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Danish West Indies Dansk Vestindien | |||||||
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| 1672–1917 | |||||||
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| Status | Colony ofDenmark–Norway (1672–1814) Colony ofDenmark | ||||||
| Capital | Charlotte Amalie (1672–1754,1871–1917) Christiansted (1754–1871) | ||||||
| Common languages | Danish (official) English Virgin Islands Creole Negerhollands Other Languages | ||||||
| Governor-General | |||||||
• 1756–1766 | Christian Leberecht von Prøck (first) | ||||||
• 1916–1917 | Henri Konow (last) | ||||||
| History | |||||||
• Danish West India Company takes possession ofSaint Thomas | 1672 | ||||||
| 1685–1754 | |||||||
• Saint John colonized and claimed | 1717–1718 | ||||||
• Danish West India Company purchasesSaint Croix fromFrench West India Company | 1733 | ||||||
| 31 March 1917 | |||||||
| Area | |||||||
| [1] | 400 km2 (150 sq mi) | ||||||
| Population | |||||||
• 1911[1] | 27,000 | ||||||
| Currency | Danish rigsdaler (until 1875) Rigsdaler (1754–1849) Daler (1849–1917) Latin Coin Union (from 1905) Danish krone (1875–1917) | ||||||
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TheDanish West Indies (Danish:Dansk Vestindien) orDanish Virgin Islands (Danish:Danske Jomfruøer) orDanish Antilles were aDanish colony in theCaribbean, consisting of the islands ofSaint Thomas with 83 square kilometres (32 sq mi),Saint John (Danish:St. Jan) with 49 square kilometres (19 sq mi),Saint Croix with 220 square kilometres (85 sq mi), andWater Island.
Water Island was sold in 1905 to theDanish East Asiatic Company. The islands of St Thomas, St John, and St Croix werepurchased by United States in 1917 and became known as theUnited States Virgin Islands. Water Island was bought by the US Government in 1944, and became part of the US Virgin Islands in 1996.
TheDanish West India-Guinea Company annexed uninhabited St. Thomas[2] in 1672. It annexed St. John in 1718 and bought St. Croix fromFrance (KingLouis XV) on 28 June 1733. When the Danish West India-Guinea Company went bankrupt in 1754, KingFrederik V ofDenmark–Norway assumed direct control of the three islands. Although, during theNapoleonic Wars, Britain twice occupied the Danish West Indies, first in 1801–1802 and again in 1807–1815.
The economy of the Danish West Indies depended on slavery. Danish colonizers in the West Indies aimed to exploit the profitabletriangular trade, involving the export of firearms and other manufactured goods to Africa in exchange forslaves, who were then transported to the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations. Caribbean colonies, in turn, exported sugar, rum and molasses to Denmark. After arebellion, slavery was officiallyabolished in 1848, leading to the near economic collapse of the plantations.
In 1852, the Danish parliament first debated the sale of the increasingly unprofitable colony. Denmark tried several times to sell or exchange the Danish West Indies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the United States and theGerman Empire.[3] The islands were eventually sold to the United States for $25 million ($613,570,000 in 2024) which took over the administration on 31 March 1917 and renamed the territory theUnited States Virgin Islands.
Merchants inCopenhagen askedKingChristian IV for permission to establish a West Indian trading company in 1622, but, by the time an eight-year monopoly on trade with theWest Indies,Virginia,Brazil andGuinea was granted on 25 January 1625, the failure of theDanish East India andIceland Companies and thebeginning of Danish involvement in theThirty Years' War dried up any interest in the idea.Prince Frederick organized a trading mission toBarbados in 1647 underGabriel Gomez and thede Casseres brothers, but it and a 1651 expedition of two ships were unsuccessful. It was not untilErik Smit's private 1652 expedition aboard theFortuna was successful that interest in the West Indies' trade grew into an interest in the creation of a new Danish colony.[4]
Smit's 1653 expedition and a separate expedition of five ships were quite successful, but Smit's third expedition found his two vessels captured for a loss of 32,000rigsdaler. Two years later, a Danishflotilla was destroyed by a hurricane in August. Smit returned from his fourth expedition in 1663 and formally proposed the settlement ofSt. Thomas to the king in April 1665. After only three weeks' deliberation, the scheme was approved and Smit was namedgovernor. Settlers departed aboard theEendragt on 1 July, but the expedition was ill-starred: The ship hit two large storms and suffered from fire before reaching its destination, and then it was raided byEnglish privateers prosecuting theSecond Anglo-Dutch War, in which Denmark was allied with the Netherlands. Smit died of illness, and a second band of privateers stole the ship and used it to trade with neighboring islands. Following a hurricane and a renewed outbreak of disease, the colony collapsed, with the English departing for the nearby French colony onSaint Croix, the Danes fleeing toSaint Christopher, and the Dutch assisting their countrymen onTer Tholen in stealing everything of value, particularly the remaining Danish guns and ammunition.[4]
