I will keep on saying it until I die. We Virgin Islanders don’t value our natural and cultural resources. It is just a handful of us in the Virgin Islands trying to preserve whatever historical buildings, ruins or natural sites —including historic trees — that remain on these beautiful islands and cays. In October, St. John’s Episcopal Church, also known as St. John’s Anglican Church, in Christiansted on St. Croix made 264 years. It was built by enslaved Africans and the so-called “free colored” people, who really were not free but just held to another standard of slavery in the Danish West Indies.
These islands are so rich in history that we miss the mark of who we are as a people. On July 20, 1906, the funeral service of Susannah Abrahamsen — known in our history as “Bottom Belly,” one of the Queens in the Fireburn labor riot in 1878 — was held at St. John’s Episcopal Church. We drive by every day and have no idea that “Bottom Belly’s” service was held at this historic church.
According to historical records, “Bottom Belly” was buried adjacent to Christiansted Cemetery. While I am talking about cemeteries, the church yard and gravesites are full of graves dating back to the 1700s. In fact, within the church building, there are tombstones on the floor giving the history of people who once attended service there. In 2016, the church graveyard was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Vivian I. Ebbesen-Fludd, a native Crucian, is an endangered species of a woman and I consider her to be very articulate in giving the history of the church.
I toured the church with her several times, and I was very impressed. Believe me, she loves her church and those who laid down their lives for our freedom. It was during the period when the English ruled the Danish West Indies, from 1645-1650, that an Anglican community of faith first begin to develop on St. Croix. Also, it was during the golden era when sugar was king on St. Croix, from 1760 to 1814, when St. John’s Episcopal Church was established in 1760 or 1761.
The church was built on a hill of local limestone and bricks that came from Denmark in ships. It has a distinctive Gothic Revival English style and is located at the western entrance of King Street by the main entry to the town of Christiansted. Due to the growing population of English, Irish and Scots inhabiting St. Croix during this period in our history, the church was frequently referred to as the “Mother Church” of the Diocese of the Virgin Islands.
According to historical documentation, the Rev. Cecil Wray Goodchild left Teddington, England to become rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts funded the first year of the construction of the church. The Society (SPG), which is an arm for the Church of England in the Americas, felt that the Christianity ordinances of their colonies in the Western Hemisphere were neglected and the moral standards of their citizens were too relaxed.
When Goodchild arrived in 1760 on St. Croix, he was placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. Thus, Goodchild served as the first rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church. The Danish planter Reimert Haagensen noted, “The British … have a pastor who holds services on Sundays in town [Christiansted] and again on the west end, in order to spare those who live far from town a long trip. This greatly satisfies his congregations, which pays him an annual salary of 1,000 Rdlr. [Rigsdaler].”
Goodchild had other sources of income that included a 75-acre cotton plantation at Prince’s Quarter, later named “Clear Mount,” and which eventually became part of Estate Beck’s Grove plantation, according to the late native historian William Fleming Cissel. Nevertheless, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, enslaved Africans and “free coloreds” made up a large part of the congregation, worshiping along with their white residents.
However, the service in the church was segregated. Black worshippers had allocated spots in the church apart from their white counterparts. They were unable to sit in the pews of the church. With contention between the two races, in 1794, “Free Black parishioners” petitioned the church leadership for them to rent pews where they could worship. This was approved by the vestry in 1794. As a result, slaves and “free coloreds” were allowed to sit in the north part of the church gallery to worship. However, this was reversed in 1810. Therefore, Black parishioners could no longer sit in the north gallery of the church.
Eventually, the white parishioners contested Blacks sitting in the church gallery and the decision was reversed, barring them from occupying any pew. Also, they were disallowed from bringing their own chairs to sit in the church. They were allowed, however, a section in the middle of the aisle of the church that was made available for them.
However, Crucian Blacks continued to worship at St. John’s Episcopal Church. Until the 1848 emancipation, there were separate marriage, burial, and baptism registers kept for slaves and “free worshippers” in the church. As time moved forward in history, Black Crucians had allocated spots to worship in the church, but they were made aware to enter the church through a separate entrance from where whites entered. By 1910, segregation in the church no longer existed.
Alexander Hamilton, together with his mother Rachel Fawcett Levine and his older brother James, lived a short distance from the church in Christiansted. They worshiped in the church occasionally and the pew of one of America’s Founding Fathers still exists there today. In 1768, Rachel died of yellow fever at age 49 and her burial records are registered in St. John’s Episcopal Church. Other prominent parishioners of the day were Nicholas Cruger, Thomas Stevens, whose family was from Antigua, and Edward Stevens, a renowned physician.
There is a lot more history of the church. I just wanted to point out how rich Virgin Islands history is that touches the fourth corner of the world. St. John’s Episcopal Church is a major asset to the historic district of Christiansted. You can contact Vivian I. Ebbesen-Fludd, at viefludd@gamil.com. Believe me, she is good in telling the history of the church.
Happy Birthday, St. John’s Episcopal Church!
— Olasee Davis is a bush professor who lectures and writes about the culture, history, ecology and environment of the Virgin Islands when he is not leading hiking tours of the wild places and spaces of St. Croix and beyond.
