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By Eugenia O’Neal
The earliest settlers of the Virgin Islands are thought to have been the Ciboneys, who arrived around 2000 B.C. They were followed by successive waves of Amerindians who made their way up from South America and settled in various parts of Tortola. The archaeological finds at Belmont reveal the rich complexity of the life they made in the islands. Cassava griddles, zemis (religious artefacts) and clay pots are powerful testimonies of the villagers' lives — but it is the evidence of a ball court, a site of deep religious significance, that reveals just how important Belmont was.
When Christopher Columbus passed through the islands on his second voyage in 1493, he named them Las Vírgenes (the Virgins) in honour of the story of St. Ursula, said to have been martyred along with her 11,000 attendants by the Huns. St. Ursula is now depicted holding a lamp on the green, gold and white coat of arms featured on the flag of the BVI. Each of the other 11 lamps around her represents 1,000 of the virgin maidens.
Columbus never stopped to explore, and the Spanish never settled here. In fact, most of the pirates and commanders of the era had other places on their minds. Sir John Hawkins sailed through in 1563 on his way to sell slaves in Hispaniola, whilst Sir Francis Drake passed through the channel that now bears his name in 1595 to launch his ill-fated attack on the rich Spanish colony of Puerto Rico.
Almost a century passed before a hardy and determined band of Dutch settlers arrived in 1649 and established small cotton, coffee and indigo plantations. The English saw them as a potential threat to their nearby colonies and drove them out in 1665, but they returned only to be evicted again in 1672 by their old enemy. This time, the English asserted their claim, and the islands never changed hands again.
By the mid-1700s, plantation culture had taken off and much of the indigenous vegetation was replaced by rolling waves of sugarcane. Plantation owners brought thousands of African men, women and children to cultivate the lands. The industry and labour of those who survived the Middle Passage built the forts that soon dotted Tortola. Fort Burt in Road Town, Fort Charlotte overlooking the harbour and The Dungeon at Pockwood Pond are amongst the best known. Several sugar mills, such as the one at Mount Healthy, a National Parks Trust site, can also still be seen around the islands.
The small territory flourished, drawing many to its shores, including several religious groups. Amongst those were the Quakers — the Society of Friends — many of whom soon realised they had no stomach for slavery and freed their slaves. Two of the most well known, Samuel and Mary Nottingham of Long Look, freed 25 men, women and children in 1775. They turned over the land on which they'd worked to the former slaves, and it is known as the Nottingham Estate to this day. Several prominent Quakers such as Thomas Chalkley and John Estaugh, mentioned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Tales of a Wayside Inn: Elizabeth, are buried in nearby Fat Hog's Bay in the Quaker Burial Ground there. Other famous BVI Quakers included William Thornton, who designed the U.S. Capitol, and John Coakley Lettsome, the founder of the Medical Society of London.
The Church of England began services in 1745, but it was the Methodists, arriving in 1789, who went on to have the greatest influence amongst the black population. Hundreds became staunch Methodists.
On 1 August 1834, when the British abolished slavery, 1,944 men and 2,207 women were freed. Emancipation is now celebrated with an annual parade on the first Monday in August. The majority of the former slaves chose to work for themselves and left the plantations in droves.
The economy plunged into the doldrums, as sugar prices dropped and a series of hurricanes devastated the islands. In 1853, the passage of a bill to raise the cattle tax struck the match to the cinder and Road Town went up in flames, destroyed by protesting rioters. (The building opposite the Road Town Methodist Church once had copper-sheathed doors and windows and was dubbed The Fireproof after it survived the fire.)
The passage of the West Indies Encumbered Estates Act in 1864 allowed the sale of encumbered estates, and thousands of acres passed into black hands. From then on, the former slaves and their descendants concentrated on farming and fishing, but it was a hard life. Hundreds of men left the islands to find work on sugar plantations, whilst women migrated to find work as seamstresses, washers and cake makers, and also work in the fields. Helped by remittances, those who stayed behind were able to grow enough fruits and vegetables not only to feed themselves but also to export to neighbouring islands. During Prohibition in the United States, several Virgin Islanders were also able to support their families by smuggling rum. They would buy alcohol in the French islands and smuggle it into the U.S. Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico at vastly inflated prices.