The Danes formed aBoard of Trade in 1668 and secured acommercial treaty with Britain, providing for the unmolested settlement of uninhabited islands, in July 1670. TheDanish West India Company was organized in December and formally chartered byKingChristian V the next year on 11 March 1671.[5]Jørgen Iversen Dyppel, a successful trader onSaint Christopher, was made governor and the king provided convicts from his jails and two vessels for the establishment of the colony, the yachtDen forgyldte Krone[a][6] and the frigateFærøe.[b][7]Den forgyldte Krone was ordered to run ahead and wait but ended up returning to Denmark after theFærøe under Capt.Zacharias Hansen Bang was delayed for repairs inBergen. TheFærøe completed her mission alone, establishing a settlement on St. Thomas on 25 May 1672. From an original contingent of 190 – 12 officials, 116 company "employees" (indentured servants), and 62 felons and former prostitutes – only 104 remained, 9 having escaped and 77 having died in transit. Another 75 died within the first year, leaving only 29 to carry on the colony.[4]
In 1675, Iversen claimedSt. John and placed two men there; in 1684,GovernorEsmit granted it to two English merchants from Barbados but their men were chased off the island by two British sloops sent byGovernorStapleton of theBritish Leeward Islands. Further instructions in 1688 to establish a settlement on St. John seem not to have been acted on until GovernorBredal made an official establishment on 25 March 1718.[4]
The islands quickly became a base for pirates attacking ships in the vicinity and also for theBrandenburg African Company.GovernorLorentz raised enormous taxes upon them and seized warehouses and cargoes of tobacco, sugar, and slaves in 1689 only to have his actions repudiated by the authorities in Copenhagen; his hasty action to seizeCrab Island prohibited theBrandenburgers from establishing their own Caribbean colony, however. Possession of the island was subsequently disputed with theScottish in 1698 and fully lost to the Spanish in 1811.
St. Croix was purchased from theFrench West India Company in 1733. In 1754, the islands were sold to kingFrederick V, becoming royal Danish-Norwegian colonies.
The first British invasion and occupation of the Danish West Indies occurred during theFrench Revolutionary Wars, when at the end of March 1801 a British fleet arrived at St Thomas. The Danes accepted the Articles of Capitulation the British proposed and the British occupied the islands without a shot being fired. The British occupation lasted until April 1802, when the British returned the islands to Denmark.
The second Britishinvasion of the Danish West Indies took place during theNapoleonic Wars in December 1807 when a British fleet captured St Thomas on 22 December and Saint Croix on 25 December. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless. This British occupation of the Danish West Indies lasted until 20 November 1815, when Britain returned the islands to Denmark.
By the 1850s, the Danish West Indies had a total population of about 41,000 people. The government of the islands was under a governor-general, whose jurisdiction extended to the other Danish colonies of the group. However, because the islands formerly belonged to Great Britain, the inhabitants were English in customs and in language. The islands of that period consisted of:[8]
The United States had been interested in the islands since at least the 1860s, when PresidentAndrew Johnson came close to obtaining St. Thomas and St. John. Denmark agreed to sell in 1867 for $7.5 million and thelocal population approved the transfer in a plebiscite, but the US Senate never voted on the treaty and it expired.[3][12] In 1889, there were rumors of negotiations between the Danish and the Germans for sale of the islands.[3] In 1902, the Danish Parliament rejected both a convention and a treaty with the United States.[13]
The United States acted again in 1915 because of the islands' strategic position near the approach to thePanama Canal, and because of a fear thatGermany might seize them to use asU-boat bases during World War I. Areferendum was held in Denmark on the future of the islands, which had become both a financial burden and strategic concern. On 17 January 1917, according to theTreaty of the Danish West Indies, the Danish government sold the islands to the United States for $25 million ($614 million in current prices) when the United States removed its objections to Denmark taking control of the whole ofGreenland, and the U.S. and Denmark exchanged their respective treaty ratifications. Danish administration ended on31 March 1917, when the United States took formal possession of the territory and renamed it theUnited States Virgin Islands.[14][15] Rear AdmiralJames H. Oliver was the first American governor of the Danish West Indies.[15]
At the time of the US purchase of the Danish West Indies in 1917, the colony did not includeWater Island, which had been sold by Denmark to theEast Asiatic Company, a private shipping company, in 1905. The company eventually sold the island to the United States in 1944, during theGerman occupation of Denmark in the Second World War.[16]
St Thomas was a hub of the West Indiespacket trade from 1851 to 1885. Denmark issued stamps for the Danish West Indies from 1856 onward.
