Chapter XI (1)

Agriculture.—Crops in Toussaint’s and Dessalines’ time.—System of Christophe and Petion.—Decline under Boyer.—Crops in his time.—Attempts to revive it.—Coercion resorted to.—Code Rural.—doubts on enforcing its clauses.—Disposal of lands.—Consequences from it.—Incompetency of planters.—State of cultivation of sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, indigo.—Free labour.—Consequences arising from it.—its inefficacy, etc.

I SHALL now endeavour to detail the decline of agriculture in Hayti, and to offer a few remarks upon its present state; as well as to shew that under the present inefficient government, very faint hopes only can be held out of any revival, or that the republic of Hayti can ever reach that eminence and repute which once belonged to Saint Domingo as a French colony.

In various parts of this work I have observed that the decline of agriculture commenced immediately after the improvident and impolitic measures pursued by the national assembly of France, and after the first partial revolt of the slave population: and that all the energy of the successive chiefs who have subsequently governed the country, and who have promulgated several edicts to enforce or encourage cultivation, has not been sufficiently powerful to keep up that regular system of tillage from which, in her former state, she derived such advantages. True it is, that great efforts were made by Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe, to infuse into the people a taste for husbandry, and to impress on them that the surest way to arrive at affluence is by an undeviating perseverance in the cultivation of those lands which had fallen into their possession; that the only true riches of a country are to be derived from the soil; and that commerce, although a very powerful auxiliary, is only a secondary means by which a nation can arrive at opulence, or its people attain to any advancement in wealth. But their efforts were unavailing in part, though they certainly did more to keep up cultivation than has been attempted since their days. The proclamation of Toussaint in the year 1800 was a powerful document, and had a great effect as an incitement to labour; and his solicitude respecting an intercourse with Europe and the United States shewed that he wished to adopt every expedient by which encouragement could be given to the cultivator; to find a vent for their productions, in order to enhance their value, and thus stimulate the occupiers of the soil to further exertions. He was extremely solicitous to introduce an organized system of cultivation which would eventually aggrandize his country. Coercion he knew to be absolutely necessary. He was well aware that without this nothing could be accomplished. But the state of popular feeling rendered the rigid exaction of duty in agricultural labour a dangerous experiment; he therefore decided on adopting a mean between two extremes which, while it excited no dissatisfaction among the people, would provide for the exigences of his government.

Toussaint unquestionably pursued a plan which, had he not been seized by the French general, and in defiance of the laws of honour and nations so inhumanly transported to France, would in time have so far restored agriculture, and placed his country in so flourishing a condition, that in a few years it would have rivalled even the most happy period of its agricultural and commercial greatness. His object was clearly to advance by degrees, and to stimulate his people to the culture of the soil, by holding it up as the most noble pursuit of which they could possibly make choice; to infuse into them a taste for industry; and to give them a relish for those rural occupations which cultivation required, and for which, the extremely rich and fertile soil of the country would so amply and so quickly reward them. He had also made great strides towards impressing them with an idea that they had many wants, which, although artificial, yet were necessary towards advancing them in the opinion of the world. To teach them this effectually, and to impress it seriously, would have been a work of time, but he made great efforts, and he began to perceive that they had not been unavailing. But wherever he discovered an invincible indisposition to receive these salutary lessons and a total disregard of his admonitions and persuasions, he tried what force would accomplish; and consequently the law for enforcing agriculture was enacted, and all people were directed to make choice of the plantations on which they were disposed to labour, prohibiting all persons from living in idleness and sloth. The estate and the employer being thus once selected, the labourer was not permitted to recall his choice, unless permission to do this were granted him by the officer commanding the district or one of the municipal authorities. Hence the labourers became once more slaves in fact, although not so in name.

When this law was promulgated, Toussaint began to exert the power which he possessed to enforce it, and cultivation began to raise its head in a most eminent degree. The sugar estates exhibited labour going on with the same spirit and success as in former times; the coffee settlements displayed a busy scene in every direction throughout the colony; and the cotton and cocoa plantations shewed that they were not to be neglected in the midst of this animated and interesting struggle for the revival of a country’s greatness and a nation’s wealth. But here coercion did the work, here was compulsory labour resorted to, because it was sanctioned by the law, and those who held the power were more than equal to those who felt a disposition to resist it. The whip, that symbol of office of the principal negro, was dispensed with, it is true, but the cultivators were placed under the apprehension of a more effective weapon, for they were attended through the day by a military guard, and the bayonet and the sabre superseded the cat and the lash. To the astonishment of the leading people in the country, the cultivators submitted to this coercion without a murmur; and it was not until French intrigue was industriously set to work to instil into their minds that their condition was worse than when they were slaves, that any disposition was shewn to oppose the principle of compulsory labour; and even this opposition was far from being general. When we take into consideration that the population under Toussaint had greatly diminished, and that the cultivators in his time exceeded very little more than half of the slaves that were employed in agriculture in the time of the French, and compare the returns of produce at the respective periods, it must be evident that the system of coercion resorted to by Toussaint, must have been to the full as rigid as that which existed at any former period, or it would have been impossible for him to have carried on cultivation to so great an extent.

