Oluale Kossola, the Last Survivor of the Atlantic Slave Trade

[David Lockmiller]

The Danish Colony in the West Indies

From 1672 to 1917 Denmark had a colony in the Caribbean called the Danish West Indies, which consisted of the islands St. Thomas, St. Jan and St. Croix. In 1917 the colony was sold to the U.S. for $25 million in gold coin. March 31st 2017 is the centenary of Transfer Day, when the Danish West Indies was handed over to the U.S.

The lack of manpower was resolved by one of the most appalling crimes against humanity in world history – the transatlantic slave trade. Some years prior to the colonization of St. Thomas, Denmark had built forts on the west coast of Africa for the trade of goods, including enslaved Africans. This marked the beginning of the large-scale trade and transportation of human beings across the Atlantic, where they were bought by plantation owners to produce sugar. Today is it estimated that around 120,000 enslaved Africans were transported to the Caribbean on Danish ships. Many of them did not survive the passage, and if they did a harsh fate awaited them in the sugarcane fields.

Resistance is a natural reaction to inhumane conditions. Some enslaved Africans chose freedom by ‘marooning’ - hiding in the bush or escaping to neighboring islands. There were also cases of direct rebellion, like that on St. Jan in 1733, when the enslaved population seized and held control of the entire island for more than half a year. Only with the assistance of their French and English neighbors were the Danes able to suppress the rebellion. The rebellion of 1733 is now commemorated with an annual Historic & Commemorative Tour on the island of St. John. There were also uprisings after the abolition of slavery in 1848, like the Fireburn rebellion of 1878 on St. Croix.

During World War I, fears that Germany might secure the Danish Virgin Islands renewed the U.S.’s longstanding interest in them. The Danes had been trying to get rid of the Caribbean islands since the mid-1800s, because their plantations had collapsed after a slave revolt forced the abolition of slavery in the colony.

Denmark resisted a deal without provisions for the population, but agreed to sell after President Woodrow Wilson’s secretary of state implied that the U.S. might occupy the islands.

And in 1946, the U.S. offered the country $100 million to buy Greenland.