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As some of you might know, my homeland (the Virgin Islands) was once controlled by Denmark. Over the years they brought in their share of slaves, primarily from the west African land area known today as Ghana. Well, interestingly enough, someone (a German)from their country came up with an alternative way of doing business during the height of slavery in the Caribbean. What if his plan was implemented? Read on:
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Dr. Paul Erdmann Isert, a German national who had studied and lived in Denmark, came to the west coast of Africa in 1783. He was appointed Chief Surgeon at the fortified Danish settlement of Christianborg, which today would be in the nation of Ghana. He obtained this position even though he was very young, because it was a job no one wanted.
After a few years in Christianborg, Isert signed on as a physician aboard a slave ship.
Sickened by the horror and human misery he saw, both in the slave-processing bins of Christianborg and aboard the ship, Isert came up with an alternative to the abhorrent practice of slavery.
Following the discovery of the New World, Europeans came to the West Indies in order to make their fortunes as masters of plantations exporting valuable tropical products.
These West Indian plantations required a great number of laborers.
Europeans would not consider relocating to this hot and unhealthy part of the world, working long hours (from sunup to sundown) all to be paid an abysmally low wage. The answer to this labor problem was slavery.
Africans, captured by slave traders, were chained and shackled, and brought to European slave-processing stations on the west coast of Africa. These unfortunates were then crammed into slave ships under the most horrible conditions imaginable, and transported across thousands of miles of ocean to labor in a strange land controlled by cruel and barbaric overseers.
Isert found this state of affairs not only inhumane, cruel and immoral, but also absurdly stupid. In a letter sent from St. Croix in 1787 to his father, Isert asked these questions:
"Why did our forefathers not have the sense to found plantations right there on the fertile continent of Africa; plantations for sugar, coffee, cacao, cotton and other articles that had become so necessary in Europe.
"Had we gone to Africa with the leaf of the olive tree in our hands rather than weapons of murder, willingly would the natives have given us access to the best and most fertile parts of their lands, areas which for untold years had been lying desolate. Why was not our approach more Christian, more intelligent and humane? Why?
"These African people would have helped us in freedom and, for low wages would have given us greatness and riches with no offense against nature, or our personal and national consciences.
"Why did we have to uproot vast numbers of people from their homelands, subject them to agony, torture, humiliation, and death; transplant them to alien continents, Caribbean islands, big and small? Why?"
Isert wanted to demonstrate that the establishment of working plantations on the continent of Africa could be practical and profitable. To this end, he enlisted the aid of Ernest Schimmelmann who was then the Danish Minister of Finance. Schimmelmann, a well-known and well-off liberal, who was instrumental in the passage of the law ending the Danish Atlantic slave trade, agreed to finance Isert's endeavor.
Isert sailed to Africa in the summer of 1788 and established a plantation at the base of the Awapim Mountains, purchasing the land from the Asante king, Osei Kwame, on behalf of the king of Denmark. Isert had once tended the king's sister and subsequently the African and the European had become good friends.
With the help of Osei Kwame, who shared Isert's enthusiasm about the plan, paid workers cleared the land and began cultivation of sugar and coffee.
On January 16, 1789, Isert wrote a report for the King of Denmark in which he expressed the fine initial success that he was enjoying. Isert died on January 21, 1789, just five days after writing the report.
At first it was believed that Isert had passed away from a tropical fever. Other information that surfaced later indicated, however, that he had been murdered in a conspiracy that was instigated by European financiers of the slave trade and powerful plantation owners in the Danish West Indies. Isert's actual assassination was said to have been carried out by corrupt government officials at Christianborg and their henchmen.
================================================== =============
Dr. Paul Erdmann Isert, a German national who had studied and lived in Denmark, came to the west coast of Africa in 1783. He was appointed Chief Surgeon at the fortified Danish settlement of Christianborg, which today would be in the nation of Ghana. He obtained this position even though he was very young, because it was a job no one wanted.
After a few years in Christianborg, Isert signed on as a physician aboard a slave ship.
Sickened by the horror and human misery he saw, both in the slave-processing bins of Christianborg and aboard the ship, Isert came up with an alternative to the abhorrent practice of slavery.
Following the discovery of the New World, Europeans came to the West Indies in order to make their fortunes as masters of plantations exporting valuable tropical products.
These West Indian plantations required a great number of laborers.
Europeans would not consider relocating to this hot and unhealthy part of the world, working long hours (from sunup to sundown) all to be paid an abysmally low wage. The answer to this labor problem was slavery.
Africans, captured by slave traders, were chained and shackled, and brought to European slave-processing stations on the west coast of Africa. These unfortunates were then crammed into slave ships under the most horrible conditions imaginable, and transported across thousands of miles of ocean to labor in a strange land controlled by cruel and barbaric overseers.
Isert found this state of affairs not only inhumane, cruel and immoral, but also absurdly stupid. In a letter sent from St. Croix in 1787 to his father, Isert asked these questions:
"Why did our forefathers not have the sense to found plantations right there on the fertile continent of Africa; plantations for sugar, coffee, cacao, cotton and other articles that had become so necessary in Europe.
"Had we gone to Africa with the leaf of the olive tree in our hands rather than weapons of murder, willingly would the natives have given us access to the best and most fertile parts of their lands, areas which for untold years had been lying desolate. Why was not our approach more Christian, more intelligent and humane? Why?
"These African people would have helped us in freedom and, for low wages would have given us greatness and riches with no offense against nature, or our personal and national consciences.
"Why did we have to uproot vast numbers of people from their homelands, subject them to agony, torture, humiliation, and death; transplant them to alien continents, Caribbean islands, big and small? Why?"
Isert wanted to demonstrate that the establishment of working plantations on the continent of Africa could be practical and profitable. To this end, he enlisted the aid of Ernest Schimmelmann who was then the Danish Minister of Finance. Schimmelmann, a well-known and well-off liberal, who was instrumental in the passage of the law ending the Danish Atlantic slave trade, agreed to finance Isert's endeavor.
Isert sailed to Africa in the summer of 1788 and established a plantation at the base of the Awapim Mountains, purchasing the land from the Asante king, Osei Kwame, on behalf of the king of Denmark. Isert had once tended the king's sister and subsequently the African and the European had become good friends.
With the help of Osei Kwame, who shared Isert's enthusiasm about the plan, paid workers cleared the land and began cultivation of sugar and coffee.
On January 16, 1789, Isert wrote a report for the King of Denmark in which he expressed the fine initial success that he was enjoying. Isert died on January 21, 1789, just five days after writing the report.
At first it was believed that Isert had passed away from a tropical fever. Other information that surfaced later indicated, however, that he had been murdered in a conspiracy that was instigated by European financiers of the slave trade and powerful plantation owners in the Danish West Indies. Isert's actual assassination was said to have been carried out by corrupt government officials at Christianborg and their henchmen.
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