St. Croix, Virgin Islands: an Island with a Rich and Interesting History, Part II

In our last installment, we left off with Chris Columbus meeting the Indians at Salt River Bay in 1493. Skipping forward a bit -

In the early 1640s, England and Holland were sparring over St Croix, and a bit later, the French and Spanish got into the mix. From 1655 - 1665, the French leased the islands to the French chapter of the Knights of Malta, and the island produced cotton, indigo, tobacco, sugar and tropical foods. In the late 17th century, the French were forced to abandon the island, and eventually English woodcutters from Tortola moved in and engaged in lumbering.

France sold St Croix to the Danish West India and Guinea Company in 1733. Denmark took over as a Crown Colony in 1755 and began to expand the sugar plantations and control the African slave trade. The Danes established the towns of Christiansted (named for King Christian VI of Denmark) in 1735, and Frederiksted (named for King Frederik V) in 1752. Friederich Moth, governor of the West India Company, designed the town layout for Christiansted and had the island surveyed into 150 acre estates, the names of which we still use today! Moth encouraged settlers by offering tax benefits and reasonable prices on the land (sound familiar? We're still doing it!!). The tolerance of the Danes regarding ethnicity and religion made our island a cultural melting pot, which it still is. English eventually became the common language, but most people spoke a Dutch Creole, a blend of Dutch and African languages, and later a dialect of English - which I believe still influences the native language here. Our locals speak their own brand of "English," which is charming and lovely, although a bit difficult for us "mainlanders" to understand, at least initially. "All ah we tink dis is ah good ting, to ah talk Crucian...."

The sugar-based prosperity of St Croix reached its peak in the mid 1700's with exports of sugar, molasses, rum, hardwoods, and cotton. At one point, our island was called the "garden of the West Indies," which I think even captures our culture, although our new "branding" is labeling St Croix as "the Port of Solace." Today, you can see the ruins of over 80 sugar mills here on our beautiful island. They stand as a reminder to embrace our diversity and cherish our freedom, for it was on the backs of the African slaves that these mills were built and the sugar was produced - and our island prospered.

Members of our community still sit on the steps of our government house in protest of our government's lack of attention to the issue of reparation. They seek more and better education of our youth about the savage history of slavery, and seek to engage those nations who benefitted from the institution in helping to mitigate its devastating consequences. ACRRA (the African Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance) seeks to bring to the table all avenues of the topic of slavery and its repercussions so that healing - on both sides of the issue - can happen. But I digress.....

Join me next week for the final installment of my series on the history of St. Croix. Better yet, sign up to receive my blog posts through the RSS feed shown on the right.

Kim Lucas, REALTOR
www.retireinthevi.com
www.kimlucasvi.com
kim@coldwellbankervi.com
340-626-3758