Gerard Emanuel Written Statement on 5/6/09 Re: Contract Day

1. May 4, 2009
Honorable Senator Wayne James, Chairman
Committee on Education, Youth and Culture
28th Legislature of the Virgin Islands
100 lagoon Homes, Suite 2
Frederiksted, St. Croix U.S. Virgin Islands 00840-3912
Dear Honorable Senator James:
Good day all distinguished members of the 28th Legislature, particularly the Prime
Sponsor of Bill No. 28-0010, Senator Terrence Positive Nelson. Thank you for reading
this statement into the record. My name is Gerard M. Emanuel. I work for the
Department of Education’s Cultural Education Division; however, my comments herein
are my own as a student of history and an indigene of these precious islands, officially
called the Virgin Islands of the United States of America. Therefore it must be made clear
at the outset, that the views espoused in this letter do not necessarily reflect the views of
my employer or co workers.
Honorable Senators, thank you for the invitation to appear before the Committee on
Education, Youth and Culture of the 28th Legislature of the Virgin Islands. It is a supreme
honor to have an opportunity to speak on this topic which I studied on the graduate level in
Denmark over 30 years ago.
Mr. Chair, I did not see Mr. Mario Moorhead’s name on the list of testifiers, and I consider
it a serious oversight if a historian of such immense knowledge, consciousness, analytical
acumen and insight, particularly with respect to this very issue was overlooked. I hope
that I am wrong and that he was invited to present.
Honorable Senators, Sankofa! Sankofa! Sankofa! Senator Nelson ought to be highly
commended for re-introducing this milestone bill. It truly reflects the African proverb of
Sankofa, which means to return and fetch it. In other words, to look back and take
important things from the past that can help us today, is always a good policy.
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2. The good Senator introduced this legislation as Bill No. 27-0170 in the 27th Legislature. I
appeared then, provided a statement and answered questions. Apparently the BILL was
not passed. Thus I commend you for allowing it to come before this august body again.
As I said then, a resolution will also be submitted to this body to honor a world renowned
Virgin Islander who has had a significant impact on many of us here, and on African
people throughout the world. His name is Dr. Yosef-ben-Jochannan, affectionately called
“Dr. Ben”. He is one of my prized mentors, and he has provided me with tremendous
insights and perspectives on history and the struggle of African people for self definition
and self-determination.
I mentioned Dr. Ben because this bill is clearly an act of self-definition and self-
determination. His entire life has been a fight to identify and correct the deliberate
falsehoods about African people and their accomplishments throughout the world,
particularly in the Nile Valley region in Africa. This Bill, with appropriate modifications
would definitely meet his approval.
Honorable Senators, even though the word Fireburn has been added, the bill still refers to
this event as Contract Day. Although Contract Day may be accurate from the perspective
of the Danish colonizers, I take issue with it because this bill is not supposed to be written
from their perspective, or to commemorate them. If this is the case, I do not wish to be
associated with it at all.
I am however, very interested in registering my remarks on the content and context of the
aforementioned Bill, which is apparently designed to commemorate the action of St. Croix
laborers, beginning on that fateful first day of October in 1878. Honorable Senators,
October the 1st is a particularly, seminal date in V.1. History. It reflects the resolve of our
African Ancestors to continue the fight for the improvement of their living and working
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3. conditions on St. Croix in an event they called the quot;Firebunquot;. Yes, they continued the fight
for self-determination. Therefore, I would respectfully like to honor their right of self
identification or event identification, and refer to the proposed holiday as “Firebun Day”
only - period.
October the 1st also proves that Virgin Islanders have a long history of organizing and
taking appropriate actions to improve their lot after the end of chattel slavery in 1848. In
fact, while studying in Denmark, this event was the focus of a major research paper that I
prepared. It was published by the former Department of Conservation and Cultural Affairs
in a publication entitled quot;Freedom's Flamequot;, in 1981. Therefore, remembering October the
1st is a timely and significant gesture to those who came before us and as the popular
saying goes, quot;on whose shoulders we standquot;.
Honorable Senators, some of you may ask why should we consider the quot;Firebunquot; of 1878,
to be quot;appropriate actionquot;? Wasn't it just a riot where Virgin Islanders destroyed private
property and thus violated the law as has been written in several “his-story” texts?
