SLAVERY TIMELINE VIRGIN ISLANDS 1563 Before there had been any European settlement in the British Virgin Islands, Sir John Hawkins visited the islands with a cargo of slaves bound for Hispaniola. 1665 The Dutch settlers on Tortola were attacked by a British privateer, John Wentworth, who is recorded as capturing 67 slaves which were removed to Bermuda. 1690 The Brandenburgers built slave pens on Peter Island, however, they later abandoned them in favour of an agreement with the Danes to set up a trading outpost on St. Thomas. 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. 1790 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. 1798 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. 1807 The United Kingdom passed the Slave Trade Act, which prohibited any further trade in slaves. 1808 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. 1817 Further Spanish ships, en route to Puerto Rico were reported wrecked on the reef at Anegada in 1817 and 1824, and their cargos settled on Tortola. 1819 A Portuguese slave ship, the Donna Paula, was wrecked upon the reef at Anegada. 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. 1831 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 (which was at the time the only free black republic in the world) by boat with all of the white females. 1834 At the time of emancipation, in 1834, there were 5,792 slaves in the British Virgin Islands. August 1: The abolition of slavery occurred on 1 August 1834, and to this day it is celebrated by a three day public holiday on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August in the British Virgin Islands. 1837 A particularly devastating hurricane struck in 1837, which was reported to have completely destroyed 17 of the Territorys sugar works, the most lucrative export in the islands. 1842 Further hurricanes hit in 1842 and 1852. 1846 To compound these miseries, in 1846 the United Kingdom passed the Sugar Duties Act 1846 to equalise duties on sugar grown in the colonies; removing market distortions had the net effect of making prices fall, a further blow to plantation in the British Virgin Islands.By 1848, Edward Hay Drummond Hay, 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. 1848 A major disturbance occurred in the Territory. 1853 December: There was a disastrous outbreak of cholera 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 in Tortola and Jost Van Dyke in 1861. 1867 Two more struck in 1867.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 16:25:49 +0000
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