Slave life on St. Croix / Slavelivet på St. Croix ( in english & danish)

Slave life on St. Croix 

After the slaves came to St. Crox they were taking into the auction house in Christiansted. Here the planters came in and picked out the right ones for the work they needed them to do. They looked at the slaves like they were animals and the price for a slave was also lower than the price of a horse. Men had one price, women less, unless the planter bought the woman with her children. Children were a good buy they could secure the future for the planter because they themselves would become slaves. If there were any slaves left after auction it was usually the old or sick slaves. The doctors in town used to buy those for a very low price. They thought they could cure them and hopefully get full price for them later.

After the auction the slaves were taking out the plantation. In 1742 there were 264 plantations on St. Croix, half cotton fields and the other half sugarcane fields. But later the Danes realized the big profit from the sugar so they began to have sugarcane on almost all the plantations.

The average size of a plantation was 120 acres. The Danes wanted rapid settlement and development of St. Croix so the Danish West India and Guinea Company offered plantation sites cheaply to the first newcomers. Denmark had a hard time getting the Danes to travel the long distance, so they open up the area to all nations and allowed them to practice their own religion. Of the newcomers were mostly British and Dutch islanders and some Jews from Brazil, Portugal and Spain, French protestant from the French islands, and a few Germans. The few Danes who chose to come to the islands were assigned to Government positions.  

The total number of slaves in the Virgin Islands continued to increase through the 18^th and 19^th century until a peak was reached in 1803 of more than 35.700 of whom 27000 of them was claimed by St. Croix. After that year the number steadily declined in all three islands.

There was a social caste system differentiated slaves of the islands. The main distinctions were between the higher status native born slaves and the lower status African born slaves, and between the occupational groups. The division was sharply divided and a promotion or occupational change was hopeless for the slaves.

The slaves lived in poor conditions, were forced to do hard work and had no rights. Slave owners could treat them pretty much as they wanted, but slaves were also a costly investment that they could not let perish.

Most were field slaves, which on St. Croix in 1797 was about 82 percent and their worked from sunrise to sunset was the hardest of them all.

On the top of the slave hierarchy were the house servants or domestics, many of whom were mulattoes (offspring of whites) they were servants of the plantation owners, his wife and even the children had their own slave attentions, some families had 16 to 24 domestic slaves. Women who served as concubines or mistresses of their masters and estate managers were also on the top of the hierarchy, they did what they had to do to survive and get a better life.

At the bottom were the field laborers, other menial workers and in between were the skilled artisans. Whatever their work and status, the slaves in the Virgin Islands were chattel property and could be bought and sold even exchanged as payment in debts.

A lot of the slaves wanted to escape the life on the plantations. The runaway slaves were called maroons and they hid and lived in the forest in hard to reach areas, in the North West part of St. Croix. They survived by hunting and stealing food and other necessities.

The ratio of the number of slaves and whites was almost 10 to 1 so the danger of revolt was always present. In order to prevent that the plantation owners and the Governor had harsh penalties made up for petty offenses.

In 1733 the Governor of St. Thomas Phillip Gardelin, made the The Gardelin Code of the Danish West Indies:

