Junior High School Level

Emancipation Proclamation July 3, 1848

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Slavery ended in the Danish West Indies on July 3, 1848, when thousands of enslaved protesters assembled in Frederiksted, St. Croix and forced Governor-General Peter von Scholten to verbally proclaim “all unfree are now free”. That momentous event was largely peaceful, but disturbances broke out the following day. The…
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Letter of Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca about Columbus Landing, St. Croix, 1493

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The earliest written documentation about the Virgin Islands and the indigenous Virgin Islanders was created by three Spaniards who, after returning to Spain, wrote eyewitness accounts of the landing of Christopher Columbus’ fleet at St. Croix on November 14, 1493. A portion of the first of these letters, written…
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Analyzing a Record of Ship Arrival from 1804

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Since the 1760s, St. Thomas, benefiting from free port status and one of the finest natural harbors in the world, has been a hub of Atlantic maritime trade and commerce. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a vast variety of trade goods from the far reaches of the Atlantic…
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Map of part of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas

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Bluebeard’s Castle is the name given to a historic Danish period watchtower that was built around 1689, on St. Thomas. It is located on a small hill, overlooking Charlotte Amalie harbor. Originally the watchtower was part of a fortification system used to watch over and protect the harbor. The…
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The Herald, St. Croix, October 29, 1915

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This is the first issue of The Herald newspaper which was established and edited by David Hamilton Jackson after he returned from Denmark in 1915. Addressed to the Black masses, its editorials and articles forthrightly addressed the shortcomings of Danish colonial rule and the White power elite, while advocating…
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Runaway Notice in St. Thomas Tidende, St. Thomas, 14 December 1825

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Newspapers provide abundant information about the people and communities they serve. On their pages can be found accounts of local and international events, government proclamations, notices of happenings, arrivals and departures, marriages, deaths, items for sale, public notices, international events, and the like. The first newspaper was published in…
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Letters about the St. John Slave Revolt 1733-1734

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The most common type of archival record is correspondence. Civil servants transmit documents of all kinds, add commentary and information, and receive feedback through letters. While official correspondence is often bureaucratic in style, it is also informative and insightful. The letters shown here are part of a collection of…
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Analyze Petroglyphs and an Amerindian Swallow Stick

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The various groups of people who first inhabited the Virgin Islands had no written system of communication. However, we can learn directly about their lifeways and beliefs through the surviving elements of their material culture, which include settlement sites, pottery, stoneware, food remains and various kinds of carvings, all…
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St. Croix Sugar-Rum-Molasses Production 1848-1863

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Scattered throughout the Danish and American archives relating to the Virgin Islands are official, government compiled statistics relating to such matters as crop production, overseas trade, and population development. Such documentation generally provides the most reliable economic or social data for a specific period and locale. This document lists…
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Peter L. Oxholm Map of St. Croix 1794

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Maps provide a wealth of visual information about a particular place in both space and time. The Virgin Islands archival record is exceptionally rich in maps depicting the various islands from the seventeenth century to the present. This map of St. Croix, originally drawn in 1794 by Peter Lotharius…
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