Majority of the monuments in Denmark represent “white males” and that is why this “Queen Rebel” statue is so significant.
A statue of a woman nearly 7,000-meters tall has been erected in Denmark to commemorate the revolt against Danish colonial rule in the Caribbean.
The sculpture was inspired by Mary Thomas, known as one of “the three queens.” Thomas, along with two other female leaders, unleashed an uprising in 1878 called the “Fireburn.” Fifty plantations and most of the town of Frederiksted in St. Croix were burned, in what has been called the largest labor revolt in Danish colonial history.
“This project is about challenging Denmark’s collective memory and changing it,” says La Vaughn Belle, one of artists who designed the statue. She teamed up with Jeannette Ehlers for the project.
A statue of a woman nearly 7,000-meters tall has been erected in Denmark to commemorate the revolt against Danish colonial rule in the Caribbean.
The sculpture was inspired by Mary Thomas, known as one of “the three queens.” Thomas, along with two other female leaders, unleashed an uprising in 1878 called the “Fireburn.” Fifty plantations and most of the town of Frederiksted in St. Croix were burned, in what has been called the largest labor revolt in Danish colonial history.
The unveiling comes at the end of a centennial year commemorating the sale by Denmark of three islands to the United States on March 3, 1917: St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas. The price: $25 million.
Though
Denmark prohibited trans-Atlantic slave trafficking in 1792, it did not
rush to enforce the ban. The rule took effect 11 years later, and
slavery continued until 1848.
“They
wanted to fill the stocks first” and ensure enough slaves would remain
to keep plantations running, said Niels Brimnes, an associate professor
at Aarhus University and a leading expert on colonialism in Denmark.
Three
decades after slavery formally ended on what today are known as the
United States Virgin Islands, conditions for the former slaves had not
improved significantly.
That continued injustice fomented the uprising on St. Croix.
Mary
Thomas was tried for her role in the rebellion and ferried across the
Atlantic to a women’s prison in Copenhagen. The statue created in
tribute to her, called “I Am Queen Mary,” sits in front of what was once a warehouse for Caribbean sugar and rum, just more than a mile from where she was jailed.
The only other tribute to Denmark’s colonies or those who were colonized is a statue of a generic figure from Greenland.
“This project is about challenging Denmark’s collective memory and changing it,” says La Vaughn Belle, one of artists who designed the statue. She teamed up with Jeannette Ehlers for the project.
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