In an earlier issue of this Journal some four years ago, the present writer attempted to analyse the establishment of a publicly funded elementary school system for slaves in the Danish West Indies. Its formal inauguration in 1841 was an occasion of more than passing significance. Whatever its shortcomings, it marked the first time in the history of the Caribbean region that a local administration had committed itself in a statutorily binding way to make provisions from local revenue for the support of a universal primary school system intended for the children of slaves.

On 16 May 1841, some seven years before emancipation in the Danish Virgin Islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, the first school for slave children was officially opened on the St. Croix plantation of La Grande Princess. It was one of 17 such projected schools — 8 in St. Croix, 5 in St. Thomas and 4 in St. John — built from capital funds provided by the crown, with recurrent costs for staffing and maintenance borne by local taxation.