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  • Udgivelsestidspunkt : 20. marts 2019
  • Forfatter: Michael Keldsen
  • Dokumentnummer: DVS 2019-2
  • Dokumenttype: MAGASINET
  • Institution: Dansk Vestindisk Selskab
  • Emnekategori: Mennesker, Natur og geografi, Om Dansk Vestindisk Selskab, Samfund og historie
 DVS-2019-2

I Magasinet for marts 2019 kan du læse om bl.a.
  • "Niels Lyhne" - roman far 1880 skrevet af forfatteren J.P.Jabobsen
  • Medlemsbladet fylder 75 år v/Ebbe Tor Andersen
  • Skrueskonnerten Ingolf v/Per Herholdt Jensen
  • Indtryk fra min forblæste ø v/Henrik Døssing
  • Caribbean Genealogy Library. Beretning fra Daily News på St. Thomas
  • Jeg er en sort kvinde. Interview af Fartein Hogar ved Lise Bostrup.
  • Middelklassens opvågen under salgsforhandlingerne om de Dansk-Vestindiske Øer 1900-1902 v/Elisabeth Rezende

Til Elisabeth "Betsy" Rezendes artikel er der en lang række referencer, som ikke er medtaget i selve medlemsbladet. Hvis du vil se disse referencer skal du blot klikke på "Læs mere", hvorved du for den underliggende side med referencerne.

Betsys artikel på amerikansk vil du også kunne læse der.

Hent Magasinet her.

REFERENCES

  • Boyer, William W. (1983). America’s Virgin Islands: A History of Human Rights & Wrongs.
    Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
  • Dookhan, Issac (1975).” Changing Patterns of Local Reaction to the United States
    Acquisition of the Virgin Islands. 1865-1917.” http://www.jstor.org/stable/25612674
  • Elliott, Daniel T. (1992). “Cultural Resource Survey of La Grange Gut, Estate La Grange, West
    End Quarter, St. Croix USVI.”
  • Herbst, Anna (2005). “ReformbevAEgelsen I Dansk Vestindien 1902 til 1917.” Speciale I
    Historie,  Kobenhavns Universitet.
  • Highfield, Arnold R. (2018). The Cultural History of the American Virgin Islands and the
    Danish West Indies: A Companion Guide. Christiansted VI: Antilles Press.
  • Hill, Valdemar (1971). Rise to Recognition: An Account of US Virgin Islanders from Slavery
    to Self-Government. St. Thomas VI: St. Thomas Graphics.
  • Hoxcer Jensen, Peter (1998). From Serfdom to Fireburn and Strike: The History of Black Labor
    in the Danish West Indies 1848-1916. Christiansted: Antilles Press.
  • Larsen, Kay (1928). Dansk Vestindien 1666-1917. Copenhagen: Reizels Forlag.
  • Lawaetz, Hermann (1999[1940]). Peter von Scholten. Herning: Poul Kristensen Publishing.
  • Leary, Paul M. (1992). United States Virgin Islands Major Political Documents. St. Thomas:
    University of the Virgin Islands.
  • Merwin, John David (2001[1886]). Yankee Trader: The Diray of Robert Lorin Merwin,
    St. Croix, Danish West Indies 1886, St. Croix: Antilles Press.
  • Moolenaar, Ruth (1972). Profiles of Outstanding Virgin Islanders.  St. Thomas: Project

Introspection. 

