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Jamestown
Jamestown was the first permanent English Colony. It was established on May 14, 1607. -
Virginia House of Burgesses
The VIrginia House of Burgesses first met July 30, 1619. They met in a Church in Jamestown. The first order of business was to set a minimum price for the sale of tobacco -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon gathered his supporters, marched on Jamestown, and coerced Berkeley into granting him a commission to continue his campaigns against Native Americans. A circumspect assembly then passed several reform measures. The governor, having failed to raise a force against Bacon, fled to the Eastern Shore. He gathered enough strength to return to Jamestown, where he proclaimed Bacon and his men rebels and traitors. -
Salem Witch Trials
The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases. -
John Peter Zenger
In 1733, Zenger was accused of LIBEL, a legal term whose meaning is quite different for us today than it was for him, In his day it was libel when you published information that was opposed to the government. He was accused for this for writing an article about William S. Cosby being a corrupt governer. However the jury was full of people on Cosby's payroll. After getting a fair jury Zenger was proven not guilty. -
French and Indian War
In 1755, Governer Shirley expelled some of the French to the British Colonies. During this time the British Army was hampered by the lack of interest at home, rivalries arose among American Colonies, and the French allied the Indians. In 1756 Britain declared war but was faced with the same probelms as his predecessors and fell to the French and their allied Indians. -
Proclamation of 1763
This proclamation forbade any settlers from settling past a line drawn at the Appalachian Mountains. -
Quatering Act
Parliment enaced them to order local governments to provide British soldiers with needed accomodations and housing. -
Stamp Act
The new tax required Americans to pay a tax on every printed piece of paper they used. -
Decalatory Act
This act stated that the British Parlament's taxing authority was the same in America as it was in Britain. -
Boston Massacre
A squad of British soldiers, come to support a sentry who was being pressed by a heckling, snowballing crowd, let loose a volley of shots. Three persons were killed immediately and two died later of their wounds; among the victims was Crispus Attucks, a man of black or Indian parentage. -
Boston Tea Party
A group of colonists protest thirteen years of increasing British oppression, by attacking merchant ships in Boston Harbor. -
Tea Act
was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The Townshend Duties were still in place, however, and the radical leaders in America found reason to believe that this act was a maneuver to buy popular support for the taxes already in force. -
1st Continental Congress
Delegates from every colony except for Georgia met in Pennsylvania and were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain, but their aims were not uniform at all. Pennsylvania and New York sent delegates with firm instructions to seek a resolution with England. -
2nd Continental Congress
he Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met between September 5, 1774 and October 26, 1774, also in Philadelphia. The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence. -
Declaration of Independence
The most cherished document in American history. This document declares our freedom from Great Britain.
