Editing 1733 slave insurrection on St. John (section)

==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>