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Jamestown
On May 14, 1607, a group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610. -
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Events leading to the Declaration of Independence
Events leading up to the Declaration -
Virginia House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses, which met at first only once a year, could make laws, which could be vetoed by the governor or the directors of the Virginia Company. This continued to be the standard until 1624, when Virginia became a royal colony. At this time, England took much more control of things in Virginia, restricting the powers of the House of Burgesses. -
Mayflower Compact
Was the first written framework of government established in what is now the United States. -
Bacon’s rebellion
It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part. -
Salem Witch Trials
a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. -
John Peter Zenger
Zenger was accused of LIBEL, a legal term whose meaning is quite different for us today than it was for him. -
French and Indian War
The war was fought primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the South to Nova Scotia in the North -
Proclamation of 1763
King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War, in which it forbade all settlers from settling past a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. -
The Quartering Act
Parliament enacted them to order local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations or housing. -
Stamp Act
Was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain that imposed a direct tax on the colonies of British America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp -
Declaratory Act
A declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act. -
Boston Massacre
It was the culmination of tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops first appeared in Massachusetts in October 1768 to enforce the heavy tax burden imposed by the Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
A group of colonists protest thirteen years of increasing British oppression, by attacking merchant ships in Boston Harbor. In retaliation, the British close the port, and inflict even harsher penalties -
Tea Act
Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. Its principal overt objective was to reduce the massive surplus of tea held by the financially troubled British East India Company in its London warehouses and to help the struggling company survive. -
1st Continental Congress
The first Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia, from September 5, to October 26, 1774. Carpenter's Hall was also the seat of the Pennsylvania Congress. All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates. These were elected by the people, by the colonial legislatures, or by the committees of correspondence of the respective colonies. The colonies presented there were united in a determination to show a combined authority to Great Britain, but their aims were not uniform at -
2nd Continental Congress
Was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independence
the Declaration of Independence is at once the nation's most cherished symbol of liberty and Jefferson's most enduring monument.
