The Journal of Negro History Volume II Part 31

This island has had several masters; but the French abandoning it in 1696, it was purchased by his late Danish Majesty. It was then a perfect desert, but was settled with great expedition, many persons from the English islands, and among them some of great wealth, having removed thither.--"_The World displayed or a Curious Collection of Voyages and Travels_," 1769, pp. 127-129.

II

DANISH COLONIZATION IN THE WEST INDIES IN 1798

The Danes had no sooner submitted to one single chief, than they fell into a kind of lethargic state. To those great convulsions, which are occasioned by the clas.h.i.+ng of important rights, succeeded the delusive tranquillity of servitude. A nation, which had filled the scene for several ages, appeared no more on the theatre of the world. In 1671, it just recovered so far from the trance, into which the accession of despotism had thrown it, as to look abroad, and take possession of a little American island, known by the name of St. Thomas.

This island, the farthest of the Caribbees towards the west, was totally uninhabited, when the Danes undertook to form a settlement upon it. They were at first opposed by the English, under pretence that some emigrants of that nation had formerly begun to clear it. The British ministry stopped the progress of this interference; and the colony were left to form plantations of sugar, such as a sandy soil, of no greater extent than five leagues in length, and two and a half in breadth, would admit of.

These improvements, which were at that time very rare in the American Archipelago, were brought on by particular causes.

The Elector of Brandenburgh had formed, in 1681, a company for the western part of Africa. The object of this a.s.sociation was to purchase slaves; but they were to be sold again; and that could be done in no other place than in the New World. It was proposed to the court of Versailles to receive them in their possessions, or to cede Santa-Cruz. These two proposals being equally rejected, Frederic William turned his views towards St. Thomas.

Denmark consented in 1685, that the subjects of this enterprising prince should establish a factory in the island, and that they should carry on a free trade there, upon condition of paying the taxes established, and of agreeing to give an annual stipend.

They were then in hopes of furnis.h.i.+ng the Spanish colonies, which were dissatisfied with England and Holland, with the Negroes which those provinces were continually in want of. The treaty not having taken place, and the vexations being incessantly multiplied, even at St. Thomas's, the transactions of the inhabitants of Brandenburg were always more or less unfortunate.

Their contract, however, which had been only made at first for thirty years, was renewed. Some few of them still belonged to it, even in 1731; but without any shares or any charter.

Nevertheless, it was neither to the productions, nor to the undertakings of the inhabitants of Brandenburg, that the island of St. Thomas was indebted for its importance.

The sea has hollowed out from its coast an excellent harbour, in which fifty s.h.i.+ps may ride with security. This advantage attracted both the English and French Buccaneers, who were desirous of exempting their booty from the duties they were subject to pay in the settlements belonging to their own nations.

Whenever they had taken their prizes in the lower lat.i.tudes, from which they could not make the Windward Islands, they put into that of St. Thomas to dispose of them. It was also the asylum of all merchant-s.h.i.+ps which frequented it as a neutral port in time of war. It was the mart, where the neighbouring colonies bartered their respective commodities which they could not do elsewhere with so much ease and safety. It was the port from which were continually dispatched vessels richly laden to carry on a clandestine trade with the Spanish coasts; in return for which, they brought back considerable quant.i.ties of metal and merchandise of great value. In a word, St. Thomas was a market of very great consequence.

Denmark, however, reaped no advantage from the rapid circulation.

The persons who enriched themselves were foreigners, who carried their wealth to other situations. The mother-country had no other communication with its colony than by a single s.h.i.+p, sent out annually to Africa to purchase slaves, which being sold in America, the s.h.i.+p returned home laden with the productions of that country. In 1719 their traffic increased by the clearing of the island of St. John, which is adjacent to St. Thomas, but not half so large. These slender beginnings would have required the addition of Crab Island, or Bourriquen, where it had been attempted to form a settlement two years before.

This island, which is from eight to ten leagues in circ.u.mference, has a considerable number of hills; but they are neither barren, steep, nor very high. The soil of the plains and valleys, which run between them, seems to be very fruitful; and is watered by a number of springs, the water of which is said to be excellent.