In the early part of this work I have stated the quantity of produce exported in the year 1791, which was the most flourishing period of the French, and the number of slaves that were employed in the colony. That the reader may more clearly see the difference at the two periods, I shall enumerate the principal articles again. It appears by various authorities that the exports were as follow: in 1791—

Sugar 163,405,220 pounds.
Coffee 68,151,180 ditto.
Cotton 6,286,126 ditto.
Indigo 930,016 ditto.
Molasses 29,502 hogsheads.
Rum 303 puncheons.

And that there were employed for all the purposes of cultivation, four hundred and fifty-five thousand slaves. The most productive year under his sway, will be found to exhibit the following returns of exports:—

Sugar 53,400,000 pounds.
Coffee 34,370,000 ditto.
Cotton 4,050,000 ditto.
Cocoa 234,600 ditto.
Indigo 37,600 ditto.
Molasses 9,128 hogsheads.

According to Mr. Humboldt, the cultivators employed to carry on the whole of the works of agriculture, and to produce the above exports, did not exceed two hundred and ninety thousand. In addition to the foregoing returns should be taken into consideration the condition into which the soil had been brought by the exertions and the judicious measures pursued by this chief from the year 1798, when he became the leader of the people, to the time of his seizure. All those estates on which culture had so successfully recommenced, were so much improved by his system, that the greatest expectations were entertained respecting the produce of future exertions; but the fall of this chief, and the renewal of the contest between the people and the French, threw every thing again into confusion, and the work of cultivation for a time ceased, with the exception of the exertions made by the women, who applied themselves to labour, and their efforts were not altogether unavailing, for they proceeded with the lighter labour of the plantations, which was exceedingly beneficial.

When Dessalines assumed the command, the country was in a state of great irritability, and he could not therefore devote that attention to agriculture which his predecessor had done. But when he had succeeded in expelling the French from the island, and had restored some degree of tranquillity, and the people became somewhat free from apprehension of future broils, he began to devise means for reviving cultivation; but he wanted the discretion and the temper, as well as that knowledge of the people which Toussaint possessed. The latter pursued a system of culture, that in the first instance was easy and acceptable to them, and when he saw that they began to relax in their duty, he began to enforce it more rigidly, and under the sanction of the law inflicted punishment with no light hand, in cases of disobedience and refractory conduct. But Dessalines acted differently and most injudiciously, for he rushed upon the cultivators so suddenly, and with so tyrannical a hand, that disobedience began to be general; and those people who had in his predecessor’s time been the most industrious and most forward in setting an example to their fellow-labourers became supine and inactive through his oppressive proceedings. Dessalines knew well that force alone could compel his countrymen to work, and that nothing could be obtained from them if they were left to their own will; but he was too precipitate and hasty in introducing his measures of coercion. He even compelled his soldiers to labour in the field in parties, on such of the government estates as had not been farmed out, and for which they received a trifling addition to their regular military pay. But all his exertions were ineffectual in producing such returns as those which followed the efforts of Toussaint. Both knew that coercion was the only way by which cultivation could be carried on, and they both resorted to it. With one it succeeded in a degree which equalled his most sanguine expectations, because he advanced progressively, and the people did not feel it so severely; whilst the other burst upon the cultivators with an unmerciful hand and inflicted such punishments for disobedience as made them determine on resistance, and the consequence was, that a revolt followed, and Dessalines fell. By a document given me by an individual now living in Hayti, and who was attached to the suite of the tyrant, it appears that with all his power and exertions, his returns from the soil fell much below those of his predecessor. In 1804, which seems to have yielded about the largest return of his three years, the exports were the following:—

Sugar 47,600,000 pounds.
Coffee 31,000,000 ditto.
Cotton 3,000,000 ditto.
Cocoa 201,800 ditto.
Indigo 35,400 ditto.
Molasses 10,655 hogsheads.

The number of the cultivators at this period has not been stated, though I have been informed by respectable individuals that they were as numerous as in the time of Toussaint, but that from the very harsh proceedings of Dessalines a great number left their homes and fled to the eastern part of the island, and there lived in the woods and recesses of the mountains until they heard of his death.

