Slavery in the British Virgin Islands

In common with most Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

countries, slavery in the British Virgin Islands forms a major part of the history of the Territory

History of the British Virgin Islands

The History of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:* Pre-Columbian Amerindian settlement, up to an uncertain date* Nascent European settlement, from approximately 1612 until 1672...

. One commentator has gone so far as to say: "One of the most important aspects of the History of the British Virgin Islands is slavery."

In 1563, before there had been any European settlement in the British Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...

, Sir John Hawkins

John Hawkins

Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. As treasurer and controller of the Royal Navy, he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588...

visited the islands with a cargo of slaves bound for Hispaniola

Hispaniola

Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...

.

In 1665 the Dutch settlers on Tortola were attacked by a British privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

, John Wentworth

John Wentworth

John Wentworth may refer to:*John Wentworth , lieutenant governor of New Hampshire from 1717-1730*John Wentworth , jurist and revolutionary leader in New Hampshire...

, who is recorded as capturing 67 slaves which were removed to Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

. This is the first record of slaves actually being kept on Tortola

Tortola

Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...

.

The first Dutch settlers also built slave pens at Port Purcell and on Scrub Island. In 1690 the Brandenburgers

Margraviate of Brandenburg

The Margraviate of Brandenburg was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1157 to 1806. Also known as the March of Brandenburg , it played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe....

built slave pens on Peter Island

Peter Island

The 720 hectare Peter Island, is a private island located in the British Virgin Islands , about 5.2 miles south-west from Road Harbour , Tortola...

, however, they later abandoned them in favour of an agreement with the Danes to set up a trading outpost on St. Thomas

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...

. The Brandenburgers and Dutch were both expelled by the British (although the remains of the pens can still be seen in Great Harbour and on Scrub Island).

Plantation economy

After the Territory came under British control, the islands gradually became a plantation economy. As Tortola and to a lesser extent Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands . Located at approximately 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about...

came to be settled by plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

owners, slave labour became economically essential, and there was an exponential growth in the slave population during the early 18th century.

**Slaves in the British Virgin Islands**
Year	No. of slaves
1717	547
1724	1,430
1756	6,121
1788	≈9,000

Source: Vernon Pickering, A Concise History of the British Virgin Islands

The figure for 1788 arises from a different source, and may possibly be an overestimate. It seems more likely that the total numbers of slaves would remain fairly constant as the agriculture levels on the islands reached a natural level of saturation (there being only a limited amount of flat land in the British Virgin Islands suitable for cultivation). At the time of emancipation, in 1834, there were 5,792 slaves in the British Virgin Islands.

Treatment of slaves

Slaves were regularly whipped and beaten and sometimes even killed. However, there is much evidence to suggest that treatment of slaves was considerably worse prior to approximately 1774 than after that date. In 1774 the Territory received its first Legislature, and although this did not in itself assist the slaves (in fact one of the first two laws passed was settling punishments for slaves), it does mark a point in the history of the islands when the treatment of slaves started to improve.

Prior to 1774

The treatment of slaves was generally extremely harsh, and it appears that the treatment became increasingly harsh as time progressed. Speaking before a Select Committee of the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

in 1790, Thomas Woolrich, who had lived in Tortola, testified that the treatment of slaves was much worse in 1773 than it had been when he arrived, in 1753. When slave numbers had been smaller, slaves had been allowed to tend their own land for food to eat. As they became more numerous (and cheaper) land became more scarce, the slaves more malnourished. Woolrich testified that he "never saw a gang of negroes that appeared anything like sufficiently fed."

Woolrich would also testify that "as the quantity of negroes increased ... punishment of slaves in general ... became more and more severe." The favoured method of punishment was whipping, largely because it left the slave able to continue labour immediately after the infliction of punishment, although other more barbarous practices were employed. The Select Committee also heard that some slaves' backs appeared as "an undistinguishable mass of lumps, holes and furrows by frequent whippings."

The treatment of all slaves was not equal. House slaves were treated considerably better than field slaves. In the field, privileged slaves would be appointed as drivers, but they would protect their position jealously by relentlessly whipping those that they supervised. The laws which were passed to reinforce the social inferiority of slaves applied to both. Slaves could own property, but not other slaves; nor could they cultivate sugar or cotton. Slaves were subject to severe punishments for striking a white person.