Nature, at the same time that she has denied it a harbour, has made it amends by a mult.i.tude of the finest bays that can be conceived. At every step some remains of plantations, rows of orange and lemon trees, are still found; which make it evident, that the Spaniards of Porto-Rico, who are not further distant than five or six leagues, had formerly settled there.

The English, observing that so promising an island was without inhabitants, began to raise some plantations there towards the end of the last century; but they had not time to reap the fruit of their labour. They were surprised by the Spaniards, who murdered all the men, and carried off the women and children to Porto-Rico. This accident did not deter the Danes from making some attempts to settle there in 1717. But the subjects of Great Britain, reclaiming their ancient rights, sent thither some adventurers, who were at first plundered, and soon after driven off, by the Spaniards. The jealousy of these American tyrants extends even to the prohibiting of fis.h.i.+ng-boats to approach any sh.o.r.e where they have a right of possession, though they do not exercise it. Too idle to prosecute cultivation, too suspicious to admit industrious neighbours, they condemn the Crab Island to eternal solitude; they will neither inhabit it themselves, nor suffer any other nation to inhabit it. Such an exertion of exclusive sovereignty has obliged Denmark to give up this island for that of Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz had a better t.i.tle to become an object of national ambition. It is eighteen leagues in length, and from three to four in breadth. In 1643 it was inhabited by Dutch and English.

Their rivals.h.i.+p in trade soon made them enemies to each other. In 1646, after an obstinate and b.l.o.o.d.y engagement, the Dutch were beat, and obliged to quit a spot from which they had formed great expectations. The conquerors were employed in securing the consequences of their victory, when, in 1650, they were attacked and driven out in their turn by twelve hundred Spaniards, who arrived there in five s.h.i.+ps. The triumph of these lasted but a few months. The remains of that numerous body, which were left for the defence of the island, surrendered without resistance to a hundred and sixty French, who had embarked in 1651, from St.

Christopher's, to make themselves masters of the island.

These new inhabitants lost no time in making themselves acquainted with a country so much disputed. On a soil, in other respects excellent, they found only one river of a moderate size, which, gliding gently almost on a level with the sea through a flat country, furnished only a brackish water. Two or three springs, which they found in the innermost parts of the island, made but feeble amends for this defect. The wells were for the most part dry. The construction of reservoirs required time. Nor was the climate more inviting to the new inhabitants.

The island being flat, and covered with old trees, scarce afforded an opportunity for the winds to carry off the poisonous vapours, with which its mora.s.ses clogged the atmosphere. There was but one remedy for this inconvenience; which was to burn the woods. The French set fire to them without delay; and, getting on board their s.h.i.+ps, became spectators from the sea, for several months, of the conflagration they had raised in the island. As soon as the flames were extinguished, they went on sh.o.r.e again.

They found the soil fertile beyond belief. Tobacco, cotton, arnotto, indigo, and sugar, flourished equally in it. So rapid was the progress of this colony, that, in eleven years from its commencement, there were upon it eight hundred and twenty-two white persons, with a proportionable number of slaves. It was rapidly advancing to prosperity, when such obstacles were thrown in the way of its activity as made it decline again. This decay was as sudden as its rise. In 1696 there were no more than one hundred and forty-seven men, with their wives and children, and six hundred and twenty-three blacks remaining; and these were transported from hence to St. Domingo.

Some obscure individuals, some writers unacquainted with the views of government, with their secret negotiations, with the character of their ministers, with the interests of the protectors and the protected, who flatter themselves that they can discern the reason of events, amongst a mult.i.tude of important or frivolous causes, which may have equally occasioned them; who do not conceive, that among all these causes, the most natural may possibly be the farthest from the truth; who after having read the news, of journal of the day, with profound attention, decide as peremptorily as if they had been placed all their life-time at the helm of the state, and had a.s.sisted at the council of kings; who are never more deceived than in those circ.u.mstances, in which they display some share of penetration; writers as absurd in the praise as in the blame which they bestow upon nations, in the favourable or unfavourable opinion they form of ministerial operations; these idle dreamers, in a word, who think they are persons of importance, because their attention is always engaged on matters of consequence, being convinced that courts are always governed in their decisions by the most comprehensive views of profound policy, have supposed, that the court of Versailles had neglected Santa Cruz, merely because they wished to abandon the small islands, in order to unite all their strength, industry, and population, in the large ones; but this is a mistaken notion: this determination, on the contrary, arose from the farmers of the revenue, who found, that the contraband trade of Santa Cruz with St. Thomas was detrimental to their interests. The spirit of finance hath in all times been injurious to commerce; it hath destroyed the source from whence it sprang.

