13 Colonies

  • Roanoke Founded

    First English settlement was established by a group of colonists (91 men, 17 women and nine children) who settled on Roanoke Island.
  • Roanoke Vanished

    The colony of Roanoke vanished entirely. Historians do not know what happened to its inhabitants.
  • King James I issued Royal Charter

    King James I made a Royal Charter which divided the Atlantic seaboard into two halves. The southern half was given to the London Company. The northern half was given to the Plymouth Company.
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    Settlers go on a voyage from London to Virginia

    The London Company sent 144 men to Virginia. Reached the Chesapeake Bay. About 60 miles up the James River, they built a settlement which they called Jamestown.
  • Virginian Settlers learnt how to grow tobacco

    Virginia’s settlers learnt how to grow tobacco.
  • First African slaves in America

    The first African slaves arrived in Virginia.
  • Pilgrims Arrive and Settle Massachusetts

    First English emigrants to what would become the New England colonies were a small group of Puritan separatists, also known as the Pilgrims. Ten years later, the Massachusetts Bay Company sent a much larger group of Puritans to establish another settlement. With the help of nearby native Americans, the colonists soon learned how to farm, fish, hunt. It was around that time that Massachusetts started to prosper.
  • Charter got Revoked

    King revoked the Virginia Company’s charter and it became a royal colony.
  • Maryland Founded

    The Queen was granted 12 million acres of land on top of the Chesapeake Bay to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore.
    The colony was named Maryland after the queen. Lord Baltimore was Catholic, and he wanted his colony to be a refuge for persecuted Catholics. Maryland became very well known for its policy of religious toleration for everyone.
  • New York Founded

    King Charles II gave territory between New England and Virginia to his brother, the Duke of York. English soon absorbed Dutch New Netherland - renamed it New York most Dutch people who were living there stayed. This made New York one of the most diverse and prosperous colonies in the New World.
  • Connecticut and New Haven Combine

    Puritans who thought that Massachusetts was not pious enough formed Connecticut and New Haven. Later on the two combined.
  • Pennsylvania Founded

    King granted fourty five thousand square miles of land west of Delaware River to William Penn, a Quaker with lots of land in Ireland “Penn’s Woods,” or Pennsylvania. Fertile soil & religious toleration - people came from all over Europe. Most were not indentured servants prosperous and relatively egalitarian place.
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    Carolina colony "golden age"

    Carolina colony stretched south from Virginia to Florida and west to the Pacific Ocean In its northern half, there were small farms
    In its southern half, there were large estates that produced corn, lumber, beef and pork, and rice starting in the 1690s. They split in 1712.
  • Georgia Founded

    Inspired by the need to build a buffer between South Carolina and the Spanish settlements in Florida, the Englishman James Oglethorpe established the Georgia colony. In many ways, Georgia’s development mirrored South Carolina’s.