Cruz Bay U S Virgins (American) Virgin Islands

The Spanish, when first occupying the West Indies, had used the indigenous people as slave labor but disease, overworking, and war wiped out this source of labor.

When the Danes claimed Saint John in 1718, there was no available source of labor on the island to work the plantations.

Young Danish people could not be persuaded to emigrate to the West Indies in great enough number to provide a reliable source of labor.

Attempts to use indentured servants from Danish prisons as plantation workers were not successful.

Failure to procure plantation labor from other sources make importing slaves from Africa the main supply of labor on the Danish West Indies islands.

Export from 1660 to 1806 on ships flying under the Danish flag will total about eighty-five thousand enslaved Africans.

The Danes had embarked in the African slave trade in 1657, and the Danish West India and Guinea Company had  by the beginning of the eighteenth century consolidated their slave operation to the vicinity of Accra on the Guinea coast.

The Akwamu are a dominant tribe in the district of Accra.

After the Akwamu king died, rival tribes in the area had attacked the weakened Akwamu nation, and by 1730 the Akwamu had been defeated.

In retaliation for years of oppression, many Akwamu people have been sold into slavery to the Danes and brought to plantations in the West Indies, including estates on St. John.

At the time of the 1733 slave rebellion on St. John, hundreds of Akwamu people are among the slave population here.

Approximately one hundred and fifty Africans are involved in the insurrection, and all of them are Akwamus.

The Danish had in 1718 laid claim to the island of St. John for the purpose of establishing plantations.

One hundred nine plantations with more than a thousand slaves exist on St. John by the time of the 1733 slave rebellion.

Many of St. John's plantations are owned by people from St. Thomas who have estates on that island and do not make their residence on St. John.

Instead, the absentee landowners hire overseers to manage their land on St. John.

The one thousand and eighty-seven enslaved Africans on St. John greatly outnumbers the two hundred and six free white European inhabitants.

The Danish West India Company does not provide a strong army for the defense of St. John.

The number of soldiers stationed on St. John at the time of the slave revolt, besides the local militia, numbers six.

Slaves in the West Indies, including on St. John, in 1733 leave their plantations to maroon in response to harsh living conditions from drought, a severe hurricane, and crop failure from insect infestation.

Slaves from the Suhm estate on the eastern part of St. John, from the Company estate, and other plantations around the Coral Bay area go maroon in October.

The Slave Code of 1733 is written to force slaves to be completely obedient to their owners.

Penalties for disobedience are severe public punishment including whipping, amputation, or death by hanging.

A large section of the code intends to prevent actual marooning and stop slaves from conspiring to set up independent communities.

The Akwamus on St. John do not see themselves as slaves, since in their homeland many were nobles, wealthy merchants or other powerful members of their society; so marooning is a natural response to their intolerable living conditions.

The stated purpose of the 1733 slave insurrection is to make St. John an Akwamu-ruled nation.

These new land owners plan to continue the production of sugar and other crops.

African slaves of other tribal origins are to serve as slaves for the Akwamu people.

The leader of the revolt is an Akwamu chief, King June, a field slave and foreman on the Sødtmann estate.

Other leaders are Kanta, King Bolombo, Prince Aquashie, and Breffu.

According to a report by a French planter, Pierre Pannet, the rebel leaders meet regularly at night to develop the plan.

The 1733 slave insurrection on St. John starts open acts of rebellion on November 23, 1733, at the Coral Bay plantation owned by Magistrate Johannes Sødtmann.

Slaves, admitted into the fort at Coral Bay to deliver wood, have hidden knives in the lots, which they use to kill most of the soldiers at the fort.

One soldier, John Gabriel, escapes to St. Thomas and alerts the Danish officials.

A group of rebels under the leadership of King June stays at the fort to maintain control, another group takes control of the estates in the Coral Bay area after hearing the signal shots from the fort's cannon.

The slaves kill many of the whites on these plantations.

The rebel slaves then move to the north shore of the island.

They avoid widespread destruction of property since they intend to take possession of the estates and resume crop production.

After gaining control of the Suhm, Sødtmann, and Company estates, the rebels begin to spread out over the rest of the island.

The Akwamus attack the Cinnamon Bay Plantation located on the central north shore.

Landowners John and Lieven Jansen and a group of loyal slaves resist the attack and hold off the advancing rebels with gunfire.

The Jansens are able to retreat to their waiting boat and escape to Durloe's Plantation.

The loyal Jansen slaves are also able to escape.

The rebels loot the Jansen plantation and then move on to confront the whites held up at Durloe's plantations.

The attack on Durloe's plantation is repelled, and many of the planters and their families escape to St. Thomas.

Two French ships had arrived on April 23, 1734 at St. John with several hundred French and Swiss troops to try to take control from the rebels.

With their firepower and troops, by mid-May they have restored planters' rule of the island.

The French ships return to Martinique on June 1, leaving the local militia to track down the remaining rebels.

The slave insurrection ends on August 25, 1734, when Sergeant Øttingen captures the remaining maroon rebels.

The loss of life and property from the insurrection causes many St. John landowners to move to St. Croix.

Franz Claasen, a loyal slave of the van Stell family, is deeded the Mary Point Estate for alerting the family to the rebellion and assisting in their escape to St. Thomas.

Franz Claasen's land deed is recorded August 20, 1738 by Jacob van Stell, making Claasen the first 'Free Colored' landowner on St. John.

The slave trade ends in the Danish West Indies on January 1, 1803, but slavery continues on the islands.