TRIAL RECORDS
Documents from the trials are brutal!!
The trial protocol from the court martial ends with death sentences that were executed immediately. The sentences from the second trial end with death sentences that were later commuted to imprisonment.
These archival documents are not neutral or resulting from a fair trial. They are inscribed in the Danish colonial power, who had the authority over laws, verdicts and enforcement and who did not grant the Danish colonial subjects, the plantation laborers the same legal position as Danish national subjects in Denmark.
The documents are written by Danish administrators in Danish, despite the fact that interrogations were held in English.
The role of Danish administrators was to exercise colonial power and restore the colonial order.
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TRIAL PROTOCOL - COURT MARTIAL
Protocol of The West Indian Government, Court martial of 5. October 1878, Christiansvaern.
Sentenced 12 men to their death and immediate execution for participating in the uprising 1. October 1878.
INTERROGATION RECORDS
5/11/1878 - 05/08 1880
Commission of 25.Oct 1878
Translation
The Government of the Danish West Indian Islands appointed 25.Oct. 1878 a “Commission of Inquiry” on the Fireburn. Hundreds of people were interrogated from 1878 until 1880.
Here is the whole interrogation protocol of more than 650 pages translated to English
POLICE RECORDS:
Various Police records related to The Fireburn. (Extract from the Central Board of the Colonies Files)
COURT RECORDS:
Court records related to Susanna Abrahansen (Bottom Belly) 1849-1878 - before The Fireburn
ON THE COMMISION OF 25. OCTOBER 1878
On the 25th of October 1878, only some three weeks after the Fireburn, the Government of the Danish West Indian Islands appointed a “Commission of Inquiry”. The aim was, as is written in the preface of the records, to “examine and determine actions in the cases emerged and the crimes committed during the revolt of October 1878 on St. Croix, with participation of the insurgents, the troublemakers and all the participants in the revolt and the destruction of the same”.
FINAL REPORT AND SENTENCES
Commission of 25. Oct 1878
INTERROGATION RECORDS
5/11/1878 - 05/08 1880
Commission of 25.Oct 1878
Background
The Government of the Danish West Indian Islands appointed 25.Oct. 1878 a “Commission of Inquiry” on the Fireburn. Hundreds of people were interrogated from 1878 until 1880.
Get more background information here
THE CENTRAL BOARD OF THE COLONIES - The uprising of 1878:
Contains many items, here amongst reports on the uprising, ordinances,lists of the destruction on the plantations and in Frederiksted, overviews of debts, communication, reports on the state of the islands, budgets, complaints etc
See various extracts on Police records (left)
and the Royal Commissions report (right)
JUDGE ROSENSTAND'S LIST
These two overviews of people accused in the trial was found in Judge Rosenstands private archive together with the handwritten draft for the final sentences. One is translated here - the other lists names 'Shot after the Court Martial' and 'Defendants during the Trial´.
The documents are not digitalized by the Danish National Archives and have not been published anywhere until this site.
INTERROGATION RECORDS
5/11/1878 - 05/08 1880
Commission of 25.Oct 1878
Navigate the interrogation records
The Government of the Danish West Indian Islands appointed 25.Oct. 1878 a “Commission of Inquiry” on the Fireburn. Hundreds of people were interrogated from 1878 until 1880.
Here we suggest various tracks throughout the many pages of documents.
ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE REBELLION ON ST. CROIX OF 28.DECEMBER 1878
In 1879, a governmental commission was sent from Copenhagen to the Danish West Indies to write reports on the situation of the islands to the Danish Ministry of Finance.
They interogated 53 inhabitants - planters, labores, shopkeepers, council members etc., documented in this INTERROGATION RECORD.
** Notes on translation:
In translation, you always deal with a shift between languages and cultural environments, and in the translation of text from a different time, the shift is deepened. Also, however faithfully one tries to translate, it will always involve an aspect of interpretation.
In the translation of the Fireburn files, the aim has been to keep the historical and cultural tone of the original text.
PRISON RECORDS
Eight persons were sentenced to hard labour for life in Copenhagen. Four women came across the Atlantic together with three men from the rebellion. Mary Thomas, Mathilde McBean, Susanna Abraham, ’Bottom Belly’, and Axeline ’Agnes’ Solomon were incarcerated in Christianshavn's Womens Prison. The three men, Joseph Bowell, James Emmanuel Benjamin and Edvard Lewis were taken to Horsens' Penitentiary.
Mary Thomas
Trialed and convicted for "participation in looting and arson during the revolt on St. Croix 1878".
SUSANNA ABRAHAMSON
Trialed and convicted for "Participation in plundering and arson in Frederiksted during insurrection 1878".
MATHILDE MCBEAN
Trialed and convicted for "participation in murder of two soldiers on the Plantation Carlton and theft during the Rebellion 1878".
'Agnes' Axeline Elisabeth Salomon
Trialed and convicted for "participation in murder of two soldiers on the Plantation Carlton and theft during the Rebellion 1878".
NEWS CLIPPINGS
Fireburn was widely discussed and reported in contemporary media as well as on the occassion of Denmark
selling the colony to the US. This is a selection from the period.
St Thomas Times
2.-5.-9. Oct 1878
On the Fireburn, reported from St Thomas and the Danish / planter perspective
THE NEW YORK HERALD,
28. NOVEMBER 1878
The paper is critical towards the Labour Act of 1849; ‘…….but the recent work of destruction in St Croix was but the natural result of long years of extortion and suffering endured by the blacks at the hands of their white employers.´
ST. CROIX AVIS, 1878
Proclamations regarding the "insurrection", ordering the workers to remain at the estates and refrain from joining the "insurrectionists".
THE HERALD, 1916
"A Retrospective Glance of the dark and cruel days through which St- Croix has passed from 1848-1916."
THE NEW YORK TIMES, 1878
"The Distress in St. Croix"
- a letter to the editor
Map of plantations in St. Croix, 1804
