Virgin Islands

The U.S. Virgin Islands were administered by Denmark as the Danish West Indies until 1916. They are now an insular area of the United States consisting of three main islands—Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas—along with a few minor islands. Charlotte Amalie, the capital, is on Saint Thomas.

The islands were inhabited before the arrival of Europeans, with the Danish West India Company taking over Saint Thomas in 1672 and Saint John in 1694. Saint Croix was purchased from the French in 1733 with the three islands becoming Danish colonies in 1754. All of them used plantation-style agriculture maintained by slave labor, and slavery existed on them until it was abolished in 1848. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Alexander Hamilton, grew ...