These islands were bought by the US. Now they have a message for Greenland.
Traces of Denmark’s 250-year imperial reign can be seen in St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. It can still be seen on St. John and the numerous small islets that today form the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Cities and street signs have Danish names such as Frederiksted; the buildings feature tawny-red bricks brought in by boats crossing the Atlantic; and the stone facades of the sugar plantations where enslaved Africans were forced to work still stand.
Evidence of the islands’ vibrant Caribbean culture, from colorfully costumed dancers to drumming tunes, is interspersed with McDonald’s and Home Depot stores, reflecting its centuries-old status as an unincorporated territory of the United States.
Like President Donald Trump As they negotiate the “framework of a future agreement” with Denmark for access to Greenland, some residents of the tropical region say they feel like they are reexamining their own past.
More: Trump says US will get ‘full access’ to Greenland
“History never repeats itself the same way, but it unfolds differently,” said Stephanie Chalana Brown, an Afro-Caribbean visual historian with deep roots in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Brown said his ancestors were among the first people to be enslaved by Denmark’s colonial powers, and he is among a group of people now working to obtain compensation from Denmark.
As slaves, residents of the Danish territory that later became the United States, Brown said their relatives were sold without their consent. A century later, he worries, Greenland’s residents face the threat of not having a seat at the table on decisions about the future use of their ancestral lands.
“I understand this because the same thing happened to my relatives,” Brown said. “I don’t want to see this happen anywhere else.”
A cruise ship departed for St. Petersburg, US Virgin Islands, on October 22, 2025. He approached Thomas.
Annexation of the Virgin Islands
More than a century ago, President Woodrow Wilson bought the islands, then called the Danish West Indies, from Denmark for $25 million after they threatened to take them by force.
At that time, a war was going on in Europe and the USA was trying to assert its dominance in Latin America. Using many of the same arguments Trump has used for control of Greenland, Wilson said he wanted the islands for strategic reasons: to secure new trade routes and prevent enemies from dominating the region.
At that time, the country’s rival was not China or Russia, but Germany, the aggressor of the First World War. The war increased fears that Germany would absorb Denmark and its territories; this was a perceived threat to the United States.
Following acquisition in 1917, the islands served as a strategic Caribbean outpost and center of naval operations for the United States military for decades. But the Naval air station in the area closed in 1948, and the islands never became the significant military presence once envisioned.
The boats arrive at St. Petersburg in the US Virgin Islands. Filling a marina in St. Thomas, October 22, 2025.
More: Greenland is not the first territory America has requested from Denmark. Here’s another one.
In 1917 St. John, St. Croix and St. The approximately 26,000 residents scattered across St. Thomas were given no say in the purchase, but Denmark held a referendum for mainland residents. Following the process, it took more than a decade for Virgin Islanders to gain United States citizenship.
Islanders were given the right to vote for their own governor in 1970. Today, like residents of other parts of the United States, citizens in the Virgin Islands cannot vote for president and do not have a voting representative in Congress.
Virgin Islanders reflect on Greenland
St. Felipe Ayala, a member of the Thomas Historical Trust, said he had heard talk of Trump’s Greenland ambitions, but mostly in “private circles.” He said people are more focused on international actions happening in their backyards.
Two aircraft carriers of the Navy, USS Gerald R. Ford and USS Iwo Jima docked in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December to assist in the Trump administration’s efforts to disrupt drug trafficking and later capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
The ships marked the first major Navy presence on the island in decades. Ayala said some residents welcomed the ships and the sailors they brought as an economic boost for the island. Others were afraid.
“When we come off our porches, most of the houses look out onto the harbor and the bay,” he said. “Seeing the aircraft carriers and knowing the political climate of the region caught us a little off guard.”
Tourists pose for a selfie at the Charlotte Amalie Overlook with the U.S. Navy USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier (CVN-78) in the background, Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, December 1, 2025.
Following his military actions in Venezuela, Trump stepped up calls to annex Greenland and refused to rule out the possibility of doing so through military force.
Trump appeared to walk back some of that rhetoric on Jan. 23, saying the U.S. would have “full access” to the Arctic island through a deal he negotiated. He acknowledged that he may not be able to formally purchase Greenland.
“It’s possible. Anything is possible,” Trump said of US ownership.
The details of the resulting agreement still remain unclear. So does the role played by the Greenlandic legislature in the debates.
For Brown and other Virgin Islanders whose lineage is tied to Danish colonialism, recent debates over Greenland’s future have spurred growing empathy and concern for the 57,000 residents of the 836,000-square-mile island with a climate vastly different from their own.
Stephanie Chalana Brown (42) is an Afro-Caribbean visual historian living in the US Virgin Islands.
“Is he bringing them to the table to talk about policies?” He asked about Trump’s plans for America’s military footprint on the island. “These were not extended to Virgin Islanders.”
Most Greenlanders are Inuit, an indigenous people who also live in Alaska and Canada. The language they speak, Greenlandic, is very different from Danish. And their traditions differ from those in Denmark, Western Europe and America.
Brown said that if the United States establishes a military presence in Greenland, he is concerned that the same Americanization that he said has occurred in the Virgin Islands may occur on the island.
“You’re seeing the identity of our kids disappear where you know they’re learning American culture through the influence of things like television and radio,” he said. “We are losing our own Caribbean identity.”
“I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to them,” Brown said of Greenland.
Credit: Michael Loria, Francesca Chambers and Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY
Karissa Waddick, who covers America’s sesquicentennial for USA TODAY, can be reached at kwaddick@usatoday.com.
This article first appeared on USA TODAY: There is a message for Greenland from the Virgin Islands purchased by the USA
