Hayti; or, The black republic.St. John, Spenser, Sir
History
Hayti; or, The black republic.
St. John, Spenser, Sir
Haiti; Haiti -- History
In 1861 1,139,439 lbs.
” 1862 1,473,853 ”
increasing until 1865, when the crop was over 4,000,000 pounds; but
the fall of prices, occasioned by the collapse of the civil war in
the States, from 2s. 6d. to 11d. in the course of a few months,
discouraged the agriculturists, and cotton was again neglected. In the
last commercial reports the amount of cotton exported from the whole
republic is not given.
During the Great Exhibition held in London in 1862, the report on the
cotton exhibited there by Hayti mentioned very favourably the two bales
which were sent as specimens, and it remarked that England required
at least 2,000,000 bales of each of the qualities exhibited. It has
been calculated that there is sufficient suitable land in Hayti to
furnish half the quantity required. This, however, appears to me an
over-estimate.
President Geffrard was fully aware of the importance of taking
advantage of the opportunity offered by the civil war in the United
States, and supported two measures to encourage cotton cultivation. The
first was the immigration of free blacks from America, and the next the
offer of bounties.
The immigration was badly managed, as blacks from the North were sent,
instead of Southern cultivators. Most of those who arrived, being
unfitted for field-labour in a tropical climate, added but little to
the production of cotton. A few kept to the work, but many died, and
most of the others either migrated to the towns or left the country. As
might have been expected, the Haytian arrangements were as bad as they
could be. Settlers were given ground without any water, but were told
that a canal should some day be cut; food and money were distributed
irregularly, and malversation added to the other difficulties.
Bounties were scarcely required, as the price rose from 4d. in 1859
to 1s., 1s. 2d., and 1s. 5d. in 1863, and 2s. 6d. in 1864; and many
Haytians tried to do something in order to win a portion of this
harvest. Field-hands, however, were scarce, and in order to get in
their crops the proprietors had to offer half the amount to those who
would come and gather it for them. One peasant proprietor, in 1863,
managed with his family to secure 8000 lbs. of cotton, which he sold
for £500, a sum to which he was wholly unaccustomed. The comparative
large amounts to be received would have had a very great effect on the
prosperity of the country had there been the necessary hands ready to
take advantage of the opportunity offered. The industrious, however,
were few, and many proprietors had to leave a portion of their crop to
rot on the plants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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