heir general emancipation) to
the present day, a period of _thirty_ years. An important question then
seems to force itself upon us, "What were the measures taken after so
frightful an event, as that of emancipation, to secure the tranquillity
and order which has been described, or to rescue the planters and the
colony from ruin?" I am bound to answer this, if I can, were it only to
gratify the curiosity of my readers; but more particularly when I
consider, that if emancipation should ever be in contemplation in our
own colonies, it will be desirable to have all the light possible upon
that subject, and particularly of precedent or example. It appears then,
that the two commissioners, Santhonax and Polverel, aware of the
mischief which might attend their decrees, were obliged to take the best
measures they could devise to prevent it. One of their first steps was
to draw up a short code of rules to be observed upon the plantations.
These rules were printed and made public. They were also ordered to be
read aloud to all the Negroes upon every estate, for which purpose the
latter were to be assembled at a particular hour once a week. The
preamble to these regulations insisted upon _the necessity of working,
without which everything would go to ruin_. Among the articles, the two
the most worthy of our notice were, that the labourers were to be
obliged to hire themselves to their masters for _not less than a year_,
at the end of which (September), but not before, they might quit their
service, and engage with others; and that they were to receive _a third
part_ of the produce of the estate, as a recompense for their labour.
These two were _fundamental_ articles. As to the minor, they were not
alike upon every estate. This code of the commissioners subsisted for
about three years.

Toussaint, when he came into power, reconsidered this subject, and
adopted a code of rules of his own. His first object was to prevent
oppression on the part of the master or employer, and yet to secure
obedience on the part of the labourer. Conceiving that there could be no
liberty where any one man had the power of punishing another at his
discretion, he took away from every master the use of the whip, and of
the chain, and of every other instrument of correction, either by
himself or his own order: he took away, in fact, _all power of arbitrary
punishment_. Every master offending against this regulation was to be
summoned, on complaint by the la