In the time of Christophe and Petion the culture of the soil was carried on by the former with some spirit, whilst the latter allowed it to relax in a most extraordinary degree. Christophe pursued it with strong compulsory measures, as may be seen by his adoption of the code of Toussaint, but Petion left every thing to the will and inclination of his people. The government of the north, by means of its agricultural pre-eminence, had a flowing treasury, and its people advanced in affluence from the effects of industry; but the government of the south, from supineness and from a disregard of cultivation, was reduced to the lowest state of poverty, and was driven to expedients exceedingly ruinous in their consequences. By Christophe the people were taught to love agricultural pursuits, as conducive to their happiness and comforts; and were made to understand that cultivation would be enforced, and that the disobedient and the indolent would be visited with the full penalty of the law. By Petion every class of persons were permitted to pursue those courses to which their tastes and their will led them. Uncontrolled by any regulations of the state, they never pursued cultivation beyond their own immediate wants; and beyond the supply of those wants, which were inconsiderable, no surplus was left for the use of government or for the purposes of commerce. Whilst the north excited some degree of interest in the mind of the traveller as he pursued his journey through its several districts, by an appearance of industry and cultivation, the south displayed little more than occasional spots of vegetation, and the eye wandered over an expanse of country in a state of waste and neglect. The mistaken policy of Petion ruined the progress of agriculture in his part, and all his after efforts to restore its wonted vigour were ineffectual and unavailing. Fondly confiding that his people would without compulsion devote the whole of their time to the pursuits of industry, he permitted them to indulge in those propensities to which they were naturally prone. But instead of keeping pace with their northern neighbours in the progress of agricultural industry, they evidently receded beyond the possibility of recovery, and not a chance was left that agriculture would revive under the weak and ineffectual measures of Petion’s government.

Christophe most advantageously farmed out the government estates, and at the same time he gave to the farmers of them every possible support; but he most strictly bound them to push the culture of their lands as far as it was practicable from the paucity of labourers; and he also ordained the portion of labour which might be exacted from each of them. Every individual in the least acquainted with the portion of labour allotted for the slave in the British colonies will readily admit, that the labour performed by them, far from being excessive, does not exceed the ordinary labour of man in general throughout the agricultural countries in Europe or the United States of America. From every account which I have been able to collect, and from the testimony of living persons, Christophe exacted from every labourer the full performance of a day’s labour as provided for by the twenty-second article of the law for regulating the culture of soil, and which forms a part of the Code Henry, and every proprietor who did not enforce it incurred his severest censure. The only thing which impeded the great advancement of cultivation in his dominions was his contest with Petion, and the necessity which that occasioned for his keeping up a powerful military establishment, which took away the most able of the cultivators for the army.

After the union of the three divisions of the island under the republic, some hopes were entertained that Boyer would concert measures for reviving agriculture, although from his election to the presidential chair after the death of Petion, he had given no proofs, nor evinced the least desire to disturb the cultivators, but allowed them to follow such courses as seemed most congenial to their habits, and consequently, instead of any improvement in the condition of the country, there was evidently a greater decline; and as the population had been greatly increased, the whole country tranquil, and without the appearance of any interruption being given to it, a period more favourable could not have arrived for effecting a change of a system, which he must have seen was attended with the most baneful consequences.

I shall now advert to the quantity of produce obtained from the soil after the union, and it seems, from the returns which were laid before the public in 1823, and subsequently from a note which I had presented to me in Hayti, that the year 1822, the first year after the union, was the most productive, and that since that period there has been an evident decline. In 1822, the exports stood thus:—

Coffee 35,117,834 pounds.
Sugar 652,541 ditto.
Cotton 891,950 ditto.
Cocoa 322,145 ditto.
Logwood 3,816,583 ditto.
Mahogany 20,100 feet.

The whole value of which, in Hayti, seems to have been estimated at about nine millions, thirty thousand, three hundred and ninety-seven dollars, and the export duties one million, three hundred and sixty-five thousand, four hundred and two dollars; together, ten millions, three hundred and ninety-five thousand, seven hundred and ninety-nine dollars, or about two millions, seventy-nine thousand, one hundred and fifty-nine pounds sterling, taking the value of the dollar as in Hayti at four shillings sterling. No subsequent year has been equal in produce to 1822, and in 1825 the returns are infinitely less, for the quantity of coffee does not exceed thirty million pounds, sugar seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and the other articles somewhat less in proportion. The valuation of the whole in 1825 is stated at eight millions of dollars, or thereabouts. Such is the wretched state to which the improvident measures of Boyer has brought agriculture in Hayti, and in this condition would the republic have remained, had he not attended to the suggestions of men wiser than himself, who have some knowledge of governing, and who are not such bigots as to be led by a mistaken philanthropy, when they perceive their country sinking under its injurious effects.

An individual now high in the councils of Boyer made the strongest remonstrances against the unwise policy which he followed; and the late Baron Dupuy, a man who knew how the best interests of his country might be upheld, declared to him that by pursuing such a line in future he would bring the republic to the brink of ruin. That it was folly to think of any expedients for raising their national wealth and consequence, except by encouraging and enforcing the cultivation of the soil, and extending their commercial intercourse by every possible means, for that agriculture and commerce were the only sources of national wealth.

