigs, the commercial reform 
 made new progress in 1831 and 1832, and it was precisely 
 in 1831 that Mr. Robinson, called to power by Mr. Canning 
 with Mr. Huskisson, and become Lord Goderich, proposed 
 the emancipation of the slaves belonging to the crown, and 
 in 1833 Lord Stanley presented the Emancipation Bill in the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 From the beginning, the most ardent partisans of com 
 mercial liberty had proposed an exception in favor of the 
 products of the colonies, an exception justified by the so 
 cial crisis through which they had to pass, and moreover by 
 the propriety of not encouraging the slave-trade and slavery, 
 after having done so much to abolish them. When a cele 
 brated radical, Deacon Hume, proposed in 1840 an inquiry 
 upon the tariff s of importation, he himself declared that this 
 exception was equitable and necessary. 
 
 But the impulse in favor of commercial freedom daily be 
 came more irresistible, and the Abolitionist opinion itself 
 was divided. The question was indeed curiously compli 
 cated. Interests were not less divided than opinions. 
 
 The colonies had need, on the one hand, of commercial 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 363 
 
 freedom, in order to buy at a lower price the products fur 
 nished them by England, and, on the other, of protection, in 
 order to sell at a higher price, and thus indemnify them 
 selves for the losses which had naturally followed emanci 
 pation. 
 
 England owed protection to these distant communities 
 which it had just shaken to the centre, and at the same time 
 owed cheap living to its internal population. It was asked 
 wherefore the planters of Jamaica, already indemnified, de 
 served more favor than the agriculturists and freeholders of 
 Great Britain, who were greatly affected by the corn-laws ; 
 wherefore the negroes of Barbadoes or Essequibo deserved 
 more interest than the indigent laborers of Manchester or 
 Bolton ; now the one needed that sugar should be at a high 
 price, the others that it should be at a low price. 
 
 England wished to multiply exchanges, but it could not 
 do this without opening its territory to the products of the 
 entire universe ; yet, notwithstanding, to favor slave labor 
 was to contradict the lofty views which had inspired the 
 great Act of Emancipation. 
 
 The treasury, deprived of considerable revenues by com 
 mercial reforms, needed to regain new resources by the 
 increase of consumption ; but the ruin of the colonies men 
 aced it on the other side with graver losses. 
 
 There was not a single one of the interests involved in 
 this complicated question that was not in contradiction 
 with itself, and such great difficulties explain the waverings 
 of public opinion. Nevertheless, Parliament and public 
 opinion held firm ifl the debate in favor of the colonies. 
 
 When, in the beginning of 1841, the Whig Cabinet pro 
 posed to lower the duty on foreign sugar* from 63s. to 36s., 
 the committee of the British and Foreign Antislavery 
 Society energetically protested against it, and demanded 
 a postponement at least. The West India Corporation 
 
 * \Ve speak only of sugar, since this is the principal product. 
 
364 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 protested on its side by a long petition ; but in a general 
 convention of the Abolitionists,* on the 14th of May, 
 the Assembly, drawn on by O Connell, loudly declared 
 that free labor was less expensive than slave labor, that 
 there was no reason to fear competition, and that, in the 
 interest of emancipation itself, it was desirable that Great 
 Britain, in multiplying her relations with slave states, should 
 preserve over them the influence of her policy. 
 
 Other orators demanded that the government should 
 reduce the duties on sugar produced by free labor, whether 
 foreign or colonial, but should continue to exclude sugar 
 produced by servile labor. The Abolitionists were thus 
 divided into three opinions upon the one question. 
 
 The same dissensions were manifested when the question 
 was carried to the House of Commons. 
 
 Lord John Kussell, Lord Palmerston, Mr. Labouchere, 
 Mr. Hume, and Mr. Macaulay sustained the project of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Baring. 
 
 Lord John Russell drew an ingenious parallel between 
 the condition of the freed negroes, numbering 5,800 small 
 freeholders at Jamaica, peaceable and happy at Barbadoes, 
 laborious and moral at Antigua, filling the churches and 
 schools at Guiana, erecting chapels at their own expense 
 and providing for the wants of their sick at Trinidad, and 
 the wretched life of the workingmen of the manufacturing 
 towns of England, exposed to. famine or beggaiy. " We 
 have done all that our generosity permitted us to do, 7 
 said he, " for the inhabitants of these distant regions. I 
 do not believe that we are justified in making their inter 
 ests the object of our exclusive attention, when the peo 
 ple are suffering in this country, and lacking the most 
 imperative necessaries of life." 
 
 Mr. Labouchere showed the consumption rising or falling 
 with the rise or fall of prices. 
 
 * Abstract, etc , III. p. 513. 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 365 
 
 Price of Sugar. Consumption. 
 
 1836 40s. 9c7. 1 6.58 Ibs. per head. 
 
 1837 34.9. 5d. 18.38 
 
 1838 33s. Id. 18.42 
 
 1839 39s. 4d. 17.00 
 
 1840 48s. Id. 15.28 
 
 Mr. Hume recalled the fact, that the sale of tea and coffee 
 had increased 80 per cent in twenty years (1820-1840), 
 thanks to the diminution of the price, while the consump 
 tion of sugar had increased but 15 per cent, by reason of 
 the high price. 
 
 Mr. Macaulay exclaimed pun gently : " What sort of a 
 principle of morality, humanity, and justice is this, which 
 permits us to dress ourselves in the cotton and inhale the 
 tobacco produced by slave labor, and forbids the addition 
 of sugar and coffee arising from the same source ? " 
 
 11 The Brazilian slave/ said Lord John Kussell before, 
 " will find himself no happier because the fruit of his labor 
 will be consumed by Germans instead of Englishmen." 
 
 Lord Stanley replied, that, if a million quintals of Bra 
 zilian sugar should take the place of a million quintals of 
 colonial sugar, foreign slave labor would be evidently en 
 couraged, and English free labor discouraged ; and that the 
 prosperity of the colonies should not be destroyed at the 
 very moment when it was affirmed that it was reviving. 
 Sir Eobert Peel won over the House by a speech worthy 
 of a statesman. 
 
 " I am concerned, 7 said he, " about the moral and social 
 condition of your empire, where you have just attempted 
 the greatest, the most hazardous, and, I admit with lively 
 satisfaction, the most happy reform of which the civil 
 ized world could offer an example, and I cannot disguise 
 from myself the consequences which may ensue in these 
 countries, still shaken by so violent a concussion, from 
 the adoption of a measure which would be equivalent 
 to the impossibility of continuing there the cultivation 
 of sugar, 
 
366 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 " If our colonies were not sufficient for our supply, we 
 should be obliged to raise the prohibition ; but in time the East 
 
 Indies will make up the deficiency of the West Indies 
 
 But the East Indies are in fearful distress, desolated by fam 
 ine, pestilence, and want ; wages there are 2^d. per day, 
 the laborer lives on rice, and dies when rice fails him. 
 
 " Now when we reflect that the English nation is respon 
 sible for the moral and physical lot of these populations, 
 can it be alleged that considerations of a higher order oblige 
 us to prefer the sugar obtained by the slave labor of Cuba 
 to the production of this national country, whose inhabit 
 ants are dying with hunger for lack of work ? 
 
 " You are told that it is necessary to furnish to free labor 
 
 an occasion of proving its superiority over slave labor 
 
 But is this a moment for our colonies to sustain such a 
 struggle, when emerging from the crisis which they have 
 just passed through ? 
 
 " If the desire of having cheap sugar leads you to protect 
 slave labor, say so once for all, and foreign nations will 
 understand you ; but do not say that it is your intention, by 
 admitting products of this origin, to destroy the slave-trade 
 and slavery, for no one in the world will believe you. 
 
 " It is pretended that the conduct of foreign nations does 
 not concern us, that we should not set ourselves up as 
 
 reformers of humanity I reject this selfish doctrine, 
 
 in the name of the nation. We have dearly bought the 
 right to speak to the peoples of earth with authority on 
 this question ; let us not descend from the high position 
 which we have taken in offering ourselves as an example 
 to nations." 
 
 The amendment of Lord Sandon against the ministerial 
 scheme was passed May 18, 1841, by 317 votes against 
 281, and the duty on foreign sugar was not lowered. 
 
 The same efforts were renewed the following year, both 
 in and out of Parliament. 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM.. 367 
 
 In a new general convention of the Abolitionists,* which 
 held twelve sessions at London, some (of whom Mr. Cobden 
 was one) repeated that, by diminishing the duties, the prices 
 would be diminished, and the consumption, and consequent 
 ly the production, increased. Others maintained that the 
 admission of foreign sugars would complete the ruin of the 
 English colonies, and encourage servile labor at Cuba and 
 Brazil. 
 
 These last arguments again prevailed in Parliament at the 
 sequel of two extended inquiries, prescribed by the two 
 Houses, f 
 
 The equalizing of the duties on sugars of every origin, 
 demanded by Mr. Ewart, and the reduction of the duties on 
 foreign sugars to 34s. (the colonial sugars paid 24s.) pro 
 posed by Mr. Hawes, and combated by Sir Robert Peel, 
 were also rejected by a majority of more than thirty votes. 
 
 Notwithstanding, the commercial treaty with Brazil, which 
 secured to this country the treatment of the most favored 
 nations, expiring in November, 1844, and the production 
 of the English colonies reviving but slowly, the Tory min 
 istry resolved to attack Parliament by another tariff bill.J 
 
 It adopted the idea put forward by the Abolitionists, of 
 making a distinction between free and servile labor, and 
 admitting the products of the first while continuing to ex 
 clude those of the second. From November 1, 1844, English 
 colonial sugars were to pay 24s. per quintal ; sugars pro 
 duced by free labor, 34s. ; all others, 63s. 
 
 Defended by Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Gladstone, this 
 tariff was adopted on the ITth of June by a majority of 
 twenty-two votes. 
 
 This law, logical and moral in appearance, was imprac- 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1843, p. 14. 
 
 t Abstract, published by the Secretary of the Navy, Vol. III. 
 t Revue, coloniale, 1844, III. pp. 193, 271, 423, 547. 
 
 Coffees of every production were admitted with the same duty (Tariff of 
 June 17, 1844). 
 
368 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 ticable and defective. How was it possible to distinguish 
 between certain free countries and certain slave countries ? 
 Java, Siam, Manilla, and China were pointed out as the 
 former ; * but a system of compulsory labor differing little 
 from servitude prevails at Java, while in China and Siam 
 are polygamy, the sale of children, and other crimes more 
 heinous than slavery. 
 
 How refer to certificates of origin ? How excommuni 
 cate sugars and receive coffees ? The total consumption 
 of the world being equal to its total production, to close 
 England to the sugar of Brazil was to open to this sugar 
 other markets, to change the market and not the tariff, to 
 dissatisfy a great country, and displease without injuring it. 
 Lord John Russell avenged himself for his defeat of 1840 
 by heaping censure on the new bill, " which, " he said, 
 " established a pulpit in every custom-house," and pre 
 dicting that its partisans would find it impossible to stop 
 at it, but would be forced to return to the reduction which 
 he had proposed four years before, aild even to exceed this 
 after having opposed it. 
 
 The colonies and West India Corporation complained 
 by forcible addresses, and uttered cries of distress in ad 
 vance. In the protest of Jamaica was remarked the first 
 wish for commercial freedom. The tariff satisfied no one, 
 and encountered inextricable difficulties in its application. 
 
 On the 14th of February, 1845, Sir Robert Peel proposed 
 a new tariff, reducing the duty on English sugars from 
 24s. to 14s. for raw sugars, and from 24s. to 16s. for clayed 
 sugars, and the duty on foreign free sugars from 34s. 6d. 
 to 23s. 4d. for raw sugars, and from 34s. to 28s. for clayed 
 sugars. This was a reduction of from 6s. to 10s. on both, 
 leaving a differential duty of from 9s. to 11s. in favor of the 
 colonies. The exclusion of slave sugars was maintained. 
 
 * A treaty connected England with the United States ; but it is known that 
 this nation consumes more than 50,000 tons of sugar beyond what it produces. 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 369 
 
 It was calculated that the consumer would gain 16 c. per 
 pound by this tariff, and that the treasury would lose by it 
 32,500,000 francs.* This law is dated March 7, 1845. In 
 the following three months, the consumption increased al 
 most double, an increase which was due, moreover, rather 
 to the growth of comfort, than to the fall or introduction of 
 foreign sugar ; for veiy little was brought in, the prices 
 were maintained, and the colonial producers profited almost 
 entirely by the reduction. f The partisans of free trade 
 could therefore maintain, with s&me reason, that a larger 
 reduction might be attempted. On their side, the repre 
 sentatives of the colonies justly complained of the continual 
 changes of tariffs, and begun to propound the question in 
 its true terms ; either absolute monopoly or absolute 
 liberty ; protect our products, or free us from the obligation 
 of receiving yours. 
 
