Editing 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (section)

===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.