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INTRODUCTION
TO THE ANNABERG ENVIRONMENT
MINNA NEGER
GUT,
at Mary Point is the Creole name for the steep red stained
rocky ravine where slaves of the Anima tribe are supposed
to have jumped to their death rather than surrender to the
French troops brought in after the Danes failed to suppress
the Slave Revolt of 173334. According to the legend, the blood
of these St. John Freedom Fighters stained the rocks red.
Geologically, the red color here, like the red on the rocks
at Red Hook, is due to the presence of the mineral hematite;
psychologically red is still blood.
ANNABERG,
seen from the waters of Leinster Bay looks solemn and still.
The name, Annaberg, goes back to 1721 when the land was granted
to Christopher William Gottschalk who named it after his infant
Daughter Anna' according to historian John Anderson. Annaberg
first appears on the Oxholm map surveyed in 1780. There were
some 100 plantations in the I8th Century on St. John, but
marry of them grew cotton, tobacco and indigo instead of sugar.
Owners who could afford to do so built sugar factories and
raised cane, but many planters could not afford to do this.
Although Annaberg was built in the I8th Century, the only
I 8th (e n structures still standing are the Slave House at
Market No. I and the wall of the Horse Mill Marker No. 6 All
other buildings have either been built or rebuilt during the
19th Century, some of them several times.
While Annaberg is primarily an historic site where the production
of sugar and rum can be studied, the ruins are best approached
from the shore by foot. On the right side of the trail, going
up, is a large Sandbox Tree also known as a Monkey Pistol
Tree (Hura crepitans) Note that prickles on this tree
are very sharp. If you look along the path going uphill, you
may see a few pieces of old Danish porcelain Please leave
them where you see them If you'd like to collect old broken
china there are a great many pieces of many different patterns
in the sand along the Cruz Bay Beach (Children generation
ago used these hits of blue anti white china as play money
or "Chaynee"
If you step on any of the many beds of biting ants around
the sugar factory at Annaberg where some say the ants are
still expecting to find sugar, it is interesting to know that
helpful "bush medicines" grow nearby. Soap Bush
and Batabata when rubbed on bites will relieve
the sting you may not recognize these beneficial weeds; even
if you do you shouldn't uproot them hut it is reassuring to
know that natural remedies are found adjacent to the homes
of biting ants.
WHISTLING
CAY
- The Danes tried to blow the whistle on smuggling
between British islands and the Danish West Indies by maintaining
a Customs House on this Cay where the prevailing
winds do indeed whistle.
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