When we look into the state of the products in the time of Toussaint, and compare them with those of Boyer, it is a just conclusion to draw, that the one knew his people, and the other feared them; that the former by compulsory means enriched his country, and kept the people quiet, whilst the latter, by giving unlimited latitude to indolence, has impoverished and ruined them. This is the more extraordinary, also, when we look at the means of each chief for cultivating the soil, and the strength of the population at the respective periods. Toussaint’s population, according to Humboldt, only amounted to three hundred and seventy-five thousand, and by the census taken in 1824, when the island was incorporated under Boyer’s government, it amounted to nine hundred and thirty-five thousand, three hundred and thirty-five, so that in 1822 it could not have been many short of that number. And supposing therefore the census of Boyer to be correct, was such an astonishing decrease ever known in the means of any country in the world, and arising too from the incapacity of its ruler and the weakness of its government?

When poverty began to be felt, and the exigences of the state became alarmingly pressing, Boyer became convinced that his policy had been defective and ruinous, and that it was time to concert plans for rousing himself from the lethargy into which he had fallen. He was forced to seek advice from the very people whose counsels he had before rejected with disdain. He courted them, and even begged, that they would suggest the most beneficial plans for relieving the country from that dilemma into which his precipitancy and obstinacy had thrown it. They again stepped forward, and their first suggestion was a _rigid system of agriculture_, the revival of Toussaint’s principle of culture, and the strict enforcement of it without any evasion or escape. It was by coercion that Toussaint, Dessalines, and even Christophe, raised their country, and by coercion only could Hayti recover its pristine condition. Her prosperity had received a stab, and it required skill and experience to restore her wonted vigour.

It is evident that the sugar plantations were nearly all thrown up, as the country scarcely produced more than was necessary for its own consumption. There were a few only that had the appearance of being cultivated, and those were in the possession of individuals connected with the government either in a civil or military capacity. On these plantations the work was generally performed by labouring parties from the military stations in their vicinity; and if labourers from the general class of cultivators were engaged, they never omitted to exact from them a due proportion of work, and they were always superintended by the gens d’armes, or country police, armed for the sole purpose of compelling them to the performance of their duty.

A variety of expedients were tried, it is true, by the leading proprietors in the country, but more particularly by the military ones, for the purpose of advancing cultivation by the most effectual means. The cane, requiring a greater proportion of labour than any other of the staple articles of growth, was little attended to; it seemed therefore adviseable to hold out inducements to prevail upon the people to undertake its culture. In many instances, I have been informed, the proprietors have not only offered them a fourth of the produce, but they have actually promised a pecuniary remuneration in addition to it. Even this would not induce them to work, and nothing therefore remained but to adopt a system of compulsory labour. That compulsion was resorted to, is a fact; but the law was not sufficiently strong to punish offenders in the case of disobedience, and many delinquents, many of the refractory labourers, who had engaged to perform a certain portion of duty on a plantation, but neglected to do so, escaped that punishment which they deserved.

The law for the better observance of the culture of the soil, until the Code Rural, of which I shall speak hereafter, made its appearance, was extremely deficient, and merely compelled all cultivators to remain on their respective settlements, and to attend to the duties required on them, except on Saturday and Sunday, and such holidays as were particularly enumerated; but there was no penalty for disobedience sufficient to deter a man from being guilty of it. As far however as the proprietors dared to go in enforcing labour, many of them certainly proceeded, and in several instances I have seen the labourers working under the terror of the bayonet and sabre, and this too on the plantations of Boyer himself. I have seen it also on those of Secretary-General Inginac, Colonel Lerebour, General Jeddion, and General Mazuy, and several others.

It was evident to every man in Hayti, at all conversant with the negro character, that an attempt to keep up cultivation without force was impossible, and many of the proprietors, themselves negroes, knew that by force only could they obtain labourers amongst their people. They knew that indolence in the negro was innate, and that it was absolutely impracticable to carry on the work in the soil unless rigid laws were enacted to enforce it. The laws which had been passed by Toussaint and Dessalines had become so mutilated by relaxation and modification, that they were little more than a dead letter; and the government, recovering from its apathy, and feeling the consequences of its loss of energy and want of decision, very wisely remonstrated with the president, and condemned further submission to the will of a people desirous to go on unrestrained in their indolent propensities. This remonstrance was effectual, and Boyer acquiesced in the necessity of establishing a system of extensive cultivation, and of enacting a law to provide for its due observance throughout his dominions. He saw the good effects which had arisen from the application of force on his own plantation at Tor, on which the cultivators worked under the surveillance of a military guard; and he therefore became now as willing an advocate for a law to sanction coercive labour, as he had been negligent in not providing for the culture of the soil from the beginning of his power.

The Code Rural, the existence of which has been the subject of much doubt, was passed by the Chamber of Communes on the 21st of April, 1826, admitted by the senate on the 1st of May, and received the president’s fiat on the 6th of the same month. All this took place during my residence in Port au Prince. This law is the work of Secretary-General Inginac, aided by one or two of the members from the chamber and the senate. During the discussion of this law in the Chamber of Communes, it was remarked by one of the most intelligent of its members, “that it was a measure of expediency, for that the citizen cultivators had become so indolent that agriculture had in some districts been almost forgotten, and that cultivation was completely suspended.” This declaration was echoed through the chamber, and every member concurred in the observation, and gave it his unqualified assent.

