Editing 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (section)

==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.