Christiansted

Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands, is the largest town on Saint Croix, one of the main islands composing the United States Virgin Islands, a territory of the United States of America.

The town was founded by Frederick Moth after he was made governor of St. Croix in 1733. Departing from St. Thomas, Capt. Moth's party had cleared a space for Fort Christianswærn by 5 September. In a ceremony next to this fort on 8 Jan. 1734, the French formally handed over the island to the Danes in the form of the Danish West India and Guinea Company. The island was to be allotted 300 plantations, 215 for sugar and the remainder for cotton. The plantations surveyed were 3000 feet by 2000 feet. In addition, the company established a sugar refinery and distillery. The fort was completed by 1740. The 1742 census listed 120 sugar plantations, 122 cotton plantations, and 1,906 slaves compared to about 300 Englishmen and 60 Danes. By 1743, the island had a hospital and in 1745, the number of slaves had increased to 2878. By 1754, the town included 83 "white inhabitants", "each of whom owned from a single slave to sixty-six of them," according to Westergaard. Total slaves on the island had increased to 7566.

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