Slavery in the British Virgin Islands facts for kids

In the British Virgin Islands, like many other Caribbean countries, the history of slavery is a very important part of the islands' story. Some people even say it's one of the most important parts of their past.

Long ago, in 1563, before Europeans had even settled in the British Virgin Islands, a man named Sir John Hawkins visited the islands. He was carrying a ship full of enslaved people who were being taken to Hispaniola.

Later, in 1665, Dutch settlers on Tortola were attacked by a British privateer (a kind of legal pirate) named John Wentworth. He took 67 enslaved people and moved them to Bermuda. This is the first time we know for sure that enslaved people were kept on Tortola.

The first Dutch settlers also built special pens for enslaved people at Port Purcell and on Scrub Island. In 1690, people from Brandenburg (a German state) built similar pens on Peter Island. However, they later left these pens to work with the Danes and set up a trading post on St. Thomas. Both the Brandenburgers and the Dutch were later forced out by the British. You can still see the remains of these pens in Great Harbour, Peter Island, and on Scrub Island today.

Plantation Life and Enslaved People

After the British took control, the islands slowly became a "plantation economy." This means that large farms, called plantations, grew crops like sugar cane. As more plantation owners settled on Tortola and Virgin Gorda, they needed many workers. Enslaved labor became very important for their businesses. Because of this, the number of enslaved people grew very quickly in the early 1700s.

The number for 1788 might be a bit too high. It's more likely that the total number of enslaved people stayed about the same after a while. This is because there was only a limited amount of flat land in the British Virgin Islands suitable for farming. When slavery ended in 1834, there were 5,792 enslaved people in the British Virgin Islands.

How Enslaved People Were Treated

In the British Virgin Islands, enslaved people were often whipped and beaten. Sometimes, their enslavers even killed them. In 1774, the islands got their first local government, called a Legislature. Even though this government didn't help enslaved people right away (in fact, one of its first laws set punishments for them), it marked a time when their treatment slowly started to get better.

Life Before 1774

Before 1774, enslaved people were treated very cruelly. It seems that their treatment got even worse over time. In 1790, a man named Thomas Woolrich, who had lived in Tortola, spoke to a special committee in the British Parliament. He said that the treatment of enslaved people was much worse in 1773 than it had been when he arrived in 1753.

When there were fewer enslaved people, they were sometimes allowed to grow their own food. But as their numbers grew (and they became cheaper to buy), land became scarce. This meant enslaved people often didn't get enough to eat. Woolrich said he "never saw a group of Black people that appeared anything like sufficiently fed."

He also said that as the number of enslaved people increased, punishments became "more and more severe." Whipping was a common punishment because it allowed the enslaved person to go back to work right away. Other very cruel methods were also used. The committee heard that some enslaved people's backs were covered in "lumps, holes and furrows" from frequent whippings.

Not all enslaved people were treated the same. Those who worked in the house were often treated better than those who worked in the fields. In the fields, some enslaved people were made "drivers." They would whip others to keep their own position. Laws were also made to show that enslaved people were not equal to white people. Enslaved people could own property, but they couldn't own other enslaved people. They also couldn't grow sugar or cotton. They faced harsh punishments for hitting a white person.

Changes After 1774

After 1774, even though life was still hard, some things began to improve for enslaved people.

During the mid-1700s, several important Quakers lived in the islands. Quakers were strongly against slavery. Many, like John C. Lettsome and Samuel Nottingham, freed large groups of enslaved people. Others who still kept enslaved people treated them more kindly.

After the Quakers' influence lessened, the Methodist church grew stronger. Methodists weren't completely against slavery at first. However, many freed Africans were welcomed into the Methodist church. Because of this, the church often spoke out for better treatment of enslaved Africans. By 1796, the church had 3,000 Black members. The Methodists also provided the first real schooling for Africans. This education may have slowly helped white plantation owners see enslaved and formerly enslaved people as human beings who deserved fair treatment.

When George Suckling was the Chief Justice of the islands from 1778 to 1788, he wrote letters to London. He didn't often say kind things about the people of the British Virgin Islands. But he did say that they "have a tender manner of treating their servants and slaves." He also noted that "no people are better obeyed in the West Indies than they."