 On returning to power, the Whig ministry proposed, 
 July 20, 1846, J through the organ of Sir John Russell, a 
 new tariff on the following bases : 
 
 The maintenance of the duty of 14s. on English sugars ; 
 
 The gradual reduction of the duty on foreign sugars ; 
 
 The complete equality of duties from July 5, 1851 ; 
 
 No distinction between free sugar and slave sugar. 
 
 This was an economical revolution from the threefold 
 stand-point of the interest of the colonies, the interest of 
 the treasury, and the interest of emancipation. 
 
 The new leader of the Tory party, Lord George Ben- 
 tinck, so suddenly restored to public life, from which he 
 was about to be as suddenly snatched by death, the old 
 representative of religious interests, Sir Robert Inglis, and 
 the witty and fiery orator, Mr. D Israeli, attg^ked the bill 
 with rare vivacity in the House of Commons ; but the solid 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1845, V. p. 183; VI. p. 125. 
 t Ibid., 1846, VIII. p. 294. 
 J Ibid., IX. p. 280. 
 
 16* X 
 
370 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 speeches of Lord John Russell and Lord Grey, and, above 
 all, the imposing and unexpected authority of Sir Robert 
 Peel in favor of a measure entirely different from the laws 
 which he had himself proposed, carried the vote by a ma 
 jority of. a hundred and thirty voices. 
 
 In the House of Lords, where Lord Brougham presented 
 a petition of the aged Clarkson against the law, arid op 
 posed it with the co-operation of Lord Stanley and the 
 Bishop of Oxford, it was passed by a majority of eighteen 
 voices, through the infludbce of Lord Clarendon. 
 
 If we dare venture on a decision among opinions sus 
 tained by such defenders, it seems as if both sides were 
 partly right and partly wrong. 
 
 It is clear that, by permitting Cuban and Brazilian sugars 
 to compete with the sugars of the West Indies, compulsory 
 labor was encouraged and free labor discouraged. 
 
 " Some three slaves are employed in producing a hogs 
 head of sugar/ said Sir Robert Inglis, forcibly; " thes^ 
 three slaves are the survivors of nine Africans torn from 
 their country. Thus, for every ton of sugar of this pro 
 duction imported into England, the House will have caused 
 the capture, massacre, or sufferings of nine of our fellow- 
 beings, and these, multiplied by 20,000, the number of 
 hogsheads expected to be imported, produce a total of 
 180,000 individuals, on whom a Christian assembly will 
 have, in cold blood, inflicted the greatest possible injury." 
 
 " The nation which has made a gift to humanity of 
 20,000,000, will consent, in pursuance of the same end, 
 to pay a penny a pound more for its sugar, and this humble 
 tribute will be pleasing to God/ exclaimed Lord George 
 Bentinck. Hi 
 
 But, to favor the products of the colonies, it was neces 
 sary to protect them by a high duty against all competition 
 It was truly chimerical to make a distinction between free 
 sugar and slave sugar, yet receive cotton from the United 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 371 
 
 States and copper from Cuba. " Lord Stanley s opinions 
 on this matter/ said Lord Clarendon, wittily, " are like a 
 thermometer ; they rise to boiling heat when sugar from 
 Cuba is in question, and fall te the freezing-point when the 
 question is of cotton from South Carolina," 
 
 If England had broadly accepted the principles of com 
 mercial freedom at this very hour, an exception of a few 
 years in favor of sugar would have been comprehensible. 
 This had been until then maintained by the illustrious pro 
 moter of the Corn Laws, Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 "What!" it was said, "have you not promised that 
 free labor should cost less than compulsory labor? " "Yes/ 7 
 replied Lord Brougham, "justly, "all circumstances being 
 equal ; but they are not so. Take two countries, both 
 placed in the same habitual conditions of climate and ter 
 ritory, and place slaves in the one and freemen in the other : 
 there is not the least doubt that free labor will stifle slave 
 labor in the end, the freeman laboring with more interest 
 and intelligence. But this is not the case here ; the strug 
 gle is between a country which possesses free labor, with 
 out having recourse to any means of keeping up the supply, 
 and another which employs compulsory labor, renewing it 
 through the slave-trade." 
 
 A protection continued a few years longer would have 
 been, therefore, a just exception. At least, it would have 
 been prudent not to adopt a tariff which, through the differ 
 ence of net cost, created a veritable advantage in favor of 
 Brazilian sugars.* 
 
 But if the Whig ministry had decided on this exception, 
 the Tory mfl^stry, on returning to power, would have over 
 thrown the new commercial policy entire ; it was better to 
 renounce the exception, this was the fear and the argu 
 ment of Sir Robert Peel. Mr. D Israeli warmly reproached 
 him for sacrificing the colonial empire, 50,000,000, the 
 
 * See the calculations of M. Colqiihoun, Revue coloniale, 1846, X. p. 214. , 
 
372 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 most sacred principles, and his own convictions, to the ques 
 tion as to who would be seated in eight days on the minis 
 terial benches. But the majority, composed of the Whigs 
 and the wrecks of the Tory paj ty, followed Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 At least they should have been logical, and gone to the 
 full extent of liberty by breaking the colonial compact. This 
 was demanded, in a sensible and courageous speech, by a 
 colonist, M. Bernal. " It is my firm design/ said he, " to 
 redouble activity and energy, to triumph over competition. 
 The times and men belong wholly to freedom of trade ; it 
 
 is in vain that the colonists seek to resist it But is 
 
 it just that the colonies, whose interests are sacrificed to 
 these principles, should not be permitted to profit by the 
 advantages which this freedom can secure to them ? " 
 
 From this day, these prayers became more ardent and 
 more definite in the publications of the colonists and the 
 protests of the colonies.* The unlimited freedom of the 
 ports, the full liberty of immigration, loans for its encour 
 agement, the entrance of the spirituous liquors of the colo 
 nies under the same duty as those fabricated in the mother 
 country, the free use of sugar in English breweries and re 
 fineries, the abolition of entrance duties on colonial products 
 imported into all other English possessions, such was 
 thenceforth the programme of the demands of the colonies. 
 
 " I think, " Sir Robert Peel had said, " that, the bill once 
 passed, the Cabinet will not lose sight of its rigorous duty 
 of furnishing to the colonists the means of sustaining the 
 competition which has been aroused against them." This 
 counsel was followed. 
 
 On the 22d of January, 1847, the Chancellor of the Ex 
 chequer, Mr. Wood, proposed the reduction of the duty on 
 spirituous liquors, and the free use of sugar in refineries 
 instead of malt.f 
 
 * Revue coloniale, X. pp. 214, 231. 
 
 f Ibid., 1847, XL p. 75. The experiments made at this time proved that 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 373 
 
 But such had been the effect of the sudden reduction of 
 duties which unfortunately coincided with a year of drought, 
 that the exportation of the East Indies fell from 2,911,503 
 quintals in 1845, to 2,422,573 ; to this diminution of 500,000 
 quintals corresponded a fall from 146 fr. 80 c. to 118 fr. 
 50 c., and even to 10 1 francs. The colonies multiplied 
 meetings, memorials, and petitions ; the Chamber of Com 
 merce of Kingston convoked an assembly of delegates from 
 all the colonies at %c island of St. Thomas.* The Gov 
 ernors called the attention of government to the universal 
 distress and alarm of Jhe inhabitants. Agitation took pos 
 session of England, and when, February 7, 1848, Lord George 
 Bentinck proposed the formation of a committee to inquire 
 into the state of public opinion, the Cabinet did not oppose 
 the proposition. 
 
 The committee, by its report dated May 29, 1848, recom 
 mended the establishment, for six years, of a protective duty 
 in favor of colonial sugar. f 
 
 Lord John Russell opposed this project, and, with a bold 
 logic, taking a step forward towards commercial freedom, 
 instead of the step backward that was proposed, presented 
 a bill, which was adopted, and of which the following were 
 the bases : 
 
 1. A new reduction of duties on colonial sugars from 24s. 
 to 13s., and eventually to 10s., without a corresponding 
 diminution for foreign sugars. 2. The equality of duties 
 for all sugars, fixed at 10s., from July 1, 1854. 3. The 
 opening of a loan of 500,000 in favor of the colonies. 
 
 This was a momentary protection, and a large encourage 
 ment to consumption, ending at a fixed date in free com 
 petition. The loan was to serve thenceforth to favor the 
 
 sugar could be mixed with malt, or even combined alone with hops, without 
 injuring the quality of the beer. 
 
 * Revue cotoniale, 1847, XII. p. 463; 1847, XIII. p. 335. 
 
 f Ibid., 1848, 1849, I. p. 6. 
 
374 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 immigration of new laborers ; but immigration by means 
 of redemption remained positively interdicted, as Lord 
 John Russell, Mr. Labouchere, and Sir Robert Peel affirmed 
 with a common voice. 
 
 A last effort was attempted, May 3, 1850, by the Aboli 
 tionist party, aided by the Protectionist party. Sir E. 
 Buxton proposed to the House of Commons to " declare 
 that it was unjust and impolitic to expose the sugar of 
 the British colonies to competition^with the sugar of 
 slave countries." 
 
 Mr. Hume proposed to add, that th^ government "should 
 put an end to the difficulties which hindered the colonies 
 from procuring free laborers in Africa or elsewhere. 7 
 
 Sir John Pakington and Mr. Gladstone again maintained 
 that colonial commerce should form an exception to the 
 principles of free exchange. But the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer repeated to Mr. Buxton, that all distinction be 
 tween the product of free labor and that of servile labor 
 was impracticable. He added, that the competition of 
 servile labor in the English market was inconsiderable and 
 constantly decreasing, f 
 
 He showed that, in spite of exaggerated fears, the im 
 portation of West Indian sugar had increased enormously 
 during ten years. J He congratulated himself, above all, 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1850, IV. p. 335. 
 
 f 1846, 1847, Colonial sugar . . . . . 227,000 tons. 
 " " Sugar of slave countries . . *. " 61,000 " 
 
 J-tJ-xv/ JLJUV/j \^UlUllliVi DUKCtft 
 
 " " Sugar of slave 
 
 countries . . . 36,000 " 
 
 
 1840-1844. 1845-1849. 
 
 Antigua . . . . 
 
 . 177,727 quintals. 180,737 quintals. 
 
 Barbadoes . . . . . 
 
 290,873 " 402,927 " 
 
 Trinidad . 
 
 . 282,000 " 385,000 " 
 
 St. Christopher . . . 
 
 89,000 
 
 107,000 
 
 St. Lucia . . 
 
 . 55,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 Guiana . . . . 
 
 522,000 
 
 572,000 " 
 
 Jamaica . . v , 
 
 . 602,000 
 
 665,000 " 
 
 Mauritius . ...-. 
 
 591,000 
 
 907,000 
 
 East Indies 
 
 . 3,925,000 5,072,000 " 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 375 
 
 that the consumption of sugar in England was rising from 
 year to year.* 
 
 Such results, and the general tendency of politics at this 
 moment, left to the proposition small chance of success. 
 It was rejected by a majority of forty-one votes. 
 
 From this moment, the application of the system of com 
 mercial freedom to the colonies was irrevocably won. Its 
 enemies counted vainly on the return to public affairs of a 
 protectionist minister, who was assailed with petitions. 
 Fate decreed that each of the ancient adversaries of free 
 dom should arrive successively at power, and that each 
 should make his retraction. On the 12th of March, 1842, 
 Sir John Pakington, then Minister of the Colonies, refused 
 to discuss a petition and motion tending to the revision of 
 the tariff of sugars, f The most earnest complaints of the 
 colonies, arid a curious petition from the negroes, com 
 plaining of being the victims of the legislation of 18464 
 remained without effect on Mr. D Israeli. Become Chan 
 cellor of the Exchequer, he made, December 3, 1852, this 
 decisive declaration : 
 
 " Since last year, English production has increased 
 1,250,000 quintals, and foreign production has decreased 
 600,000 quintals. Call me traitor, call me renegade, if you 
 will, but I should like to know if there is a single member 
 of this assembly, to whatever bench he may belong, that 
 would be willing to propose a differential duty to sustain 
 a branch of trade, pretended to be languishing, which at 
 this moment dictates the law for the market of the mother 
 country." 
 
