Peter von Scholten

Peter von Scholten, Governor General

Peter von Scholten at a young age

Scholten's parents' house in Viborg
(Sankt Mogens Gade 3)

Peter Carl Frederik (Friedrich) von Scholten (born May 17, 1784 on the royal monastery estate Vestervig near Thisted , Denmark , † January 26, 1854 in Altona ) was Royal Danish Major General of German descent and Governor General of the Danish West Indies .

Life

Origin and youth

Peter von Scholten came from a family of officers and was the son of Casimir Wilhelm von Scholten (1752–1810), then a captain in the royal regiment and later major general and governor of Saint Thomas and Saint John , and Katherina Elisabeth de Moldrup, also Møldrup (1764– 1804).

Peter von Scholten was born on the royal estate of Vestervig, the residence of his mother's family. At first, Scholten lived in his parents' house in Viborg ( Midtjylland region ). He experienced his earliest Copenhagen years in Boldhusgade 4 opposite Christiansborg Palace .

As an eight-year-old boy, he began his military career at the Land Cadet Academy . He found it difficult to learn from books. In relation to his high social status, he later owned only a tiny library . At the end of 1803 he took the final exams at the Landkadettenakademie and was appointed ensign .

First trips to the West Indies and marriage

The father took his twenty-year-old son to Saint Thomas after a home leave. There he began on August 13, 1804 under the command of his father, who had become governor of the island for the second time in 1803 (until 1807), his service as a sub-lieutenant .

Back in Denmark, Scholten came as an officer in the Fourth Coalition War in 1807 in British captivity, which he spent in England. In 1808 he was released; He returned to Copenhagen and lived temporarily as a chamberlain at Amübersquare No. 50. On October 31, 1810, the year his father died, Peter von Scholten married the 24-year-old Anne Elisabeth ( Lise ) Thortsen (born May 20, in the Copenhagen garrison church ) 1786 in Copenhagen; † May 1, 1849 ibid). From this marriage there were three daughters. After Denmark had to capitulate in January 1814 after the lost war against Sweden, Scholten accompanied King Frederik VI as adjutant . for the signing of the Peace of Kiel .

After that he was no longer in Denmark. In the same year 1814 he moved back to Saint Thomas. He received a preferred position as a well paid goods inspector and postman . Until the death of King Frederik VI. in 1839 he could always be sure of discreet royal protection. Since, as a good-looking young person, he also wanted elegant uniforms and an elaborate lifestyle, the question of how he could pay for all of this always played a large role in his life. His wife Lise had followed him to Saint Thomas. But in 1816 she took a visit to England as an opportunity to leave him and return to her hometown forever.

Governor of Saint Thomas and Governor General of the Danish West Indies

In the following years Scholten was - like his father before - made several times the office of governor of Saint Thomas and Saint John, the first time from July 1, 1818 to February 11, 1820, the second time from April 1 to July 9, 1820 and the third time from April 1 to March 3, 1826.

After a home leave, he traveled again to the Danish West Indies in July 1827. Because with effect from July 14th he became governor general for the first time with his seat in Christiansted on Saint Croix . First he held this office until April 24, 1831. A second time he was Governor General from July 19, 1832 to March 22, 1834 and a third time from January 14, 1836 to July 6, 1848. In between, Johannes had both times Søbøtker (1777-1854) took over this office.

Scholten was for a time the highest paid civil servant in Denmark. Therefore, his family indulged in an expensive 1831 Copenhagen apartment in the prestigious Bredgade No. 45, next to the first. US - embassy . However, Scholten wanted his own property and bought the small house No. 13 on Kongens Nytorv . This domicile was also distinguished by its elegant (and expensive) elegance.

On Sankt Croix, Scholten brought the free black woman Anna Elizabeth Heegaard (1790-1859) to live with him - as was quite common at the time among colonial officials and plantation owners . However, they did not have common offspring. He and his partner bought the wonderfully situated Bülowsminde country estate . His brother Frederik, a skilful watercolor painter , who had been transferred to the Danish West Indies as a customs administrator at the same time , also belonged to the glamorous court .

The liberation of slaves

As an enlightened humanist , Scholten was, like many liberal Danes, an avowed opponent of slavery . Therefore, starting in 1828, he gradually eased the legal position of slaves, as well as that of free blacks. Among other things, he enacted the following reforms:

• The daily working hours were strictly limited.
• Saturday was generally non-working.
• The slave owners were prohibited from chastising their slaves as they saw fit.
• The auctioning of slaves and their display for the purpose of sale were prohibited.
• Slaves were allowed to buy, sell and bequeath houses, gardens and fields.
• Slaves could - under certain conditions - testify in court as witnesses, even against their masters.
• The slave owners or their administrators on the plantations had to keep report books in which compliance with the regulations was to be documented and which were checked by officials.
• The children of the slaves were admitted to elementary schools.
• In order to inform all slaves about the new regulations, Scholten had them read out in the church services.
• The term “slave”, which was perceived as pejorative, was replaced by the term “unfree” from the 1840s, an early example of an official language regulation .

Above all, after long negotiations with the government in Copenhagen, Scholten obtained a decree signed by King Christian VIII on July 28, 1847 , which promised the abolition of slavery - albeit for the medium term, namely after twelve years.

