Dear Source:
I am more than a little confused with the intention of the constitutional convention in trying to protect and/or create a special class of people called natives in order to defend the rights of natives born on St. Croix before 1927 and their decedents. As I look at the history of the Virgin Islands, the land mass was formed about 120 million years ago and the first aboriginal group was called the Arawak which was here a couple of thousand years before Christ. As taught in the Virgin Islands History books, this group could have been of African origins. Regardless, the group has left no known written records or verbal traditions, which would connect current living beings to those Arawaks born here prior to 1927.
Arawak's were later replaced by the Taino and Carib as the aboriginal native groups and the record indicates a certain intermingling of the gene pool whether voluntary or involuntary. While decedents of both groups have survived the colonization of the region, there is simply no way to connect the decedents of those born on island prior to 1927 to living humans spread throughout the Caribbean.
With the coming of the Danish era came impeccable record keeping and it is indeed possible to keep track of island families perhaps even easier than it would be using American Records. However, even this does not appear to me to clarify the group which we are supposed to be honoring and rewarding.
As early as the 1740's, the Danish Government was doing a census and regulating several distinct groups on St. Croix including white planter families, white servants, slaves and the "Free Coloured". Oldendorp, the Moravian historian made note of the rather large Free Negro population in the Danish Islands who were occupied as skilled artisans, fisherman and even plantation owners who had slaves working for them. The extent of slave ownership by the "Free Coloured" should not be underestimated. The 1772 census of the Free Gut area of Christiansted Town documented 26 Free Negros who owned 31 slaves, or more than one per person, while the 44 white people owned less than one slave per person.
The symbiotic relationship between The Danish Government and the Free Coloured was based on Freedom and Responsibility. It seems that there was a shortage of Danes willing to come to the Virgin Islands to help make the colony profitable. The solution was to allow plantation ownership to anyone who swore allegiance to the King. There were also shortages of artisans and militiamen. So in exchange for providing relative freedom to educated and skilled former slaves, the Free Coloured had to swear an oath of allegiance and become part of the Free Negro militia. Oldendorp made note that the militia was used for patrolling the Towns and quelling slave uprisings.
This arrangement was so attractive that "Free Coloured" from all over the world came. They arrived from Montserrat, St. Eustacia, Curacao, Nevis, Africa, Barbados, St. Martin, Tortola and more. Now this is a group that never had a minute of involuntary servitude under either the American Government or the Danish Crown. The size of the group also should not be under estimated as by 1815, there were 1840 whites and 2480 Free Coloured. The slave population was 24,330 and as previously mentioned both whites and Free Coloured owned slaves. The free men of the two towns which were the centers for skilled labor, services and government were 63% "Free Coloured".
Now in the race to acquire economic prominence the Blacks of St. Croix were in an uneven contest. The "Free Coloured" had education, marketable job skills and a 100 year head start over those emancipated in the Fireburn of 1878. Even worse, the development of the sugar beet destroyed the plantation economy of St. Croix and there was even less economic opportunity for the undereducated and unskilled laborers to gain wealth prior to the transfer to America. So in 1927, when Virgin Islanders were first able to emigrate to America, many left for greater economic activity.
From an economic perspective, it is interesting to note that the Family names of the "Free Coloured" who came to the Virgin Islands as Free people are still among the socioeconomic and political elite of our community. These names include, Samuel, Smith, John, Francis, Rodgers, Arnold, Jacobson, Petrus, Thomas, Pickering, Hansen, Taylor, Gumbs, Barns, Dumbavin, Steel, Ebbesen, Williams, Motta, Benners, Jacobs, Krause, Hodge, Howell, Dorthea, Martin, Markoe, Abrahams, Evans, Gardine, and Bryan. The evidence of history and economics suggests that this group who emigrated to the Virgin Islands and amassed wealth, property and power from their freedom will have the most to gain from special privileges set aside for "Native Virgin Islanders."
In response to Kendall Petersen as quoted in the Daily News, I would like to say that I love the Virgin Islands, but will never be comfortable with a process that makes those living, working and paying taxes in our community third class citizens, the hardworking people who came here in the thirties to cut cane and the hardworking people who came in the sixties to build Harvey Alumina and Hess Oil and their decedents second class citizens and makes those who may have exploited their free status to gain economic dominance from slave ownership to first class status.
Let the sleeping dogs of history lie dormant and as stated in the Viconstitution.com website, "We the People of these Virgin Islands do hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal." Stick with the concept.
John A. Boyd
Virgin Islands
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