The committee responsible for the 175th USVI Emancipation milestone planned several performances during Monday's ceremony. See the pictures here, courtesy Media One Productions. Emancipation represents the hard-fought freedom of Africans brought to the Caribbean as slaves to work in plantations. Among the most revered was the enslaved laborer John Gottlieb, called General Buddhoe, who was a leading rebel during 1848 Slave Rebellion in Frederiksted, St. Croix, which led to emancipation on July 3 of that year. It was during that time that Danish-led slavery on St. Croix — called the Danish West Indies at the time — was abolished by Governor-General Peter von Scholten, who is believed to have signed a prior agreement with General Budhoe to abolish slavery.