 * 1840 . . ." . " V . . . 15 Ibs. per head. 
 
 1841-1844 . . . . 17 " 
 
 1845 . -.,.. . . ..;.;. 20 
 
 1846 ;/ .." 21 
 
 1847 - . J . 23 
 
 1848-1849 24 " 
 
 f Revue colonials. 1863, X. p. 386. 
 
 J Ibid, 1852, VIII. p. 459. 
 
 Ibid., 1852, IX. pp 156, 310. 
 
376 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 Become in turn Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Glad 
 stone replied, April 18, 1853, to the demand for a reduction 
 on colonial sugars : * It is quite impossible for the gov 
 ernment to entertain the slightest hope that the demand 
 will be received." 
 
 The year 1852 thus saw all sugars attain the same tax, 
 and all parties rally to the same opinion. 
 
 Nothing more was left to the colonies than to invoke for 
 themselves the principle of commercial freedom, and to 
 deal the last blows to the dismantled edifrce of the colonial 
 compact. Their wishes agreed on this point with the doc 
 trines of the free-tradists, and it was by the logical coali 
 tion of their efforts that, in June, 1849, was obtained the 
 repeal of the Navigation Laws, beginning from January 1, 
 1850. This most important measure, almost immediately 
 adopted by Sweden, Holland, and Belgium, and in part by 
 the United States, had to encounter the ardent opposition 
 of the ports ; f but it resulted in lowering the freight, and 
 was thus a perceptible relief to the colonies. 
 
 Other measures, which it would take too long to detail, 
 were taken to suppress the custom duties of entry of the 
 colonies, and, twenty years after freedom of labor had been 
 proclaimed, freedom of products and freedom of transporta 
 tion appeared as its result. It is at this date that we 
 should take our stand to ascertain what has been the influ 
 ence of those two great events the act of 1834 and the 
 bill of 1846 on colonial production. 
 
 The progress of the consumption of sugar in England 
 from 1801 to 1858 was enormous. 
 
 The average from 1801 to 1814 was 1,423,159 metrical 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1853, X. p. 80. 
 
 t Ibid., 1851, VI. p. 461. See especially the speech of Lord Granville, p. 470, 
 and the Letters of Mr. Lindsay, VII. pp. 68, 192, 437. 
 
 J IRstoire de la re forme commerciale en Anglelerre, by Henri Richelot. Let 
 ters of Lord Grey on the Colonial Policy, Revue coloniale, June, 1860. 
 
 Annals of Outside Trade, March, 1860, pp. 44, 45. 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 377 
 
 quintals, of 51 kilogrammes. It rose to about 2,000,000 
 metrical quintals in the ten years which preceded emanci 
 pation (1824-1834), and continued to stand at nearly the 
 same figure during the ten years which followed it (1834- 
 1844). Under the influence of the reduction of tariffs, it 
 attained ten years after, in 1854,4,166,203 metrical . quin 
 tals. In 1859, lastly, it amounted to 4,510,000 metrical 
 quintals. 
 
 On comparing this progress with the growth of the pop-, 
 ulation,* we ascertain the average quantity of sugar con 
 sumed per head, which in 1814 was 8 kilogrammes 900 
 grammes, to be, in 1854, 15 kilogrammes 850 grammes. f 
 
 The treasury has found its account in this progress, by 
 reason of the lowering of tariffs. Instead of 63s. per quar 
 ter on foreign sugar, and 24s. per quarter on colonial su 
 gar, it now receives but 10s. per quarter, whatever the 
 production ; yet notwithstanding, its receipts, the maxi 
 mum of which had been, under the old tariff, 125,000,000 fr. 
 in 1828, and 130,000,000 fr. in 1844, fell below 100,000,000 
 francs after the reform of 1846, only to rise again ere 
 long, and to attain 153,000,000 fr. in 1859, a figure which 
 it had never exceeded. 
 
 Durin" 1 this time the average price of the metrical fr. c. 
 
 quintal,^ which was (including duties) . . 185 60 in 1814 
 
 had risen to ,. . / . - . . 231 1815 
 
 * 1814 . . . . . . 17,256,000 inhabitants. 
 
 1858 . . . . . 28,681,000 
 
 ( The consumption of tea has followed a corresponding and still greater pro 
 gression. It was 10,678,568 kil. in 1801. In 1858, it attained 32,860,355 kil. 
 The proportion was 0.608 kil. per head* in 1801, and 1.014 kil. per head in 
 1858. 
 
 $ Price in entrepots : fr- c - 
 
 1814 ....,- . 120 40 
 
 1824 ....... . . 78 10 
 
 1834 . . . . . . . - c< . 73 70 
 
 1844 ; 4 . . 83 90 
 
 1854 4| i> 53 
 
 1858 .. 69 50 
 
378 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 fr. c. 
 
 and stood afterwards at . . . . \ . . 166 in 1825 
 
 134 30 " 1835 
 
 146 80 " 1845 
 
 This same price fell, after the reforms, to . . 85 40 " 1848 
 
 and even reached the minimum of ... . 79 50 " 1853 
 
 to remain a very little time under 100 fr., standing at 103 10 " 1858 
 
 Thus, in England, all have been gainers ; first, the con 
 sumer, then even the treasury.* The producer has also 
 been the gainer, since he receives a less profit, but on a 
 greater quantity and with a lower duty. 
 
 But what producer has profited by this progress ? Is it 
 not the foreign producer ? Has not the colonial producer 
 been sacrificed to him ? 
 
 The answer requires that, instead of considering the quan 
 tities consumed, we should take account of the quantities 
 imported, both for consumption and for re-exportation, and 
 that we should distinguish between the different produc 
 tions, f 
 
 Doubtless foreign sugar has the largest share in the 
 growth of consumption in England, and how can we be 
 surprised at it, since the almost prohibitive impost which 
 burdened it has been lowered from 63s. to 10s. per quar 
 ter ? Until the first reduction, the importation of foreign 
 
 * . 
 
 * The custom-house system of England is so well combined, and wealth is 
 so widely diffused in this country, that the revenue of the customs attained 
 626,000,000 fr. in 1859; and of this amount, four articles of luxury sugar, 
 tea, tobacco, and wine produced more than five sixths, the rest not exceeding 
 89,000,000 fr. 
 
 Sugar . ... . . ... - . . 153,000,000 fr. 
 Tea . ;. ; . . . ". , . " .. 135,000,000 
 Tobacco . . ..." . . . 139,000,000 
 Wines and brandies . . . . . 110,000,000 
 
 Total . ... . 537,000 000 fr. 
 
 f We borrow these figures from the remarkable work of Henri Richelot, 
 Histoire de la reforme commerciale en Angleterre, Vol. II. pp. 484, 485. The 
 author has been kind enough to communicate to us the unpublished statistics 
 which complete his tables for the years prior to 1851. (See Appendix.) 
 
PRODUCTION, THE SUGAR LAW, COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 379 
 
 sugar, despite the abolition of slavery, despite the progress 
 of the population and of consumption, made but slow pro 
 gress. In 1831, it was 507,547 quintals ; in 1835, it fell 
 below 200,000, and rose again to 777,900 quintals in 
 1844. After the reform of 1846, the importation of for 
 eign sugar attained, in 1847, 2,408,981 quintals, fell back 
 in 1852 to 1,058,961 quintals, but to double, then triple, 
 and amount in 1858 to 3,630,915 quintals, more than seven 
 times the figure of 1831. 
 
 The progress of the East Indies has been almost as 
 rapid. They represented but 296,679 quintals in 1837, and 
 amounted to 1,585,430 quintals in 1851, the amount having 
 more than quintupled. The quantity has diminished under 
 the influence of the recent events, but was still 1,181,368 
 quintals in 1857, and 794,309 quintals in 1858. 
 
 We find the same progress in the island of Mauritius. 
 Its production did not much exceed 500,000 quintals before 
 emancipation ; ten years after (1844) it was the same ; ten 
 years later (1854) it amounted to 1,662,190 quintals, hav 
 ing tripled ; since diminished, it remains above 1,000,000 
 quintals. ; 
 
 As to Guiana and the Antilles, as we have already said, 
 the decrease of production, by reason of the abolition of 
 slavery, was from one fourth to one half during the first ten 
 years ; but it had already so far revived at the end of this 
 period, as to give serious reason to hope a speedy return to 
 the former figure, when the tariff reform intervened. 
 
 In fact, the production in 1834 was 3,844,243 quintals ; it 
 had risen in 1845 to 2,854,010 quintals. At the same time, 
 the price which was, including duty, 134 fr. 30 c. in 1834, 
 rose to 143 fr., 162 fr., 167 fr., even to 185 fr. 60 c. during the 
 first years, and was still 146 fr. 40 c. in 1845 ; so that the 
 producers received more for a less quantity. The larger 
 introduction of foreign sugar caused the importation to fall 
 again in 1846 to 2,147,363 fr. ; and it may be affirmed that, 
 
380 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 by not continuing a necessary protection a few years longer, 
 the English government arrested the serious tendency to 
 revival of colonial business. Notwithstanding, the com 
 plaints were exaggerated, for the production speedily re 
 turned to the figures of 1845, and higher. In 1847 it rose 
 again to 3,199,821 quintals, attained 3,795,311 in 1848, 
 and, remaining nearly at the same level, was still 3,499,171 
 quintals in 1858. Let us remember that the average was 
 3,640,712 quintals from 1814 to 1834; this is nearly the 
 same figure. 
 
 It would be well to distinguish one by one the importa 
 tions of the nineteen colonies ; but, since 1852, the official 
 tables of English commerce make no distinction of the share 
 of the different West India islands in the general importa 
 tion, only separating Guiana and the West Indies. 
 
 Now the statistics of 1852 still presented^ a great diminu 
 tion at Jamaica. Guiana rose towards the figures anterior 
 to 1834, and attained them in 1854. The increase was not 
 able at Barbadoes and Trinidad ; at Antigua, St. Vincent, 
 and Grenada there was almost a parity between the two 
 epochs ; and the importation had ^increased, taken as a 
 whole, in the other small West-Indian possessions. (See 
 the detailed table in the Appendix.) 
 
 In twenty-five years, the English colonies, after two or 
 deals as grave as the abolition of compulsory labor and that 
 of the protective tariff, have returned to nearly the exact 
 statistics of their production before these two ordeals. 
 The first diminished the quantity produced, but raised the 
 price ; the second increased the quantity produced, but di 
 minished the price. The second injured the colonies more 
 than the first ; but, without separating them, who could have 
 believed in good faith that two such radical attempts would 
 not have cost more dearly ? 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 RESUME. 
 
 DURING the years which separated emancipation in the 
 English possession s from emancipation in the colonies of 
 France, the advocates of these colonies did not cease to 
 repeat, some that England had acted from a selfish motive, 
 in order to ruin all the other colonies by excluding their pro 
 ducts from her market ; others, that this great experiment 
 had ended in failure. These two assertions, which mutually 
 refute each other, are repeated to satiety in the United 
 States ; they are the commonplaces of every speech in 
 favor of slavery. 
 
 The first is unjust, the second incorrect. It is by a voice 
 from the United States that England has been most elo 
 quently avenged for the reproach of selfishness. 
 
 " Other nations/ 7 exclaims Channing, in his admirable 
 Letter to Clay (August 1, 1837) on the Annexation of 
 Texas, "have acquired immortal glory by the heroic 
 defence of their rights ; but there never before has been an 
 example of a nation which, disinterestedly, and in the midst 
 of the greatest obstacles, has espoused the rights of others, 
 the rights of those whose only claim was that of also being 
 men, the rights of the most fallen of the human race. 
 Great Britain, under the weight of an unparalleled debt, 
 with overwhelming taxes, has contracted a new debt of 
 $ 100,000,000 to give liberty, not to Englishmen, but to 
 degraded Africans. This was not an act of policy, it was 
 not the work of statesmen. Parliament has done nothing 
 
382 TIIK ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 tut to record the edict of the people. The English naiton, 
 with one heart and one voice, under a powerful Christian 
 impulse, and without distinction of rank, sex, party, or 
 communion, has decreed the freedom of the slave. I know 
 of no more sublime, more disinterested act related in his 
 tory. In the course of ages, the maritime triumphs of 
 England will occupy a narrower and narrower place in the 
 annals of humanity. This moral triumph will fill a broader 
 and more brilliant page." 
 