The Danish West Indies were inhabited by many different cultures, and each had its own traditions and religions. The church looked after people's moral upbringing, and the king was responsible for civil order.
Freedom of religion was partially granted to the colonies to help settle the islands, as there was a shortage of willing settlers from Europe. This resulted in a large proportion being Dutch and British natives fleeing religious persecution.[17]
Jews began settling the colony in 1655, and by 1796the first synagogue was inaugurated. In its heyday in the mid-19th century, the Jewish community made up half of the European population.[18] One of the earliestcolonial governors,Gabriel Milan, was aSephardic Jew.
In spite of a general tolerance of faiths, manyAfrican religions were not recognized because they typically revolved around belief inanimism and magic, beliefs that were consistently met with scorn, and were regarded as immoral and inferior. It was widely believed that if slaves could be converted to Christianity they could have a better life, and effort was made to do so.[17]
There was no state-sponsored religion in Denmark until 1849, and authorities required that all citizens observeDanish holidays.
By 1900, with a population of 30,000, a fourth of the people wereCatholics, while most of the rest wereAnglican,Moravian, or otherProtestant, including former slaves. For decades, the Moravians had organized missions and also taken charge of the educational system.[19]
Chattel slavery was practiced in the Danish West Indies from at least the 1670s until theabolition of slavery in 1848. Most slaves worked on plantations, particularly insugar production, though some also worked at the harbors.
Slaves outnumbered Europeans on all islands, often by large margins. On Saint Thomas, population expansion was recorded as 422 Africans and 317 Europeans in 1688, 555 Africans and 383 Europeans in 1699,[clarification needed] and 3,042 Africans and 547 Europeans in 1715 (a ratio of more than 5:1), and by 1755 slaves outnumbered Europeans 12:1. On Saint John, there were 677 Africans and 123 Europeans in 1728, 1086 Africans and 208 Europeans in 1733 (a ratio of more than 5:1), and by 1770 slaves outnumbered Europeans 19:1. On Saint Croix in 1797, there were 25,452 slaves and 2,223 Europeans (a ratio of more than 11:1) as well as 1,164 freedmen, and in 1815 there were 24,330 slaves and 180 Europeans (a ratio of more than 135:1) as well as 2,480 freedmen. At that time, freedmen (many of whom had purchased their freedom) also outnumbered Europeans on Saint Thomas and Saint John.[20]
Trading African slaves was part of thetransatlantic slave trade byDenmark–Norway around 1671, when theDanish West India Company was chartered, until 1 January 1803, when the 1792 law to abolish the slave trade came into effect.[21]
By 1778, it was estimated that the Danes were bringing about 3,000 Africans to the Danish West Indies yearly for enslavement.[22] These transports continued until the end of 1802, when a 1792 law byCrown Prince Regent Frederik that banned the trade of slaves came into effect.[23]
Laws and regulations in the Danish West Indies were based on Denmark's laws, but the local government was allowed to adapt them to match local conditions. For example, things like animals, land, and buildings were regulated according to Danish law, but Danish law did not regulate slavery. Slaves were treated as common property, and therefore did not necessitate specific laws.
