Bethlehem Old Work | |
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Village | |
Sugar farmers in Bethlehem, Dec. 1941 | |
Coordinates: 17°43′53″N64°47′38″W / 17.73139°N 64.79389°W Coordinates: 17°43′53″N64°47′38″W / 17.73139°N 64.79389°W | |
Country | |
Island | Saint Croix |
Time zone | UTC-4 (AST) |
Bethlehem Old Work is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. It was set-up as one of the first plantations in the 1730s, and operated as the last sugar plantation on the island until the Bethlehem Central Factory closed in 1966.
Bethlehem Old Works, also known as Lower Bethlehem, was part of the Estate Bethlehem in the flat center of St. Croix, where now the VIARNG armory is located along the Bethlehem Gut waterway, which had been called South Salt River in the colonial era. Other parts of the Estate were Bayworks (Fairplain) in the south and Middle Works (Upper Bethlehem) in the north. [1]
The source of the name of Estate Bethlehem is unknown, but it was probably named after Bethlehem, Pennsylvania by the Moravians, who evangelized the Danish Virgin Islands since 1732 at a mission in Friedensfeld near Lower Bethlehem. [1]
The Danish West India Company, which often acted as an agent on behalf of the Danish Crown, purchased St. Croix from France in 1733. Prior to this deal, the settlement was labeled Baron on a French map of 1671. [2]
The area that became known as Bethlehem was deeded to King Christian VI and the Queen in 1736, as it was flat and ideally suited for cultivation of sugar or cotton benefiting from the fresh water of the Bethlehem Gut. In 1739, King's Quarter was subdivided: Parts of it were sold to the Dutch governor of St. Eustatius Peter Heyliger and his brother Johannes, while four plots were retained by the King, until they were sold to the Heyligers in 1751. The first windmill was built at Bethlehem in the late 1760s. [1]
A map of 1779 by the military surveyorFrederik Christian von Meley shows Lower Bethlehem on the right as an eighteenth century Danish sugar plantation. The Old Works occupied 450 acres, and was divided into 27 variably sized plots. The slave village consisted of four rows of ten structures each, and the provision grounds occupied an acre and a half to the west of the village. Further south were the sugar mill and associated buildings for processing sugar cane. [1]
In the 1820s, Estate Bethlehem suffered from a drought, a hurricane and the drop in sugar prices, and were thus sold to Benjamin De Forest at an auction in 1831. In 1882, William H. Carson, a Danish investor, bought the estates at Bethlehem, Friedensburg and Jealousy and built a modern sugar factory at Lower Bethlehem, which used the vacuum pan process to refine the sugar. He sold Bethlehem to the Lachmann family in 1902 who built the Central Sugar Factory at Lower Bethlehem in 1903. It was connected by a narrow gauge steam railway to Bethlehem Middle Works and Friedensburg, which also belonged to the Lachmann family.
In 1917, the United States bought the Danish Virgin Islands. The Lachmanns continued to manage the Bethlehem works, employing approximately 2,000 employees out of a total population of about 15,000, until they sold the factory to the federal government in 1930 as a consequence the Great Depression. Subsequently, the old factory was demolished and a new sugar mill was built to replace it, which operated until 1966. [3]
The land became the property of the Virgin Islands Government. Ruins of the Bethlehem Central Factory and many of the worker's residences are still standing, including the smokestack, which has become a prominent landmark of central St. Croix. Parts of the plantations were parceled off and sold for agricultural use, while others were used for building the new headquarters of the Virgin Islands Army National Guard. [1]
The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles to the east of Puerto Rico and west of the British Virgin Islands.
The Virgin Islands are an archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. They are geologically and biogeographically the easternmost part of the Greater Antilles, the northern islands belonging to the Puerto Rico Trench and St. Croix being a displaced part of the same geologic structure. Politically, the British Virgin Islands have been governed as the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, and form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The archipelago is separated from the true Lesser Antilles by the Anegada Passage and from the main island of Puerto Rico by the Virgin Passage.
