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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
During the early days of 1859, Port-au-Prince was busy with holiday celebrations, dramatic addresses and colorful events. Haitians possess a certain genius for properly observing a great day, and indeed it seemed that halcyon days had at last arrived in the Caribbean. Before the national legislature that April came a new president, a man for all the people. He was a person of medium height, rather slender and very erect and dignified. A mixture of Negro and mulatto elements, the new national hero had a very dark complexion, gray hairs befitting his fifty-three years, and courteous airs. In fact, his decorum was striking, set off as it was with a quiet gentleness, polish and evident idealism that seemed almost out of place in a Haitian warrior who had just dethroned an emperor.
The ownerless imperial crown, symbolic of the recently defunct regime, was brought before the restorer of the old Republic. Fittingly, the chief executive employed allegory to express his adventure into reform. After a long, flowery speech denouncing the exiled Emperor Faustin I, President Nicolas Fabre Geffrard swore fidelity to the popular government, announced some preliminary political changes, and took up a small gavel. With this he struck the crown three times, condemning the magnificent diadem and its regime as he inaugurated the Republic which must not waver. From that day on the crown of Soulouque became a museum piece, but what is symbolized could not be so easily defeated and discarded.
1 L’Illustration (Paris), May 12, 1859.Google Scholar
2 British and Foreign State Papers, 1858–1859 (London, 1867), XLIX, 773–775.Google Scholar
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7 Ibid, p. xliii. These measures were to secure fiscal honesty.
8 Code Civil d’Haiti (Port-au-Prince, 1864), pp. 1–37.
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12 Ludlow, op. cit., p. 524.
13 Anti-Slavery Reporter, May 1, 1860.Google Scholar
14 Redpath, James, A Guide to Hayti (Boston, 1861), p. 154 Google Scholar. In 1859 the army cost $555,000. Haiti then had six small ships, the heritage of Soulouque’s reign, but soon added the Geffrard and the 22 de Décembre, named for the day on which Geffrard proclaimed the new republic. See Seward, Frederick W., Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman and Diplomat, 1830–1914 (New York, 1916), pp. 315–316.Google Scholar
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16 Seward, op. cit., p. 318, and St. John, op. cit., p. viii.
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24 Ibid., p. 492. Later events prevented its immediate establishment.
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27 Melvil-Blancourt, op. cit., p. 409. See also Stuart, Major R., “Haiti, or Hispaniola,” Journal of the Royal Geographic Society, London, XLVIII (1878), 272–274 Google Scholar. Stuart was a British minister to Haiti for several years. He estimated the population at 450,000 to 550,000, of which he claimed 10/11 were Negro. See also Seward, op. cit., p. 324.
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31 Ibid., p. 369.
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35 Leyburn, James G., The Haitian People (Durham, N. C., 1941), p. 94.Google Scholar
36 Ibid.
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38 Melvil-Blancourt, op. cit., p. 414. See also Fabens, Joseph Warren, Facts about Santo Domingo (New York, 1862).Google Scholar
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42 Anti-Slavery Reporter, April 2, 1860. « Seward, op. cit., p. 322.
44 British and Foreign State Papers, 1866–1867, LVII, p. 1049.Google Scholar
45 Léger, , Recueil des Traités, op. cit., pp. 84–114 Google Scholar. This treaty also prevented forced loans, allowed nationals of each to engage in business freely in the other’s domain, granted full liberty of conscience, and forbade Haitians to accept letters of marque to act as privateers against the United States. The treaty was to be in force eight years.
46 Seward, op. cit., p. 323.
47 Redpath, op. cit., p. 10.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid., pp. 95–96.
50 Annuaire des Deux Mondes (Paris), IX, 927–928.Google Scholar
51 Friends’ Intelligencer (Philadelphia), XIX, June 14, 1862.
52 Public Ledger (Philadelphia), October 18, 1861 and December 2, 1861.Google ScholarPubMed
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60 Britain, Great. Parliamentary Debates, CLXII, 3rd Series, March-May, 1861, pp. 1651–1652 Google Scholar. The United States protested only vaguely about this act which Seward termed unfriendly.
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63 St. John, op. cit., p. 105.
64 Luperón, General Gregorio, Notas autobiográficas y apuntes históricos (Santiago, Dominican Republic, 1939), I, 99.Google Scholar
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74 Harper’s Weekly, IX, September 2, 1865 Google Scholar. See also St. John, op. cit., pp. 210–220. Here is an excellent account of the trial early in 1864 of cannibals. Some persons were guilty of murdering a girl for these purposes. The trial lasted three days. All culprits were condemned to death and were executed on February 13. This time Geffrard was firm against pardon, despite the anger of many persons. The English-speaking press spread the story of this sensational case from London to Los Angeles!
75 British and Foreign State Papers, 1862–1863, LIII, p. 619.Google Scholar
76 Léger, , Recueil des Traités, op. cit., pp. 59–62.Google Scholar
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84 Ibid., XXXI, 455. This is an interesting article entitled “Haiti,” by J. Theodore Holly, pp. 454–456.
85 Ibid., p. 456.
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88 Ibid., p. 142.
89 British and Foreign State Papers, 1863–1864, LIV, pp. 495–496.Google Scholar
90 Ibid., 1866–1867, LII, p. 1053. See Brutus, Edner, Instruction publique en Haiti, 1492–1945 (Port-au-Prince, 1948).Google Scholar
91 For the first time school laws were actually enforced. School statistics show a student and school increase of 50 per cent from 1860 to 1865, but only a 25 per cent gain from then until the 1880’s. See Logan, Rayford W., “Education in Haiti,” Journal of Negro History, XV (October, 1930), 436.Google Scholar
92 British and Foreign State Papers, 1861–1862, LII, p. 1054.Google Scholar
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94 Ludlow, op. cit., p. 525.
