Negro Dialect of the Virgin Islands

Abstract

HE accompanying dialogue is a reproduction of a conversation between the Reverend Mr. Maguire, pastor of the Moravian Church in Frederiksted, Santa Cruz (St. Croix), and one of his black parishioners who is typical of the country-naygur population of the agricultural island of the Virgin group. This conversation should be authentic, for it was recorded by the Reverend Mr. Maguire. From him it passed into the hands of Mrs. Louisa Fleming Moore, of Fredericksted, to whom I am indebted for most of its present form. The dialogue is typical of the Negro dialect and type of humor of the newest colonial possession of The United States; and as it stands, passed down by memory from mouth to ear among the natives, it has become a minor classic of the island of Santa Cruz. Probably it has never been presented to an American group of readers. In the writer's opinion, after a number of years' residence in the Virgin Islands, the local Negro humor and dialect possesses qualities comparable to the Marse Chan and Br'er Rabbit classics of Virginia. The common speech of the Virgin Island Blacks is marked by the following characteristics: