ACRRA Calls For Reparations from De Nederlandsche Bank for Slavery Ties in U.S. Virgin Islands

The African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA) has taken a significant step by urging De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) to extend its reparative measures to include the U.S. Virgin Islands, due to what ACRRA says is the bank’s historical ties to slavery in the territory. ACRRA’s President Shelley Moorhead highlighted the matter in an open letter to Klaas Knot, president of DNB, on Friday. ACRRA applauded DNB’s recent apology and the creation of a €10 million fund aimed at supporting education and heritage preservation in former Dutch colonies. However, Mr. Moorhead noted that the U.S. Virgin Islands, formerly a Danish West Indies colony, were notably absent from these reparative efforts. ACRRA says the call for inclusivity is rooted in historical evidence that links DNB’s founding members and primary investors to the slave trade and plantation economies on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John. Moorhead detailed the connections between DNB officials and investors and human suffering on the islands, citing investments in plantations on St. Croix by Jan Hodshon and Jacobus Hermanus, and Hermanus’s involvement in at least 21 plantation loans across various colonies, illustrating extensive historical ties to the abhorrent trade on St. Thomas and St. John as well. Highlighting...