290 CUBA AND PORTO mm 



houses ; a white population, rich, refined, and enjoying life 

 as only the luxurious French society of the old regime 



couM enjoy it." The dark spots, then scarcely noticed, 

 were the immorality of the whites and the ignorant mass of 

 black slavery. The plantation slaves were Africans who 

 retained every savage trait of their native country, includ- 

 ing cannibalism, voodooism, and even in many cases the 

 primitive language and dress. The change from Africa to 

 Haiti was but slight. The masters whom the negroes found 

 in the New World were but little better than those of their 

 own I'ace ; the damp forests afforded a natural environment 

 very similar to that from which they were drawn; they 

 continued to live in African huts and to eat African foods. 

 The French masters practised, under a guise of civilization, 

 all the cruelties of the African kings whom these people 

 had served at home. Their system of slavery was unsur- 

 passed for severity, subtle cruelty, lasciviousness, and 

 ferocity. Its contrast with the Spanish system in opera- 

 tion in the San Domingo half of the island, where negro 

 slavery existed in a form robbed of half of its terrors, was 

 marked. 



The ancient regime also produced a third distinct set of 

 people in Haiti. Miscegenation, openly and boastfully 

 practised, resulted in a large number of mulattos, or colored 

 people. These became numerically important with the 

 passing years, and occupied a peculiar position. Although 

 they mostly became f reedmen, they were looked down upon 

 by their white relatives, treated with hatred and contempt, 

 and granted no civil status ; and they were hated by the 

 pure blacks. Thus society in Haiti from 1700 to 1776 pre- 

 sented an outward aspect of untold prosperity, but inwardly 

 was composed of elements which, when fired by the Revo- 

 lution in France, were bound to clash with a force com- 

 bining the ferocity of the French revolutionists and the 

 savagery of African warfare. 



The latent spark was kindled in a peculiar way. When 

 our American colonies revolted against England, the 



