It’s not taught in school. But a little bit in an old Christmas series. Nissebanden
Not very much if at all along with the rest of our colonial history, they were sold more than 100 years ago and were never much more than an economic venture into slave based sugar production which was long gone by the time they were sold to the US.
I think I’ve heard them mentioned the most when the talk is about our history with the slave trade along with the African slave forts in what is now Ghana.
As bad business to sell them.
It’s briefly touched upon as one of the ‘themes’ in the official history [curriculum](https://emu.dk/grundskole/historie/kanon/historiekanon) (*Historiekanon*) in Danish primary schools, but the main focus is the abolition of slavery. Unless the teachers themselves decide to teach anything beyond this, the history of the Danish West Indies is not really, officially, taught in primary schools.
In secondary schools (*gymnasiun, HF* etc.), however, I would argue that it’s not uncommon to discuss the Danish West Indies as a part of a broader course about slavery, colonization etc.
It is not taught, even though there were/is colonies from India, Africa, the west indies to Iceland, Faroe islands and Greenland.
It happened and some morally wrong things like torture and slavery occurred. And then the islands were sold to USA. That’s what I was taught.
I guess it’s very individual from teacher to teacher, school to school because we had a whole month dedicated to colonial history at my school. For perspective, we only spent like 1 week on nordic/scandinavian history
Barely touched upon in mine, but that was the 00s and 90s (1996-2006)
If I remember right, the slave rebellion in 1733 on St. Jan was covered, or at least the crackdown on it. Can’t remember if it was 4th or 5th grade, but I clearly remember the voice of the narrator of Ind i Historien talking about the punishments that were handed to the defeated slave guerrillas, namely being burnt alive.
With slave-tetris.
It is very well covered in the Danish Christmas story Nissernes ø.
I honestly don’t recall it ever being mentioned during my school days
I can only speak for myself, but if it was taught in school it was very very quickly brushed over. I don’t remember learning about it in school at least. No idea what it’s like these days.
I was in elementary school around 25 years ago – I do remember learning that we at some point owned these islands, had slaves there and also in Africa. I don’t think we spent a lot of time on it, but it was part of history lessons, and slavery and slave trade was mentioned.
In my days in primary school (1975-1982) it was touched upon in relation to the triangular trade and then in relation to Peter von Scholten setting the slaves on the islands free because at our core Danes are humane and good people. (*)
Then we moved on to the First Schleswig War pretty much ignoring that we were the baddies – but hey, we became a democracy (of sorts) – and then on to the second and how the evil Germans broke Denmark in 2 for no good reasons at all because you know that’s how Germans are and also Danes are humane and good people. (**)
I have to say our history teacher was rather conservative. We could have been taught it different by another teacher, but this is also how the books presented it.
(*) You asked how it was taught and not how it happened.
(**) You didn’t ask but see (*)
70% of people in Denmark were in reality slaves themself until around 1850, when modern society very slowly began changing things.
We talked about when, why and how we colonised them and how they impacted danish trade, economy and politics.
We also briefly looked at Trekantshandlen “The triangle trade” which is basically.
Merchant sails from Europe with european goods to west africa where they buy slaves with the european goods. Then they sail to the colonies where they sell the slaves and buy sugar.
So yeah.
This might not apply to all schools, but we had a whole 3-month segment in our gymnasium about the danish participation in the slave trade, with a focus on Congo and the Virgin Islands.
Im studying to be a teacher in Maths, biology and history
History is taught differently from teacher to teacher, as is all curriculum. The danish colonial era is not taught enough nor properly. Slavery is a touchy topic and somewhat glanced over, especially the danish slavetrade. The most focus is that “Denmark was first to abolish slavery” which is kinda true but also total bullshit.
With the “should we say sorry” debate that has been going for a few years it’s becoming more common to teach about danish colonization but not very in depth or in a way that the students get a feeling for how absolutely horrific slavetrade was and that we should learn from history.
Its not
Don’t know how it is taught today. I remember it being taught in history, but I also remember that it was claimed that Denmark was one of the first countries to stop the transatlantic slave trade or abolish slavery.
Essentially it was glossed over.
The colonization of the what now?
It’s honestly not a topic in and off itself. Slavery and the triangle trade in general is however a significant topic.
There is no white guilt or shaming about the situation. The average Dane too was under serfdom, underwhich you were demanded to work on the farm you were born at. Unlike slavery, however, you were not seen as literal property.
The Danish state wasn’t really involved, nor did it benefit majorly from slavery. Of course Danish companies (namely Vestindisk-Guineisk Kompagni) benefitted greatly.
Tempted to say barely mentioned
Its not
[deleted]
I am a history teacher and I teach the kids about it. I focus on the grim past of slavery and how very few got wealthy on behalf of the lives of the slave and such. I also teach about the triangel-trade but very little about “Denmark being the first nation to abolish slavery”. I don’t think it is important as long as “we” kept trading slave.
