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The first permanent British colony in America is established in Virginia.
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Henry Hudson leads an expedition to fight the Northwest Passage, and ventures down the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, where he is eventually killed via a mutiny.
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Colonists in Jamestown obtain and begin to plant and harvest native tobacco in Virginia. It will soon become a major cash crop that will directly contribute to the expansion of colonization.
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During that winter of 1609-1610, nearly 440 settlers of Jamestown die because of what is known as Starving Time
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The first representative body in America meets for the first time in Virginia.
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The first African slaves were brought to Jamestown by Dutch traders.
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The earliest Plymouth Colony document known as the Mayflower Compact is signed. It is a document containing the colony's laws, religious beliefs, etc.
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The Plymouth Colony is established in Massachusetts by the Pilgrims from England after arriving on the ship, the Mayflower.
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The Pilgrims, after their first successful growing season, have a multiday-long celebration of feasting and games. The Indians, who had helped them survive, turn out en mass to join in.
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Harvard College in Massachusetts is founded.
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New England makes Slavery legal.
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The British seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch and renamed it New York after the Duke of York.
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Rhode Island passes the first laws in the colonies that makes the practice of slavery illegal within its state, making it the first state to abolish slavery.
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Earliest attacks against Colonists begins King Philip’s War.
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The colony of Pennsylvania is established by William Penn, a Quaker owed land by the king of Britain.
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Religious fervour and paranoia of witchcraft in Massacheutts Purtian village of Salem results in the false executions and deaths of about two dozen people, most being women.