Bettys Hope | |
|---|---|
Village | |
  Bettys Hope Location in Saint Croix, United States Virgin Islands | |
| Coordinates: 17°41′32″N64°49′0″W / 17.69222°N 64.81667°W | |
| Country |  United States Virgin Islands |
| Island | Saint Croix |
| Time zone | UTC-4 (AST) |
Bettys Hope is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
Bettys Hope is a former sugarcane plantation. It was founded in 1750 by the Scottish planter Robert Stewart. He gradually increased the size of the plantation through the acquisition of more land to 182 hectares. The next owner of the plantation was Thomas Thompson. The plantation remained in the hands of his descendants for more than a hundred years. [1]
In 1905, Bettys Hope and the adjacent Negro Bay (56 hectares) were sold at auction for 20,000 dollars to Niels Vilhelm Thornberg. Thornberg was born in Svaneke on the Danish island of Bornholm in 1869 as the son of a saddler. He moved to St. Croix in 1883. In 1901, he became manager of the plantation River. In 1908, he also purchased the plantation St. George's Hill. Most of the land was used for the cultivation of sugarcane. In 1907, he also began to grow cotton on part of the land. The production of sugar at Bettys Hope varied tremendously from year to year, peaking with 152,525 t in 1911 and reaching an all-time-low with 3.331 t in 1915. On 12 April 1918, Thornberg sold Bettys Hope to the West India Factory. [1]
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.
The economy of the United States Virgin Islands is primarily dependent upon tourism, trade, and other services, accounting for nearly 60% of the Virgin Island's GDP and about half of total civilian employment. Close to two million tourists per year visit the islands. The government is the single largest employer. The agriculture sector is small, with most food being imported. The manufacturing sector consists of rum distilling, electronics, pharmaceuticals, and watch assembly. Rum production is significant. Shipments during a six-month period of fiscal year 2016 totaled 8,136.6 million proof gallons.
The history of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:
The Danish West Indies or Danish Virgin Islands or Danish Antilles 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 as the Virgin Islands 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, and a constituent district 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.
Christiansted is the largest town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America. The town is named after King Christian VI of Denmark.
The United States Virgin Islands, often abbreviated USVI, are a group of islands and cays located in the Lesser Antilles of the Eastern Caribbean, consisting of three main islands and fifty smaller islets and cays. Like many of their Caribbean neighbors, the history of the islands is characterized by native Amerindian settlement, European colonization, and the Atlantic slave trade.
Transfer Day is a holiday celebrated in the U.S. Virgin Islands on March 31. It marks the transfer of the islands from Denmark to the United States that took place in 1917. The islands were initially held by various European countries, and were under the sole control of Denmark by 1754. Transfer Day could have taken place years earlier, but due to the construction and funding of the Panama Canal, the United States Senate rejected negotiations. Following money shortages from war, and the potential German invasion of Denmark, both sides saw the exchange as mutually beneficial. Transfer Day is now celebrated in a variety of ways on the various islands including parades, parties, and reenactment of the original Transfer Day itself.
The St. George Village Botanical Garden is a botanical garden with arboretum located at 127 Estate St. George, Frederiksted, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. It is open daily except Christmas; an admission fee is charged.
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 of Tropical Forestry of the United States Forest Service.
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.
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.
Grove Place is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Hermitage, Saint Croix, also known as Estate Hermitage, is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. In the historical system of quarters and estates used in the Virgin Islands, it is estate 5 in St. Croix's King's Quarter. It has an area of 1.478 square kilometres (0.571 sq mi) and had a population of 14 as of 2020.
Sion Hill is a settlement on the island of Saint Croix, in the United States Virgin Islands.
Sprat Hall is an estate on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
The Indian community in the United States Virgin Islands is made up of Indo-Caribbeans, Indian Americans and other persons of Indian origin. The first Indians in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) arrived in the Danish colony of Saint Croix in June 1863 as indentured workers. However, the nearly all 325 Indians who came to Saint Croix left the island by the 1870s. Nearly two-thirds returned to India, while the others emigrated to Trinidad and Tobago. Some settled in that country, while others returned to India from Trinidad.
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