If you happen to be a decendant of a black slave, or live in the Virgin Islands or just interested in slavery, this may interest you:
Ophævelse af slaveri, Dansk Vestindien, 1848 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
This is the proclamation signed by the governor of the Danish West Indies, Peter von Scholten about emancipating all slaves on the islands. - It's also written in English.
On top the governor states the authority invested in him, through His Majesty. Then he lists all his own titles and honors before getting to the point.
I read an article the other day about slavery on the Danish West Indies. The mortality rate through small pox was much less here than on neighboring islands.
Not from kindness, but simply because it was more profitable to have healthy slaves than dying slaves.
All, repeat all, slaves in the Danish West Indies were vaccinated, that was not the case on other islands.
Most plantations on the Virgin Islands were not owned by Danes, but mostly by Britons and Americans - they just paid taxes to Denmark, which is also why no one in Denmark cared about slavery there.
But the political climate changed and very much because of the slave abolitionist movements in USA and Europe at the time - and perhaps because the govenor, Peter von Scholten had a black mistress, who was de facto the first lady of the islands. So in 1848 in the governor decided to emancipate the slaves and abolish slavery.
The government back in Denmark had other things to worry about. Absolutism was endning, a parliament was being formed, a new Constitution was being written and on top of that a civil war started.
So by the time anyone had time to deal with the issue and the ahem usurping of power by the governor it was too late and turning back the clock was politically unpalatable anyway.
So yes, one man, Peter von Scholten ended slavery in the Danish realm, but I think it's safe to say that a women, a former black slave, his mistress and de facto wife, was the one behind it all.
No one on the islands made a lot of noise. Because the the abolistionist movement was strong at the time, not least in Britain, backed up by the presence of British navy ships, - while Denmark was far away.