Episode Details

In October 1878, three women known as the Fire Queens led 300 workers in burning 53 sugar estates across St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. The uprising — called the Fireburn — was the most dramatic labor rebellion in Caribbean history. Queen Mary Thomas, Axelina Salomon, and Mathilda Salomon were convicted and imprisoned in Denmark for life. Mary Thomas died in a Danish cell in 1895. She never returned home. But here's what the colonial court record doesn't show you: before the fires, Mary Thomas wrote a letter to the Danish Governor General. A letter demanding renegotiated labor contracts and a fair hearing. That letter is referenced in her trial documents — but has never been found in any archive. This episode explores the Fireburn, the Labour Act that re-enslaved emancipated workers, the missing letter, and what Denmark's formal acknowledgment in 2018 did — and did not — mean. History of the Caribbean — New episodes every week.