Landowners in Santo Domingo do not enjoy…

Landowners in Santo Domingo do not enjoy the same level of wealth attained by their French counterparts in Saint-Domingue, although by the end of the eighteenth century economic conditions were improving somewhat.

The absence of market-driven pressure to increase production enabled the domestic labor force to meet the needs of subsistence agriculture and to export at low levels.

Thus, Santo Domingo imports far fewer slaves than does Saint-Domingue.

Spanish law also allows a slave to purchase his freedom and that of his family for a relatively small sum.

This fact contributes to the higher proportion of freedmen in the Spanish colony than in Haiti; by the turn of the century, freedmen actually constitute the majority of the population.

Again, in contrast to conditions in the French colony, this population profile contributes to a somewhat more egalitarian society, plagued much less by racial schisms.