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Speaker 1: Hey, history fans, here's a rerun for today, brought to

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Speaker 1: you by Tracy V. Wilson. We hope it makes previous

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Speaker 1: episodes for this date easier to find in the feed.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff you

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Speaker 1: missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore

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Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick

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Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hello and welcome

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Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and it's November.

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Speaker 1: The St. John Slave Insurrection began on this day in

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Speaker 1: seventeen thirty three, making it one of the first of

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Speaker 1: many slave insurrections in the Caribbean. Denmark had colonized the

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Speaker 1: island of St. John in seventeen eighteen. Unlike other European

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Speaker 1: colonies in the Caribbean, the main purpose was the very

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Speaker 1: lucrative sugar industry. This industry was also brutal and dangerous

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Speaker 1: in terms of its working conditions, and it was devastating

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Speaker 1: both to the enslaved saved African workforce and to the

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Speaker 1: islands indigenous people's Although by the time the Danish colonized St. John,

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Speaker 1: there weren't any indigenous people known to be living there

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Speaker 1: due to earlier activity on the island. By seventeen thirty three,

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Speaker 1: there were more than a thousand enslaved Africans on the

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Speaker 1: island of St. John, working on more than a hundred

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Speaker 1: plantations that grew sugar, cotton, and other crops. The months

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Speaker 1: leading up to this insurrection had been particularly difficult. The

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Speaker 1: island had been struck by a drought, and then two

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Speaker 1: hurricanes had followed during the summer, which destroyed a lot

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Speaker 1: of the crops that had managed to survive that drought.

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Speaker 1: There was also an insect plague, and like most of

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Speaker 1: the other islands where chattel slavery was being practiced, St

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Speaker 1: John had an enslaved population that vastly outnumbered the white population,

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Speaker 1: and it also had an increasing population of people known

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Speaker 1: as maroons. These were enslaved people who escaped into uncultivated

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Speaker 1: parts of the island and made their homes there. A

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Speaker 1: slave code was passed in seventeen thirty three that was

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Speaker 1: extremely strict, and it was meant to cut down on

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Speaker 1: how many people were able to do this. There were

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Speaker 1: severe punishments for escaping or even thinking about escaping, as

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Speaker 1: was usually the case. The people enslaved on St. John

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Speaker 1: were from a number of different African tribes and nations,

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Speaker 1: all of them with their own histories and languages and cultures.

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Speaker 1: The people who launched this insurrection were Aquamus from what's

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Speaker 1: now Ghana, and all of the people who participated in

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Speaker 1: the insurrection were all part of this particular group. Their

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Speaker 1: goal wasn't to liberate the entire island, though, it was

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Speaker 1: to take power from the Danish, so on the night

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Speaker 1: of November twenty three, they gained access to the fort

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Speaker 1: at Coral Bay by delivering firewood, but concealed in these

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Speaker 1: bundles of wood were cane knives. They used these knives

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Speaker 1: to kill most of the soldiers on duty, many of

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Speaker 1: whom were asleep, and they fired a cannon as a

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Speaker 1: signal for the wider insurrection to begin. They also used

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Speaker 1: drum signals to communicate during this as well. Over the

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Speaker 1: next six months, about a quarter of the island's entire

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Speaker 1: population was killed, including many other enslaved people who resisted

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Speaker 1: The Aquamuse primarily fought with knives, and they also damaged

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Speaker 1: and destroyed the island's plantations. Denmark sought help from other

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Speaker 1: nations to try to put down this insurrection, including Britain

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Speaker 1: and France, who also had colonies and forces nearby. After

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Speaker 1: a major defeat of the Aquamu force in May of

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Speaker 1: the following year, the Danish force regained control of the island.

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Speaker 1: In August, the European forces slaughtered the rebelling Africans, some

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Speaker 1: of whom took their own lives rather than being captured

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Speaker 1: or killed. Although the damage was extensive, the plantations were

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Speaker 1: very quickly rebuilt, and within a few years Saint John

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Speaker 1: had an even larger enslaved population than it had had

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Speaker 1: before or Denmark abolished slavery in its Caribbean colonies in

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty eight, and St. John is now United States territory,

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Speaker 1: having been sold to the United States along with the

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Speaker 1: islands of St. Croyan St. Thomas in nineteen seventeen. Today

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Speaker 1: they are the US Virgin Islands, although the islands residents

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Speaker 1: do not have the right to vote for president or

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Speaker 1: members of Congress. Thanks to Christopher Hasciotis for his research

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Speaker 1: work on today's episode, Anti Casey Pigraham and Chandler Maze

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Speaker 1: for their audio work on the show. You can subscribe

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Speaker 1: to the Stay in history class. On Apple podcasts, Google podcasts,

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Speaker 1: and wherever else you get your podcast, you can tune

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Speaker 1: in tomorrow for a famous disappearance with a lot of money.