  • NOrregaard, Georg (1967). Vore Gamle Tropokolonier (ed. Johannes Bronsted) Vol. 4, Dansk
    Vestindien 1880-1917. Copenhagen: Fremad.
  • Olsen, Lense Gjedde (2010) ROdder I Nord og Syd: GrOnlandsk og dansk-vestindisk
    Kolonihistorie, Tisvildeleje: Allgo Press.
  • Rezende, Elizabeth (1998). Cultural Identity of the Free Colored of Free Gut, Christiansted,
    St.     Croix, 1800-1848. Doctoral dissertation. Cincinnati: OH, Union Institute.
  • Rezende, Elizabeth (2003-04). “Midwifery in St. Croix 1733-1870”. In Sargasso 2003-04, 1
  • Scott, Emmett J. & Lyman Beecher Stowe (2008). Booker T. Washington: Builder of a
  • Civilization. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co.www.guttenberg.org/files/24627/24627-h/24627-h.htm
  • Thernstrom, Stephan (1971). The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American
    Metropolis 1880-1970. Cambridge: MA Harvard University Press.
  • Vaughn, Robert (1992). Biographical Dictionary of the Virgin Islands. Christiansted:  Aye Aye
Press.
  • Washington, Booker T. (1901). Up from Slavery.
    Garden City, NY: Doubleday     & Co.www.guttenberg.org/files/2376-h/2376-h.htm#link 2HCH0016                    

PRIMARY SOURCES
  • Government of the Virgin Islands, Lieutenant Governor’s Office, Recorder of Deeds
  • Real Property Register VI, 11-12
  • Pante Register Book YY 1890-1902; Book QQ 1900-1906; Book AAA 1909-1911;
  • Book BBB 1911-1912; Book CCC1914-1915; Book DDD 1915-1919
  • Real Property Deeds Book 4 FD 1941-1944
  • Real Property Deeds Book 5 FD 1944-1947(Adjudication of Bishop Will Apr 19, 1947
Cadastral Survey
  • 1950 Christiansted city plot map
St. Croix Landmarks Society (SCLS) Estate Whim
  • I.M. Beck Survey of Christiansted 1754
  • Holsoe, Svend (1994). “Nanny.” Playscript ms.
  • LankjAEr postcards 1900-1913
National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) College Park, MD
  • Microfilm. MS 1884 Roll 26. Elections Qualifications Lists 1899-1916.

Periodicals
  • Politiken: Oct 19, 1916
  • West End News: Mar 11, 1915, May 26, 1916, Oct. 26, 1914, Oct 20,1916,
  • St. Croix Bulletin: Apr. 9, 1900, Dec. 10, 1910, May 26, 1916
  • St. Croix Avis: June 12, 1886, Apr 1 and 13, 1900; Apr 4, 11,14  and 18, 1900; June 30; July 7 and  11, 1900; Sept 4,1901; Oct 31, 1900;  Nov 3 and 21, 1900; Oct 30, Nov 2 and 6, 1901;  Dec. 28, 1901, Nov 12, 1902
  • Danish West Indian: Oct. 31, 1900
  • St. Thomas Tidende Mar. 31, 1900, July 24, 1914,
  • Star Post (Glen’s Falls, Lake George and Saratoga, NY) Sept. 24, 1929
The Royal Library, Copenhagen
  • Sanheden (Truth) om Dansk Vestindienn. Artikler, Taler of Citater 191, 1916.

Library. University of the Virgin Islands, St. Croix
  • BetAEnkning  over Forholdene paa de Dansk-Vestindiske Oer- afgiven af den ved allerhøjeste  resolution af 18.November 1902 anordnede Vestindiske Kommission. Copenhagen1903.

Internet:

Interviews:

  • Enid Hansen Ebbesen, Mar 2018; Larry Finlay, May 2016; Arnold Highfield, Mar. 2018,
    Per Nielsen, June 2016.

Middle-Class Awakening at the Eve of Transfer Negotiations in the Danish West Indies


1900-1902
By Elizabeth Rezende

Between 1733-1848 in the Danish West Indian island of St. Croix, a consistent tradition of agitation against the colonial administration’s injustices was practiced. It manifested itself in a continual fight for equality against the white elite: planters, merchants and colonial administrators. Long-standing public grievances by the Free Colored, the middle class, started in 1816 with a disturbance against mandated participation in the para-militia.Consequently,331 free colored men from all three islands signed a petition seeking to gain parity with the European-descended inhabitants.  Two Crucian men then stowed away on a ship to bring the document to the king. They were mandated back to the islands, later to learn that the only response by the Danish metropole to their complaints was the formation of another non-paying militia, this one to fight fires in the towns. 