However, real improvements began after Suckling left. In 1798, the Amelioration Act was passed. This law, among other things, stopped cruel and unusual punishments for enslaved people. It also set basic rules for feeding and educating them.

Then, in 1807, the United Kingdom passed the Slave Trade Act. This law made it illegal to bring any more enslaved people from Africa. Even though existing enslaved people were not freed, their owners now had a strong reason to keep them healthy and happy. This was because they couldn't be replaced if they died, and owners hoped they would have children (which was the only legal way to get new enslaved people). Some planters on Tortola did try to get around the law by trading illegally with privateers from St. Thomas. But it was clear that enslaved people became much more valuable, and they were treated better because of it.

Many slave owners also started to make their own rules about how enslaved people should be treated. They hoped that by sharing these rules, enslaved people would not fear unfair and harsh punishments as much. A set of these rules from Hannah's Estate was found by historians.

In the 1820s, Trelawney Wentworth and Fortunatus Dwarris, a government agent, also visited the islands. Both commented on the better treatment of enslaved people in a letter from 1828.

By 1823, the property owned by enslaved people in the British Virgin Islands was worth a total of £14,762 and 8 shillings. This included 23 boats, 38 horses, and over 4,000 cattle, goats, and pigs.

There were still bad exceptions, though. For example, a man named Arthur Hodge was arrested, tried, and executed for killing a slave. He was the only British man ever to be hanged for such a crime. This showed that while such cruel treatment might have been allowed before, a jury in the British Virgin Islands would no longer accept it.

Revolts by Enslaved People

It's easy to understand that enslaved people did not think their lives were good. Uprisings were common in the British Virgin Islands, just like in other parts of the Caribbean. The first important uprising happened in 1790 on Isaac Pickering's plantations. It was quickly stopped, and the leaders were executed. The revolt started because of a rumor that the British Parliament had granted freedom to enslaved people, but the plantation owners were hiding this news. The same rumor later caused other revolts.

More rebellions happened in 1823 (again at Pickering's estate), in 1827 (at George Nibb's estate), and in 1830 (at the Lettsome estate). Each time, they were quickly put down.

Perhaps the most important uprising happened in 1831. A secret plan was discovered to kill all the white men in the islands and escape to Haiti (which was the only free Black republic in the world at that time) by boat with all the white women. The plan wasn't very well organized, but it caused a lot of fear. Military help was brought in from St. Thomas. Several of the people involved (or accused of being involved) were executed.

It's not surprising that slave revolts increased a lot after 1822. In 1807, the slave trade was stopped. Even though existing enslaved people remained in servitude, the Royal Navy patrolled the Atlantic Ocean, freeing new groups of enslaved people being brought from Africa illegally. Starting in 1808, hundreds of freed Africans were brought to Tortola by the Navy. After working for 14 years as "apprentices," they became completely free. Seeing free Africans living and working in the islands naturally caused a lot of anger and jealousy among the enslaved population.

Soon after these free Africans finished their apprenticeships, all enslaved people in the islands were freed by a law in the United Kingdom. However, as you'll read below, this didn't completely stop the uprisings.

Freedom for Enslaved People

An abolitionist pamphlet from the 1800s.

Slavery officially ended on August 1, 1834. To this day, it is celebrated with a three-day public holiday in the British Virgin Islands on the first Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in August. The original document that declared freedom hangs in the High Court.

However, the end of slavery wasn't just one single event. When slavery was abolished, 5,792 enslaved people in the islands gained their freedom. But at that time, there were already many free Black people in the islands, possibly as many as 2,000. Some settlers, like John C. Lettsome and Samuel Nottingham, had already freed many enslaved people. Lettsome, for example, freed 1,000 enslaved people when he inherited them.

Also, after the slave trade was abolished, the Royal Navy brought many freed Africans to the islands. They settled in the Kingston area on Tortola. For example, in January 1808, a British warship, HMS Cerberus, captured an American ship called the Nancy with enslaved Senegalese Africans in the islands' waters. Between August 1814 and February 1815, four more ships carrying enslaved people were captured, and 1,318 more freed enslaved people were brought to Tortola (though just over 1,000 survived). In 1819, a Portuguese slave ship, the Donna Paula, crashed on the reef at Anegada. The ship's crew and 235 enslaved people were saved. More Spanish ships, on their way to Puerto Rico, also crashed on the Anegada reef in 1817 and 1824, and their human cargo settled on Tortola. Many of these formerly enslaved people died because of the terrible conditions during the journey across the Atlantic. But many survived and had children.