 Let us repeat it, to the eternal glory of England, the abo 
 lition of slavery was not a calculation, neither has it been a 
 failure. 
 
 A social revolution has been attempted at once in nine 
 teen countries, dispersed between the Caribbean Sea, the 
 southern extremity of Africa, and the entrance to the Indian 
 Ocean, having neither the same climate, nor the same insti 
 tutions, nor the same social state, and placed many thou 
 sand leagues from the handful of legislators who wrote their 
 fate in a daring law. In the most extended of these coun 
 tries, Jamaica, 300,000 slaves were face to face with 35,000 
 whites. Since the commencement of this century, five for 
 midable insurrections had spread incendiarism and slaugh 
 ter, the last of which, only two years before emancipation, 
 had been followed by the execution of more than five hun 
 dred negroes. Another, Guiana, occupied by only 16,000 
 whites, offered 6,400 square miles as a refuge to more than 
 80,000 negroes. " This event, so formidable at first sight," 
 wrote M. de Broglie,* and we can repeat it seventeen years 
 after him, " the summons to freedom of 800,000 slaves on 
 the same day, at the same moment, has not caused in all 
 the English colonies the tenth part of the disturbance ordi 
 narily caused among the most civilized nations of Europe 
 by the smallest political question that agitates minds ever 
 so little." 
 
 * Eeport, p. 8. 
 
RESUME. 383 
 
 The harm produced by emancipation is reduced to the 
 incontestable ruin of a certain number of colonists, and 
 the momentary and inevitable suffering of all. It is wor 
 thy of note that the colony which resisted most, Jamaica, 
 suffered most. The colony which most promptly resigned 
 itself, and made efforts to renew the methods, stock, and 
 personnel of manufacture Mauritius scarcely suffered 
 at all, and its wealth is to-day doubled, nearly tripled. 
 The aggregate production of the other colonies has again 
 reached the amount prior to 1834. There is no doubt 
 that it would have surpassed it if the commercial re 
 form had not complicated the results of the abolition of 
 slavery. 
 
 But, while according to these evils the regret which they 
 deserve, how compare them for an instant with the blessings 
 which date from these two great measures for England, for 
 the colonies themselves, and for humanity ? 
 
 Nearly a million of men, women, and children have 
 passed from the condition of cattle to the rank of rational 
 beings. Numerous marriages have elevated the family 
 above the mire of a nameless promiscuousness. Paternity 
 has replaced illegitimacy. Churches ancl schools are 
 opened. Religion, before mute, factious, or dishonored, has 
 resumed its dignity and liberty. Men who had nothing 
 have acquired property ; lands which were waste have been 
 occupied ; inadequate populations have increased ; detest 
 able processes of culture and manufacture have been re 
 placed by better;* a race reputed inferior, vicious, cruel, 
 
 * We speak of the progress which was not entered upon before emancipa 
 tion, the substitution of the plough for the hoe, the use of the harrow, the 
 importation of machinery, the improvement in the planting of the cane, central 
 mills, lastly, the surveying or laying down of railroads at Jamaica, Guiana, 
 Barbadoes, and Trinidad. " The advantages resulting from the use of agricul 
 tural implements are incalculable," was written from Antigua in 1845. " The 
 colony has already, this year, with less than 10,000 hands, gathered crops almost 
 equal to those for which Bourbon has employed 30,000,000 laborers." Htvue 
 
384 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 lascivious, idle, refractory to civilization, religion, and in 
 struction, has shown itself honest, gentle, disposed to fam 
 ily life, accessible to Christianity, eager for instruction. 
 Those of its members who have returned to vagrancy, 
 sloth, and corruption are not a reproach to their race as 
 much as to the servitude which had left them wallowing in 
 their native ignorance and depravity ; but these are the 
 minority. The majority labor, and show themselves far 
 superior to the auxiliaries which China and India sends to 
 the colonists. In two words, wealth has suffered little, civ 
 ilization has gained much ; such is the balance-sheet of the 
 English experiment. 
 
 By an indirect effect of the same event, the colonial poli 
 cy is wholly transformed. The first statesmen of England 
 have changed their opinion on the utility of the colonies 
 and the manner of governing them. The freedom of labor 
 has been followed by freedom of trade, and even by political 
 freedom. Of all the reasons which caused the settlement 
 of the colonies, gold, the shipping, commerce, power, 
 a single one subsists, or at least prevails, the interest of 
 civilization. The colonies were destined for the wealth, 
 they serve above all the greatness, of the mother country. 
 
 To whom reverts the honor of having abolished slavery 
 in the English colonies ? 
 
 The government, the different ministers, without distinc 
 tion of party, did much. They may be reproached with 
 two mistakes, they did not take effective measures to se 
 cure labor during the first years ; they did not continue 
 long enough the protection necessary to colonial products ; 
 but they accorded a large indemnity, they facilitated credit, 
 they kept a firm hand over immigration, that it should not 
 degenerate into a new slave-trade ; above all, they sent to 
 
 coloniale, 1845, p. 433. Similar facts have been pointed out in almost all the 
 reports of the Governors to the English government. But it is necessary to 
 be brief. 
 
RESUME. 385 
 
 the colonies firm, conciliating, capable, arid upright Gov 
 ernors, a Marquis of Sligo, a Carmichael Smyth, a Nicolay, 
 an Elgin, worthy representatives of the Goderiches, the 
 Glenelgs, the Stanleys, and the Greys. 
 
 But listen to this solemn testimony of the Duke de Brog- 
 lie : * - 
 
 " We do too much honor, in fact, to the English govern 
 ment, and we would wrong her too much, in attributing the 
 abolition of the slave-trade and the abolition of slavery on 
 her part either to lofty views of wisdom and foresight or to 
 Machiavellian combinations ; on this point, the English gov 
 ernment has neither gone in advance of the times nor di 
 rected events ; it has limited itself to maintaining the statu 
 quo, so long as it has not been forced from it ; it has re 
 sisted for fifteen years the abolition of the slave-trade, for 
 twenty-five years the abolition of slavery ; it has defended 
 all the intermediate positions step by step, and has only 
 yielded, in each occasion, to necessity. 
 
 "We would also do too much honor to the philosophy 
 and philanthropy of England in assigning them the chief 
 part in this great enterprise. Philosophers and philanthro 
 pists have, doubtlessly, figured gloriously in the number 
 of the combatants ; but it is the religious spirit which has 
 borne the heat and burden of the day, and it is to this that 
 reverts, before everything, the honor of success. It is re 
 ligion that has truly freed the negroes in the English colonies ; 
 it is this which raised up, in the beginning of the strug 
 gle, the Clarksons, the Wilberforces, Granville Sharps, 
 and so many others, and armed them with indomitable 
 courage and unshaken perseverance ; it is religion which 
 has progressively formed, first in the nation, then in Par 
 liament itself, that great Abolition party which goes on 
 swelling from day to day, infiltrating itself, as it were, into 
 all parties, calling them all, and the government first of all, 
 
 * Report, p. 117. 
 17 Y 
 
386 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 to account ; and it is this party which, profiting during 
 forty years by every event and every circumstance, succes 
 sively carried the abolition of the slave-trade in 180T ; in 
 spired through its representatives, in 1815, the declarations 
 of the Congress of Vienna, and later those of the Congress 
 of Yerona ; dictated in 1823 the motion of Mr. Buxton, 
 the resolutions of Mr. Canning, and the circular of Lord 
 Bathurst ; hurled in 1831 on the colonies the Order in Coun 
 cil of November 2, thus rendering the abolition of slavery 
 inevitable in 1832, and the maintenance of apprenticeship 
 impossible in 1838 
 
 " The Abolition party has been no more sparing of pains 
 in the colonies than in the mother country ; it has covered 
 them with churches, chapels, missions, and congregations, 
 belonging to all of the dissenting sects of England, thus ex 
 citing a salutary emulation in the clergy of the Established 
 Church. In laboring to render emancipation necessary at 
 London, it has labored to render it possible and easy in 
 the West Indies ; it has prepared the way, cleared and 
 ploughed the soil, put aside or surmounted the obstacles. 
 Ministers of the Established Church, Methodists of all sects, 
 Presbyterians, Moravians, missionaries of the Society of 
 London, priests of the Catholic Church, Baptist mission 
 aries, all vying with each other, have penetrated into the 
 workshops, bearing to the negroes the light and consolation 
 of the Gospel, admitting to their various communions the 
 different quarters of their respective abodes, placing them 
 selves face to face with the masters as the protectors of 
 the slaves, face to face with the civil authorities as interces 
 sors for this oppressed class, and becoming by this means 
 the masters of hearts, the arbiters of wishes, and the true 
 guardians of the public order. 
 
 " There happens thus, in the English colonies, something 
 analogous to what happened formerly in the Roman empire, 
 when this empire was marching with giant strides towards 
 
RESUME. 387 
 
 its decline. Above a narrow, antiquated, oppressive com 
 munity, constituted solely for the profit of the ruling class, 
 ha3 been formed, by the cares and under the protection of 
 the ministers of religion, a Christian community, composed 
 solely of the weak, the poor, and the oppressed ; a com 
 munity still ignorant, but progressive, and which was found 
 standing, when the hour of affranchisement sounded, ready 
 to fall into its ranks, and recognize the voice of its leaders." 
 
 But how have religious men set to work to win so mag 
 nificent a victory ? I will leave the answer to one of the 
 most illustrious soldiers of the same cause in France, Count 
 de Montalembert. 
 
 " Cast a glance on the immortal lessons given us by 
 England ! See these four victories, as difficult as legiti 
 mate, which have been won there in less than twenty years, 
 without revolution, without subversion, without costing a 
 single drop of blood, without causing any other tears than 
 those of joy to flow, solely by the natural working of those 
 admirable institutions which we possess in part, although 
 we know riot how to use them. 
 
 " These four victories are : 
 
 " 1. Catholic Emancipation (1829) ; 
 
 " 2. Parliamentary Reform (1830) ; 
 
 " 3. The Abolition of Slavery (1833) ; 
 
 "4. Freedom of the Corn Trade (1846). 
 
 "Let it be remarked, that none of these pacific victories, 
 which we point out with envy and admiration to our fellow- 
 citizens, has inflicted excessive or lasting injury on the van 
 quished cause. The Anglican Church has regained new 
 life since Catholic emancipation ; the aristocracy has risen 
 up more strongly than ever since the abolition of the rotten 
 boroughs, and we may be sure that English agriculture will 
 lose nothing by the abolition of its monopoly ; in ten years, 
 no one will doubt it. It is the peculiarity of lawful and 
 pure victories not to drive to despair, not to crush, not 
 even to humiliate the vanquished. 
 
388 THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 " Admire, above all, the peaceful and sublime memory of 
 the abolition of colonial slavery. Therein was at stake only 
 a great moral interest, a reform to be won slowly and 
 laboriously over the most deeply-rooted habits and invet 
 erate prejudices: it has triumphed. Far from bringing 
 back any material profit, this reparation of the greatest 
 of iniquities was to cost the English nation 20,000,000 as 
 an indemnity to the owners of the negro slaves: it has 
 been paid. The first authors of this great reparation have 
 had to struggle, not only against routine, but also against 
 politics, against commerce, against the merchant-shipping, 
 against the arts and manufactures, against all the most 
 powerful elements of British greatness: they have con 
 quered them. They have had to oppose to all these united 
 forces only the single force of moral and religious senti 
 ment: it has sufficed. They have never recoiled, never 
 doubted themselves ; and, after thirty years of labor, dis 
 appointments, and calumnies, on the day fixed by the eter 
 nal decrees, God has crowned them with success, and with 
 a glory so pure and beautiful, that iny French and Catholic 
 heart cannot console itself for seeing it snatched from 
 France and the Church." 
 
 Can there be a lesson more sublime, and better worth 
 remembrance ? Ah, may we never forget it ! What power 
 destroyed slavery in England ? Religion. By the aid of 
 what weapon ? Liberty. 
 
BOOK THIRD. 
 
 COLONIES OF DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND HOLLAND. 
 
 I. DANISH COLONIES. 
 
 DENMARK possesses three islands in the West Indies : 
 St. Croix, purchased of France, in 1733, for 738,000 livres, 
 and which has two cities, Christianstadt and Frederick- 
 
 stadt ; 
 
 St. John, occupied by the Danes in 1687 ; 
 
 St. Thomas, which has no other important feature than 
 its French port. 
 