In 1900-1902, during a third wave of negotiations for the sale of the islands between the US and Denmark stirred civic action in a new generation of middle -class men. Disgruntled with the colonial administration’s locking them out of government positions and relegating them to second-class business licenses and academic degrees, they devised new ways of protesting that went beyond creating disturbances and writing petitions. These actions demonstrated that members of this class had been educated, held leadership positions within their churches, and started buying real property in order to establish their voting rights and therefore demonstrated that they were worthy to be full citizens in the society. 

Danish Restrictions Against Advanced Employment
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the African-descended middle class comprised of 85 per cent of the total Danish West Indian population (Dookhan,1975; 62). Such a large percentage anticipated changes and felt they had a right to greater occupational and economic advantages. However, there still existed an oppressive and rigid hiring and appointment system officially sanctioned by the colonial regime.  Opportunities in government positions had been reserved for the white and mixed -race sons of Danes.

Hill (1971) noted the general attitude of the ruling class: 
           no black person had any rights that a white capitalistor landed proprietor 
            needed to respect, and that being black was in itself a sufficient crime. 
           There was a fear prevailing among planters that if the black people were 
             permitted to grow in intelligence, power, and representationthat sugarcane 
             planting would become unprofitable (54). 

Rise of Middle-Class Men

The new generation of middle-class men were more aware of the social and political conditions of the island, and they took leadership positions to form societies. Middle-class men vigorously became involved in two Lutheran-based associations: the Christiansted Benevolent Society, which providedassistance to the poor, and the Blue Cross Temperance Society, which worked to moderate men’s alcoholic consumption in order to keep families solvent. In addition, there were the problems of sanitation, disease, high infant and adult mortality, and poor hospital services. 

Spearheading the founding of these societies was the evangelical pastor of the Lutheran Church, Herman Lawaetz, who created a congregation-based vestry 1893-1901.  
Lawaetz also established a newspaper, The Danish West Indian, a liberal publication, in which he reported the activities of these organizations and encouraged the young members of the societies to write letters to the editor and submit guest editorials. The newspaper ran for a short time until Governor C. Hedemann (1893-1903) complained of its content, which he felt had become more political against the government. Shortly after,Lawaetz was recalled to Copenhagen in 1901. 

Sale Negotiations of the Danish West Indian Islands 1900-1902
At the same time, between 1900-1902, the pressing concern in the DWI was the negotiation of their sale between Denmark and the United States. Caught between two international entities, citizens weren’t considered in the communication and discussion of the negotiations. Enraged, members of the middle class felt that they had invested their effort and had experienced progression within their own spheres of trade. Thus, they had achieved a measure of economic success they perceived equal to but not recognized by the white class. With their accomplishments so far, they felt they could further progress under the Danish realm. They were wary of the “land-grabbing attitude” that American companies in the islands demonstrated.  Thus, they demanded reforms from Denmark and became the “anti-sale” party.

In opposition were the merchants and planters that were associated with the companies of the United States such as Bartram Brothers of New York, which had established a sugar factory and refinery in St. Croix.  The leader of this “pro-sale” party was the foreman of this conglomerate and chair of the Colonial Council, Andrew Jackson Blackwood (1852-1933).  In an interview with the New York Times, he flippantly described the members of the anti- sale party as being “government officials, doctors, druggists and rich Negroes who were opposed [to the sale] for selfish reasons” (reprinted in Danish West Indian, Oct. 31, 1900). 

Middle-Class Leadership
One leader of the anti-sale or reform movement was Morris A. Pretto (1856-1939). Besides experiencing economic success as a dry goods merchant (selling many Danish items), he had been named in 1900 by the King of Denmark as the first African-descended Crown member of St. Croix’s Colonial Council. As a Crown member he represented the vast majority of workers who according to the 1863 voting laws could not participate in elections as they did not earn at least 1,500 francs in annual salary or own land which would yield at least 750 francs. Without such monetary qualifications, they were ineligible to vote. 

