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Show 254 Edward Everett. oxprc~>~lon nmoug the lower white people in spcnldng of nny man's j:!'ood fo1·tnnc to say, " ll ('it ltwreux comme un ?U(J1'e cle Gallifel," (he is as happy as one uf Oalll;ct's Nogrore.') "Mr. Everett then tells the story of the white infant on the stake. I~ appear~ to me that the orator could ~ot have been more unhappy in his sclectwn, and that he bus wholly mistaken the true meanincr of the phrase, ' Jl est l~eureux comme un negre de Gallffet.' The nctu1~l truth is, that the slaves of Gallifet were subjected to the most dreadful tortures. In order to force the largest amount of work from them every species of cruelty was used,- whips, thumb-screws, mcks, &c.' I was told, in conversation last evening, by a lady who r esided some time in St. Domingo, that she had visited the plantation of Gallifct. Her description of what she saw, was this: "'From the l10uso a thick wall of stone ran for eome distance. At intervals in this wall, dungeons of only sufficient size to admit the body of one human bci 11~, wore constructed. They were partly underground, and in wet weather wnre partly filled with mud and water. In these dungeons, refractory or other slnvos were placed, tho front was then bricked up, and tho wretched prisoners left to die of starvation. It was in summer when I was there, and of course tho ground wns dry. By stooping down and brushing away the gruss, I was able to look into these dungeons. I reachrd my hand in, nnd took out parts of chaius. The bodies of those who hnd been coufinod there had perished away, and nothing but the iron!! remained.' "It was in view of these terrible cruelties that the ironical sayin(J' arose. "When any one wished to express the lowest condition that any, one could attai?, he said,, ' Il est lwureux comme ttn. negre de Gallif et, l~e1.tr~ux not ~cmg used m the sense of happy, but 'lucky.' Mr. Everetts rmpaled mfant does not look so horrible in this licrht. "Again,, 1\fr. :E~erett should have mentioned that on the very day when the msurrectwn broke out, the principal white inhabitants were assembled at Cap, in open rebellion against the <YOVernmcnt of France and decided to offer the .island _to E~·\gland .. It was this which gav~ t~e Negroes ~he oppo~tumty to nse. Ihe whites were clearly r eRponSlbl~ for the Impaled mfant. '\Vhat caused the rebellion of the whites agamst the French government? 'Vhen the French Revolution broke out, t~e fre~ mulatto~s su~~o:ed that .they were to have equal representatlOn With the whites. llus the whites denied and murdered with hor:i~ cr~e~ties. Vincent. Og6. and his brother. 1 The impaled infant agam. 1his tlm~ t~e I_mpalmg '':as done by the whites to grown me~1. The cruelties mfhcted on Vmcent 00'6 interested many influcntml .persons in Paris in the cause of th~ mulattoes. The Abbe Gregoire pleaded for them in the National Assembly, and on the 16th of lt~arch was passed the celebrated decree which gave the mulattoes th~ nghts of F:ench citize_ns, - of suffrage, and to seats in the parochial and colom~l assembhcs. Robespierre said, 'Perish the colonies, rat~er than s~cnfic_e o?e iota of our principles.' The meeti11g of the ~bites to ~esi. t this JUSt decree, gave the Negroes the opportunity to rmpale white mfants as the whites had impaled grown mulattoes." Mr · Charles K. Whipple, in a letter to the Boston Atlas and Daily Bee, after quoting the historical extract read by Mr. Everett, explains ..... Edward Everett. 255 the origin of the proverbinl expression among the lower white people, in speaking of any man's good fortune: "I wi!'lh, first, to inquire into Rome details of the 'happy' condition of M. Oallifct's N ecrroes, nncl into the probable reusom why M. Odcluc, the agent of that '~01·thy man, and the personal administrator of such • happiness' ns his N e~ro cs enjoyed, • desired the as8istance of a few solcliets from the town g1tarrl' before he npproached them. F ortunately, the 'menus nrc nt hmtd. "I hnve before me a pamphlet of ninety-six pages, printed nt Cape Henry, St. Domingo, in October! 1814, d edicate~ to King IIcnr~ I., (who is known to us only by lus surname, Chnst~phe,) un~l ";n~~cn by 13m·on De Vastey, entitled 'Le Systemc Coloma! Dev01lc,. (lhe Colonial SystC'm Unveiled.) It givrs nn account of the des~ru ctH~.n of the oricrinul IIayticn~. of the origin and horrors of the Afncan Slnve Trade ~nd of those fricrhtful cruelties, Rystematicnlly perpetrated uncler Slave1~y, which led to 0 the massac~·e. of the ~lavcholdcrs. T~e. writer understand the importance of g1vmg detmls, nml he spec1hes the names nnd the individual acts of 1-'0me of tho ·e planters and agents who were most distingui ·hed, at the time of the insurrection, for hideous and atrocious cruelty to their slaves. Strange to say, these dreadful narrations nrc made in sorrow, not in anger. Strange nl:-io, (to those who have dcpt:nded on the honor and veracity of l\lr. Everett,) the names of his chosen r epre:-;entatives of the humanity -let me be accurate the 'kindness and libcmlity' of slaveholders- Onllifet, the propriet~r, and Odcluc, his agent, appear in this list, as follows: "•Onllifct and Montalibor destroyed their unfortunate IJlncks by the most horrible eufferings, under tho scourge, nnd iu miry dnn ~con~ , where the vict ims prrish rd, their bodies lying continually iu water. Onllifct wns ucrustomed to cut the h cun-~trlngs of his slaves. "I After the terrible rzuatre lJirzuet, (the punishment called the jow· stakes, to bo descrlbell h ereafter,) Odeluc, ngcnt of Onllil'et, cnused brine to bo poured upon the bleeding bodies of his victims, with Cnyeuue pepper, nnd other acrimonious sub. stances.' - p. 44. · "Mter describing (p. 64) a variety of kinds of dungeons horribly adapted to inflict suffering, the writer continues : "'Other dn ngooos were made in muddy plnceP, (such were those of Onllifet, Mont. alibor, Milot, J,ntonr Duroc, and nlmost upon all tho residences of the great plnntere,) where the victims perished lying in water, by a cold and dampness which suppressed tho circulation of tho b lood; besides these frightful dungeons, there were a tliousnnd varied instruments of torture invented by the ferocity of the coloni!'ts, bars, enormous Iron collars with projecting branches, thumb-screws, hand-cuffs, mufflers, iron mnslcs, chains, &c. Ah, why, groat God I wns nil this nppnrntus of death nnd agony reserved for innocent victims, who fell on their knees nt tho least sign? }'lnnlly, the terriblo quatrepiquet, which was always ready in tho pluntations, the towns u~d villages; tho victim was fastened to it by the four Jimbtl, tho middlo of tho body betng kept firm by a band which prevented him from moving; others extended tho sufferer upon a ladder well supported by ropeR, while two executioners, (relieved by two otb('rs when they were weary.) hy ln shes a hundred times rt>peated, lacerated and mangled tho body of tl.Je wretche~ one.'- pp. &!, 65. |