m the very tinge of skin for which they had
recently blushed, when in company with the whites. They secretly
fomented the germs of insurrection at the nightly meetings of the
slaves. They kept up a clandestine correspondence with the friends of
the blacks in Paris. They spread widely in the huts, speeches and papers
from Paris, which instructed the colonists in their duties and informed
the slaves of their indefeasible rights. The rights of man, commented
upon by vengeance, became the catechism of all dwellings.

The whites trembled; terror urged them to violence. The blood of the
mulatto Oge and his accomplices, shed by M. de Blanchelande, governor of
San Domingo and the colonial council, sowed every where despair and
conspiracy.

X.

Oge, deputed to Paris by the men of colour to assert their rights in the
Constituent Assembly, had become known to Brissot, Raynal, Gregoire, and
was affiliated with them to the Society of the Friends of the Blacks.
Passing thence into England, he became known to the admirable
philanthropist, Clarkson. Clarkson and his friend at this time were
pleading the cause of the emancipation of the negroes: they were the
first apostles of that religion of humanity who believed that they could
not raise their hands purely towards God, so long as those hands
retained a link of that chain which holds a race of human beings in
degradation and in slavery. The association with these men of worth
expanded Oge's mind. He had come to Europe only to defend the interest
of the mulattoes; he now took up with warmth the more liberal and holy
cause of all the blacks; he devoted himself to the liberty of all his
brethren. He returned to France, and became very intimate with Barnave;
he entreated the Constituent Assembly to apply the principles of liberty
to the colonies, and not to make any exception to Divine law, by leaving
the slaves to their masters; excited and irritated by the hesitation of
the committee, who withdrew with one hand what it gave with the other,
he declared that if justice could not suffice for their cause, he would
appeal to force. Barnave had said, "_Perish the colonies rather than a
principle!_" The men of the 14th of July had no right to condemn, in the
heart of Oge, that revolt which was their own title to independence. We
may believe that the secret wishes of the friends of the blacks followed
Oge, who returned to San Domingo. He found there the rights of men of
colour and the prin