On April 8, 1900, Pretto coordinated a procession marking the 82nd birthday of King Christian IX (1818-1912).  With placards displaying the motto “Denmark Forever,” participants wearing red and white clothing (Danish national colors) and holding torchlights, marched to the wharf, where a program of speeches was delivered followed by toasts and hurrahs to the king. Subsequently, a congratulatory birthday telegram was sent.

The Avis/St. Croix Bulletin  editor responded, “These processions it is understood, were intended as an expression of the popular wish to remain under the Danish flag” (Apr. 9, 1900). What was to be a celebratory event was interpreted as a political statement. A second march, decidedly anti-sale in nature was organized December 26, 1901 with 2,000-3,000 persons in attendance and 900 participating in the march (Dookhan, 64). 

The men of the Christiansted middle class then established the Danish Creole Club, a political club supporting the islands’ remaining under Denmark’s realm. This organization and the other social justice clubs established through the Lutheran Church gave them a forum to organize themselves and to raise awareness of the issues.

News of the failure of the sale arrived by telegram October 22, 1902: the Danish West Indies was to remain under Denmark (Avis, Nov. 12, 1902). For Denmark, failure of the sale announced to the whole world that problems existed in the colony. Consequently,the West India Commission of 1902 was formed, comprised of businessmen and women from Denmark,who were sent out to inspect and assess the conditions. Their report outlined “the Danish government’s effort to repair the damage done by decades of neglect and missed opportunities” (Highfield, 2018: 624).

Formation of the Native Insular Convention (NIC)
For the islanders, celebrations marking Danish continued sovereignty were short. Middle-class men wished to demonstrated their vested interest and thus three groups set forth demands for reforms to address numerous deficiencies in the islands’ infrastructure. 

To make their voices unified, the Christiansted middle-class African-descended men formed the Native Insular Convention, February 10, 1903, as a conduit for direct communication with the Commission.There were 27 demands. Cornelius Crowe (1859-1939), who served as the secretary of the convention, wrote the group’s petition, a document which contained a lengthy preamble in which the men assured the Danish government that they were loyal subjects expressing their desire to be integrated more fully into the Motherland. This was the same language as used by the free colored men in their petition in 1816. The twentieth-century men recommended the teaching of Danish in the local schools.With greater language proficiency, they felt that they could seek further education in Denmark, especially by studying as doctors, teachers, lawyers and businessmen.  They wished to return to fill “positions of trust and responsibility” (133). 

Admittedly, the first few demands centered on their own concerns: access to education and subsequent employment.  The Christiansted men’s distress dealt with their dissatisfaction in being locked out of government positions. They demanded that the monopolies and privileges which presently allowed Danes to lifetime positions as doctors and pharmacists be abolished and that a volunteer fire -fighting crew, which was instituted in response to the 1816 petition of the Free Coloreds, be transformed to full-time one with paid positions (134).  Boyer (1983) noted, the local government employee was always in a subordinate position, and his frustration was heightened by the fact that he could only quality for a higher appointment by means of a lengthy and expensive education in Copenhagen (37). 

Those of the Frederiksted group, on the other hand, centered their grievances on the social conditions namely, the high infant mortality rates,which in the Danish colony was 33 per cent as compared to 20 per cent in Denmark (Avis: Sept 5, 1871). They also described the high rate of outward migration, which numbered nearly 2,000 emigrants per year. Health and sanitation conditions were enumerated with the crisis centered on the necessity to provide clean water to prevent disease (Rezende, 2003-2004: 89-102).  

Unlike the 1816 petition of the Free Colored, the twentieth-century Christiansted men of the middle class ventured into demands that would elevate their political status. Having the vote was the outward measure of citizenship. They recognized the need for less- stringent voting qualifications based on income and ownership of land so that more men could participate in voting and running for office. In their petition as part of the 1902 Commission Report, twenty Frederiksted middle-class men went further in their political demands.  These men asserted that they were intent that justice be upheld for people of all races, and that equality under the law be established (1902 Commission Report, 151). 

