1600-1700

By Jacob Parkman

  • Queen Elizabeth dies

  • James I approved the formation of the Virginia Company

  • English Settlers Establish Jamestown

  • Dutch Commissioned Henry Hudson to search for Northwest Passage

  • Pocahontas Marries John Rolfe

  • John Rolfe Plants America's first Tobacco crop

  • "Headright policy" implemented

    Any person who relocated to Virginia would receive 50 acres of land; they would receive additional land for any immigrants whose passage they paid.

  • House of Burgess established

    The Virginia Company establishes the House of Burgess

  • First Slaves Imported to Virginia

    A Dutch ship sells a shipment of slaves to colonists in Virginia

  • Plymouth Colony founded

  • The Netherlands charter the Dutch West India Company

    The company establishes colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, and North America.

  • Powhatan dies

    He is succeeded by his brother Opechancanough

  • Opechancanough attacks Virginia settlers

    His warriors kill one-third of all the colonists. The settlers retaliate by attacking the Indian settlements and the Virginia governor institutes a policy to drive the Chesapeake Indians out of Virginia.

  • New Amsterdam founded on Manhattan Island by the Dutch West India Company

  • Peter Minuit "purchased" Manhattan from the Munsee Indians on behalf of the Dutch

    There is debate on whether the Indians and Dutch understood the transaction on the same terms.

  • Colony founded at Massachusetts Bay

  • Charles I sets aside a tract at the northern tip of Chesapeake for a second colony in America

  • Colony founded at Connecticut

  • Colony founded at Rhode Island

  • Pequot War Begins

    This conflict occurred between the Pequot tribe and the colonists in Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook.

  • Puritans revolt and set up their own government in the Maryland colony

  • Pequot War Ends

  • English Parliament refuses to grant Charles I subsidies to suppress a rebellion in Scotland

  • Charles I is executed

    England becomes a republic and protectorate under Oliver Cromwell.

  • Parliament levels an economic embargo on rebelling American colonies

  • Parliament passes the Navigation Act of 1651

    This Act forced merchants in American colonies to ship their good directly to England.

  • New Virginia law dictated that slave women's children inherited their condition of slavery.

  • Charles II granted the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations royal charters

  • New Netherland is handed over to England and becomes New York

  • Charleston is founded

  • Indian Uprising Known as King Philip's War Begins

    Wampanoag leader Metacom, known as "King Philip" to the English led the uprising.

  • King Philip's War Ends

    Metacom's assassination by an Indian fighting on the side of the English settlers effectively ends the conflict.

  • Bacon's rebellion begins

  • Bacon's rebellion ends

    Bacon died of typhus in late 1676 and his successors surrendered

  • James the Second creates the Dominion of New England

    The colonies of New England, New York, and New Jersey are consolidated into one administrative unit by James II.

  • Charles II is overthrown in the Glorious Revolution

    Prince William of Holland and the English daughter of James the II take the throne.

  • William of Orange invades England and James II flees to France.

  • North Carolina is founded

  • Salem Witch Trials began in Salem Town, Salem Village, Ipswich, and Andover

    The Witch trials continue for about a year until governor Sir William Phips dismantled them in May 1693