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AMERICAN VIRGIN ISLANDS CREOLE

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Virgin Islands English and Dutch Creole

EXPERTS

Dr. Robin Sabino

Dr. Robin Sabino lived in the Virgin Islands. When Dr. Sabino was in St. Thomas getting her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania she did her thesis on this creole language, and was working with the last known living speaker, who died in 1980. Creoles with a Dutch lexicon emerged in (formally British)Guyana - once a group of Dutch colonies - on the Berbice and Essequibo rivers (Berbice Dutch Creole and Skepi Dutch, respectively) and in the Virgin Islands. Negerhollands (Dutch mainly in Zealandic and Flemish varieties) was treated as a separate language in its own right as early as 1780. The first booklet printed in Negerhollands indicates that the independent status of Negerhollands was already clearly acknowledged by the Moravians by 1765.

Die Creol Tall 250 years of Negerhollands Texts by Robin Sabino

Dr. Robin Sabino Negerhollands Research
Negerhollands (lit. 'Negro-Hollandic') is the original creole language, lexically closely related to Dutch, of the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix). Whereas previously these islands were under Danish rule and were referred to as the Danish Antilles, since 1917 they are a United States colony officially called the US Virgin Islands. Negerhollands emerged as a separate language around 1700 and died out completely only a few years ago, having been gradually replaced by English in the course of the 19th century.
The central fact is that Negerhollands only really flourished between 1730 and 1830.In 1833 the last text was printed in Negerhollands by the Moravian Brethren, and in 1834 the last printed texts in Negerhollands appeared in the Danish tradition.
Yet the death of a language can take a very long time. Negerhollands. On the Danish-Dutch Archaeological Expedition to the Antilles of 1922/23. The Dutch anthtopologist / linguist / archeologist J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong was able to collect fairy tales and fables in Negerhollands, which were published in 1926. Many of those stories feature the famous African-Caribbean practical joker and hero spider Anassi. The narrators and informants were all born between 1841 and 1863, and thus at least 60 years old at that time, which was a reason for de Josselin de Jong to speak of 'presently rapidly dying Negerhollands'.

Anansi, Tekoma, and the Cow's Belly Folktale

A Brother Anansi and Brother Tecoma Stories spoken in Standard English and Negerhollands English - translated and spoken by Dr. Robin Sabino.
The Virgin Islands Dutch Creole folktale called Anansi, Tekoma, and the Cow's Belly was collected by a Dutch anthropologist, J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong, who visited the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1923. De Josselin de Jong does not say who told him this story. However, we do know that all of the people who told him stories lived on St. Thomas and St. John and that they spoke both Dutch Creole and American Virgin Islands English.

Learn More American Virgin Islands Creole
Kwa is considered to be a language family. Kwa is not a language but a large cluster of more than one hundred languages spoken in south of Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. Twi (Akan Ashanti...) is a Kwa language.All Kwa languages are tonal languages. Ijo, spoken in the delta of Niger, is also a tonal language.


Moravians and Virgin Islands Creole

_An African Slave's Life from the Pens of German Moravians_
Maureen Warner-Lewis. Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican, Moravian.
Kingston University of West Indies Press, 2007. 367 pp. $40.00 (paper), ISBN 978-976-640-197-9.
Reviewed by Paul Peucker (Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania)
Published on H-German (May, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher

This book is a detailed study of the life of a former African slave, based upon the verbal biography he gave to German-American missionaries. As the title indicates, this intriguing life narrative is composed of many layers. The main character was born in Africa but, at a young age, was transported to Jamaica, where he remained until his death. As a member of the Moravian mission he had a third identity: he was part of a global brother- and sisterhood of fellow Moravians of different ethnic backgrounds. Because of the interest his fellow Moravians took in his life, his biography was recorded, translated, and published in various Moravian periodicals, and finally preserved in their archives.

Aniaso was born around 1792 as a member of the Igbo tribe in West Africa. His family belonged to the elite; Aniaso believed his maternal grandfather was a "prince." Aniaso estimated that he was around ten years old when a young man, a regular visitor to his village, talked him into following him to a large marketplace. There, the unsuspecting Aniaso was sold to a slave trader and put on a ship to Jamaica. As a personal servant to the ship's captain, Aniaso did not have to dwell in the overcrowded slave quarters below deck, but was allowed to stay in the captain's cabin together with a few other boys. It seems the captain initially intended to keep Aniaso as his own servant and not sell him. Aniaso relates how, at his own insistence, the captain consented and let him go ashore. There he was "immediately" sold to John Monteath, the owner of a plantation called Kep in southwest Jamaica. His new owner gave him the name Toby.

At first Toby served in the household of John and Nancy Monteath, but after a few years he was moved from lighter domestic duties to full outdoor labor. In 1815 his master died; Toby then became the property of his owner's widow and served as an overseer. During those years, Toby was baptized by a minister of the Church of England and was christened Archibald John Monteath--the name he kept for the rest of his life. In his autobiography, Archibald later admitted that he did not fully understand at that time what it meant to be baptized. Later, as a Moravian, he learned about a more personalized form of religion.

