North – The Islands (pt. 2)

Slave traders know the islands well, for the profits drawn from slave plantations are way too high to be dismissed by mere concerns of morality. Owners of plantations and mines drive their slaves to death, knowing that under such risks as are common in the islands, only in this way they may turn a profit off their investments. Thus, slaver ships are common in these waters.

Slaves cutting the sugar cane, from “Ten Views in the Island of Antigua”, by William Clark (1823). Seriously, writing this post took me so long because I really wanted to find this picture first. (And a few others, but at some point I had to my cut losses.)

For the enslaved themselves, this is a dire fate, for so far from their homes, sometimes not even successful escape will provide solace. On the mainland at least, there remains the chance to flee into the jungle. But the islands are not as vast.

There is an island which used to be a supplier of saltpeter and sulphur to the entire archipelago, and exported back over the ocean lines for much profit. For some reason, birds from all around the sea came to roost here. The piles they left over centuries on the mountainous coasts was a greater wealth than any cash-crop plantation that could take hold there. Sulphurous springs found in the island’s interior welcomed those willing to set up powder mills, iron seams called for blacksmiths. Soon, though the island lacked a good port, and so all trade had to pass through a small, secluded cove, slaves were worked hard for either. They did so, until they chose no more.

Battle of San Domingo, also known as the Battle for Palm Tree Hill, by January Suchodolski (1845).

Now, the island is written off, spoken of in tones hushed by memory of terrors, and a different flag flies over the cliffs. A black one, with a cannon over crossed chains. Ships steer clear of the island, for there are no warning shots. The island’s forts are watchful, its cannons do not want for powder, and its people do not waver for mercy.

It is rumoured, though, the locals might stay their hands, if the right offer is given. A pound of powder for each ten slaves set free. A cannon for a governor dead. A crate of pistols for a plantation burned to the ground. Time will see if there is one to give it. The guns of the island reach far. All that needs to be done is to come close enough to be heard.

Citadelle Laferrière in Haiti, as photographed by Rémi Kaupp in summer of 2006. Additional details here.