Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/337

 Rh than beasts in those countries where slavery continued to flourish. Such an example was considered highly dangerous; and the partisans of slavery deemed it of the utmost importance to prevent the exploits of the Haitians from becoming known to those whose flesh was still being lacerated by the whips of the overseer. In this way began the slanders against the Haitians, the ridicule and distortion of all facts concerning them succeeding so well as to provoke the greatest aversion at the mere mention of their name. In the United States, in the English, French and Spanish possessions in the West Indies, the whites unscrupulously exaggerated or misrepresented facts, concealing all those to the credit of the new State whilst magnifying beyond measure everything to its disadvantage. It is not to be expected, for instance, that the Southern planters of the United States would be likely to sing the praise of Haiti to their slaves; by force of circumstances such men found themselves among her immediate enemies and consequently joined the ranks of her detractors. Those who would go to the length of resorting to civil war in order to uphold slavery were hardly to be considered enthusiastic admirers of the people who had just abolished this institution. Among the planters naturally arose a chorus of imprecations against Haiti. The bad reputation she thus unjustly acquired was transmitted from generation to generation; legendary stories, some of them of the most atrocious character, were thus diffused and are still in circulation. Few people take the trouble to find out the true facts; either through indifference or indolence they find it more convenient to adopt and repeat preconceived opinions and the ideas current in their families or among their friends; errors and misrepresentations are thus oftentimes unwittingly propagated. Little by little, therefore, it has become the habit to represent Haiti as the home of all evil and where right and virtue are the exception rather than the rule.

Surrounded by Powers to whose greatest interest it was to maintain slavery, Haiti met with no sympathy abroad. Great Britain, although at that time the