; Whereas an islandwide slave insurrection on St. Croix in July of 1848 resulted in the official abolition of slavery in the Danish West Indies; Whereas the decline of the sugar industry in the region led Denmark to seek a buyer for the Danish West Indies; Whereas the United States, seeking a strategic base to protect its assets in the Caribbean, including the newly built Panama Canal, purchased the Danish West Indies in 1917 through the Convention Between the United States and Denmark for Cession of the Danish West Indies, which confirmed that the civil rights and political status of the inhabitants of the islands would be determined by Congress; Whereas the transfer of the Danish West Indies to the United States took place on March 31, 1917, with ceremonies on St. Thomas and St. Croix and is commemorated annually in the Virgin Islands of the United States as Transfer Day ; Whereas, after the transfer, the Virgin Islands of the United States was administered by the Navy, which led to an improved system of social services, higher paying jobs associated with military buildup, and, later, the development of the economy through increased agricultural production; Whereas, between 1924 and 1927, several proposed bills for constitutional reform were discussed by congressional committees on insular affairs, though action did not manifest until the enactment of the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands in 1936 and the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands in 1954; Whereas the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands passed as a result of efforts by David Hamilton Jackson and Rothschild Francis, along with others, including Casper Holstein and Ashley Totten, allowing for increased self-government for the Virgin Islands of the United States