Danish West Indian Society

Dansk Vestindisk Selskab - in english Danish West Indian Society - is the place in Denmark, where people with interest in the 3 former Danish islands in the Caribbean (now US Virgin Islands) get together. We are an organization with more than 400 members, eager to explore the history of the past - and - not to forget - keep relationships alive to present inhabitants in US Virgin Islands. 

But a little bit of background on the islands in the Caribbean, we do love a little bit more...

The Danish West Indies were a Danish colony until 1917, when the islands were transferred to the United States and thereafter named the U.S. Virgin Islands.

As world trade expanded during the 16th and 17th centuries, establishing overseas colonies became an important goal for European countries. Denmark established trading posts on the coasts of both India and Africa in the 1600s. The West Indian Trade Company (Vestindisk Kompagni), from 1674 the West Indian and Guinea Trade Company (Vestindisk-guineisk Kompagni), settled on the uninhabited island of St. Thomas in 1672. The original Amerindian inhabitants of the islands had disappeared before the Danes arrived.

The trading company had been granted a trade monopoly by the Danish king, who at the time was ruler of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway and the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The neighbouring island, St. John, was colonised in 1718, and St. Croix was added to the Danish West Indies when it was purchased from France in 1733. The aim of the Danish colonisation was to begin a production of tobacco, indigo, cotton, and sugar.

It proved to be difficult to persuade a sufficient number of Danes and Norwegians to emigrate to the Caribbean; furthermore, the ones who did settle in the Danish West Indies fell victim to various tropical diseases, causing many of them to die. Thus the islands were populated partly by emigrants from the surrounding Caribbean islands which had been settled by other countries such as France, Britain and the Netherlands. They brought with them their African work force.  The African population on the islands was increased by Danish participation in the slave trade, and by 1720

80 % of the population consisted of enslaved workers. Because the Danes and Norwegians represented a minority of the free population, Dutch and Dutch Creole became the generally spoken language; eventually, by the time of the settlement on St. Croix, English gained importance finally to become the predominant language by the 1800s.

During an uprising by some of the slaves on St. John in 1733, some of the Danish officials and several plantation owners were killed. Only through military support from the French Antilles in May 1734 was Danish control reestablished on the island. The uprising was presumably organized by a group of newly arrived enslaved Africans who desired not only to win their own freedom but to gain control of the land and the majority of the enslaved workers.

A growing demand among the West Indian planters and Danish merchants for free trade led to an important change in the administration of the three islands in the mid 1700s. In 1755 the West India and Guinea Trade Company (Vestindisk-guineisk Kompagni) was purchased by the Danish Crown, who from then on took over the jurisdiction and administration of the islands. This marked the beginning of a great boom in Danish world trade. Denmark's status as a neutral state made large profits possible at a time when many other European countries were at war with each other. Copenhagen became an important trade center for sugar and other commodities from the East and West Indies, but important ports like Bergen in Norway, Flensburg in Schleswig and Altona in Holstein also had an expanding trade with the colonies.

In 1792 the king signed a law to end the slave trade. However, the law was not intended to come into force until 1803 and, in the meantime, government loans were given to increase the import of more Africans. The total number of Africans brought to the Americas by the Danes and the Norwegians is estimated to be approximately 75,000.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Danish West Indies were occupied by Great Britain twice - in 1801 and from 1807 to 1815 after which they were returned to Danish rule. At this time the free population of African or African and European origin increased in number and began to play a more important economic role. In 1816 two representatives were sent to Denmark to demand the same rights as the free Europeans had. Peter von Scholten, the Danish official who was governor general of the islands from 1827 to 1848, worked to improve relations between the free people of various origins, which resulted in the law of equal rights of 1834.  He also worked to improve the conditions of the slaves by giving them more time without forced work, better possibilities for purchasing freedom and providing education for the children. In 1848 a slave rebellion resulted in the abolition of slavery being declared on the 3rd of July. Although slavery was abolished, working conditions for a large part of the population were still very poor, and in 1878 a worker's rebellion broke out and ended in violence.

Denmark gave up her colonies in India and Africa in 1845 and 1850, and in 1852 a suggestion was made to give up the West Indian colonies as well. However, the Danish West Indies remained under Danish rule until the Danish government decided to sell the islands to the United States in 1916. On March 31st, 1917 (Transfer Day) the islands were officially taken over by the United States.

The Danish West Indian Society

The Danish West Indian Society was originally established after Denmark sold the Danish West Indian islands, Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix to the United States in 1917. The original purpose of the society was to provide a meeting place for Danes and West Indians with common ties to the islands. The initiative to form the society was taken by gendarmes and government officials who had returned to Denmark after the transfer of the islands to the United States.

Among the members of the society in the 1930s and 1940s were some of the few West Indians who lived in Denmark. Mr. Francis Hodge, a native of St. Thomas, who had settled in Hamburg, but moved to Copenhagen in 1935 was a member. So was Victor Cornelins of Frederiksted, who had been sent to Denmark as a child in 1905 later to become a teacher and vice-principal at the public school in Nakskov. He lectured at the meetings of the society on several occasions.

In the 1940s and 1950s the society stimulated the interest in colonial history by collecting items from the homes of former officials in the islands. Members donated furniture and household belongings to the National Museum in Copenhagen in order to establish an image of the Danish home abroad. This collection was on display at the museum in the 1960s and 1970s.

Since the 1960s, the society has opened up to everyone with an interest in the former Danish West Indies.  Friendship visits to the islands have been arranged for the members of the society at regular intervals, and the members of the sister organisations, the Saint Thomas and Saint John Friends of Denmark Society and the Saint Croix Friends of Denmark Society have visited Denmark on a regular basis, most recently in 2001. The next friendship visit to Denmark is scheduled to take place in 2005.

The Danish West Indian Society holds several membership meetings in the course of each year, usually in the form of lecture evenings.  The society has published books and participated in setting up exhibitions about the history of the islands.

Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II is patroness of the society.