The coal workers of St. Thomas

In our previous article we delved into the Royal Mail Steam Packet ship company and why it came to be. Find out the significance of the company’s main coaling station and the gruelling work enslaved people and free workers undertook to fuel the ships.

Circumnavigating Emancipation

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company sailed to St. Thomas from their earliest voyages, eventually making the island its main coaling site and headquarters.

St. Thomas would have been an attractive base for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company because of its natural harbour and useful geographical location. In addition, St. Thomas offered an opportunity to exploit enslaved labour. At the time, St. Thomas was part of the Danish West Indies, where slavery was not abolished until 1848, more than ten years after abolition within the British empire. By choosing to sail outside of the British Empire and coal their ships at St. Thomas, the company chose to circumnavigate emancipation.  

Map showing steam ship routes and docks in the West Indies, as proposed by James MacQueen

Coaling Royal Mail Steam Packet Company Ships

For around seven years, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company’s ships were refuelled by enslaved labour as well as by free workers. Free workers earned about a dollar a day, while enslaved people received nothing – their labour enriching their enslavers instead. One person who witnessed this exploitation was Captain Woolward. He worked for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company for around 60 years and recorded what he saw in his memoir. 

‘I saw the ladies and the gentlemen employed at the work were kept moving by a white man with a whip in his hands; the ladies also carried baskets on their heads which held 112 lbs. coal, instead of 80 lbs. as at Grenada, and had to move smartly with their load, or the whip came into requisition. At first I did not understand this, but on inquiry found these ladies and gentlemen were slaves hired from their owners by Mr Stubbs, who had the contract for coaling the steamers… We did not get coaled any quicker here than we did at Grenada, if so quickly, and it was a sorry sight to see women driven like cattle’. 

Captain Woolward, Nigh on Sixty Years at Sea, 1894 

When a ship arrived, a horn blew, signalling coal carriers to prepare. Coal carriers, mostly women, were carried in small, overcrowded boats to the nearby coal yard. There, they gathered coal from huge piles, loading it into baskets they carried on their heads. The work was gruelling. Coal dust covered everything, and inhaling the black powder could cause deadly diseases. Each basket weighed around 100 pounds (45 kg). 

Photographic postcard depicting coal workers in St. Thomas crossing a gangplank with baskets of coal, 1900s, E17329

Resistance and Uprising

In the first years of operation, free coal carriers stood up for their rights. Some refused to work at night when darkness made the job even more dangerous, while others later went on strike after a new type of coal caused painful irritation to their eyes.  

In 1848, a rumour went around the coal wharfs on St. Thomas: free workers from the nearby island of Tortola would support an uprising by the enslaved population on St. Thomas. Later that year, on nearby St. Croix, thousands of enslaved people joined an uprising, led by John Gottlieb, who was known as General Buddhoe. The uprising forced the islands’ Danish Governor to immediately free all enslaved people in the Danish West Indies, including on St. Thomas.   

Although all coal workers were free people after emancipation, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company continued to look for ways to try and control their freedom.  

The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company coaled ships on St. Thomas from 1841 until 1915. The company had established a system to exploit coal workers’ free labour during slavery. Following the end of slavery on the island in 1848, other nations set up coaling companies that also enabled the wealth of others. 

Legacy

Today in St. Thomas, culture bearers honour and commemorate the legacy of the island’s coal workers. An annual tour, organised by Dollar fo’ Dollar Inc., brings together music, dancing and historical research. 

Dollar fo’ Dollar Inc., Co-founder Ayesha Morris explains that: 

‘The Virgin Islands is an amazing place that brings together people from all walks of life and that it is built upon the strength of many people, African descended people in particular and the indigenous people who really had to work really hard in order for us to have the freedoms that we have today, in order for people in London and all over the world to have the freedoms and enjoy the comforts that we have today.’ 

Our exhibition Voices of Resistance: Slavery and Post in the Caribbean runs from 5 April 2025 – 5 January 2026.