Original subtitles

Narrator: A grand yet battered mansion

That paints a confusing picture...

Inside, it's like stepping into another world.

Above, you have what's clearly a medical facility,

But down below, it really feels more like a prison.

Narrator: ...A mighty, rusting complex that found itself

At the heart of a revolution.

It's like you're being shrunk down

And put into the inside of a car because you're just surrounded

By towering pipes and chimneys and chambers.

♪

Narrator: ...And a mediterranean island with a vast,

Crumbling infrastructure and mysterious past life.

This is a full-on ghost town,

Or probably more accurately, ghost island.

♪

Narrator: Decaying relics, ruins of lost worlds,

Forged through years of toil

Now haunted by the past,

Their secrets waiting to be revealed.

-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by discovery communications

♪

In the south of the united kingdom

On the shore of the english channel

Sits an imposing site with a bloody past.

♪

Selwood: Looking at the style of the architecture,

It's clearly several hundred years old,

And from the scale, a vast amount of money went into this.

The main building is incredibly impressive from the front,

But as you come around the back, it's complete destruction.

Narrator: Upon entering, that tale of contrasts continues.

Upstairs, you have what's clearly a medical facility,

But down below, it really feels more like a prison.

The windows are barred. The ceilings are low.

Bell: Some rooms, covered in filth, smashed old equipment,

Areas barricaded off -- total destruction.

This is a place that constricts and suffocates the soul.

What happened here at the end just isn't clear.

Narrator: So, who was locked inside those dark rooms,

And how would this old facility

End up playing a vital role in the second world war?

♪

Beyond the wall in the southwest corner of the grounds

Is an empty area of grassland.

On the surface, it reveals little,

But it, in fact, holds a clue to the deadly nature of the site.

Eric birbeck, a local historian,

Has spent years researching the story of this place.

Beneath my feet, there lies thousands of bodies.

It is said that there's over 20,000 bodies here.

Narrator: An archaeological dig at this site in 2005

Revealed gruesome details of the burial practices

Here centuries ago.

Nusbacher: We can see that some of them lost limbs.

Some of them were twisted by disease, by syphilis,

And some of these people died in ways we can only imagine.

The factor is that they're not just one level,

They're buried on top of each other.

We actually found a series of coffins

Where there were five bodies virtually collapsed

On top of each other.

Narrator: This mass of human remains holds the key

To understanding what these buildings were.

Buried here were all sorts -- women and children,

Even a number of russian bodies, and that tells you something,

But the real clue is that the vast majority

Of this mass of bodies were british serviceman.

Narrator: This is the royal hospital haslar,

A naval facility completed in 1762.

Bell: When it was built, it was absolutely enormous,

The largest brick building anywhere in europe,

And that scale gives you an idea of the desperate need

For something like this at the time.

Almost everything in the royal navy was powered by humans.

If people were needed to power the fleet,

Then there had to be a place to fix people

When they were broken or when they were sick.

Narrator: But all around the site are features that suggest

This wasn't an ordinary hospital for ordinary patients.

It's the kind of place that feels like

It's a very good defensive position,

But, actually, that also makes it incredibly useful

For keeping people in.

There's water on three sides,

Which stops people from leaving it.

There are also watchtowers all around it.

The royal navy was filled with people who were conscripted,

And it wasn't a draft

That brought them into the royal navy.

It was five guys and some sticks, who would go out,

Hit them over the head, and drag them onto his majesty's ships.

Narrator: Known as being press-ganged into service,

For those wishing to flee this life at sea,

Their best opportunity was found back on shore.

Bell: Escape attempts were common.

They'd crawl through the sewers, climb the fences,

Try and smuggle their way out.

Every possible exit would've been tested out

By those desperate to escape this place

And escape from the navy.

Narrator: But for most new arrivals,

Escape was still a distant thought.

Survival was the priority.

There's even a very famous phrase

That is supposed to have come from this place.

