DAVID HAMILTON JACKSON

                                                            (1884-1946)

                        (A special recognition to Ms. Emeline Adina Jackson, niece of David Hamilton Jackson, without whom this document could not have been written.)

FAMILY PORTRAIT & BIOGRAPHICAL MILEPOSTS

            David Hamilton Jackson was born on Estate East Hill, Christiansted, St. Croix, on September 28, 1884. (It was thirty-six years after the 1848 Emancipation rebellion from slavery)  His parents were Wilfred and Eliza Jackson.

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            He was baptized a Moravian, and his name is Entry No. 1534 in the Baptismal Records of Friedensthal Moravian Congregation, St. Croix.

            D. Hamilton Jackson was attracted to the priesthood as a youth, but opted to teach like his parents both of whom taught at East Hill. His father, once a principal at that Estate East Hill School, later taught at Estate Peter’s Rest School. Later, Wilfred Jackson, worked as a book-keeper for James C. Canegata, father of Dr. David Canegata.

            Mr. Jackson’s maternal grandfather, James Hamilton McIntosh, or ‘Brother James McIntosh,’ as he was known in Moravian circles, was an Antiguan trained at the Moravian Teachers Training College in Golden Grove Estate, Antigua. According to Moravian Bishop G.G. Maynard Oliver, “when a shortage was realized in the Danish West Indies, Brother McIntosh was sent to St. Croix to be a lay preacher and to direct the schools on the three islands; the first of several negro teachers from Antigua, who served faithfully and acceptably in this area.” 

            In Bishop Oliver’s 1982 account, of the Emancipation event of July 3, 1848:

                        “Shortly after 8.m. on that day, Brother McIntosh informed

                        the missionary at Midlands that all the negroes in the West

                        of the island had left their work and were advancing

                        with arms towards Frederiksted to demand their emancipation

                        and, if necessary, to obtain it by force. The missionary

                        went out to meet the marchers and pleaded with them

                        to stop, but they marched on. At four o’clock in the afternoon,

                        the same thing happened in Christiansted, as armed negroes

                        began setting the plantations on fire; and all the white people,

                        managers and overseers had to flee for their lives and take

                        refuge in ships. When the slaves reached the town of Frederiksted,

                        they demanded emancipation or else they would burn the whole ”

                        place, so the Governor-General could do nothing but declare them free.”

 

            Early in his youth, D. Hamilton Jackson benefited by a Catholic priest who helped him with various and texts as he became self-disciplined about his education.

            In 1909, D. Hamilton Jackson attended educational meetings for ‘colored workers.’ Then, Mr. Jackson studied law at Howard University around 1910, and returned to St. Croix in private practice.

            By December, 1915, he was president of the St. Croix Labor Union, which he helped organize with Ralph Bough. The St. Croix Labor Union started with a

membership of approximately 6,000 members. Later that same year, Jackson was selected by the labor union membership to go to Denmark to advocate for daily wages and health benefits of the US Virgin Islands’ workers. Hamilton also advocated for a publishing a newspaper for the black laborers.

            When he returned from Denmark, he published The Herald, on October 29, 1915; much to the anger of the planters, he was hailed as “The Champion of the People.”

 

            A vivid example of community tribute to David Hamilton Jackson was a poem written by Charles H. Emanuel Sr., on April 12, 1915. It appeared in The West End News on April 14, 1915:

 

                        The man that would the mountain tops ascend

                        and be a leader ‘mongst his fellowmen,

                        Must midway meet the forces fierce and fell,

                        of Malice, Hate, and green-eyed jealousies

                        Led on by spirits from the darkest Hell?

                        These gloomy authors of earth’s miseries,

                        to perpetrate their dastard evil deeds,

                        the vilest machinations do employ;

                        and like the dreadful Alpine avalanche,

                        in solid marshaled phalanxes advance:

                        The pilgrim on his journey to destroy.

