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Hannimari Jokinen, 2024

„Clear the road, let the slaves pass / We are going for our freedom / We donʻt want any bloodshed / oh give us freedom“. This song was heard in 1848 when 8.000 people made their way through Frederiksted on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, colonized by Denmark. Again and again, enslaved people had stood up and offered resistance. This uprising eventually led to their liberation.

In 1792, Denmark was the first colonial power to ban human trafficking. Obviously, the reason was less to be found in humanistic ideals, more in commercial interests. However, the ban on this most notorious trade was implemented half-heartedly only; furthermore, the possession of enslaved people was still permitted. The same applies for the half-assed reforms on the plantations that did little to improve the harsh working conditions.

The unfree people who had been deported from the Caribbean and other colonized areas to Hamburg had a precarious residence status. Paintings and documents bear witness to their presence in the manor houses, albeit only a few of their biographical vestiges can be found. This is also true about the brief stay of an enslaved boy in the house of the merchant Jan Tecker Gayen in Klopstockstrasse 2-21.

The following text sheds light on the liberation struggle of the enslaved people on and from the Caribbean islands, then colonised by Denmark. It examines how the vestiges of this history are dealt with today.

Stationen

Black servants in the manor houses in Hamburg and its surroundings

Anticolonial resistance on the Caribbean islands, then colonized by Denmark

Hamburg’s civil society dismantles a bust for a human trafficker

“Oh give us freedom” – Emilia Regina and Hans Jonathan

Hans Jonathan's House

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