The way people were brought in is

They were rowed up a creek into the building,

And if they didn't have a paddle

And they were the ones who were being brought here,

They were clearly in a bad way.

They were up the creek without a paddle.

Narrator: Just a few decades after the hospital opened,

The bloody battles of the napoleonic wars,

Like trafalgar and waterloo,

Tested the royal navy to its limits.

Injured sailors were no longer arriving here

Slowly along the creek,

But in their droves directly from the docks.

Birbeck: When passengers arrived in great numbers,

They would be brought into here,

And they would just literally occupy

The space on the stone flags.

They would be propped up against the wall,

Some lying and, obviously, some in great pain and groaning.

In fact, we have written evidence of the fact

That on one day alone,

There was some 88 bodies wanting burial,

As well as the casualties who were here.

It must have been absolutely bedlam.

♪

People were wounded by cannonball

That could took off a leg.

They were wounded by huge razor-sharp chunks of wood

Blown off the side of ships.

There was blood.

There was sick.

There were guts.

And it was all a harsh, difficult place to be.

Narrator: At the time, there was no triage system in place.

No matter the urgency of your ailment,

This was a first-come-first-serve facility.

And here we have the receiving room, where, as a casualty,

You would be lifted off the flagstones and brought in,

Assessed by the surgeon, hospital mate.

Treatment here in those days was quite brutal, actually --

Amputation, treating major wounds,

Fractures and such like, no anesthetic,

And not even a tot of rum.

Narrator: For those ending up inside haslar,

Survival was far from guaranteed.

For the next 100 years,

The sick and injured continued to pour in,

Yet haslar was to go through an extraordinary transformation.

What part would it play in one of the most ambitious,

Top-secret campaigns in history?

♪

Narrator: During the second world war,

Staff at the royal hospital haslar

Received a strange directive from the powers that be --

Every patient must leave.

All of a sudden, the wards became empty

And had a strange atmosphere.

Many of the staff report about being almost sort of eerie

That there was no patients on the wards,

And yet all the staff were beginning to gather

For they did not know what.

Narrator: To add to the unnerving atmosphere,

In portsmouth harbor just outside,

Huge numbers of ships and troops were amassing.

An event like no other was about to take place.

This was part of the build-up for the normandy landings,

D-day, operational overlord,

The most important military mission of the second world war.

Narrator: On June 6th, over 150,000 men landed

On the northern shores of France.

Allied planners for d-day expected 50%

Of the people who hit the beach to be killed or wounded.

The ones who were wounded would have to be pulled

Right back across the channel to be looked after and patched up.

For those fortunate enough to survive that day,

Many of them wound up passing through the doors of haslar.

Thankfully, by that stage, the medical standards

Were infinitely better than when this place first opened.

This is the cellar area that was designated

For use as operating theaters,

And there were three tables here --

One here, one there, and one there,

So that they could undertake three operations

All at the same time and therefore clear more casualties.

Narrator: A second operating theater was set up nearby,

And staff worked around the clock

In 8-hour shifts in stifling conditions.

They were very fortunate in having haslar

Because of its design and build with secure cellars like this

That are very thick-walled.

They were safe, and the factor is

That they could undertake the work,

And the casualties were operated on, treated, cared for,

And as soon as they showed signs of recovery,

They were moved on by ambulance train.

Narrator: In the aftermath, letters of thanks poured in.

Selwood: Militaries need to look after their people,

And this place was appreciated.

People wrote about it in letters.

People were impressed at the quality of the treatment

That they received at a time when it really mattered to them.

The hospital continued serving the navy

Right through the 20th century,

Including taking in casualties from the falklands war.

Then in the '90s, it opened its doors

To the injured of the rest of the military, as well.

Narrator: But most of what remains here,

Silently waiting in the halls,

Comes from the site's final days

When it was in the care of the uk's national health service.

In 2007, haslar hospital was taken over by the nhs,

Ending 254 years of continuous military service.

Just two years later, it closed its doors for good.

