Slave Society in the Danish West Indies: St. Thomas, St.John and St.Croix

This volume is an account of the development and destruction of slavery in St Thomas, St John and St Croix, the Caribbean islands which today comprise the US Virgin Islands. The book sees slavery as fundamental to the entire fabric of colonial society, and pays particular attention to the social and political life of the whites and freedmen in interaction with the slaves. The Danish West Indian colonies contained a small but significant part of the slave population of the Caribbean. Each of the islands had a distinct history during the period of slavery: St Croix was the scene of a full-blown sugar plantation economy; St Thomas served as a major entrepot, with a small plantation sector and a large role in the transatlantic slave trade; St John developed as a plantation economy, but for various reasons the slaves came to engage in relatively independent economic activity. Resistance to slavery was persistent, with important rebellions occurring in St John and St Croix. Although Denmark was the first European nation to abolish the slave trade, emancipation did not come until 1848, so that the gap between abolition and emancipation was longer than in most territories. Thus, the study of slave society in the Danish West Indies has much to tell about the nature of Caribbean history generally. Based on extensive research in the Copenhagen archives, this book makes an original contribution to the understanding of slave societies throughout the Americas.