HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
misery and devastation. The bands 
of society were loosened ;—the dif- 
ferent orders of the state rose in 
arms against each other:—the most 
cruel civil war was carried on;— 
the most dreadful atrocities were 
perpetrated:—human blood was 
shed in torrents. The French co- 
lonies were not plunged into this 
deplorable situation at once: they 
were reduced to it by a long course 
of calamitous events; many of 
which took place several years pre- 
vious to 1792. None of these 
have we yet mentioned in any for- 
mer volume: partly because we 
could receive no information but 
what was confused and contradic- 
tory; and partly because, by wait- 
ing a little, we hoped to present 
our readers with a clear and unin- 
terrupted view of the whole. Ac- 
counts have become more fully 
authentic, now that the spirit of 
faction has in some measure sub- 
sided, and time has begun to clear 
away the mist of prejudice. We 
shall, therefore, proceed to de- 
lineate a short sketch of the history 
of those islands .during the years 
1789, 90, 91, and 92. 
All the inhabitants were ranged 
under three great classes. ‘These 
_were the whites, the negroes, and 
the sang melées or gens de couleur. 
“The first, it is scarcely necessary to 
‘Yemark, was composed of Europeans 
who had been attracted by hopes of 
security and gain, to settle in the 
new world: the second of those un- 
happy Africans, who had been 
dragged from their native s' ore, de- 
 prived of their liberty, and obliged 
to spend their lives in the cultiva- 
tion of the soil; the third, or peo- 
peo! colour, of the offspring from 
‘an intermixture betwixt the other 
two, As the descendants always 
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inherited the lot of their fathers, 
these three classes comprehend 
every inhabitant of the island; and 
betwixt the three there was drawn 
an impassable line. 
The system of internal govern- 
ment which prevailed in those 
islands, was as bad as the imagina- 
tion of man can weli conceive:—it 
was monstrous and unnatural: it 
had slavery for its basis, and the 
most dreadful oppression was its 
fruits. No order of the community 
could be said to be free:—their 
chief privilege consisted in insulting 
and injuring their inferiurs. The 
negroes who were subjected to the 
arbitrary will of a master, were in 
a situation scarcely more deplorable 
than the gens de couleur. The un- 
fortunate mulattoes (tho’ not abso- 
lutely private property) had often 
reason to envy the lot of those that 
were: they were not only to every 
generation deprived of all shadow 
of political liberty, and prohibited 
from exercising any liberal pro- 
fession,—but they were considered 
as belonging to an inferior species, 
as bordering on the brutes. They 
were subjected to the most intoler- 
able grievances; they were per- 
mitted by the laws to be insulted, 
and even beat with impunity. As 
it was not in their case as in that 
of the negroes, the interest of any 
one to protect them, so they were 
cruelly oppressed by all. The 
brutish uncultivated negro, suffers 
only from the pain a stripe inflicts 
upon his nerves :—to the mulattoes 
this treatment was torture. From 
being in easy circumstances, and 
from having received a good edu- 
cation, many of them were pos- 
sessed of fine feelings and acute 
sensibility. 
' The whites themselves could 
[LF] 3 boast 