Honorable Senators, I stand behind my statement that the actions of our Ancestors were
highly appropriate, because they had no legal or nonviolent mechanisms to get proper
redress for their grievances. Furthermore, my research indicates that it was not a riot.
Plans had been made to take action on October 1 of 1878 as testified to by William Holder
in the court proceedings following the events. We need to stop any reference to such an
important event as being a riot.
Honorable Senators, it must be remembered that the majority of the laborers on St. Croix,
from the days of physical slavery in the 17th century up until 1936, had no say in the
political process in the Virgin Islands. It must also be remembered that these persons
always represented the majority of persons living on St. Croix. From the time of the 1st
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4. Colonial Law of 1852, and even with its amendments in 1863, and 1906, and even further
with the change of Colonial master from Denmark to the United States in 1917, the
African laborers on St. Croix were the majority of the population, but most of them could
not vote or run for office. They were completely excluded from the political process by
law, due to excessive property and income requirements they could never meet. To put it
plainly, to vote and run for office from the time Europeans instituted slavery on St. Croix
in the mid 1600’s until the Organic Act of 1936, you had to be a free male of
“unblemished character”, make a certain amount of money, or own property that
generated a certain amount of money. This is one of the critical reasons why we celebrate
the quot;Firebunquot;, and why I say that it was appropriate action on behalf of the laborers.
Honorable Senators, when we view these actions in the proper context, we will see that our
African Ancestors had no alternative but to resort to violence. Furthermore, until the
Honorable David Hamilton Jackson won the right to form a Labor Union and print a
newspaper that focused on news from the perspectives of the laborers, our Ancestors could
not even organize to demand their rights as laborers. It is clear that our ancestors had no
nonviolent or legal way to address and redress the political, social and economic injustices
that they experienced until the passage of the Organic Act of 1936.
When we study U.S. history and examine the actions of the colonists in what is now the
United States of America, we remember what is euphemistically known as the quot;Boston
Tea Partyquot;. At this “Party” the colonists burned and destroyed property while disguised as
Native Americans. This event was regarded as terroristic by the British Government.
Likewise, the quot;Firebunquot; was considered the same by the Danes and the planters on St.
Croix. However, when one reads US. History books, the Boston Tea Party is regarded as a
very important patriotic event by freedom fighters. Thus, if the quot;Americanquot; quot;Founding
Fathersquot; could justifiably destroy property because they were being taxed and could not
participate in the political process in England, it is not hard to justify the legitimacy of the
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5. quot;Firebun of 1878quot;. In our case on St. Croix, laws were passed in the famous Labor Act of
1849, which kept our ancestors in slave-like conditions for 30 years after slavery was
supposed to have ended. If the American Colonists could rationalize and justify their
quot;Boston Tea Partyquot; when they had local political authority and representation, and were
not in slave-like conditions, we can surely understand and appreciate the quot;Firebunquot; of
1878, where our ancestors were in slave-like conditions, and had no political power
whether locally or in Denmark. Therefore Honorable Senators, Bill NO. 28-0010, is
overdue and fully justified. It formalizes and institutionalizes an integral part of the
history, culture, identity and yes ethos of the people of the Virgin Islands, which is rapidly
eroding even as this letter is being read.
Now I would like to recommend a few changes to this important bill. First, the fifth
quot;WHEREASquot; beginning on page 2 line 7, could be amended as follows:
quot;WHEREAS, in 1878, after all peaceable attempts to demand a better quality of
life failed, several women on St. Croix, including Mary Thomas, Mathilde Mcbean,
Susanna Abramson, Axelline Solomon, Rebecca Frederick and others, together with men
including Joe Paris, James de Silva, Joseph La Grange, John Lewis, Thomas Graydon,
Francis Leonard, William Jones, William Arnold and others, organized and led a revolt to
repeal the Labor Act of 1849, demand comparable wages to that of St. Croix Central
Factory workers, and obtain better working and living conditions,quot;
Honorable Mr. Chair, you in particular will appreciate the rationale for the above
suggestions, particularly since more research has to be conducted regarding who all were
the quot;leadersquot; or played key roles in the quot;Firebunquot;, and who all were called quot;Queensquot;. I
understand that recent research you conducted has revealed that Susanna Abramson was a
fourth quot;Queenquot;, even though we have historically only mentioned three. Those of us who
have studied the “Firebun” are fully aware of this individual, as well as several others who
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6. figured prominently in this monumental event in V.I. History. I thus will not contest the
accuracy of your research. I instead welcome it because it has made me now realize due to
the benefit of age and hindsight, that irrespective of who all were queens or not, we really
ought to list all of the names that we know were mentioned in the historical record,
whether they were queens, or not, and indicate that there possibly were others
unmentioned in these documents, whose roles were equally important. Furthermore Mr.