On the 1st of May, the day appointed for the celebration of the Fête Agriculture, and when the cultivators were assembled in the public square bearing specimens of their several productions of the soil, the president, together with a member from the chamber and another from the senate, addressed them, and said that the legislature would provide for a more general cultivation, and that all persons not engaged, or usually occupied as labourers, would be peremptorily called upon for a more strict attention to their duty, as the government contemplated a revival of agriculture, which had fallen into so much neglect from the indolent habits of the people. These addresses _were not_ received with acclamation, and many a cultivator heard them with a degree of dissatisfaction which seemed to forebode resistance.

The Chamber of Communes, in its farewell address, tells the people that laws “just and severe” were imperative for the revival of agriculture, and that by the law which they had passed to enforce cultivation they thought that they had materially served their country, and in such an opinion I most readily concur. They rendered to their country an important service by passing the Code Rural; for it will tend towards obstructing the course of immorality pursued by the people in their idleness, and will eventually reestablish upon a sound basis the shattered finances of the state. The passage in that address is so very forcible, and so extremely just, that I shall call the attention of my readers to it, as it has been given by a gentleman to whom I am under many obligations for his assistance upon various rious subjects connected with this work. It says, “What is due to the conservative principle would not have been provided, if the revival of our agriculture had not been stimulated (provoqué) by laws at once just and severe; your representatives in passing the Code Rural, have believed that a benefit was conferred upon the people.” This was conclusive of the opinion of the country that severity was imperative for enforcing a general cultivation, and that, without laws “just and severe”, force cannot be resorted to with any chance of a favourable result.

It may not be unimportant to give a few of the articles of the Code Rural. This Code has now found its way to Europe, and the public, on reading its enactments, will be enabled to judge of the feelings of the leading persons in Hayti with regard to the state of cultivation, when such laws are said to be required to force the people to labour.

“Art. 173. The purposes of Rural Police are,

“First. The repressing idleness.

“Second. Enforcing order and assiduity in agricultural labour.

“Third. The discipline of the labourers collectively or in gangs.

“Fourth. The making and keeping in repair of the roads, both public and private.

“Art. 174. All persons who are not proprietors or renters of the land on which they are residing, or who shall not have made a contract to work with some proprietor or renter, shall be reputed vagabonds, and shall be arrested by the rural police of the section in which they may be found, and carried before the justice of the peace of the commune.

“Art. 175. The justice of the peace, after interrogating and hearing the person brought before him, shall make known to him the articles of the law which oblige him to employ himself in agricultural labour; and after that communication he shall remand him to prison, until he shall have bound himself by a contract according to the provisions of the law.

“Art. 176. The justice of the peace will allow the person arrested to make his own choice of the individual with whom he is to contract to labour.

“Art. 177. If, after eight days of detention, the prisoner shall not have agreed to go to field work, he shall be sent to the public works for cleaning the town or district where he may be arrested, and there he shall be employed until he shall consent to go to field labour. The person who removes any labourer from the public works to employ him in private work shall be subject to a fine of fifty dollars, of which a moiety is to be paid to the person complaining.

“Art. 178. If the prisoner be a child under age, the justice of the peace shall inquire out his parents, and send him to them to follow their condition of life.

“Art. 179. After the expiration of three months from the publication of this Code, rigorous measures shall be enforced against delinquents.

“Art. 180. Every person attached to the country as a cultivator, who shall on a working day, and during the hours of labour, be found unemployed, or lounging on the public roads, shall be considered idle, and be arrested and taken before the justice of the peace, who shall commit him to prison for twenty-four hours for the first offence, and shall send him to labour on the public works upon a repetition of the offence.

“Art. 181. To provide against vagabondage, under the pretence of being a soldier.

“Art. 182. Officers commanding the rural police shall take care that in their respective sections no person shall live in idleness. For this purpose they have authority to oblige such persons as are not actually employed in labour, to give an account of their occupations; and such persons as cannot prove that they cultivate the soil, or are keepers of cattle-pens, shall be considered as without visible means of procuring their livelihood, and shall be arrested as vagabonds.

“Art. 183. Field labour shall commence on Monday morning, and shall never cease until Friday evening (legal holidays excepted); and in extraordinary cases, when the interest of the cultivator as well as of the proprietor appears to require it, work shall be continued until Saturday evening.

“Art. 184. On working days, the ordinary field labour shall commence at day-dawn, to continue until mid-day, with the interval of half an hour for breakfast, which shall be taken on the spot where the work is carrying on. After mid-day the field labour shall commence at two o’clock, and continue until sun-set.

“Art. 185. Pregnant females shall be employed on light work only, and after the fourth month of pregnancy they shall not be obliged to do any work in the field.

“Art. 186. Four months after delivery they shall be obliged to resume the labour in the field; but they shall not turn out to work until one hour after sun-rise; they shall continue to work until eleven o’clock, and from two o’clock until one hour before sun-set.