                        Yet, falter not before this Stygian flood,

                        Of fiendish monsters gloating human blood;

                        But, ‘fore thy lightened vision keep the goal,

                        Thy manly dignity for e’er uphold,

                        And struggle for the Cause of Liberty,

                        The Gods, at last, will grant thee, Victory.

                                                            - Charles H. Emanuel                                    

            In 1916, months after he had returned from Denmark, Jackson married Theolinda Pentheny at the St. John’s Anglican Church. She was the daughter of prominent businessman, Cornelius Pentheny. Both newly-weds were 32 years of age.

            (The 1930 Census shows that David Hamilton Jackson lived at No. 4 Market Street with his wife, Theolinda, living in a house owned by his mother-in-law, and widow, Laurisa Pentheny. She was also listed as a resident.         

            Later that year, the St. Croix Labor union membership had called for a general strike. Tensions ensued and a Danish war ship, “The Valerian,” was sent to St. Croix. The events of War World I created further deprivation on the workers in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and on October 16, 1916, Denmark sold the islands to the United States.

David Hamilton Jackson was 31 years of age.

            In 1916, a tireless David Hamilton Jackson also served as a member of the St. Croix Labor Union Bank which purchased several estates, enabling union members to buy small parcels of land.

            The activism and advocacy of David Hamilton Jackson is well documented. He was at once credited by Denmark for “gaining reforms without bloodshed and violence,”

 while simultaneously being maligned by the Danish and European landowners as “a representative of the Devil from Hell.” Others farmers called him “a firebrand.” And “a trouble-maker.”  Yet, he was called the “Black Moses,” and the “George Washington of his people,” by many others.

            What Jackson primarily wanted for his people was an increase in wages. Finally, it was granted - from 20 cents per day to 35 cents per day; and, an elimination of three cents deduction for medical care.  Labor and health conditions improved, and labor unions were also started on St. Thomas and St. John.

           

            After Transfer Day, on March 31, 1917, when US citizenship was promised to those who did not opt for Danish Citizenship, the sugar cane industry was greatly curtailed, and the Prohibition Era followed. Many Virgin Islands looked abroad for economic opportunity and gainful employment.

            By1920, D. Hamilton Jackson took a home-study course in Law with LaSalle Extension University. Later, he continued his studies at Hamilton College of Law, Chicago, Illinois.

            In 1921, Jackson passed the Bar of Law, and became an attorney of Criminal Law, after studying at University of Indiana, Indianapolis, where he received his Law degree.

            From 1923-26, a period of Early American Occupation, he continued to serve in the Colonial Council (18 members). In 1926, also, Congress granted Virgin Islanders full citizenship.

            By 1931, Jackson was appointed Judge of the Municipal Court of St. Croix (nine members), replacing Judge Canegata, for whom Jackson’s father had worked as a book-keeper. He served until his resignation in 1941. During this period, in 1932, Congress moved the US Virgin Islands to the Department of the Interior.

            It would be 1936 before Congress passed the Organic Act, which gave the territory a measure of self-government over its internal affairs.

            Between 1941-46, he served on the Municipal Council (during the American Occupation) and was present during the formation of the 1936 Organic Act, giving women voting privileges for the first time; and repealing the law making it mandatory to have earnings of at least $300 a year or property valued at $300 – before one could vote.

            D. Hamilton Jackson was also the first Chairman of the St. Croix School Board and served for 15 years.

            In the 1940s, he returned as a judge, before he returned to private practice. 

            On May 30, 1946, at the age of 62, David Hamilton Jackson died.

 

            D. Hamilton Jackson had three children: two of whom can be identified as:  Ingeborg, and Leroy Jackson. A third offspring, does not wish to be mentioned. His daughter, Ingeborg Jackson Ortiz had a son, Robert Ortiz. Another grandchild and St. Croix resident, Marjorie Samuel, is Leroy’s daughter.

            After her husband’s death in 1946, his widow, Theolinda, moved to New York City with her husband’s family until her death a few years later. They had no children from their union.