Haitian Slavery System
Haiti's fertile land and pleasant climate make it ideal for growing sugar cane, coffee, tobacco, cotton, sisal, indigo, cocoa beans, fruits and vegetables. Since production could not keep up with exports, France enslaved large numbers of Africans to labor. Free labor from African slaves to fill Haiti's severe labor shortage crisis “Haiti's riches could only be exploited by importing up to 40,000 slaves a year. For nearly a decade in the late 18th century, Haiti accounted for more than one-third of the entire Atlantic slave trade. Conditions for these men and women were atrocious; the average life expectancy for a slave on Haiti was 21 years. Abuse was dreadful, and routine.” (Haiti: a long descent to hell, The Guardian).
A succession of royal edicts governed the slave system in the colonies, the most important of which was issued by Louis XIV in 1685. The edicts formed the Code noir, or slave code, when taken together. Slaves who fought their imprisonment were subjected to harsh punishments, especially if they attempted to hurt their masters in any way. For the French, Saint Domingue was a fantastic source of wealth. Slaveowners in France were required to learn at least a basic bit about their slaves in order to protect their assets. (Slavery and the Haitian Revolution). Haitian society was strictly fragmented by skin color, class, and gender. The first class is white, they are free with unlimited power to dominate the slaves; the second class is mulato, they are relatively free, not forced to work. The affranchis, the majority of whom were mulattoes, were occasionally slave owners and aspired to the same economic and social levels as Europeans. The third class is also black, slaves, there is no freedom, work to death.
Haiti’s slavery is a product of capitalism. Slavery in Haiti is built on the production model of Haitian plantation, which is closely associated with capitalism and colonialism and provide favorable conditions for slavery trade. Many of the plantation owners are capitalists. Apart from that, the important and nearly the only purpose of plantations is to sell to world, which makes a contribution to the world’s development of capitalism. The black slaves in the plantations also can frequently connect with cities which represent more developed capitalist economy. The black slaves are in charge of transporting products produced in plantations to cities, as well as loading and unloading products on ships. Many black slaves also follow plantation owners to move to the city. According to Spenser St. John, in 1791, the population of black slaves living in Cap Haitien accounted for three quarters of the city’s population (John, 42). In the sense, the slavery in Haiti is actually a product of capitalism.
As a product of capitalism, the essence of slavery is to maximize the profits and capital, deciding the perception of slaves as goods and the utmost utilization of such goods. After being plundered by slave traders in Africa, the blacks are forced to go all the way across the Atlantic to reach Haiti regardless of the high risk of death in the long trudge. Many of them die in the way and the rest of them are sold to plantation owners as goods. The black slaves are in heavy workload. They toiled for seventeen or eighteen hours a day under the whip of the taskmasters (Fick, 29). Under such torture and heavy work, an adult slave can work only a few years before he loses the labor capacity and dies. Black slaves and their children are considered as the property of plantation owners without any social status as a human being. Killing a slave in Haiti is seen only as a violation of property. Plantation owners can sell, lash and whip slaves to death at their own will. Black slaves are deprived of the right to attend night meetings, are forbidden to carry weapons or any threatening tools, and cannot leave the plantations without the permission of owners. If owners discover slaves’ intention to escape or to do something bad, the punishments for slaves are really severe. For example, they are burned alive if they show the intention to light up fire (Hassal, 100). Thus, the slaves in Haiti are like living in a poisonous hell.
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