History of the British Virgin Islands

Did You Know?

• The Arawak inhabited the islands until the 15th century, when they were displaced by the more aggressive Caribs.
• In 1717 there were 547 black people in the territory, all assumed to be slaves; by 1756 the number had risen to 6,121.
• Hurricane Irma struck on 6 September 2017, causing extensive damage on Tortola and four deaths; the Governor declared a state of emergency for the first time under the territory's constitution.

1492: Early European exploration

Christopher Columbus first sighted the Virgin Islands in 1493 during his second voyage, naming them Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Vírgenes, later shortened to Las Vírgenes, after the legend of Saint Ursula. He is also credited with naming Virgin Gorda, which he believed to be the largest island. The Spanish claimed the islands by right of discovery but never settled them. In 1508, Juan Ponce de León settled Puerto Rico, and Spanish records indicate the Virgin Islands were used only for fishing, possibly referring to what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sebastian Cabot and Thomas Spert visited in 1517 on their return from exploring Brazilian waters. Sir John Hawkins made three visits, first in 1542, then in 1563 with slaves for Hispaniola, and finally accompanied by a young Francis Drake. Drake returned in 1585, anchoring in North Sound on Virgin Gorda before his attack on Santo Domingo, and again in 1595 on his final voyage, during which he died; the main channel in the British Virgin Islands bears his name.

In 1598, George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, used the islands as a staging ground for an attack on Puerto Rico. King James I granted a patent to James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle, for Tortola and other islands, and Carlisle later received patents for Barbados, St. Kitts and all the Caribees in 1627, but neither he nor his son attempted to settle the northern islands. Dutch privateer Joost van Dyk established the first permanent settlements in Soper's Hole on Tortola by 1615, farming cotton and tobacco and trading with Spanish colonists.

1672: British colonisation

England assumed control of the British Virgin Islands in 1672 at the start of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch claimed that Willem Hunthum placed Tortola under the protection of Colonel Sir William Stapleton, the English Governor-General of the Leeward Islands, who reported having captured the territory. Colonel William Burt was sent to Tortola and took control by 13 July 1672, but lacking sufficient men, he destroyed Dutch forts and removed their cannons to St. Kitts.

The Treaty of Westminster in 1674 ended the war and provided for mutual restoration of conquests, but the Dutch, then at war with France, did not immediately reclaim the islands. The British, though deeming the possessions of little value, became reluctant to surrender them for strategic reasons, and in June 1677 orders were issued to Stapleton to retain Tortola and surrounding islands. After the Franco-Dutch War ended in 1678, the Dutch ambassador Arnout van Citters formally requested the return of Tortola in 1684, basing his claim not on the treaty but on the private rights of Willem Hunthum's widow, asserting the island had been entrusted to the British and providing a letter from Stapleton promising its return.

1834: Emancipation

Slavery was abolished on 1 August 1834, a date still marked by a three-day public holiday in the British Virgin Islands, with the original emancipation proclamation displayed in the High Court. The abolition freed 5,792 slaves, though about 2,000 free blacks already lived in the territory. Emancipation was gradual: freed slaves entered a forced apprenticeship lasting four years for house slaves and six for field slaves, requiring 45 hours of unpaid labour weekly and restricting movement without the master's permission.

The Council later reduced the period to four years for all slaves to quell dissent among field slaves. The economics of abolition are difficult to quantify: slave owners suffered a huge capital loss, receiving £72,940 in compensation, only a fraction of the slaves' value. However, they no longer bore costs for housing, clothing, and medical care, which sometimes nearly balanced the loss of free labour. Former slaves typically worked for the same masters for small wages, paying for expenses formerly covered by their masters, though some managed to amass savings, indicating that owners were worse off in both capital and income terms.

Modern developments

In 1901 the Legislative Council was formally dissolved, and the islands were administered through the Governor of the Leeward Islands, who appointed a commissioner and an executive council. The territory was not economically prosperous, social services had nearly vanished, and emigration was high, particularly to St. Thomas and the Dominican Republic, with little British assistance due to the two World Wars. In 1949, fisherman Theodolph H. Faulkner from Anegada, after a disagreement with a medical officer, began publicly criticizing the government in Tortola's marketplace.

His oratory sparked a movement led by Isaac Fonseca and Carlton de Castro; on 24 November 1949, over 1,500 British Virgin Islanders marched on the commissioner's office and presented a petition. Following these demonstrations, the British government reinstituted the Legislative Council in 1950 under a new constitution, described by McWelling Todman QC as minimal in intent and effect. The new council acted actively: in 1951 external capital from the Colonial Welfare and Development office assisted farmers, and in 1953 the Hotel Aid Act boosted tourism.

By 1958 the territory had only 12 miles of motorable roads, but over the next 12 years the road system was vastly improved, linking West End to East End of Tortola and connecting Tortola to Beef Island by a new bridge, and the Beef Island airport (later renamed after Terrance B. Lettsome) was built.