Chair, the male leaders should be mentioned by name as well because they also were
important in the outcome of the entire effort. So when this event becomes a holiday and is
commemorated, all of these persons should be honored.
Honorable Chairman, this is consistent with your position on a bill being considered to
offer scholarships to valedictorians and salutatorians. You indicated that it might be unfair
to single out only those who excelled in all areas and neglect those who excelled in only
one or two. I fully agree with your point and wish to apply its essence to the “Firebun”.
Thus let us not only honor the “leaders” that we have uncovered, for without followers,
none of the events of October 1, 1878 and its aftermath would have or could have
succeeded.
Additionally, Honorable Senators, I mentioned the Labor Act of 1849 because it was the
fundamental reason for the “Firebun”. Documents in the Royal Archives and Newspaper
Archives in Denmark provide evidence of this. Testimony indicates that laborers had said
that on October 1, 1878 they were going to fight for higher wages. It is also well
documented that the workers were upset with many of the provisions of the Labor Act of
1849, and were going to do something about it on October the first of 1878. Therefore the
court records document that there had been forethought and planning prior to that fateful
October date. This information should conclusively dispel the notion that the quot;Firebunquot;
was merely a riot. Our ancestors would not simply jump up one day and burn down an
entire island. Our history does not support such actions. In fact our history supports
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7. exactly the opposite beginning in 1733 with the successful insurrection on St. John to the
plans to take over St. Croix in 1749 and 1753 and most importantly to the successful
emancipation events of July 3, 1848. Therefore, the “Firebun” was merely one in a long
succession of organized movements, orchestrated by our Ancestors that succeeded in
achieving their objectives. As such, I also would like to see an amendment to this Bill
requiring that the word “riot” be stricken from all history texts when the quot;Firebunquot; is
mentioned. If the American Colonists could have their quot;Firebunquot; called a quot;Tea Partyquot; and
not a riot or act of terrorism, so can we. All people have the inalienable right of self-
definition and self-determination. As such, Virgin Islanders have the right to use the
terminology that we think most appropriately and accurately reflects the circumstances
within context, from our perspective, just as the American colonists and other persons who
write their history do.
Also, Mr. Chair, on line 15 of page 2, the 43 plantations mentioned should be further
researched. I have seen 51 and even as high as 53 mentioned in Dr. Dookhan’s history
book on the V.I.
Finally, Mr. Chair, my major recommendation is to strike the word quot;Contract quot; and
“Contract Day” in several but not all places where they appear in the Bill, and insert
quot;Firebunquot; and “Firebun Day” respectively where applicable. The first place to do this is
on page one, in the first sentence where the specific part of the V.I. Code to be amended is
referenced. The second place is on page 2, in the last WHEREAS, and also in Section 1,
line 23. The final location I found is in the BILL SUMMARY on page 3.
Honorable Senators, it is vitally important to utilize the term quot;Firebun Dayquot; as the name
for this holiday. It is the singular term that aptly depicts the essence of the event, which
has brought cause to this bill. “Contract Day” simply does not fit. That was the
colonizer’s term for the day and using it would be wholly inconsistent with the
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8. philosophical and psychological bases for this act of “event self definition” and “cultural
self determination”. This is OUR celebration, and it ought to be viewed totally from OUR
perspective just like all other people celebrate their holidays using their own victorious
names to generate a sense of national pride, unity and belonging. Contract Day is
reminiscent of involuntary bondage. Firebun Day distinctly reminds us of our Ancestors’
successful actions to liberate themselves from economic bondage. Let us do the right
thing and employ the name used by our ancestors in 1878. Since this bill commemorates
the specific date on which their actions were taken, their nomenclature ought to be utilized.
Thank you once again Mr. Chair and I would be happy to receive and answer any
questions or clarify anything that you may wish either in writing, or in person at a later
point in time.
Respectfully,
Gerard M. Emanuel
Assistant Director
Cultural Education Division
Department of Education
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