Portraits of Place

On a recent trip to the USVI, I discovered some interesting – although dark – history. Large sugar and cotton plantations existed in the 1700\’s and 1800\’s on what was then the Danish West Indies. Some of those plantation ruins are still there today, hidden in the thick jungle overgrowth. These were slave holding plantations, most of the labor was provided by slaves brought directly from Accra to the slave market on St Thomas. There were several slave rebellions that were severly repressed, mutiny\’s, mass slave suicides, and many escapes to the British islands across the channel. I intend to explore what little literature there is of this period of the West Indies to get a better sense of what life was like on these plantations. There are some interesting stories here, two kings from the rival Aquambo and Adampes tribes ended up as slaves on the same island. They met in personal combat to avenge their honor, and in the end joined forces to organize a revolt against the plantation owners and took over the island for 6 months. More to follow.