Santa Cruz continued without inhabitants, and without cultivation, till 1733, when it was sold by France to Denmark for 738,000 livres (30,750l.). Soon after the Danes built there the fortress of Christianstadt.

Then it was, that this northern power seemed likely to take deep root in America. Unfortunately, she laid her plantations under the yoke of exclusive privileges. Industrious people of all sects, particularly Moravians, strove in vain to overcome this great difficulty. Many attempts were made to reconcile the interests of the colonists and their oppressors, but without success. The two parties kept up a continual struggle of animosity, not of industry. At length the government, with a moderation not to be expected from its const.i.tution, purchased, in 1754, the privileges and effects of the Company. The price was fixed at 9,900,000 livres (412,500l.) part of which was paid in ready money, and the remainder in bills upon the treasury, bearing interest. From this time the navigation to the islands was opened to all the subjects of the Danish dominions.

On the first January 1773, there was reckoned in St. John sixty-nine plantations, twenty-seven of which were devoted to the culture of sugar, and forty-two to other productions of less importance. There were exactly the same number at St. Thomas, and they had the same destination, but were much more considerable.

Of three hundred and forty-five plantations, which were seen at Santa Cruz, one hundred and fifty were covered with sugarcanes.

In the two former islands, the plantations acquire what degree of extent it is in the power of the planter to give them, but in the last, every habitation is limited to three thousand Danish feet in length, and two thousand in breadth.

St. John is inhabited by one hundred and ten white men, and by two thousand three hundred and twenty-four slaves: St. Thomas, by three hundred and thirty-six white men, and by four thousand two hundred and ninety-six slaves: Santa Cruz, by two thousand one hundred and thirty-six white men, and by twenty-two thousand two hundred and forty-four slaves. There are no freed men at St.

John's, and only fifty-two at St. Thomas, and one hundred and fifty-five at Santa Cruz; and yet the formalities required for granting liberty are nothing more than a simple enrolment in a court of justice. If so great a facility hath not multiplied these acts of benevolence, it is because they have been forbidden to those who had contracted debts. It hath been apprehended, that the debtors might be tempted to be generous at the expence of their creditors.

This law appears to me a very prudent one; with some mitigation it might be of service, even in our countries. I should very much approve, that all citizens invested with honourable functions, either at court, in the army, in the church, or in the magistracy, should be suspended whenever they should be legally sued by a creditor, and that they should be unremittingly deprived of their rank whenever they should be declared insolvent by the tribunals. It appears to me that money would then be lent with more confidence, and borrowed with greater circ.u.mspection.

Another advantage which would accrue from such a regulation, would be, that the subaltern orders of men, who imitate the customs and the prejudices of the higher cla.s.s of citizens, would soon be apprehensive of incurring the same disgrace; and that fidelity in engagements would become one of the characteristic of the national manners.

The annual productions of the Danish islands are reduced to a small quant.i.ty of coffee, to a great deal of cotton, to seventeen or eighteen millions weight of raw sugar, and to a proportionate quant.i.ty of rum. Part of these commodities are delivered to the English, who are proprietors of the best plantations, and in possession of the slave trade. We have before us at present, very authentic accounts, which prove that from 1756 to 1773, that nation hath sold in the Danish settlements of the New World, to the amount of 2,307,686 livres 11 sols (96,153l. 125.1-1/2d.).

and carried off to the value of 3,197,047 livres 5 sols 6 deniers (133,210l. 6s. 0-3/4d.). North America receives likewise some of these productions in exchange for its cattle, for its wood, and for its flour. The remainder is conveyed to the mother-country upon forty s.h.i.+ps of one hundred, and from that to four hundred tons burden. The greatest part is consumed in Denmark, and there is scarcely sold in Germany, or in the Baltic, for more than the value of one million of livres (41,661l. 13s. 4d.).