♪

Narrator: Today, the old hospital site is

Being redeveloped into a residential area,

And those historic buildings are at the center of this project.

I worked and served here for over 55 years.

I have a great love for this building,

Like many of my friends and colleagues who worked here.

Haslar is still here.

It is haslar, always will be haslar.

It may be in a new guise,

In the factor of a new community.

I have every belief that haslar will still be here

In 100, 150 years' time.

♪

Narrator: In the southern state of alabama,

A collection of rusting ruins stand in stark contrast

To birmingham's modern cityscape.

♪

Mitchell: One thing that just strikes you immediately,

The thing that hits the eye, are these huge towers

That just sort of come up out of the landscape.

As you move into the site, you start to be covered

By all of the metalwork.

It's like a giant's set that you're climbing into

And walking through.

Scott: It's a huge spider's web of rusting metal.

You've got chimneys jutting up.

You've got pipes and flywheels, your cogs, your hoists,

All kinds of beautiful machinery,

And then you've got tunnels, and you've got water towers.

You've got trains. You've got your locomotives.

This place was seriously on the industrial scale.

Narrator: Dissenting the complex is a vast network of routeways.

When you sort of look down from above,

You see this junction for railways even today.

You can imagine, this is a real key

As to what made this place successful.

Narrator: This industrial site signifies a pivotal moment

In history and the birthplace of a revolution.

Fighting over this space lays the groundwork

For the sort of political mobilization

That came out of churches and schools.

Scott: This impressive place was basically reborn

Out of the ashes of a brutal conflict,

And it comes to represent the rebirth of a nation.

♪

Narrator: This commanding complex dates to a time

When america was clawing itself back from the horrors of war.

William t. Sherman,

A prominent union general during the civil war,

Was a renowned military strategist,

But he left utter carnage in his wake

With his scorched-earth policy.

General sherman marches through the south,

Destroying everything -- agricultural, buildings,

But also the rudiments of industrial buildings

That are starting to appear in the south.

♪

Narrator: With its fledging industry totally crippled,

The southern states knew they had to rebuild.

It would see the birth of a new movement

With dramatic consequences.

♪

Narrator: Out of the ashes of the american civil war,

A movement was born,

One that would rejuvenate decimated states like alabama.

Historian tyler malugani has spent years

Investigating how this complex fit into that story.

So, basically, nothing was here before the civil war

Or even during the civil war.

Birmingham didn't begin until 1871,

And that's when we see the growth

Of the new south movement

Bringing industry to the south so the south never again

Would have to rely on northern goods coming down.

We can make our own stuff right here in birmingham.

Narrator: The area around birmingham

Offered something incredibly unique,

Perfect for making iron.

The location of this place was just absolutely perfect

Because of just how cheaply they could make the iron.

Within a 30-mile radius,

You could get the three components

That you need to make iron.

You've got your iron ore, your limestone, and your coal,

And it's one of the only places in the world

Where you can find all three so close together.

Narrator: To exploit it, they first needed a means of transportation.

Now, of course, we can make all the iron in the world,

But if we couldn't transport that iron, it was useless,

And that's why we're right next to this railroad

That's behind me.

Without railroads, birmingham never would've been possible.

It's the first industrial city built in the united states

Not next to a body of water just because of the railroads.

♪

Narrator: Colonel james withers sloss,

Integral in bringing railroads to the area,

Didn't stop there, and in 1882, the sloss furnaces were born.

What we're on right now is called a blast furnace.

This is really what we used to make the iron.

This sloss furnace company quickly became

One of the largest pig-iron producing companies

In the world.

Narrator: The process of making pig iron is both dangerous and complex.

So, the cool thing about this spot is

We can see a lot that goes into actually making the iron.

It's a lot more than just a blast furnace.

Narrator: Huge towers created hot air

That was blasted into the furnace

To bring the temperature up to 3,800 degrees fahrenheit.

Malugani: Now, the water tower is also really important.

