, I should have heard of it; and let me take this
opportunity of setting my readers right, if, for want of knowing the
dates of occurrences, they should have connected _certain outrages_,
which assuredly took place in St. Domingo, _with the emancipation of the
slaves_. The great massacres and conflagrations, which have made so
frightful a picture in the history of this unhappy island, had been all
effected _before the proclamations_ of Santhonax and Polverel. They had
all taken place _in the days of slavery_, or before the year 1794, that
is, before the great conventional decree of the mother country was
known. They had been occasioned, too, _not originally by the slaves
themselves_, but by quarrels between _the white and coloured planters_,
and between the _royalists_ and the _revolutionists_, who, for the
purpose of reeking their vengeance upon each other, called in the aid of
their respective slaves; and as to the insurgent Negroes of the North,
who filled that part of the colony so often with terror and dismay, they
were originally put in motion, according to Malenfant, under _the
auspices of the royalists_ themselves, to strengthen their own cause,
and _to put down the partizans of the French revolution_. When Jean
Francois and Biassou commenced the insurrection, there were many _white
royalists_ with them, and the Negroes were made to wear the _white
cockade_. I repeat, then, that during the years 1795 and 1796, I can
find nothing in the History of St. Domingo, wherewith to reproach the
emancipated Negroes in the way of outrage[8]. There is every reason, on
the other hand, to believe, that they conducted themselves, during this
period, in as orderly a manner as before.

I come now to the latter part of the year 1796; and here happily a clue
is furnished me, by which I have an opportunity of pursuing my inquiry
with pleasure. We shall find, that from this time there was no want of
industry in those who had been emancipated, nor want of obedience in
them as hired servants: they maintained, on the other hand, a
respectable character. Let us appeal first to Malenfant. "The colony,"
says he[9], "was _flourishing under Toussaint. The Whites lived happily
and in peace upon their estates, and the Negroes continued to work for
them_." Now Toussaint came into power, being general-in-chief of the
armies of St. Domingo, a little before the end of the year 1796, and
remained in power till the year 1802, or till the invasion of