The lands susceptible of cultivation in the Danish islands are not all tilled, and those which are, might be improved. According to the opinion of the best-in-formed men, the produce of these possessions might easily be increased by one third, or perhaps by one half.

One great obstacle to this increase of riches, is the extremely narrow circ.u.mstances of the colonists. They owe 4,500,000 livres (187,500l.) to the government, 1,200,000 livres (50,000l.) to the trade of the mother-country, and 26,630,170 livres (1,109,590l.

8s. 4d.) to the Dutch, who, from the immensity of their capitals, and the impossibility of employing them all themselves, necessarily become the creditors of all nations.

The avidity of the treasury puts fresh restraints upon industry.

The provisions and merchandise which are not peculiar to the country, or which have not been brought upon Danish vessels, are obliged to pay four per cent. upon their departure from Europe.

The national and foreign commodities equally pay six per cent. on their arrival in the islands; 18 livres (15s) are required for every fresh Negro brought in, and a poll-tax of 4 livres 10 sols (3s. 9d.). Some heavy duties are laid upon stamp paper; an impost of 9 livres (7s. 6d.) for each thousand foot square of ground, and the tenth of the price of every habitation that is sold. The productions are all subjected to five per cent. duty on their leaving the colonies, and to three per cent. on their arrival in any of the ports of the mother-country, exclusive of the duties which are paid for rum when consumed in retail. These tributes collectively bring in to the crown an income of eight or nine hundred thousand livres, (from 33,333 pounds. 6s. 8d. to 37,500l.).

It is time that the court of Copenhagen should give up these numerous and oppressive taxes. Well-grounded motives of interest ought certainly to suggest the same kind of conduct to all the powers that have possessions in the New World. But Denmark is more particularly compelled to this act of generosity. The planters are loaded with such enormous debts, that they will never be able to repay the capitals, and cannot even make good the arrears, unless the treasury should entirely drop every kind of claim upon them.

But can such a prudent measure be expected, either in Denmark or elsewhere, as long as the public expences shall exceed the public revenues; as long as the fatal events, which, in the present order, or rather disorder, of things, are perpetually renewed, shall compel the administration to double or to treble the burden of their unfortunate, and already overloaded subjects; as long as the councils of the sovereigns shall act without any certain views, and without any settled plan; as long as ministers shall conduct themselves, as if the empire, or their functions, were to end the next day; as long as the national treasures shall be exhausted by unparalleled depredations, and that its indigence shall only be removed by extravagant speculations, the ruinous consequences of which will not be perceived, or will be neglected, for the trifling advantages of the moment? and to make use of an energetic, but true metaphor, one that is terrifying, but symbolical of what is practised in all countries; as long as the folly, the avarice, the dissipation, the degradation, or the tyranny of the rulers, shall have rendered the treasury so much exhausted or rapacious, as to induce them to _burn the harvest, in order the more speedily to collect the price of the ashes!_

If the treasury were by chance to become wiser and more generous in Denmark than they have been, or than they are in any other part of the globe, the islands of St. Thomas, of St. John, and of Santa Cruz, might possibly prosper, and their productions might, in some measure, compensate for the trifling value of those of the mother-country.--ABBe RAYNAL, _A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies_, 1798, pp. 256-265.

III

SANTA CRUZ IN GENERAL IN 1838

St. Croix is an island, about eighteen miles long, situated in lat.i.tude 17 45' north, longitude--west of Greenwich. It is almost exclusively devoted to the cultivation of sugar-cane, and the manufacture of sugar mola.s.ses, and rum. In a good season it produces from fifty to sixty thousand hogsheads of muscovado sugar of the best quality. It is generally calculated that the mola.s.ses and rum will pay all the contingent expenses of the estates; leaving the sugar for clear income, which at seventy-five dollars the hogshead, for which it is generally sold there, in a good season, amounts to three millions seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This great revenue is produced by the careful cultivation of almost every inch of the soil, the estates generally consisting of but one hundred and fifty to three hundred acres each; and nearly one hundred negroes being employed upon each one hundred and fifty acres. The soil is dry and sweet, producing the best cane, and consequently the best sugar known. I had heard much of filthiness in the manufacture of sugar and mola.s.ses, but the first view of a St. Croix sugar works contradicted it. The kettles, the vats in which the sugar is cooled, the hogsheads in which it is drained, and even the mola.s.ses vats under them, are so perfectly neat and clean, that no one who has seen them can feel any squeamishness in eating St.

