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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 Pls establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony at Plymouth.
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John Smith publishes "The General History of Virginia."
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John Smith was an English soldier, explorer, and author of one of the earliest works of American Literature. He was called a boastful bully by some and an early American hero by others.
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North America's first public school is founded in Boston.
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Long before there were holiday legends of Pilgrims and Indians, a group of English Puritans set off to create a new, pure society in the North American wilderness. Their leader was William Bradford. He was also a signatory to the Mayflower Compact while aboard the Mayflower in 1620.
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Anne Bradstreet was the first notable American poet, man or woman. She was also a prominent Puritan figure in American Literature.
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The Puritans' victory in King Philip's War ends Native American resistance in New England colonies.
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Witch Trials take place in Salem, Massachusetts.
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The Boston Newsletter, the first American newspaper, is established.
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For over 200 years, the work of Edward Taylor, one of colonial America's most inventive poets, remained unread. His poetry did not come to light until the 1930s when his long-forgotten manuscripts were discovered in the Yale University Library.
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. In 1800 he was elected the third President of the U.S.
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Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams. She was the second First Lady of the United States.
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Jonathan Edwards was a revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist Protestant theologian. When Jonathan delivered a sermon, with its fiery descriptions of hell and eternal damnation, people listened.
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The Boston Tea Party marks a violent rejection of Britain's taxation policies. The Revolutionary War begins two years later.
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American colonies declare independence.
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The British defeat at Yorktown ends the American Revolution.
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Phillis Wheatley was the first published African-American female poet.
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U.S. Constitution is ratified.
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Olaudah Equiano was a prominent African in London, a freed slave who supported the British movement to end the slave trade. Writing as a former slave in the 1700s, Equiano left powerful testimony on the brutality of enslavement that became the model for a new genre, the slave narrative
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Patrick Henry was an American attorney, planter and politician who became known as an orator during the movement for independence in Virginia.
