Acquiring the islands was one thing, to acquire the guano required backbreaking labor under extreme conditions. In the nineteenth century, this labor was supplied under conditions of #RacialCapitalism, by Black Americans on Navassa and Chinese laborers in Peru.
The conditions on Navassa were so brutal that Black workers protested, only to be met with violent repression by the white management of the Navassa Phosphate Company, prompting a revolt in which several white men were killed.