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Roanoke
In 1587, 117 English men, woman and children came ashore on Roanoke Island to establish a permanent English settlement in the New World. Just 3 years later in 1590, when English ships returned to bring supplies, they found the island deserted with no sign of the colonists. -
Jamestown
Jamestown escaped being attacked, due to a warning from a Powhatan boy living with the English.During the attack 350-400 of the 1,200 settlers were killed. After the attack, the Powhatan Indians withdrew, as was their way, and waited for the English to learn their lesson or pack up and leave.In their first winter, more than half of the colonists perished from famine and illness. -
Great Puritan Migration
English migration to Massachusetts only had a couple hundred people who went to Plymouth Colony in the 1620s. -
Mayflower/Plymouth Compact
The Mayflower Compact was important because it was the first document to establish self-government in the New World. -
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony became the first English chartered colony whose board of governors did not reside in England. -
Maryland Colony
Maryland became the first colony to outlaw the use of slave and indentured labor.Maryland's economy was based on subsistence farming and the shipbuilding industry. Maryland merged politically with the colony of Virginia during the English Civil War. -
Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony was founded by Thomas Hooker and was one of the Thirteen Colonies which rejected British rule in the American Revolution. The Connecticut Colony was established in 1636. -
Rhode Island Colony
During the colonial period, Newport was a major hub for shipping and trade, and in the 19th century, Rhode Island was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of power-driven textile mills. -
House of Burgesses
In 1643 the House of Burgesses became a bicameral body,establishing the House of Burgesses as one of its two chambers.Members would meet at least once a year with their royal governor to decide local laws and determine local taxation.The House of Burgesses granted supplies and originated law. -
Carolina Colony
South Carolina became one of the wealthy colonies due to exports of cotton, rice, tobacco, and indigo dye. King Charles II, gave a group of eight noblemen a tract of land to the south of Virginia colony in 1663. They called the new colony "Carolina",which meant Charles in Latin. The proprietors of the settlement set up a system of government that was called "the Fundamental Constitution of the Carolinas". -
New York Colony
In 1626, Peter Minuit,Dutch Governor of West India Company bought Manhattan from Native Americans for $24 and founded a colony called New Amsterdam. In 1664, the English took over the New Netherland from the Dutch, renaming it New York. Ownership of New York was valuable because of its location and status as a port of commerce and trade. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion started when a grab for Native American lands was denied. Now it is a smoldering ruin, and Nathaniel Bacon was on the run. -
Salem Witches Trials
The infamous Salem witch trials began during the year 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.In 1693, the governor of the colony, upon hearing that his own wife was accused of witchcraft ordered an end to the trials. -
Maryland Toleration Act
Long before the First Amendment was affected, the assembly of the Province of Maryland passed “An Act Concerning Religion,” also called the Maryland Toleration Act of 1649. The act was meant to ensure freedom of religion for Christian settlers of various persuasions in the colony. -
Great Awakening/Enlightenment
The Great Awakening was a religious revival that impacted the English colonies in America during the 1730s and 1740s. The movement came when the idea of secular rationalism was being emphasized, and passion for religion had grown stale. -
French-Indian war
The American Indians were fighting to maintain control of their land and their cultural future.The French wanted to trade with the American Indians and control the area. -
Albany Plan
The Albany Plan of Union was a plan to place the British North American colonies under a more centralized government. On July 10,1754,7 representatives of the British North American colonies adopted the plan. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation of 1763 was a British-produced boundary marked in the Appalachian Mountains at the Eastern Continental Divide. Decreed on October 7, 1763, the Proclamation forbid Anglo-American colonists from settling on lands obtained from the French following the French and Indian War. -
Pennsylvania Colony
The Pennsylvania Colony was a royal colony. It was founded under a charter given to William Penn. Pennsylvania's capital, Philadelphia, was the site of the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and 1775, the concluding of which produced the Declaration of Independence, started the American Revolution. -
Salutary Neglect
Salutary neglect was Britain's unofficial policy, initiated by prime minister Robert Walpole, to relax the enforcement of strict rules, particularly trade laws, forced the American colonies late in the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuries.