Why this tune?
Tunes On Tuesday comes out on Monday this week in honor of the 175th Emancipation Day (July 3), celebrating the revolt that forced the end of slavery in the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands). This week’s tune is the new single from The Lucky So & Sos, a DC-based band playing a mix of jazz, funk, latin & hip-hop. I wrote the music and lyrics. Ardamus contributed the powerful rap section.
The 1848 revolt on the island of St. Croix was led by John Gottlieb (“General Buddhoe”), inspired by a similar revolt on Martinique. 8,000 enslaved people entered the town of Frederiksted and surrounded the fort, demanding to see the Governor-general, Peter von Scholten. He arrived in the afternoon and declared “You are free now, you are hereby emancipated.” A formal resolution followed.
1848 was only the start of the freedom struggle. The “Fireburn” revolt in 1878 forced
the end of the contract labor system that followed Emancipation. The struggle for true emancipation has continued into the present day, as the US Virgin Islands grapples with its status as an unincorporated US territory.
Wishing you a happy Emancipation Day and happy Independence Day!
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 