I Am Queen Mary

A rebel queen on Copenhagen’s waterfront

I Am Queen Mary rises from a plinth on the quayside outside the old West Indian Warehouse, her gaze fixed out over Copenhagen’s harbor. The seated figure is monumental, with a calm yet defiant posture that immediately commands attention. At first glance, she recalls traditional statues of monarchs and military heroes, but the composition quickly subverts that expectation: this is not a king or a general, but a Black woman in work clothes, holding symbols of resistance. The sculpture was created by artists La Vaughn Belle, from the US Virgin Islands, and Jeannette Ehlers, based in Denmark. Unveiled in 2018, it is widely recognized as the first major public monument in Denmark dedicated to those who suffered under Danish colonialism. The very choice of site – directly in front of the West Indian Warehouse – underlines the link between the harbor’s mercantile wealth and the forced labor that made it possible.

Mary Thomas and the Fireburn uprising

The figure portrayed is Mary Leticia Thomas, known as Queen Mary, one of four women who led the 1878 labor revolt on the Caribbean island of St. Croix, then part of the Danish West Indies. Plantation workers, formally emancipated in 1848 but still trapped in harsh conditions and low wages, rose up against the plantation system. During the rebellion, known as the Fireburn, large parts of the town of Frederiksted and surrounding plantations were set ablaze. The uprising was brutally repressed, and Queen Mary and other leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment. For a time, Mary Thomas was incarcerated in a women’s prison in Copenhagen, far from the Caribbean climate and community she knew. The sculpture reconnects those separated geographies, reminding visitors that Denmark’s colonial history is not a distant abstraction but one that once brought Caribbean rebels to these very shores.

Symbols woven into the sculpture

Look closely at the details and the monument reveals layers of meaning. Queen Mary sits on a cane chair, evoking the sugarcane that once filled warehouses along this quay and underpinned the region’s wealth. In one hand she holds a torch, in the other a cutlass-like tool, direct references to the burning of plantations during the Fireburn rebellion. These objects transform everyday implements of labor into emblems of resistance and self‑determination. The artist duo combined 3D scans, historical references, and contemporary portraiture to create the work. The surface texture and clothing speak to a working woman, rather than a royal dressed in finery, while the monumental scale places her visually on par with European rulers depicted elsewhere in the city. The result is a sculpture that both belongs to the classical harbor setting and quietly challenges its visual traditions.

The West Indian Warehouse as a backdrop

Behind the statue stands the long brick mass of Vestindisk Pakhus, completed in the early 1780s to serve the West India Company. The warehouse was part of the infrastructure that organized and profited from trade with the Danish West Indies, including goods produced by enslaved labor. Its solid, almost austere façade forms a historical backdrop, turning the space between building and harbor into a kind of open‑air stage for reflection. Today, the building is known for housing the Royal Cast Collection, an extensive assembly of plaster casts of classical sculptures. Inside, rows of white bodies from Greco‑Roman and European traditions fill the high warehouse spaces, while outside, I Am Queen Mary introduces another body and another history to the narrative. The juxtaposition of classical ideals and a monument to anti‑colonial struggle underscores how art, power, and memory have long been entwined here.

A place for reflection and conversation

Visiting the sculpture is as much about atmosphere as it is about information. The harbor air, the low hum of passing cyclists, and the steady presence of the warehouse create a contemplative setting. There is no grand plaza; instead, the monument stands at human scale to the quay, inviting you to walk around it, linger on the steps, and consider the stories usually left out of European cityscapes. Interpretive texts and materials nearby may change over time, but the core experience remains the encounter with Queen Mary herself: a figure whose calm strength suggests both the cost of resistance and the possibility of rethinking what – and who – is commemorated in stone and metal. For many visitors, this quiet corner of the harbor becomes a starting point for exploring Copenhagen’s wider colonial architecture and history.

Art, memory, and an evolving city

I Am Queen Mary is not a relic but part of an ongoing conversation about how cities remember their pasts. Its creation involved collaboration across the Atlantic, linking the contemporary communities of the US Virgin Islands and Denmark. The sculpture also connects to wider debates about monuments, public space, and whose stories are physically present in the urban fabric. As Copenhagen’s waterfront shifts from working harbor to cultural promenade, the statue anchors a more complex narrative of the city’s prosperity. It reminds passersby that the same quays that now host art installations and leisurely strolls once saw ships loading goods tied to colonial exploitation. In that sense, this single figure of a seated woman holds an entire web of histories, making the harborfront not only picturesque but also thought‑provoking.