 Fallen into the hands of the English in 1807 and 1808, 
 they were restored to Denmark by the peace of 1814. 
 
 St. Croix possessed in 1835, according to an official cen 
 sus, 161 plantations, 142 sugar-mills, and 19 provision ware 
 houses, and was peopled by 26,681 inhabitants, of whom 
 6,805 were free (1,800 Europeans), 19,876 slaves. 
 
 St. Thomas numbered 22 plantations, and 14,022 inhabit 
 ants, of which 8,707 were free (5,315 Europeans), 5,315 
 slaves; St. John, 2,475 inhabitants, of which 532 were 
 free (107 Europeans), 1,943 slaves. 
 
 There was, therefore, a total of 43,178 inhabitants, 16,03L 
 freemen against 27,144 slaves.* 
 
 This population is divided into seven creeds : the Catho 
 lic, which embraces about 13,000 souls ; the Lutheran, the 
 religion of the state, which numbers but about 6,000 ; the 
 
 * Revue coloniale, 1843, pp. 291, 495 ; 1845, p. 257 ; 1846, p. 209 ; 1847, p. U3 ; 
 Ici8, pp. 157, 422. 
 
390 DANISH COLONIES. 
 
 Anglican Church, 10,000; the Moravians, 10,000; the Cal- 
 vinists, Methodists, and Jews, which share the remainder. 
 
 The decay of the Danish colonies, the ruin of the colo 
 nists, and the sufferings of the slave population, made 
 lamentable progress subsequently to 1814. 
 
 A general officer of the Danish Marine, M. Dahlerup, de 
 spatched by his government in 1841, declared that at St. 
 Croix sixty plantations had been abandoned to the state for 
 lack of being able to repay its advances. Heavy mort 
 gages burdened the greater portion of the other plantations. 
 At the same epoch, the Fcederlandet journal affirmed that, 
 of 151 plantations, 76 belonged to non-residents of the col 
 ony, that 16 had reverted to the state, and that 60 had 
 fallen into the hands of creditors. The mortality increased 
 grievously. From 1807 to 1815, 7,000 individuals out of 
 26,000 had died, and the deaths almost every year exceeded 
 the births. It was the same at St. John. This result was 
 due in part to the extinction of family feelings in the heart 
 of the slaves, who took no care of the aged and children, 
 and in part to the excessive labors with which they were 
 overburdened, despite the regulations decreed in 1810, Jbut 
 rarely executed. The slaves made the most desperate ef 
 forts to escape. 
 
 The exportation of sugar from St. Croix had not dimin 
 ished with the number of the population, which proves that 
 the labor imposed on the slaves had increased : 
 
 1815-1824 (ten years) .... 25,400,000 Ibs. 
 1825-1833 (nine years) . . . 24,100,000 
 1834-1841 (eight years) . . . . 21,400,000 
 
 The culture of sugar, moreover, became daily less pro 
 ductive, on account of the exhaustion of the soil, which is 
 remarked in all slave countries. 
 
 Happily, the Danish government, still inspired by the 
 generous spirit which procured Christian VII. the honor of 
 being the first sovereign of Europe to abolish the slave-trade 
 
DANISH COLONIES. 
 
 391 
 
 (Ordinance of March 16, 1792), early resolved to pave the way 
 for emancipation arid to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, 
 as it had reserved itself the right to do, shortly after the cap 
 ture of St. Croix, by a royal edict dated February 3, 1155. 
 
 More happily still, it found in Major-Gcneral Van Scholtcn, 
 Governor-General of the Danish West Indies, an intelligent 
 and resolute man, who, by a wise and firm guidance, knew 
 how to pave the way for and hasten the hour of freedom. 
 
 Until 1845, the measures taken were in view of amelio 
 rating the condition of the slaves. From this epoch, which 
 was that of the abolition of slavery by England, all the 
 measures tended undeviatingly to emancipation. It was 
 hoped at first to succeed in it by degrees through partial 
 emancipation, and a royal rescript, dated November 22, 1834, 
 commanded the government to establish obligatory redemp 
 tion and the legal right of slaves to acquire property, to 
 interdict the public sale of slaves and the separation of chil 
 dren, at an early age, from their parents, to constitute an 
 exceptional jurisdiction for disputes between masters and 
 slaves, and to frame a statute on Ibe labor, maintenance, 
 and discipline of slaves, and another on vagrancy. 
 
 During this time, the Danish government negotiated with 
 England, with a view to obtaining lower duties after eman 
 cipation on the importation of the sugars of its colonies. 
 
 Surrounding himself with committees chosen from among 
 the most honorable planters, the Governor-General put into 
 execution all the orders which were intrusted him. Ob 
 ligatory redemption was established, dating from November 
 22, 1834. A general regulation of May 7, 1838, determined 
 the hours of labor, the discipline to be exercised in it, and 
 the cares due the slaves, and a committee was appointed to 
 regulate the food, lodging, and holidays. The words not free 
 thenceforth replaced that of slave. The government coun 
 cil was placed in possession of the special jurisdiction. The 
 observance of Sunday was imposed (December 20, 1836). 
 
392 DANISH COLONIES. 
 
 An ordinance on vagrancy, and the institution of a house of 
 correction, appeared May 10, 1838 ; ten days previously, 
 another ordinance had prohibited the sale of slaves in the 
 public markets. Eight schools were established, and the 
 co-operation of the different clergy in the work of moral 
 education was warmly sought. 
 
 A statute of May 1, 1840, ratified the most important of 
 these provisions, a statute remarkable in two points of 
 view. 
 
 Animated by the best intentions towards the slaves, it 
 nevertheless still authorized the punishment of the lash, 
 even inflicted upon women, while abolishing " blows with 
 the tamarind or any other tree upon the naked body " 
 (Art. 11) ; and the punishment of solitary imprisonment 
 on bread and water, but for forty-eight hours at most. 
 Sad vestiges reproaching the abominations of the former 
 system ! 
 
 It approved the minute regulations made concerning the 
 height of the cabins, the hour of opening the mills, the 
 ringing of bells for rising and for ineals, the. driving of 
 the mules, the cutting of grass, the length of the stick of 
 the driver, the furnishing of cats-o -nine- tails by the police- 
 officers at a suitable price. Thus, to intervene in all cases 
 where abuses could creep in, regulations must intervene 
 in everything ; they must anticipate everything ; the mas 
 ters in turn become the real slaves ; the law is everywhere 
 master, where it is not everywhere violated. An exact 
 type, borrowed from the system of slavery, of what would 
 be the pretended universal foresight of the system of so 
 cialism ! 
 
 It may be thought that it would have been simpler to 
 leave all this to the good-will and well understood interests 
 of the colonists. Was this possible ? We are about to 
 judge. 
 
 The government, forbearing to make any decision on the 
 
DANISH COLONIES. 393 
 
 concession of a free day to the slaves, had commissioned 
 the Governor to make arrangements in this respect with the 
 planters. 
 
 At St. John, the latter consented with tolerable willing 
 ness. The planters of St. Thomas refused all concession. 
 Lastly, at St. Croix, 63 plantations, employing 6,801 slaves, 
 resisted. Happily, the crown possessed 16 plantations ; 
 81 belonged to Englishmen ; a majority could, therefore, be 
 formed, and 98 plantations, employing 10,023 slaves, ad 
 hered to the proposition of the Governor. A compromise 
 measure was proposed, and sanctioned by the statute of 
 March 23, 1844, prescribing the observance of Sunday, 
 according Saturday to the slaves, releasing the masters 
 from a poll-tax, and developing the schools. 
 
 On the same occasion, the planters gave expression to 
 their opinion on emancipation; namely, that partial emanci 
 pation was baleful, because the ransomed would be their 
 best workmen, and that general emancipation was impos 
 sible, until education had rendered the slave worthy and 
 capable of freedom. 
 
 The usual conclusion, to do nothing, to wait, and 
 count on time to avert an importunate solution. 
 
 Providence sent to the slaves other succor than this 
 suspicious good-will. 
 
 From the time that the English government allowed the 
 entrance of foreign sugars, one of the principal fears was 
 removed. The decay, moreover, had reached that point, 
 that a slave at St. Croix brought in less than the interest of 
 what he was worth, so that an indemnity might be consid 
 ered by the planters as a profit. 
 
 Lastly, the measures of Governor Van Scholten had ef 
 fected a better moral condition, without being able to arrest 
 the depopulation. European public opinion, convulsed by 
 the example of England and the projects of France, was re 
 echoed even in Denmark. There is no cause for surprise, 
 
304 DANISH COLONIES. 
 
 therefore, that when, in 1846, a deputy, M. David, proposed 
 immediate and simultaneous emancipation, in consideration 
 of an indemnity to the states, assembled at Rotschild, the 
 proposition was welcomed with sympathy. After a favor 
 able report, the Assembly of the States, by a majority of 
 37 votes against 19, demanded in due form of the govern 
 ment to present a bill having for its object complete emanci 
 pation. They did not enter upon the question of indemnity, 
 which was estimated at 2,000,000 Danish dollars, or from 
 10 to 12 per slave, a price analogous to that fixed by 
 England for the similar colonies of Antigua and Tortola. 
 
 On the 28th of June, 1847, the birthday of the queen- 
 dowager, who had warmly solicited emancipation, King 
 Charles VIII. rendered a decree which abolished slavery, 
 but postponed for twelve years the cessation of the masters 
 power, and declared free all children born in the interval. 
 
 But this decree, which at once gave and retained free 
 dom, caused an agitation in the Danish West Indies, which 
 the reaction of the events in France of February, 1848, car 
 ried to its height. The negroes, persuaded that the decree 
 of their emancipation had arrived, but was withheld from 
 them by their masters, repaired peaceably and without arms 
 to the city, to assure themselves of the truth. In the face 
 of this manifestation, which might become sanguinary, the 
 Governor proclaimed immediate emancipation, July 3, 1848. 
 
 The planters resisted ; the militia sided with them. A 
 collision took place, and ten or twelve negroes were killed. 
 The revolt became general ; troops sent by the Governor 
 of Porto Rico slew one hundred and thirty-one negroes, and 
 the former slaves, subdued, were subjected to the severest 
 punishment. But these unhappy events rendered the return 
 to obedience still more impossible. The king of Denmark 
 confirmed the emancipation, and the planters, who would 
 have done better to have yielded to it with good grace, 
 were happy to owe the maintenance of order to General 
 Van Scholten, while the slaves owed to him their liberty. 
 
SWEDISH COLONIES. 395 
 
 II. SWEDISH COLONIES* 
 
 THE Isle of St. Bartholomew, ceded in 1784 to Sweden 
 by France, in exchange for the right of depositing merchan 
 dise in the port of Gothenburg, and re-exporting it without 
 paying duties, owes some importance to maritime wars, 
 during which its port, freely open to the commerce of all 
 nations, did a vast amount of business. But arid, not fur 
 nishing grass enough in the suburbs of the city of Gusta- 
 via for the pasture of the fifteen or twenty horses of its 
 principal inhabitants, it scarcely deserves the name of col 
 ony. The number of its inhabitants in 1833 was estimated 
 at 1,700, of which 531 were slaves in 1846. 
 
 In 1844, King Oscar notified the States of his desire to 
 decree the abolition of slavery. In 1846, the Legislature 
 placed a t the disposal of the government 50,000 francs an 
 nually for the successive redemption of the 531 slaves and 
 their complete liberation. 
 
 What has been the result of the abolition of slavery in 
 these little possessions ? 
 
 We have found it impossible to procure the statistics of 
 their production ; but all know that St. Thomas has become 
 a wealthy and important entrepot, and that St. Croix is a 
 flourishing colony. For the last ten years, no sound of dis 
 order or distress has been echoed from these little commu 
 nities. 
 
 What we have said is sufficient to demonstrate that 
 here, as elsewhere, slavery produced no good, and its aboli 
 tion has produced no harm. A hail-storm, a hurricane, the 
 change of a degree of temperature, would have exercised a 
 more injurious and lasting influence than the happy libera 
 tion of 25,000 or 30,000 human beings, unjustly subjugated. 
 
 * Revue colomale, 1844, II. 482, 1845, January and July, 1846, X. p. 210. 
 