“Art. 187. No labourer attached to an estate in the country shall absent himself from the labour assigned him, without the permission of the overseer, in the absence of the proprietor or farmer; and no one shall give that permission unless the case be urgent.

“Art. 188. Gangs of labourers upon estates shall be obedient to their drivers, jobbers, sub-farmers, farmers, proprietors and managers, or overseers, whenever they are called upon to execute the labour they have bound themselves to perform.

“Art. 189. Every act of disobedience or insult on the part of a workman commanded to do any work, to which he is subjected, shall be punished by imprisonment, according to the exigency of the case, in the discretion of the justice of the peace of the commune.

“Art. 190. Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays being at the entire disposal of the labourers, they shall not be permitted on working days to leave their work, to indulge in dancing or feasting, neither by night nor by day. Delinquents shall be subject to imprisonment for three days for the first offence, for six days for the repetition of the offence.”

The remaining articles of the code relate to the making of roads and keeping them in repair.

“These clauses are given as more particularly exhibiting the effect of the code on the field labourer. To exhibit the whole system by which the driver is made answerable for the labourer, the overseer for his drivers and labourers, and the police, in its various grades, for the whole, it would be necessary to translate the entire code. During imprisonment, the labourer being absent from field work forfeits his wages; the pregnant women also appear to receive no wages during their exemption.”[9]

It is impossible for any one who is at all conversant with the negro character not to say, that the Code Rural is just such a law as the exigences of Hayti particularly require: and that it is absolutely and imperatively called for in order to extend cultivation, and to bring the people to some sense of duty towards their country and themselves. Left any longer to pursue their uncontrolled and unlimited propensity for indolence, they must recede into barbarism and uncivilization, and the country fall a sacrifice to the mistaken policy of its chief and the leaders of his government, and to those false ideas of philanthropy with which they are so often assailed by persons who are incompetent to advise, because they are without any knowledge of the country or its people.

The Code Rural, therefore, now enforces labour with a rigid hand,—nothing more excessive can be demanded of the slave in the British colonies; and I aver, that if the whole of the clauses of this code be complied with, it will exceed the labour performed by persons in actual slavery. I have my doubts, however, respecting the feasibility of carrying its clauses into successful operation, and whether the temper of the people at the present moment will be submissive enough to adhere to it in all its parts, I am inclined to think that they have been too long indulged in those vices which seem inherent in the negro, to be brought to obedience; and that too rigid an enforcement will bring on discontent, and finally a general resistance. I think it therefore exceedingly probable that Boyer with all his vaunting, with all his proclamations, and aided by his military force, will never proceed to those extremities to promote agriculture, to which he can now go under the sanction of laws made expressly for that purpose. The Code Rural must unquestionably astonish those advocates for free labour who have held up Hayti as an example of what can be accomplished by it; and I think they cannot now have the temerity to say that cultivation in the tropics can be effectually carried on without coercion, when even the Haytian government is constrained to have recourse to it. For my part, I have seen nothing in Hayti to induce me to alter the opinion which I have always entertained of the negro, nor for a moment to expect that cultivation can be carried on with any probability of success without coercion. But I declare it to be my firm conviction, that unless coercion be resorted to, the negro will not labour. The impulse for indulging in sloth and in indolence is too irresistible, and it will not be in the power of the government to make any progress in agricultural labour, except it be done by actual force.

The system pursued by the Haytian government respecting the disposal of its lands seems to be erroneous. Allotting it out in small grants of ten to fifteen acres, is an injudicious measure: it only tends towards extending and perpetuating the evil and pernicious habits of the people. When a negro obtains a grant of a small tract of land, he cares little about the cultivation of it beyond the production of enough for his own immediate wants, and those wants are trifling. Two or three hours’ labour in each week will suffice to answer all the purposes of the culture required to produce food enough for himself; the rest of his time is then allowed to dwindle away in the most puerile pleasures and inconsistencies. No object which moderate industry could procure would balance the insatiable desire for reposing under the shade of the guava, and for ablutions in the neighbouring stream; with these and a little food all his wants are supplied. Such being the case, and known to be so by the government, it is enough to surprise one that they should parcel out their lands in this way, because, even under the Code Rural, the person holding it is no longer a labourer, but a proprietor, and is not therefore amenable to it. Had the government proceeded differently, and let the estates to farm as they were originally laid out, so many petty proprietors would not have existed, but would have remained amenable to the law for enforcing cultivation. From this unwise system, labourers are scarce in Hayti, and the few that are to be obtained are of the worst characters, negroes so abandoned as not to have been considered worthy of inheriting a patch of land. Hayti abounds with these small proprietors; their patches of land, with their huts upon them, are generally situate in the mountains, in the recesses, or on the most elevated parts, on spots, as the poet has described, “the most inaccessible by shepherds trod.” They are therefore lost for the purposes of agriculture: their cultivation does not extend beyond vegetables for the markets in their vicinity, added to which they furnish an occasional supply of pork, poultry, and wild pigeons.

