The National Park Service provides an account of the 1733 Slave Insurrection, the first instance in which enslaved people took control of a colony. The insurrection served as a spark to later slave revolts that would take place. They took fate into their own hands as they rose against their oppressors. The insurrection marks a significant historical event for Virgin Islanders who continue to recognize the men and women who risked their lives for freedom.

The sections of articles about the U.S. Virgin Islands and Senegal have statements from two sets of authors. One article in each section is a general, inclusive statement written by a member of our curatorial staff.
Employing a point of view generally defined by Smithsonian imperatives for "the increase and diffusion of knowledge," the author engages in the characteristic practices of the Festival. These include: identifying and valorizing traditional cultural practices; explaining them primarily in historical, economic, and social terms; replying to popular stereotypes and supplanting them with empirically derived characterizations; representing geographically and historically bounded cultural wholes.
The other statements are written by authors from the geographic areas featured- the U.S. Virgin Islands and Senegal. These articles are more richly detailed. They address a variety of audiences, reply to a variety of implicit and explicit assertions, and are couched in a variety of styles. They have, of course, been solicited, selected, and edited - processes which are ineluctably based in our Institutional practice. We hope that in spite of this practice, and also in some degree because of it, these short critical pieces do incorporate a variety of voices speaking on noteworthy aspects of folklife.
In this sense, the organization of this year's Program Book represents the practice of the Festival as a whole.
The dialogue of viewpoints, understandings and of cultural styles strengthens the discourse of our national cultural Institution.

This is an example of how teachers on a grade level can collaborate to create a Grade Level VI History Month Activity.

This teacher-made  PowerPoint presentation can be used by the Virgin Islands History teachers to teach the topic: AFRICAN SLAVERY. 

Several professors, government officials and political party members spoke in a forum on political and social issues affecting U.S. territories, which focused mainly on the relationship between the U.S. federal government and the governments of the territories. Following the speakers' prepared remarks, the panelists responded to questions from members of the audience.

More than 2,000 years ago there was likely a thriving Taino community in the heart of Charlotte Amalie. In 2013 contractors began turning up shards of pottery and other artifacts during otherwise routine roadwork on Main Street near Market Square. Work was temporarily halted and archeologists were called in to help dig up what was described as a “major” find. Thousands of artifacts were eventually discovered in a relatively small area. A short documentary was later produced about the dig and the many interesting objects found on site. - - US Virgin Islands DPNR and the State Office of Historic Preservation

This article examines the relationship between custody, access, and provenance through a case study of the records of a former Danish colony, the United States Virgin Islands. In 1917, when the United States purchased the Virgin Islands from Denmark, Danish archivists removed the majority of records created there during colonial rule and deposited them in the Danish National Archives. Following its establishment in the 1930s, the National Archives of the United States sent an archivist to the Virgin Islands to claim most of the remaining records and ship them to Washington. The native population of the Virgin Islands, primarily former colonials whose ancestors were brought from Africa as slaves, were left without access to the written sources that comprised their history. While all three parties have claims to custody of the records, the claim of the people of the Virgin Islands relies on an expanded definition of provenance that includes territoriality or locale, as well as on a custodial responsiblity for access. The competing custodial claims suggest a dissonance between legal custody, physical custody, and archival principles that may be resolvable through post- custodial management practices.

The Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS) is a Monticello initiative that collaborates with archaeologists working across North Ameri...

The website ‘The West Indian Heritage’ tells its story using the buildings as a framework for understanding the structure, function, and people of the colony who were either forced to risk their lives producing the coveted goods or benefited from the profits on the goods throughout the first 150 years of the colony’s history.

Edward Wilmot Blyden (3 August 1832 – 7 February 1912) was a Liberian educator, author, diplomat, and politician who worked mostly in Liberia. He also spent five years teaching in Sierra Leone, and his writings had an impact in both countries.Blyden was born on 3 August 1832 in St Thomas, Danish West Indies (now known as the United States Virgin Islands) to Free Black parents from the Igbo tribe of modern-day Nigeria.Blyden edited the Liberia Herald from 1855 to 1856 and penned the editorial "A Voice From Bleeding Africa."He also spent time in other British colonies in West Africa, most notably Nigeria and Sierra Leone, where he wrote for both colonies' early newspapers.Additionally, he worked as an editor at The Negro and The African World. He maintained contacts with the American Colonization Society and contributed articles to their journals, African Depository and Colonial Journal.Blyden served as Liberia's ambassador to the United Kingdom and France as a diplomat. Blyden was named Liberia's Secretary of State as a young man (1862–64). He then served as Minister of the Interior from 1880 until 1882. Blyden is often considered the "founder of Pan-Africanism" as a writer. His magnum opus, Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race (1887), argued that Islam was a more unifying and meaningful religion for Africans than Christianity.

1. To introduce students to the Caribbean influence in hip-hop music, focusing on the pioneering group Salt-N-Pepa and the contemporary success of R. City.2. To explore how artists from the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean have contributed to the popularity and expansion of hip-hop music.3. To encourage students to appreciate and celebrate their cultural heritage while embracing diverse narratives in the world of music.

This teacher-made  PowerPoint presentation can be used by the Virgin Islands History teachers to teach the topic: THE FIRST VIRGIN ISLANDERS during the Pre-Columbus Era.

International Day for Monuments discussion with Former Senator Myron Jackson about the bust of King Christian the IX being removed from the Emancipation Gardens public space as a result of public outcry.

The measure appropriates $20,000 from the St. Thomas Capital Improvement Fund to cover the cost of removing and replacing the sculpture. Additionally, the program promotes new discourses, alternative and nuanced approaches to established historical narratives, and promotes inclusive and diverse points of view.

This is a video entitled United States Buys the Virgin Islands. It is a recording of the transfer documents being signed in 1917.

This lesson plan was developed by English Teacher Regina Keels in collaboration with local poet, historian, and writer Richard Schrader.  In this lesson, students will learn about the 1848 Slave Rebellion that led to the emancipation of enslaved Afticans in the Danish West Indies and write and present their own expression of the events. 

Melvin Herbert Evans is the Virgin Islands' first elected governor. Evans graduated from Howard University with a B.S. in 1940 and from the Howard College of Medicine with an M.D. four years later, following graduation from high school on St. Thomas. He then worked in a variety of medical and public health positions for the United States and the Virgin Islands.

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Vol. 22, The United States and Latin America (Jul., 1903), pp. 99-110 (12 pages)

OUR STORIES is a teaching resource about Danish colonialism in the West Indies written with support from the Ministry of Culture Denmark. The Preface to this teaching resource states as follows:

"On March 31st, 2017, the large atrium inside Copenhagen City Hall was resonating with voices. Around the atrium were numerous different exhibits with text, photos and other forms of creative expression, all made by high school students. They had all participated in a contest to create the best presentation of Danish-Caribbean colonial history with the theme of “Pictures from the Past for the Future”. Around the city hall itself, debates, workshops, film screenings and concerts dealing with the U.S. Virgin Islands and Danish colonial history were taking place. The event was happening because on that day, March 31st, 2017, it had been 100 years since the sale of the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John to the United States by the Danish government. The event was attended by high school students from the U.S. Virgin Islands and by the Danish high school students who had created the exhibits in the atrium. All of them having explored the same stories, their discussions and exhibits became part of a conversation about the way history is experienced and remembered, how it is used and told. These questions will also be our point of departure when working with the present teaching material."