1. The main leaders of Negroes that have run away or are running away are to be pinched three times with a glowing iron and then hanged.
2. Participants in a plot shall lose a leg unless their owners will pardon them by letting them lose an ear and get 150 lashes.
3. Participants in a plot who do not reveal it to a White person shall be branded on the forehead and be given 100 lashes.
4. The person who informs on a plot by Negroes shall get 10 piastres for every Negro found guilty, and his name shall remain secret.
5. A Maroon of 8 days shall be punished with 150 lashes, a Maroon of 12 weeks shall lose a leg and Maroons of 6 months shall forfeit their life unless their master will pardon them with the loss of a leg.
6. A Negro who has stolen to the value of 4 rixdaler shall be pinched and hanged. Lesser thefts shall be punished with branding on the forehead and from 100-150 lashes.
7. Slaves who deal in stolen goods or participate in this shall be branded and given 150 lashes.
8. Those who deal with Maroon-Negroes will be punished likewise.
9. The Negro who with ill intent raises his hand against a White or threatens him or gives him  abusive words shall without mercy be pinched 3 times and then hanged, if the White person  demands it, if not, he shall lose a hand.
10. One upright White witness is enough against a Negro and if there were suppositions in the    case, the Negro has to be tortured.
11. A Negro who meets a White on the road has to go to the side of the road and stand still till the  White person has passed – he will otherwise get a lash from the White.
12. No Slave must be seen in town with a stick or a knife; they also must not use these for fights  among themselves, lest they get 50 lashes.
13. Witchcraft among the Negroes is to be punished with a severe beating.
14. The Negro who can be persuaded to have been of a mind to conceal somebody shall be pinched 3 times with a glowing iron and then put on the rack to be broken and put on stilts alive.
15. A free Negro who either assists a Maroon or a thief or a dangerous Negro shall lose his  freedom, his property and with a beating be ordered out of the country.
16. All dances, feasts, gambling or such like are absolutely forbidden for Negroes unless it  happens with their master’s or overseer’s permission and presence.
17. No Negro may sell any foods from animals or other unless permitted by his master.
18. No field Negro must be found in the town after the curfew tattoo or he will be brought to the  fort and given a beating.
19. The crown solicitor shall strictly adhere to these articles, whereby free Negroes and slaves shall be judged in a court of law; and this declaration shall be public three times every year by drumbeat.

Efforts to replace the Gardelin code with a more liberal slave code were unavailing and it was not replaced for another hundred years.

Aside from the extremely restricted opportunity of being given their freedom through the unlikely generosity of their masters, the only ways of escape open for the slave were through suicide, which was not unusual, through flight which was frequent, or through armed uprising which was very rare. Even under the worst conditions slaves would not resort to rebellion, the risk was too high.

In the 1800s, after the import of new slaves from Africa was forbidden, it became important to keep the slaves they had on islands alive. Denmark was particularly vigorous and used the brand new smallpox vaccine.

The Danish Minister of Finance Ernst Schimmelmann (1747-1831) was influenced by the economic and humanistic arguments for the abolition of slavery. His family owned approx. 1,000 slaves in the West Indies but still, it was Schimmelmann who took the initiative for a ban on the import of slaves, which was adopted in the 1792. But because the ban didn’t come into force until 1803, the plantation owners had time to hoard slaves and the state made sure that the plantation owners could purchase as many slaves as possible.

A slave woman would take care of small slave children while their mothers and fathers were harvesting sugar cane on the fields under the supervision of the plantation overseer. It was particularly important for slavery operation that children were born and that the slaves lived a long life.

The Danish government was more controlling and efficient than the other colonists in the Caribbean when it comes to smallpox vaccination of slaves in the early 1800s. The Danish way to manage the vaccination was of a very high level of control. They had names of all slaves, they knew how old they were, who owned them, and which church they belonged to. The knowledge was used in an attempt to keep the slaves alive.

St. Croix's slaves had to be protected, but the problem for the Danish government and the other colonial powers was that there often died more slaves than were born each year. The slave population of St. Croix shrank by about one percent per year.

The colonial administrators and plantation owners in the Danish West Indies was feverishly trying to reduce the excess mortality, for example, to ensure that slave women who gave birth, they took them into maternity wards under controlled conditions.

The new smallpox vaccine was introduced in January 1803. Smallpox was a disease that struck and killed between 10 and 15 percent of people when an epidemic hit. But after they had introduced vaccination system on St. Croix, it was less than 1 percent, who died of it.

It was a custom that ships with sick sailors were kept in quarantine until the men had to put their foot on land. At that point the Danish West Indies and ports on St. Croix was ​​no different from other colonies. But the Danish system on land was particularly developed. Three facts did Danish system effectively: Vaccination was required by law, Registration of slaves before and after vaccination, and One state-employed doctor performed all vaccinations of slaves.

On St. Croix the authorities made a detailed record of vaccination of citizens and slaves. Slaves could not be sold without certificate which motivated plantation owners to make sure that the slaves were vaccinated.

The reason that the number of slaves on St. Croix declined until emancipation in 1848 was not due to smallpox but may be that the slaves' children were malnourished.

