]
CHAPTER V.
INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY--THE SLAVE-TRADE--AFRICAN TRIBES--THE CODE
NOIR--THE MULATTOES.
It will be necessary for the present to omit the story of the settlement
and growth of the French Colony, and of the pernicious commercial
restrictions which swelled the unhappy heritage of the island, in order
that we may reach, in this and a succeeding article, the great points
of interest connected with the Negro, his relation to the Colony and
complicity with its final overthrow.
The next task essential to our plan is to trace the entrance of Negro
Slavery into the French part of the island, to describe the victims, and
the legislation which their case inspired.
The first French Company which undertook a regular trade with the west
coast of Africa was an association of merchants of Dieppe, without
authority or privileges. They settled a little island in the Senegal,
which was called St. Louis. This property soon passed into the hands of
a more formal association of Rouen merchants, who carried on the trade
till 1664, the date of the establishment of the West-India Company, to
which they were obliged to sell their privileges for one hundred and
fifty thousand livres. This great Company managed its African business
so badly, that it was withdrawn from their hands in 1673, and made over
as a special interest to a Senegal Company.
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