File:The Fireburn- St. Croix Labour Revolt, 1878 (28436989024).jpg

The October 1878 labour revolt that swept across St. Croix, an island in the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands), was the result of harsh labour laws and the legacy of slavery. Known as the Fireburn, the revolt took place on 1 October – Quarter Day, the day plantation contracts ended and new ones began.

The lives of black plantation workers had changed little after slavery was abolished. The 1849 Labor Act saw forced workers to sign 1-3 year contracts which bound them and their families to the plantations on which they worked. They worked from 4am to 10pm, were paid next-to-nothing, and children from the age of 6 were also forced to work.

So on Quarter Day 1878 workers gathered in Frederiksted to demand higher wages, better conditions, job mobility, and the abolition of the Labor Act. Although it was initially a peaceful gathering, the workers threw stones and the Danish soldiers retaliated with gunfire before barricaded themselves inside a fort. Unable to scale the gates, the workers turned their focus on the town, using torches to systematically burn buildings and plantations. Houses, sugar mills, sugar fields, and over half the city of Frederiksted was burned. Prominent in the revolt were women, including three ‘rebel Queens’, Mary Thomas, Axeline Elizabeth Salomon (called Agnes), and Mathilda McBean (a possible fourth woman has come to light recently).

The Danish authorities put down the rebellion harshly. Around one hundred of the black population lost their lives, most of them shot during the fighting or hung afterwards. Three hundred more were arrested. Only three Europeans were killed during the rebellion – two soldiers and one civilian named Mr Fontaine.

Back in New Zealand, future Premier Sir John Hall looked over this newspaper clipping with horror. His manager’s name was Fontaine and had a brother in the area at the time. Writing to the Colonial Secretary in January 1879, Hall wanted the identity of Fontaine clarified to be sure it was not his manager’s brother. After much correspondence with authorities in the UK, on 5 September 1879 it was conclusively shown that Mr Fontaine was George Fontaine, a German plantation owner of 15 years and not the brother of Sir Hall's manager.

Archives Reference: IA1 Box 430/ 1879/4415 archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=24286562

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Caption information from www.virgin-islands-history.org/en/fates/the-three-rebel-q...