Den danske matrikel på St. Croix: Opmålingsmetode og registrering af slaver

In the 18th century, the Danish government bought St. Croix for sugar production. Consequently, Danish surveyors had to survey and divide up the land for properties. The Danish surveyors also had to develop a cadastral system which could be used for tax collection. Slaves were used as labor and were a major part of the cadastre and the sugar production. The slaves were seen as property and humans were therefore registered in the cadastral system, which is not seen in the eighteenth-century Danish cadastral system. The differences between the cadastral systems in St. Croix and in Denmark and the difference between the human apprehension has created a wonder, and therefore the article will investigate which methods the Danish surveyors used for surveying St. Croix and how they developed the cadastral system. A research question is formulated: Did the Danish Surveyors in 1735 used the centerline-method 50 years before North American surveyors in 1785 develop the Geographers Line for subdivision of farmland?