A Short History of the Virgin Islands PDF
Preview A Short History of the Virgin Islands
" A SHORT HISTOR , . of thev VIRGIN ISLANDS B .\\ P ~a 4 - . N C Carib Graphic Arts St. Thomas The Virgin Islands consist of six main is- lands, five in an East-West line extending east from Puerto Rico, and one forty miles to the south. The westerly two of the five, St. Thomasand St. John, are U, S. property. The other three inline to the east, Tortola, Virgin Gorda and Anegada are British. The sixth, by itself to the south, is the U. S. island of St, Croix., There are . numerous small islands and cays scattered about the larger islands. All, save Anegada, are volcanic and have been thrust up by subterranean pressure. The formation in general is a metamorphosed strata, twisted and altered by volcanic action, Many boulders, some of them of huge size, are igenous rock, locally called Blue Bit. The max- imum elevation of allfive of the ‘*High Islands’’ is about 1,500 to 1, 600 feet, Anegada is a low flat island, not over 30 feet above sea level. It is perhaps representa- tive of all the Virgins before volcanic action and folding thrust the ‘*‘high islands’' into their pres- | ent mountainous form., CHAPTER ONE On Wednesday, November 23rd, 1493, - Columbus on his second voyage, sighted St. Croix and landed at Salt River where his landing party was attackedby a smallband of Caribs. The nextday he sailed north toward St, Thomas, coas- ted along its southern shore and went on to Puerto Rico., The string of islands he could see stretch- ing to the east as he approached from St, Croix he named for St, Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins, | - - Archeological research has shownthatthe three main islands, St. Croix, St, Thomas, and St. John were inhabited for some centuries prior to their discovery by Columbus. Pottery, arrows head, stone implements, and weapons have been found on the flat land back of Sandy Pointand at Salt River in St. Croix and at Magens Bayon St. Thomas, Indian carvings occur on the south side on St. John at Reef Bay, What became of these pre-Columbian Indians is uncertain, Thereis no mention of any Indians in the earliest Danishrec- ords. | | Sir Francis Drake landed on Virgin Gor- da in 1580 en route to his ill fated attack on San ‘Juan., . He sailed westward through the passage between Tortbla and the outlying islands to the “south, still known as Drake’s Channell. | -In 1653 the Danish King, Frederick III, granted certain privileges to ‘‘our subjects who have sailed to the Caribbean Islands in the West Indies'* to trade among them. Among these sub- jects was one Skipper Erik Nielsen Schmidt who had made several trips to the islands, trading with a handful of Danes and other Europeans, mostly Dutch, who had been living on St. Thamas before this date, Schmidt returned from one of these voyages in 1663 and received authorization from Frederick IIl *‘to seize and occupy the is- - land of St., Thomas'® and was actually appointed as Royal Co‘mmandant and Governor of that is- He was instructed to take a Lutheran min- ister with him to minister to the Danes already in St. Thomas and to the few settlers who were toaccompany him, Schmidtfound one Kjelt Jen- sen Slagelse willing and anxious to establisha Lu - theran parish in this distant island. o They sailed on July lst, 1665, with some - Danish settlers aboard the ERIK. They arrived at St. Thomas about January lst, 1666. On March 30th, 1666, Governor Schmidt took possession of the island in the name of the Damsh King, by ho1st1ng the Damsh flag and fir- N ing a salute. He selected a hill north-east of thek g harbor for the site of his plantatlon and laid out - foundations for “dwelhng houses and a fortlfled“-:: - tower w1th seven 4-pounders and faur 6 - poun- ders'’, Still standing today it is known as Blue-f beard’s Castle. | -' In the meantime another fort called KJaer s ‘Tower until the end of the 17th century and now known as Blackbeard's, was built on a h111 to the west, ‘ | ' ~Fort Chr1st1an Was also built with a fort1-—— fied tower but as finished in 1680, had **a luxur- ious gilded leather room'® for the Governor and other rooms for the use of the Lutheran and Dutch Reformed congregations. The Fort was rebu1lt in its present form in 1870, Governor Schmldt d1ed on June 12th 1666 about six months after his arr:val Pastor Slag- o else took over and with the aid. of four - adv1sors'~-_ . o (two Da.nes, ‘one German or Dutchman,_ and one: Engllshman), _conducted the a_ffalrs of the' 11ttle'-'t-‘h~ | . R | colony. Slagelse returned to Denmark in 1668 and remalned there until the formation of a newly or- ganized Danish West Indian Company. King Chris- tian V succeeded to the Danish throne in 1670 and: B issued this charter in 1671, ‘Under it, he appom-? ted George Jensen Iversen as Governor ‘and Slag-;.r“ else as the Lutheran minister. 3 They sailed from Bergen in June 1671 a- board the FERO with a mixed band of settlers, soldiers, clerks, and sixty-one convicts, 128 in all, The FERO finally made St. Thomas on May 25th, 1672, Pastor Slagelse and eighty others had died on the voyage and were buried at sea. The Danish West India Company proposed to profit from the operation of plantations. La-= bor was essential, and the first cargo of slaves arrived in 1673, In 1675 the West India Company absorbed the Danish African Company, who al- ready had a slave factory in Africa, to become the Danish West India and Guinea Co.,, and en- gaged actively in the slave trade. - Frederick William I, Duke of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg, wanted a share of the seemingly lucrative trade, He established a fac- tory in Africa and needed some port in the Indies from which to deliver slaves to the planters, The - Danes were not adverse to sharing OSt, Thomas and increasing the activity of the settlement, A thirty year contract was entered into between the Brandenburg Company and the Danish Company, covering the use of the port, The colony was also increasedby the ar- rival of a group of French Protestants who fled - St, Kitts after the revocation of the Edict of Nan- tes, They settled on the western hill of the town, ‘still known as Frexchman’s Hill, - Friction developed betweenthe Danes and the Germans over the terms of the contract, and as the expenses, rather than profits increased, the Brandenburgs refused to.continue after its ~ termination, In 1717 most of the members of the ‘Brandenburg Company left the island., | In 1691 the town along the shore, until then known as Tappus (Taphus - Rum Shop?), was officially founded and improvedby skilled Danish workmen sent out for the purpose and named Charlotte Amalie in honor of the wife of the King, Christian V, . | Pere LaBat, a French Jesuit, travelled through the islands and visited St, Thomas in 1701, He describes the town as ‘‘consisting of one long street ending at the factory of the West Indian Company., The houses, formerly huts, are now built of bricks and almost all one storeyhigh, The interiors are white-washed as in Holland and the street pavements (side-walks?) are of tile.
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