July 3 – Danish West Indies Emancipation Day

nPosted on July 3, 2017

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nSlavery is an ugly practice, and the African slave trade and slavery-buttressed agriculture and mining in the Americas was particularly ugly.

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nNotice that I said “the Americas,” plural, not “America.” I’m talking about the slave trade and slave labor in North and South America, including Central America and the Caribbean. Here are just a few of the countries whose economies once depended partly on African slave labor:

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nCuba,

nBrazil,

nBahamas,

nVenezuela,

nBelize,

nHaiti,

nDominican Republic,

nSuriname,

nMexico,

nColombia,

nGuyana,

nand of course the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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nThe U.S. Virgin Islands used to be the Danish West Indies – three Caribbean islands ruled by Denmark from the mid-1700s to the early 1900s. Danes brought enslaved Africans to the islands to work the sugar plantations. 

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nA freed slave and skilled craftsman named Moses Gottlieb, who lived on St. Croix, went by the name General Buddhoe. Apparently he organized a lot of the slaves on the western end of the island, and together they marched on the town of Fredericksted. This rebellion caused the Governor-General of the Danish colony to emancipate (free) all of the slaves.

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nBecause emancipation was announced in Fredericksted, this town is nicknamed Freedom City. 

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nCheck out Freedom City:

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Festival of Ceridwen  

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nAnniversary of the first actor to play Superman

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• nJuly holidays

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• nJuly birthdays

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• nHistorical anniversaries in July

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• nAugust holidays

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• nAugust birthdays

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• nHistorical anniversaries in August
  
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