Mary Thomas

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Queen Mary Thomas, with torch and machete. From Charles E. Taylor: Leaflets from the Danish West Indies (1888).

Mary Thomas , better known as Queen Mary (* around 1848 in Antigua (Lesser Antilles) , † 1905 on Saint Croix ) was a plantation worker and one of the leaders of the so-called Fireburn uprising on the island of St. Croix ( Danish West Indies ).

Early years

Mary Thomas came from a poor family on the Caribbean island of Antigua. In 1860 she moved to the island of St. Croix, which was under Danish colonial rule , to find work . In 1878 it was registered on the Sprat Hall sugar cane plantation . According to chronicles, Mary Thomas was temporarily detained for mistreating one of her three children and for theft. Historians suspect that this was a not uncommon false accusation of the colonial government at the time, which was used to discredit rebellious workers.

Although 1848 was the West Indies , the slavery of the Danish Governor-General Peter von Scholten been abolished, but the living and working conditions of former slaves and other workers on the sugar plantations had not improved substantially. In order to compensate the plantation owners who suffered financial losses due to the abolition of slavery, a law was passed in 1849 to prevent better working conditions. The workers were only allowed to change their place of work once a year, on October 1st, which forced them to stay longer on the plantations at low wages. Their attempts to leave the island in order to find better opportunities elsewhere have been boycotted with a variety of government measures, including relatively high costs for passports and mandatory health certificates.

The riot

From The Revolt on St. Croix . Illustrated Tidende , 1878

When, in the autumn of 1878, demands from workers to improve their situation were rejected, the so-called Fireburn Riots began. They became the largest trade union uprising in Danish history.

Here Mary Thomas played a leading role. She was elected by the workers as one of the three leaders of the uprising. They went down in history as Queen Mary , Queen Agnes and Queen Mathilda as symbols of resistance to colonial politics. Mary Thomas liked to call herself Captain.

It became a violent uprising: the workers destroyed houses, shops and sugar mills and burned down around 50 plantations, the then capital Frederiksted was in the end largely in ruins.

The process

After the police got the riot under control, the three Kings and a fourth woman named Susan Abrahamson (called Bottom Belle) were arrested. At the trial, Mary Thomas testified against co-defendant Thomas Graydon ( Colonel Peter ). Like other insurgents, he was sentenced to death. The sentence against Mary Thomas was initially on the death penalty, but was finally, like the other two angels , commuted to life imprisonment. Mary Thomas served part of the sentence in Christianshaven women's prison in Copenhagen.

The rebellion brought about a slight increase in wages. Mary Thomas died in Frederiksted in 1905.

Addendum

Legends about the life of Mary Thomas were formed mainly in oral traditions. A popular folk song testifies to this:

" Queen Mary, ah where you gon 'go burn?
Queen Mary, ah where you gon 'go burn?
Don 'ask me nothin' t'all
Just go me de match an oil
Bassin Jailhouse, ah deh de money dey "

Honors

Queen Mary Memorial in Copenhagen
Three queens fountain on St Thomas
  • One main road that crosses St. Croix Island is called the Queen Mary Highway .
  • The artists Jeanette Ehlers and La Vaughn Belle created a seven meter high statue of Mary Thomas with the title "I am Queen Mary" in Copenhagen. It is Denmark's first public monument to a black woman.
  • A three queens fountain stands in the center of Saint Thomas .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karin Klette: With Mary Thomas Denmark is commemorating its colonial history . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from April 2, 2018. [1]
  2. ^ Jeannette Allis Bastian. 2003. Owning Memory: How a Caribbean Community Lost Its Archives and Found Its History. Libraries Unlimited, p. 12
  3. ↑ Martin Selseo Sorensen: Denmark Gets Statue of a 'Rebel Queen' who led Fiery Revolt against Colonialism. In: New York Times, March 31, 2018.
  4. ↑ Karen Fog Olwig. Small Islands, Large Questions: Society, Culture and Resistance in the Post-Emancipation Caribbean. RoutledgeV Publishing, 2014

literature

Web links

Commons : Mary Thomas  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Mary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Queen Mary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Antiguan plantation worker, labor leader, rebel
DATE OF BIRTH around 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Antigua (Lesser Antilles)
DATE OF DEATH 1905
Place of death Saint Croix