The Journal of Negro History Volume II Part 30

8. A slave who lifts his hand to strike a white person or threaten him with violence, shall be pinched and hung, should the white person demand it, if not to lose his right hand.

9. One white person shall be sufficient witness against a slave, and if a slave be suspected of a crime, he can be tried by torture.

10. A slave meeting a white person, shall step aside, and wait until he pa.s.ses; if not, he may be flogged.

11. No slave shall be permitted to come to town with clubs or knives, nor fight with each other, under penalty of fifty stripes.

12. Witchcraft shall be punished with flogging.

13. A slave who shall attempt to poison his master, shall be pinched three times with red-hot iron, and then broken on a wheel.

14. A free Negro who shall harbor a slave or thief shall lose his liberty, or be banished.

15. All dances, feasts, and plays, are forbidden unless permission be obtained from the master or overseer.

16. Slaves shall not sell provisions of any kind, without permission from their overseers.

17. No estate slave shall be in town after drum-beat, otherwise he shall be put in the fort and flogged.

18. The king's advocate is ordered to see these regulations strictly carried out.--See Knox, "St. Thomas, West Indies,"

69-71.

[372] For an interesting sketch of the insurrection see Knox, "St.

Thomas, West Indies," 58 et seq. See also _The Annals of the Am.

Academy of Political and Social Science_, XXII, 101.

[373] The whites referred to Sout as an intelligent man and considered him "skilful and successful as a botanist in the use of medicinal plants found in the island." See Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 104.

[374] Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 105.

[375] Knox, "St. Thomas," 84.

[376] _Ibid._, 84-85.

[377] _Ibid._, "St. Thomas, West Indies," 111.

[378] Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 35.

[379] _Arena_, XXVIII, 242-247.

[380] Guerney, "A Winter in the West Indies," 21.

[381] _Ibid._, 22.

[382] _Ibid._, 23.

[383] This insurrection is well set forth in Knox's "St. Thomas" on page 110 et seq. and in Taylor's "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," page 125 et seq.

[384] Taylor, "Leaflets from the West Indies," pp. 127-128.

[385] _Ibid._, 129.

[386] Before things returned to the former state Oberst V. Oxholm arrived to displace General v. Scholten as governor. The latter was tried by a Commission and condemned for dereliction of duty by the influence of the slave-holding cla.s.s whom he had angered because of his favorable att.i.tude towards the Negroes. Upon appealing to the Supreme Court, however, he was acquitted.

[387] See "Labour Act" in Doc.u.ments of this number.

[388] See Taylor, "Leaflets from the Danish West Indies," 151 et seq.

[389] Rhodes, "History of the United States," V, 397.

[390] _The Independent_, Lx.x.xIV, 515.

[391] For a detailed account of the efforts to purchase these islands see W.E. Curtis, "The United States and Foreign Powers," pp. 28-51; Wm. H. Seward, "The Diplomatic History of the War for the Union," V, 28-29; Francis Wharton, "A Digest of the International Law of the United States," I, 416-417; James Parton, "The Danish Islands,"

_pa.s.sim_; United States, Twenty-first Congress, second session, House of Representatives, Report No. 117. Executive Doc.u.ment 21, Thirty-seventh Congress, second session, House of Representatives.

Miscellaneous Doc.u.ment No. 80; and Dixon, "The History of the St.

Thomas Treaty," _pa.s.sim_.

[392] According to Schuyler, "Charles Sumner, then chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, who was engaged in a personal quarrel with the Administration, simply refused to report back the treaty to the Senate, and he was supported by a sufficient number of his Committee and of Senators to enable the matter to be left in this position. It required new negotiations to prolong the term of ratification and it was with great difficulty that in a subsequent session the treaty was finally brought before the Senate and rejected. As may be imagined, our friendly relations with Denmark were considerably impaired by this method of doing business." See Schuyler, "The St. Thomas Treaty."

