<P> Early inhabitants of the Virgin Islands included the Ciboney , Arawaks , and Island Caribs . The first documented Europeans to visit the islands arrived with Christopher Columbus . The islands were occupied by several nations over the next century , including England , the Dutch Republic , France , and Denmark . In 1733 , the Danish West India Company purchased Saint Croix from the French and brought together Saint Thomas , Saint Croix , and Saint John as the Danish West Indies . Danish trading posts were set up on the islands , trading in sugar , slaves and other goods . Sugar cane cultivation was a major economic activity for many years , with slaves used as one of the labor sources . However , following increasing humanitarian awareness , laws against slavery and a slave rebellion in 1848 , the governor Peter von Scholten officially freed the last slaves the same year . The islands were purchased from the Danish by the United States in 1917 under the Treaty of the Danish West Indies . </P>
<P> Early inhabitants of the Virgin Islands included the Ciboney , Arawaks , and Island Caribs . The first documented Europeans to visit the islands arrived with Christopher Columbus . The islands were occupied by several nations over the next century , including England , the Dutch Republic , France , and Denmark . In 1733 , the Danish West India Company purchased Saint Croix from the French and brought together Saint Thomas , Saint Croix , and Saint John as the Danish West Indies . Danish trading posts were set up on the islands , trading in sugar , slaves and other goods . Sugar cane cultivation was a major economic activity for many years , with slaves used as one of the labor sources . However , following increasing humanitarian awareness , laws against slavery and a slave rebellion in 1848 , the governor Peter von Scholten officially freed the last slaves the same year . The islands were purchased from the Danish by the United States in 1917 under the Treaty of the Danish West Indies . </P>
when did the us acquire the virgin islands
when did the us acquire the virgin islands
1917
1917