Denmark as a colonial power

Image

The main aim of the project, which Dimitrios Theodoridis at Stockholm University is also a part of, is to investigate how inequality in a West Indian slave colony developed over time, says Klas Rönnbäck. 

– We also wish to study how important events affected slave societies, such as the occupation during the Napoleonic wars from 1802–1807, the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, which in Denmark happened in 1803, as well as the abolishment of slavery in the Danish West Indies in 1848. We would then like to compare that with inequality in colonies that were not slave societies, such as the current USA and Canada.

Of course, the reason why many European countries, from the beginning of the 1600s until the 1900s, acquired territories in other parts of the world was that they wanted in-demand commodities. But it was also about prestige and power politics in a world where exploitation of other people or territories was not considered a moral wrong. Even Sweden had colonies, such as Saint-Barthélemy in the West Indies. But Swedish colonialism was never particularly successful, says Stefania Galli.

"Denmark, however, was more involved and had a slave fort in what today is Ghana, whose main function was to sell slaves to sugar, cotton and tobacco plantations. In relation to their population, Denmark was actually the largest stakeholder in the slave trade among the colonial powers; between 1680 and 1803 as many as 130,000 slaves were sent from the Danish fort to the Caribbean, of whom 50,000 ended up in the Danish West Indies, i.e. the islands of Saint Croix, Saint John and Saint Thomas. Those who benefited from the trade were the plantation owners and slave traders. For the Danish state it was less profitable; maintaining a fort in Africa and transporting slaves across the Atlantic eventually became too much of a cost to bear."

The fact that Danish colonialism is the focal point of the project is not because Danish territories are more interesting than others. Rather, the Danish use of slaves may serve as an example that can be used to understand developments in other colonial powers, says Stefania Galli.

"Instead, what makes Denmark interesting is that they, just like Sweden, kept careful track of their population. From 1754–1917 there are millions of documents preserved, which have also been digitalised. So we know the sex and age of the slaves as well as, after the abolition of slavery, even their names. In addition, there is information on which slaves were considered good and which ones were deemed unruly."

Image

The Caribbean slave societies were extremely unequal, Klas Rönnbäck tells us.

"One way of measuring inequality is using the Gini coefficient, where 0 represents perfect equality and 1 extreme inequality, where an elite class own everything. The Gini coefficient for Danish West Africa is at approximately 0.99, so almost as unequal as it is possible to get. The plantations owners, who were not only Danish but also English, French and Dutch, were not just major landowners on the West Indian islands but also influential in their home countries. One such example is Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann who was Denmark’s largest slave owner as well as one of the richest people in the country, but also the Danish Minister of Finance in the 1760s."

During the 1700s and 1800s there was a common notion that the slaves in the various colonies were well treated and quite happy about their situation, says Stefania Galli.

"But from the documents we have studied we can see that this is not at all correct, there was resistance everywhere. Neither can we find any major difference between women and men, young and old, privileged or subordinate slaves. The punishment for disobedience was harsh and rabble-rousers were executed."

Even if the rebellions were quashed it had the positive outcome of leading to a discussion between the colonisers and other Europeans, Klas Rönnbäck explains.

"A growing number of Europeans started to think that human trafficking is morally wrong. New laws also made slavery less profitable. Denmark’s ban on transatlantic slave trade in 1803 eventually led to a financial crisis for the plantations: The badly treated slaves died prematurely, child mortality was rampant and the number of people able to work the plantations decreased. In addition, Danish farmers had begun growing sugar beets at home, which made sugar plantations in the Caribbean less profitable."

On July 3, 1848, there is an uprising of slaves in the Danish West Indies: thousands of slaves threaten to torch the plantations if they are not set free. The atmosphere is terrifying and in a panic, Governor Peter von Scholten proclaims that slavery from this moment has been abolished. 

This was the beginning of the end for Danish slavery – but what happened next? 

"We were surprised over how small the change in living conditions were for the liberated slaves, Klas Rönnbäck explains. You can compare to the abolition of slavery in the USA in 1865. There, the former slaves migrated northward or westward and actually managed to find better conditions. But for the slaves in the Caribbean, there was nowhere to go. All the land was held by the plantation owners and moving to a different island was meaningless; the situation there would be the same. As free people the workers were treated better but they still had to work hard for pitiful wages."

In 1917 Denmark sold their Caribbean territories to the USA. Since then the islands are named American Virgin Islands and is an American territory that is not incorporated into the US, which means that the inhabitants are not American citizens.

Within the British Empire, slavery was abolished in 1833, simply by having the British state buying all the slaves and then freeing them. That was done at the price of an enormous national debt, the final payment of which was only settled in 2015, Klas Rönnbäck explains.

"When I tell my students about this they become really upset over the fact that taxpayers for 180 years were forced to pay off loans that were taken in order to compensate the former slave owners. In the US, it took a civil war to be rid of slavery instead, which had an enormous price in terms of human lives. Today, there is an inverse discussion about somehow compensating the current descendants of slaves, and this also a questions that is difficult to resolve."

How do the Danes of today view their colonial history?

"It is fairly uncontroversial that Denmark participated in this, in the actual historical events, Stefania Galli argues. What is controversial is the consequences it had, for Denmark, Europe and Africa. Many people, in both Denmark and the rest of Europe, probably has some notion about our momentous development over the past 200 years being due to amazing inventions and successful industries. The fact that our wealth is also linked to merciless exploitation of other human beings is probably more sensitive to acknowledge and is something that we, as Europeans, still have real difficulties admitting to."
 

Text: Eva Lundgren
The text was first published in GU JOURNALEN # 4 October 2025