THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 291 



French commanders who were our allies enlisted the free 

 blacks and mulattos of Haiti, who, according to the English 

 writers, did good service in <>ur War <>f the Revolution, hut 

 when they returned to their own country spread a spirit 

 of disaffection which no ordinances could destroy. Thus it 

 was that "the spirit of '70" kindled the fires which led to 

 the Haitian revolution. 



Furthermore, in France, about this time, there were 

 organized societies known as " The Friends of the Blacks," 

 exactly similar to the abolitionist party of the Northern 

 United States prior to the Civil War. These people, moved 

 by a spirit of philanthropy, but ignorant of the laws of 

 sociology, increased the discontent and fanned race hatred 

 among the blacks of Haiti. The whites at this time, who 

 still controlled Haiti, the discontent of the black and 

 colored population, although apparent, being neither dan- 

 gerous nor active, precipitated the crisis by a local au- 

 tonomist movement, very similar to the events which a 

 century later caused the Cuban rebellion. They were then 

 governed under a colonial system, somewhat analogous to 

 that of the Spanish system in Cuba, in which they had no 

 voice, and they demanded local self-government. Three 

 parties were immediately organized: the white planters, 

 demanding a local self-government, constituted the colo- 

 nial party; the official classes and their hangers-on, also 

 white, stood for the old regime as the loyalist party; and 

 the free blacks and colored people agitated for civil rights, 

 which had been withheld from them. No idea of indepen- 

 dence of France was contemplated. The huge and over- 

 whelming mass of black slaves were entirely uninterested 

 in these events. Then the explosion began. The plant 

 who had hitherto treated their colored offspring with con- 

 tempt, now called upon them for aid, which was freely 

 given, but afterward rewarded with insult, which created 

 a strong racial hatred between these fcwo elements. The 



French Assembly in 17!M gave the fr lmeu and colored 



people their civil rights, and in all the subsequenl strug- 



