Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/44

36 as models of austere virtue. The fierce free-booters and their immediate successors did not consider the negresses as unworthy of their attentions. The unbounded devotion of the latter often moved the hearts of the terrible masters whose companions they had become. The children born of such a commerce were not entirely neglected by their fathers. There existed no color prejudice to complicate the relations of the two races. No one had cause to feel shame or humiliation. The appearance of the mulatto, in arousing feelings of fatherly love, ameliorated the condition of some of the slaves. Mothers and children were often freed owing to these sentiments. Unfortunately through the riches resulting from the fruitful soil of Saint-Domingue these ideas began to suffer a change. Surrounded by extravagant luxury, the wealthy colonists made it the fashion to look down upon the Africans and their descendants. And the new families, arrived from Europe, exaggerating this disdain, hardly considered as human beings those whose color was not white. Barriers arose; and the odious distinctions between men, which the Gospel was supposed to have done away with, were more than ever firmly established.

At the time of its greatest splendor the inhabitants of Saint-Domingue were divided into three distinct classes: the whites, the "affranchis" or freedmen, and the slaves. To these classes officially admitted, may be added a fourth one—the maroons.

Naturally the whites had arrogated all the privileges. They were the masters; their color sufficed to confer on them all the rights and advantages. However, interest and prosperity in time divided the predominant class, introducing four subdivisions: 1st, civil and military functionaries; 2nd, the wealthy planters; 3rd, merchants; 4th, mechanics, storekeepers and adventurers in quest of success. These groups were jealous of one another. And those who were neither functionaries nor wealthy planters were scornfully called "petits blancs." The latter were envious of the social position of the former. Besides, the white natives of Europe