476 P. S. Reinsch itself desirous of becoming more and more like the former masters. The negroes of the French Antilles are in a distinctly favorable position, being in full possession and enjoyment of all the political rights of French citizens. They are not de facto disfranchised as in the United States, nor have they relapsed into savagery as have the blacks in the interior of Hayti. The French islands are therefore perhaps the best field for a study of the political capacity and the social tendencies of a colored population which is allowed to govern itself after republican models. The importance of the political history of these islands becomes still greater when we consider that they have been practically the model for French colonial organization and legislation up to the present. All French dependencies were looked upon as colonies, and the theories which in the enthusiasm of the Revolution had been applied to the small French colonies of that time were ex- tended to the large possessions acquired after 1870. The Antilles and Guiana are the last remnant of a vast empire in America and as such have always been treated with much liberality and favor. Moreover, the representatives of these colonies at Paris were, on account of their familiarity with colonial affairs, looked upon as authorities in all colonial questions, and they took ever}' opportu- nity to advocate the policy of representative government and politi- cal assimilation to which they owed their own importance. Thus these islands have had an influence upon French history out of all proportion to their size; while in themselves they illustrate all the problems of a modern dynamic society, — the questions of the use of political power, of public education and religion, the dis- tribution of property, and socialism. To these are superadded the intensely interesting problems that always attend the meeting of races on different planes of civilization. The verj' smallness of the islands makes them specially valuable to the student ; like the Athens of Plato and Aristotle, Martinique is a miniature world in which almost all social problems can be studied in a simple form. The student will derive both assistance and pleasure from the insu- lar self-importance and naivete of the inhabitants. It will be necessary briefly to review the history of these col- onies before 1870, in order that we may understand the bases of the present institutions. Though slavery was abolished in 1848, the whites remained in power politically for some time and also re- tained the control of labor, which is a question of life and death to industry in tropical colonies. A decree' of February 13, 1852, im- posed on agricultural laborers the obligation of haying a contract 'Cited in Hue, Martinique, Paris, 1S77.