The Christiansted petition was written and signed by 100 African-descended middle-class men of the Christiansted NIC. Beside their names, their occupations were given. Crowe and Pretto were “the black representatives from the energetic and intelligent middle class. . .[they stood at he head of the first independent political movement. . . “(Olsen, 2010: 99).

News of the treaty for the sale of the islands to the US was rejected by Denmark was issued Oct. 22, 1902 (Avis, Nov. 12, 1902). Everyone agreed that “the reforms were too few, too late.”

Crowe’s Correspondence
Cornelius Crowe had started his activist career in 1900 by writing letters to the Danish West Indian and became proficient in vocalizing the problems in the island’s infrastructure, especially the inadequacies of the health system. Locally, he never wrote under his own name but used pseudonyms (1900-1901).

Between 1911 and 1917, Crowe, perceiving that none of the middle-class men were being heard by the colonial administration, he wrote directly to influential Danes who had once served in the colonial administration and continued to help. His letters supported two plans of action: first, to inform the Danes in government of the conditions, specifically of the failing social and economic situation, which existed in the islands; and second, to provide an introduction for a Crucian representative to travel to Copenhagen “to advance the demands of the movement” (Olsen, 99).Marcus Garvey in 1912 was to fulfill the same role before the Parliament for the British West Indies (Wikipedia: “Garvey”).

Crowe’s letters to Minister P. Munch in the years 1902-1911 impressed upon the Danish officials the conditions in the islands underscoring the poverty, unsanitary conditions, and high mortality. In 1911 and 1914 they also were used as letters of introduction for the Danish West Indian representative’s audiences in Copenhagen. These missives were also utilized as pro-sale propaganda during the 1916 negotiations for transfer of the islands and published in Sandheden (Truth) om Dansk Vestindienthat year. 

Hans Bishop to Represent Crucians
Native-born Hans Bishop (1857-1942), who had migrated to Boston in 1886, was a key figure in the demands for reforms from Denmark. He was a son of Leah Petrus, a laborer on Estate La Grange, just outside of the town of Frederiksted and Augustus Bishop, a cooper in the town.  Hans’ mother was the sister of Moses Gottlieb, Buddhoe, the sugar boiler on La Grange and one of the leaders of the revolt of the enslaved Africans for the public emancipation, July 2-3, 1848.  At the age of 11, Bishop, living on La Grange, had witnessed firsthand the 1878 revolt of the laborers as they gathered in Frederiksted demanding the abolition of the contract system which kept the families on the estate bound to a planter for an entire year. In 1880, there were 731 laborers working in the West End Quarter, where La Grange was the largest estate (Hoxcer-Jensen, 1998: 91). 

In Frederiksted, with a population of 3,745 in 1900 (Elliott, 1992:17), Bishop acquired some schooling at the Old Dane School.  He, however, most likely spent a large amount of time at the wharf watching the arriving and departing steamships from the wharf to Puerto Rico and New York. He saw these vessels bring passengers, mail and cargo. 

In 1886 at the age of 20, he met the Rich Family of Boston who were wintering at Estate RichmondHe migrated to Boston as their servant (Passenger list, St. Croix Avis, June 12, 1886; Merwin, 2001[1886]: 61).  The African-American population of Boston in 1890 was 8,125 residents and was increasing yearly through birth and migration. By 1890 there were 11,591 African-descended people or two per cent of the city population (Thernstrom, 1973: 179).  

Isaac B. Rich (1827-1908) owned and operated several exclusive theaters in the theatre district of downtown Boston. His son Charles J. (1855-1921) was a printer who furnished the programs for performances at each venue. Bishop worked for him as a printer (Passenger lists, 1911). 

As a peripheral theater employee, Bishop must have been present at the Hollis Street Theatre, the largest and most elegant entertainment facility owned by the Rich family, where in the spring of 1899, there was a program of several prominent African-American speakers including Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906), who recited a poem and William E.B. DuBois (1868-1963), who read an original sketch.  Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) provided the keynote address. Washington described the event in his autobiography (Up from Slavery 1901: 270, www.gutenburg.org).  

