Photo of Fireburn reenactment via Repeating Islands via http://www.edensouth.com/Fireburn2006.html
“ST. CROIX – A bill that would add a holiday commemorating the 1878 Fireburn to the list of government holidays will go before the full Senate for consideration, after the Rules and Judiciary Committee gave the measure a nod on Tuesday.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Terrence Nelson, notes the significance of the 1878 laborers’ revolt to the people of the Virgin Islands and adds Fireburn Day to the 18 local government holidays already on the books.
The holiday would fall on Oct. 1.
Although the Danish government freed local slaves in 1848, the following year, it issued a Labor Act that restricted the bargaining power and mobility of plantation workers by fixing their wages and requiring that on Oct. 1, they sign a contract to work on a particular plantation for an entire year, Nelson wrote in the preamble to the bill….”
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