1600-1700

  • Jamestown

    Virginia Company sent three ships carrying 104 colonists to America, who then founded the first English settlement in North America.
  • First American Slaves

    20 Angolans were kidnapped by the Portuguese, and brought into the British colony of Virginia and then bought by English colonists. The arrival of these enslaved Africans in the New World marked two and a half centuries of slavery in North America.
  • House of Burgesses

    The House of Burgesses was the first democratically elected legislative body in the British American colonies.
  • Mayflower Compact

    A group of 102 women, men, and children traveled aboard in the Mayflower, a tiny three-mastered vessel, across the Atlantic, bound for the Virginia colony, where they had obtained permission to settle.
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony

    The Massachusetts Bay Colony was intended to be a holy commonwealth for Puritans, however the Anglicans wanted to purify the Church of England.
  • The Navigation Act

    The Navigation Act was intended to increase control over the colonial economies. This Act required that all goods going to and from the colonies be transported only in English-owned ships.
  • King Phillips War

    An Englishman shot a Wampanoag, and the Wampanoags retaliated by ambushing and beheading a group of Puritans. This gruesome violence spun out of control in what came to be called King Philip's War. The fighting that broke out during this war killed more people in proportion to the population than any American conflict since.
  • Bacon's Rebellion

    Tensions between the English and the Indians caused by falling tobacco prices, rising taxes, and crowds of landless freed servants sparked this Rebellion. Scattered attacks began along James River and became a battle of landless servants, small farmers, and enslaved Africans against Virginia's wealthiest planters and political leaders.
  • Glorious Revolution

    This Revolution was called "Glorious," because it took place with little bloodshed. It involved the overthrow of the Catholic King James ll, who was replaced by his daughter Mary and her husband William. This revolution changed how England was governed, which gave Parliament more power over the monarchy.
  • Salem Witch Trials

    The Salem witch trials began after a group of young girls in Salem Village claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused many local women of witchcraft.