[393] _The Independent_, Lx.x.xIV, 515.

[394] _North American Review_, CLXXV, 501; and 55th Congress, 2d session, Senate Report No. 816.

[395] 57th Session. First session. Doc. No. 284.

[396] We have here relied to some extent on information obtained from the United States Consul C.H. Payne and Vice-Consul A.P. Zabriskie stationed at St. Thomas for a number of years.

DOc.u.mENTS

RELATING TO THE DANISH WEST INDIES

It is possible to multiply here the doc.u.ments bearing on the Danish West Indies but these are considered adequate to give the student of history an idea as to the colonial policy of the Danes, their treatment of the bondmen and the subsequent self-a.s.sertion which culminated in open resistance to established authority. We are concerned then with what the Danish were endeavoring to do, what they actually accomplished, and what the observer from afar thought of these achievements. To bring out more strikingly these phases of the situation these doc.u.ments have been added.

A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLANDS OF ST. THOMAS AND ST. CROIX, IN THE POSSESSION OF THE DANES, IN 1769

The only remaining islands in this part of the world, that we shall now mention, are those of St. Thomas and St. Croix, which belong to the Danes; the former is situated in 18. north lat.i.tude, and is one of that cl.u.s.ter of islands called the Virgins. Though it is not above seven leagues in circ.u.mference, it is in a commodious situation, and has an excellent port of an oval form, in a manner surrounded by two promontories, which defend the s.h.i.+ps that lie within from almost all winds. In the bottom of this port is a small fortress which stands in a plain, and is a regular square with four small bastions, but it has neither outworks nor a ditch, it being only surrounded with a pallisade. On the right and left of the fort are two small eminences which in our plantations would be called bluffs; but though they seem designed for batteries that would command the whole harbour, no such use is made of them. The King of Denmark has here a Governor and a garrison; notwithstanding which, there is a large factory on the island belonging to the Brandenburghers, the subjects of the King of Prussia.

The neighbourhood of the Spanish island of Porto Rico is only at 17 leagues distance, and secures the inhabitants from the danger of wanting provisions, to which they would otherwise be exposed; for though the soil is tolerably good and every foot of it cultivated, yet it would not produce sufficient for the maintenance of the inhabitants, who are very numerous.

The town of St. Thomas consists of one long street, at the end of which is the Danish magazine, a large magnificent and convenient building. The Brandenburgh factory is also very considerable, and the persons belonging to it are chiefly French refugees, who fled thither when the protestants were expelled from the French islands. The chief produce of their plantations is sugar, which is very fine grained, but made in small quant.i.ties; yet the Danish Governor, who is usually a man of some rank, lives in a manner suitable to his character, and generally acquires a good fortune in that station. The director of the Danish trade also becomes rich in a few years, and the inhabitants in general are in very easy circ.u.mstances.

To this island the Spaniards are continually sending large vessels to purchase slaves. This is the chief support of the Danish and Brandenburgh commerce, as these slaves are drawn from their settlements upon the coast of Africa, which, if they had not this trade, would have long ago become useless, and consequently deserted. The Spaniards also buy here, as well as at Curacao, all sorts of European goods, of which there is always a vast stock in the magazine, belonging chiefly to the Dutch. There is likewise a great resort of English, Dutch, and French, vessels to this port, where they can always depend upon the sale of superfluous, and the purchase of necessary commodities. But though a prodigious deal of business is transacted in time of peace, in time of war it is vastly increased, for being a neutral port, the privateers of all nations resort thither to sell their prizes.

St. Croix is seated about five leagues east of St. Thomas's, and about 30 west of St. Christopher's, in 18. north lat. and in 65. west longitude. It is about ten or twelve leagues in length, but not above three broad. The air is very unhealthy but the soil is easily cultivated; very fertile, and produces sugar canes, citrons, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and other excellent fruits, and has several fine trees, whose wood is very beautiful, and proper for inlaying.