Post-Emancipation St. Croix 1849–1878

Abstract

This chapter examines the early post-emancipation period in Danish St. Croix and reveals the challenges the planters faced in their continuous attempt not only to save the sugar industry but also to control labor. While the planter class lost the control over labor and were forced to come to grips with a changing employer–worker situation in that they had to pay wages, they influenced the local government to seek alternative sources of labor. The planter class argued for contract labor to compensate for the unreliability of the existing labor force. They eventually brought in laborers from the surrounding Caribbean islands but they also experimented with one shipload of indentured Indians from the Indian subcontinent. The process was not straightforward. The planters had to negotiate and sign various agreements mainly to safeguard the laborers from planters’ abuse. In the end, about 321 indentured arrived on Danish St. Croix in 1863.