An important part of Archibald's autobiography is devoted to his relationship with the Moravians. He was introduced to the Moravians by a pious plantation owner on Jamaica. From then on, Archibald became very involved with the Moravians. In 1825 he married Rebecca Hart, and soon he became a helper or assistant to the missionaries. As a helper, he traveled around on Sundays and preached in different places on the island. The Moravians lovingly referred to him as "Brother Archie."

A moving passage in the autobiography is Archibald's account of how he purchased his own freedom from his owner on June 1, 1837: "This day always remained to me a holy day!" (p. 231). He put on his Sunday best and rode to the Moravian mission station, where the missionary and the other people were surprised to see him on a weekday. "I took off my hat and waved it about my head, and cried out with a loud voice: Thank God! I am free!" (p. 231). The Moravian missionaries offered him a paid position as helper for all the mission stations. Archibald recounted his life story to Joseph Kummer and Hermine Geissler, two Moravian missionaries, in 1853. Brother Archie died eleven years later, in 1864.

This is not the first time Archibald's life has attracted attention. First, the Moravian missionaries encouraged him to share his biography with them. Although he was able to write, Archibald dictated his biography and Sister Geissler wrote down the text. Writing a biography was a long-standing tradition in the Moravian Church. With their pietist interest in a personally experienced faith, Moravians valued hearing how faith played a role in the lives of their fellow brothers and sisters. Each Moravian was encouraged to write a _Lebenslauf_ (memoir), which was to be read at the funeral service as a last testimony to a life lived in faith and community. Moravian archives around the world are filled with thousands of these ego-documents. In the past two decades, _Lebensläufe_ have attracted the interest of scholars from different backgrounds.

Moravians considered the story of Archibald's life and conversion so fascinating that they decided to publish it, even prior to his death. The editors of the _Missions-Blatt_, the German journal dedicated to Moravian missions, did not print his name and apparently did not want Archibald to know his biography was being published in order to "spare him the temptation" (p. 9) of thinking too highly of himself. Coincidentally, Archibald died on July 3, 1864, just as the _Missions-Blatt_ came out in Europe. The following year an English translation of his memoir appeared in the _Periodical Accounts_, the English equivalent of the _Missions-Blatt._

Moravians did not forget Monteath's life; Archibald's account was reworked as a religious tract and published in the German series _Missionsstunden aus der Brüdergemeine_ (1898). In 1920 Walser H. Allen wrote his thesis at Moravian Theological Seminary about Archibald Monteath. In 1966 Vernon Nelson, archivist at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, published Archibald´s biography, as found in the papers of Joseph Kummer, in the _Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society_.

The scope of the current study by Maureen Warner-Lewis, professor emerita of English literature at the University of the West Indies at Jamaica, differs quite extensively from the Moravian publications. Her goal is to "reconstruct" the life of a former slave and to "explore the sociology of slavery from 1750 to the 1860s" (cover text). Warner-Lewis places Archibald's life in the context of his African birthplace, the transatlantic slave trade, Jamaican society, and the global fellowship of Moravians. The result is a well illustrated, pleasantly designed book covering each aspect of Archibald's life that the author could envision. Warner-Lewis considers Monteath's life story "a quest for honour lost in childhood" (p. 250). He found new honor as a helper in the Moravian Church. According to the author, Archibald presented himself, unlike other (former) slaves who left narratives, with self confidence, "agency," and "strength of character" (p. 250).

Warner-Lewis tries to understand Monteath psychologically. Being captured and removed from one's natural roots demands finding replacements for these. African slaves formed new ties with the shipmates who had made the long and tedious journey with them, with co-workers on the plantations, and in their church communities. As the grandson of a prince, Archibald was supposed to have freedom, respect, and material wealth; instead he was kidnapped as a child and sold off as a slave. According to Warner-Lewis, he found replacements for his original social ties in the Christian community that he later joined and in which he rose to the position of general helper.

Although sources on Archibald Monteath are relatively abundant for a person of his status, Warner-Lewis realizes their limitations. No reports from angles other than his own (and modified by the missionaries) exist; women are largely absent from Monteath's narrative. She compares Monteath's displaced biography with the biography of his owner, John Monteath, who, like the slaves, had come to Jamaica from overseas but who was at the opposite end of the social hierarchy. Her lengthy commentary on the Scottish Monteath family is the least successful part of the book. Especially in this portion of the book, Warner-Lewis seems to lose herself in the details. Her love of detail, combined with unnecessary jumps back and forth in time, make some parts of the book difficult to read. The name index is helpful, especially when individuals suddenly reappear in the text after being introduced in previous chapters; however, beware, for the index is incomplete.

Overall, Warner-Lewis paints a lively picture of nineteenth-century society in Jamaica, with its different groups and intersecting layers: whites, blacks, women, men, plantation owners, slaves, clergy, and laymen.