Croix sugar, or mola.s.ses either. To look at a vat-full, a foot deep, just chrystalizing over the surface, and perfectly transparent to the bottom, would satisfy the most scrupulous upon this point. There is about twenty-five thousand black, and three thousand white population. Of course, it is seldom a white man is seen in riding through the island.

Many of the blacks are free, and the slaves, by the protection afforded them by the Danish laws, are about as well satisfied with slavery as they would be with freedom. No slave can be taken from the island without security for his or her return; masters cannot inflict punishment without the intervention of public authority; no slave can be sold against his or her consent, except with the estate; and cheap and easy provisions are made for emanc.i.p.ation. Such is the expectation of a general abolition, that the prices of slaves are only about one fourth as high as in the United States. In the village of Christianstadt, a large proportion of the retail trade, and nearly all the mechanical labour, is in the hands of the free blacks and mulattoes; and the politeness, intelligence, and ability of some of these, would surprise those who think their race by Nature unfit for freedom.

Many of them have good countenances, are well behaved, and appear to evince as much discretion and judgment as whites under similar circ.u.mstances. Some of them hold commissions in the militia service; one has been promoted to the distinguished situation of Governor's aid-de-camp; and instead of considering the race as on a level with brutes, many of the white inhabitants deem them nearly, if not quite, on a level with themselves. I listened for a whole evening to a very warm discussion of the question, whether a lady would be justified in refusing to dance with a negro or mulatto at a ball; and the negative was not wanting in supporters.

It is almost surprising, that so small a number of proprietors should have had the public spirit and perseverance to make such costly fine roads, not only as public highways whenever needed, but should also have made a good private road around almost every estate; beautifully ornamenting both with palm and cocoa-nut trees, which cut the whole into squares, and add much to the beauty of the scenery. On each estate there are generally a fine mansion, a sugar-house, windmill, and plenty of negro-houses, all situate upon an eminence and interspersed with fruit and ornamental trees. Little attention is given, however, to the cultivation of fruits, and, in many places, not an orange will be seen for miles. Sugar-cane seems to have engrossed the whole attention of the inhabitants, and crowded out almost every thing else.--_A Winter in the West Indies and Florida by an Invalid_, 1839, pp. 62-65.

IV

A LETTER FROM AN AMERICAN VISITING SANTA CRUZ IN 1840

_My dear Friend_,

I understand that the slaves form about four-fifths of the population, and are in number about 19,000. Time was, when the treatment to which they were exposed, was harsh and severe; and then their numbers were constantly declining. Of late years, however, the Danish government has inst.i.tuted various restrictions which have ameliorated the condition of the slaves.

They are not allowed, as I understand, to be worked longer in the day, than from 6 o'clock in the morning, to the same hour in the evening, with intervals, (not always long enough) for breakfast and dinner. Legal provisions are made respecting food and clothing. The driver in the field is not permitted to carry any more terrible instrument than a tamarind switch of moderate size; and twelve lashes with the rope, and a short period of solitary confinement, (mostly I believe in a light room) are the extent of punishment which even the manager or master is permitted to inflict. This rope however, is a dangerous instrument of torture; and I am told that the reduction of the allowed number of lashes, from thirty to twelve, is no matter of law, but the simple result of the imperative benevolence of the governor-general Von Scholten. Any negro has a right to buy his own freedom; and, in case of need, the price is settled by a public appraiser. The consequence of these benevolent provisions is, that the condition of the slaves is improved, and their number is now kept up, with a very small increase.

I cannot, however, refrain from observing, that legal provisions for the amelioration of slavery, are in general of little use. In the British Colonies, the measures of this kind which were enacted by the Parliament at home, were constantly frustrated by local influence; and in spite of law or reason, man will often be found, in the hour of temptation, to abuse arbitrary power over his fellow man. I consider it therefore highly probable, that even in Santa Cruz, where the ameliorating laws are enforced by a local government, at once vigilant and despotic, acts of oppression and cruelty may at times take place, which are wholly unknown to the government; much more, to an occasional visitor of the island.