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Founding of Jamestown
Jamestown was the first English settlement in the New World and was funded by the Virginia Company of London in hopes of finding gold.However the colonists faced multiple problems in the new settlement such as indian conflict, lack of food, brackish water, and disease.This settlement was close failure but was saved by Captain John Smith. -
Founding of the Virginia House of Burgesses
The first legislative assembly of elected representives in North America. The first meeting was held in Jamestown, Virginia. It was created as an effort to encourage English craftsmen to settle in North America and to make conditions in the colony more agreeable for it inhabitnats. -
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
The Orders were adopted by the Connecticut Colony council described the government set up by Connecticut River towns. This was considered the first written document in colonial America that proposed a government. -
Maryland Act of Toleration
A law passed by Maryland that mandated religious tolerance for trinitarian Christians. However the act did allow freedom of religion as along as Jesus was considered your savior and anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus would be sentenced to the death. The act influenced related laws in other colonies and portions of the first amendment of the Constiution which states freedom of religion. -
Halfway Covenant
The Covenant provided for a partial church membership for the children of church members.The Halfway Covenant was created because the Puritan church felt that people were drifting away from their religion.This showed the beginning of desperation for the Puritans. -
King Philip's War
A armed conflict between the Native American's and the colonists in which the Native Americans attempted to drive the colonists out of Northern America. The war lasted fourteen months and resulted in twelve destroyed frontier town. The war was ended in August 1667 shortly after Metacom, a Native American leader, was captured and beheaded. This war developed a greater American identity without Great Britain's government support. -
Bacon's Rebellion
A rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon against William Berkeley due to his failure to address the colonists demands for safety from the Indians.William Berkeley refused to attack the Native Americans primarly because he wanted to uphold a peaceful relationship with them.This angered the colonists in which they took actions into their own hands and started attacking the Indians themselves.Bacon's Rebellion is what started salvery in the colonies. -
Leisler's Rebellion
An uprising in which German American merchant and milita captain Jacob Leisler seized control of the south and ruled it from 1689 to 1691. It took place after Britain's Glorious Rebellion. The rebellion reflected the colonists resentment against the polices of the King James the second. -
Salem Witchcraft Trials
A series of trails in which people were acused of witchcraft in colonial Massasuchetts due to an unexplainable illness of two teenage girls. The trials showed how the church and state were not seperated. It also showed how paranoid the Puritans were of the unexplainable. -
Massachusetts Bay Founding
Founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company due to religious purposes. The population was strongly Puritan and its goverence was influenced by Puritan religious leaders. -
First Great Awakening
A revitalization movement that swept through colonial America when colonists started to question religionist authority. This awakening slipt preachers into two factions, "the old lights and "the new lights. The new lights were preachers who adopted a new style of preaching while the preachers who stuck to tradional preaching were old lights.The significance of the Great Awakening was that led people to challenge authority and decreased the importance of the clegry in the church. -
John Peter Zenger Trial
A man named John Peter Zenger printed a newspaper called The New York Weekly Journal that voiced his opinions about a colonial governor, William Cosby. He was soon arrested and was charged with libel in August 1735 by general Richard Bradley. Zenger became a symbol of freedom of the press in the American colonies. -
Stono Rebellion
A slave uprising in South Carolina that were led by Jemmy who led other slaves in an army heading towards the south from Stono River. In response to the uprising the South Carolina legislature passed the Negro Act of 1740 that restricted slave assembly, education, and movement.The Stono Rebellion was the largest rebellion led by slaves that were fighting against slave owners in colonial America. -
French and Indian War
Also known as the Seven Years' War was a war fought between Great Britian and France over the Ohio River Valley.The French were greatly outnumbered by the British therefore they formed Indians Allies in which helped them win the Seven Years' War. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris of 1763. Colonial America benefited from France winning the war because the French became more friendly towards American revolutionaries against the British. -
Proclamation of 1763
Issued by King George the third was a law that prohibited colonists from settling past the Appalachian Mountains. The British wanted to stabilize relations with the Native Americans through the regulation of trade and land purchases on the western frontier. This slowed western movement and rose the angerment of the colonists even higher. -
March of Paxton Boys
A group was formed to retaliate against local Native Americans after the French and Indian War. 250 Paxton boys marched to Philadelphia to present their grievances to the legislature. They were greated by leaders and agreed to disperse on a promise made by Benjamin Franklin that their issues would be considered. The march of Paxton boys was an act of protest against the Quaker's policy towards the Indians -
Stamp Act
An act passed by King George the third that imposed a direct tax and required many printed materials in the colonies to be printed on stamped paper produced in London that contained a revenue stamp. The colonists repsonded to this act by creating the Stamp Act Congress in which they held a meeting to unify a protest against this British taxation. -
Boston Massacre
An incident in which British soldiers killed five civilian men and injured six others. An angry mod formed around a British sentry who was subjected to verbal abuse and harassment from the colonists. The British soliders fired into the crowd insistly killing three people and wounding many others. Two other people later died due to wounds. The Massacre caused tensions to rise enormously between the colonists and the British -
Boston Tea Party
The colonists responded to the Tea Act by organizing a protest in which they dumped tons of British tea into the harbor of Boston Massachusetts. This protest led to the Intoerable Acts that closed the harbor of Boston until the colonists paid for the ruined tea and ended local self-government in Massachusetts. These acts fueled the colonists desire to gain back their rights from Great Britian. -
Lexington and Concord
The first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. It was fought within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy, and Cambridge.The battles marked the outbreak of conflict between Great Britain and the thirteen colonies in North America. -
Olive Branch Petition
Adopted by the Continental Congress in an attempt to avoid a war between the 13 colonies and Great Britain. The petiton affirmed American loyality to Great Britian and entreated the king to prevent further conflict. The petition was rejected and the colonists were formally declared to be in a rebellion by the Proclamation of Rebellion -
Common Sense
A pamphlet written by Thomas Paigne in hopes to inspire colonists to declared and fight for independence from Great Britain. It explained the advantages of and the need for independence. The pamphlet is considered to be a significant piece of literature regarding monarchies, government, and America's independence. -
Declaration of Independence
A statement adopted by the Continental Congress that declared the thirteen colonies independence in which the colonies no longer belonged to the British empire.It stated that all men were equal and established reasons why the colonies were declaring independence. -
Writing of the AOC
The first constituion among the 13 colonies that established the United States of America as a confederation. The Articles of Confederation was a weak form of government in which it could not tax, could not raise a sufficent army, and allowed states to make treaties of their own. Due to the failure of the Articles of Confederation led to the writing of the Constituion. -
Writing of the Constitution
Written during the Philadelphia Convention. The original Constitution had been raftied 27 times and was submitted to the Articles Congress to be drafted to the states for raftication for the constituional method proposed.The states only agreed to rafty the Constitution only if the amendments were to become the Bill of Rights and were proposed in the first session of the first congress. The Constitution was a formal document defining the nature of the Constitutional settlement.