The effect of freedom was also gradual. The newly freed people were not completely free right away. Instead, they entered a type of forced apprenticeship. This lasted four years for house slaves and six years for field slaves. This meant they had to work 45 hours a week without pay for their former masters. They also couldn't leave their homes without their masters' permission. The idea was to slowly reduce the need for enslaved labor instead of ending it suddenly. The local government later shortened this period to four years for everyone to calm growing unrest among the field slaves.

It's hard to measure the exact economic impact of ending slavery in the British Virgin Islands, but it definitely had a big effect. The original slave owners lost a lot of money. Even though they received £72,940 from the British Government as payment, this was only a small part of the true value of the freed enslaved people. In 1798, the total value of enslaved people in the British Virgin Islands was estimated at £360,000. This number likely increased a lot over the next 36 years, especially since the price of enslaved people went up greatly after the Slave Trade Act 1807 was passed.

However, while owners lost their "free" labor, they also no longer had to pay to house, clothe, and provide medical care for their former enslaved people. The formerly enslaved people usually worked for the same masters, but now they received small wages. From these wages, they had to pay for the things their masters used to provide. Some formerly enslaved people saved money, which shows that the slave owners were indeed worse off financially after freedom. But other things also contributed to the islands' economic decline.

It's true that the islands faced a severe economic decline shortly after slavery ended. However, many things caused this decline. The islands were hit by a series of terrible hurricanes. At that time, there was no way to predict hurricanes accurately, and they caused huge damage. A very bad hurricane in 1837 destroyed 17 of the islands' sugar works, which were the most profitable export. More hurricanes hit in 1842 and 1852, and two more in 1867. The islands also suffered from a severe drought between 1837 and 1847, which made growing sugar almost impossible.

To make things worse, in 1846, the United Kingdom passed the Sugar Duties Act 1846. This law made the taxes on sugar grown in the colonies equal. This caused sugar prices to fall, which was another blow to the plantations in the British Virgin Islands. By 1848, Edward Hay Drummond Hay, the President of the British Virgin Islands, reported that "there are now no properties in the Virgin Islands whose holders are not embarrassed for want of capital or credit sufficient to enable them to carry on the simplest method of cultivation effectively." In December 1853, a terrible outbreak of cholera killed nearly 15% of the population. A total of 942 deaths were recorded out of 6,919 people. This was followed by an outbreak of smallpox in Tortola and Jost Van Dyke in 1861.

New Uprisings After Freedom

However, a key reason for the islands' economic decline was the uprisings of 1848 and 1853. The newly freed Black population became increasingly unhappy that freedom had not brought the good life they had hoped for. The economic decline led to higher taxes, which made both formerly enslaved people and other residents very unhappy.

In 1848, a major disturbance happened. But the uprising of 1853 was much more serious and had longer-lasting effects. The most direct cause was a new tax on cattle, which affected Black farmers in the countryside. With very poor judgment, this tax started on the same day as emancipation and was enforced unfairly. Some historians suggest that the riots could have been avoided if the government had been more careful in enforcing the law.

Almost all the white population (all but four people) fled the islands, and most plantation houses were burned down. The riots were eventually stopped with military help from St. Thomas and British troops sent by the Governor from Antigua. However, most of the plantation owners who had controlled the islands chose not to return to their ruined and debt-ridden estates. From that point on, the islands were almost entirely populated by the formerly enslaved people, who now made up most of the population. By 1893, just 40 years after the revolts, there were only two white people living on Tortola: the deputy Governor and the island's doctor.

See also

• Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery
• History of slavery
• List of topics related to Black and African people
• Slavery at common law
• Slavery in the British and French Caribbean
• Triangular trade

Images for kids

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  The Triangular trade - enslaved people were brought to the British Virgin Islands to plant and harvest sugar cane.