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96 St. John, op. cit., p. 328.
97 British and Foreign State Papers, 1863–1864, LIV, pp. 492–494.Google Scholar
98 Ibid., 1861–1862, LII, pp. 923–925. See also ibid., 1862–1863, LIII for the postal convention’s additional articles, pp. 264–265.
99 Léger, , Recueil des Traités, op. cit., pp. 74–83 Google Scholar. France, Brazil, Haiti, Portugal and Italy were parties. This was to be a neutral line in wartime. Haiti reserved the right to negotiate on the nature, quota and mode of payment of the subsidy it was proposed to accord the concessionaire, Pier Alberto Balestrini.
100 Ludlow, , op. cit., p. 525 Google Scholar. Geffrard’s life was not a happy one. His only son, eighteen-year-old Clodomir, died early in 1859. His youngest daughter became the victim of an assassin, while his eldest daughter died in childbirth. Learning that an army officer plotted to kill him, Geffrard is said to have taken him to a cemetery, and there before his son’s grave he said, “I know you carry pistols to shoot me on the first opportunity. Do it here. Let me fall on the grave of my son. Do you hesitate? Take my pistols if your own fail you.” The culprit broke down and was forgiven. Legend has it that Geffrard retained him in his old station!
101 Ibid., p. 526.
102 St.John, , op. cit., p. 106.Google Scholar
103 Public Ledger, May 30, 1862.Google Scholar
104 British and Foreign State Papers, 1862–1863, LIII, pp. 617–619.Google Scholar
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108 L’Illustration, October 14, 1865 Google Scholar. This article, on pp. 245–246, is by A. Liechty.
109 Harper’s Weekly, August 5, 1865. A reporter from Haiti told of women with cannonballs on their heads while rusting cannon were dragged through the streets of Cap Haitien, entirely by women.
110 Annuaire des Deux Mondes, XIII, 917–918.Google Scholar
111 Harper’s Weekly, September 2, 1865. See also Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, 39th Cong., 2nd Sess., Part 2, pp. 499–526, for H. E. Peck’s reports.
112 Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, op. cit., p. 525 Google Scholar, contains Peck’s letter to Seward, October 22, 1866, telling of the 800,000 francs to be paid to France by April, but of which only 300,000 actually was given. Napoleon III refused to reduce the debt for the next six years.
113 Ibid., p. 511, Peck to Seward, March 26, 1866.
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115 Globus X (Braunschweig, 1866), 188 Google Scholar. See also New York Journal, March 25, 1866 Google Scholar, for a firsthand account of the great fire and the wild scenes that followed it.
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118 St. John, op. cit., p. 111.
119 Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, op. cit., pp. 304–305. Peck presents in a letter dated February 23, 1867, to Seward his fresh impressions of the fatal coup as he observed it.
120 Michel, Antoine, L’Avènement du Général Fabre Nicolas Geffrard a la Présidence d’Haiti (Port-au-Prince, 1932), pp. 138–141 Google Scholar, lists names of citizens shot during the first four years of Geffrard’s administration. Sixteen were executed in the Guerrier Prophète affair, fourteen in the Salomon revolt, and seventeen after the Aimé Legros uprising of May, 1863. See also Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs, 40th Cong., 2nd Sess., Part 2, pp. 305–306, for Peck’s discussion of the final days of Geffrard’s rule.
121 Ibid, p. 306.
122 Ibid., p. 307. Geffrard’s property was soon sacked by mobs.
123 Ibid.
124 L’Illustration, June 8, 1867 Google Scholar, article dated Port-au-Prince, April 23, 1867, by “un haitien.”
125 St. John, op. cit., pp. 182–183.
126 Hazard, Samuel, Santo Domingo, Past and Present, With a Glance at Hayti (London, 1873), p. 428 Google Scholar. See also Illustrated London News, October 29, 1859 Google Scholar. Geffrard was a constant worker, hardly typical of a hedonist; his labors lasted 14–16 hours a day!
127 Janvier, , op. cit., p. 269.Google Scholar
128 L’Illustration, October 14, 1865 Google Scholar. Alexandre Bonneau, a prolific writer on Haiti, tells of A. B. Ardouin, senator, educator, geographer and Geffrard’s minister to France, one of Haiti’s giants.
129 Harper’s Weekly, September 2, 1865 Google Scholar. Herein James Redpath tells his invaluable opinions of Geffrard.
130 Ludlow, op. cit., p. 524.
131 Habich, Eduard, “Eine Deputation von Kaufleuten bei Fabre Geffrard, Prasidenten von Haiti,” Globus, XI, 87–88 Google Scholar. This was upon the occasion of the visit of sixty merchants to Geffrard’s palace in 1866. If accurate, then Geffrard was also adept at telling anecdotes.
132 “Saint-Domingue et les nouveaux interets maritimes de l’Empire,” Revue des Deux Mondes, XXXIII (1861), 655.Google Scholar
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134 Ibid., p. 112.
135 Leyburn, , op. cit., p. 222.Google Scholar
136 Spirit of Missions, XXXIV, 359–360 Google Scholar. Herein is a letter from the Rev. St. Denis Bauduy dated Cap Haitien, February 12, 1869, telling of the turmoil since Nicolas Geffrard’s ouster, the inflation, spiritual chaos and poverty.