396 DUTCH COLOXIES. 
 
 III. DUTCH COLONIES. 
 
 WHILE the abolition of slavery is as yet in the United 
 States but a distant hope, the realization of which, though 
 approaching, is subordinate to the sanguinary chances of 
 an interminable war, a generous, intelligent, and free na 
 tion, Holland, has just peacefully annihilated slavery in its 
 American colonies by a law bearing date August 8, 1862. 
 
 It is well known that the Dutch are the possessors in 
 Asia of the finest colonies in the world. There this peo 
 ple, so small in territory, but so great in character, this 
 people of 3,000,000 Europeans, has succeeded in extending 
 its rule over a population of 20,000,000 inhabitants, and 
 obliging them to labor without subjecting them to slavery. 
 It is true that the colonial system of the Dutch East Indies 
 is open to sharp criticism. Left in dependence on the Ma 
 hometan native chiefs, and burdened with taxes, the Java 
 nese, it must be confessed, are far from a fortunate race ; 
 and the part of the Board of Trade (Handel-Maatschappy) 
 which, since 1819, has bought, transported, resold, and 
 traded in virtue of a monopoly, is not strictly in conform 
 ity to the rules everywhere followed in the relations of 
 nations. But this is not the place to examine this system, 
 the results of which, it must be admitted, are magnificent. 
 Before the establishment of the system to which the Gover 
 nor, Van den Bosch, attached his name, Holland sent to its 
 possessions a subsidy, which, in 1826, amounted to 80,000,000 
 francs. Thirty years after, in 1856, Holland received, on 
 the contrary, from her East Indian colonies, a subsidy ex 
 ceeding 63,000,000 francs.* These are the only colonies 
 which enrich their metropolis. At the same time, slavery 
 has no share in their products. Labor is compulsory, but 
 the laborer is free ; he may found a family, receives wages, 
 
 * Revue maritime et coloniale, p. 119, September, 1T62. 
 
DUTCH COLONIES. 397 
 
 is at liberty to change his residence ; he is the debtor of 
 the government, the slave of no one. Slavery, which ex 
 isted there, as everywhere, before the settlement of the 
 Europeans, was long maintained ; but only domestic, not 
 field slavery. The custom of having slaves, either negro 
 or Indian, for coachmen, cooks, etc., was continued, though 
 diminishing by degrees, until one of the best Governors of 
 the East Indies, and one of the best Ministers of the Dutch 
 colonies, M. Rochussen, secured the adoption of the law 
 of May 7, 1859, which, making good the promise con 
 tained in a previous law, dated September 2, 1854, de 
 stroyed slavery in the Dutch East Indies, from January 
 1, 1860. 
 
 But if Holland no longer had slaves in her large posses 
 sions, she still retained them in her lesser ones ; that is, in 
 the colony of Guiana or Surinam, and in the islands of Cu- 
 ra^oa, Saba, St. Eustachius, Araba, Bonaire, and St. Martin, 
 
 small islands forming a part of the West Indies, and in 
 
 her stations on the west coast of Africa, of which St. George 
 d Elmina is the chief. The number of slaves in Surinam is 
 estimated at 34,000, in a statement presented in 1861 by the 
 ex-Minister of the Colonies, M. London, making, with that 
 of the small islands, a total of 45,272. 
 
 Emancipation was made the subject of debate by a royal 
 message, dated December 17, 1851. Between English and 
 French Guiana, where there were no longer any slaves, it 
 seemed difficult to preserve them at Surinam. The colony 
 itself demanded that the question should be resolved. But 
 it was ten years under discussion ; bill after bill, amend 
 ment after amendment, was proposed ; the patience of the 
 unfortunate slaves was wellnigh turned as a weapon against 
 them, to maintain them in the bonds which they knew not 
 how to break for themselves, as had been feared, by insur 
 rection or flight to the neighboring colonies. Public opin 
 ion, the Chambers, and government, happily persevered, 
 
308 DUTCH COLONIES. 
 
 More thorough investigation only confirmed the facts col 
 lected by the indefatigable defenders of emancipation, 
 among whom it is just to cite M. Julius Wolbers, the au 
 thor of a remarkable history of Surinam. The history of 
 all slaveholding peoples is fatally always the same ; it may 
 be summed up in these words of the statement of the rea 
 sons of the Dutch statute, depicting the condition of the 
 little islands of Curacoa, St. Eustachius, etc. : " No pro 
 gress, no use of improvements in agriculture, the intel 
 lectual, social, and religious state of the slave population 
 falling more and more into decay/ * 
 
 It would take too long to sum up the extended discussion 
 called forth in the first and second Chambers by the bill, 
 ably supported by the present Minister of the Colonies, M. 
 Uhlenbeck ; to set forth the report presented by a commis 
 sion, composed of MM. Hugenholtz, Delprat, Cool, Mac- 
 kay, and Dullert ; and to cite the various opinions and 
 amendments offered by the most distinguished and marked 
 men, such as MM. Van Zuylen van Nievelt, Blom, Van 
 Bosse, and Van Lynden, we would gladly quote all the 
 names commended by so noble an action. But it is not 
 without interest to present the general economy of the law ; 
 voted by a majority of forty-five votes against seven, after 
 long deliberation, by the representatives of so practical and 
 prudent a people, thirty years after the experiment of Eng 
 land, fifteen years after that of France, it gives realization 
 of a progress in what may be termed the art of emanci 
 pation. 
 
 There are two laws, one for Surinam, the other for the 
 small islands. The stations on the coast of Africa, the ter 
 ritory and population of which are, it is true, very imper 
 fectly defined, are unfortunately not in question. 
 
 Both laws are the repetition of the same provisions, and 
 may be analyzed as follows : 
 
 * Memoirc van Todichting, No. 4, p. 20. 
 
DUTCH COLONIES. 399 
 
 The 45,000 slaves of Holland are free from July 1, 1863. 
 An indemnity is secured to the owners. This is fixed, at 
 Surinam, at 300 florins (630 fr.) per head, without distinc 
 tion of age, sex, or kind of labor ; and at the small islands, 
 at from 200 to 250 florins, except at St. Martin s, where the 
 slaves have been free in point of fact since the French 
 emancipation, but where no indemnity had been accorded : 
 here the indemnity is fixed at 150 francs. The average 
 indemnity in the French colonies was 530 francs ; in the 
 English colonies, 630 francs. This last figure is adopted as 
 a basis in the Dutch colonies. The total expense will be 
 15,000,810 florins (33,201,000 fr.). 
 
 This sum includes a subsidy of 1,000,000 florins, to be 
 apportioned in premiums for the encouragement of the im 
 migration of new laborers, to replace the frcedmen who may 
 at first refuse field labor, to lessen wages by competition, 
 and to stimulate the progress of agriculture. The Danish 
 government has just offered the government of the United 
 States to receive and transport, at its own expense, 3,000 
 fugitive slaves to its colonies of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and 
 St. John, 3,000 fugitive slaves who have taken refuge in 
 the Northern States. 3,800 of these freed laborers have 
 been already sent to South Carolina (Port Royal, Ladies 
 Island, etc.) ; and a remarkable report recently addressed 
 by Mr. Pierce to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, 
 attests the partial success of this attempt at colonization. 
 Perhaps the Dutch colonies, in this moment of transition, 
 may also profit by this abundant resource. 
 
 For ten years, the freedmen are to be subjected to a sur 
 veillance exercised by salaried public functionaries, who are 
 forbidden to have any interests in the colonies. Free to 
 choose their residence, their occupation, and their patron, 
 the freedmen will not be free to choose idleness, but are 
 bound to contract an engagement of labor for from one to 
 three years on the plantations, and from three months to a 
 
400 DUTCH COLONIES. 
 
 year in the towns, or to prove an occupation by the pur 
 chase of a license. During the first two years only, the 
 government may even limit their choice to the district of 
 their present abode, a somewhat exorbitant measure, 
 which is at least compensated for by an amendment of M. 
 Van Bosse, by which the government is at liberty to 
 exempt any freedman from surveillance who may show 
 himself worthy the favor. This intermediate system is free 
 from some of the objections of the apprenticeship of 1834, 
 which it became necessary to abolish in 1838, as was oppor 
 tunely recalled by M. Van Zuylen van Nievelt, in demon 
 strating that this mixed system resulted only in irritating 
 both the quasi masters and quasi slaves, the one uncertain 
 of their property, the others disquieted for their liberty. 
 
 A civil state, a name, schools, culture, and the right to 
 property, are at once secured to the slave ; this is to place 
 before him, provided he attain them, the four degrees which 
 separate servile from social life, the family, religion, in 
 struction, and property. Take these away, and he is a 
 brute. Add these, and he is a man. And after the transi 
 tional ten years, the Dutch law unequivocally declare him 
 an inhabitant and citizen (Acts 22, 23), very diiferent from 
 those laws of the Northern States which, after according 
 him liberty, refuse him equality. 
 
 Thus, therefore : 1. Immediate emancipation ; 2. Prelim 
 inary indemnity; 3. Surveillance, with compulsory labor ; 
 4. Immigration at the public expense ; 5. Religions and 
 moral education; such are the bases of the law of Au 
 gust 8, 1862. They are very nearly borrowed from the 
 memorable report of 1845, by which the illustrious Duke 
 de Broglie has taught all legislators the peaceful and prac 
 tical method of elevating human beings from dependence to 
 liberty. 
 
 Forty-five thousand men ! Thirty-three million francs ! 
 It is very little, scarcely more than what is wasted and 
 
DUTCH COLONIES. 401 
 
 expended in a single day s strife between the North and the 
 South ! I am persuaded that the king of Holland must 
 have signed with heart-felt joy this unpretending law, 
 which sets so many unhappy beings at liberty, gives to 
 our century a spectacle which it has rarely tasted, that of 
 a progress accomplished without violence, and at length 
 effaces from the name, of Holland a stain which rests now 
 upon the name of but a single Christian nation in Europe, 
 yet the most obstinate, the first and last in the practice 
 of the slave-trade and slavery. This nation is Spain.* 
 
 * Journal des Dcbats, Sept 20, 1862. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
404 
 
 Al I EXDIX. 
 
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FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
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406 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE 
 
 COMPARATIVE 
 
 In actual values, of the Importations and Exportation of the French Colonies 
 French Commerce, published by the Administration of 
 Table No. 3. 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 MARTINICO. 
 
 1848 ! I m P or t a tions of all productions 
 | Exportations of all destinations 
 
 Francs. Francs. 
 12,211,716 I 24806221 
 12,594,505 j 24 . b06 > 221 
 
 1 OAQ ( Importations 
 * y I Exportations .... 
 
 20,281,048 | 35 oQ 2m 
 15,111,725 j 35 > 39 V73 
 
 1850 Imputations . . . 
 { Importations .... 
 
 18,367,676 / on 4 o fi 
 12,787,760 J 31 > 155 43( 
 
 -, n r1 ( Importations 
 01 1 Exportations .... 
 
 SffiJS! .^vro 
 
 -.OCQ ( Importations 
 852 1 Exportations .... 
 
 SSj W4 
 
 Totals for five years, from 1848 to 
 1852 . . 
 
 
 Quinquennial averages 
 
 . 36,676,505 
 
 1 CK o ( Importations 
 5d ! Exportations 
 
 ^sSon 44 ^,739 
 
 1 OK, ( Importations .... 
 04 1 Exportations 
 
 27,737,500) 
 21,188,473 j 48 925 > 9 73 
 
 -,0,-E ( Importations . 
 55 i Exportations . . . 
 
 ^;j )9 42, 2 47 
 
 IQC:R f Importations 
 56 i Exportations . . . 
 
 i!!,^i ^ 
 
 ..OK* ( Importations . 
 57 j Exportations 
 
 27,352,510) . 7 ooi 4nf 
 29,948^896 1 57 301 > 406 
 
 Totals for five years, from 1853 to 
 1857 
 
 257,734,797 
 51,546,959 
 
 Totals for ten years, from 1848 to 
 1857 . . ... 
 
 
 Decennial averages 
 
 44,111.732 
 
FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 c. 
 
 CONDITION, 
 
 luring the Decennial Period 1848-1857, according to the General Tables of 
 Jfetropolitan Customs and the States of Local Customs. 
 
 GUADALOUPE. 
 
 GUIANA. 
 