The Danish West Indies or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands was a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with 32 square miles (83 km2); Saint John with 19 square miles (49 km2); Saint Croix with 84 square miles (220 km2), and Water Island with 491.5 acres (1.989 km2). The islands have belonged to the United States since they were purchased in 1917.
Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Saint John is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands, is the largest town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America. It is a former capital of the Danish West Indies and home to the Christiansted National Historic Site. Christiansted as of 2004, had a population of about 3,000. The 2000 census population of the town was 2,637; that of the larger sub-district was 2,865.
The United States Virgin Islands, often abbreviated USVI, is a group of islands and cays in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. Consisting of three larger islands (Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas plus fifty smaller islets and cays, it covers approximately 133 square miles. Like many of its Caribbean neighbors, its history includes native Amerindian cultures, European exploration followed by subsequent colonization and exploitation, and the enslavement of Africans.
Cinnamon Bay Plantation is an approximately 300-acre (1.2 km2) property situated on the north central coast of Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands adjacent to Cinnamon Bay. The land, part of Virgin Islands National Park, was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places on July 11, 1978. Archaeological excavations of the land document ceremonial activity of the Taínos, as well as historic remains of plantation ruins.
The 1733 slave insurrection on St. John in the Danish West Indies started on November 23, 1733, when 150 African slaves from Akwamu revolted against the owners and managers of the island's plantations. Lasting several months into August 1734, the slave rebellion was one of the earliest and longest slave revolts in the Americas. The Akwamu slaves captured the fort in Coral Bay and took control of most of the island. They intended to resume crop production under their own control and use Africans of other tribes as slave labor.
Reef Bay Sugar Factory Historic District is a historic section of Saint John, United States Virgin Islands located on the south central coast adjacent to Reef Bay. The land is the site of a sugar factory. The property was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on July 23, 1981.
Sugar production in the United States Virgin Islands was an important part of the Economy of the United States Virgin Islands for over two hundred years. Long before the islands became part of the United States in 1917, the islands, particular the island of Saint Croix, was exploited by the Danish from the early 18th century and by 1800 over 30,000 acres were under cultivation, earning Saint Croix a reputation as "The Garden of the West Indies". Since the closing of the last sugar factory on Saint Croix in 1966, the industry has become only a memory.
Green Kay is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. It is located 3.3 miles (5.3 km) east of Christiansted.
Sion Hill is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix, in the United States Virgin Islands.
Estate Little Princess is a historic plantation site located northwest of Christiansted in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It was first owned by governor Frederik Moth in 1738 and rests on 25 acres of land. As of 2011 the estate is under ownership of The Nature Conservancy and serves as headquarters for the Eastern Caribbean/Virgin Islands programs. The property has been turned into a nature preserve and historical tours are given as well. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 9, 1980.
The Indian community in the United States Virgin Islands is made up of Indo-Caribbeans, Indian Americans and other persons of Indian origin. The first Indians in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) arrived in the Danish colony of Saint Croix in June 1863 as indentured workers. However, all of the nearly 325 Indians who came to Saint Croix left the island by the 1870s. Nearly two-thirds returned to India, while the others emigrated to Trinidad. Some settled in that country, while others returned to India from Trinidad.
The Bethlehem Middle Works Historic District, in King's Quarter, in Southcentral, in Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It is also known as Estate Bethlehem Middle Works and as Bethlehem Middle Works. It is a 34 acres (14 ha) historic district which included 26 contributing buildings, two contributing structures, and four contributing sites.
The Estate Carolina Sugar Plantation near Coral Bay on Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands is a historic sugar plantation and later rum distillery.
Mosquito Bay plantation was owned by Johan Lorentz Carstens, who was also the owner of the plantations Perlen on Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands and a smaller plantation on St. Jan.
The Andreas Bjørn House is a historic property located at the corner of Strandgade and Bådsmandsstræde in the Christianshavn neighbourhood of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was built for Andreas Bjørn in 1734 and listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places in 1918. A sufar refinery named Union House was from 1771 to 1811 licated in a now demolished warehouse afjacent to the building by a group of British merchants and plantation owners from St. Croix in the Danish West Indies.
Frederik Christian von Meley was a Danish customs officer and surveyor.
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