. The earth and its inhabitants .. . CHAPTER IX. SAN DOMINGO (HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC). I.—General Survey. eVN DOMINGO,* if this term be applied to the whole island, is the second of the Antilles in size and population, but the first in altitude, diversity of outline, picturesque prospects and the natural fertility of its valleys. It is also the only island in the American Mediterranean which does not depend politically on some European power. Whether united in a single state, or, as has more frequently been the case, constituting two distinct republics, both sections of Domingo have
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . CHAPTER IX. SAN DOMINGO (HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC). I.—General Survey. eVN DOMINGO,* if this term be applied to the whole island, is the second of the Antilles in size and population, but the first in altitude, diversity of outline, picturesque prospects and the natural fertility of its valleys. It is also the only island in the American Mediterranean which does not depend politically on some European power. Whether united in a single state, or, as has more frequently been the case, constituting two distinct republics, both sections of Domingo have hitherto succeeded in preserving their autonomy. Had this autonomy been vindicated by a white créole population it would have ranked in modern history as an event of secondary importance, analogous to that of the colonies on the mainland, which, according as they felt strong enough, have successively asserted their independence of the mother countries. But in this instance the rebels who compelled their former masters to recognise an accomplished fact were blacks, slaves, and the descendants of slaves, people formerly regarded by the whites as scarcely belonging to their common humanity. The independence of Haiti, accomplished in the West Indian world in the midst of the islands where slavery was still upheld with all its accompanying horrors, appeared to the planters in the light of an unn:itural event. The general feeling inspired by it amongst the slave-owners, whether French, English, Spaniards, Dutch, Danes, or Americans, was one of horror. The very name of Haiti was proscribed on the plantations, as belonging to an accursed land. Yet there can be no doubt that this example of a black community enjo^'ing political freedom and self-government, living as freemen after a suc- cessful revolution, tended indirectly to hasten the day of emancipation in the surrounding insular groups. The fear of a disaster similar to that which over- whelmed the San Domingo planters could not
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