The Gardelin Code

of the Danish West Indies

§1 The main leaders of Negroes that have run away or are running away
are to be pinched three times with a glowing iron and then hanged.

§2 Participants in a plot shall lose a leg unless their owners will pardon
them by letting them lose an ear and get 150 lashes.
§3 Participants in a plot who do not reveal it to a White person shall be
branded on the forehead and be given 100 lashes.
§4 The person who informs on a plot by Negroes shall get 10 piastres for
every Negro found guilty, and his name shall remain secret.
§5 A Maroon of 8 days shall be punished with 150 lashes, a Maroon of
12 weeks shall lose a leg and Maroons of 6 months shall forfeit their
life unless their master will pardon them with the loss of a leg.
§6 A Negro who has stolen to the value of 4 rixdaler shall be pinched
and hanged. Lesser thefts shall be punished with branding on the
forehead and from 100-150 lashes.
§7 Slaves who deal in stolen goods or participate in this shall be
branded and given 150 lashes.
§8 Those who deal with Maroon-Negroes will be punished likewise.
§9 The Negro who with ill intent raises his hand against a White or
threatens him or gives him abusive words shall without mercy be
pinched 3 times and then hanged, if the White person demands it, if
not, he shall lose a hand.
§10 One upright White witness is enough against a Negro and if there
were suppositions in the case, the Negro has to be tortured.
§11 A Negro who meets a White on the road has to go to the side of the
road and stand still till the White person has passed – he will
otherwise get a lash from the White.
§12 No Slave must be seen in town with a stick or a knife; they also must
not use these for fights among themselves, lest they get 50 lashes.
§13 Witchcraft among the Negroes is to be punished with a severe
beating.
§14 The Negro who can be persuaded to have been of a mind to conceal
somebody shall be pinched 3 times with a glowing iron and then put
on the rack to be broken and put on stilts alive.
§15 A free Negro who either assists a Maroon or a thief or a dangerous
Negro shall lose his freedom, his property and with a beating be
ordered out of the country.
§16 All dances, feasts, gambling or such like are absolutely forbidden for
Negroes unless it happens with their master’s or overseer’s
permission and presence.
§17 No Negro may sell any foods from animals or other unless permitted
by his master.
§18 No field Negro must be found in the town after the curfew tattoo or he
will be brought to the fort and given a beating.
§19 The crown solicitor shall strictly adhere to these articles, whereby free
Negroes and slaves shall be judged in a court of law; and this
declaration shall be publicised 3 times every year by drumbeat.

Philip Gardelin, Governor

St. Thomas, Danish West Indies
September 15th, 1733