 BOUBBON 
 
 Francs. Francs. 
 10,415,876 ) 00 Inft0l7 p 
 11,684,400 j ^> luu -7* 
 
 Francs. Francs. 
 1,848,311 ) o Q *c. 71 o 
 2,129,907) ^ y - i; 
 
 Francs. Francs. 
 10,361,094? 23nio ,-, 
 13,349,957 \ 23 11 051 
 
 13,672,339 j 27 61g 16g 
 
 2,929,447 | A i-c -\M 
 1,485,655 ( 4 > 41o > lu ^ 
 
 13,979,612; 80596296 
 16,616,684 ) 
 
 14,292,925 | 4 oqc 474 
 11,005,549 j 24 > 298 > 4 4 
 
 2,561,965 ) 7 
 1,517,328 j 4 9 293 
 
 18,247,354 ; qy 1fiR .. 
 18,920,777 \ ;J7 ) lb 131 
 
 19,168,391 j 32 606 937 
 
 21, "637, 007 / or a onn 
 14,149,383 j do > b8b > yi 
 
 2,834,107 ? , n - 7 ,-< 9 
 1,223,635^ 4 JD/ > 4 - 
 4.276,703 ; , pnr Q . r 
 1,330,242 i 5 606 > 945 
 
 21,079,741 ; qfi ORfi _ 
 15,007,081 5 36 > 086 822 
 "22,278,786 ; ., oei 
 23,702,326 40>yV 14 
 
 . 142,308,243 
 28,461,649 
 
 . 22,137,300 
 
 4,427,460 
 
 . 173,543,412 
 
 34,708,672 
 
 nielli 30 < 317 579 
 
 5,676,152 ; 7 379 _ 
 1,703,173 \ * 
 
 26,046,747; 4qi902 o 
 23,073,481 S 4y 1 - u >^^ 8 
 
 fs; 2 43M 9 8i i 40 705 > 675 
 
 5,979,406 ; 7 410 951 
 
 5,912,360 ; K 1Q79R1 
 1,284,901 ^ > iy >- OJ 
 
 30,615,944; R9 o K A M9 
 31,748,068 5 62 > 364 012 
 
 22,778,433 \ 49 7ftq 97R 
 19,924,845 j 4 V U <V 71 
 
 37,607,507 ; -- 87g , g7 
 34,271,080 ^ i 
 
 23,793,290 ) QQ r R <r <>, R 
 15,774,056 j dy > &b7 > d4t 
 
 "25,400,362 4fi 2 oo 47= 
 20,829,113 ) 46 229 . 475 
 
 6,234,114 ; 
 4i495, 551 $ 10 729 665 
 
 ?;47 8 ?;s9? ( 7 > 52 676 
 
 -iili! 78 676 " 
 
 . 199,523,353 
 . . . 89,904,671 
 
 . 39,771,878 
 7,954,376 
 
 . 361,623,527 
 72,324,705 
 
 . 341,831,596 
 34,183,159 
 
 . 61,909,178 
 6,190,917 
 
 . 535,166,939 
 f 63,516,693 
 
408 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 TABLE D.* 
 
 COLONIAL SUGAR. 
 
 Table No 4. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Average Price per 
 100 kilog. on the 
 Paris Exchange. 
 
 Average 
 Duty 
 affecting 
 the Year, 
 tenths 
 included. 
 
 Remain 
 der. 
 
 To be 
 deducted 
 for Aver 
 age Costs 
 of Trans 
 portation. 
 
 Real 
 
 Net Cost 
 at the 
 Entrepot. 
 
 Quinquennial 
 Average of 
 Net Cost. 
 
 Nominal 
 Price. 
 
 Real 
 Price. 
 
 1819 
 
 156.37 
 
 141.10 
 
 49.50 
 
 91.60 
 
 3.00 
 
 88.60 
 
 88.60 
 
 
 1820 
 
 162.41 
 
 146.58 
 
 49.50 
 
 97.08 
 
 300 
 
 94.08) 
 
 
 
 1821 
 
 151.65 
 
 136.87 
 
 49.50 
 
 87.37 
 
 3.00 
 
 84.37 
 
 
 
 1822 
 
 139.19 
 
 125.61 
 
 49.50 
 
 76.11 
 
 3.00 
 
 73.11 
 
 91.91 
 
 
 1823 
 
 187.15 
 
 168.91 
 
 49.50 
 
 119.41 
 
 3.00 
 
 116.41 
 
 
 
 1824 
 
 159.64 
 
 144.11 
 
 49.50 
 
 9461 
 
 3.00 
 
 91.61 J 
 
 
 
 1825 
 
 181.70 
 
 164.00 
 
 49.50 
 
 114.50 
 
 3.00 
 
 111.50-) 
 
 
 
 1826 
 
 161.32 
 
 145.59 
 
 49.50 
 
 96.09 
 
 3-00 
 
 93.09 
 
 
 
 1827 
 
 172.13 
 
 155.35 
 
 49.50 
 
 105.85 
 
 3.00 
 
 102.85 
 
 99.70 
 
 
 1828 
 
 168.50 
 
 152.07 
 
 49.50 
 
 102.57 
 
 3.00 
 
 99.57 
 
 
 
 1829 
 
 159.54 
 
 14401 
 
 49.50 
 
 94.51 
 
 3.00 
 
 91.51^ 
 
 
 
 1830 
 
 155.03 
 
 139.90 
 
 49.50 
 
 90.40 
 
 3.00 
 
 87.40 
 
 
 
 1831 
 
 142.60 
 
 128.72 
 
 49.50 
 
 79.22 
 
 3.00 
 
 76.22 
 
 
 
 1832 
 
 149.10 
 
 13457 
 
 49.50 
 
 85.07 
 
 3.00 
 
 82 07 
 
 80.49 
 
 
 1833 
 
 144.97 
 
 130.89 
 
 49.50 
 
 81.39 
 
 3.00 
 
 78.39 
 
 
 
 1834 
 
 144-97 
 
 130.89 
 
 49.50 
 
 81.39 
 
 3.00 
 
 78.39 
 
 
 
 1835 
 
 139.01 
 
 125.49 
 
 49.50 
 
 75.99 
 
 3.00 
 
 72.99) 
 
 
 
 1836 
 
 141.70 
 
 129.82 
 
 49.50 
 
 80.32 
 
 3.00 
 
 77.32 | 
 
 
 
 1837 
 
 130.80 
 
 11809 
 
 49.50 
 
 6859 
 
 3.00 
 
 65.59 I. 
 
 67.73 
 
 
 1838 
 
 126.25 
 
 113.97 
 
 49.50 
 
 64.47 
 
 3.00 
 
 6147 
 
 
 
 1839 
 
 119.00 
 
 107.18 
 
 42.90 
 
 64.28 
 
 3.00 
 
 6128J 
 
 
 
 1840 
 
 138.75 
 
 125.27 
 
 42.90 
 
 82.37 
 
 3.00 
 
 79.37 ] 
 
 
 
 1841 
 
 129.75 
 
 117.13 
 
 4950 
 
 67.63 
 
 3.00 
 
 64.63 | 
 
 
 
 
 1842 
 
 124.75 
 
 11263 
 
 49.50 
 
 63.13 
 
 3.00 
 
 60.13 V 
 
 64.25 " 
 
 
 1843 
 
 122.75 
 
 11003 
 
 49.50 
 
 60.53 
 
 3.00 
 
 57.53 
 
 
 
 1844 
 
 124-25 
 
 112.13 
 
 49.50 
 
 62.63 
 
 3.00 
 
 59.63 J 
 
 
 
 1845 
 
 128.50 
 
 115 98 
 
 49.50 
 
 66.48 
 
 3.00 
 
 63.48 } 
 
 
 
 1846 
 
 129.25 
 
 115.68 
 
 49.50 
 
 66.18 
 
 3.00 
 
 63.18 
 
 
 
 1847 
 
 124.80 
 
 11268 
 
 49.50 
 
 63.18 
 
 300 
 
 60.18 J. 
 
 59.73 
 
 68.80 
 
 1848 
 
 116-30 
 
 104.98 
 
 49.50 
 
 55.48 
 
 3.00 
 
 52.48 
 
 
 
 1849 
 
 122.33 
 
 111.86 
 
 4950 
 
 62.36 
 
 3.00 
 
 59.36 j 
 
 
 
 1850 
 
 138.34 
 
 124.86 
 
 49.50 
 
 75.36 
 
 3.00 
 
 72.36 
 
 
 
 1851 
 
 132.58 
 
 119.75 
 
 44.82 
 
 74.93 
 
 3.00 
 
 U.98 
 
 
 
 1852 
 
 125.17 
 
 113.00 
 
 40.97 
 
 72.03 
 
 3.00 
 
 69.03 . 
 
 69.10 J 
 
 1853 
 
 116.93 
 
 105.56 
 
 41.80 
 
 63.76 
 
 300 
 
 60.76 
 
 
 
 1854 
 
 128.74 
 
 116.22 
 
 41.80 
 
 74.42 
 
 3.00 
 
 71.42 
 
 
 
 1855 
 
 130.11 
 
 117.44 
 
 43.70 
 
 73.74 
 
 3.00 
 
 70.74 
 
 
 
 1856 
 
 144.93 
 
 130.85 
 
 45.60 
 
 85.25 
 
 3.00 
 
 82 25 
 
 
 
 1857 
 
 153.27 
 
 13834 
 
 45.60 
 
 92.74 
 
 3.00 
 
 89.74 
 
 77.57 
 
 
 1858 
 
 137.75 
 
 124.37 
 
 46.80 
 
 77.57 
 
 300 
 
 74.57 
 
 
 
 1859 
 
 136.04 
 
 122.76 
 
 4920 
 
 73.56 
 
 3.00 
 
 70.56 
 
 
 
 * I am indebted for these tables to the friendly kindness of one of the first sugar manu 
 facturers of France, the Honorable M. Kolb-Bernard, deputy of Lillw. 
 
FRENCH COLONIES. 
 
 409 
 
 INDIGENOUS SUGAR. 
 
 
 Average Price per 
 
 Average 
 
 
 To be 
 
 Real 
 
 
 Tears. 
 
 100 kilog. on the 
 Paris Exchange. 
 
 Duty 
 affecting 
 the Year, 
 tenths 
 
 Remain 
 der. 
 
 deducted 
 for Aver 
 age Costs 
 of Trans 
 
 Net Cost 
 to the 
 Manufac 
 turer per 
 
 Quinquennial 
 Averages of 
 Net Cost. 
 
 Nominal 
 
 Real 
 
 
 Price. 
 
 Price.* 
 
 included. 
 
 
 portation. 
 
 100 kilog. 
 
 
 1830f 
 
 147.70 
 
 13332 
 
 0.00 
 
 133.32 
 
 3.00 
 
 130.321 
 
 
 1831 
 
 13208 
 
 119.20 
 
 0.00 
 
 119.20 
 
 3.00 
 
 116.20 | 
 
 
 1832 
 
 132.22 
 
 119.35 
 
 0.00 
 
 119.35 
 
 3.00 
 
 116.35 > 
 
 121.96 
 
 1833 
 
 142.00 
 
 128.22 
 
 000 
 
 128.22 
 
 3.00 
 
 125.22 [ 
 
 
 1834 
 
 138.20 
 
 124.72 
 
 0.00 
 
 124.72 
 
 3.00 
 
 121 72 J 
 
 
 1835 
 
 128.20 
 
 115.73 
 
 0.00 
 
 115.73 
 
 3.00 
 
 112.73] 
 
 
 1836 
 
 130.74 
 
 118.01 
 
 0.00 
 
 118.01 
 
 3.00 
 
 115.01 
 
 
 1837 
 
 wanting 
 
 0.00 
 
 0.00 
 
 0.00 
 
 0.00 
 
 0.00 \ 
 
 105.74 
 
 1838 
 
 121.75 
 
 109.93 
 
 5.50 
 
 104.43 
 
 2.50 
 
 101.93 1 
 
 
 1839 
 
 120.25 
 
 109.53 
 
 13.75 
 
 95.78 
 
 2.50 
 
 9328J 
 
 
 1840 
 
 141.25 
 
 127.47 
 
 2200 
 
 105.47 
 
 2.50 
 
 102.97 } 
 
 
 1841 
 
 130.25 
 
 116.48 
 
 27.50 
 
 88.98 
 
 2.50 
 
 86.48 1 
 
 
 1842 
 
 124.25 
 
 112.23 
 
 27.50 
 
 84.53 
 
 2.50 
 
 82.03 
 
 , 
 
 87.59 
 
 1843 
 
 123.00 
 
 111.08 
 
 27.50 
 
 83.58 
 
 2.50 
 
 81.08 
 
 
 
