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Excerpted from St. John Off The
Beaten Track ©
2006 Gerald Singer
The Annaberg area, south of Mary Point, was once the most populated
section of St. John. There were plantations at Maho Bay, Mary
Point, Fredriksdal, Annaberg, Leinster Bay and Windberg. The
historical ruins and places of interest can be accessed via the
North Shore Road, south of Leinster Bay Road. This is an excellent
area for a leisurely stroll. The terrain is relatively flat,
and the surrounding forest is shady and lush. The historical
sites are close to the road and easy to get to. The more intrepid
can make their way further into the bush to explore the area
to a greater degree.
The National Park has cleared a section of an old Danish road,
so that you can see what the island roads looked like back
in colonial times. The cleared section of old road is located
right near the intersection of the North Shore Road and Leinster
Bay Road, just across from the Annaberg School.
Just east of Big Maho Bay, the North Shore Road splits into two
one way roads. The Windberg Ruins are located on the side of
the road that heads back toward Big Maho Bay and Cruz Bay.
Slaves on the Windberg Plantation, as well as on plantations
all over the island, did anything in their power to resist
the conditions to which they were subjected. These acts of
resistance included such tactics as mutinies aboard slave ships,
overt rebellion such as the violent and almost successful slave
rebellion of 1733, suicide, self-mutilation, abortion and marooning
or running away from the plantation. They resisted as well
by pressing for the enforcement of already established laws,
which had been passed by Danish liberals to improve the conditions
of slavery, and by conducting labor actions, such as strikes,
work stoppages and sick-outs.
In 1831, the slaves at Windberg staged such an action. Forty
slaves reported to be ill and checked into the plantation sick
house. The overseer on the plantation reacted by forcing the
slaves to work. One woman died, and the police conducted an investigation.
The overseer was fired, and a new overseer was brought in. The
new overseer, reluctant to use extreme force, was faced with
the difficult task of restoring the plantation regime. He was
neither feared nor respected and was unsuccessful in compelling
the slaves to go back to work. Windberg remained in a state of
disorder until the landfoged (island administrator) intervened
on the overseer's and owner’s behalf.
Fredriksdal was named for Frederick Von Moth who lived on St.
Thomas. He purchased the property from Reimert Sødtmann,
magistrate of St. John in the early 1730s. (Sødtmann
and his stepdaughter were among the first victims of the slave
rebellion in 1733.) Von Moth was commander of the civil guard
on St. Thomas and later became governor of St. Croix.
The grand entrance and stairway of the Fredriksdal Ruins are
the remains of the estate house, which served as living quarters
for the owners of Annaberg Plantation and are visible from the
road. There are extensive ruins extending back into the bush.
They include the remains of an oven, a well, a horsemill and
other old structures and walls.
The area is covered with sweet lime and other thorny vegetation,
so wear appropriate clothing to explore.
Across the road from the Fredriksdal Ruins is a seldom used trail
that was once part of the Old Danish Road. It leads to a fairly
well preserved stone bridge that is almost hidden in the thick
bush.
The Annaberg School was one of the Caribbean's oldest public
school houses. The partially restored building, sometimes referred
to as the Mary Point School, can be reached by means of a short
(0.2 mile) well maintained trail, which begins off the North
Shore Road about thirty yards from the intersection of the
Leinster Bay Road. The structure was stabilized in 1987 through
the efforts of the the St. John Historical Society who also
provided the informational exhibit.
The trailheads are not readily visible by cars traveling on
the roadway so be careful and pay attention to road traffic when
entering and exiting the trail.
In 1839, the Danes passed a law requiring that both free and
slave children attend school. The schools were built with funds
obtained from the colonial treasury and were run by Moravian
Missionaries. Classes were taught in English.
This concern for the education of the slaves was quite unusual
considering the low priority given to schooling in the West Indian
plantation societies in general. In the Danish West Indies, public
education, even for white children, was not available until 1788.
As a justification of slavery, the Europeans promoted a philosophy
that Africans were somehow less than human and could not be educated.
In most colonies education for Africans was prohibited either
by law or by custom. In the Danish West Indies, the philosophy
gradually became more liberal. This was, in great part, due to
the success of the Moravian Church in attracting African converts.
White society now had to contend with the fact that many of these
enslaved people were, like themselves, Christians.
Moravian clergymen taught the slaves at their missions in the
islands, even before the passage of the 1839 law. They also pressed
the government for educational reforms.
Another factor that led to the establishment of public schools
for slave children was the ongoing process of humanitarianism
and reform in Europe. King Frederick VI of Denmark was a liberal
and a reformer. He maintained a friendship with Peter Van Scholten
who was the governor of the Danish West Indies in the early 1830s.
