Plaskett Commemorates 1733 Slave Rebellion with Plaque Installation in St. John

Congresswoman Stacey E. Plaskett, with support from the Virgin Islands National Park, hosted a ceremony on Sunday at Salt Pond in Coral Bay, St. John, to recognize the permanent installation of a plaque at the peak of the Ram Head trail commemorating the 1733 slave rebellion.

The ceremony featured a keynote by Dr. Hadiya Sewer from the St. John Collective, along with contributions from Senator-at-Large Angel Bolques, Jr., and Congresswoman Plaskett herself. Pastor Kendrick Glasgow, Jr., of the Cruz Bay Seventh-Day Adventist Church, delivered the benediction.

Among the attendees were St. John Administrator Shikima Jones-Sprauve, former St. John Administrator Leona Smith, students from the Eudora Kean High School’s JROTC program, local residents, and visitors.

Ms. Plaskett highlighted the lack of public acknowledgment regarding the events of the 18th century on St. John. She emphasized the importance of the Ram Head plaque as a "proper and meaningful acknowledgment" of the historic rebellion against slavery, a pioneering event that occurred 115 years before the abolition of slavery in what is now the U.S. Virgin Islands, and 132 years before the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery across the United States.