Subsequent to 1774

After 1774, although conditions were still harsh, a number of things happened which improved the conditions of the slaves.

Throughout the middle part of the 18th century, the Territory had been inhabited by a number of distinguished Quakers, who were fundamentally opposed to slavery. Many, such as John C. Lettsome

John C. Lettsome

Dr. John Coakley Lettsome was an English physician and philanthropist born on Little Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. He was born into one of the early Quaker settlements in the territory, and grew up to be an abolitionist...

and Samuel Nottingham freed slaves en masse. Others continued to keep slaves, but treated them more benignly.

After Quakerism began to decline in the Territory, the Methodist mission began to pick up force. Methodists were not opposed to slavery per se, but a number of freed Africans were accepted warmly within the Methodist church, and as a result the church tended to advocate better treatment of enslaved Africans. By 1796 the church had 3,000 black members in its congregation. However, its influence may have been more subtle - the Methodists also provided the first real schooling available to Africans, and the education of slaves and former slaves may have gradually helped their acceptance by white plantation owners as human beings deserving of humane treatment.

When George Suckling

George Suckling

George Suckling was a lawyer who was appointed to be the first Chief Justice of the British Virgin Islands in 1776. Suckling's appointment was not popular in the islands, which were at the time a notorious haunt for the lawless and for those seeking to evade their creditors elsewhere...

, who was appointed as Chief Justice of the Territory, spent 10 years in the Territory from 1778 to 1788, in his letters to London and Antigua he generally had very little to say about British Virgin Islanders that was kind, but he did say that: "they have a tender manner of treating their servants and slaves ... no people are better obeyed in the West Indies than they."

However, it was only after Suckling left that real improvements began to be made. In 1798 the Amelioration Act was passed by the Legislature of the Leeward Islands

Leeward Islands

The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...

and applied to the Territory. This, amongst other things, prohibited cruel and unusual punishments for slaves, and set out minimum standards for the feeding and education of slaves.

Then, in 1807 the United Kingdom passed the Slave Trade Act

Slave Trade Act

The Slave Trade Act was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 25 March 1807, with the long title "An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade". The original act is in the Parliamentary Archives...

, which prohibited any further trade in slaves. Although the existing slaves were not freed, their owners now had a huge economic incentive to keep them happier and healthier, both so that they would not die (as they could not be replaced), but also in the hopes that they would breed (which was the only possible legal source of new slaves). Although there is evidence that Tortolian planters evaded the law by illegally trading with privateer

Privateer

s from St. Thomas

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

, slaves clearly became exponentially more valuable, and were treated accordingly.

Many slave owners adopted voluntary rules relating to the treatment of slaves; the hope was that publishing these rules, they would remove the slave's fear of arbitrary and excessive punishments. A set of these rules from Hannah's Estate was discovered by historians.

In the 1820s Trelawney Wentworth and Fortunatus Dwarris, a Royal agent, also visited the Territory, and both are reported to have commented on the better treatment meted out to slaves in a letter of 1828.

In 1823 the property accumulated by slaves in the British Virgin Islands was valued in aggregate at £14,762, 8 shillings. This included 23 boats, 38 horses and over 4,000 head of cattle, goats and pigs.

There were clear exceptions to this trend however. One Tortolian plantation owner, Arthur William Hodge

Arthur William Hodge

Arthur William Hodge was a plantation farmer, member of the Council and Legislative Assembly, and slave owner in the British Virgin Islands, who was hanged on 8 May 1811, for the murder of one of his slaves...

was notoriously cruel and sadistic towards his slaves, and was eventually executed for murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

ing his slaves. However, the fact of Hodge's arrest, trial and execution (he was the only British man ever to be hanged

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

for the murder of a slave) also testify to the fact that whereas that sort of treatment may have previously been tolerated or even encouraged, a jury

Jury

A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...

in the British Virgin Islands could no longer accept it.

Slave revolts

Needless to say, the slaves themselves did not view their condition or treatment as remotely benign. Uprisings in the Territory were common, as they were elsewhere in the Caribbean. The first notable uprising occurred in 1790, and centred on the estates of Isaac Pickering; it was quickly put down, and the ring leaders were executed

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

. The revolt was sparked by the rumour that freedom had been granted to slaves in England, but that the planters were withholding knowledge of it. The same rumour would later spark subsequent revolts.