Without water, we couldn't cool the furnace

To help keep it from melting down

And make the steam to help power the site.

♪

Scott: When in operation, this place would've dominated the skyline.

You've got this iron running off, and it is glowing,

It's so hot.

This entire network would be glowing, and it doesn't stop.

It is going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

♪

Narrator: To keep this powerhouse running

Required a huge amount of labor,

And one of the buildings provides a clue

To the makeup of the workforce.

This building is the old black bathhouse,

So this is where the black workers would have to shower

After their shifts

Because, of course, this is the middle of birmingham

Right in the middle of segregation,

And sloss was no different.

Sloss could entice works, black workers,

To work for very little pay by providing housing,

By providing things that supported communities --

Churches and other buildings,

Other community centers, education.

And, so, it could do things that could sort of pull people in

To work for them for little pay,

Again, in a landscape when there aren't many options.

Malugani: A lot of them were either ex-slaves or children

Of ex-slaves at the very beginning,

So being able to provide an education for their children

Was a very, very big part of why they came to live here

And why they came to work at a site like this.

♪

Narrator: Over 70% of the workforce was black,

Primarily based in small cottages in a community

That became known as the sloss quarters,

But like much of america at that time,

Segregation was heavily enforced.

The company operated a strict hierarchy.

At the top was an all-white group of managers,

Chemists, accountants, and engineers.

At the bottom, an all-black labor gang.

Mitchell: The segregation that's happening at sloss

Is part of a larger fabric

In which so many things are segregated,

And you don't necessarily need signs.

They're segregated by custom.

Narrator: At sloss, this played out by having to bathe

In separate bathhouses, punch in separate time clocks

And attend separate company picnics.

It wasn't just the workplace that was segregated.

The whole city was divided, and it was coming to a head.

Mitchell: They had to police commissioner,

Eugene "bull" connor, who was very, very repressive

And was brutal in a city that had

A particularly rigid regime of segregation,

That had a history of violence so much so,

It was known as bomb-ingham.

Narrator: The city was notorious

For its discriminatory practices,

Yet policies employed by companies like sloss

Were having an unintentional effect.

Mitchell: By providing schools, churches,

Houses that are proximate to the facility,

That are spaces were african-american people

Can commune, that's something that is absolutely vital

For sort of building up grassroots networks

And lays the groundwork for the sort of political mobilization

That came out of churches and schools.

Narrator: Finally, in 1963, tensions reached boiling point.

Birmingham was about to become

The focus of international attention.

♪

Narrator: The mighty sloss furnaces overlooks

The city of birmingham,

Which in 1963 became global news.

Mitchell: Martin luther king went to birmingham in part

Because segregation was so rigid there,

And the city's regime

Was particularly virulent against blacks.

So, king goes there to draw attention,

To also to desegregate the city,

And it leads to this children's crusade

Against segregation and racism in the city

That brings in thousands of children who March

And who are then seized upon by dogs and water hoses

In a way that is incredibly brutal,

That brings domestic and international attention.

♪

Narrator: This episode would help bring about

Desegregation in america, and in theory, at least,

That impacted companies just like sloss.

Malugani: Once the workforce becomes desegregated,

Everyone has, at least on paper, an equal opportunity.

African-americans now can apply for higher-up positions,

Where before they weren't allowed to.

So, desegregation was a big part

Of the history of sloss in that sense.

Narrator: In practice, however,

While mid-level roles did open up,

Black workers were largely restricted to helper roles,

And by the time they made major breakthroughs

In employment discrimination cases in the 1970s,

It was too late.

The era of massive plant shutdowns had begun

And was already costing them their jobs.

New environmental challenges and a turn to plastics

Spelled the end for this rusting beast in 1971.

♪

Today, the furnaces lie abandoned,

Outdated and too dangerous to be used.

But the towers still stand overlooking birmingham,

A lasting legacy to the people that helped build it.

