[9] Petroglyphs and artifacts found at Cinnamon Bay indicate a Taíno presence on Saint John from about 700 to the late 15th century.

[10]: 24 The Danish West India Company resettled Saint Thomas in 1671,[11] and an African slave market was established in 1673.

Saint John was claimed as a part of the British Leeward Islands in 1684 when it was leased to two English merchants from Barbados, yet they were removed by Governor Stapleton.

Firing the fort's cannon, the signal was given for the start of a six-month revolt, which only ended when French troops were brought in from Martinique.

[10]: 68–69 Instead of submitting to captivity and slavery, more than a dozen men and women, including Breffu, one of the leaders,[15] shot and killed themselves before the French forces reached them.

[17] In 1917, during the First World War, the United States purchased the U.S. Virgin Islands for $25 million from the Danish government in order to establish a naval base.

The category 5 storm forced roughly half of the island's 4,500 residents to evacuate and caused power outages that lasted for months.

Saint John is divided into the following subdistricts (with population as per the 2020 U.S. Census):[5] Activists filed a lawsuit on September 20, 2011 in the federal US District Court of the Virgin Islands seeking the right to be represented in Congress and to vote for U.S. president.

[19] The main export of Saint John used to be sugar cane, which was produced in great quantity using African slave labor.

Individual and group boat charters are widely available on Saint John and island hopping is a favorite local and visitor activity.

The remaining portion, the Caneel Bay Resort, operates on a lease arrangement with the NPS, which owns the underlying land.

[24][citation needed] A ferry service runs hourly from Red Hook, Saint Thomas, thrice daily from Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, and daily from Tortola; regular ferries also operate from Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke and Anegada.

[27][28] This is because the U.S. District Court deemed the law to violate the Interstate Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.

Car rental companies are located throughout Cruz Bay, most within easy walking distance of the ferry dock.

In addition, it was an easy sail by smaller boats, with minimal tacking, to the nearby British Virgin Islands.

International ferries use the United States Customs and Immigration dock at the Victor William Sewer Marine Facility.

[31] Cruise ships visit Cruz Bay regularly during the winter, although they must anchor and deliver guests via tender.

The waters surrounding the US Virgin Islands are patrolled by United States Coast Guard cutters out of Miami, Florida, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In October, 2020, the Trump administration signed a non-binding preliminary agreement to pursue a land swap between the National Park Service and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and Government of the Virgin Islands (GVI) agreed to work together for 12 months to evaluate a proposed exchange that, if successful, would allow local officials to construct the first K-12 public school on Saint John.

[35] The National Park Service issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) on the Environmental Assessment (EA) for the potential land exchange.