to marry, and who equally shrink from the mercenary embrace of prostitution, are (in the phraseology of the island) placés: that is, literally translated, placed.
"The difference between placement and marriage is, that the former is entered into without any prescribed form, the latter with the usual ceremonies: the former is dissoluble at a day's warning, the latter is indissoluble except by the vexations and degrading formalities of divorce; the former is a tacit social compact, the latter a legal compulsory one; in the former the woman gives up her name and her property; in the latter, she retains both.
"Marriage and placement are, in Hayti, equally respectable, or, if there be a difference, it is in favour of placement; and in effect ten placements take place in the island for one marriage. Pétion, the Jefferson of Hayti,[1] sanctioned the custom by his approval and example. Boyer, his successor, the president, did the same;[2] and by far the largest portion of the respectable inhabitants have imitated their presidents, and are placed, not married. The children of the placed have, in every particular, the same legal rights and the same standing as those born in wedlock.
"I imagine I hear from the clerical supporters of orthodoxy one general burst of indignation at this sample of national profligacy; at this contemning of the laws of God and man; at this escape from the Church's ceremonies and the ecclesiastical blessing. I imagine I hear the question sneeringly put, how long these same respectable connections commonly last, and how many dozen times they are changed in the course of a year.
"Gently, my reverend friends! it is natural you should find it wrong that men and women dispense with your services and curtail your fees in this matter. But it is neither just nor proper, that because no prayers are said, and no fees paid, you should denounce the custom as a profligate one. Learn (as I did the other day from an intelligent French
- ↑ "It may suffice, in illustration of Pétion's character, to quote the touching inscription found on his tomb—'Here lies Pétion, who enjoyed for twelve years absolute power, and during that period never caused one tear to flow.'"
- ↑ "Boyer's resolution in this matter is the more remarkable, as he has been urged and pestered to submit to the forms of marriage. Grégoire, archbishop of Blois, and who is well known for the perseverance and benevolence with which he has, for a long series of years, advocated the cause of the African race, wrote to the president of Hayti in the most urgent terms, pressing upon him the virtue—the necessity, for his salvation—of conforming to the sacrament of marriage. To such a degree did the good old archbishop carry his intermeddling officiousness, that when Boyer mildly but firmly declined availing himself of his grace's advice, a rupture was the consequence, greatly to the sorrow of the president, who had ever entertained the greatest respect and affection for his ecclesiastical friend."
