The History of the British Virgin Islands is usually, for convenience, broken up into five separate periods:
Virgin Gorda is the third-largest island and second-most populous of the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
The Virgin Islands National Park is an American national park preserving about 60% of the land area of Saint John in the United States Virgin Islands, as well as more than 5,500 acres of adjacent ocean, and nearly all of Hassel Island, just off the Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas harbor.
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.
Tortola is the largest and most populated island of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. It has a surface area of 55.7 square kilometres with a total population of 23,908, with 9,400 residents in Road Town. Mount Sage is its highest point at 530 metres above sea level.
Jost Van Dyke is the smallest of the four main islands of the British Virgin Islands, measuring roughly 8 square kilometres. It rests in the northern portion of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Jost Van Dyke lies about 8 km (5 mi) to the northwest of Tortola and 8 km (5 mi) to the north of Saint John. Little Jost Van Dyke lies off its eastern end.
Fort Purcell is a ruined fort near Pockwood Pond on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
Fort Charlotte is a fort built on Harrigan's Hill, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The fort was named after Queen Charlotte.
Fort George is a colonial fort which was erected on the northeast edge of Road Town, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands above Baugher's Bay. The site is now a ruin.
In common with most Caribbean countries, slavery in the British Virgin Islands forms a major part of the history of the Territory. One commentator has gone so far as to say: "One of the most important aspects of the History of the British Virgin Islands is slavery."
Road Town Fort is a colonial fort which was erected on Russell Hill in Road Town, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands above the town's main wharf. In historical records it is sometimes referred to as Fort Road Town. The fort subsequently fell into ruin, and in the 1960s the Bougainvillea clinic was built on top of the old structure. The strong room of the original fort, which was once the Territory's treasury, still survives today, and is now used as a storeroom by the clinic.
Mount Healthy windmill is a ruined windmill on the north side of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. It was formerly used during the plantation era of the Territory to crush sugar cane. After the collapse of the sugar economy in the early nineteenth century the windmill fell into disuse and became a ruin. It crushed cane for the sugar mill and rum distillery in nearby Brewer's Bay. There are other ruins like the Boiling House, remnants of the Animal Mill Round, distillery, hospital, storage, shed, and housing. The 18th century windmill belonged to the area's wealthiest planter. Slaves harvested and processed sugar cane into sugar at this extensive sugarcane plantation.
Willem Hunthum was a Dutch merchant and the last legally recognised Dutch owner of Tortola in what later became the British Virgin Islands. Hunthum was regarded as either Patron or "Governor" of the Territory from 1663 to 1672 when control of the islands passed to the British in the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Hunthum died at some point between 1672 and 1678.
Cooper Bay ruin is a ruin in Cooper Bay, on the north side of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The ruin dates from the sugar plantation era, and was presumed abandoned during the economic collapse of the British Virgin Islands during the mid-19th century.
The Cooten Bay ruin is a ruin in Cooten Bay, on the north side of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The ruin probably dates from the sugar plantation era, although the fortification of the property with cannon may suggest an earlier date. It was presumed abandoned during the economic collapse of the British Virgin Islands during the mid-19th century, when many plantations were abandoned.
Great Thatch ruin is a ruin on Great Thatch island in the British Virgin Islands.
The Whelk Point Fort was a colonial fort erected on the southeast part of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The fort fell into disrepair and ruin, and relatively little of the original structure remains. In 1992 a house was built over the original foundations of the fort, but the remains of the barracks can still be seen on the land behind the house. The ruins are on private property and are not generally accessible to the public.
A slave insurrection started on Sankt Jan in the Danish West Indies on November 23, 1733, when 150 African slaves from Akwamu, in present-day Ghana, revolted against the owners and managers of the island's plantations. Led by Breffu, an enslaved woman from Ghana, and lasting several months into August 1734, the slave rebellion was one of the earliest and longest slave revolts in the Americas. The Akwamu slaves captured the fort in Coral Bay and took control of most of the island. They intended to resume crop production under their own control.
The Dutch Virgin Islands is the collective name for the enclaves that the Dutch West India Company had in the Virgin Islands. The area was ruled by a director, whose seat was not permanent. The main reason for starting a colony here was that it lay strategically between the Dutch colonies in the south and New Netherland. The Dutch West India Company was mainly affected by the competition from Denmark, England and Spain. In 1680 the remaining islands became a British colony.
Brown Bay is a bay and a former sugar cane and cotton plantation in the Virgin Islands National Park on the island of Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands. It is on the north shore of eastern end of the island, north of the settlement of Palestina.