 1844 
 
 130.00 
 
 118.18 
 
 3025 
 
 87.93 
 
 2.50 
 
 85.43 
 
 
 
 1845 
 
 131.75 
 
 118.92 
 
 35.75 
 
 83.17 
 
 2.50 
 
 80.67 
 
 
 
 1846 
 
 130.50 
 
 117.82 
 
 41.25 
 
 76.57 
 
 2.50 
 
 74.07 
 
 
 
 1847 
 
 120.75 
 
 109.03 46.75 
 
 63.28 
 
 2.50 
 
 60.78 
 
 
 64.78 
 
 1S48 
 
 112.25 
 
 10133 
 
 4950 
 
 51.83 
 
 2.50 
 
 49.33 
 
 
 
 1849 
 
 123.00 
 
 11108 
 
 49.50 
 
 61.58 
 
 2.50 
 
 5908, 
 
 
 
 1S50 
 
 132.76 
 
 119.81 
 
 49.50 
 
 70.31 
 
 2.50 
 
 67. sr 
 
 
 
 1851 
 
 127 51 
 
 115.09 
 
 49.50 
 
 6559 
 
 250 
 
 62.09 
 
 
 
 1852 
 
 120.68 
 
 108.92 
 
 49.50 
 
 5942 
 
 2.50 
 
 56.92 
 
 
 61.04 64.62 
 
 1853 
 
 118.67 
 
 107.81 
 
 49.50 
 
 58.31 
 
 2.50 
 
 55.81 
 
 
 
 1854 
 
 129.43 
 
 116.82 
 
 51.75 
 
 65.07 
 
 2.50 
 
 62.57, 
 
 
 
 1855 
 
 130.09 
 
 117.41 
 
 54.00 
 
 63.41 
 
 250 
 
 60.91 ^ 
 
 
 
 1S56 
 
 140.77 
 
 127.05 
 
 54.00 
 
 73.05 
 
 2.50 
 
 70.55 
 
 
 
 1857 
 
 148.53 
 
 134.06 
 
 54.00 
 
 80.06 
 
 2.50 
 
 77.56 
 
 
 68.05 J 
 
 1858 
 
 13421 
 
 121.13 
 
 54.00 
 
 67.13 
 
 250 
 
 64.63 
 
 
 
 1859 
 
 136.38 
 
 123.09 54.00 
 
 69.09 
 
 2.50 
 
 66.59, 
 
 
 
 The average of the first six years, dating from 1830, and amounting to 121 fr. 
 96 c. per 100 kilog., compared with the average of the last fifteen years, dating 
 from 1845 and amounting to 64 fr. 62 c. per 100 kilog., represents the margin of 
 the abatement of price on indigenous sugar in consequence of improvements in 
 the manufacture. 
 
 It is proper to take an average extended over a great number of years, for the 
 second period, in order to compensate for all the commercial accidents and ab 
 normal rises and falls produced in this period by various circumstances. 
 
 The diminution of the net cost has not followed a regular progress in the 
 period from 1845 to 1859, because during the last years all the elements of 
 manufacture increased in price; as labor, the beet-root, carbon, charcoal, bone- 
 black, etc. 
 
 * The real price is deducted from the nominal price after a deduction of 2 per cent for 
 tret, 5 per cent for tare, and 5 per cent for discount. 
 
 t The price of indigenous sugar did not begin to be quoted on Change until 1830. 
 18 
 
410 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES IN 
 AMERICA. 1855. 
 
 Names of the Colonies. 
 
 
 Popula 
 tion. 
 
 Budget. 
 
 No. of 
 Ves 
 sels. 
 
 Amount 
 of Importa 
 tions 
 
 Amount 
 of Expecta 
 tions. 
 
 The Barbadoes 
 
 1605 
 
 100,000 
 
 Francs. 
 1,723,450 
 
 838 
 
 Francs. 
 16,119,600 
 
 Francs. 
 
 19,758,250 
 
 The Bermudas 
 
 1611 
 
 30,000 
 
 408,075 
 
 206 
 
 4,063,900 
 
 1,026,600 
 
 St Christopher 
 
 1623 
 
 23,000 
 
 378,800 
 
 406 
 
 2,402,425 
 
 3,616,050 
 
 Antigua 
 
 1625 
 
 35,000 
 
 679,250 
 
 665 
 
 4,812.625 
 
 7,731,525 
 
 Nevis 
 
 1628 
 
 10,000 
 
 85,275 
 
 237 
 
 493,200 
 
 974,400 
 
 Montserrat 
 
 1632 
 
 7,000 
 
 87,500 
 
 134 
 
 192,600 
 
 499,650 
 
 Virgin Islands 
 
 1648 
 
 8,000 
 
 37,775 
 
 784 
 
 91,525 
 
 204,975 
 
 Jamaica 
 
 1655 
 
 361,400 
 
 7,980,275 
 
 488 
 
 22.487,675 
 
 25,208,025 
 
 Newfoundland 
 
 1663 
 
 75,000 
 
 3,161,225 
 
 1,077 
 
 28,820,000 
 
 28,556,300 
 
 Hudson s Bay and 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Vancouver * 
 
 1668 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Barbadoes * 
 
 1684 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bay of Honduras 
 
 1714 
 
 3,794 
 
 364,625 
 
 116 
 
 6,137,150 
 
 11,564,775 
 
 Nova Scotia* 
 
 1759 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Canada 
 
 1763 
 
 1,015,000 
 
 28,825,000 
 
 2,622 
 
 225,538,150 
 
 176,177,875 
 
 Prince Edward s 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Island 
 
 1763 
 
 71,502 
 
 754,825 
 
 962 
 
 6,712,900 
 
 3,618,300 
 
 Dominica 
 
 1763 
 
 18,660 
 
 194,400 
 
 
 
 
 St. Vincent 
 
 1763 
 
 26,200 
 
 432,800 
 
 320 
 
 2,812,325 
 
 2,547,800 
 
 Grenada 
 
 1763 
 
 21,000 
 
 398,100 
 
 324 
 
 2,144,500 
 
 2,283,600 
 
 The Bahamas 
 
 1783 
 
 27,519 
 
 726,725 
 
 332 
 
 4,818,775 
 
 2,791,750 
 
 New Brunswick 
 
 1784 
 
 193,800 
 
 3,458,825 
 
 3,442 
 
 35,783,250! 20,659,525 
 
 Tobago 
 
 1794 
 
 13,200 
 
 214,525 
 
 76 
 
 934,500 
 
 1,184,675 
 
 Trinidad 
 
 1797 
 
 39,400 
 
 2.016,425 
 
 657 
 
 13,863,350 
 
 9,699,975 
 
 English Guiana 
 
 1803 
 
 99,710 
 
 6,375,200 
 
 693 
 
 22,150,400 
 
 33,296,795 
 
 St. Lucia 
 
 1815 
 
 25,230 
 
 372,100 
 
 157 
 
 1,387,850 
 
 1,374,500 
 
 Falkland Islands 
 
 1833 
 
 420 
 
 161,750 
 
 53 
 
 527,500 
 
 405,000 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 2,205,315 
 
 58,826,925 14,5891402,294,700 352,238,245 
 
 * Not found included in the Statistical Tables. 
 
ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 411 
 
 SUGARS IMPORTED 
 
 FROM ALL SOURCES INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM, SINCE 1851, 
 ACCORDING TO THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Years. 
 
 From 
 foreign 
 Countries. 
 
 GENERAL IMPORTATION IN ENGLISH QUINTALS. 
 
 From 
 foreign 
 Countries 
 and the 
 Colonies. 
 General 
 Total. 
 
 Mauritius. ^ 
 
 Guiana. 
 
 West 
 Indies. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1851 
 
 1852 
 1853 
 1854 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858t 
 
 Francs. 
 2.261,281 
 1,058,961 
 1,942,321 
 3,198,102 
 2,301,275 
 2,069,453 
 3,065,182 
 3,630,915 
 
 Francs. Francs. 
 1,000.269 1,585,430 
 1,122,064 ! 1,303,885 
 1,252,269 1,225,378 
 1,662,190 j 784,966 
 1,363,132 732,055 
 1,647,257 1,226,847 
 1,184,329 1,181,368 
 1,086,501 I 794,309 
 
 Fra 
 
 3,08 
 3,41 
 584,345 
 898,240 
 761,093 
 672,554 
 804,480 
 773,825 
 
 ncs. 
 >,554 
 1,851* 
 2,279,977 
 2.568,866 
 2,166,578 
 2,145,129 
 2,155,337 
 2,725,246 
 
 Francs. 
 5,671,253 
 
 5,837,800 
 5,341,969 
 5,914,262 
 5,022,858 
 5,696,787 
 5,325,514 
 5,379,881 
 
 Francs. . 
 7,932.534 
 6,896^761 
 7,289,290 
 9,112.364 
 7,324,133 
 7,761,240 
 8,390,696 
 9,010,796 
 
 * Since 1852, the official tables of English commerce make no distinction, in the general 
 importation, between the different West India Islands, -which at this time are, Guiana 
 included : 
 
 Demerara ^ 747,640 metrical quintals 
 
 Barbadoes 743,012 
 
 Jamaica 511,259 
 
 Trinidad 483,857 
 
 Antigua 
 
 St. Vincent 17 
 
 Grenada ........ 125,008 
 
 All the other English possessions in the West Indies 438,820 
 
 f In 1859 and 1860 the importation of colonial sugar has greatly increased, while that 
 of foreign sugar has diminished. (Revue coloniale, Jan. and Feb. 1861, p. 100.) 
 
412 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX TO PAGE 306. 
 
 Dicunt quia die quadam, curn advenientibus nuper mercatoribus 
 multa venalia in forum fuissent collata multique ad einendum conflux- 
 issent, et ipsum Gregorium inter alios advenisse ac vidisse inter alios 
 pueros venales positos, candidi corporis ac venusti vultus, capilloruni 
 quoque forma egregia. Quos cum aspiceret interrogavit, ut aiuut, de 
 qua regione vel terra essent adlati. Dictumque est quod de Britannia 
 insula, cujus incolse tales essent aspectus. Rursus interrogavit utrum 
 iidem insularii Christiani, an paganis adhuc erroribus esseut implicati. 
 Dictumque est, quod essent pagani. At. ille intiino ex corde longa 
 trahens suspiria : " Heu, proh dolor ! inquit, quod tarn lucidi vultus 
 homines tenebrarum auctor possidet, totaque gratia frontispicii mentem 
 ab interna gratia vacuam gestat ! " Rursus ergo interrogavit quod 
 esset vocabulum gentis illius. Responsum est quod Angli vocarentur. 
 At ille : " Bene, inquit, nam et angelicam habent faciem, et tales ange- 
 lorum et coelis decet esse cohseredes." " Quod habet nomen ipsa 
 provincia de qua isti sunt adlati." Kesponsum est quod Deiri vocaren 
 tur iidem provinciales. At ille : " Bene, inquit, Deiri, de ira eruti, et 
 ad misericordiam Christi vocati, Rex provincise illius quomodo appel- 
 latur. " Responsum est quod A ella diceretur. At ille, alludens ad 
 nomen, ait : " Alleluia, laudem Dei creatoris illis in partibus oportet 
 cantari." Accidensque Pontificem RomanaB et apostolicaB sedis, non- 
 dum enim erat ipse Pontifex factus, rogavit ut genti Anglorum in Bri- 
 tanniam aliquos verbi ministros, per quos ad Christum converterentur, 
 mitteret? seipsum paratum esse in hoc opus, Domino cooperante, perfi- 
 ciendum, si tamen Apostolico papae hoc ut fieret, placeret. Quod dum 
 perficere non posset, quia etsi Pontifex concedere illi quod petierat 
 voluit, non tamen cives Romani, ut tarn longe ab urbe recederet, 
 potuere permittere ; mox ut ipse pontificatus officio functus est, perfi- 
 cit opus diu desideratum, alios quidem praedicatores mittens, sed ipse 
 praedicationem ut fructificaret suis exhortationibus et precibus adju- 
 vans.* 
 
 * This text from the venerable Bede, Hist. Eccles. Gent. Anglor. Lib. II. c. 1, 
 is cited in the Letters on Domestic Slavery, by Mgr. England, Bishop of 
 Charleston, Letter IX. p. 144, Vol. III. 
 
 Cambridge : Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co. 
 
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