In the 1920s, W. C. Fishlock, an enterprising agricultural official sent from Great Britain, encouraged the production of Sea Island cotton and established a cotton ginnery on the grounds of a former sugar estate. The building has now been restored as the Lower Estate Sugar Works Museum and is open to visitors five days a week. Besides cotton, other exports included pimentos, aloes, turtle shells (now prohibited), lime juice, ginger and indigo.
Islanders continued to migrate in high numbers, however, until the 1960s, when tourism became the Territory's primary money earner. A change in the constitution restored representative government to the islands (removed in the late 1800s), and the local politicians concentrated on improving infrastructure and on attracting investment. Developers, including Laurance Rockefeller, grew interested in the sleepy Virgins; by the early 1970s, several marinas, hotels and resorts had opened their doors. Construction and tourism took off, and the islands haven't looked back since.
In 1984, the International Business Companies Act was passed, jumpstarting the offshore financial industry, and the Territory is now a leading business centre, recognized around the world for its probity.
New developments planned for some of the smaller islands, like Mosquito, and the expansion of many of the existing big players in tourism, like The Moorings, guarantee the Territory's continuing growth, even as environmental awareness has resulted in a necessary rethinking of tourism objectives.
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The earliest settlers of the Virgin Islands are thought to have been the Ciboneys, who arrived around 2000 B.C. They were followed by successive waves of Amerindians who made their way up from South America and settled in various parts of Tortola. The archaeological finds at Belmont reveal the rich complexity of the life they made in the islands. Cassava griddles, zemis (religious artefacts) and clay pots are powerful testimonies of the villagers' lives — but it is the evidence of a ball court, a site of deep religious significance, that reveals just how important Belmont was.
Columbus never stopped to explore, and the Spanish never settled here. In fact, most of the pirates and commanders of the era had other places on their minds. Sir John Hawkins sailed through in 1563 on his way to sell slaves in Hispaniola, whilst Sir Francis Drake passed through the channel that now bears his name in 1595 to launch his ill-fated attack on the rich Spanish colony of Puerto Rico. 
The small territory flourished, drawing many to its shores, including several religious groups. Amongst those were the Quakers — the Society of Friends — many of whom soon realised they had no stomach for slavery and freed their slaves. Two of the most well known, Samuel and Mary Nottingham of Long Look, freed 25 men, women and children in 1775. They turned over the land on which they'd worked to the former slaves, and it is known as the Nottingham Estate to this day. Several prominent Quakers such as Thomas Chalkley and John Estaugh, mentioned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Tales of a Wayside Inn: Elizabeth, are buried in nearby Fat Hog's Bay in the Quaker Burial Ground there. Other famous BVI Quakers included William Thornton, who designed the U.S. Capitol, and John Coakley Lettsome, the founder of the Medical Society of London.
On 1 August 1834, when the British abolished slavery, 1,944 men and 2,207 women were freed. Emancipation is now celebrated with an annual parade on the first Monday in August. The majority of the former slaves chose to work for themselves and left the plantations in droves. 
The passage of the West Indies Encumbered Estates Act in 1864 allowed the sale of encumbered estates, and thousands of acres passed into black hands. From then on, the former slaves and their descendants concentrated on farming and fishing, but it was a hard life. Hundreds of men left the islands to find work on sugar plantations, whilst women migrated to find work as seamstresses, washers and cake makers, and also work in the fields. Helped by remittances, those who stayed behind were able to grow enough fruits and vegetables not only to feed themselves but also to export to neighbouring islands. During Prohibition in the United States, several Virgin Islanders were also able to support their families by smuggling rum. They would buy alcohol in the French islands and smuggle it into the U.S. Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico at vastly inflated prices.
Islanders continued to migrate in high numbers, however, until the 1960s, when tourism became the Territory's primary money earner. A change in the constitution restored representative government to the islands (removed in the late 1800s), and the local politicians concentrated on improving infrastructure and on attracting investment. Developers, including Laurance Rockefeller, grew interested in the sleepy Virgins; by the early 1970s, several marinas, hotels and resorts had opened their doors. Construction and tourism took off, and the islands haven't looked back since.
