rise of the beet sugar industry at the expense of the cane
sugar of the West Indies.[379]

During these years slavery was becoming onerous and undesirable in
certain parts of the West Indies and humanitarian forces were
operating, at least, to ameliorate the condition of the slaves as a
preparation for gradual emancipation. Steps were, therefore, taken to
do the same in the Danish West Indies but seemingly without permanent
results. There still remained evidences of oppression and cruelty and
as an observer saw the situation the low physical, intellectual, and
moral condition of the slaves, as compared with that of the liberated
Negroes of the British islands, was obvious and unquestionable.[380]
Some time in the forties, however, a commission was appointed at
Copenhagen to inquire into the state of the islands with a view to
emancipation. Moreover, there were constructed "seven large buildings
in different parts of the island to serve as chapels and schools for
the religious and literary instruction of the Negro population." Some
of the planters too were making "laudable exertions for the education
of their slaves in reading and in a knowledge of the Holy
Scriptures."[381] At the head of this system of schools was one
McFarlane, an intelligent and efficient man of color, who was
successfully disseminating information from plantation to
plantation.[382] The condition of the Negroes was thereby improved,
but this increasing knowledge instead of making them grateful to their
benefactors led them to appreciate freedom and to realize their power.

In 1848, therefore, came an upheaval long to be remembered. This
happened in St. Croix during the administration of Major General P.
von Scholten, a friend of the Negroes. King Christian VIII was induced
in the year 1847 to enact laws to emancipate the slaves in the Danish
West Indies. It was ordered that from the 28th of July, 1847, all
children born of slaves should be free and that at the end of twelve
years slavery should cease altogether. These decrees caused little joy
among the slaves. Discontent was generally shown. They were thereby
made more anxious to have freedom and to have it immediately. They,
therefore, plotted an insurrection which broke out in Frederiksted and
extended to the eastern part of the island.[383] It seemed that the
country Negroes were coming to town to plunder and destroy.

The details of this insurrection are interesting. On the evening of
Sunda