The slaves were namely fed on a cold calculation from planter’s side. Those who worked most, most burned and were therefore most to eat. The children worked less and got less food to eat. It was not taken into account that they would need energy to grow and therefore they were not able fight off diseases and many children died very young.

Denmark was occupied by slaves health conditions, not by humanitarian reasons, but because slave labor was the foundation of plantation operation. Without the slaves they couldn’t produce all the sugar cane, and without the sugarcane Denmark couldn’t earn all the money they did. 25 percent of Denmark's gross domestic product in the 18^th and 19^th century came from the Danish West Indies and the sugar production. 

Slavelivet på St. Croix

Når slaverne var ankommet til St. Crox med skibet, blev de ført til auktionshuset i Christiansted. Her kom plantageejere så ind og ud så sig de helt rigtige slaver til det arbejde som de havde brug skulle udføres. De kiggede på slaverne som om de var dyr, og prisen for en slave var også lavere end prisen på en hest. Mænd havde en pris, kvinder var billigere end mænd, medmindre plantageejeren købte kvinden med sine børn så gik de for en samlet pakke pris. Børn var et godt køb, de kunne sikre fremtiden for plantageejeren fordi de blev født slaver og senere kunne bruges i marken. Hvis der var nogen slaver tilbage efter auktionen var det som regel de gamle eller syge slaver. Lægerne i byen købte dem typisk for en meget lav pris. De troede, de kunne helbrede dem, og forhåbentlig få fuld pris for dem senere eller selv bruge dem som slaver.

Efter auktionen blev slaverne ført ud til deres ejers plantage. I 1742 var der 264 plantager på St. Croix, den ene halvdel var bomuldsmarker og den anden halvdel sukkerrørsmarker. Den gennemsnitlige størrelse af en plantage var på 120 acres = 0.48 km².

Danskerne ønskede hurtig afvikling og udvikling af St. Croix, så de Danske Vestindisk Guineisk Kompagni tilbød plantager stykkerne billigt til de første ny ankomne. Danmark havde svært ved at få danskerne til at rejse den lange vej til øerne, så de åbnede området op for alle nationer, og tillod dem at praktisere deres egen religion.

Af de nytilkomne var det for det meste britiske og hollandske øboere, nogle jøder fra Brasilien, Portugal, Spanien, fransk protestant fra de franske øer, og et par tyskere. De få danskere der valgte at komme til øerne, blev tildelt høje offentlige stillinger.

Det samlede antal af slaver på Jomfruøerne fortsatte med at stige gennem det 18. og 19. århundrede, indtil et højdepunkt blev nået i 1803 med mere end 35.700 slaver, hvoraf 27.000 af dem var på St. Croix. Efter dette år faldt antallet støt på alle tre øer.

Der var et socialt kastesystem der differentierede slaverne på øerne. De største forskelle var mellem de indfødte slaver med høj status og de afrikansk fødte slaver med lav status, men også mellem faggrupperne. Divisionen var skarpt opdelt, og en forfremmelse eller erhvervsmæssig ændring var håbløst for slaverne.

Slaverne levede under dårlige forhold, blev tvunget til at udføre hårdt arbejde og havde ingen rettigheder. Slaveejerne kunne behandle dem som de ville, men slaverne var også en bekostelig investering som de ikke kunne lade omkomme.

De fleste var i markslaver, et antal som i 1797 på St. Croix var på 82 procent, og deres arbejde fra solopgang til solnedgang var det hårdeste af dem alle.

På toppen af ​​slavehierarkiet var husets ansatte eller hushjælp, hvoraf mange var mulatter (afkom af de hvide). De var ansat af plantageejerne, hans kone og selv børnene havde deres egne slavers opmærksomhed, nogle familier havde 16 til 24 hus slaver. Kvinder, der tjente som konkubiner eller elskerinder til deres mester og ejendoms leder var også på toppen af ​​hierarkiet, de gjorde hvad de skulle for at overleve og få et bedre liv.

Nederst i var markarbejdere, andre underordnede arbejdstagere og mellem dem var de dygtige håndværkere. Uanset deres arbejde og status, var slaver i på De Dansk Vestindiske Øer planterens ejendom og kunne købes, sælges og endda udveksles som betaling i gæld.