Interested in successful agricultural programs internationally, Washington traveled to Denmark in 1899 and 1911to tour farms and agribusinesses. He met with the Danish royalty (Scott & Stowe, 1918: 153-155, www.gutenberg.org). The Danish royalty was impressed with Washington’s programs for industrial education for African-descended youth. Washington wrote:

I had not been talking with the King for many minutes before I found he was perfectly familiar with the work of Tuskegee school, that he had read much that I had  written, and was well acquainted with all that I was trying to do for the Negroes in the South.  He referred to the fact that Denmark was interested in the colored people in their own colony in the Danish West Indies, and that both he and the Queen were anxious that something be done for the colored people in the Danish possessions similar to what we were doing at Tuskegee. He added that he hoped at some time I would find it possible to visit the Danish West Indian islands (Scott & Stowe, 1918:155).

Bishop had arrived Boston shortly before 1896 Supreme Court decision on the Plessey-Fergusson case that radically changed African-American life even in a northern city. The decision’s legal action had mandated racial segregation at semi-public facilities such as theaters, interstate railroad transport, schools and hospitals and recreational areas. The decision would introduce Bishop to institutional racism and prejudice which he had never experienced in St. Croix as the color line in the Danish West Indies was not as rigidly drawn as it was in the United States. 

Bishop, as an employee of the theater- owning Rich family, enjoyed the summer recesses of the upper-class social season and thus spent several weeks annually on St. Croix starting in early May 1897.  During these visits home, he gradually purchased real estate property. Between 1896 and 1917, Bishop had acquired seven properties in Christiansted.1

One of Bishop’s last two purchases was a substantial stone structure at 1 A King Street, situated on the corner of Church and King Streets.  This structure was positioned at the head of a plaza overlooking the Christiansted wharf. As a corner lot, it was an L-shaped building on its western side and had formerly served as a boarding house.  In 1915 a bank occupied the first floor, and the St. Croix Labor Union and the Herald had organized their offices on the second floor.  Whether Bishop allowed the latter organizationsthe premises rent- free is not known. This may have been his contribution to the future 1916 laborers’ strike called by the St. Croix Labor Union. 

Donations to Christiansted Lutheran Church 
Bishop died Oct. 26, 1942.  His will had been recorded in the Recorder of Deeds Office since  July 10, 1942.  His two named executors held 3 properties (1A King, 10A Prince and 35 Company Streets) in trust for his niece Jane Rock of Frederiksted (ROD, Adjudication 5 FD :1946-1947).  They were to collect the revenue generated and to distribute the monies to her every three months until her death (1952). Thereupon, the properties were to be turned over to the Lutheran Church with the restrictions that each property was not to be mortgaged or encumbered in any way. 

Once in the Lutheran Church’s ownership, Bishop’s will stipulated that the income derived from the rents of the properties be placed in a trust fund, a portion of the interest would provide communion wine for church services. Another part of the interest, he directed to be distributed twice a year among the poor of the Lutheran Church housed at its Water Gut property, Pleasant Grove (Finlay interview). 

Over his lifetime, Bishop had accrued real property appraised over $14,000, cash in a savings account of over $9,000, and personal property such as household furniture, jewlry and silve valued over $800 (ROD, Adjudication 5 FD:1946-1947). He had also set aside money for his large gravestone (much the size as that of his former employer’s Isaac B. Rich) which was set in the Danish section of the Christiansted cemetery (http://www.findagrave.com).

Ownership of Property Established Status
In the Danish West Indies, besides having the required age, residence and quality of character, property ownership determined a man’s eligibility to vote according to the Colonial Law of April 6, 1906 (Leary, 1992: 16-19). Eligible men made their applications and submitted their documentation to the judge of the court, and for those men successfully fulfilling the requirements, their names were listed publicly (NARA: MS 1884, Roll 26). Despite the fact that the restrictions of 1863 had been reduced by one-half in 1906, an owner had to have a property that yielded 300 francs (or $60) or have an annual income of 1500 francs ($300) (Leary: 72). Hill rejected monetary requirements and noted that “this was a hated restrictive franchise as it continued to prevent Blacks from having their say in government. . .  Property restrictions for voting continued up until 1936. . .” (53)

