A Guide to Sources for the History of the Danish West Indies (U.S. Virgin Islands), 1671-1917

A Guide to Sources for the History of the Danish West Indies (U.S. Virgin Islands), 1671-1917
Author: Erik Gøbel
Publisher: University Press of Southern Denmark
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN:

The Danish West Indies - the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix - were a traditional Caribbean colony, characterized by sugar production, trade, and shipping. The colony was under the Danish flag from 1671 until 1917, since which time the islands have been known as the United States Virgin Islands. The archival sources for the history of the three islands are first and foremost in the Danish National Archives. These records are exceptionally comprehensive and their research potential is enormously rich, as the Danes have been meticulous in documenting almost everything that happened in the colony and in preserving the records. The Danish archival sources are therefore unique historical resources today. This book is a thorough guide to the vast Danish West Indian material in Denmark.

For the Health of the Enslaved

For the Health of the Enslaved
Author: Niklas Thode Jensen
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 8763531712

In the first half of the 19th century, the safeguarding of the health of the enslaved workers became a central concern for plantation owners and colonial administrators in the Danish West Indies. With the end of the slave trade, the longstanding excess mortality in the hardworking enslaved population became a crucial problem for the colony because the slaves could no longer be replaced. This book explores the health conditions of the enslaved workers and the health policies initiated by planters and the colonial government. The investigation reveals that, in a comparative Caribbean perspective, Danish West Indian health policies were often quite unique and efficient, but also that the health of the enslaved was a contested field, showing an ongoing power struggle between the planters, the colonial administration, and the slaves themselves.

The A to Z of Denmark

The A to Z of Denmark
Author: Alastair H. Thomas
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2010-05-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1461671841

Denmark is the oldest monarchy in Europe. At different points in its history, Denmark's boundaries have encompassed England, Sweden, West Africa, India, and the West Indies. Despite its changing and relatively small boundaries, Denmark has played a much larger part in the politics of Europe than might be expected. Additionally, through its territories (Faroe Islands and Greenland), Denmark has managed to retain an important presence in the North Atlantic. Today, democratic Denmark, with its thriving capital Copenhagen, is peaceful, prosperous, and progressive. Within NATO, Denmark has contributed to peace-keeping in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia. The "Danish Model" of welfare gives Danes a real sense of social security and presents many naysayers with a provocative example of a successfully managed welfare state. Danes have a reputation for inventiveness and good design, whether in architecture, furniture, or industrial design. The A to Z of Denmark relates the history of this successful country through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on kings, politicians, officials, explorers, authors, architects, composers, painters, astronomers, educationists, reformers, political parties, social movements, and other aspects of Danish society.

Language Contact in the Danish West Indies: Giving Jack His Jacket

Language Contact in the Danish West Indies: Giving Jack His Jacket
Author: Robin Sabino
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2012-07-05
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 900423070X

Language Contact in the Danish West Indies: Giving Jack His Jacket lays bare crucial roles played by community and resistance in the refashioning of heritage languages. Robin Sabino draws on her community relationships, her fieldwork with a last speaker, and research from a range of disciplines, to advance a revisionist history that elucidates the African linguistic resources used to create community in a land those who were transhipped did not choose and from which they could not return. In parallel fashion, the narrative locates the partial appropriation of creole features by the colony’s Euro-Caribbean community in the emergence of local identity. It also traces the replacement of Dutch and Virgin Islands Dutch Creole with their English counterparts. Includes more than 300 unique sound records of the last native speaker.

Cultural Heritage and Slavery

Cultural Heritage and Slavery
Author: Stephan Conermann, Claudia Rauhut, Ulrike Schmieder, Michael Zeuske
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 346
Release: 2023-07-12
Genre:
ISBN: 3111331628

Sources for the Mutual History of Ghana and the Netherlands

Sources for the Mutual History of Ghana and the Netherlands
Author: Michel René Doortmont
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 415
Release: 2007
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004158502

Annotated guide to the Dutch archives on Ghana and West Africa in the "Nationaal Archief" offering a comprehensive overview of available sources. Part I: description of archival materials. Part II: historical overview of the Dutch in Ghana and selected themes from Ghana's history. With bibliography and index.

Slave stories

Slave stories
Author: Gunvor Simonsen
Publisher: Aarhus Universitetsforlag
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 8771844937

In the Danish West Indies, hundreds of enslaved men and women and a handful of Danish judges engaged in a broken, often distorted dialogue in court. Their dialogue was shaped by a shared concern with the ways slavery clashed with sexual norms and family life. Some enslaved men and women crafted respectable Christian self-portraits, which in time allowed victims of sexual abuse and rape to publicly narrate their experiences. Other slaves stressed African-Atlantic traditions when explaining their domestic conflicts. Yet these gripping stories did not influence the legal system. While the judges cunningly embraced slave testimony, they also reached guilty verdicts in most trials and punished with extreme brutality. Slaves spoke, but mostly to no avail. In Slave Stories, Gunvor Simonsen reconstructs the narratives crafted by slaves and traces the distortions instituted by Danish West Indian legal practice. In doing so, she draws us closer to the men and women who lived in bondage in the Danish West Indies (present-day US Virgin Islands) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.