The Danish Colonial Period
The Old Barracks in Danish Colonial History
The Danish colonial period of Virgin Islands history stretches from Denmark’s purchase of St. Croix in 1733 to the sale of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John to the United States in 1917. The Old Barracks tells the story of that period through its changing uses and the people connected to it.
Built around 1759 and designed by Danish architect Albert Lovmand, the Barracks originally contained a hospital on the first floor and quarters for soldiers on the second.
Its construction coincided with the growth of the sugar colony and Christiansted, which became the capital of the Danish West Indies in 1755. Christiansted lost that status to Charlotte Amalie in 1871, after Emancipation, when sugar was no longer profitable and Denmark’s involvement in world conflicts curtailed spending on the colony’s well-being.
Danish archival records indicate that the Barracks housed Danish soldiers from 1759 until 1906, when they were replaced by Danish gendarmes who served until the 1917 Transfer. A third floor was added in 1910.In 1914, Captain of the Gendarmes Jorgen Hoyer set his office ablaze to destroy evidence of disappearing funds.
The fire spread through the Barracks, and Hoyer was court-martialed and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in a Danish prison.
The complex was rebuilt and later served as barracks for the U.S. Marines, St. Croix’s first public high school, and headquarters for the departments of Education, Labor, and Public Safety.
Where Hospital Street Gets Its Name
According to Danish architect and historian Ulla Lunn, the Barracks served as Christiansted’s hospital as well as a home for 200 to 400 soldiers and valry. Hospital Street takes its name from this early use of the property.
During the British occupation of the colony from 1807 to 1815, the hospital was relocated to Peter’s Farm. The old building on the Nielsen Bypass served as the island hospital for about 150 years. After the relocation, the Barracks developed into a larger military complex.
Danish Soldiers and Gendarmes
Fort Christiansvaern could hold only 50 soldiers, and additional troops were brought to St. Croix to police the profitable sugar colony. The Danish Crown first employed contract soldiers and later the Royal West Indian Troops. Soldiers responded to the Emancipation uprising of 1848 and the Fireburn of 1878.
In 1906, a change in colonial law replaced the soldiers with a paramilitary force known as the gendarmes. Danish archival records describe the gendarmes as unmarried men aged 30 or younger who had completed military service in Denmark and had no criminal record. They were recruited for three-year terms that could be extended one year at a time.
Andreas Lauridsen served as a Danish gendarme from 1911 to 1914. A skilled photographer from a family of bakers in Denmark, he brought his camera to St. Croix and operated a small shop at the Barracks selling tobacco products, soft drinks, photographs, and postcards.
His grandson documented his life on St. Croix in Grandfather’s Footsteps, which includes photographs and postcards Lauridsen exchanged with his girlfriend, Anna. Some gendarmes formed relationships with women of African descent. Some married and stayed in the islands, some returned to Denmark with their island families, and others returned without them.
Enslaved Workers sustain the Danish Sugar Economy
Enslaved labor sustained St. Croix’s sugar economy. Enslaved, formerly enslaved, and free people of color outnumbered the planter and merchant class by five to one, creating an ever-present fear of unrest and insurrection among colonial authorities.
According to St. Croix historian Arnold Highfield, Christiansted’s population was just over 5,000 by 1800, including more than 3,000 enslaved people and 1,000 free people of color. Many residents were owned by the Company or the Danish Crown.
Soldiers and gendarmes protected the colonial infrastructure from outside attack and from uprisings by enslaved and free people seeking freedom and greater autonomy.
Free People of Color: Tradesmen, Free Militia and the Brand Corps
Free people of color acquired freedom by working to buy their freedom and that of their family members, by manumission from the person who enslaved them, or by birth to a white father. Many who purchased their freedom were masons and carpenters who operated businesses in Christiansted. Despite their legal freedom, African-descended Crucians remained subject to corporal punishment, restrictions on movement, requirements to carry proof of freedom, and compulsory militia service.
The colony’s policing system included the Free Black Militia, and the Brand Corps. St. Croix historian Bill Cissel writes that a Free Negro Company was established alongside the Royal West Indian Troops. Enrollment was mandatory for able-bodied free Black men between ages 16 and 60, although the company’s ranks consisted of 50 to 60 selected men.
Tyson describes the Free Colored Militia as a paramilitary unit that patrolled Christiansted, responded to disturbances among enslaved plantation workers, and pursued people who escaped slavery.
Free Black residents repeatedly challenged the restrictions imposed on them. As their numbers grew equal to those of white residents, they openly questioned and opposed their subordinate status. Historian Paul Olsen describes an early nineteenth-century petition presented to the king in Copenhagen by William Purcell and William DeWindt, who were free men of
color. They asked that free Black residents no longer be required to carry “free letters” or wear “free badges,” be subjected to corporal punishment for minor offenses, or be arrested when bail should be available. They also sought the same status as the white militia, the right to operate inns, and exemption from “maroon hunt duties.” These demands anticipated later struggles for equal treatment and labor rights. Peter Tongelo, a carpenter who purchased his freedom in 1756 and owned as many as seven Christiansted properties by 1772, became the first captain of the Free Colored Militia. Around 1818, Governor General Adrian Benjamin Bentzon established the Brand Corps, Christiansted’s first fire brigade. Only members of the free colored community could join, and membership carried social status. Members of the militia and Brand Corps lived throughout Christiansted rather than at the Barracks.
