The United States Virgin Islands, officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States. The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles to the east of Puerto Rico and west of the British Virgin Islands.
The Danish West Indies or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with 32 square miles (83 km2); Saint John with 19 square miles (49 km2); and Saint Croix with 84 square miles (220 km2). The islands have belonged to the United States since they were purchased in 1917. Water Island was part of the Danish West Indies until 1905, when the Danish state sold it to the East Asiatic Company, a private shipping company.
Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Saint Thomas is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, one of the three largest of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of three county-equivalents in the USVI. Together with Saint John, it forms one of the districts of the USVI. The territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie is located on the island. As of the 2020 census, the population of Saint Thomas was 42,261, about 48.5% of the total population of the United States Virgin Islands. The island has a land area of 32 square miles (83 km2).
Saint John is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States.
William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. was one of the earliest biracial-black U.S. citizens in California and one of the founders of the city that became San Francisco. A highly successful, enterprising businessman, he was a West Indian immigrant of African Cuban, possibly Carib, Danish/Swedish and Jewish ancestry. Leidesdorff became a United States citizen in New Orleans in 1834. He migrated to Alta California in 1841, then under Mexican rule, settling in Yerba Buena, a village of about 30 Mexican and European families.
The territorial government of the United States Virgin Islands has for operational purposes established two districts, which include the minor islets nearest to the major islands:
- Saint Croix
- Saint Thomas and Saint John
Altona is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. It is an eastern suburb of Christiansted.
Annaberg is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
Beck Grove is a former plantation which is the location of a few houses on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
Beeston Hill is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. Beeston Hill is little more than a small hamlet, lying along Route 70.
Bellevue is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. It is a western suburb of Christiansted. The geographic area is 140 acres of which the majority are forested. Of the 140 acres half 70 acres belong to the Bond family which since 1956 has owned a federally registered Caribbean Mahogany Reforestation Tree Farm. The property adjoins the Estate Thomas research property belonging to the International Institute for Tropical Forestry of the United States Forest Service.
Belvedere is a settlement on the north coast of the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. Belvedere lies along North Shore Road or Route 80.
Bethlehem Old Work is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. It was set-up as one of the first plantations in the 1730s, and operated as the last sugar plantation on the island until the Bethlehem Central Factory closed in 1966.
Bettys Hope is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
Sugar production in the United States Virgin Islands was an important part of the economy of the United States Virgin Islands for over two hundred years. Long before the islands became part of the United States in 1917, the islands, in particular the island of Saint Croix, was exploited by the Danish from the early 18th century and by 1800 over 30,000 acres were under cultivation, earning Saint Croix a reputation as the "Garden of the West Indies". Since the closing of the last sugar factory on Saint Croix in 1966, the industry has become only a memory.
Hermitage, Saint Croix is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. In 2014, Helen Worth, a British Actress well known for her portrayal of the character Gail Platt on the show Coronation Street visited the island and posted a selfie of her there to her Twitter account.
Hogensborg is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
Morningstar is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
Peters Rest is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. The settlement originally formed around a sugar plantation.
United States Virgin Islands 