Act No. 6285 (23rd Legislature) — To recognize and commemorate the St. John Slave Revolt of 1733 and to observe November 23rd as "Virgin Islands Freedom Fighters Day" WHEREAS
Act No. 6285 (BILL NO. 23-0044) (Approved August 17, 1999) To recognize and commemorate the St. John Slave Revolt of 1733 and to observe November 23rd as "Virgin Islands Freedom Fighters Day" WHEREAS, on November 23, 1733, twelve to fourteen African slaves on the Danish West Indian island of St. Jan took the initial step in what turned out to be the benchmark event in the struggle for freedom in the now United States Virgin Islands; and WHEREAS, this step, the conquest of Fortsberg garrison, was the first major assault on the system of chattel slavery in the Danish West Indies; and WHEREAS, it predated the American Revolution by forty-three years, the French Revolution by fifty-six years and the great Haitian Revolution by seventy-one years; and WHEREAS, the St. John African Revolt can be numbered among a significant group of Akan-inspired revolts that took place in the Caribbean; and WHEREAS, the event in St. …
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