1733 slave insurrection on St. John

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{{Short description|Revolt in the Danish West Indies}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = 1733 slave insurrection on St. John
| partof = [[Slave rebellion#North America|slave rebellions in the Americas]]
| image = Mary´s Fancy, Saint Croix.jpg
| caption = Painting of a plantation in the [[Danish West Indies]]
| date = 23 November 1733 – 25 August 1734
| place = [[Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands|Sankt Jan]], [[Danish West Indies]] (present-day [[Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands]])
| result = Uprising suppressed
| combatant1 = {{Flagicon image|Flag of the Danish West Indies from american tabacco card.svg|border=no}} [[Danish West India Company]] {{Flagd|Kingdom of France}} [[Martinique]]
| combatant2 = Rebel slaves ([[Akwamu]] natives)
| commander1 = {{Flagicon|Denmark-Norway}} Phillip Gardelin {{Flagicon|Denmark-Norway}} Johannes Sødtmann {{Flagicon|Denmark-Norway}} John Jansen {{Flagicon|Denmark-Norway}} Lieven Jansen {{Flagicon|Denmark-Norway}} Øttingen
| commander2 = June Kanta Bolombo Aquashie [[Breffu]]
| strength1 = Hundreds
| strength2 = 150
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Danish colonial conflicts}}
| image_size = 300
}}
{{History of United States Virgin Islands}}

The '''1733 slave insurrection on St. John''' ({{Langx|da|Slaveoprøret på Sankt Jan}}), also known as the '''Slave Uprising of 1733''', was a [[slave insurrection]] started on Sankt Jan in the [[Danish West Indies]] (now [[St. John, United States Virgin Islands]]) on November 23, 1733, when 150 [[Slavery in the Caribbean|African slaves]] from [[Akwamu]], in present-day [[Ghana]], revolted against the owners and managers of the island's [[plantations]].

Led by [[Breffu]], an enslaved woman from Ghana, and lasting several months into August 1734, the [[slave rebellion]] was one of the earliest and longest slave revolts in the [[Americas]]. The Akwamu slaves captured the fort in [[Coral Bay, United States Virgin Islands|Coral Bay]] and took control of most of the island. They intended to resume crop production under their control.<ref>{{Citation|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4614-6202-6_15|last=Sebro|first=Louise|chapter=The 1733 Slave Revolt on the Island of St. John: Continuity and Change from Africa to the Americas|date=2013|doi=10.1007/978-1-4614-6202-6_15|title=Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity|series=Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology|volume=37|pages=261–274|publisher=Springer New York|isbn=978-1-4614-6201-9|access-date=May 9, 2020|chapter-url-access=subscription}}</ref>

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 from [[Martinique]], a French colony. The colonial militia continued to hunt down [[Maroon (people)|maroons]] and finally declared the rebellion at an end in late August 1734.<ref name="Rebellion">{{cite web |url=http://www.stjohnbeachguide.com/Slave%20Rebellion.htm |title=St. John Slave Rebellion |access-date=July 19, 2008 |work=St. John Off the Beaten Track |publisher=Sombrero Publishing Co |year=2000| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080621205949/http://www.stjohnbeachguide.com/Slave%20Rebellion.htm| archive-date= June 21, 2008 }}</ref>

