1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Virgin Islands

VIRGIN ISLANDS (see ). The group of the Virgin Is. formerly known as the Danish West Indies was purchased by the United States from Denmark in 1917 for $25,000,000, the formal transfer taking place March 31 of that year. This group consists of the islands St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, together with about 50 smaller ones, most of them unnamed and uninhabited. These and the islands Vieques and Culebra ceded to the United States by Spain in 1898 now compose the Virgin Is. of the United States. The language of the people is English, although the islands had been under the Danish flag for 245 years. The total area of the three principal islands is about 132 sq. m.; St. Croix, the largest, had, according to the U.S. census of 1917, a pop. of 14,901; St. Thomas had 10,191; and St. John, 959, a total of 26,051, of which 7.4% were white, about 80% negroes and the remainder of mixed races. Illiterates constituted 24.9% of the pop. 10 years of age and over. The largest city in the islands, Charlotte Amalie, on the island St. Thomas, had in 1917 a pop. of 7,747. The other towns, Christiansted and Fredericksted on the island of St. Croix, had pop. of 4,574 and 3,144 respectively; these three towns embrace approximately 60% of the total population.

(Author:William R. Manning)