Response to Miserable Conditions in St. Croix
The need for higher wages, dissolution of the controlling contracts, and lack of land reforms were three of the key issues of discontent under which laborers suffered. Added to these were the effects of drought, crop price depression, and cruel worker treatment.  Low wages persisted in making other parts of life miserable and impeded access to health and sanitation conditions. For many, the solution was migration from the islands. The population declined from 30, 597 in 1901 to 27, 086 in 1911 (Highfield, 511). In ten years nearly 3,000 people had either died or immigrated. Many years later, Hans Nielsen, leader of the social democrats in the Danish Parliament concluded, “that it was well-known that the natives were living in the deepest penury and misery, and the Danes could not be blind to that fact” (St. Croix Bulletin, May 25, 1916). 

The turning points for the Crucian laborers were in 1912 and 1913 when “the germ of an organized Negro labor movement first developed and was the result of the laborers’ dissatisfaction with their social and economic conditions” (Hoxcer Jensen, 1998:150). With the self-determination that Bishop had displayed as a land owner, tax payer, and employee  (Passenger records June 4, 1911, Sept 24, 1911), the middle class men considered him to be a suitable representative to bring the many crucial social problems “to the right place (Larsen, 1928: 346 ). They sought to send “a trusted man who would make sure that they (those of the Danish authority) understood the conditions of the Negro” (346), and who would be able to describe and explain the nature of the conditions under which most laborers lived and worked to members of Danish state government. 

Bishop’s representation before the royalty and the parliament most likely could be considered part of the ground-floor in establishing the labor union. Therefore, as a worldly man used to traveling, “Twice the black population sent a man of their own to Copenhagen that he should speak their case (NOregaard, 1967: 98).  Bishop traveled to Denmark June 4-Sept. 14, 1911 as a Danish citizen (Passenger records June 4, 1911). He met with King Frederik VIII .Norregaard noted that “The black man was at awe with the good reception that he received”(98).  

Shortly after returning from the first trip, Bishop filed for naturalization as a US citizen (ancestry.com Sept 28, 1911 Declaration of Intention) at which time he renounced King Frederik VIII of Denmark. 

On his second trip, July ? 1914 - Oct 25, 1914 (Passenger records)2, he had to re- apply for naturalization as King Frederik VIII had died, and thus he had to renounce King Christian IX. He signed the Oath of Allegiance dated Feb, 2, 1914 (Passenger records, naturalization 1914). Thus, he traveled on his second visit to Denmark, as a naturalized American citizen.  

While he laid a wreath with an inscription from West Indian African-descended subjects on the tomb of Frederik VIII (St. ThomasTidende,July 27, 1914), he in 1914 had an audience with King Christian IX. Royalty and government hosts in Denmark may have been disillusioned that he was not of the laboring class (Per Nielsen interview, June 2016). Nevertheless, he met with the Finance Minister, Edvard Brandes, who served as the head of the West Indian possessions (NOrregaard 98) and Hans Nielsen, the sole social democrat in the Danish parliament. 

As he had neither submitted a report to his sponsors nor kept a diary regarding either of his travels, the only details were found in a newspaper article, “The Danish West Indies in the Danish Parliament” first published in the Politiken (Oct. 20, 1914), and reprinted on St. Croix Avis, May 10, 1916.  Using  these articles while debating the future of the Danish West Indies, Hans Nielsen, who according to Herbst (2005), was the voice of the Danish reform movement (62), and Finance Minister, Edvard Brandes mentioned the particulars of Bishop’s July 1914 trip. 

Nielsen had emphasized that Bishop had submitted “a memorial,” a list of grievances/ recommendations to the Finance Minister. Among those were his strong urging that local men be given their own land on which to farm.  He suggested that the Danish administration utilize monies from the Immigration Fund. These funds were originally collected from the planters as surcharges on each immigrant brought in to work on Crucian estates. Bishop recommended that these taxes be used to raise the wages of the laborers so that the laborers over a period of time would have the means to make an installment on a piece of land of their own (Avis, May 10, 1916). 