==Background==

===Slave trade===
{{North American Slave Revolts}}
When the Spanish first occupied the West Indies, they used the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|indigenous people]] as slave [[Manual labour|labor]] but most died as a result of infectious disease, overwork, and war. In the late 17th century, various other European powers competed for control over the island after the Spanish had abandoned control.<ref name=Virginislands/> The Danes claimed Saint John in 1718 as a result of a period of negotiation, but numerous Dutch planters stayed on the island. While some plantations had been started, there was not an adequate supply of laborers among the settlers. Young Danish people could not be persuaded to [[Immigration|immigrate]] to the West Indies in great enough numbers to provide a reliable source of labor. Attempts to use [[indentured servants]] from Danish [[prisons]] as plantation workers were not successful. Failure to procure plantation labor from other sources made importing slaves from Africa the main supply of labor on the Danish West Indies islands.<ref name=Rebellion /> Danish ships carried about 85,000 African slaves to the New World from 1660 to 1806.<ref name=Danish-NorwegianSlaveTrade>{{cite web|url=http://www.unesco.no/fredensborg/danish-norwegian_slave_trade/|title=Danish-Norwegian Slave Trade|access-date=July 22, 2008|work=The Slave Ship 'Fredenborg:' An information project|publisher=United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051229125453/http://www.unesco.no/fredensborg/danish-norwegian_slave_trade/|archive-date=December 29, 2005|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The Danes embarked on the African slave trade in 1657. By the beginning of the 18th century, the [[Danish West India and Guinea Company]] had consolidated their slave operation to the vicinity of [[Accra]] (now in Ghana) on the [[Guinea]] coast. The Akwamu had conquered the Accra and established dominance on trading routes into the interior. They became the dominant [[Akan people|Akan]] state in the district of Accra and were known for being "heavy-handed in dealing with the tribes they had conquered", taking captives and selling them as slaves, and keeping numerous women as [[concubines]] in various villages.<ref name=Rebellion /> After the Akwamu king died, rival tribes in the area attacked the weakened Akwamu nation, and by 1730 they defeated the people. In retaliation for years of oppression, their enemies sold many Akwamu people into slavery to the Danes; they were transported to plantations in the West Indies, including estates on St. John.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

At the time of the 1733 slave rebellion, hundreds of Akwamu people were among the slave population on St. John. Approximately 150 Akwamu were involved in the insurrection; other African ethnic groups did not support it, and some were loyal to planters.<ref name=Rebellion />

===Danish occupation of St. John===
[[File: The West Indian Atlas.jpg|thumb|300px|West Indies harbor]]
In 1718 the Danish claimed the island of St. John to develop [[Sugar production in the Danish West Indies|sugar plantations]] and crops such as indigo and cotton; there was an especially great demand for sugar and prices were high in Europe. Dutch planters were still important on the island. By mid-1733, planters had developed 109 plantations, and slaveholders owned more than 1,000 African slaves on St. John.<ref name=Rebellion /> One-fifth of the plantations were then devoted to sugar; by the end of the century, most would be, and the total slave population would be 2,500.<ref name=Rebellion /> In 1733 the population of African slaves on St. John was more than five times as large as that of the European inhabitants: 1,087 slaves and 206 whites.<ref name=Africana>{{Cite book | author1=Appiah, Anthony | author2=Gates, Henry Louis | title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience | year=1999 | publisher=Basic Civitas Books | location=New York | isbn=0-465-00071-1 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/africanaencyclop00appi }}</ref> Many of St. John's plantations were owned by people residing on [[St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands|St. Thomas]]. These absentee landowners hired [[Slavery in the United States#Efficiency of slaves|overseers]] to manage their lands and slaves on St. John. Under these conditions, overseer cruelty flourished. The Danish West India Company provided only six soldiers for the defense of St. John, which supplemented the local white [[militia]].<ref name=Rebellion />