Citation: Paul Peucker. Review of Warner-Lewis, Maureen, _Archibald Monteath: Igbo, Jamaican, Moravian._. H-German, H-Net Reviews. May, 2009. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24126

Cefas van Rossem & Hein van der Voort Die creol taal: 250 years of Negerhollands texts. Amsterdam University Press (1996) (esp. pp. 6-9)

Thomas Stolz & Peter Stein

Thomas Stolz& Peter Stein, Language and history in the former Danish Antilles: Non-linguistic evidence for a description of the Negro-Dutch language. In: Amsterdam Creole Studies 9, pp. 103-122 (1986)

D.C.Hesseling

D.C. Hesseling: Het Negerhollands der Deense Antillen Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der Nederlandse taal

Kraal Cultural Manual

 

 

Gilbert A. Sprauve: Kraal Cultural Manual A FRAMEWORK FOR CULTURAL STUDIES Summer Institute: University of the Virgin Islands, VI Humanities Council 1997

Kraal Cultural Manual - This manual is provided online to give you the opportunity to provide comments and suggestions regarding this educational venture. For convenience we have decided to divide the manual in clusters.

Introduction - Kraal Cultural Manual
A FRAMEWORK FOR CULTURAL STUDIES
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY: Gilbert A. Sprauve
Email comments and suggestions to:
gsprauv@uvi.edu or gemanue@uvi.edu

At the outset we offer a few words about our conceptual framework and the contents of this volume: The word manual implies a publication embodying a high level of utility. Yet, utility in this context might imply more than we wish to concerning "fixing" or "repairing" culture. True, most of the writers, resource persons and culture bearers who made up our team are Virgin Islanders and/or West Indians and are seriously committed to the preservation and promotion of "the Culture of our Islands." Yet, from the outset we have attempted to maintain a level of objective distance in presenting cultural activities and institutions. We thus preclude or at least reduce the temptation toward nostalgic brooding. We have thus made an effort to organize this manual along thematic lines. We have tried to order the themes or unit headings in terms of what we feel is a logical sequence in the acculturation forces that surround and engage us in natural settings.
The reader might discover ambivalence in our content, particularly on the matter of Virgin Islands versus West Indian Culture. We would respond that the charge of ambivalence itself might be an oversimplification. For, the task here imposes a concept of nothing less than multivalent switches operative in Virgin Islands Culture.
Instructors should note that as teaching tools the entries may differ considerably one from the other and, as such, may pose different types of practical challenges. Some subject areas simply lend themselves better to systematic skewering of the levels from "abstract" and "theoretical" discussion to illustrative "sample" or "specimen."
Along with the above two levels of presentation we have developed for most of the texts a set of questions intended to reinforce content and ease understanding. Additionally, we periodically suggest topics for writing or oral presentation of one kind or another, under the rubric "Discussion," and offer suggestions for additional readings. Again, to help classroom instruction and to maximize the deployment of time resources we have devised a code concerning appropriateness of readings. Selections intended for use at the junior high level are designated JH, immediately after the selections title or heading. SH signifies senior high. C-U means college and/or university. I refers to Instructor. The level of difficulty of the exercise one decides to assign depends ultimately on the academic and experiential level of the user. At this stage of the project this latitude imposes on the subject area coordinator and ultimately on the instructor a burden of systematic previewing before presenting. As a rule, however, we offer theoretical articles as background material. This is primarily for the benefit of the instructor. We intend that instructors use them as a backdrop in promoting in-class discussion. We hope that students at all levels will be encouraged to roam through this volume following the dictates of their natural curiosity. The majority of them are already accustomed these days to similar educational adventures on the Internet. We hope that they would study both the articles and the specimens and related passages, relate them to each other and react to them in terms of their own live experiences.

Major clusters: Cluster One | Cluster Two | Cluster Three

VIEW EXAMPLES OF VIRGIN ISLANDS CREOLE LITERATURE

As early as 1700, the Lutheran Church was encouraging free blacks and slaves to join the congregation. The black population on St. Croix USVI spoke in many West African Languages and few understood Danish. Lutheran Missionaries understood that there would have to be a common language for full religious education. They chose "Dutch Creole" because many early planters were Dutch. Find the The Ten Commandments in Creole.

American Virgin Islands Creole PDF

Yoruba a Tonal Language

Language and Literature : Virgin Islands (U.S.) picked by Library of congress subject experts. A listing of web sites that provide links to resources relating to the U.S. Virgin Islands. The most important source for bibliography of books and articles concerning the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Clear de Road: A Manual for Teachers to Accompany a Virgin Islands History Textbook of the Same Name on Virgin Islands History for Fourth Grade.

VI Folk Tales

Learn how to collect and share your own VI folk tales using Fabula a free opensource software.

Reading Curriculum

Folksong Reading Curriculum used in St. Croix with Dialect Speakers.

Learn how the collection of VI playground songs and chants found in were used in the classroom.

DOMINO used in the classroom curriculum.

Guavaberry Books: Domino ©1990 children's songs, games, proverbs, and culture from the united states virgin islands by karen ellis
Click to see Cover enlarged

"Domino" ©1990

60 Traditional Children's Songs, Games, Proverbs, and Culture From the United States Virgin Islands by Karen Ellis

45 minute Live Sound Field Recording circle©1979
Registration Number
TXu 822-111

Cross Curricular, Interdisciplinary,
Multicultural Resource

National Childrens Folksong Repository

THE NATIONAL CHILDREN'S FOLKSONG REPOSITORY

Everyone can submit their songs and chants using the internet. Virgin Island people need to collect their culture and put it into the online repository.

