It was Contract Day on the island of St. Croix, and the people were unhappy. Slavery had ended almost three decades earlier in 1848 – but now working conditions were nearly worse than enslavement! How could this be?
White plantation owners kept finding loopholes in labor laws. Instead of paying workers fairly, wages were so low that hardly anyone could afford meals, education, or healthcare. But this Contract Day – the day when laborers could get new employment from other places on the island – would be different.
Instead of going to work, laborers went into a frenzy! They paraded through the streets, throwing rocks and burning the land they had once been forced to work. All the white employers ran to hide in a fort, terrified by this show of Black power.
Of course, the military was called in and began killing and attacking Black laborers. It took days to stop the protests, but finally, the insurrection ended. Those who survived were imprisoned, but hundreds were killed. Did this display of power help work conditions?
Yes. After the riots, employers began to offer better wages, and although the system never truly paid our people what their labor was worth, they continued to fight.
Our current freedoms came at a critical cost to our ancestors. How do your actions honor their sacrifices?