Resistance: Emancipation, the Firebun and the fight for rights
According to historian Harold Willocks in his book The Umbilical Cord, in the Danish West Indies, people taken from the West African coast were enslaved and assigned to four different occupations: warehouse, field, house or skilled crafts. The brutality of enslavement, which for those in the fields required work from before sunrise to after sunset six days a week in the sugarcane fields led to various forms of resistance, which for colonial authorities necessitated the need for the military force which was stationed at the Old Barracks in Christiansted.
Both the Danish soldiers and the Free Militia would have been enlisted to quell the rebellion of 1848, led by Moses Buddhoe Gottleib, Martin King and others which led to the Emancipation of the enslaved by Governor General Peter von Scholten and the Firebun insurrection of 1878, led by Queens Mary Thomas, Mattie McBean, Ada Abramsen and others, where two thirds of the plantations on St. Croix were burned.
On July 3, 1848, approximately 8000 enslaved workers led by General Buddhoe, Martin King and others marched on Fort Frederik in Frederiksted, St. Croix and demanded their immediate freedom. They rejected the proposals from the Danish king of gradual freedom beginning with their children. When Danish Governor General Peter von Scholten arrived in Frederiksted, he proclaimed that all the enslaved were now free. Enslavement was replaced by contract work and for the next 30 years nothing much changed except that workers were now provided with minimal payment. On October 1, 1878, the insurrection known as the Firebun broke out in the western estates and spread across the island and two-thirds of the sugar estates were burned by rebellious workers.
The Firebun signalled the end of the plantation economy in the Danish West Indies. Before the Danish government sold the Danish West Indies to the United States in 1917, D. Hamilton Jackson would win better wages for workers and the right to a
printed press that would express the viewpoint of the workers.
Unit/Lesson 1
Re-centering Stories from the Past
This Lesson includes: A full-day interdisciplinary humanities curriculum unit with multiple lessons
Two 90-minute learning sessions with a lunch break
Lesson 2
Danish Soldiers and Gendarmes
The Colonial Law Enforcement
This Lesson includes:
A Simplified Lesson based around Danish soldier and gendarmes that includes Reading Material, Key Terms, History Quiz, Critical Thinking Discussion Questions, Game Quiz
From 1888
Postcards and photos taken by Gendarme Andreas Lauritzen and former Soldier axel overson Depict scenes from everyday life of the jean-darms at the Christiansted barracks playing cards, drinking, hunting,feeding their pets, swimming or bathing in Gallows Bay to fencing or military drills to more formal military portraits of group shots along the wall or Or pictures with their local girlfriends
http://www5.kb.dk/images/billed/2010/okt/billeder/object275302/en/
Lesson 3
Free Black Militia/Brand Corps
The policing of the sugar colony included the Free Black Militia and the Brand Corps. Being free and black did not exclude African descendant Crucians from corporal punishment, restriction of movement and requirements to carry documentation of their freedom and to serve
in the militia. St. Croix historian Bill Cissel writes that when the Royal West Indian Troops, consisting of Danish soldiers were formed, a Free Negro Company was also established. “Enrollment was mandatory for all able-bodied free black males between the age of 16 and 60,
but the company’s ranks were made up of 50 to 60 of the best men.” Tyson writes that the Free Colored Militia as they were referred to was “a paramilitary unit that regularly patrolled the town and was periodically dispatched to quell disturbances of enslaved plantation laborers” and to hunt down those who ran away. Tyson writes that Peter Tongelo, who through his exemplary skills as a carpenter had purchased his freedom in 1756 and had owned up to seven properties in Christiansted by 1772, was the first captain of the Free Colored Militia. Free black residents of
the sugar colony often fought against the requirements imposed upon them. As their numbers grew equal to those of the whites in the community, they were said to “openly question and oppose their subordinate status.” Historian Paul Olsen writes about an early 19 th century petition taken to the king in Copenhagen by free black residents William Purcell and William DeWindt which requested that they should not be required to carry “free letters” or wear “free badges” or be subject to corporal punishment for minor offenses or be arrested instead of allowed to make bail. They also petitioned that they have the same status as the white militia, be allowed to be inn-keepers and be exempt from “maroon hunt duties.” The Brand Corps was established by Governor General Adrian Benjamin Bentzon around 1818. The town’s first fire brigade was
created to address the real fear of fire in the town, especially fire used as a weapon of insurrection. Only members of the free colored community could become members of the fire brigade, and membership was equated with social status in the community. Members of the free
black militia and the Brand Corps were not housed at the Barracks. Instead, they lived in the neighborhoods of Christiansted, wherever they had been able to buy property, conduct their trades and raise their families.
FOR A GROUP ACTIVITY CLICK THE LINK BELOW
https://play.blooket.com/play?hwId=6a3e9cc0ae778b0d8e9f9fd5