Dr. John Rickford

Watch and listen to Linguist Dr. John Rickford explain the value of the National Children's Folksong Repository. Virgin Island people need to collect their culture and put it into the online repository. Books by Dr. John Rickford

St. Croix Virgin Islands Online Curriculum By Karen Ellis © 1997

An Interdisiplinary thematic unit for the United States Virgin Islands. A semester of V.I. history and a semester of Caribbean History is mandatory for VI 9th graders. Learn about Calypso Kings and Queens, Quadrille Dancing.

VI RESOURCES

US Virgin Islands Dept. Of Education
Peter Wholihan - Using Technology in Education
Title V Office
US Virgin Islands Dept. Of Education
340-775-2250 ext 261 Direct
340-775-7381 Fax

May 4, 2006—Out of the 1,530 teachers in the territory, 976 — or 36 percent — are not certified, according to Education Commissioner Noreen Michael, who testified during an Education, Culture and Youth Committee meeting held Thursday on St. Croix.

The Annotated Bibliography of Folk Plays in the Anglophone Caribbean, 1790-2000

is divided into five parts. Part One (I) contains bibliographies published between 1902-1996; Part Two (II), histories, personal journals, biographies, early writings from the colonial period and new anthropological studies showing the evolution of cultures in the Anglophone Caribbean; Part Three (III), background and theoretical material on carnival, folk plays, the English Mummers', the 17th century masques, rhetoric, and language; also included are accounts of folk performances in locations other than the Anglophone islands that shed light on the plays in the study; Part Four (IV) has descriptions of folk plays in specific areas; Part Five (V), literary sources, school texts, pedagogical materials providing source material for the plays. (Source material may be in the form of topics, specific language, music, or a literary work such as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.); finally Part VI lists audio and video tapes and photographs collected by the researchers from 1994 to the present.

LOC American Folklife Center - Virgin Islands

Yoruba contributed to American Virgin island Creole

AYE AYE

In 1493 Columbus gave the Virgin Islands their present-day name and met some Amerindians on St. Croix . The St. Croix Tainos were subsequently decimated by genocide and epidemics.

Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink
http://www.centrelink.org
(this will take some time to peruse, consisting of its own publications and a directory of many websites of interest)

KACIKE: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology http://www.kacike.org/
(meant primarily for an academic audience--a peer reviewed journal that has some items that might be accessible to a wider public)

Focusing specifically on the contemporary Carib community in Arima, Trinidad, a site that focuses primarily on written documents is that of the Santa Rosa Carib Community at http://www.kacike.org/srcc/.

One that has a much larger selection of visual aids, related to the latter, can be found at http://www.centrelink.org/fntt/.


VIRGIN ISLANDS Archive Films

To Order: Click here to fill out a form to order footage. The form will appear in a pop-up window. You may also contact an Archive Films account representative at 212-822-7800/fax 212-645-2137.

