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Sep 10, 1215
Magna Carta
The Great Charter signed by King John. British document, which reaffirmed long-standing rights and responsibilities of the English nobility; limited the powers of the king; and recognized that all people, including the government and monarch, are subject to the law. -
Jamestown
King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish an English settlement in North America. By December, 104 settlers sailed from London instructed to settle Virginia, find gold. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact is a written agreement composed by a consensus of the new Settlers arriving at New Plymouth in They had traveled across the ocean on the ship Mayflower which was anchored in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Mayflower Compact was drawn up with fair and equal laws, for the general good of the settlement and with the will of the majority. -
Petition of Right
A major English constitutional document, which sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. -
English Bill of Rights
An Act Declaring the rights and liberties of the subject and settling the succession of the Crown. -
Albany Plan of Union
Was proposed by Benjamin Franklin at the Albany Congress. It was an early attempt at forming a union of the colonies "under one government as far as might be necessary for defense and other general important purposes". -
The Stamp Act
Parliament's first serious attempt to assert governmental authority over the colonies. Great Britain was faced with a massive national debt following the Seven Years War. English citizens in Britain were taxed at a rate that created a serious threat of revolt. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident that led to the deaths of five civilians at the hands of British troops, -
Boston Tea Party
Demonstration by citizens of Boston who raided three British ships in Boston harbor and dumped hundreds of chests of tea into the harbor. Organized as a protest against taxes on tea. -
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts
Series of five laws passed by the English Parliament as a reaction to the Boston Tea Party. Boston's port was closed and it made the colonies mad. -
Second Continental Congress
A convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
American Revolution
The revolution of the American Colonies against Great Britain. The struggle by which the United States won independence from Great Britain (1775-1783). -
Declaration of Independence
A document that states the reasons the thirteen American colonies wanted to be free of Great Britain's government. Written by Thomas Jefferson. -
Articles of Confederation
After Independence from Great Britain the United Colonies needed to form a new Confederation to govern. The Articles of Confederation were passed on November 15, 1777. Required the ratification of all 13 states before it would become the first "Constitution" of the United States of America. The ratification process was completed in March 1781. -
Shay's Rebellion
Farmers in W Massachusetts against the state government. Debt-ridden farmers, struck by the economic depression that followed the American Revolution, petitioned the state senate to issue paper money and to halt foreclosure of mortgages on their property and their own imprisonment for debt as a result of high land taxes. -
Philadelphia Convention
Took place to address problems in governing the United States of America. Although the Convention was purportedly intended only to revise the Articles of Confederation the intention from the outset of many of its proponents was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one. -
Connecticut Compromise
The compromise at the Constitutional Convention which resolved the differences between the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey plan by combining them.