En masse af slaverne ønskede at undslippe livet på plantagerne. De bortløbne slaver blev kaldt Maroons og de skjulte sig og boede i skoven i de svært tilgængelige områder i den nordvestlige del af St. Croix. De overlevede ved jagt og ved at stjæle mad og andre fornødenheder.

Forholdet mellem antallet af slaver og hvide var næsten 10 til 1, så faren for oprør var altid til stede. For at forhindre oprør, havde plantageejerne og guvernøren arrangeret hårde straffe for selv småforseelser.

I 1733 fremlagde Guvernøren af St. Thomas Phillip Gardelin, Gardelin Reglementet af Dansk Vestindien:

1. Hovedmænd for bortløbne eller bortløbne Negre skulle knibes 3 Gange med gloende Jern og derefter hænges.
2. Medskyldig i et komplot skulle miste et ben, med mindre ejerne ville pardonnere dem med at miste et øre og faa en lussing af 150 slag.
3. Medvidere i et komplot og som ikke aabenbare det for en blank skulle brændemærkes i panden  og gives 100 prygl.
4. Den, som angiver noget komplot af Negre, skal nyde 10 pjastre for hver skyldig funden Neger,  og hans navn forties.
5. 8 dages marooner skulle straffes med 150 slag, 12 ugers marooner skulle miste et ben, og 6 maaneders marooner have forbrudt deres liv, med mindre deres mester ville pardonnere dem med det ene ben.
6. En Neger, som har stjaalet for 4 Rigsdaler Værdie, skal knibes og hænges. Smaa Tyverier  skulle straffes med Brændemærke i Panden og gives fra 100 til 150 Slag med Pisken.
7. Slaver, som hæle tyvekoster, eller er medvidere derom, skulle brændemærkes og have 150 slag.
8. De, som hæle maroon-negre skulle straffes ligeledes.
9. Den Neger, om i Onde løfter sin Haand mod en Blank, eller truer ham, eller giver ham knubbede Ord, skal uden Naade knibes 3 Gange og derefter hænges om den Blanke det forlanger, hvis ikke, sa skal han miste sin Haand.
10. En retskaffen Blanks vidne skal være nok imod en Neger, og om der var formodninger i sagen,   maa Negren sættes paa tortur.
11. En Neger, som kommer en Blank i Møde paa vejen, skal gaae til Side og staae stille, indtil den   Blanke er passeret ham forbi under Straf af en Lussing af den Blanke.
12. Ingen slaver maa sees i byen med stok eller kniv, ej heller maa de dermed slaaes indbyrdes, uden derfor at faae 50 slag.
13. Hexerie blandt Negrene indbyrdes skal straffes med en stor lussing.
14. Den Neger, som kan overbevise om at have været til sind at forgive nogen, skal 3 gange knibes med gloende jern, derefter radbrækkes og lægges levende paa stejle.
15. En fri Neger, som hæler enten en med en maroon eller en tyv eller en anden skadelig Neger, skal miste sin frihed, sit gods, og med en lussing forvises fra landet.
16. Al Dans, Fest, Spil og deslige, skal være Negerne aldeles forbudet, med mindre det skeer med   deres Mesters eller Mester-Knægts Samtykke og i deres Nærværelse.
17. Ingen Neger maa sælge nogen provision af kreaturer eller andet uden et tegn fra deres mester.
18. Ingen plantage-Neger maa findes i byen efter tappenstreg under straf af at bringes i Fortet og få   en lussing.
19. Fiskalen skal strikte holde over disse Artiklers Efterlevelse, hvorefter Fri- Negre og slaver skulle dømmes for retten, og denne plakat skal 3 gange hvert aar ved trommeslag publiceres.

Bestræbelserne på at udskifte Gardelin Reglementet med et mere liberalt slavereglement var forgæves, og det blev ikke erstattet i over hundrede år.

Bortset fra den ekstremt begrænsede mulighed for at blive frigivet af den usandsynlige generøse mester, var de eneste måder slave kunne flygte på; selvmord, hvilket ikke var usædvanligt, gennem Maroon løb som var hyppige, eller gennem væbnet oprør, som var meget sjældne. Selv under de værste forhold, ville slaverne ikke ville ty til oprør da risikoen var for høj.

