Honoring International Ladies Go out and you can VI Records Few days, the audience is showing about three brave feminine to which the brand new Region owes a good higher debt. Discover still work to-be over, for this reason i review to increase inspiration and encouragement throughout the Virgin Islanders who have went ahead of you.
King Mary
Mary Thomas, known as Queen Mary, (california. 1848–1905) is one of the management of your 1878 “Fireburn” labor riot, otherwise uprising, toward isle from St. Croix.
Mary Thomas was of Antigua and you can arrived in St. Croix regarding 1860s for taking focus on this new ranches inside the the fresh isle. After the 1848 emancipation out of enslaved Africans on the Danish Western Indies, a keen 1849 https://kissbrides.com/hot-nordic-women/ labor law fixed wages and you will labor standards for everybody plantation workers and you may blocked negotiating to possess finest wages or functions requirements. It generated plantation work unappealing and several experts signed up to go out of the brand new plantations therefore the isles, to seek finest requirements elsewhere. The federal government reacted on labor scarcity by making they much harder in order to to own pros to go away the islands, requiring fitness licenses and billing charges getting passports. Whenever earnings would be to end up being discussed about slide of 1878, the workers' need have been rejected, and you will the fresh severe conditions to possess travel was in fact imposed. It started this new therefore-entitled Fireburn riots, which have been called the biggest labor riot in Danish history, and you will when more than fifty ranches was basically burned.
On account of her part as the a leader from inside the uprising e as labeled as “King Mary”. The staff picked her as well as 2 almost every other feminine, “King Agnes” and you may “Queen Matilda”, since “queens” to do routine and you may celebratory properties inside the uprising. Queen Mary was detained and you may experimented with with other frontrunners of your work uprising. On demo of the labor leadership Thomas was sentenced to demise to own arson and you will looting however, had their unique sentence commuted in order to lifetime imprisonment, and try relocated to Copenhagen and you can placed during the Ladies' Prison, Christianshavn from inside the 1882, however in 1887 was sent back to help you Christiansted, St. Croix in order to serve the rest of their phrase.
Anna Heegaard
Anna Heegaard remains a fascinating contour during the Virgin Islands history. She's credited that have improving standards for the enslaved African and you will “Totally free Coloured” people of your Danish Western Indies about nineteenth century once the a direct result their 20 12 months reference to the fresh new islands' Governor General, Peter von Scholten.
Depending on the Encyclopedia out-of Antislavery & Abolition, “Heegard let me tell you influenced the fresh direction getting judge and societal equality to possess 100 % free black colored everyone regarding the Danish Western Indies.” Heegaard was born in St. Croix in January of 1790 to solitary parents known as an effective “free mulatto woman” and an excellent Danish Bodies clerk. She was raised with her mommy and you can half of sisters inside the Christiansted. Heegard used their particular wits and you can charm in order to create liaisons which have St. Croix's wealthiest and you may powerful guys, eventually crossing paths towards the Governor-General not long shortly after their coming within the 1827. By that point, she had herself feel a relatively prosperous woman.
Heegard in addition to Governor-General began appointment continuously to go over the brand new plight of your Totally free Coloured populace and you will she's considered enjoys aided him ready yourself a summary of societal reforms he presented to brand new Danish Queen, who appointed a payment to review and do the fresh regulations to possess social justice having low-whites regarding the D.W.We. . Reforms toward “unfree” eventually integrated – a regulated amount of work day, reduce from corporal abuse, forbidding away from personal slave deals, good reprieve to possess expectant mothers, business out of schools and you can property improvements. Von Scholten and did so you're able to elevator traps free of charge black and coloured anybody – setting all of them publicly ranking and you can hosting racially included societal functions, to include his personal dinner parties presided over from the Heegard. They resided due to the fact man and you may wife for many of two ily in Denmark, and in the end the two paid at Bulows Minde Home Household away from Christiansted.