Mary Thomas alias "Queen Mary" of St. Croix

Philip

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Jul 31, 2004, 3:26:42 AM7/31/04

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I am looking for information on Mary Thomas alias "Queen Mary", the heroine
of The Great Fireburn of 1878 on St. Croix.
I know that she was born on Antigua appr. 1842 and came to St. Croix in the
late 1860's. After the rebellion on St. Croix she was sent to Denmark to
serve a life sentence for her role in the Fireburn. She was
released/tranfered to St. Croix again in late 1887, but after that I don't
know what happened to her. Anybody have a clue?

Philip Sampson
Copenhagen, Denmark

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Richard Bond

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Aug 1, 2004, 6:52:07 AM8/1/04

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There is a section about her in Erik Lawaetz's book on St. Croix. The
insurection was mostly composed of landless leaseless wage laborers from
the British islands. There had been a raise given the island's sugarmill
workers and so the field laborers felt their pay should be moved up in
parallel. There was also a curfew and pass travel system that restricted
the wage laborers from exploring St. Croix. This was putting them at a
disadvantage finding new positions away from whoever already had their
contract.

I wrote a longer piece on Queen Mary and her insurrection but I would
catch flack if I cut and pasted it.

Try google searching. "Queen Mary" + "soc.genealogy.west-indies"

Philip

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Aug 2, 2004, 2:19:56 AM8/2/04

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"Richard Bond" <Richa...@webtv.net> skrev i en meddelelse
news:27620-41...@storefull-3116.bay.webtv.net...

> There is a section about her in Erik Lawaetz's book on St. Croix. The
> insurection was mostly composed of landless leaseless wage laborers from
> the British islands. There had been a raise given the island's sugarmill
> workers and so the field laborers felt their pay should be moved up in
> parallel. There was also a curfew and pass travel system that restricted
> the wage laborers from exploring St. Croix. This was putting them at a
> disadvantage finding new positions away from whoever already had their
> contract.
>

I will check out the book at the library today. Believe I have looked at
earlier without finding anything on Mary Thomas - but rather the male
prisoner Hezekiah Smith purportedly also called "Queen Mary".

> I wrote a longer piece on Queen Mary and her insurrection but I would
> catch flack if I cut and pasted it.
>
> Try google searching. "Queen Mary" + "soc.genealogy.west-indies"
>

Have tried. Can't find any such piece. Could you mail it to me?

Philip

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Richard Bond

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Aug 4, 2004, 9:16:14 PM8/4/04

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I think Hezekiah was her son who also got into trouble with the law.

Message has been deleted

Monie

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Aug 11, 2004, 10:12:51 AM8/11/04

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FYI -- WAYNE JAMES, a St. Croix historian, has found evidence of a 4th Fire Burn Queen. There is an article about it in the VI Daily News, the St. Croix Avis and on the VI Source. Here is the link to the Source article:

http://www.onepaper.com/stthomasvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1096603757

Celebrating Caribbean Heritage
www.viaccess.net/~mmarrero
Caribbea...@NOSPAMyahoo.com (remove NOSPAM to send email)

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Philip

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Aug 11, 2004, 12:55:54 PM8/11/04

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Thanks. While Wayne was here in Copenhagen I cooperated with him in
connection with the new information on the four "fireburn"-women. Actually
my question about "Queen Mary" was spurred by the research in the Danish
archives.

greetings

Philip

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