Danmark begyndte at bruge den helt nye koppevaccine i 1800-tallet. Efter importen af slaver fra Afrika var blevet forbudt, blev det nødvendigt at holde de slaver de havde på øerne i live.

Det var typisk en ældre slave kvinde der tog sig af de små slavebørn, mens deres mødre og fædre var ude og høste sukkerrør på markerne under tilsyn af plantagens overseer. Det var især vigtigt for slaveri-operationen, at nye børn blev født og at slaverne levede et langt liv.

Den danske regering var mere kontrollerende og effektive end de andre kolonister i Caribien, når det kom til kopper vaccination af slaver i begyndelsen af ​​1800 tallet.

Den danske finansminister Ernst Schimmelmann (1747-1831) var påvirket af de økonomiske og humanistiske argumenter for afskaffelse af slaveri. Hans familie ejede ca. 1.000 slaver i Vestindien, men stadig var det Schimmelmann der tog initiativet til forbud mod import af slaver, som blev vedtaget i 1792. Men fordi forbuddet ikke trådte i kraft før 1803, havde plantageejerne god tid til at hamstre slaver og staten sørgede for at plantageejerne kunne købe så mange slaver ind som muligt.

Den danske måde at håndtere vaccinationen på var af en meget høj standard af kontrol. De havde navnene på alle slaver, de vidste hvor gamle de var, hvem der ejede dem og hvilken kirke de tilhørte. Den viden blev anvendt i et forsøg på at holde slaverne i live.

St. Croix’ slaver måtte beskyttes, men problemet for den danske regering og andre kolonimagter var, at der ofte døde flere slaver end der blev født hvert år. Slavebefolkning på St. Croix skrumpede ind med omkring én procent om året.

De koloniale administratorer og plantageejere i Dansk Vestindien begyndte et febrilsk forsøg på at reducere overdødeligheden, ved at tage de gravide slaver ind til fødeklinikker så de kunne føde under kontrollerede forhold. Men det var sygdommene der kom senere der dræbte.

Den nye koppevaccine blev indført i januar 1803. Kopper var en sygdom, der ramte og dræbte mellem 10 og 15 procent af folk, når en epidemi slog til. Men efter at de havde indført vaccination systemet på St. Croix, var det mindre end 1 procent, der døde af det.

Det var en skik, at skibe med syge sømænd blev holdt i karantæne, indtil mændene igen måtte sætte deres fod på land. På det tidspunkt var Dansk Vestindien og havnene på St. Croix ikke anderledes fra andre kolonier, men det danske system på land var særlig udviklet.

Tre faktorer gjorde det danske system effektivt: vaccination var påkrævet ved lov, registrering af slaver før og efter vaccination, og kun en statsansat/dansk læge kunne udfører alle vaccinationer af slaver.

På St. Croix foretog myndighederne en detaljeret registrering af vaccination af borgere og slaver. Slaver kunne ikke sælges uden vaccine certifikat, og det motiverede plantageejerne til at sørge for at slaverne blev vaccineret.

Grunden til, at antallet af slaver på St. Croix stadig faldt, skyldtes ikke kopper, men var fordi slavernes børn var underernærede. Slaverne blev nemlig fodret på en kold beregning fra plantageejerens side. 

De, der arbejdede mest, forbrændte mest og var derfor dem der spise mest. Børnene arbejdede mindre og fik derfor også mindre mad. Det blev ikke taget i betragtning at børnene skulle bruge energi til at vokse, derfor var de nu ikke i stand til at bekæmpe sygdomme og mange børn fik en tidlig død.

Danmark blev besat af slavernes sundhedsmæssige forhold. Det var ikke af humanitære grunde, men fordi slavearbejde var grundlaget for plantage driften. Uden slaverne kunne de ikke producere alle de sukkerrør, og uden sukkerrør kunne Danmark ikke tjene alle de penge som de gjorde. I det 18. og 19. århundrede kom 25 procent af Danmarks bruttonationalprodukt fra Dansk Vestindien og sukkerproduktion.