Work 17

Queen Mary, ah where you gon’ go burn? Queen Mary, ah where you gon’ go burn? Don’ ask me nothin’ t’all. Just geh me de match an oil. Bassin Jailhouse, ah deh de money dey.

Quote: Jeannette Allis Bastian (2003): Owning Memory: How a Caribbean Community Lost its Archives and Found its History. London: Libraries Unlimited,, p. 12. Picture: Wikimedia

From a song about Mary Thomas (approx. 1848-1905) who was called Queen Mary. She was one of the three black women leaders of workers' protests in the Virgin Islands, then a Danish colony.

Although slavery was abolished in 1848, working conditions barely improved. In 1878, Queen Agnes, Queen Mathilda and Queen Mary organised the Fireburn Protests. These were the largest workers' protests to date in Danish history (The Workers Museum, 2018: Fireburn). They were the largest in terms of participation, the destruction of infrastructure and, above all, loss of life - especially on the side of the rebels (conversation between glokal and Gunvor Simonsen, University of Copenhagen, 2020). The memories of the three Queens are kept alive through statues on the islands and in Denmark, and through songs and theatre performances.

*Gunvor Simonsen (2017): Slave Stories: Law, Representation, and Gender in the Danish West Indies. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag. *Jeannette Allis Bastian (2003): Owning Memory: How a Caribbean Community Lost Its Archives and Found Its History. London: Libraries Unlimited.

1878