[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 153 (Thursday, September 18, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H4415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING CONTRACT DAY

  (Ms. Plaskett of the Virgin Islands was recognized to address the 
House for 5 minutes.)
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise with deep pride and reverence to 
honor Contract Day, recognized annually in the Virgin Islands on 
October 1. This day is one of the most defining in our history, and it 
honors and also celebrates four women, queens, who led the St. Croix 
Labor Rebellion of 1878, also known as Fireburn.
  After slaves in the Danish West Indies organized, fought, and 
received their freedom from chattel slavery in 1848, a new type of 
slavery was formed to regulate the conditions of the now free workers.
  The law stipulated a day wage and confined workers to one plantation 
each year, changeable only on Contract Day, October 1. These contracts 
offered no true liberty, forcing families into conditions that mirrored 
the impression of bondage.
  Former slaves worked on the same plantations as before with little to 
no improvement in their living conditions, healthcare, education, even 
their very movement.
  With rumors of improved conditions proving false, on October 1, 1878, 
the frustration and anger from the past 30 years of unfair treatment 
and harsh labor practices after obtaining freedom ignited a rebellion 
in Frederiksted, St. Croix. Our people declared enough is enough. Out 
of their courage came one of the most powerful labor uprisings in the 
Caribbean, one that continues to shape our identity and our fight for 
justice today.
  At the center were four extraordinary women who we now revere as the 
Queens: Axeline ``Agnes'' Elizabeth Salomon, Mathilda Mcbean, Susanna 
Abrahamson, and Mary Thomas. These women, ordinary in their beginnings 
but extraordinary in their courage, stood as leaders and demanded all 
plantations improve wages and the repeal of the Labor Act of 1849 that 
kept workers in serf-like conditions. They gave voice to the pain and 
determination of an entire people.

                              {time}  1020

  The rebellion, the Fireburn, was not without tremendous cost: Fifty 
lives were lost. Many were injured. Countless homes and buildings were 
destroyed. Many of the protesters were killed by the Danish Government.
  From that protest came reforms that dismantled the labor system. The 
rights of laborers could no longer be ignored.
  The queens have left us a legacy of courage, reminding us that 
progress is rarely given. It is only through demand. They remind us 
that the dignity of work, personal freedom, and the pursuit of a better 
life are not privileges but speak to the very yearning of every human 
being.
  We are now in a time when voices are being silenced by our own 
government. Those in the public sphere are fearful for themselves, 
their families, and their constituents. They are afraid to speak up and 
afraid to speak the truth.
  People are afraid of losing resources and government funds. They are 
afraid of being targeted not just by online thugs but by their own 
government.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to talk to my people: Virgin Islanders, I am 
proud to be a Virgin Islander and that my family, my father's and my 
mother's ancestors, were there on St. Croix during that Fireburn and 
also during our amazing self-emancipation of 1848. The knowledge of the 
fact that, for centuries, my deepest roots--or, as we say, my navel 
string--are in the soil of what is now the Virgin Islands. It is what 
gives me voice and power.
  It is not only those queens, but it is the young boy determined to be 
a marine biologist, the little girl who writes and dreams of being a 
poet. They are our history and our future.
  Contract Day should give us courage. In the times that we are in, we 
may be limited and afraid, but we must use our voice to demand more.

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