Subsequent rebellions also occurred in 1823 (at Pickering's estate, again), in 1827 (at George Nibb's estate) and in 1830 (at the Lettsome estate), although in each case they were quickly put down.

Probably the most significant slave insurrection occurred in 1831 when a plot was uncovered to kill all of the white males in the Territory and to escape to Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

(which was at the time the only free black republic in the world) by boat with all of the white females. Although the plot does not appear to have been especially well formulated, it caused widespread panic, and military assistance was drafted in from St. Thomas. A number of the plotters (or accused plotters) were executed.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the incidence of slave revolts increased sharply after 1822. In 1807, the slave trade was abolished; although existing slaves continued their servitude, the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

patrolled the Atlantic freeing cargoes of new slaves being brought from Africa in defiance of the new law. Starting in 1808 hundreds of freed Africans were deposited on Tortola by the Navy, who after serving a 14 year "apprenticeship", were then absolutely free. Naturally seeing free Africans living and working in the Territory caused enormous resentment and jealousy amongst the existing slave population.

Shortly after the free Africans completed their 14 year apprenticeships, the slaves in the Territory were all emancipated by legislation in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, although as outlined below, this did not of itself entirely curtail the insurrections.

Emancipation

The abolition of slavery occurred on 1 August 1834, and to this day it is celebrated by a three day public holiday

Public holidays in the British Virgin Islands

Holidays in the British Virgin Islands are predominantly religious holidays, with a number of additional national holidays. The most important holiday in the Territory is the August festival, which is celebrated on the three days from the first Monday in August to commemorate the abolition of...

on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August in the British Virgin Islands. The original emancipation proclamation hangs in the High Court. However, the abolition of slavery was not the single event that it is sometimes supposed to have been. Emancipation freed a total of 5,792 slaves in the Territory, but at the time of abolition, there were already a considerable number of free blacks in the Territory, possibly as many as 2,000.A number of settlers in the Territory, John C. Lettsome

John C. Lettsome

and Samuel Nottingham amongst them, had manumitted large numbers of slaves. Lettsome manumitted 1,000 slaves upon inheriting them. Further, subsequent to the abolition of the slave trade, the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

deposited a number of freed Africans in the Territory who settled in the Kingston area on Tortola

Tortola

. In January 1808, HMS Cerberus

HMS Cerberus (1794)

HMS Cerberus was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and even briefly in the Baltic against the Russians. She participated in one boat action that won for her crew a clasp to...

seized the American schooner, the Nancy with a cargo of enslaved Senegalese Africans in the Territory's waters; between August 1814 and February 1815 a further four ships' slave cargoes were seized from the Venus, the Manuella, the Atrevido and the Candelaria and a further 1,318 liberated slaves were deposited on Tortola's shores (of whom just over 1,000 survived). In 1819, a Portuguese slave ship, the Donna Paula, was wrecked upon the reef at Anegada. The ship's crew and 235 slaves were saved from the wreckage. Further Spanish ships, en route to Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

Anegada were reported wrecked of Anegada in 1817 and 1824, and their cargos settled on Tortola. Although many of these former slaves died due to the appalling conditions that they were kept in during the transatlantic crossing, a large number survived, and had children.

Furthermore, the effect of abolition was gradual; the freed slaves were not absolutely manumitted, but instead entered a form of forced apprenticeship which lasted four years for house slaves and six years for field slaves.Slavery Abolition Act 1833, section 4 http://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm The terms of the forced apprenticeship required them to provide 45 hours unpaid labour a week to their former masters, and prohibited them from leaving their residence without the masters permission. The effect, deliberately, was to phase out reliance on slave labour rather than end it with a bang. The Legislative Council of the British Virgin Islands would later legislate to reduce this period to four years for all slaves to quell rising dissent amongst the field slaves. Although, the economics of the abolition of slavery in the British Virgin Islands are difficult to quantify, there was undeniably a considerable impact. Not least the original slave owners suffered a huge capital loss. Although they received £72,940 from the British Government in compensation, this was only a fraction of the true economic value of the manumitted slaves.It is difficult to quantify precisely the value of the freed slaves, but in 1798 the total value of slaves in the British Virgin Islands had been estimated at £360,000. It is likely that figure would have increased considerably during the subsequent 36 years, particularly as the price of slaves rose enormously after the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807.Equally, whilst they lost the right to "free" slave labour, the former slave owners now no longer had to pay to house, clothe and provide medical attention for their former slaves. The former slaves now usually worked for the same masters, but instead received small wages, out of which they had to pay for the expenses formerly borne by their masters. Whilst some former slaves amassed savings, which clearly demonstrates that in net terms the slave owners were less well off as a result of abolition, it appears that other factors made significant contributions to the Territory's economic decline.

