142 Notes on Religion and Education. 
believes it of not,” and the frequent official repetitions of its 
intention to permit, no manner of religions persecutions, are 
guarantees that the principle of religious toleration will suffer 
no abatement under the enlightened rule of President Geffrard 
and his ministers. Such official guarantees, however, are un¬ 
necessary ; the character and history of the people are all suffi¬ 
cient. If there are those, however, who desire to make 
“assurance doubly sure” in this respect, they will find 
ample opportunities of doing so in the archives of the Bureau 
at Boston. 
EDUCATION. 
The colonial slaveholders of Hayti, like the slaveholders in 
our Southern States, kept their bondmen, as much as possible, 
in a state of profound ignorance; but, unlike their American 
fellow-criminals of our day, instead of making merchandise of 
their illegitimate offspring, they freed and educated them, — 
often sending them to the academies and colleges of France. 
Dessalines, the first independent ruler of Hayti, did not en¬ 
courage education, for he said that the parade ground was the 
best school for his people, and a musket the fittest text book. 
Christophe, however, Petion, and Boyer, pursued a different 
policy, and established numerous schools in every part of the 
country. Soulouque did nothing for education; but, both 
directly and indirectly, encouraged barbarism. The school sys¬ 
tem withered under his blighting influence. Since the estab¬ 
lishment of the present Republic, however, energetic efforts 
have been made to revive and extend educational institutions.* 
The old schools have been restored, and many new ones 
* “ Primary Instruction has made noteworthy progress; the schools founded 
in the rural sections, since the Revolution, gather together the youth of both 
sexes. Government proposes to make these schools agricultural. The work 
of the fields, which, in a few years, will be directed and executed by practical 
men, will produce important results. Four National Lycees, 89 primary boys’ 
schools, 21 primary girls’ schools, 56 rural schools, a girls’ boarding-school for 
the higher branches of instruction, a naval school, a school of medicine, a 
school of jurisprudence, a school of music, a school of painting, instruct, at 
the expense of the State, in all the extent of the Republic, 13,000 pupils. In 
private schools, also, there area considerable number of young pupils of both 
sexes .”—Exposition of the General Situation of the Republic , Sept. 27, I860. 
