A  collection of articles by scholar Arthur Highfield covering all aspects of Virgin Islands history & culture, with particular attention to St. Croix.

Time Longa' Dan Twine (Time's Longer than Twine) is an expression that reflects the wisdom of the people and culture of the Virgin Islands, meaning that the things of the world always dwarf the things of man.  Highfield had taken this admonition as his starting point and his guide in his quest to reveal the foundations of local history.  In these pages you will follow in the wake of Columbus on his second Caribbean voyage, visit the indigenous folk who lived here hundreds of years before his coming, feel the force of powerful hurricanes, take part in the early settlement of these islands by small bands of settlers, treavel from Africa across the Atlantic in board abominable slaev ships, and learn ultimately to appreciate the culture that was created over seevral centuries in the encounter between Europeans and Africans in the context of a plantation soiciety dedicated to the production of sugar and rum.