The population of Denmark is almost six million, of which less than 2% are black.
Denmark was the seventh-largest trading nation during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, trading over 100,000 enslaved Africans to their three colonial territories in the Caribbean: the islands of St Croix, St John and St Thomas. In 1917 Denmark sold the islands to the United States and they were named the US Virgin Islands.
Well known Afro-Danish people include Hans Jonathon, an enslaved man who took his Danish enslavers to court and subsequently fled to Iceland.
Victor Cornelins and Alberta Roberts were children from St Croix who were transported to Denmark in 1905, to participate in a colonial exhibition.
In 1878, Mary Thomas was the leader of the largest labour revolt in Danish colonial history. In 2018 Denmark unveiled a statue in her honour called ‘I am Queen Mary’, the first statue in the country to commemorate a Black woman.