Discovering a Clue to this Postcard’s Identity Unbeknownst to me, this postcard image held one important clue to its date and occasion.🔎 I’ve been trying to identify it for a long time until a friend from St. John, spotted the schooner, Viking anchored in the background. With this information, I was able to find the […]
St. Jan 🇩🇰
A Historical Account of the Slave Insurrection on St. John ~ 1733
November 23rd marks the anniversary of one of the darkest days in St. John’s history that culminated in a violent and widespread uprising by the enslaved individuals. Hundreds lost their lives. Below is an account of that fateful day found in a book entitled, A Historical Account of St. Thomas West India Islands by John P. […]
New Book! ~ Runaway Virgins by Enrique Corneiro
Runaway Virgins I recently purchased this brand new book entitled, Runaway Virgins by Enrique Corneiro. It is incredibly moving! Enrique shared over 250 slavery-related advertisements that he curated from the old Danish newspapers to help shine a light on what life was like for the enslaved people of the Danish West Indies, now the US Virgin Islands. More than 300 specific […]
Cultural Adaptation & Resistance on St. John Book by Karen Fog Olwig
Here’s an interesting book about the history of St. John that I’m planning on reading this summer. Below you’ll find the Amazon review with a link to the book. Three Centuries of Afro-Caribbean Life This book covers three centuries of St. John history from the plantation economy of the early 1700s through the peasant economy […]
Honoring Hurricane Heroes Past and Present
HMS Valkyrien ~ Crew Hurricane of 1916 Just over 100 years ago, a hurricane in October of 1916 tore through the Virgin Islands with a vengeance—leaving a path of destruction similar to hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. 🌧 The damage was of historic proportions for its time and it left a lasting impression […]
Collecting Postcards From The Past
I love collecting various postcards of the Danish West Indies and the British Virgin Islands. Here is a small sampling from St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. Based on this advertisement from 1913, it’ll take a lifetime to collect all of them. 🙂 Postcards from the Past This Virgin Islands postcard […]
How One Family Shared the Sad Story of the 1733 Slave Revolt
A group of captive men from the African Akwamu tribe planned an attack against their masters at Estate Fortsberg in Coral Bay. ~ November 23, 1733 The slave revolt was an attempt to gain their freedom at all costs, even if it meant death. During the 1930s, our great-grandfather owned the estates of Mary’s Point and Annaberg. Whenever he motored […]