<P> The first documented Europeans to visit the islands arrived with Christopher Columbus . The islands were occupied by several nations over the next century, including England, the Dutch Republic, France, and Denmark . In 1733, the Danish West India Company purchased Saint Croix from the French and brought together Saint Thomas, Saint Croix, and Saint John as the Danish West Indies . </P> <P> Danish trading posts were set up on the islands, trading in sugar, slaves and other goods . Sugar cane cultivation was a major economic activity for many years, with slaves used as one of the labor sources . However, following increasing humanitarian awareness, laws against slavery and a slave rebellion in 1848, the governor Peter von Scholten officially freed the last slaves the same year . </P> <P> The islands were purchased from the Danish by the United States in 1917 under the Treaty of the Danish West Indies . </P> <P> Although not much is known about the Guanahatabey people who inhabited the islands during the Stone Age, archaeological evidence seems to indicate that they were hunter - gatherers . They made tools of stone and flint but left few other artifacts behind . </P>

When did the virgin islands became part of the us