On March 31, 2025, it will be 108 years since these islands were sold to the United States. My great-grandparents, grandparents and other relatives who were governed by the Danish government at that time saw the transfer of these islands to the United States for $25 million in gold coin.
Nevertheless, the United States’ colonial policy distinguished between “nationals” and citizens or inhabitants of colonies to whom the rights of U.S. citizenship were not conferred. In other words, the inhabitants of the former Danish West Indies were not citizens of the United States when the islands were transferred.
I was told my great mother Catherine Jurgensen, grandparents Carmelita Hodge, James Industrious, Catherine Smalls, and John Davis Sr. (Davies) said to the grandchildren that they thought once the islands were bought that they would become American citizens. As things turned out, they got neither a measure of self-government nor citizenship.
In 1848, the enslaved Africans of these islands emancipated themselves from physical slavery. It was the people of these islands again, those like Rothschild Francis, David Hamilton Jackson, and others, who had to fight politically and socially to become citizens of the United States, which was granted to them on Feb. 25, 1927. Further steps of citizenship were also taken with an Act of June 28, 1932, that provided that any Virgin Islander or their children born after Jan. 17, 1917 — which my father was born on St. Thomas June 3, 1917 — were to be considered citizens of the United States.
Nonetheless, those who were as of the date of the Act residing in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Panama Canal Zone, the Virgin Islands, or any other insular possession of the United States who otherwise acquired U.S. nationality with statutory citizenship, naturalized, and those who were residing in foreign countries were classed as non-quota immigrants upon admission to the United States.
I find It interesting that in 1803 the Danish government abolished the slave trade in these islands but sold people in 1917 to the United States. However, the primary reason the United States wanted these islands is because of Germany’s possible occupation in the Caribbean region, particularly the Danish West Indies. As a result of the purchase of the Virgin Islands, the United States saw it fit to establish a naval base on St. Thomas and Water Island for a safety net for the Panama Canal and to prevent the German acquisition of the Danish West Indies.
President Woodrow Wilson as well as Secretary of State Robert Lansing feared that if Germany controlled Denmark that they might launch more attacks from the Danish West Indies. Lately, we keep hearing in the media that President Donald Trump wants the United States to possess Greenland. As when the United States tried to purchase the Danish West Indies since the 1860s, there were also attempts by the United States’ government to acquire the island of Greenland from Denmark in 1867, 1910, 1946, 1955, 2019, and as recently as 2025.
Purchasing Greenland has been advocated by American secretaries of state such as James F. Byrnes, William H. Seward, and other top government officials privately for years and now publicly by Trump. After World War II, the United States made an offer to secretly buy Greenland. During Trump’s first term as president in 2019 there were discussions to purchase Greenland and again after his re-election in 2024 as part of an American expansionist policy in the world. Greenland is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
However, the people of Greenland and Danish authorities have stated publicly many times that Greenland has the right to self-determination and the island is not for sale. Many people in Greenland support the idea of independence. The Danes looks at Greenland as an historical tie to Denmark and as part of Danish national identity. However, the United States views Greenland as a vital strategic location to national security as well as valuing its natural resources.
In 1867, Congress approved the treaty to purchase Alaska from Russia. This purchase ended Russia’s presence in North America, which ensured the United States access to Asian markets, and that Alaska would serve as a base for American trade globally and as an extension of American power into the Pacific region of the world.
It is for these reasons and others that the United States looks at Greenland as vital to our national security and in the event of a threatened attack on the United States. During World War II, the United States invoked the Monroe Doctrine to occupy Greenland to prevent Germany from using the island following the German occupation of Denmark. This tied right into the purchase of the Danish West indies in 1917 because of the fear of Germany’s occupation in the Caribbean region.
After World War II, the United States military remained in Greenland. For years, Denmark tried to get the United States to leave Greenland, but it didn’t happen. Denmark eventually abandoned the idea. However, both countries became members of the NATO military alliance and in 1951, a treaty gave the United States a major role in Greenland’s defense.
The United States has the Pituffik Space Base on the northwest coast of Greenland. The 1951 defense agreement allowed the U.S. to operate its base under the NATO framework. As a result, both the United States and Danish flags must be side by side on the base. This base allows the United States military to exercise frequently in the surrounding waters of Greenland.
So, on Transfer Day, let us keep in mind that we are part of American expansionism policy. Believe me, the U.S. Virgin Islands today plays an even more major role strategically to the United States’ safety and the safety of the free world.
— Olasee Davis is a bush professor who lectures and writes about the culture, history, ecology and environment of the Virgin Islands when he is not leading hiking tours of the wild places and spaces of St. Croix and beyond.
