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2021 CONTRACT DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for 5 minutes.
Ms. PLASKETT. Madam Speaker, during one of my floor speeches last week, I shared that President Biden's Build Back Better plan embodied the vision of the American people and is the kind of legislation that assures our people, hardworking Americans across the country, that we will not abandon them in their time of need.
Now, I love history. And tomorrow is a very special day in the Virgin Islands. It is Contract Day. I can't help but make the connection between the landmark provisions outlined in Build Back Better, this transformational piece of legislation, and what is happening in our Halls of Congress as we come to the point of passing that, with the struggle that took place in my home on St. Croix on October 1, 1878. Then known as the Danish West Indies, on that day in history, almost 150 years ago, four brave, stalwart women led the St. Croix Labor Rebellion, also known to us in the Virgin Islands as ``Fireburn.'' We honor the memory and sacrifices made by our ancestors on this day, which we call Contract Day.
Now, after slaves in the Danish West Indies organized, fought, and took their freedom from chattel slavery in 1848, a new type of slavery was formed in a labor bill the following year to regulate the now free workers. The law stipulated a day wage and restricted and confined workers to remain on one plantation for the entire year. That location could only change on Contract Day, October 1.
Former slaves worked on the same plantation as before with little to no improvements in their living conditions, healthcare, no childcare, education, no change in income. These new restrictions forced the workers to bear an impossible, untenable burden. They soon realized that they were free in name alone.
The untenable working and living conditions along with the false hope that labor laws may change and then finding out that they were not going to change, ignited a protest that led to a rebellion in Fredriksted on the island of St. Croix. That movement was bravely led by four women who we immortalize in our history as the queens: Queen Mary Thomas, Queen Mathilde Macbean, Queen Susanna ``Bottom Belly'' Abrahamson, and Queen Axeline ``Queen Agnes'' Salomon, demanding all plantations improve workers' wages and repeal the Labor Act of 1849.
Many of the protestors were killed; hanged. The women were tied to a stake, covered in molasses, and burned, irony being that the same cane that they cut, made into sugar and molasses, would be the instrument of their cruel death.
The fight for appropriate pay, job creation, equity and improvement in working conditions, living wages, sanitary housing, clean drinking water, especially for those in need, continues today in America. And we are attempting to solve those with the provisions in President Biden's Build Back Better plan.
All people, they simply want support, a foundation for them to have a reputable shot at the American Dream. Women want meaningful jobs and the ability to leave their children in sanitary, clean, safe, affordable childcare; the ability to buy a home so that you can obtain equity for your children's college; to start a business.
When I think of my ancestors and how bravely they fought--some to their death--for the causes of equity and improved labor conditions, I am encouraged to continue advocating, championing, fighting for the changes that I believe the Build Back Better plan will bring us closer to, bring our Nation and those within it to those dreams that we all have.
I pray this same encouragement and spirit of boldness and perseverance for all of my colleagues who are standing with us in that fight.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 171
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