Brief History of the Virgin Islands

Jarvis, José Antonio, Brief History of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands: The Art Shop, 1938.

Reviewed in The Journal of Negro History © 1939.

Jose Antonio Jarvis was born on November 22, 1901, the offspring of a minister of the African Methodist Church, Joseph W. Jarvis and Mercedes Duvergee, a Roman Catholic St. Thomian. He was brought up by Miss Mary Hughustein, whom Jarvis referred to as his godmother, in a house on Gamble Gade in Savan. Young Antonio attended the Catholic School. His interest in journalism began rather early when he worked as a printers evil to Herbert Taylor, who owned a newspaper and then to "Lightbourn's Mail Notes." He contributed to it when it became George Audain's "St. Thomas Mail Notes" and years after became its assistant editor. The noted educator started teaching in 1924, first at the St. Thomas Academy, later, the same year, at Abraham Lincoln School. After passing exams in the public education system, he received an elementary certificate. He then taught at the Charlotte Amalie High School for eight years.