St. John

St. John to BVI, Running away to “Freedom”

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The Danish West Indian archives contain a vast amount of documentation about police matters, including correspondence, reports, and cases that demonstrate unrelenting resistance to enslavement, as well as actual crimes. Although most of it is rendered in the Danish gothic script, some of the correspondence, like these two letters,…
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Manumission by Will, St. John, November 2, 1796

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Prior to the general emancipation of all people who were unfree on July 3, 1848, enslaved people in the Danish West Indies gained their individual freedom legally through a legal process of manumission, whereby they were freed in writing by their owner and then issued a Free Letter by…
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Letters about the St. John Slave Revolt 1733-1734

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The most common type of archival record is correspondence. Civil servants transmit documents of all kinds, add commentary and information, and receive feedback through letters. While official correspondence is often bureaucratic in style, it is also informative and insightful. The letters shown here are part of a collection of…
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Analyze Petroglyphs and an Amerindian Swallow Stick

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The various groups of people who first inhabited the Virgin Islands had no written system of communication. However, we can learn directly about their lifeways and beliefs through the surviving elements of their material culture, which include settlement sites, pottery, stoneware, food remains and various kinds of carvings, all…
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St. John Market Basket

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The production of market baskets was once an important industry on the island of St. John. Many baskets were made in the first half of the 1900s. The baskets were made mainly of two materials. Both materials are found on St. John. The first is hoop vine (Trichostigma octandrum)….
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Analyze an Amerindian Stone Ax found at Little Cruz Bay, St. John

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Through research, archeologists have found signs that suggests that the first people arrived in the Virgin Islands around 2500 to 3000 years ago. In the Virgin Islands, over 210 sites belonging to Amerindian cultures have been uncovered and identified. Some of the important village sites found and studied on…
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