1718

The occupation of St. John

After almost 50 years on St. Thomas, the Danish West India Company wanted to colonize yet another island of the West Indies. The natural choice was St. John, close to St. Thomas.

In 1718, the Danes simply went ahead and occupied St. John, as there were no other Europeans here either. In the beginning, the island was cultivated with cotton and tobacco. But increasingly, they began growing the sought-after sugar cane. Sugar cane was very profitable but also hard work, and the need for slaves grew substantially. In the years to follow, thousands of Africans were carried by ship from West Africa to the West Indies on ships sailing under Danish or international colors. The plantation owners usually stayed on St. Thomas and left the running of the plantations on St. John to entrusted overseers, called “mesterknægte”.

St. John.
St. John is located just east of St. Thomas. The two islands are separated by a small sound. The cultivation of the island was even more difficult than St. Thomas because of the mountains dominating the area. (The Danish National Archives).

A slave’s life – when people were property

The concept that all human beings are born with fundamental rights was not prevalent in the 1700s. If you were born at the bottom of society, you lived a life in poverty and with hard work and toil. Other people could be owned just like goods and money. This was a view of humanity that made life hard for servants all over the world – and not least for the enslaved laborers that worked under inhuman conditions in colonies in Africa, Asia, and America. The view of humanity that allowed for slavery is difficult to understand in our time.

The administration of the West Indian islands from Copenhagen

When Denmark established a colony in the West Indies in 1672, the goal was to make Denmark richer. But the plantation owners and the enslaved laborers in the West Indies were not motivated by a desire to increase Denmark’s well-being. Therefore, the Danish government needed to maintain close supervision and control.

The voyages across the Atlantic

The trading companies ensured an extensive traffic of ships from Denmark to the colony in the West Indies. In the early years many ships sailed first to Guinea to load enslaved laborers and carry them to the three islands. From the 1730s most ships sailed directly from Denmark to the Danish West Indies.