Jeffrey B. Perry

July 26, 2009, interview of Jeffrey B. Perry by Roland Washington of "Redtap Sessions" on the lives and work of the anti-white supremacist working class autodidacts Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen at San Francisco LaborFest 2009.

The first installment of the St. Croix African Roots Project (SCARP) research is now available online through the efforts of the Virgin Islands Social History Associates (VISHA) and Ancestry.com.
The St. Croix African Roots Project was initiated in 2002 by VISHA and seeks to bring together records that document the population, families and individuals on St. Croix during the period of Danish rule. The first installment includes the U.S. Virgin Islands St. Croix Slave Lists (1772-1821) and Population Census (1835-1911), which together contain information on more than 700,000 enslaved people, enslavers, and family members.
These records will be searchable for free until the end of July.
Other installments, to be added soon, include-the following:
** Slave Trade Shipping Records 1749-1802
** Names and prices of enslaved Africans sold from slave ships to purchasers on St. Croix
** Property Inventories 1755-1848
** Names, occupations, property values, locations and family relations of enslaved individuals
** Free Persons of Color Records 1740-1834 -- Periodic censuses, lists and freedom charters for the free colored population and other special censuses and papers
** Church Records 1744-1917 -- Records of baptisms, marriages, births and deaths of enslaved and free persons belonging to the Lutheran, Dutch Reform, Anglican, Roman Catholic and Moravian churches in St. Croix
** Vital Statistics 1820-1917 -- Records of births, death, and marriages on an annual basis with information about family relations
** Vaccination Records 1823-1853 -- Smallpox vaccination records for all enslaved on plantations for the years 1823-1824 and annual vaccinations performed in both towns and plantations 1829-1853
** Emancipation Records 1848 -- Compiled for all enslaved on plantation who were freed in order to establish compensation amounts for the owners
** Movements of Plantation Workers 1848-1870 -- Traces the movements of formerly enslaved around St. Croix and off-island in the years after emancipation
** Immigration Records 1850-1917 -- Documents immigration of people from other Caribbean Islands to St. Croix after emancipation
** Laborer Lists 1849-1917 -- Lists of laborers working on the plantations

The St. Croix African Roots Project (SCARP) is a multi-national research and documentation project. The Virgin Islands Social History Associates (VISHA), a non-profit organization headquartered on St. Croix, launched SCARP in 2002 "to promote the development of a multi-faceted, historiography in which African descents are accorded identity, humanity and agency."  Read More 

Saturday, 11am-4 pm, Jeffrey B. Perry talks/signs copies of "Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918" at the HARLEM BOOK FAIR, Haymarket Books tent (135th St. between Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm X Blvds., NYC), which also hosts Stacyann Chin, author of "The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir," 3-4 pm.

Kudos are extended to Leo Downes and Noble Bratton for organizing a wonderful, standing room only, Hubert Harrison event at the Harlem YMCA (180 W. 135th St.) last night. The "Y" was a site of many Harrison talks and it is situated only 1 1/2 blocks from Harrison's former apartment at 231 W. 134th Street (which, when he was alive, was the most densely populated block in Harlem). As expected from Leo, Noble, and the attendees, the discussion after the slide presentation and talk was high caliber with many insightful questions and points raised. As with previous Harrison events, discussions continued on well past the end of the event. Read More