The subsequent humiliation of General Bourdeaux is a blot on the character of the Danish government. After using his influence to save the lives of many of the planters who assured him of their good will, he was forcibly abducted from his station and made a prisoner. Major Gyllich, whose life General Bourdeaux saved, stood by him, sharing even his imprisonment a few days. He was finally sent aboard a vessel in the garb of a gentleman, provided with all the necessaries and comforts and then stripped of them as soon as the vessel was out of port and forced to toil as a member of the crew. He was taken to the Port of Spain, Trinidad, where he was told that if he returned to the Danish West Indies, he would be executed.[386] He was said to have been seen in Curacao afterwards, whence he proceeded to the United States of America. Martin King escaped arrest until after the reign of martial law. He was imprisoned, however, for two years and in 1855 could do no better than serve his community as rat-catcher. Peter Hansen the next governor undertook to settle these difficulties. He passed what is known as the "Labor Act," intended to meet the exigencies of the situation. This was a little better than slavery but it actually gave the Negroes a status ranging between serfdom and indentured service. They were still under rigid restrictions.[387] Thereafter an effort was made to prevent Negroes from assembling, especially at Christmas dances, which were considered dangerous to the peace of the colony. On one occasion in 1852 to put a stop to such a function a squad of militiamen were ordered out and it fired upon the participants in private dances in their homes, killing many innocent persons. This caused great alarm. The militia was ordered back to the barracks, an investigation was made but no one could tell exactly who gave the order for this cowardly act. Things went on prosperously for years thereafter. It seemed ideal even under the Labor Act, which the Negroes learned to endure without complaint. In this ideal state of things it was thought advisable to reduce the militia. This was finally done, leaving the whole island outside of Christiansted defenseless. Forced labor, however, under the disguise of apprenticeship could not but be odious, especially so when the differences of blood and color tended to render irritating the very semblance of restraint, and exaggerate every difficulty of class and position. Hence, these injudicious artificial regulations, however seemingly well-intentioned, only gave rise to ill-feeling, mistrust and eventually resistance. The trouble was that the Negroes had grown in intelligence and had begun to appreciate the blessings of actual freedom and free labor. Seeing the trouble in the embryo, the government procrastinatingly made some amendments to the Labor Act. The Negroes, however, eventually defied the act, abandoned agriculture, and came to town to assert themselves.