It is true that the Territory went into severe economic decline shortly after abolition of slavery. However, the causes of the decline were numerous. The Territory was rocked by a series of hurricanes; at the time, there was no accurate method of forecasting hurricanes, and their effect was devastating. A particularly devastating hurricane struck in 1837, which was reported to have completely destroyed 17 of the Territory's sugar works, the most lucrative export in the islands. Further hurricanes hit in 1842 and 1852. Two more struck in 1867. The island also suffered severe drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

between 1837 and 1847, which made sugar plantation almost impossible to sustain. To compound these miseries, in 1846 the United Kingdom passed the Sugar Duties Act 1846

Sugar Duties Act 1846

The Sugar Duties Act 1846 was a statute of the United Kingdom which equalized import duties for sugar from British colonies. It was passed in 1846 at the same time as the repeal of the Corn laws by the Importation Act 1846...

to equalise duties on sugar grown in the colonies; removing market distortion

Market distortion

In neoclassical economics, a market distortion is any event in which a market reaches a market clearing price for an item that is substantially different from the price that a market would achieve while operating under conditions of perfect competition and state enforcement of legal contracts and...

s had the net effect of making prices fall, a further blow to plantation in the British Virgin Islands.By 1848, Edward Hay Drummond Hay

Edward Hay Drummond Hay

Sir Edward Hay Drummond-Hay was a British naval officer, diplomat and colonial administrator.He was born in England, son of Captain Edward Drummond Hay, who was a nephew of the ninth Earl of Kinnoul, and educated at Charterhouse and was a Colonel of the 5th West India Regiment from 6 November 1854...

, the President of the British Virgin Islands, reported that: "there are now no properties in the Virgin Islands whose holders are not embarrassed for want of capital or credit sufficient to enable them to carry on the simplest method of cultivation effectively." In December 1853 there was a disastrous outbreak of cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

in the Territory, which killed nearly 15% of the population.A total of 942 deaths were recorded out of a total population of 6,919 (13.9%) This was followed by an outbreak of smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

in Tortola and Jost Van Dyke

Jost Van Dyke

At roughly 8 square kilometers, and about 3 square miles Jost Van Dyke is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Jost Van Dyke lies about 8 km to the...

in 1861.

Insurrection

However, one of the defining elements of the economic decline of the Territory was the insurrections of 1848 and 1853. The newly freed black population of the British Virgin Islands became increasingly disenchanted that freedom had not brought the prosperity that they had hoped for. Economic decline had led to increased tax burdens, which became a source of general discontent for former slaves and other residents of the Territory alike.
In 1848 a major disturbance occurred in the Territory. However, the insurrection of 1853 was a far more serious affair, and would have much graver and more lasting consequences. The most direct cause was the imposition of a head tax on cattle in the Territory, which was imposed on the black rural farmers. With a particularly bad sense of judgment, the tax came into force on the date of the emancipation, and was enforced in an injudicious manner.It has been suggested that rioting could have been avoided if the legislature had been more circumspect in enforcing the legislation by Isaac Dookham in his History of the British Virgin Islands, page 156All but four of the white population fled, and most plantation houses were burned to the ground. The riots were eventually suppressed with military assistance from St. Thomas, and reinforcements of British troops dispatched by the Governor of the Leeward Islands from Antigua

Antigua

Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...

. However, of the plantation owners who had formerly controlled the Territory mostly elected not to return to their ruined and insolvent estates. Realistically, from that point in time, the Territory was almost solely populated by the former slaves who then made up the vast bulk of the population. By 1893, a mere 40 years after the revolts, there were only two white people resident on Tortola - the deputy Governor and the island's doctor.

Footnotes

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