I think the preservation of sloss

Is important not only as a record to the way in which

The south rebuilt itself after the civil war,

But, also, it's a really important part of a fabric

Of not only civil-rights' history

But the history of black workers in the south.

♪

Narrator: Floating off the coast of albania

Sits a mysterious island.

Though tiny, it has a colossal past.

♪

As you approach, it's your typical mediterranean,

Adriatic island.

It's covered here and there with pines and olive groves

And has nice little beaches visible from a distance.

Meigs: As you get closer, you start noticing

That the whole island is studded

By little concrete structures, and it's not just one or two.

It's hundreds, maybe thousands.

But in amongst these little pockets of concrete,

More serious and substantial constructions emerge.

Narrator: It's only once on the island

The true extent of the complex becomes clear.

Old beds, discarded kitchen utensils, abandoned schools.

Wawro: All in a real state of ruin and decay,

And it makes you wonder

Was it just the passage of time that did for these buildings,

Or were they destroyed in some kind of a military conflict.

This all suggests a significant population once lived here,

And they weren't just passing through, either.

This is a full-on ghost town,

Or probably more accurately, ghost island.

Narrator: Delving into underground tunnels, the mystery deepens.

Bell: Lying on the ground, you come across these gas masks,

So it appears that might have been preparing

For some kind of nuclear or chemical attack.

And some of these gas masks are tiny,

Like they were designed for children.

Narrator: So, what is this place, and who were the islanders so afraid of?

♪

Meigs: When you look at a map, you see why this island

Was so strategically important.

At the southern end of the adriatic sea,

It narrows down to a narrow strait

That's kind of a choke point from which you can control

The shipping going in and out of that area,

So whoever controlled this island

Effectively controlled the adriatic.

Albania has a really interesting history.

It was only created in 1913,

And it was created by diplomatic agreement

Because the great powers couldn't decide

"does serbia get albania?

Does austria-hungary get albania?

Do the turks keep albania?"

Nobody could agree, so they said,

"we're going to create this new country, albania."

Narrator: The problem was the neighboring countries

Never really accepted albania as an independent state.

So, the italians begin encroaching

On this new state of albania

Already in 1914 in the outbreak of world war I,

And they expand their presence in albania during the war,

And then after the war, in the interwar period,

They take over albania all together.

Narrator: Some of the original buildings

Still show the italian influence,

But the occupation by the italian fascists

Was just the beginning.

Out of the peace that followed world war ii,

A new political force would emerge and take over this,

Sazan island.

From a distance, a mediterranean paradise,

Yet naim muho recalls a time when living here

Was a serious responsibility.

[ speaking foreign language ]

Translator: At the time, they called the island

"the guardian of war and protector of the country."

They said that the island was not only responsible

For protecting itself with its inhabitants...

But to report to albania the arrival of the enemy.

♪

Narrator: But who were the enemy?

Who was the commander of this island base expecting to invade?

♪

Narrator: Off the coast of albania is sazan island,

Heavily engineered as the country's front line of defense.

Meigs: After world war ii,

Albania was controlled by a communist dictatorship

That was very friendly to the soviet union.

The soviets poured enormous military resources

Into this island.

They built a port for servicing submarines.

They built this extensive array of tunnels,

Thousands of bunkers, and an airfield that --

You can almost say they converted it

Into something like a stationary aircraft carrier.

At the heart of the regime was enver hoxha,

The albanian dictator.

And though he was at first in alliance

With the communist superpowers,

He knew they could turn tail on him

And take over the country at any time.

Over time, albania asserted more control over the island.

The russians left, but the albania dictatorship

Was extremely paranoid.

Enver hoxha fears american aggression,

Fears soviet aggression,

Fears chinese aggression, as well,

And that paranoia is rendered real

And palpable by all of these pill boxes everywhere.

I mean, they are all over this island.

Hoxha saw enemies around every corner.

So, they saw this island as their first line of defense

From any future invasion.

♪

Narrator: Despite this, the island was home,

And commander muho has fond memories of living here

With his wife and daughters, at least for a time.

