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Description and Holding Information
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Mackenzie, Notes on Haiti, 1830
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Notes on Haiti, made during a residence in that republic: by Charles Mackenzie, Vol. 1-2, London, Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1830. (Mackenzie
served variously in the English diplomatic service, being stationed as British Consul-General in Haiti from 1826-27. Apart from his ordinary consular
duties, he was also charged with producing a thorough report on the “state of society, and the actual condition of the new republic in all its
relations.” In the fulfillment of that mission he produced one of the most useful pictures of Haitian life in the first third of the 19th century. While he
was in no way a sympathetic apologist for the Haitian experiment in self-government, he was able to see both sides with regard to many important
issues. He is particularly scathing on the question of the recently imposed French indemnity, which he presciently predicted “must check the improvement of
the country to an indefinite period.” {V1, p.333} Mackenzie’s reports buttressed the regnant point of view within the British government, both as to
the bad behavior of the French and the bleak prospects for the Haitians. He accomplished his task so well as to receive public commendation from the
then British Prime Minister {1827} George Canning. This sign of public approbation must have been particularly gratifying to Mackenzie, since in the
preceding year that same Canning, then Foreign Secretary {1822-27}, let Mackenzie “take the fall” in response to a complaint from then American
Secretary of State Henry Clay {1825-29} over Mackenzie’s handling of a problem with an American ship porting in Haiti. {see Papers of Henry Clay, Hargreaves
& Hopkins, Vol. 6, p. 344} Unfortunately for Mackenzie, the debate in Britain itself over the abolition of slavery had heated to full volume shortly
after his return, and opponents of abolition unearthed his dispatches as evidence against the ability of black slaves to ever function as free citizens
in a self-governing polity. Once brought into the public fray, Mackenzie’s reports quickly became widely cited, even being printed as a command paper
in May of 1829. Both sides in the abolition debate cited his work as evidence in their cause; both in ways that Mackenzie felt twisted his texts to
dishonest purposes. Thus his motivation to release his reports in a new guise as an edited, commercially published text. Volume 1 of the work {TOC
starts on p. xv} is devoted to a diary of Mackenzie’s actual travels through Haiti and his most important observations during his term as Consul-General.
Volume 2 {TOC starts on p. v} provides a short history of the Haiti portion of Hispaniola from the time of the landing of Columbus, through the French
plantation era and the slave revolution period, to the union of North and West Haiti as one independent country by President Boyer after the suicide
of King Henri Christophe. {pp. 1-89}. This usefully brief, and generally balanced, summary was derived, in the author’s words, from the works of
Baron Lacroix {LLMC Title No. 31203} and Placide Justin’s French edition of Barskeet’s History of the Island of S. Domingue {LLMC Title No. 31335}. The
remainder of the volume is devoted to sections providing contemporary data on Haiti’s government, population, ecclesiastical establishment,
agriculture, commerce, fisheries, and military forces.)
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Title:
Notes on Haiti, made during a residence in that republic / by Charles Mackenzie ...
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OCLC Number:
123428645
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Available Volumes
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