<P> The United States Virgin Islands are located in the Lesser Antilles) of the Eastern Caribbean (between the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea), the United States Virgin Islands are actually approximately 50 islands and cays (pronounced "keys"), the largest of which are St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John, respectively . </P> <P> The population of the United States Virgin Islands forms a complex society with multiple diverse ethnic groups: Virgin Islanders, Eastern Caribbean islanders, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans (Dominican Republic), French, Americans (locally known as "continentals"), Arabs and Asians . At least one writer feels the ethnic cultural practices and institutions that remain, migration, and the influence of the mainland United States have made the society more pluralistic than given it any common Virgin Islands identity . </P> <P> Early inhabitants of the Virgin Islands included the Ciboney, Arawaks, and Island Caribs . 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 . 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 . 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 become part of the united states