Translator: This was an amazing villa.

It's a pity to see it ruined now.

Here, I also hosted important and powerful people,

Whom I respected and who respected me.

I keep very beautiful memories of my home.

Narrator: Over 3,000 soldiers and their families

Lived on this island, and with them came a community.

Translator: The building that is in front of us

Was the home of the former soldiers,

Where very beautiful, cultural, and artistic activities

Were also carried out.

At the top, there is a cinema

That screened about three films a week.

Narrator: But the threat of attack

Was ever-present in their minds,

And the protection of its people and weapons was paramount.

Translator: A marvelous work of fortification

Of this strategic structure was done.

All weapons, equipment and material resources

Had to be hidden underground

So that in wartime, everything was tunneled.

I'm talking about kindergartens, schools, and the elderly,

Who took care of children during the war.

This area you see now was divided into rooms.

They were the dormitories, the kitchen,

The canteen, the warehouse, the classrooms.

There was everything.

Narrator: Some believe, however,

These tunnels had a darker purpose.

Meigs: There are also allegations that it was used

As a location to build chemical weapons.

Wawro: Chemical weapons being the weapon of choice

For a regime that's facing extinction.

It might use these weapons to hold off

That final enemy offensive.

Narrator: While they prepared for external threats,

It was domestic terror that began to take over.

Hoxha, as so many dictators before him had done,

Gradually became obsessed

Strictly with preserving his own power

And knew that if he loosened his grip at all,

The public would rise up against him,

And he would probably be killed.

This paranoia exploded in the 1970s

When hoxha feared a coup from within his government

And went on a mass killing spree of the top ranks.

Bell: You can still see the villa

Of the communist defense minister,

But he was executed as a traitor

By the evermore paranoid dictator, enver hoxha, in 1974.

Narrator: As a close ally of the assassinated defense minister,

Commander muho was on shaky ground.

After the defense minister was purged,

You can imagine that anyone close to him,

Including the commander of sazan,

Would be very understandably paranoid

That they might be next.

Narrator: In 1985, he found himself imprisoned

As an enemy of the fatherland.

Yet it was only in 1989

That the commander tasted freedom once again,

In time to see the collapse

Of the last communist state in europe.

Much of the evident damage is from recent training exercises

Involving british marines and the albanian navy,

But the island is no longer the preserve of military forces.

Sazan is a really fascinating place for tourists to visit,

So they have opened up the island to tours for people

Who want to see all of this military history up close.

♪

Narrator: St. John, the u.S. Virgin islands --

On the north coast of this caribbean haven

Are the remains of structures that speak of a different time.

♪

The beach is pristine.

It's a tropical paradise.

♪

But then you got farther inland,

And you get to this overgrown jungle.

Almost hidden amongst the palm fronds

And the vines are a series of stone walls

With windows and doorways.

This isn't just a palatial house.

This is something far more complex.

Mitchell: Given that there's this chimney and there are channels,

You then start to wonder if it's an industrial building.

Narrator: If this was once a site of industry,

Is the large flat circle of stone a clue

To what was made here?

Such an exact round shape suggests a specific process,

But it's not clear what that process is.

Narrator: A short distance away near the water's edge,

Another ruin towers over the landscape.

There's a huge stone building that's on the mountainside,

And it doesn't seem connected at all.

Both buildings are in the same stone style

And with a specific design, but it's not quite clear

What the linkage between the two sites was.

So, what were these used for, and is this damage a clue

As to why these buildings have just been left

To crumble into the jungle?

♪

Narrator: The history of this small island

Has its origins in an era of exploration,

A time when european empires were forged

In the blood of the conquered.

In the 17th century,

The caribbean was being divided up

By european powers eager to exploit its resources,

And this particular area was settled by the danes.

Narrator: These danish explorers encountered disease

And life-threatening conditions.

There were hurricanes and earthquakes.

There wasn't much freshwater on the island.

