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Destinations » Caribbean » U.S. Virgin Islands » Saint Thomas » City Guide: Historical Background

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands » Historical Background

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St. Thomas history starts with the Indians, a pre-ceramic tribe known as the Ciboneys. Excavations at Hull Bay on the island's north side show they lived here around 1500 B.C. Another excavation, prompted by the discovery of skeletons when developers began work on Tutu Park Mall in 1990, uncovered an entire Indian village that dated from the year 150 to 1490. Inhabited by the descendents of the Ciboneys, the Tainos and the Caribs, the village now sits under the shopping center and the artifacts are stashed in the local government's archives.

Enter Christopher Columbus, who sailed through on his second voyage to the New World in 1493. From then on, pirates bent on plundering Spanish ships filled with gold from the Americas plied the island's waters. While there is no truth to the legend that the pirate Bluebeard built the tower at what is now Bluebeard's Castle Hotel, Blackbeard, an Englishman named Edward Teach, was know to frequent St. Thomas. However, he probably never visited the tower named in his honor on Blackbeard's Hill.

In 1666, the Danes arrived to colonize St. Thomas. The population quickly grew as the new immigrants cleared the hillsides to grow crops. Work on Fort Christian, built to protect the island, began in 1672, and in 1674, the governor issued four licenses for taverns along the waterfront. What is now Charlotte Amalie soon took on the name Taphus, or beer hall. The name changed in 1691, when it was renamed Charlotte Amalie after the wife of the Danish King Christian V.

Around this time, 1685 to be exact, the Danes allowed the Brandenburg American Company to establish a slave trading post on St. Thomas. Most slaves were sold to plantation owners on other islands, but some were bought by St. Thomas residents to work their plantations. And early governors, Nicolai and Adolph Esmit, allowed pirates to use the island as a refuge because local merchants would benefit from the open sale of pirate booty. These two moves changed the course of the island's history. The slaves, of course, provided free labor to the plantation owners, and the pirate trade set the stage for the island's position as a trading center.

Between 1700 and 1750, pirate activities began to wane and legitimate trade began to increase. Merchants began to open shop on Main Street, called by its Danish name Dronnigens Gade. The Danish King Frederick V declared the island a duty free port in 1764, making the island one of the world's busiest ports. By the early 1800s, West Indian trade centered in St. Thomas.

The economy began a downslide in the early 1800s as hurricanes, fires, trade embargos, and competition from the sugar beet trade played havoc with the island's trade. The end of slavery in 1848 dealt a final blow. The economy collapsed.

At this same time, steam began to replace sails, and ship captains found they needed less frequent stops as they plied the trade routes. The island became a backwater until 1917 when the United States bought the islands for USD 25 million to protect the United States from an invasion through the Panama Canal. The United States government also feared the Germans would capture Denmark, and the thought of a German colony so close to home was unfathomable. The economy continued to limp along, with things were so bad President Herbert Hoover called the territory an effective poorhouse during his 1931 visit.

The United States Navy ran the islands until 1931 when the United States Department of Interior took over. The 1936 Organic Act gave residents the right to elect members of their Municipal Councils, but the president appointed the governor until 1970 when residents elected Melvin Evans to the post. All residents who held American citizenship, were over age 21 and could read and write English had the right to vote starting in 1938.

Many residents continue to feel they are second-class U.S. citizens. Although decisions made at the federal level have a huge impact here, territorial residents cannot vote for the U.S. president. Residents elect a delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, but she is not able to vote. Residents pay taxes at the same rate and use the same paperwork forms as state residents, but the money stays in the territory to fund local government operations. During World War II, the federal government used the island as base, hence the name Subbase still in use today. The federal government retained ownership to Water Island, which sits just offshore in Charlotte Amalie Harbor, until 1996 when the territorial government took over.

Vacation travel began to increase in the late 1950s when the doors to Cuba slammed shut with Fidel Castro's rise to power. Newly opened hotels and tourism business were left scrambling for help. This forced the island to recruit a vast number of immigrants from the Eastern Caribbean, who came for better jobs than they could find at home. Most remained, growing into a solid middle class.

St. Thomas' tourism-based economy continued to grow, but Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Marilyn in 1995, plus a series of smaller hurricanes in the late 1990s, the closure of Eastern Airlines as well as the failure of several major travel wholesalers, dealt severe blows. However, the economy has rebounded from each problem.

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