The account which they gave of themselves was this.

The White People of St.Domingo, consisting of less than ten thousand persons, had deputies then sitting in the National Assembly.

The People of Colour in the same island greatly exceeded the Whites in number.

They amounted to thirty thousand, and were generally proprietors of lands.

They were equally free by law with the former, and paid their taxes to the mother-country in an equal proportion.
But in consequence of having sprung from slaves they had no legislative power, and moreover were treated with great contempt.