File Number: AFP-98J
Year: 1946
Color: B/W
Type: Travelogue
Restrictions: Subjects:
Description:
74 CU Map indicates air routes between NY, Miami and Virgin Islands.
102 WS POV, airplane window, island and sea, spinning airplane propeller in FG.
109 WS Aerial Drakes Passage.
117 WS Airplane wing in FG series of small islands and sea.
125 WS Aerial small island.
130 WS Airplane coming in for landing.
136 WS Airplane taxing on runway at St. Thomas' Truman Airport.
144 MS Man standing next to Truman Airport's dedication plaque.
149 WS Taxing airplane directed by traffic director.
154 MS Attendant wiping off tail of airplane.
157 MS Passengers deplaning from airplane.
169 WS Island bay.
174 WS Small Island chain.
190 CU Bust of King Christian IX of Denmark.
197 CU Inscription beneath bust.
205 WS Old Mobavian church on St. Thomas.
217 MS Old church bell on display with plaque telling of church's founding in 1457.
219 MS Arched entrance way to church.
226 MS Ruins of Powder House on Goat Island.
240 WS Fort Christian.
243 MS Same, different angle.
250 MS Same, different angle. Two policemen meet and talk before it.
261 WS Old steps on St. Thomas City.
275 MS Busy street in Charlotte Amalie.
285 MS Same different angle.
292 MS Grate and lush pathway.
296 MS People walk through alley.
305 MS Women walking into souvenir store.
313 CU Sign advertising duty free goods.
318 MS Woman behind outdoor basket stand.
326 CU Woven hat and baskets.
328 CU Woven hat and basket.
335 Sign, silver and other loot.
338 Montage of shops selling silver, art, gifts, etc.
350 CU Placemats.
361 CU Chinese tablecloth.
368 CU Detail of cloth embroidery.
373 CU Sign, entrance of French shop.
375 MS Display of duty-free French perfumes.
384 MS Virgin Island Flag waving in breeze.
388 WS U.S. post office and custom house.
394 MS Custom agent walking down stairs.
401 CU Custom agent.
403 CU Sign on gate: U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Svcs.
409 MS Old black sedan driving through gate.
412 CU Written on car door: Department of Health - Municipal Hospital No. 1
413 CU Army Officer in uniform.
416 WS Nurses walking up stairs of one story hospital.
426 CU Virgin Islands flag waving.
432 MS Governors front porch. Governor walks out, flanked by guards.
444 CU Archibald Alexander, Governor.
451 WS Blue beards castle overlooking Charlotte Amalie.
459 MS People waving from windows of castle tower.
470 CU Sign, Higgins Gate
473 CU Sign, Smith's Fancy
478 MS Old car drivers, past keep left sign.
484 WS Cars driving on left side of road
492 WS Car driving down road
495 WS Old pick-up truck driving down road.
502 MS Dump truck dumping gravel on road being built.
507 MS Steam roller on new road.
515 MS Car driving on scenic drive.
520 WS Water catchment systems on hillside above village.
521 WS Water collector.
528 MS Stone water viaduct
530 WS Hand takes cover off of water cistern.
531 WS Roof of cistern.
539 WS Natives in center of village, crowd around something.
544 MS Goat chewing grass.
550 MS Goats
556 MS Iguana
568 WS Pan over harbor and town of Charlotte Amalie.
585 WS Fishing boat in harbor.
591 MS Pleasure boats moored in harbor.
598 WS West Indian company dock, boat docked.
600 MS Flag waving on ship mast.
604 MS Cargo ship at dock.
607 MS Crane unloading cargo ship.
618 MS Longshoreman handing cargo.
623 MS American flag on ship's mast.
626 WS USS Navy salvage vessel.
633 MS Radar tower of same
638 MS Bow of same
641 MS Women waving from ship's deck
642 CU Woman in sun hat on deck.
644 CU Woman in straw hat looks over water.
645 CU Sign Caneel Bay.
648 WS Fishing boat cruises bay.
651 MS Glass bottom boat in bay.
654 MS View through floor of glass bottom boat of coral reefs and sunken shipwreck.
690 MS Glass bottom boat.
694 MS Pleasure boat cruising by.
701 CU Man fishing with pole and harness, leans back in fight.
702 WS Swordfish fighting on line
703 CU Fisherman grimacing in struggle.
704 WS Tired swordfish being reeled in
708 CU Fisherman winding big reel.
709 MS Swordfish being reeled in.
713 WS Pleasure boat cruising
721 MS Man sitting on dock inspecting spear gun.
730 MS Man in fins and mask with spear gun dives into water.
735 MS Spear fun fisher swimming on water's surface.
744 MS Man fires spear gun.
754 MS Woman brings man mask and snorkel at surf side.
761 CU Man puts on mask and snorkel.
766 CU Flippers being put on feet.
772 CU Man adjusting mask.
780 MS Woman adjusts man's oxygen tank.
782 CU Man with diving mask on and air regulator in mouth.
783 MS Man in diving suit raises underwater camera to face, walks into surf.
796 MS Dives into surf.
797 MS Woman dives into surf and swims.
805 MS Male snorkler with camera at surface.
821 MS Woman snorkeler starts snorkeling.
827 MS Male snorkeler shows woman his spear.
831 MS Snorkeler menage-a-trois.
835 Montage, snorkelers snorkling.
852 CU Woman snorkeler shows off lobster.
854 CU Snorkeler with spear gun shows off fish.
855 CU Large hermit crab in snorkelers hand retreats into shell
856 CU Lobster in man's hand.
858 WS Virgin Isle Hotel
867 CU Virgin Isle Hotel sign.
870 Montage, series of documents guaranteeing money back if temperature goes below 70 degrees.
889 MS Hotel compound
894 MS People on hotel terrace
901 MS Salt water pool, people, poolside, man dive off high board.
908 CU Diver plunges into water.
911 MS Woman watches diver surface.
918 MS Pretty woman enjoying view of sea and island, smiles.
931 WS Man riding donkey carrying boxes, another follows.
939 MS Nature, donkey carries banana
944 WS Meagan Bay
951 WS Couple walking at surfside. Woman in bathing suit.
(End)



File Number: DN-61
Year: 1931
Color: B/W
Type: Newsreel
Restrictions:
Subjects: Agriculture - Harvest - Sugar Cane - Virgin Island;
Mill - Sugar Cane; Agriculture - Tomato; Racism; Market - Virgin Island; Housing - Poverty; Construction - Housing; Plantation - Payroll; CU - Gears;
Description: Sugar Rebuilding an Island Industry 02:30:28:24-02:40:22:17 Virgin Islands, St Croix Harvesting sugar cane. Animal drawn carts with cane along road. Weighing cane. Unloading trucks at mill. Milling (nice gear CU shots) cane. Tomato growing: fields, picking, boxing, unloading truck, onto small sailing ship. Mules and donkeys by small shacks. Plantation livestock, oxen, mules, in corral, pulling carts. Agri. Experimental Farm - CU shots various types of plants. Distributing payroll. Market (racist VO). Poor housing. Constructing new villages for Virgin Island Co. See also R1.