29 comments
It’s not taught in school. But a little bit in an old Christmas series. Nissebanden
Not very much if at all along with the rest of our colonial history, they were sold more than 100 years ago and were never much more than an economic venture into slave based sugar production which was long gone by the time they were sold to the US.
I think I’ve heard them mentioned the most when the talk is about our history with the slave trade along with the African slave forts in what is now Ghana.
As bad business to sell them.
It’s briefly touched upon as one of the ‘themes’ in the official history [curriculum](https://emu.dk/grundskole/historie/kanon/historiekanon) (*Historiekanon*) in Danish primary schools, but the main focus is the abolition of slavery. Unless the teachers themselves decide to teach anything beyond this, the history of the Danish West Indies is not really, officially, taught in primary schools.
In secondary schools (*gymnasiun, HF* etc.), however, I would argue that it’s not uncommon to discuss the Danish West Indies as a part of a broader course about slavery, colonization etc.
It is not taught, even though there were/is colonies from India, Africa, the west indies to Iceland, Faroe islands and Greenland.
It happened and some morally wrong things like torture and slavery occurred. And then the islands were sold to USA. That’s what I was taught.
I guess it’s very individual from teacher to teacher, school to school because we had a whole month dedicated to colonial history at my school. For perspective, we only spent like 1 week on nordic/scandinavian history
Barely touched upon in mine, but that was the 00s and 90s (1996-2006)
If I remember right, the slave rebellion in 1733 on St. Jan was covered, or at least the crackdown on it. Can’t remember if it was 4th or 5th grade, but I clearly remember the voice of the narrator of Ind i Historien talking about the punishments that were handed to the defeated slave guerrillas, namely being burnt alive.
With slave-tetris.
It is very well covered in the Danish Christmas story Nissernes ø.
I honestly don’t recall it ever being mentioned during my school days
I can only speak for myself, but if it was taught in school it was very very quickly brushed over. I don’t remember learning about it in school at least. No idea what it’s like these days.
I was in elementary school around 25 years ago – I do remember learning that we at some point owned these islands, had slaves there and also in Africa. I don’t think we spent a lot of time on it, but it was part of history lessons, and slavery and slave trade was mentioned.
In my days in primary school (1975-1982) it was touched upon in relation to the triangular trade and then in relation to Peter von Scholten setting the slaves on the islands free because at our core Danes are humane and good people. (*)
Then we moved on to the First Schleswig War pretty much ignoring that we were the baddies – but hey, we became a democracy (of sorts) – and then on to the second and how the evil Germans broke Denmark in 2 for no good reasons at all because you know that’s how Germans are and also Danes are humane and good people. (**)
I have to say our history teacher was rather conservative. We could have been taught it different by another teacher, but this is also how the books presented it.
(*) You asked how it was taught and not how it happened.
(**) You didn’t ask but see (*)
70% of people in Denmark were in reality slaves themself until around 1850, when modern society very slowly began changing things.
We talked about when, why and how we colonised them and how they impacted danish trade, economy and politics.
We also briefly looked at Trekantshandlen “The triangle trade” which is basically.
Merchant sails from Europe with european goods to west africa where they buy slaves with the european goods. Then they sail to the colonies where they sell the slaves and buy sugar.
So yeah.
This might not apply to all schools, but we had a whole 3-month segment in our gymnasium about the danish participation in the slave trade, with a focus on Congo and the Virgin Islands.
Im studying to be a teacher in Maths, biology and history
History is taught differently from teacher to teacher, as is all curriculum. The danish colonial era is not taught enough nor properly. Slavery is a touchy topic and somewhat glanced over, especially the danish slavetrade. The most focus is that “Denmark was first to abolish slavery” which is kinda true but also total bullshit.
With the “should we say sorry” debate that has been going for a few years it’s becoming more common to teach about danish colonization but not very in depth or in a way that the students get a feeling for how absolutely horrific slavetrade was and that we should learn from history.
Its not
Don’t know how it is taught today. I remember it being taught in history, but I also remember that it was claimed that Denmark was one of the first countries to stop the transatlantic slave trade or abolish slavery.
Essentially it was glossed over.
The colonization of the what now?
It’s honestly not a topic in and off itself. Slavery and the triangle trade in general is however a significant topic.
There is no white guilt or shaming about the situation. The average Dane too was under serfdom, underwhich you were demanded to work on the farm you were born at. Unlike slavery, however, you were not seen as literal property.
The Danish state wasn’t really involved, nor did it benefit majorly from slavery. Of course Danish companies (namely Vestindisk-Guineisk Kompagni) benefitted greatly.
Tempted to say barely mentioned
Its not
[deleted]
I am a history teacher and I teach the kids about it. I focus on the grim past of slavery and how very few got wealthy on behalf of the lives of the slave and such. I also teach about the triangel-trade but very little about “Denmark being the first nation to abolish slavery”. I don’t think it is important as long as “we” kept trading slave.
It isn’t
It isn’t, we don’t give a fuck.