page_title: Saint Croix
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Croix / History
caption_attribution_description: Dansk: Den 31. marts 1917 kl. 1600. Efter 251 års dansk kontrol nedhales Dannebrog for sidste gang over guvernørboligen på St. Croix. (Orlogsmuseets arkiv) English: 31 March 1917, after 251 years of Danish colonial rule, Dannebrog is lowered for the last time at the Guvonners mansion at Saint Croix
context_page_description: Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States.
  St. Croix is the largest of the islands in the territory. However, the territory's capital, Charlotte Amalie, is located on Saint Thomas. As of the 2010 United States Census, St. Croix's population was 50,601. The island's highest point is Mount Eagle, at 355 meters. St. Croix's nickname is "Twin City", for its two towns, Frederiksted on the western end and Christiansted on the northeast part of the island. In September 2017, Hurricane Maria hit St. Croix with the weaker part of its eyewall causing severe damage.
context_section_description: Igneri pottery indicates that people's presence on the island from 1–700, followed by the Taíno from 700–1425, before the encroachment by the Caribs in 1425.  However, the island was devoid of habitation by 1590.
  The island was inhabited by various indigenous groups during its prehistory. Christopher Columbus landed on Santa Cruz (Holy Cross), as he called it, on 14 November 1493, and immediately was attacked by the Kalinago, who lived at Salt River on the north shore. This is the first recorded fight between the Spanish and a New World native population, and Columbus gave the battle site the name Cabo de la Flecha (Cape of the Arrow). The Spanish never colonized the Islands, but most or all of the native population was eventually dispersed or killed. By the end of the 16th century, the islands were said to be uninhabited.
  Dutch and English settlers landed Saint Croix in 1625, joined by some French refugees from Saint Kitts. However, the English expelled the settlers, before they themselves were evicted by a Spanish invasion in August 1650. The Spanish occupation was short lived, since a French force of 166 men attacked, and in the following year 1651 had established a colony of 300 on the island.  From 1651 until 1664, the Knights of Malta (at the time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Sicily) ruled the island in the name of Louis XIV. The island then passed to the French West India Company. The colony was evacuated to San Domingo in 1695, when France battled the English and Dutch in the War of the Grand Alliance. The island then lay uninhabited and abandoned for another 38 years.
  In 1725, St. Thomas Governor Frederik Moth encouraged the Danish West Indies Company's directors to consider purchasing Santa Cruz (Saint Croix). On 15 June 1733, France and Denmark-Norway concluded a treaty by which the Danish West India Company bought Saint Croix for 750,000 livres. Louis XV ratified the treaty on 28 June, and received half the payment in French coins, with the remaining half paid in 18 months. On 16 November 1733, Moth was named the first Danish governor of Saint Croix. The 1742 census lists 120 sugar plantations, 122 cotton plantations, and 1906 slaves, with about 300 Englishmen and 60 Danes on the island. By 1754, the number of slaves had grown to 7,566. That year, King Frederick took direct control of Saint Croix from the company.
  For nearly 200 years, Saint Croix, St. Thomas and St. John were known as the Danish West Indies. By the mid to late 18th century, "at the peak of the plantation economy, the enslaved population of Saint Croix numbered between 18,000 and 20,000, the white population ranging between 1,500 and 2,000".
  Alexander Hamilton and his brother lived with their mother Rachel Faucette on Saint Croix, after she returned to the island in 1765. Their residence was in the upper floor of a house at 34 Company Street, while Rachel used the lower floor as a shop selling food items. Within two years, however, Hamilton lost his father, James Hamilton, by abandonment, and his mother to death.  Official documents from the island, a 1768 probate court testimony from his uncle, established Alexander's age at 13. By 1769, Hamilton's cousin, aunt, uncle, and grandmother had also died. His brother James became an apprentice carpenter, and Alexander Hamilton became the ward of Thomas Stevens, a merchant on King Street. Hamilton was soon clerking in the export-import business of Beekman and Cruger, at the intersection of King and King's Cross Streets.  In 1772, local businessmen funded Hamilton's further education in New York.
  The slave trade was abolished in the Danish colonies in 1792, although the prohibition did not go into effect until the end of 1802. Existing enslaved people were freed in 1848, after the 1848 St. Croix Slave Revolt led by General "Buddhoe" Gottlieb.
  The British invasion and occupation of the Danish West Indies took place at the end of March 1801, with the arrival of a British fleet at St Thomas. Denmark-Norway accepted the Articles of Capitulation and the Britain occupied the islands without a shot bei
caption: Dannebrog being lowered at the Governor's Mansion for the last time (31 March 1917)
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