This archive series contains the proceedings of the St. Thomas Police Court in the period 1788-1896. The proceedings are summaries of what was said in court during examinations. The Police Court was in charge of minor criminal cases related to for instance fights, defamation and cases concerning enslaved workers. Accordingly, the police court proceedings offer information about conflicts of everyday life in the Danish West Indies and what free and enslaved said when they appeared in court.

The transcription of the Police Court proceedings takes a different form than that of for instance the tax records. In this case, we ask for a full text transcription, meaning that the entire text must be transcribed, not just names, places and dates.

You find the specific transcription guide for this series here: https://www.sa.dk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/police-court-proceedings-and-police-journals.pdf

The image is a detail of a painting showing the harbor of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, c. 1881. At the center is Fort Christian, which from the 1870s housed the police office. Original held at the Maritime Museum of Denmark, Elsinore, image no. 000035621.

Transcriptions

English translations