File Number: DN-61
Year: 1931
Color: B/W
Type: Newsreel
Restrictions:
Subjects: Animals - Horses; Agriculture - Plowing - Mules; Ecology - Deforestation; Agriculture - Sugar Cane - Virgin Islands - Oxen; Agriculture - Plowing - Hand; Children - Eating; CU - Hand - Candy; Scenics - Coastline; Street Scene; Housing - Poverty Description: Sugar Rebuilding an Island Industry 02:20:39:21-02:30:18:05 Virgin Islands, St Croix CU shots babies and children eating sweets. Woman lying on couch, eating candy. CU hand choosing from box of chocolates. Feeding sugar lumps to horses. Track events. Scenic of St. Croix coast. Maps of Virgin Islands and St. Croix. Good street scenes and work scenes in St. Croix harbor town. Titles with demographic/economic statistics. Poor living conditions. Sugar factories and harvesting equipment repaired. Clearing land by hand and tractor (pull out trees - burning, brief). Hoeing and plowing, horse and tractor. Cutting seed shoots. Woman with baskets of cane on head (sexist VO). Cane fields in full growth, harvesting cane. Oxen carts.


File Number: AFP-149X, VTM-149X, NET-231
Year: 1900
Color: B/W
Type: Newsreel
Description: Early newsreels, various subjects.

0:00:05 NATIVE WOMAN WASHING NEGRO BABY IN NASSAU , Bahama Islands
Edison, H30397, 8Apr03
Camera on sand and large black woman washing small black boy in conventional galvanized iron tub. Other natives scatter in all directions.

0:00:36 WEST INDIAN BOYS DIVING FOR MONEY
Edison, H27647, 28Jan03
St. Thomas, D. West Indies. Pier or dock. Several native boys swim. Stop and tread water in front of camera.

0:01:54 NATIVE WOMEN COALING A SHIP AND SCRAMBLING FOR MONEY
Edison, H30406, 8Apr03
St. Thomas, Virgin Island. Women employed to replenish the coal supply of large steam vessel. Portion of vessel tied to dock shown. Several women scramble on the dock for money thrown to them by ship's passengers. Native women lining up to take the coal into the baskets on their heads and then walking up the gangplank provided for the
delivery of coal.


0:07:00 NATIVE WOMEN COALING A SHIP AT ST. THOMAS, D. WEST INDIES
Edison, H30403, 8Apr03
St. Thomas, Virgin Island. Dock near the bottom of a gangplank provided for women, and a few men, employed to carry coal in baskets onto ship, tied along dockside. A hundred women and few men, w/ baskets on their heads walking up gangplank.



File Number:HDN-53
Year:1971
Color:Color
Type:Documentary
Restrictions:
Subjects:
Description: THE NIXONS VISIT THE VIRGIN ISLANDS. Air Force One taxi to a stop on tarmac;
President Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon deplane via boarding ramp and are greeted by officials; large crowd of spectators watches the arrival from vicinity of the airport terminal building; town and countryside POV moving car; WS vistas of the Caribbean shoreline and coastal mountains; narrow street scenes of town, pedestrians, storefronts / signs, small buildings, government buildings, car traffic, traffic cop, white tourists, EXT Virgin Islands National Bank, policeman on the beat; CU tee-shirt emblazoned I slept on a Virgin; the Nixons board Air Force One via boarding ramp at night and wave goodbye, very dark / poor. Some underexposure and cinch line scratches.

[On-screen timecode 01:00:00:00 - 01:09:45:00].
JMR


File Number: DN-LB-322
Year: 1934
Color: B/W
Type: Documentary Restrictions:
Subjects: Description: US imperialism, colonization; Life on Virgin Island.

1:01:35 VS St. Croix in Virgin Islands, scenery, as VO gives thumbnail history of colonization; Ruins, mansions of Danish colonizers and sugar mill owners; US bought St. Croix for 25 million dollars in 1917; VS of daily life on island, excellent; Woman washing, food market, wells; Siesta chair, white man in it.

1:08:04 Washington, DC, EXT, Department of Treasury building, VS of statue of Alexander Hamilton.

1:08:27 St. Croix, ship anchored, small boats row to meet it, VS ocean, beach; Excellent shots of cows, Zebu and ? from East Indies; VS, harvest of sugar cane, women and men work in fields, children chew on cane. Propaganda. Industry. Exploitation. Ex-slaves.

AMM

File Number: DN-LB-322
Year: 1936
Color: B/W
Type: Travelogue Restrictions: Subjects:
Description: St. Thomas, excellent exploitation of workers.
US and Danish colonialism. Promotion for tourist industry.

1:10:59 A Brief Visit to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Illustrated map of Virgin Islands; Carribean; Toursits take boat from luxury liner to dock, VO talks about happy natives; Toursit on donkey; Emancipation Park; EXT, Grand Hotel; VS of St. Thomas streets, buildings, people, traffic, good; Signs in Danish (US bought island in 1917); Open drains; Open market place, shoppers, produce; Black and white women model handmade hats and bags; LS Lindbergh Bay; Girl splashing in ocean; 1:17:02 Excellent, women and men carry baskets of coal to refuel ship, at 1 and one half cents per 60 lb basket; 1:18:18 The Drake Seat Maggin's Bay ?; LS Bluebeard's Castle Hotel; VS of tourists, waiter mixes cocktail, swizel.
AMM

File Number: DN-LB-322
Year: ca. 1937
Color: B/W
Type: Documentary Restrictions: Subjects:
Description: CCC activity on Virgin Islands.