===Marooning===
In 1733, in response to harsh living conditions from [[drought]], a severe [[hurricane]], and crop failure from insect infestation, many slaves in the West Indies, including on St. John, left their plantations to [[maroon (people)|maroon]], hiding in the woods. In October 1733, slaves from the Suhm estate on the eastern part of St. John, and the company estate and other plantations around the Coral Bay area absconded.<ref name=IDocumentaryHistory>{{cite web |url=http://www.friendsvinp.org/archive/Cinnamon/cinmer31.htm |title=Part I: Establishment and Consolidation, 1718–1755 |access-date=July 19, 2008 |work=A Documentary History of the Cinnamon Bay Plantation 1718–1917 |publisher=Little Nordside Press|year=1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080506102132/http://www.friendsvinp.org/archive/Cinnamon/cinmer31.htm|archive-date=May 6, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{pages needed|date=November 2014}} The colonial legislature passed the ''Slave Code of 1733'' to try to enforce obedience from slaves.<ref name=SlaveSociety>{{Cite book |author=A. T. Hall, Neville|author2=B. W., Higman|title=Slave Society In The Danish West Indies: St Thomas, St John And St Croix|year=1994 |publisher=University Press of the West Indies|isbn=976-41-0029-5}}</ref>{{pages needed|date=November 2014}} Penalties for disobedience were severe public punishment, including whipping, amputation of limbs, or death by hanging. A large section of the code was intended to prevent slaves from escaping and stop them from setting up independent communities.<ref name=coloredsilks>{{Cite book|author1=Wilks, Ivor |author2=Hunwick, John O.|author3=Lawler, Nancy Ellen|title=The Cloth of Many Colored Silks: Papers on History and Society, Ghanaian and Islamic in honor of Ivor Wilks|year=1996|publisher=Northwestern University Press|location=Evanston, Ill.|isbn=0-8101-1299-X|pages=180–181}}</ref> When slaves tried to revolt or escape from the plantations, often they were quickly caught and either their ear was cut off, or in severe cases, a few limbs.

==Slave revolt==
[[File:USVI_-_St._John_-_Coral_Bay_-_Map_from_1720.jpg|thumb|left|Map of Coral Bay, 1720.]]
In their homeland, many of the Akwamu had been [[nobles]], wealthy [[merchants]], or other powerful members of their society. These high-ranking Akwamu developed plans to instigate an insurrection, take control of St. John and rule it. They planned to continue the production of sugar and other crops by using Africans of other tribes as slave laborers.<ref name=Rebellion /> An Akwamu chief, King June, a field slave and foreman on the Sødtmann estate, led the rebellion. Other leaders were Okanta, King Bolombo, Prince Akwasi, and [[Obrafuor]]. According to a report by French planter Pierre Pannet, the rebel leaders met regularly at night for some time to develop the plan.<ref name=coloredsilks1>{{Cite book|author1=Wilks, Ivor |author2=Hunwick, John O. |author3=Lawler, Nancy Ellen|title=The Cloth of Many Colored Silks: papers on history and society, Ghanaian and Islamic in honor of Ivor Wilks|year=1996|publisher=Northwestern University Press|location=Evanston, Ill.|isbn=0-8101-1299-X|pages=176–181}}</ref>

===Events on November 23, 1733===
[[File:Sugar cane knife, 1800s, Danish West Indies.jpg|thumb|[[Cane knife]] from the Danish West Indies; knives like this one were used by rebelling slaves.]]
The 1733 slave insurrection started with open acts of rebellion by slaves on November 23, 1733, at the Coral Bay plantation owned by [[Magistrate]] Johannes Sødtmann.<ref name="coloredsilks"/> An hour later, other slaves were admitted into the fort at Coral Bay to deliver wood, a regular event. They had hidden knives in the lots, which they used to kill most of the soldiers at the fort. Soldier John Gabriel escaped to St. Thomas and alerted Danish officials to the revolt.<ref name=coloredsilks /> A group of rebels under the leadership of King June stayed at the fort to maintain control; another group took control of the estates in the Coral Bay area after hearing the signal shots from the fort's cannon. The slaves killed many of the whites on these plantations.<ref name=Rebellion /> The rebel slaves moved along to the north shore of the island. In each area, they avoided widespread destruction of property since they intended to take over the estates and resume crop production for their benefit.<ref name=coloredsilks />

