Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/54

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Haiti: Her History and Her Detractors

as his arrival became known the colonists took the necessary steps to secure his arrest. From Dondon Ogé went to Grande-Rivière[1] to the house of Jean-Baptiste Chavanne.[2] Of a practical mind, Chavanne was firmly convinced that nothing would be obtained from the whites by persuasion only. He therefore advised an immediate uprising of the slaves. Ogé deemed this plan too radical. In consequence, on October 21, he wrote to Count Peinier, then Governor of the island, saying that he had come to secure the application of the Decree of March, 1790, and that, in order to put an end to an unjust and absurd prejudice, he would, in case of need, repel force by force. As a result of this step, and in spite of his threat, a price[3] was set upon his head, and 800 soldiers were despatched against him. Ogé had only 250 followers. The first encounter was favorable to him. But new forces sent from Cap-Français defeated his small army. He succeeded, with Chavanne and a few companions, in reaching the Spanish part of the island. The Governor, Don Joachim Garcia, had the cruelty to give them up to the government of Saint-Domingue. After a so-called trial, Ogé and Chavanne, to whom even the assistance of a lawyer was denied, were sentenced "whilst alive to have their arms, legs, thighs and spines broken; and afterward to be placed on a wheel, their faces toward Heaven, and there to stay as long as it would please God to preserve their lives; and when dead, their heads were to be cut off and exposed on poles, Vincent Ogé's on the highway leading to Dondon, and Chavanne's on the road to La Grande Rivière, opposite the estate of Poisson." This barbarous sentence was executed in all its horror on February 25, 1791. The northern provincial assembly gathered together in state to witness this inhuman punishment. Ogé and Chavanne, hacked

  1. Situated in the Northern "département" of Haiti.
  2. Chavanne was among those who fought at Savannah for the independence of the United States.
  3. A reward of $4,000 was promised to any one who would capture Ogé.