1:21:42 Map of Virgin Islands; Palm trees sway in wind in St. Croix, trade winds; VS of Christiansted and Fredriksted, street scenes; Sign, National Park Service CCC camp in deserted sugar factory; CCC workers, all men, work nursery, plant mahogany trees; Re-planting palm trees along roads; Cutting fire lanes through growth;
1:26:38 Outside Fredriksted, filling in swamp land to make playground;
1:27:13 LS St. Thomas; Reforestation, men digging earth and planting trees; Widening and grading roads.


File Number: AFP-98F
Year: 1937
Color: B/W
Type: Educational Restrictions:
Subjects: Description: (Audio)
Re-creation of Abraham Lincoln negotiating for the Virgin Islands.
Landmarks. Fortress. Harbor. Fruit loaders and charcoal gatherers. Hamilton's bell tower.
3345 ws Vista view of the Virgin Island port and city.
End.


File Number: AFP-71J, VTM-71J, NET-33
Year: 1910's
Color: B/W
Type: Newsreel
2409 - MS - Woodrow Wilson arrives in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915 to accept Democratic nomination for President.
2728 - MS - The signing of a treaty to purchase Virgin Islands for United States (1917).
2750 - MS - Scenes of workers engaged in Virgin Islands crop production.


File Number: AFP-86H, VTM-86H
Year: 1971 Color: Color
Type: Travelogue Restrictions:
Subjects: Description: Promotional travelogue for Caribbean vacationers. Lots of shots of people relaxing in tranquil settings; nicely shot with good color, though not exactly contemporary. The smarmy British narrator says things like, Martinique is a sultry, female place...an alchemy of cinnamon skin and warming sun.
0:05:34 vs Sequence, St Thomas (Virgin Islands): pelican in flight; objects washed up on beach, old bottles and plates; Charlotte Emily harbor, old stone fortress with cannons [used by Sir Francis Drake, Captain Kidd and Blackbeard]; people shopping, vs, man buys bottle of rum.
0:07:30 vs Sequence, Puerto Rico: Rocky coast; Morro Castle, stone fortress with cannons; street scenes, San Juan, nice shots of men playing dominos; policeman eats ice cream cone, blows whistle; lush courtyard garden, CU fountain.


File Number:HD-65
Year: 1952
Color: B/W
Type: Newsreel

4545 Vol. 25 Rel. 595.
Carnival in Virgin Islands.

File Number: HAR-26
Year: 1930's
Color: Color
Type: Home Movie
Description: 1930s home movie travelogues of various Caribbean Sea islands and parts of Central and South America. Intertitles introduce sequences.

[On-screen timecode].

03:06:00 VS ocean liner / cruise ship deck scenes.
03:41:00 VS Cristobal, Panama.
04:00:00 VS ocean liner / cruise ship passengers play silly comedy
skit / charade games on deck.
05:13:00 Netherlands Antilles (Curacao): VS headstones and graves
in a 17th century Jewish cemetery.
05:50:00 Netherlands Antilles (Curacao): VS harbor scenes, street scenes, colorful buildings, white tourist pedestrians, black women carrying goods on their heads, etc.
08:32:00 La Guaira, Venezuela: VS coastal town, wide harbor, foothills of the Andes Mountains surrounding the town.
09:50:00 Caracas, Venezuela: VS street scenes, pedestrians, live chickens for sale at open-air street market, band of street musicians playing mandolin-like instrument and maracas, harbor, panorama of city and surrounding mountains.
12:38:00 Martinique: VS street scenes of small coastal city - pedestrians, narrow streets, woman carrying baskets on
their heads, street market, women wearing colorful doo rag
headdresses, white policemen, storefront EXTs of bars, a
large library building, canal running through town, fog-capped mountain, etc.
16:12:00 Saint-Pierre, Martinique: a beautiful, wide rainbow over the city harbor.
16:44:00 St Thomas (US Virgin Islands): coastal city street scenes, harbor, pedestrians, policemen, street vendors, tourist woman riding a donkey, American Navy sailors on shore leave.
18:45:00 St Thomas: Bluebeard's castle; VS street scenes.
20:38:00 Kingston, Jamaica: street scenes, traffic cop, open-air street market / marketplace, fisherman holding up a freshly caught blowfish for CAM.
22:08:00 Jamaica: small group of people marching down countryside road, carrying a cross and flags, in religious procession / parade.
22:30:00 Jamaica: a banana plantation; buildings of Spanish Town historic landmark; lush countryside landscapes.
24:05:00 Jamaica: Constant Springs Hotel, poor shots, underexposed.
25:50:00 Havana, Cuba: harbor and waterfront, POV passing ship; the Morro Castle fort; the Malecon Sea Wall Drive;
EXT the Presidential Palace (now the Museum of the Revolution);
EXT the Capitol building; EXT the National Theatre; La
Playa Beach; various buildings and monuments.
28:39:00 New Orleans: city street scene, PAN across wide boulevard lined with storefronts and signs (eg, Loew's Theater, Hotel New Orleans), with pedestrians and trolleys; same shot, but at night, all lit up.
29:05:00 EXT train station building with sign inscribed Union Station.
29:22:00 Elderly married couple get out of their parked car on residential street and are greeted by people who run out
of large house to meet their arrival; CU shots of
well-dressed 1940s men standing outside of the house; man shovels snow.
JMR


