[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 46 (Thursday, March 16, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H2093-H2094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
 COMMEMORATING THE TRANSFER OF THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS FROM DENMARK TO 
                           THE UNITED STATES

  (Ms. PLASKETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, later today, I intend to reintroduce a 
resolution commemorating the transfer of the U.S. Virgin Islands from 
Denmark to the United States. In that resolution, it discusses the 1733 
slave revolt, the first slave revolt in the Western Hemisphere; the 
1848 slave rebellion and emancipation, 17 years before the United 
States; and, of course, the 1917 transfer of ownership of the Virgin 
Islands from Denmark to the U.S.
  We also discussed great Virgin Islanders, such as Alton Adams, Edward 
Blyden, Camille Pissarro, Judah Benjamin, and Roy Innis.
  What does the transfer mean, and what have been the gains and 
benefits to the people of the Virgin Islands because of the purchase by 
the United States? The Americans were able to receive a pristine, 
geopolitically strategic location in the Caribbean with a people who 
are loyal to and proud of this country.
  What has been given to the Virgin Islanders, a people willing and 
eager to take on the responsibilities of that citizenship but who, in 
fact, have moved from a system of serfdom, under Danish rule, to 
second-class, limited

[[Page H2094]]

privileged citizenship by the United States?
  We need to take this time in this centennial transfer year to look at 
what have been the gains and for the U.S. to make a more perfect Union 
by more perfect citizenship and more inclusion of the U.S. Virgin 
Islands into the United States.

                          ____________________