Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/60

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Haiti: Her History and Her Detractors

tation, took up arms and declared themselves in revolt, with Beauvais at their head. The first encounter took place at the Néret plantation. The whites were defeated; they fled in disorder. From Port-au-Prince troops and artillery were then despatched. A bloody battle was fought on the Pernier plantation. The whites were again defeated, and fled, abandoning their guns, which fell into the hands of the "affranchis." Beauvais then marched with his army to Trou-Caiman, which was fortified.

These two defeats made it clear to the whites that on the battlefield at least the blacks and mulattoes were not their inferiors. Genuinely alarmed by the simultaneous uprising of the slaves and the "affranchis," the wealthy planters thought that the time had come to sever their relations with France. They sought England's protection and sent to Jamaica for help. The English did not deem that things were ripe for action; in consequence they refused to intervene. Left to themselves, the wealthy planters of Port-au-Prince, in fear of the devastation which had befallen the plain of the North, made up their minds to come to an agreement with the colored men. On October 23, a treaty of peace was signed at the Damiens plantation. By this concordat it was agreed that the "affranchis" would be admitted, on a footing of perfect equality with the whites, in all the assemblies, even in the Colonial Assembly; the sentence against Ogé and his companions would be held in execration and the memory of these martyrs rehabilitated; a solemn mass would be celebrated in all the churches of the Western "département" for these victims, and proper indemnity paid to their widows and children.

When, in pursuance of the treaty of Damiens, the army of colored men entered Port-au-Prince on October 24, Beauvais, its general, and Caradeux, the most aggressive of the planters of Saint-Domingue and commander-in-chief of the militia of the Western "département," were to be seen marching along arm in arm.

In the Artibonite the whites had also signed, on Sep-