File Number: MT-4
Year: 1940
Color: B/W
Type: Newsreel Restrictions: Subjects:
Description: GATEWAYS TO PANAMA.
ws Battleships at sea.
ms Destroyer.
ms US officers looking through glass.
MAP: THE CARIBBEAN.
ms US officers seated at table.
ws Airplanes in flight.
ws Merchant ship.
ms Destroyer.
cu US officers on bridge.
ms Battleship.
ws Ship to Panama Canal.
cu Sign: It is prohibited to take photographs in this
reservation.
ws A small building along side of Canal.
ws Submarine.
ms Army encampment.
ms Soldiers marching.
ms Airplanes on ground.
ms Soldiers entering building.
ms Airplanes on ground.
ws Planes in flight.
MAP: THE CARIBBEAN.
ws Battleships.
ms Battleships.
ws Aircraft carrier.
ws Harbor--San Juan, Puerto Rico.
ws San Juan.
ws Ships in harbor.
cu D. Leahy at table.
ws Soldiers.
ws Tractor pulling gun.
cu US Army officer at desk, reading map.
ws Soldiers marching.
ws Construction work.
ws Airport.
ws St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
ms City of Charlotte Amalie.
ms Statue of King Christian.
cu Writing on statue of King.
ws Airplane on ground.
cu Rear of airplane.
ms Mechanics working on airplane.
ws Construction of airport.
ws Man dynamiting.
INSERT: GREATEST FEAR OF U.S. MILITARY MEN TODAY IS THAT NAZI GERMANY WILL ESTABLISH BASES IN THE WEST INDIES OR SOUTH AMERICA AS A PRELUDE TO FURTHER CONQUEST.
ws Men raising British flag.
cu British flag.
ws Beach.
ws Boats in harbor.
ws Bahamain capitol building.
ws Duke and Dutchess of Windsor.
ms Governor's mansion.
MAP: THE CARIBBEAN.
ws Ships at dock.
ws Officers on dock.
ws Warship on dock.
ws Sailing ship in harbor.
ws Office buildings.
ws Building.
ws Group of stores.
ms Policemen on street.
ms Car on street.
ms Town gate.
cu Policeman on horse.
ms Ship in dock.
ms Natives carrying bananas.
ms Natives loading sacks.
ms Windmill.
ms Destroyer.
ms British officers with telescopes.
ms Ship's wake.
cu A British colonial.
MAP: DUTCH COLONIES IN CARIBBEAN.
ws Curacao.
ws Harbor Curacao.
ws oil tanks.
ws Harbor of Willemstad.
ms loading steamship.
cu Man working hoists.
ws Dutch flag.
ms Governor of Dutch West Indies at desk.
ws Street.
cu Dutch coat of arms over door.
ws Government building.
ms Men at desk.
cu Dutchman making speech.
MAP: FRENCH COLONIES IN CARIBBEAN.
ws Harbor and town--Martinique.
ms Statue of Josephine.
ws Building.
ms Government palace through gate.
ms Soldiers marching.
ws Battleship.
cu Sailors disembarking.
ws Village.
ws Harbor.
ms Men at table drinking.
cu Man talking.
INSERT: MOST CLOSELY WATCHED OF ALL FRENCH POSSESSIONS IN THE WESTERN WORLD TODAY IS FRENCH GUIANA, SITE OF THE NOTORIOUS PENAL
COLONY OF DEVIL'S ISLAND.
ws Mountain and harbor.
ws Village--Cayenne.
MAP:FRENCH GUIANA.
ms Street in Cayenne.
ms Men talking.
cu Men lying on sidewalk.
ws People eating in hotel.
cu Man playing violin.
cu Men playing guitars.
ms Band playing.
ms Birds on roof.
ms Chickens and dog in street.
ws Harbor.

Film director Geoffrey Dunn
Calypso Dreams has been internationally acclaimed as "far and away the best film ever made about calypso." It features such notable calypso stalwarts as the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose and the late Lord Kitchener, with on-screen narration by David Rudder. Calypso Dreams is an intimate portrait of some of the true Calypsonians in Trinidad and Tobago, in performance and in conversation. Shot over 3 years in Port of Spain, Trinidad, the documentary includes such legendary calypsonians as Lord Pretender, Lord Kitchener, The Mighty Bomber, Relator, Lord Superior, Brigo, Mystic Prowler, Calypso Rose, The Mighty Sparrow, Terror, Valentino, Blakie, David Rudder, Regeneration Now, The Mighty Duke, Conqueror and many others.