Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/49



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 levelling 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. 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.