Annaberg Sugar Plantation, USA

The Annaberg Sugar Plantation in the Virgin Islands is part of one of the largest historic migrations of people and resources throughout the world. For centuries, the Virgin Islands was a crossroads for indigenous peoples, colonial powers, and the transatlantic slave trade. The plantation structures that the National Park Service preserves on the site today demonstrate the agricultural success of the Danish Colonial era, but also its human cost. A 40-foot high windmill constructed with sails to direct the wind was state of the art at the time of its completion in 1805. Not far from the windmill, built into the foundation of the sick house, the Annaberg “Dungeon” served as a means of punishment for enslaved laborers. Etched into the walls are images of merchant ships, transportation instrumental to the plantation’s success but also the majority of the population’s enslavement. Boats would also become crucial to enslaved people’s resistance, with at least 12 people escaping to the nearby British island of Tortola. The Annaberg Sugar Plantation’s landscape reveals complex histories of ingenuity, colonial violence, and resistance, remaining a powerful site for understanding the impact of colonialism on the global economy and on the daily lives of people.