Honoring All over the world Ladies Time and you can VI History Month, we are showing three daring feminine to help you who the Territory owes an effective high loans. There is still work to be complete, that is why we review to increase inspiration and you can reassurance regarding Virgin Islanders who possess went in advance of us.
King Mary
Mary Thomas, called Queen Mary, (california. 1848–1905) are among frontrunners of one’s 1878 “Fireburn” work riot, otherwise uprising, into the island out of St. Croix.
Mary Thomas is off Antigua and you can found its way to St. Croix in the 1860s for taking work on the plantations for the the new island. Following 1848 emancipation out of enslaved Africans on the Danish West Indies, an enthusiastic 1849 labor legislation repaired wages and you will labor conditions for all plantation professionals and you can banned negotiating having finest wages otherwise performs criteria. It produced plantation really works ugly and some workers registered to exit the latest plantations plus the islands, to look for most useful criteria in other places. The federal government answered toward labor scarcity by simply making it much harder so you can to have workers to leave the islands, demanding fitness permits and you may battery charging charges to possess passports. Whenever wages were to getting discussed about slip regarding 1878, the latest workers’ means were refused, and you may the fresh severe requirements getting take a trip have been enforced. It stimulated the fresh new very-named Fireburn riots, which have been called the biggest labor riot when you look at the Danish record, and during which more 50 plantations was burnt.
Due to their unique role since a chief during the uprising age getting labeled as “King Mary”. The employees selected their own and two other female, “Queen Agnes” and you may “King Matilda”, just like the “queens” to do ritual and celebratory features during the uprising. King Mary is arrested and you will experimented with along with other management of work uprising. In the demonstration of the work management Thomas is sentenced so you’re able to demise to own arson and you can looting however, got their particular phrase commuted to help you life imprisonment, and you may is gone to live in Copenhagen and you may place on Women’s Jail, Christianshavn in the 1882, however in 1887 is actually repaid so you’re able to Christiansted, St. Croix in order to suffice the remainder of their own phrase.
Anna Heegaard
Anna Heegaard remains a fascinating figure inside the Virgin Isles records. She is paid having boosting conditions into enslaved African and you will “Totally free Colored” people of your Danish Western Indies regarding the 19th century as the a result of their particular 20 12 months relationship with brand new islands’ Governor Standard, Peter von Scholten.
With respect to the Encyclopedia off Antislavery & Abolition, “Heegard let me tell you influenced the latest way to possess legal and you may societal equality to have totally free black colored someone on the Danish Western Indies.” Heegaard was born in St. Croix inside January of 1790 in order to solitary moms and dads known as an effective “free mulatto woman” and a Danish Regulators clerk. She grew up together with her mom and you can 1 / 2 of sisters in the Christiansted. Heegard made use of their own wits and you will attraction in order to create liaisons having St. Croix’s wealthiest and you may strong guys, fundamentally crossing pathways on the Governor-Standard not long just after his arrival inside the 1827. By the that point, she had herself be a somewhat prosperous woman.
Heegard kissbrides.com have a glimpse at this link as well as the Governor-Standard first started conference continuously to discuss the new predicament of your own Free Colored society and the woman is considered have helped him get ready a list of public reforms that he presented to the latest Danish King, just who appointed a percentage to analyze and you can perform the newest regulations having public fairness for low-whites on the D.W.I. . Reforms on the “unfree” in the course of time incorporated – a regulated duration of work day, curtail from corporal abuse, forbidding out of public slave auctions, an excellent reprieve to have expectant mothers, business away from colleges and property developments. Von Scholten including spent some time working to elevator traps free of charge black and you can coloured anyone – setting them in public areas positions and you may holding racially provided societal features, to include his own dining events presided over from the Heegard. It resided given that people and you will wife for some out-of several ily in Denmark, and in the end the pair settled at the Bulows Minde Home Household outside Christiansted.