[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 104 (Wednesday, June 14, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H2891-H2892]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EMANCIPATION DAY RESOLUTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. PLASKETT. Madam Speaker, today, I rise to honor my ancestors as 
we approach the 175th anniversary of our emancipation--the self-
emancipation of the enslaved people of the Danish West Indies.
  It is ironic that now in the United States, right now, there is a war 
being raged to censor and erase history and heritage, not just of 
Virgin Islanders but for Black and Brown people in this Nation.
  The bloody insurrection of American revolutionaries to attain their 
freedom is celebrated, yet the history of resilience and strength, the 
story of the African Diaspora in this country, is attempted to be taken 
away.
  Shackled and bound, over 120,000 of my ancestors, men, women, and 
children, were stolen and trafficked from the shores of Africa to the 
islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John in the Danish West 
Indies, now known as the Virgin Islands of the United States.
  From the early 1650s until 1848, the Danish subjected the people of 
the Virgin Islands to the atrocities of chattel slavery. Forgotten 
today, the Danes were notorious for having some of the most grueling 
and inhumane conditions in the Caribbean. Under these conditions and 
the watchful eye of the Danish, the people resolved to mobilize and 
seize their freedom.
  On July 3, 1848, 9,000 enslaved and freed people on the island of St. 
Croix collected en masse at Fort Frederik and demanded their immediate 
and indefinite liberation. Under the superior leadership of Moses 
``General Buddhoe'' Gottlieb, they had coordinated, strategized, and 
executed a plan for freedom.
  Overcome by the people, the Danish surrendered by the declaration of 
the Danish governor.
  The Virgin Islands became one of only two places to ever successfully 
gain their freedom through an organized slave revolt, armed 
insurrection, in the history of the Western Hemisphere. They would wait 
for no man to unshackle their chains.
  This is what it means to be a Virgin Islander, to overcome the most 
harrowing of circumstances, to reclaim the power that which is kept 
seemingly out of reach, and to wait for no one to give us freedom, 
equity, or prosperity.
  Malcolm X at the founding rally of the Organization of Afro-American 
Unity stated: ``A race of people is like an individual man; until it 
uses its own talents, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own 
culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.''
  We, the people of the Virgin Islands, must not sit idle expecting 
that the same system that oppressed our ancestors, that continues to 
deny us rights, will solve the very problems of its creation. We don't 
need to look for others to solve our problems. We have within 
ourselves, within our own diaspora, all the answers to heal ourselves 
and grow.
  Throughout the Virgin Islands and the United States and beyond, we 
are doctors, engineers, writers, educators, builders, economists, 
organizers. We are a people of immeasurable talent, borne from a 
history of strength and resilience, possessing a rich and vibrant 
culture capable of good things,

[[Page H2892]]

all of which are squandered if we continue to allow our mental slavery 
to bind our true freedom.
  We may have the scars of countless injustices, but Virgin Islanders 
also have the blood of our ancestors that organized and were willing to 
give up all for freedom of self-definition and their own determination 
of their lives.
  Mr. Speaker, 175 years ago, our ancestors abandoned their sense of 
``I'' and adopted ``we.'' Through ingenuity, bravery, and unity, they 
rejected the brutal reality forced upon them and reclaimed the power to 
manifest a present and future of their will and their creation.
  We are the heroes of our own story. This is from which we are born. 
It is in our blood to rise.

                          ____________________