===Accounts of the rebel attacks===
After gaining control of the Suhm, Sødtmann, and Company estates, the rebels spread out over the rest of the island. The Akwamu attacked the [[Cinnamon Bay Plantation]] located on the central north shore. Landowners John and Lieven Jansen and a group of loyal slaves resisted the attack, holding off the advancing rebels with gunfire. The Jansens were able to retreat to their waiting boat and escape to Durloe's plantation. The loyal Jansen slaves also escaped. The rebels looted the Jansen plantation and moved on to confront whites taking refuge at Durloe's plantation. Defenders repelled the slaves' attack at Durloe's, and many planters and their families escaped to St. Thomas, {{convert|5|–|9|mi}} by sea.<ref name=Rebellion />

===End of the rebellion and aftermath===
Danish officials appealed for help to French colonists at [[Martinique]], located {{convert|324|mi}} away.<ref name="distance">[http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distances.html?n=718 "Distance from Fort-de-France to ..."], Distance Calculator, Time and Date website, accessed November 13, 2014</ref> Two French ships arrived from there at St. John on April 23, 1734, carrying several hundred French and [[Swiss mercenaries#Service in the French army|Swiss]] troops to try to take control from the rebels. With their firepower and troops, they had restored planters' rule of the island by May 27.<ref>"St. John Revolt (1733)", by Lori Lee, in ''Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion'', ed. by Junius P. Rodriguez (Greenwood Press, 2007) p. 435</ref> The French ships returned to Martinique on June 1, leaving the local militia to track down the remaining rebels, which they did over the next three months.<ref name=coloredsilks />

The slave insurrection was considered ended on August 25, 1734<ref name=IDocumentaryHistory /> when Sergeant Øttingen captured the remaining maroon rebels.<ref name=coloredsilks /> The loss of life and property from the insurrection caused many St. John landowners to move to [[St. Croix]], a nearby island bought by the Danish from the French in 1733. Four ships carried planters and their families from Charlotte Amalie in August. While they found St. Croix to be a richer land, they had to have their slaves clear the jungle before being able to live there readily.<ref name=Virginislands>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/virginislandsou01farigoog |quote=1733 slave insurrection on St. John. |title=The Virgin islands, our new possessions: and the British islands|access-date=August 22, 2016 |author=Theodoor Hendrik Nikolaas de Booy, John Thomson Fariswork|publisher=J. B. Lippincott company|year=1918}}</ref>
[[File:Plate celebrating the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, 19th century-.jpg|thumb|180px|left|Freedom 100 years later]]

Franz Claasen, a loyal slave of the van Stell family, was deeded the [[Mary Point Estate]] for alerting the family to the rebellion and assisting in their escape to St. Thomas. Franz Claasen's land deed was recorded August 20, 1738, by Jacob van Stell, making Claasen the first "[[free person of color|Free Colored]]" landowner on St. John.<ref name=Mary>{{cite web|url=http://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/Articles/MarysPoint.htm?limited=1 |title=Mary's Point Hike |access-date=July 21, 2008 |author=David Knight |work=St. John Historical Society Newsletter |publisher=St. John Historical Society |date=January 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728060835/https://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/Articles/MarysPoint.htm?limited=1 |archive-date=July 28, 2011 }}</ref>