Subsequently, Bishop’s list of complaints was sent from the Finance Minister on August 1, 1914 to the Governor of the DWI for investigation, prioritization and response. By October no reply had been received (West End News, Mar 11, 1915). Social Democrat Nielsen had summed up the social and economic situation saying that “The black laborer in the West Indies is in reality worse off now than his ancestors were during the time of slavery” (reprinted West End News, May 26, 1916).

Conclusion
A new era of middle -class men had emerged between the years 1900-1912. They had progressed in their types of protests: from causing disturbances (1815), bringing petitions to Copenhagen (1816), meeting directly with the Governor-General (1848), initiating a riot (1848), and burning down portions of the town and countryside (1878).  Starting in 1900, however, they had employed new tools to express their demands. Through a series of successive protest methods: torchlight processions, speeches, telegrams, letters to the editor and guest editorials, they expressed verbally their discontent and dissatisfaction.  Morris Pretto was the mastermind of the organized processions culminating with a finale of speeches and toasts to the King. Cornelius Crowe was the writer who continued penning letters of appeal to interested Danes who had formerly lived and worked in the islands. 

Hans Bishop was the new -century’s selected representative. He was a quiet -spoken, friendly person and an experienced traveler, who had his feet firmly planted in two opposing African-American societies. In his immigrant home of 50 years, in Boston, he was considered a “black man without status”. Under the Plessey vs Ferguson decision, he was looked upon as being African-descended, the same as all the other African-descended inhabitants. Thus, because of his color he was prohibited from entering certain public places, acquiring loans or mortgages, thus never able to move up in status.  In his native land of St. Croix, however, he had bought his way up to the middle class by purchasing properties and gaining the qualifications required for the right to vote (which he never acted upon). 

Starting in 1900, middle-class men of the anti-sale party preferred to remain with Denmark but demanded numerous social and economic reforms. They wrote letters of introduction and financially supported Bishop’s two transatlantic voyages.  As the representative of the people, his mission was to describe and underscore the conditions of the people of the islands. He met with royalty, confronted the social democrat representative in parliament, and engaged with the government ministers in Copenhagen in a series of face-to -face sessions. 

Both in Denmark and in the islands themselves, there were mixed reviews of his two trips. Bishop met the Danish royalty on the foreboding eve of the collapse of European royal rule by the outbreak of World War I, which dissolved the royal houses in many countries.  Appreciation of his role in the fight to keep the islands under Danish rule was given by Nielsen of the Social Democratic Party. He summarized the meetings with Bishop when he said,  “Bishop’s visit was not without results. He soldered the mood of Denmark and prepared the ground for new inquiries from the [Danish] reform movement” (West End News, October 26,1914). 

Historians using minimal biographical facts have followed one another in categorizing him a “labor leader” (Moolenaar,1972: 22; Vaughn ,1992: 12; and Highfield, 2018: 58-59). Just what relationship he had with the St. Croix Labor Union, established in 1915, whose offices occupied the top floor of his 1 A King Street property, rent free? is not known. NOrregaard pinpointed Bishop’s role best when he labeled him “as spokesman for the people” at the end of the Danish reform period ( 98).

In today’s Crucian society, the older Lutheran Church congregants hold Bishop in high esteem for using his own accumulated resources to relieve some of the suffering of the church’s poor. Bishop was reported as a multi-millionaire (Post Star, Sept. 24, 1929).  For his generosity, he has been remembered by the State Historic Preservation Commission with a bronze plaque affixed to the wall of 1 A King Street.  

Starting in 1915, Crucian reformers such as Cornelius Crowe and David Hamilton Jackson would continue in their fight for better working and living conditions for the laborers. In 1916, letter writing and speeches would be abandoned as the formation of the St. Croix Labor Union and the calling of a strike, was the needed action for higher wages. The reform movement from then on would become an action-oriented one.  Tilbage