Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/156

 140 SLAVERY in parliament with little success. But in 1806, Lord Grenville and Fox having come into power, a bill Avas passed in both Houses to put an end to the British slave trade for foreign supply, and to forbid the importation of slaves into the colonies won by the British arms in the course of the war. On 10th June of the same year Fox brought forward a resolution " that effectual measures should be taken for the abolition of the African slave trade in such a manner and at such a period as should be deemed advisable," which was carried by a large majority. A similar resolution was successful in the House of Lords. A bill was then passed through both Houses forbidding the employment of any new vessel in the trade. Finally, in 1807, a bill was presented by Lord Grenville in the House of Lords providing for the abolition of the tuade, was passed by a large majority, was then sent to the Commons (where it was moved by Lord Howick), was there amended and passed, and received the royal assent on 25th March. The bill enacted that no vessel should clear out for slaves from any port within the British dominions after 1st May 1807, and that no slave should be landed in the colonies after 1st March 1808. In 1807 the African Institution was formed, with the primary objects of keeping a vigilant watch on the slave traders and procuring, if possible, the abolition of the slave trade by the other European nations. It was also to be made an instrument for promoting the instruction of the negro races and diffusing information respecting the agricultural and commercial capabilities of the African continent. The Act of 1807 was habitually violated, as the traders knew that, if one voyage in three was successful, they were abundantly remunerated for their losses. This state of things, it was plain, must continue as long as the trade was only a contraband commerce, involving merely pecu- niary penalties. Accordingly, in 1811, Brougham carried through parliament a bill declaring the traffic to be a felony punishable with transportation. Some years later another Act was passed, making it a capital offence ; but this was afterwards repealed. The law of 1811 proved effectual, and brought the slave trade to an end so far as the British dominions were concerned. Mauritius, indeed, continued it for a time. That island, which had been ceded by France in 1810, three years after the aboli- tion, had special facilities for escaping observation in con- sequence of the proximity of the African coast; but it was soon obliged to conform. France. The abolition of the French slave trade was preceded by stormy struggles and by many deplorable excesses. The western part of St Domingo, nominally belonging to Spain, had been occupied by buccaneers, who were recognized and supported by the French Government, and had been ceded to France at the peace of Ryswick in 1697. So vast was the annual importation of enslaved negroes into this colony before 1791 that the ratio of the blacks to the whites was as 16 to 1. In that year there were in French St Domingo 480,000 blacks, 24,000 mulattoes, and only 30,000 whites. The French law for the regulation of slavery in the plantations, known as the Code Noir (framed under Louis XIV. in 1685), was humane in its spirit ; but we are informed that its provisions were habitually disregarded by the planters, whilst the free mulattoes laboured uiider serious grievances and were exposed to irritating indignities. A "Societe des Amis des Noirs" was formed in Paris in 1788 for the abolition, not only of the slave trade, but of slavery itself. The president was Condorcet, and amongst the members were the Due de la Rochefoucault, the Abbe Gregoire, Brissot, Claviere, Petion, and La Fayette ; Mirabeau was an active sympathizer. The great motor of the parallel effort in England was the Christian spirit ; in France it was the enthusiasm of humanity which was associated with the revolu- tionary movement. There were in 1789 a number of mulattoes in Paris, who had come from St Domingo to assert the rights of the Eople of colour in that colony before the national assembly. The iclaration of the Rights of Man in August 1789 seemed to meet their claims, but in March 1790 the assembly, alarmed by rumours of the discontent and disaffection of the planters in St 'Domingo, passed a resolution that it had not been intended to comprehend the internal government of the colonies in the constitution framed for the mother country, and added that the assembly would not cause any innovation to be made, directly or indirectly, in any system of commerce in which the colonies were already concerned," a declaration which could only be interpreted as sanctioning the continuance of the slave trade. Vincent Oge, one of the mulatto delegates in Paris, disgusted at the overthrow of the hopes of his race, returned to St Domingo, and on landing in October 1790 addressed a letter to the governor announcing his intention of taking up arms on behalf of the mulattoes if their wrongs were not redressed. He rose accordingly with a few followers, but was soon defeated and forced to take refuge in the Spanish part of the island. He was afterwards surrendered, tried, and sentenced to be broken on the wheel. When the news of this reached Paris, it created a strong feeling against the planters ; and on the motion of the Abbe Gregoire it was resolved by the assembly on 15th May 1791 "that the people of colour resident in the French colonies, born of free parents, were entitled to, as of right, and should be allowed, the enjoyment of all the privileges of French citizens, and among others those of being eligible to seats both in the parochial and colonial assemblies." On the 23d August a rebellion of the negroes broke out in the northern province of St Domingo, and soon extended to the western province, where the mulattoes and blacks combined. Many enormities were com- mitted by the insurgents, and were avenged with scarcely inferior barbarity. The French assembly, alarmed by these scenes, and fearing the loss of the colony, repealed on 24th September the decree of the preceding May. This lamentable vacillation put an end to all hope of a reconciliation of parties in the island. Civil commissioners sent out from France quarrelled with the governor and called the revolted negroes to their assistance. The white inhabitants of Cape Frangois were massacred and the city in great part destroyed by fire. The planters now offered their allegiance to Great Britain ; and an English force landed in the colony. But it was insufficient to encounter the hostility of the republican troops and the revolted negroes and mulattoes ; it suffered dread- fully from disease, and was obliged to evacuate the island in 1798. On the departure of the British the government remained in the hands of Toussaint 1'Ouverture, the noblest type ever produced by the African race. Slavery had disappeared ; the blacks were employed as hired servants, receiving for their remuneration the third part of the crops they raised ; and the population was rapidly rising in civilization and comfort. The whole island was now French, the Spanish portion having been ceded by the treaty of Basel. The wish of Toussaint was that St Domingo should enjoy a practical independence whilst recognizing the sovereignty and exclusive commercial rights of France. Of the violent and treacherous conduct of Bonaparte towards the island and its eminent chief we cannot here give an account ; the final issue was that the blacks drove from their soil the forces sent to subdue them, and founded a constitution of their own, which was more than once modified. There can be no doubt that the Government of the Restoration, in seeking to obtain possession of the island, had the intention of re-establishing slavery, and even of reopening the slave trade for the purpose of recruiting the diminished popu- lation. But Bonaparte abolished that trade during the Hundred Days, though he also failed to win back the people of St Domingo, or, as it was now called by its original name, Hayti, to obedience. The Bourbons, when again restored, could not reintroduce the slave trade ; the notion of conquering the island had to be given up ; and its independence was formally recognized in 1825. Thus France lost her most important colonial possession, which had yielded produce to an amount almost as great as that of all the rest of the West Indies ; and the negro race obtained its first and hitherto its only independent settlement outside the African con- tinent. England had not been the first European power to Progress abolish the slave trade ; that honour belongs to Denmark ; of the a royal order was issued 16th May 1792 that the tra should cease in the Danish possessions from the end of 1802. The United States had in 1794 forbidden any participation by American subjects in the slave trade to foreign countries ; they now prohibited the importation of slaves from Africa into their own dominion. This Act was passed 2d March 1807; it did not, however, come into force till 1st January 1808. At the congress of Vienna (opened November 1, 1814) the principle was acknowledged that the slave trade should be abolished as soon as possible ; but the determination of the limit of time was reserved for separate negotiation between the powers. It had been provided in a treaty between France and Great Britain, May 30, 1814, that no foreigner should