[[Denmark-Norway]] ended the African slave trade in the Danish West Indies on January 1, 1803, but slavery continued on the islands. When the British government abolished slavery in the [[British West Indies]] in 1833, slaves on St. John began escaping to nearby [[Tortola]] and other British West Indian islands, where they were given refuge by the local inhabitants.<ref name=HistSociety>{{cite web|url=http://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/Articles/Emancipation-Timeline.htm?limited=1|title=Timeline of the Emancipation of the Danish West Indies|access-date=July 21, 2008|publisher=St. John Historical Society|date=June 1, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728060751/http://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/Articles/Emancipation-Timeline.htm?limited=1|archive-date=July 28, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> On May 24, 1840, eleven slaves from St. John stole a boat and escaped to Tortola during the night. The eight men (Charles Bryan, James Jacob, Adam [alias Cato], Big David, Henry Law, Paulus, John Curay), and three women (Kitty, Polly, and Katurah) were from the [[Annaberg Historic District|Annaberg plantation]] and ten Leinster Bay estates. Brother Schmitz, the local [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] [[missionary]], was sent to Tortola by the St. John police to persuade the slaves to return. After meeting with British officials in Tortola and the runaway slaves, Schmitz returned to St. John to relay the slaves' resolve to stay away because of abusive treatment by the overseers on the plantations. After planters replaced those overseers, Charles Bryan, his wife Katurah, and James Jacobs returned to work at Leinster Bay. Kitty, Paulus, David, and Adam moved to St. Thomas. Henry Law, Petrus, and Polly stayed on Tortola. John Curry relocated to [[Trinidad]]. None of the runaway slaves were punished.<ref name=OhterRevolt>{{cite web|url=http://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/Articles/StJohn-OtherRevolt.htm?limited=1|title=St. John's Other Revolt: The Desertions of 1840|access-date=July 21, 2008|author=David Knight|work=St. John Historical Society Newsletter|publisher=St. John Historical Society|date=November 2001|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728060841/http://www.stjohnhistoricalsociety.org/Articles/StJohn-OtherRevolt.htm?limited=1|archive-date=July 28, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Slaves and free blacks petitioned the colonial government and Denmark to abolish slavery. On July 3, 1848, 114 years after the slave insurrection, enslaved Afro-Caribbeans of [[St. Croix]] held a non-violent, mass demonstration seeking the abolition of slavery. Governor-General [[Peter von Scholten]] declared [[abolitionism|emancipation]] throughout the Danish West Indies.<ref name=ST.CROIX>{{cite web|url=http://www.unesco.no/fredensborg/monuments_and_site_in_st_croix/|title=Monuments and sites in St. Croix|access-date=July 20, 2008|work=The slave ship Fredenborg: An information project|publisher=United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210151324/http://www.unesco.no/fredensborg/monuments_and_site_in_st_croix/|archive-date=February 10, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023]] directed the placement of a commemorative plaque at Ram Head Peak.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Proposed Omnibus Bill Would Boost National Park Service Funding |url=https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2022/12/proposed-omnibus-bill-would-boost-national-park-service-funding |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=National Parks Traveler |date=December 20, 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

==Representation in other media==
*A historical novel, ''Night of the Silent Drums: A Narrative of Slave Rebellion on the Virgin Islands'' (Scribners 1975), by John L. Anderson. It tells the story of the revolt based on careful research and fills in the blank spaces with plausible events. The author was an authority on the St. John Rebellion and also an able historical novelist.
*The young-adult novel ''[[My Name Is Not Angelica]]'' (1989), by [[Scott O'Dell]], explores the revolt and its aftermath through the eyes of a young African woman, born as Raisha.
*The [[science fiction]] novel ''The Lesson'' by [[Cadwell Turnbull]] uses the slave revolt and aftermath as a backdrop for the earliest memories of the Ynaa race on the islands.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slave Insurrection on St. John}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1733]]
[[Category:Conflicts in 1734]]
[[Category:1733 in the Caribbean]]
[[Category:1734 in the Caribbean]]
[[Category:1733 in the Danish colonial empire]]
[[Category:1734 in the Danish colonial empire]]
[[Category:18th-century rebellions]]
[[Category:Afro-Caribbean history]]
[[Category:Danish West Indies]]
[[Category:Slave rebellions in North America]]
[[Category:Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands|1733 slave insurrection on St. John]]
[[Category:Pre-emancipation African-American history|Saint John]]
[[Category:Military operations involving Denmark]]
[[Category:Riots and civil disorder in the United States Virgin Islands]]
[[Category:Slavery in the Danish West Indies]]
[[Category:1730s in the Danish West Indies]]
[[Category:Cultural history of the United States Virgin Islands]]

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