Van Scholten dedicated his governorship to the amelioration of
the adverse conditions of slavery, and was instrumental in the
passage of the educational reform law. In 1848, Van Scholten
declared an end to slavery in the Danish West Indies, when faced
with the prospect of a major rebellion on St. Croix.
The Annaberg School was completed in 1844. The location was
chosen because, at the time, this was the most populated area
of St. John. The recently renovated school building is representative
of the architecture of the period. The location, overlooking
Mary Point, Leinster Bay, and Tortola is quiet, serene and well
worth a visit.
The official language of the United States Virgin Islands is
English. At first this statement seems reasonable, as the language
of the United States is English. Taking a closer look, however,
we must remember that until 1917, the United States Virgin
Islands had been a Danish colony for almost 250 years. Why
then isn't the language of the Virgin Islands, Danish?
In fact Danish was never an important language in the Danish
West Indies. Denmark was a latecomer to the European practice
of colonization. Lacking the military power of the other European
colonizers, the Danes were only able to claim St. Thomas and
later St. John, because no other European power really wanted
these dry, rocky and hilly islands which were not particularly
suited to sugar production.
Early explorers and settlers sent back tales of extreme hardship
and rampant disease, and the Danes, who were generally comfortable
at home, showed little interest in settling the new territories.
Even an attempt to bring prisoners, promising freedom after six
years of labor, was met with riots, mutinies and other forms
of resistance. As a result, the Danish government and its representative
in the colonies, the Danish West India Company, resorted to inviting
foreigners to settle the islands.
The majority of these settlers were Dutch. The African slaves
working on the plantations were taught to speak a Dutch Creole,
called Creolsk, and this became the common language of St. Thomas
and St. John. The Moravian Church, which was influential because
it ministered to the slaves, even translated the Bible into Dutch
Creole so that the slaves would be able to understand it.
The question then becomes “Why isn't Dutch spoken in the
Virgin Islands?”
The Danes purchased St. Croix from France in 1733. The most
influential foreigners in St. Croix were English. In St. Croix,
English Creole was the dominant language and was spoken by most
of the slaves. St. Croix had large areas of flat and fertile
land. It received more rainfall than its neighbors to the north
and was more suitable for a plantation economy. St. Croix's greater
wealth and importance enabled it to exert a strong influence
over the other islands of the Danish West Indies, St. Thomas
and St. John.
In the early 1800s, the Danish West Indies were occupied at two
different times by the English, once in 1801, for almost a
year and again from December 1807 until April 15, 1815. The
purpose of the occupation was to secure the harbor at Charlotte
Amalie and to prevent the use of the islands by the enemies
of England. During this time, more than 1,500 English troops
were stationed on St. Thomas and St. John, further exposing
the general population to British culture and the English language.
Newspapers, government proclamations and official documents began
to be written in English. As a result, the use of English and
English Creole became more and more widespread, not only in
St. Croix, but also in St. Thomas and St. John.
In 1839, the Danes passed a law requiring slave children to attend
school. It was decided that the classes would be taught in
English. This greatly accelerated the already established trend
toward the common use of English in the Danish colonies and
the Dutch Creole still spoken in St. Thomas and St. John was
gradually phased out and is no longer spoken in these islands.
The last speaker of Dutch Creole on St. John died in 1991 and
with her passing the language is no longer spoken on the island.
In the book, The West Indies and the Spanish Main, Anthony Trollope
made the following observation concerning the island of St. Thomas
in 1859:
The people that one meets there forms as strange a collection
as may perhaps be found anywhere. In the first place, all languages
seem alike to them. One hears English, French, German and Spanish
spoken all around one. And apparently it is indifferent which.
The waiters seem to speak them all.
Charles E. Taylor in a description of St. John in the late nineteenth
century wrote:
Dutch Creole was once the prevailing language, many of the planters
being of Dutch decent. The population which now numbers about
900, speak English.
British cultural influence on the Virgin Islands answers yet
another question commonly asked by visitors which is: “Why
do Virgin Islanders drive on the left side of the road?”
While the Danes were never successful in promoting the use of
their language in their West Indian colonies, they did, however,
have a great effect on their sphere of influence in Africa.
Danish forts were established in the Accra area of the African
coast in order to receive and process slaves bound for the
Danish colonies. The Danes taught the Africans with whom they
came in contact to speak Danish. This language is still spoken
by many of the inhabitants of what is now the modern nation
of Ghana and a significant amount of prominent citizens of
Ghana have Danish names and relatives in Denmark.
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