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Founding Of Jamestown
Around 100 English colonists landed along the west bank of the James River in Virginia to found Jamestown. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America. It really only prosperd because of the amount of Tabacco growth within the settlement. -
Creation of the House of Burgesses
In April, 1619, Govenor George Yeardley arrived in Virginia from England and announced that the Virginia Company had voted to abolish martial law and create a legislative assembly. It became the House of Burgesses — the first legislative assembly in the American colonies. The first assembly met on July 30, 1619, in the church at Jamestown. -
Founding of Plymouth
Around 100 English men and women, all among the Separatist religion, set sail on the Mayflower in search of religious freedom in the new world. The setteled among the shores of Cape Cod, and founded P[lymouth in 1620. -
Pequot War
On May 26, 1637, the Puritans and their Indian allies marched on the Pequot village at Mystic, and slaughterd all but a handful of its inhabitants. -
Fundamental Orders Of Connecticut
In Hartford, Connecticut, the first constitution in the American colonies, the "Fundamental Orders," is adopted by representatives of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford. -
Toleration Act of 1649
The Toleration Act, passed on April 24, 1649, granted religious freedom to all who believed in the Trinity and that Jesus was the son of God. In addition, the law made it a crime to jeer at other believers by calling them names such as "papist," "heretic," or "Puritan." -
Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were passed by the English Parliament in the seventeenth century. The Acts were originally aimed at excluding the Dutch from the profits made by English trade. The mercantilist theory behind the Navigation Acts assumed that world trade was fixed and the colonies existed for the parent country. -
King Philip's War
King Philip's War begins when a band of Wampanoag warriors raid the border settlement of Swansee, Massachusetts, and massacre the English colonists there. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion, popular revolt in colonial Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon. High taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resentment against special privileges given those close to the governor, Sir William Berkeley, provided the background for the uprising, which was precipitated by Berkeley's failure to defend the frontier against attacks by Native Americans. -
Dominion of New England
The continuing military threat posed by the French and their Indian allies in North America was an additional reason to tighten control of the colonies. In 1686, all of New England was joined in an administrative merger, the Dominion of New England; two years later, New York and both New Jerseys were added. -
Salem Witch Trials
In Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bridget Bishop, the first colonist to be tried in the Salem witch trials, is hanged after being found guilty of the practice of witchcraft.February 1692, when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigail Williams, the daughter and niece, respectively, of the Reverend Samuel Parris, began experiencing fits and other mysterious maladies. A doctor said that the children were suffering from the effects of witchcraft, and the young girls -
Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening, occurring around 1730 to 1760, had a profound impact on the course of the United States, especially during the latter half of the Eighteenth Century. The Great Awakening was a movement rooted in spiritual growth which brought a national identity to Colonial America. -
Peter Zenger Trial
Zenger was brought to trial on charges of printing false and seditious statements about colonial officials. -
Stono Rebellion
Stono Rebellion was a South Carolina slave revolt. Many blacks along the Stono River attempted to march to Spanish Florida. However, they had to stop because of the local militia. This is significant because it proved that enslaved Africans was a more tightly controlled labor force than the white indentured servants whom they gradually replaced.