Another important question arises on this subject, and that is the quantum of labour which a negro is capable of performing within the day. In the British colonies an experienced planter can at once discern how much labour a slave is capable of performing. He can also discriminate between slaves who are willing and industrious, and those who are careless and indolent; and apportions their labour according to their respective deserts and capacities. The Haytian proprietor is deficient in these requisites; he is not a planter practically, and he is ignorant of its theory. There is nothing regular in his system; it is an anomaly, a strange, incongruous method of proceeding, having no tendency either to improve the soil or benefit himself. The sugar planter in the first place is so ignorant that he knows not the virtue which his soil possesses, nor what it is capable of producing. He considers not whether one field is better adapted for the production of canes than another, but plants indiscriminately in bad or good soil, in heavy or light; in fact he knows not whether it ought to be planted with canes or cotton, or if it would be wise to allow it to become common pastures. He is contented, and seems to be quite satisfied, if he can but obtain vegetation in any way; careless about the manner in which it is accomplished. To ascertain whether it can be improved by art or industry, is a matter about which he is unconcerned.

But the cane is not often planted. Most of the cane pieces on plantations are old, probably they were planted by the French, or subsequently in the time of Toussaint. They exhibit an appearance of age, for their circumference is small, and their joints are not more than three inches apart, nor do they ever exceed four feet in length. These are very seldom manured or trashed, nor do they receive any attention from the time of cutting until they are again ready for the mill the following year. There is no such thing as stirring the soil between the rows at particular times, nor do the cultivators ever trouble themselves about divesting the cane of its superfluous and decaying leaves, so as to open a free course for the air through the whole. Nothing of this is done in Hayti. The fertility of the soil, the congeniality of climate, and the regularity of seasons, suffice for manure, and the rest is left to nature. Art and the industry of man contribute little or nothing to the growth of the cane. The hoe and other implements of tillage are rendered useless by indolence, the planter’s unconquerable love of ease having brought them into disrepute; and I shall be somewhat astonished if the Code Rural will have power enough to revive their use.

The same irregularity attends the operations at the mill, the boiling-house, the distillery, and the other departments of the plantation. I have been through them often, and have been surprised at the want of order which every where prevails. There is nothing systematically arranged,—every thing seems in confusion; the works are detached, and resemble more a heap of ruins than conveniences for manufacturing and distilling. The interior of the boiling-house would astonish a Jamaica planter: the several boilers are not ranged in succession from the receiver to the teacher, as they are in the British colonies. They are placed without rule, and in their manner of conveying the liquor from one copper to another the waste is considerable; and this is observable too in all their operations. There is nothing like cleanliness in their works; filth and every species of dirtiness are to be seen in them; and this is prevalent, although they must be sensible that it is injurious, and often destructive to the quality of the sugar. The distillery department is also very injudiciously constructed. They take no pains to keep the heat at the proper degree requisite for fermentation: every thing has the appearance of negligence, and conveys to the observer a very bad specimen of Haytian skill in the art of manufacturing sugar or of distilling spirits. They do not often make rum: I only know of one or two plantations on which rum is distilled, and these are conducted by Englishmen; one in particular at Aux Cayes, a Mr. Towning, who has an extensive distillery. He produces rum, which, in point of flavour, strength, and every other quality, I do not think inferior to that of Jamaica. To all persons who visit Aux Cayes this gentleman is well known for the hearty and hospitable reception he always gives to a stranger. He is the only person in Hayti who devotes his attention to the distillation of rum. The Haytians cannot distill it; they are ignorant of its principle, and consequently confine themselves to the distillation of what is known in the British colonies under the denomination of low wines. The flavour of this spirit is most unpleasant; which arises, I conjecture, from the ingredients thrown into the fermenting vessels, and from which it is distilled: these, consisting of the molasses from the boiling-house, with all the sweepings of the works, with a proportion of water from any pool however stagnant, if pure water be not near, I apprehend give to the spirit a very acrid quality, as well as a fetid smell. It is however held in great estimation by the people, who drink it freely, and they can obtain it cheap. Upon the whole there can be no difficulty in declaring that the Haytians are ignorant both of the cultivation of the cane, and of the process of manufacturing sugar.