King Christian VIII died in January 1848. Some slaves doubted whether the new king, Frederik VII , would keep to the " emancipation " promised by his predecessor . They were also encouraged by the news of the March Revolution in Denmark in 1848 and the revolt of the slaves on the French part of the neighboring island of St. Martin . Their impatience grew, they didn't want to wait twelve years for freedom. On July 2, 1848, the slaves Moses Robert, Martin Williams and John Gottlieb called a strike for the following day and threatened to set Frederiksted on fire. Thereupon Governor General von Scholten declared on July 3, 1848 at four o'clock in the afternoon in Frederiksted on his own initiative slavery was abolished in all Danish possessions in the West Indies. The fact that he had thus confronted the slave and plantation owners with a fait accompli bothered him less than that he had ordered emancipation without instructions from the government. He worried that the king might understand his decision as “insubordination” and shortly afterwards suffered a nervous breakdown . On July 6th, he submitted his resignation. Eight days later, exactly 21 years to the day after he took office as Governor General, Scholten left his beloved islands forever.

The slave liberation proclaimed by Scholten could not be reversed. On September 22, 1848, King Friedrich VII subsequently confirmed Scholten's bold step by decree.

Last years of life and death

Scholten chose Copenhagen as his new residence. There he got caught between the political fronts. The newspaper Fædrelandet and leading liberals reproached him for a too hesitant and half-hearted slave liberation policy. The government, on the other hand, accused him of going too far and charged him with malpractice. A judicial committee of inquiry removed him from his position and - particularly meticulously - withdrew his pension . This litigation was the culmination of many legal actions that followed the death of his patron King Frederik VI. (1839) had been tried against the proud and envied "ruler of the West Indian islands". Scholten put - as usual - calling one the Supreme Court , where he unanimously acquitted was.

Scholten's tomb on Assistens Kirkegård in Copenhagen

Peter von Scholten's wife Lise died in 1849. Perhaps this is why the widower moved to live with his daughter Elisabeth Katharina (1811-1859) and her husband General Peter Heinrich Claude du Plat (1809-1864) in Altona, who was the city ​​commander there. Peter von Scholten died there at the age of 69.

His body was transferred to the home and for the time being in the chapel of Kirke Holmens laid until then in the neo-Gothic painted pink Mausoleum (1825 built) the family of Scholten in the German Reformed Department of Assis Kirkegård was finally buried. The funeral was entirely private and was hardly noted in the press.

His wife and twelve other family members also found their final resting place in this mausoleum and the crypt below . Today only his coffin and that of his wife are there. The last of several restorations took place in 2009.

Afterlife

Peter von Scholten is the focus of the “documentary” (source-based) novel Massa Peter by Preben Ramløv (Copenhagen 1968). The author evaluated files and a. in the archives of the Landkadettenakademie in Copenhagen and in Rigsarkivet, the Danish National Archives, in the Public Record Office in London, in the National Archives in Washington as well as in the archives of the Moravian Brethren in Charlotte Amalie and in Frederiksted.

literature

• Carlo Christensen: Peter von Scholten, a chapter of the history of the Virgin Islands. Publishing house G. Nielsens bogtr., 1955.
• Hermann Carl Johannes Lawaetz, Anne-Luise Knudsen: Peter von Scholten, West Indian period images from the days of the last Governor General. Poul Kristensen Publishing, 1999, ISBN 87-7851-085-6 .
• Hermann Konrad Eggers: The von Scholten. In: The German Herald . Volume 14, 1883.
• Preben Ramløv: Massa Peter. Adventure in the West Indies . Translated by Senta Kapoun. Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-8000-2471-3 ; Danish original edition: Massa Peter . Kirsten Ramløv, Copenhagen 1968 (biographical novel).

Web links

• Peter von Scholten, dan. Movie (1987)
• Short biography (Danish) in: De Vestindiske Øer - biografihistorisk oversigt

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Scholten was a descendant of Jobst Scholten (1644-1721) who joined the engineer officer Henrik Ruse in Amsterdam and later became commander in chief of the Danish army and the second and last Danish governor general of Western Pomerania and Rügen . - The family «von Scholten» carried the nobility predicate «von» since the 17th century. - Source: Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels , Adelslexikon Volume XIII, p. 70, Volume 128 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 2002, ISBN 3-7980-0828-2 .
2. ↑ Peter von Scholten had a total of eight siblings, including his brother Emil (1786–1873), who later became an adjutant to King Frederik VI. and Peter was able to patronize accordingly . - Source: Family details  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ personal data
4. ↑ Preben Ramløv: Massa Peter. Adventure in the West Indies . Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 56.
5. ↑ Preben Ramløv: Massa Peter. Adventure in the West Indies . Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 88.
6. ↑ Governors of the US Virgin Islands
7. ↑ Governors General of the US Virgin Islands
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} Lori Lee: Danish West Indies, Abolition in the . In: Junius Rodriguez (ed.) Encyclopedia of emancipation and abolition in the transatlantic world , Vol. 1: A-G . Sharpe Reference, Armonk 2007, ISBN 978-0-7656-1257-1 , pp. 159-160, here p. 160.
9. ↑ Lori Lee: Danish West Indies, Abolition in the . In: Junius Rodriguez (ed.) Encyclopedia of emancipation and abolition in the transatlantic world , Vol. 1: A-G . Sharpe Reference, Armonk 2007, ISBN 978-0-7656-1257-1 , pp. 159-160, here p. 159.
10. ^ Thomas Steege: Everyday resistance of slaves in the Caribbean using the example of St. Croix 1770–1807 . In: Corinna Raddatz (Ed.): Africa in America . Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg 1992, pp. 149–155, here p. 155.
11. ^ German edition: Massa Peter. Adventure in the West Indies . Translated by Senta Kapoun. Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996.
12. ↑ Preben Ramløv: Massa Peter. Adventure in the West Indies . Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1996, p. 9.