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.

How do you ensure students get the most out of black history and Black History Month? Here are some suggestions.

What did Manifest Destiny mean to the United States? How did Native Americans and African-Americans fit into Westward Expansion? This lesson plan compares Emanuel Leutze's 1861 study of Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way to the final mural in the United States House of Representatives. Analysis of the artwork and the changes made to the final version teach the history of Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny.

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.

The following map analysis worksheet was designed and developed by the Education Staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. You may find this worksheet useful as you introduce students to maps as primary sources of historical, social and cultural information.

In this presentation, Elizabeth Rezende shares her research on the "New Shipping Routes and the Increase in Migration to St. Thomas Danish West Indies 1880-1916".

St. Thomas is the place where every hand, shakes hands with the other. Between the 1820s and 1890, St. Thomas was the first land mass transatlantic steamships met when following the trade winds directly from the Madeira Islands.

Thus, St. Thomas became a mid-point, a place where ships had to stop to get to another place. Steamships from Europe stopped at this multi-commercial island on their journey to the Caribbean, South and Central American ports for telegraphic messages and refueling. Likewise on the homeward- voyages from the Caribbean, South and Central America, ships again stopped at St. Thomas for refueling and received orders from their home offices.

In 1871, the Hamburg American Line determined that St. Thomas would be its Atlantic headquarters for its newly organized seven routes within the Caribbean Basin.

HAL sent out regularly scheduled ships carrying cargo, passengers, and mail every two weeks, creating increased business in the harbor. To accommodate the vessels’ pressed timeline, scores of unskilled laborers managed the loading and discharging of the goods and people, facilitating the ships’ readiness for the next port of call. In the census workers’ names, places of birth, and occupations were listed. In viewing the enumeration for an entire property, it can be determined that numbers of persons originally from the same islands of birth, such as Tortola and St. Croix, lived together in crowded tenements lining the harbor.

The enumerators of the Danish West Indian censuses of 1880 and 1901 were not only vigilant in entering the occupations of the seamen but also fastidious in filling out the last question, asking where the resident was if he were off-island on the day of the enumeration. Thus, we know in many cases from the censuses where a seaman was sailing and with what company.

Other trades people, such as self-employed vendors of fruits and vegetables, ferry-boat operators, and row- boat sailors, dragging lighters of cargo, were employed by independent sources, and were in the enumeration.

Additionally, a number of European recorders of travelogues comment on their observations and experiences of these routes, noting the high volume of activity among these laborers. Joseph Froude, Robert Woolward, and Anthony Trollope’s diaries give one perspective.

Froude was especially interested in the rate of pay of these groups of workers, and these rates have been corroborated with the payroll records deposited in RG 55 of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Elizabeth Rezende is an independent researcher. She has worked for forty years in studying various groups of people who have made St. Croix and St. Thomas home. Her dissertation focused on the free colored people of Free Gut, Christiansted. She has, under the auspices of the National Park Service, rendered community studies of other areas of greater Christiansted: Water Gut, Gallows Bay, and Market Square and Free Gut of Frederiksted. Her focus of study is the occupations of the residents in these areas of towns over a span of time.

Archaeologists are investigating foodways and re-creating meals prepared by enslaved people who lived in North America and the Caribbean to better understand their everyday lives and fill gaps in the historical record.

 The objective of studying whether the Virgin Islands would thrive better from being heterogeneous or homogeneous is to understand the impact of diversity on a community's social, economic, and cultural development. By examining the benefits and drawbacks of both homogeneity and heterogeneity, researchers can gain insights into the factors that contribute to a community's success or failure. Understanding the dynamics of diversity in the Virgin Islands can help policymakers and community leaders make informed decisions about how to promote economic growth, social cohesion, and cultural preservation in the region. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to identify strategies that will enable the Virgin Islands to thrive and prosper in the face of global challenges and changing demographic trends.

 It was determined in 1847 that future children born to enslaved laborers would be free, and that slavery would be abolished totally in 1859. Instead of agreeing to the deal, the enslaved began mobilizing, and on July 3rd, 1848, an estimated 8,000 enslaved individuals demanded their freedom 1848, an estimated 8,000 enslaved individuals demanded their freedom in Frederiksted in front of Fort Frederik