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In 1789 there were at Saint-Domingue 520.000 inhabitants, 40,000 of whom were white, 28,000 affranchis and 452,000 slaves. The number of maroons was from two to three thousand. Whilst most of the whites led corrupt and dissolute lives, the affranchis through domestic virtues, were acquiring much wealth; they possessed a third of the real estate, and a fourth of the personal property of the colony. Yet no regard was shown them. Despite the leveling and philanthropic philosophy which in Europe was moving the heart of

the nobility, the colonists became daily more and more haughty and overbearing to the men of the black race; they did all in their power to check the hopes which these new ideas began to raise in the souls of the sorely oppressed slaves.

The Colonists and the affranchis

Through their influence and intrigues the colonists extorted from the weak hands of Louis XVI decisions of the most insulting nature against the "affranchis." The excess of humiliations heaped on them at last moved, even in France, the pity of generous hearts.

La Société des Amis des Noirs soon extended its mighty support to the lawful claims of those who hitherto were treated like pariahs.

The affranchis became more and more conscious of their importance. In 1779, responding to the call of the Comte d'Estaing, 800 blacks and mulattoes left their families and their homes, and went to fight side by side with the soldiers of George Washington. (Among the volunteers from Saint-Domingue were Beauvais, Rigaud, Chavannes, Jourdain, Lambert, Christophe, Morns, Villate, Toureaux, Canoe, Martial Besse, Leveine, Mars Belley, etc. (E. Robin, History of Haiti. p. 47.))

At the siege of Savannah the Colored sons of Haiti fearlessly shed their blood for the independence of the United States. After fighting for the liberty of others was it possible that they would willingly tolerate slavery for their mothers, their brothers, and their sisters? Could they be content under the arbitrary rule of a system which had despoiled them of their rights!

But, blinded by their prejudice. the wealthy planters would not make the slightest concession in their favor. They founded in Paris the Club Massiac, which became henceforth the centre of action of their coterie. Yet at that time the pretensions of the affranchis were very moderate. What was it they were claiming? Simply the equality of political rights which was granted to them in 1685 by the Black Code.

By yielding to their requests the colonists would have saved their property, and Saint-Domingne might perhaps have remained a part of the French territory.

Still they chose to run the greatest risks rather than share the administration of the island with men whom they considered their inferiors.

From the convocation of the States General, the wealthy planters began to defy the colonial authority, thus giving the first example of insubordination. On their own responsibility they secretly appointed eighteen representatives whom they sent to France. On their arrival at Versailles they found the National Assembly already organized. This first act of insubordination was followed by others still more important. When the news of the fall of the Bastille reached Saint-Domingue, the pretensions of the colonists knew no bounds. They elected municipalities and even an Assembly, which, assuming the title of "General Assembly of the French part of Saint-Domingue," met at Saint-Marc and arrogated full powers. On the 28th of May, 1790, this Assembly adopted a decree which constituted almost a declaration of independence. The attitude and encroachment of this body was naturally highly displeasing to the colonial government, which ordered its dissolution and resorted to force in order to compel its members to disperse. The whites took no pains to conceal from the affranchis the discord existing among themselves.

Excluded from all the assemblies elected at Saint-Domingue, the freedmen had never ceased to protest against the arbitrary deprivation of their political rights. Their representatives in France, among whom were Julien Raymond and Vincent Ogé, were fighting hard to put an end to their humiliating position. Through the powerful assistance of the Society "des Amis des Noirs," they were received, on the 22d of October, 1789, by the National Assembly. Later on the affranchis offered to France 6,000,000 francs and the fifth of their properties in guarantee of the national indebtedness. The Assembly was not long in taking up the slavery question. Whilst the matter was under discussion, Charles de Lameth, one of the wealthy planters, spoke, on the 4th of December, in favor of the freedom of the blacks and claimed their right to become members of the colonial assemblies.

The colonists decided that the time had come to check the audacity of the affranchis and as usual they resorted to all kinds of atrocities. In the town of Cap-Français the mulatto Lacombe was hanged, his only crime having been that he dared to present a humble petition claiming the "Rights of Man" (Les Droits de l'homme). At Petit-Goave, a highly respected old man Fernand de Baudieres, a white, was beheaded. He was charged with having drawn up a petition asking, not for equality of rights in favor of the affranchis but only for a slight betterment of their condition. At Aquin, a mulatto, G. Labadie, seventy years old, simply suspected of having in his possession a copy of the petition, was attacked by night at his home by the whites. Severely wounded, this septuagenarian, a man universally esteemed, was tied to the tail of a horse and dragged through the streets. At Plaisance, the mulatto Atrel, guilty of having accepted a claim upon a white man, was killed by a band of infuriated people. At Fonds-Parisien the whites set fire to the most important sugar refineries of the affranchis Desmares, Poisson, Renaud. In time to come, the slaves who revolted, remembering this merciless destruction of property, in their turn reduced to ashes the rice plantations of the colonists.