In 1733, differentiation between slaves and other property was implied by a regulation that stated that slaves had their own will and thus could behave inappropriately or be disobedient. There was a general consensus that if the slaves were punished too hard or were malnourished, the slaves would start to rebel. This was borne out by the1733 slave insurrection on St. John, where many plantation owners and their families were killed by theAkwamu, includingBreffu, before it was suppressed later the following year.[24] In 1755Frederick V of Denmark issued more new Regulations, in which slaves were guaranteed the right not to be separated from their children and the right to medical support during periods of illness or old age. However, the colonial government had the ability to amend laws and regulations according to local conditions, and thus the regulations were never enacted in the colony, on grounds that it was more disadvantageous than advantageous.[25]
The 1733 slave insurrection on St. John, which lasted from November 1733 until August 1734, was one of the earliest and longestslave rebellions in the Americas. The insurrection started on 23 November 1733, when 150 slaves, primarilyAkwamus, revolted against plantation owners and managers. The slaves captured the fort inCoral Bay and took control of most of the island.[26]
Planters regained control by the end of May 1734, after the Akwamu were defeated by several hundred better-armed French and Swiss troops sent in April fromMartinique, a French colony. Colony militia continued to hunt downmaroons and finally declared the rebellion at an end in late August 1734.[27]
By the 1830s and 1840s, thesugar beet industry had reduced the profitability of sugarcane. The BritishSlavery Abolition Act 1833emancipated slaves in the neighboring British West Indies, fully effective as of 1840. Abolition in the Danish West Indies was discussed, withGovernor von Scholten, who had been seeking reforms since 1830, in favor ofemancipation.[28][29] Scholarly consensus suggests von Scholten's views were influenced by hisfree-colored mistress Anna Heegaard.[30][31][32]
King Christian VIII supported the gradual abolition of slavery and ruled in 1847 that every child born of an unfree woman should be free from birth, and that slavery would end entirely after 12 years. That ruling satisfied neither the slaves nor the plantation owners.[33]
Meanwhile, on 27 April 1848, France signed a law to abolish slavery in their colonies within two months, but a slave insurrection onMartinique led to immediate abolition on Martinique on 22 May andGuadeloupe on 27 May.[34]
The slaves in the Danish West Indies did not want to wait for their freedom, either. On 2 July 1848, freedman John Gottlieb (also known as "Moses Gottlieb" or "General Buddhoe") and Admiral Martin King (among others) led a slave rebellion, taking overFrederiksted, Saint Croix.[35] That evening, hundreds of slaves gathered peaceably outsideFort Frederik refusing to work the next day and demanding freedom. By 10 a.m. the following morning, about 8,000 slaves had joined.[36]
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On the afternoon of 3 July 1848 (now known asEmancipation Day), Peter von Scholten, to end the rebellion and prevent bloodshed and damages, went to Frederiksted and announced an immediate and total emancipation of all slaves. He then went toChristiansted, where a second rebellion had formed and some fires had been set, and had notices disseminated to the other islands. General Buddhoe worked with the governor and other officials to end the riots and violence that had broken out on a few estates.[37]
In the aftermath, Buddhoe is said to have been jailed and exiled toTrinidad.[37] Governor von Scholten also fared poorly. As governor, he did not actually have the authority to end slavery, but had found himself in a situation where he needed to take immediate action that could not wait for communicating with Denmark. For his actions, he was called back to Denmark to face a trial for treason. He was first denied his pension, but later cleared of the charges.[38]
When Denmark abolished slavery in 1848, many plantation owners wanted full reimbursement on the grounds that their assets were damaged by the loss of the slaves, and by the fact that they would have to pay for labor in the future. The Danish government paid fifty dollars for every slave the plantation owners had owned and recognized that the slaves' release had caused a financial loss for the owners.[25]
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The lives of the formerly enslaved people changed very little because many continued to be bound to the plantation system through contractual servitude.[39] Most were bound to serve the plantations where they had previously been enslaved. As employees, former slaves were not the plantation owners' responsibility and did not receive food or care from their employers. As part of asharecropping system, some formerly enslaved people received a small hut, a little land, and some money; however, this one-time compensation did not change the harsh working conditions.
TheFireburn labor riot, considered to be the largest labor revolt in Danish colonial history, took place on 1 October 1878.[40] The revolt began because the formerly enslaved continued to live and work in slave-like conditions even though three decades had passed since the abolition of slavery.Mary Leticia Thomas, today referred to as Queen Mary of St. Croix, spearheaded the revolt alongside three other women: Axeline ‘Agnes’ Elizabeth Salomon, Matilde McBean and Susanna ‘Bottom Belly’ Abrahamsson.[41] The Fireburn uprising and its leaders continue to have a meaningful role in St. Croix.
2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the sale of the colony by Denmark to the United States. With this centennial, conversations on the legacy of Danish–Norwegian colonization and slavery were reignited in the Scandinavian mainstream.[42][43] For example, the artistsJeannette Ehlers andLa Vaughn Belle unveiled Denmark's first statue of a black woman, I Am Queen Mary, to memorialize Denmark's colonial impact.
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The Danesoverstruck Spanish coins, issued byCharles III. However, the used stroke is ofChristian VI (1730– 1746) and not ofChristian VII (1766–1808). Bearing witness to the difficulty not only of producing or procuringflans, but also even just obtaining new striking tools.
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The Danes found no one living on St. Thomas when they landed. The English settlers who had occupied the island after the end of the first Danish settlement, had left six or seven weeks before, though the reason for their departure is not known. [...] Denmark's long association with the Virgin Islands began with this occupation of St. Thomas in 1672.
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