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Christopher becomes the first European Explorer to land in the “New World.”
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The first slaves arrive in the colonies.
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Sir Walter Raleigh established Roanoke Island and then it “disappeared” (everyone was gone).
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Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, is established.
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Plymouth is establish by pilgrims looking for religious freedom from England.
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Anthony Johnson was one of the first property-owning slaves in the colonies.
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Pennsylvania colony (a Quaker colony) is established.
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Many people are accused of being witches and are executed (very controversial and infamous).
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A time of spiritual revival.
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The Albany plan got the ball rolling on unifying the colonies to make the US stronger.
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A War over the colonies against Britain and France.
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The Stamp Act put a tax on stamps in the colonies... this was the first tax imposed by the British on the colonies.
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Armed confrontation between British soldier and colonists that was the “tip-off” of the Revolutionary War.
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Protest against the British tea tax; patriots dressed up as Native Americans and threw British tea into the harbor.
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The Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American Colonies. Acts are passed by Congress. No taxation without representation.
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These were the first battles in the Revolutionary War.
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America declared its independence in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was passed and signed.
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This was the first “constitution” of the United States of America.
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The British surrender to the patriots at the battle of Yorktown.
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American citizens (mainly farmers) revolt; they were given little compensation for fighting in the war and therefore could not make payments, so the government was taking away a lot of their property.
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The constitution is written.
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New Jersey becomes the 9th state to ratify the constitution, ratifying it for the whole nation.
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Commander of the continental army, George Washington, is elected the first president of the United States of America.
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Washington writes to his fellow countrymen before he retires from serving the nation.
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The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of laws passed that limited immigration and led to the deportation of many people.
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Thomas Jefferson was the third president and he was the first peaceful transfer from one party to another.
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President Thomas Jefferson buys the Louisiana Territory from the French, doubling the size of the US.
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Lewis and Clark set off to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory.
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The US engages in a war against Britain over trade restrictions.
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Compromise between the northern and southern states that declared Missouri a slave state and Maine a free state.
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The Monroe doctrine is established, stating that any attempt to colonize in North America would be seen as a threat.
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Andrew Jackson is elected the seventh president of the United States
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Frederick Douglass, a huge leader in the abolitionist movement and an escaped slave, joins the abolitionist movement.
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Part of the Compromise of 1850 that stated that fugitive slaves must be returned to their masters (even in a free state).
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A set of five bills that attempted to settle the dispute of slavery in the new territories.
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This book was an extremely popular book anti-slavery that kind of started the Civil War.
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Set of conflicts in Kansas over whether it would be a free state or a slave state.
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Controversial court case of two slaves suing their masters. The suing was unsuccessful (even though the law should have been on their side) and it infuriated abolitionists.
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Abraham Lincoln, the man who would lead the fight against slavery in the Civil War, is elected president of the United States
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The US engages in a civil war over slavery... this becomes the bloodiest and ugliest war in America’s history.
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Proclamation by president Lincoln that declared all slaves in the confederacy free.
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President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while in a theater.
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These amendments are the first to be passed in 60 years and they abolished slavery, gave citizenship to blacks, and prohibited states from discriminating based on color or race.