It is evident that sugar is not much cultivated, as in every district throughout the republic there are only a few plantations to be seen in the plains of Cul de Sac and vicinity of Port au Prince where sugar is produced. There were in the time of the French about one hundred and forty sugar estates, very few, if any, with less than one thousand acres of land, one-fourth of which would be in canes, and the remainder in pastures and other crops. Now in the same space there are not more than twenty estates, and in each of them there cannot be found more than from forty to fifty acres of canes, the remainder of the land being in a neglected state, overrun with different weeds. President Boyer has an estate within a small distance of Port au Prince, called Tor, the favourite residence of the late Petion. This plantation has upwards of two thousand acres of land attached to it, and, from the great strength of the soil, it is impossible to select a spot more eligible for the production of sugar. But there are not more than forty acres of the land in canes. This, however, is not singular; it is general throughout the island. When the sugar cane in Hayti was cultivated properly, and received the requisite care and attention in the several stages of its growth, it produced very abundantly. Bryan Edwards gives an average of two thousand seven hundred and twelve pounds of sugar per acre through the island; and at this period I have been informed, and in fact I have seen it calculated myself, that in the plains of Cul de Sac and Leogane the average does not exceed one thousand pounds of sugar per acre; and an experienced planter on looking at the canes when they are ripe for cutting, would conclude that they would not produce so much. Formerly a pound of sugar was obtained from a gallon of juice in some districts, in others sixteen pounds from twenty gallons, and in some sixteen pounds from twenty-four gallons: but now it requires nearly treble the quantity of juice to produce the same quantity of sugar: and this must remain so, until a new system of cultivation be tried, and the management of the plantations be entrusted to men of experience, men who have been practical planters, and who are conversant with the whole of its duties; men, I say, who have a perfect knowledge of the soil, its capabilities and its wants for the work of tillage, and who will devote their time and attention to all the minutiæ of plantation labour. If such a system should ever be pursued in Hayti, and there be labourers to cultivate, and capital can be invested securely, then sugar planting may be carried on with some chance of a successful issue: until this take place, I have great doubts whether the culture of the cane will prove profitable to the occupier of the soil.

The labour required for the cultivation of coffee is exceedingly light: I was therefore much surprised to see the very little progress the people had made in this branch of agriculture. When an individual, who has been accustomed to plantations in the British, French, and Spanish islands, visits the coffee plantations in Hayti, and observes the whole conducted without judgment or care, it impresses him with a most unfavourable idea of the people; and when he sees the easiest branch of agriculture so much neglected, it convinces him that their idleness is almost invincible. In the British islands every coffee plantation is arranged with the greatest exactitude. The lands are divided into fields as nearly equal as possible, and in those fields, in all probability, the coffee has been planted in successive seasons, so that when the period arrives in which the trees begin to exhibit a decline in their growth, the planter provides for the loss of them by planting others, and by this expedient manages always to keep up his crop. The fences which divide the fields are constantly kept up with regularity and order, the whole having the appearance of a garden laid out with neatness and precision. The plantation works for washing, drying, and preparing the coffee, are in the best condition, and with the barbacues, exhibit a well-arranged system for the production of the berry. In Hayti the scene is different: what is denominated there a coffee plantation, is neither more nor less than a large tract of land, throughout which grows spontaneously the coffee tree; not planted there by the people, but sprung from the seed which has fallen from those planted by the French, and which escaped destruction during the revolution. There is no such thing as a plantation established upon the same principle as in other islands. There are no divisions, no laying out of the lands, no order of planting in succession, nothing done towards improving and fertilizing the soil, in order to aid the growth of the tree, no lopping it of its excrescences, and pruning it to strengthen the parent stem; but every thing is left to nature, the pruning knife is sheathed, and the rank luxuriance of the tree is permitted to increase, whilst the hoe is seldom called into use, to extirpate those weeds which are so destructive to vegetation.

A person must be somewhat conversant with travelling in Hayti before he can discover on his road that a coffee plantation is near him. For my part, I could see nothing that resembled one, nor should I have known the coffee tree, growing as it did in a pyramidal form, surrounded by numberless other shrubs, had it not been for the appearance of a few red berries on one of its lower branches. I alighted from my mule to examine some trees just round the spot: as nearly as I could ascertain, every tree must have exceeded twelve feet in height, and I am convinced that each of them at the time would not have produced two pounds of coffee in the husk. I had the curiosity to go a little way into the interior of this settlement to see if there were any thing like cultivation, but I could discover nothing bearing the least resemblance to a plantation. I saw nothing but a hut, and four or five people in it, whom I found to be the proprietors of the place. They were inquisitive, and not much pleased that I should have intruded on their privacy, and therefore I had a hint from my guide that it would be prudent not to advance farther. I saw, however, enough to convince me that there was no regular system of cultivation pursued in this place, although there were twelve hundred acres of land in the Keen; and that the coffee grew in a wild state, the soil never being touched or disturbed, save, occasionally, by pigs, goats and asses, which range through the whole, and feed on the grass which grows luxuriantly in the intervals. Mills are not very common, and the few which exist are very small and turned by asses. Washing and pulping are not performed by machinery. Indeed I am inclined to suspect that they are dispensed with altogether, as I could not find any apparatus for these operations. My guide knew this plantation well, and he told me, that although the proprietor had this large tract of land, yet he was so poor that he could not afford to hire cultivators, who, when employed, never did work enough to pay for their hire. I was anxious to ascertain the annual quantity of coffee which this place produced, and I was told that it did not exceed four thousand five hundred pounds weight. I have mentioned this plantation because it is considered to be a settlement in a productive part of the country, the mountains of Leogane; and extraordinary as it may appear, it is a very good illustration of the coffee settlements in general, all of which exhibit negligence and want of that industry which characterize the Haytian planter and cultivator.