Editing 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (section)

===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 />