A Plantation Bell : Echoes and Entanglements of Fireburn
In 1778, a large bronze bell was cast by royal bellfounder Michael Troschell in Copenhagen. Unlike most of his bells, which were destined for church towers, this one was sent to La Grange, the largest plantation on St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. The bell functioned as an instrument of discipline, structuring the workday for more than a thousand enslaved laborers. This paper explores the planThis working paper is based on a presentation given at the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies (SASS) conference, Seattle, May 2024, and is part of the empirical research process for one of the chapters in my dissertation, The Fireburn 1878-2018: Revolt, Representations and Remembrance.