Contract labor migration as an agent of revolutionary change in the Danish West Indies

Abstract

ABSTRACT The following article examines the post-emancipation labor contract migration (1848–1917) from the eastern Caribbean islands to the Danish West Indies. This migration was intended to fill a labor vacuum caused by the emancipation of slaves in 1848. The migrant laborers technically had fewer restrictions than slaves did, but the planter class used the restrictive Labor Act of 1849 at their disposal to have total control over the laborers. During this period, the positions of the planter and laboring classes became polarized. The former wanted total control of labor, while the latter wanted fair treatment in the contractual labor engagements. The result was that the labor class, with their festering problems, formed a strong camaraderie among themselves. Migrant and native challenged their working and living conditions. Their dissatisfaction eventually manifested in riots, locally known as Fireburn or Fyah Bun, which resulted in the destruction of property and the loss of life. The riots, however, changed local working conditions and eventually accelerated the decline of Danish colonialism on St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. These revolutionary events and agents of change created a new platform for how labor relations would be conducted in the Danish West Indies – a platform that was created from the position of the laboring class.