The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hour and the Man, by Harriet Martineau

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Title: The Hour and the Man
An Historical Romance

Author: Harriet Martineau

Release Date: January 31, 2008 [EBook #24120]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUR AND THE MAN ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Hour and the Man, by Harriet Martineau.

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The following is taken with acknowledgements from Chambers Dictionary of
Biography, about the subject of this book.

Pierre Dominique Toussaint l'Ouverture (1746-1803). Haitian black
revolutionary leader (the surname derives from his bravery in once
making a breach in the ranks of the enemy). Born of African slave
parents in Haiti, he was freed in 1777. In 1791 he joined the black
insurgents, and in 1797 was made commander-in-chief in the island by the
French Convention. He drove out British and Spaniards, restored order
and prosperity, and about 1800 began to aim at independence. Napoleon
proclaimed the re-establishment of slavery, but Toussaint declined to
obey. He was eventually overpowered and taken prisoner, and died in a
prison in France.

Harriet Martineau wrote this book in 1839, during which year she also
wrote "Deerbrook", and published an analysis of her tour of America,
from which she had returned in 1836.

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THE HOUR AND THE MAN, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.

CHAPTER ONE.

WAITING SUPPER.

The nights of August are in Saint Domingo the hottest of the year. The
winds then cease to befriend the panting inhabitants; and while the
thermometer stands at 90 degrees, there is no steady breeze, as during
the preceding months of summer. Light puffs of wind now and then fan
the brow of the negro, and relieve for an instant the oppression of the
European settler; but they are gone as soon as come, and seem only to
have left the heat more intolerable than before.

Of these sultry evenings, one of the sultriest was the 22nd of August,
1791. This was one of five days appointed for rejoicin