ISLAND HISTORY:

Saint John is an island in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. It is the smallest of the three main islands: Saint John, Saint Thomas, and Saint Croix. St. John is located in the Caribbean Sea about 4 miles east of Saint Thomas, the location of the territory's capital, Charlotte Amalie, and 4 miles south and west of Tortola, part of the British Virgin Islands. It is 50.8 km≤ (19.61 sq mi) in area and has a population of 4,197 (2000 census). Because there are no airports on St. John, there is only access to the island by boat. Ferry service runs hourly from St. Thomas and daily from Tortola; regular ferries are also available from Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke, and Anegada.

St. John was first settled by the Arawak Indians who had migrated north from coastal Colombia and Venezuela around AD 300. The Arawaks inhabited the island until around the year AD 1300 when they were driven off by the more aggressive and warlike Carib Indians. Extensive archaeological work was done from 1996 to the present at Cinnamon Bay and the artifacts from this dig are just now being studied and should yield more detailed information on pre-Columbus civilization in the Virgin Islands (Taino).

Christopher Columbus is credited with being the first European to see the Virgin Islands during his Second Voyage to the New World in 1493. He named the island group "Once Mil Virgenes", or Eleven Thousand Virgins, in honor of the feast day of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins who were martyred with her.

The Danish West India and Guinea Company was the first to settle the island in 1718. They are also credited with naming the island St. John (Danish: Sankt Jan). The Danish Crown took full control of the colony in 1754 along with St. Thomas and St. Croix. Sugar plantations, such as the famous Annaberg Sugar Plantation, were established in great numbers on St. John because of the intense heat and fertile terrain. The opening of sugar plantations also meant the importation of slaves from Africa. St. John was the site of one of the first significant slave rebellions in the New World in 1733, when slaves took over the island for six months.

The Danish were able to defeat the enslaved Africans with help from the French in Martinique. Many Africans committed suicide by jumping off cliffs instead of returning to slavery, as it was commonly believed that upon death they would return to Africa. By 1775, it is estimated that slaves outnumbered the Danish settlers 5 to 1. The indigenous Caribs and Arawaks were also used for slave labor to the point of wiping out the entire population. Slavery was finally abolished in St. John on July 3, 1848.

The United States of America bought the Virgin Islands in 1917 in order to establish a naval base to prevent German expansion in the western hemisphere. The U.S. government paid $25 million for the three islands. They also agreed to recognize Denmark's claim to Greenland, which had previously been disputed.

Virgin Islanders are now U.S. citizens, although they are not able to vote in U.S. presidential elections and have only non-voting status in Congress. The Virgin Islands are an organized, unincorporated territory of the US and, since 1972, have elected their own Governor and have a large degree of self-rule through a small, 15-seat local legislature.

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