As with other territories in the United States, the Virgin Islands elects a delegate who can participate in debates in the House of Representatives but cannot vote.

[8] The islands were named Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes by Christopher Columbus in 1493 after the legend of Saint Ursula and the 11,000 virgins.

[9] Denmark–Norway also took an interest in the islands, and the Danish West India Company settled on St. Thomas in 1672 and St. John in 1694, later buying St. Croix from France in 1733.

[17][18] After another slave rebellion occurred on St. Croix, slavery was abolished by Governor Peter von Scholten on July 3, 1848,[19][20] now celebrated as Emancipation Day.

[22][23][24] With the plantations no longer as profitable, Danish settlers began to abandon their estates, causing a significant drop in population and the overall economy.

A second draft treaty to sell the islands to the United States was negotiated in 1902 but was defeated in the upper house of the Danish parliament in a tie vote (because the opposition carried a 97-year-old life member into the chamber).

The Treaty of the Danish West Indies was signed on August 4, 1916,[27][28] with a referendum on the sale held in Denmark in December 1916 in which voters approved the decision to sell.

The remaining 200 acres (81 ha) of the island was acquired from the United States Department of the Interior in May 2005 for $10, a transaction that marked the official change in jurisdiction.

Until February 2012, the Hovensa plant, located on St. Croix, was one of the world's largest petroleum refineries, refining 494,000 bbl/d (78,500 m3/d), and contributed about 20% of the territory's GDP.

[52] The U.S. Democratic and Republican parties allow U.S. Virgin Islands citizens to vote in their presidential primary elections for delegates to the respective national conventions.

As in the mainland United States, attorneys practice in a variety of settings including private law firms, government, or corporate offices.

L. 94–584 authorizing the people of the United States Virgin Islands to organize a government pursuant to a constitution, which would be automatically approved if Congress did not act within 60 days.

[63] A lawsuit filed by members of the convention to force Governor de Jongh to forward the document to President Barack Obama was ultimately successful.

It alleged that racial discrimination present in the all-white and segregated U.S. Congress of 1917 was the impetus to deny the right to vote to a majority nonwhite constituency.

[80] More densely populated towns such as Frederiksted and Christiansted on St. Croix were historically referred to as "districts", in contrast to the surrounding plantation land.

[34] In a May 2016 report, some 11,000 people were categorized as being involved in some aspect of agriculture in the first half of 2016, but this category makes up a small part of the total economy.

[34] In mid-February 2017, the USVI was facing a financial crisis due to a very high debt level of $2 billion and a structural budget deficit of $110 million.

[35][36] In late 2013, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Research and Statistics Group pointed out that manufacturing employment dropped by 50% in May 2012 and by another 4% by November 2012, and that the GDP fell by 13%, "mainly due to an 80% drop-off in exports (mostly refined petroleum)".

[95] The government instituted a new law in March 2017 with new or increased taxes on rum, beer, tobacco products and sugary drinks, as well as internet purchases and timeshare unit owners.

Additionally, the islands frequently are a starting point for private yacht charters to the neighboring British Virgin Islands.The manufacturing sector consists of mainly rum distilling.

The CIA World Factbook lists the value of federal programs and grants — $241.4 million in 2013, 19.7% of the territory's total revenues — and that "the economy remains relatively diversified.

[citation needed] In addition, the U.S. Navy purchase of two-thirds of the nearby Puerto Rican island of Vieques during World War II resulted in the displacement of thousands of Viequenses, many of whom relocated to St. Croix because of its similar size and geography.

[123][124] Other languages spoken in the Danish West Indies included Irish, Scots, Spanish, and French, as well as Virgin Islands English Creole.

The Danish crown also allowed other religious traditions on the islands including Anglicanism, Catholicism, the Moravian Church and other Protestant groups.

[127][128][page needed] A number of neo-Protestant traditions including Pentecostalism, various evangelical Protestants and the Seventh-day Adventists arrived later with the switch of allegiance from Denmark to the United States.

St. Thomas is home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Western Hemisphere, as Sephardi Jews began to settle the island in the 18th century as traders and merchants.

[133] The University of the Virgin Islands provides higher education leading to associate's, bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees, with campuses on St. Thomas and St. Croix.

The culture derives chiefly from West African, European and American traditions, in addition to the influences from the immigrants from the Arab world, India and other Caribbean islands.

The family records of US senator Judah P. Benjamin, artist Camille Pissarro, medical pioneer Jacob Da Costa, and others can be found in the documents.

Consensus 2022 NCAA women's player of the year and USA national team member Aliyah Boston (University of South Carolina) was born and raised in St.