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The first permanent English settlement is founded in Jamestown, Virginia.
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The first enslaved Africans arrive in North America at Jamestown.
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The Mayflower pilgrims establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony at Plymouth.
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John Smith publishes the General History of Virginia.
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William Bradford describes his journey across the Atlantic and pilgrims' settlement in Of Plymouth Plantation.
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North America's first public school is founded in Boston.
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Bay Psalm Book is the first book to be printed in America
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Anne Bradstreet's poems, collected as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, are published in London.
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The Puritans' victory in King Phillip's War ends Native American resistance in New England colony of Pennsylvania.
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William Penn founds the colony of Pennsylvania.
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Mary Rowlandson publishes The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, an account of her captivity at the hands of Algonquian Indians.
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Quakers voice opposition to slavery.
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Salem witch trials show atmosphere of mass hysteria.
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Cotton Mather publishes The Wonders of the Invisible World in defense of the Salem witch trials.
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The Boston Newsletter, the first American newspaper, is established.
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The colonial population reaches about a half million; Boston's population is about 12,000.
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Benjamin Franklin uses humor to criticize the Puritan establishment in his first published work, The Dogood Papers.
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The religious revival known as the Great Awakening (1739-1742) begins.
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Jonathan Edwards delivers a sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." The sermon typlifies the religious movement known as the Great Awakening.
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The six nations of the Iroquois Confederation cede Ohio Valley territory north of the Ohio River to Britian.
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The Boston Tea Party marks a violent rejection of Britian's taxation policies. The Revolutionary War begins two years later.
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Second Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence.
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British defeat at Yorktown ends the American Revolution
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U.S. Constitution is approved.