Many lost their lives upon arriving here,

But the risk was deemed worth it.

Here, they could produce a commodity

That was more valuable than gold and as addictive as a drug.

This industry is not just going to produce

A lot of wealth for those who own it.

It is going to change the social and economic fabric of the west.

Without the wealth generated here in the caribbean,

The industrial revolution would've been impossible.

Narrator: Despite this wealth creation,

The industry that developed on this islands

Had horrifying repercussions for others,

As park ranger ken wild has found

When analyzing these remains.

So, as you look into this small space,

We think it's probably a place

Where they maybe incarcerated somebody.

It's a dungeon.

Narrator: Yet for some, this was home.

But who were the inhabitants forced to live

In this veritable dungeon, and why were they here?

So, the danes didn't have any indigenous labor force,

And they couldn't convince fellow danes to come over.

So, instead, they turned

To buying enslaved peoples from africa.

You would have people being not only subject

To an incredibly arduous, long, cramped, deadly voyage

Across the atlantic,

But then they would be in a situation

Where they would often work 18-to-20-hour days,

Especially during harvest.

Narrator: This is the cinnamon bay plantation.

What was grown and processed here was sugarcane.

The sugar industry and the slave industry

Were intimately interlinked,

And you need a large labor force to produce it economically.

Indeed, one of the reasons why there's such a high level

Of export of enslaved labor to the caribbean

Is that people die off.

It's deadly labor.

If have 4,000 enslaved people on this island,

It must have been just horrendous,

And because of the punishments for any infraction

Were just so severe.

Auerbach: Sugar is a very delicate process,

And you need to have workers that are completely subsumed

To a heavy disciplinary system so that you can get them doing

What you want them to do at the time you want it done.

Narrator: The back-breaking labor began in the dense,

Humid fields of towering sugarcane.

Most people haven't wielded a machete and tried to cut cane,

But it's one of the most difficult

Agricultural tasks you can imagine.

Narrator: From here, it was transported

To the processing site above,

Where the circular structures still visible today

Came into play.

So, we're standing on top of the animal mill.

You've got your rollers here,

And, so, you have your animals going around in a circle.

We find these round platforms all over the island.

Bell: Four people were needed to run the horse mill --

One drove the animals,

Two worked the rollers, feeding the stalk back and forth,

And a fourth took away

The leftover sugarcane pulp called bagasse.

Narrator: This pulp was then turned into highly lucrative brown sugar.

But trouble was brewing on the tropical island.

♪

So, in easy terrible conditions, we shouldn't be surprised

That the slaves started to hatch plans for rebellion.

The danish west india company only employed six soldiers

To watch over the entire island.

They were vastly outnumbered.

The revolt started on one plantation, coral bay,

And then moved onto the fort.

This revolt was not only long-lasting.

It was incredibly deadly and destructive.

One-third of the white inhabitants were perhaps killed,

And up to one-half of the plantations were destroyed.

The danish just didn't have the manpower to fight back.

Instead, they enlisted the help

Of french and swiss colonialists.

The insurgents held their ground,

Finding a guerilla-style war that lasted for 10 weeks.

The last rebel was finally captured

On the 23rd of August, 1734.

Narrator: After the uprising was crushed,

Punishments and cruelty towards the slaves only intensified,

Intended to serve as a warning to others.

But the terror tactics, in the end, didn't work.

The caribbean sugar industry would be plagued

By rebellions right up until the abolition of slavery

By the british empire of 1834.

Narrator: With slavery outlawed

And increased competition from mainland europe,

The sugar industry rapidly declined.

Before long, the stone buildings were abandoned.

For decades, the structures lay at the mercy

Of the ever-encroaching jungle until the american government

Purchased the island from the danish

And preserved much of it as a national park.

This site is incredibly important.

It's one of the few sites in the americas,

Especially something that's now part of the united states,

Where we actually can go to the site of a slave revolt,

One of the earliest, one of the longest,

One of the largest.