It started with the Emancipation Act of 1833.
It set all slaves free.
It deprived planters like the Cosways of their work force/manpower. The estates lost their former wealth and splendor. It was the decay of the property.

The masters lost their power over the blacks.
They even were “jeer(ed) at her” (l. 21). This is symbolized by Mrs. Cosway’s “shabby clothes” (l. 20), “poisoned horse” (l. 26).
Cf. Mr. Luttrell’s suicide: “he grew tired of waiting” (l. 11). His house is left empty (l. 16), said to be “haunted” (l. 17).
Cf. the Cosway’s garden (last §). It was formerly a Garden of Eden (l. 40), now it “gone wild”, a malevolent jungle. The whole country seems to be going to waste (see the unrepaired roads, l. 6).

“We were not in their ranks” (l. 2): we didn’t belong to the white community.
Because of Annette’s beauty and Martinique origin, they were ignored, left aside. It is jealousy and envy. All the planters “have their own misfortunes” (l. 9).

Even their closer neighbor, Mr. Luttrell disappears (l. 12). The doctor is reluctant to come (l. 38). “I got used to solitary life” (l. 18).

The former slaves harass them, in words and deeds (actes).
Antoinette doesn’t even feel “safe in bed” (l. 7). She is obsessed with death and morbidity and decay.
Cf. her description of the horse’s death (l. 24), the garden (l. 40-48).
The two women feel ‘marooned”, helpless, excluded from their own country. The don’t belong anywhere, they are neither black nor white (“white niggers”, “white cockroaches”).

l. 36-48: “A symbolical representation of the women’s plight (misfortune)”.
Pierre, as the only male heir, is a fair representation of the family’s plight: he is powerless, helpless, of their independing death: he is doomed to die soon.
He is staggering to his death.

Annette will let herself slip into lunacy. Antoinette draws into silence, into herself. She is aware there’s no future. She excludes herself into the house. She is aware her family/her civilization are about to collapse.

The Garden of Eden “has gone wild” (l. 41) and treacherous. It is pervaded by an atmosphere of decay.