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Around 1534, King Henry VIII formed the Anglican Church. Many people weren't happy about this, and wanted to reform the church. These people were Puritans.
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Seperatists in the area decided to travel to America, calling themselves Pilgrims. Only 35 of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower were actually Pilgrims. The rest were known as strangers: Common people.
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Shortly after they saw land, the Pilgrims formed The Mayflower Compact. This was a legal document that a person had to agree to before they were able to go ashore, which stated their intents for "Forming a body politic, for their better ordering and preservation."
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Around this time, the Pilgrims had it rough. The winter had killed many people, and they weren't sure what to do. Then, they encountered an Indian man named Samoset, which introduced them to Squanto. These 2 men taught the Pilgrims the basics of survival in the area, such as farming.
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Around this time, Charles the 1st became the King of England. He objected to the Puritans repeated calls for reform in the Anglican church, and this led the Puritans to go to America and form the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
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More than 15,000 Puritans traveled to Massachusetts during the 1620's. They were tired of the persecution and economy in England. This is known as the Great Migration,
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The colony of Maryland was originally founded by Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. King Charles was the one who gave Calvert the colony north of Virginia, but Calvert died before recieving the grant. Therefore, the colony was inherited by Cecilius, his son,
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After two traders will killed in Pequot territory, Massachusetts sent people to punish the Pequot. People from Connecticut burned down the main Pequot village, killing many people. Later, in 1675, the people declared war on the Wampanoag.
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Back in England, the Puritans controlling Parliament fought for power against King Charles. Shortly after, a civil war began. The Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell, defeated the king, In 1649, Charles was beheaded on charges of treason. In 1658, Oliver Cromwell died.
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To protect Catholics, the act of toleration was passed in 1649. The act granted Protestants AND Catholics the right to worship freely.
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Around this time, the English sent a fleet to attack New Amsterdam. They were not prepared, and surrendered. King Charles the 2nd then gave the colony to the Duke of York, who named it New York.
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A man named Nathaniel Bacon took a strong disliking to the Colonial Government. Later, Bacon led repetitive attacks on Native Americans, and drove Berkeley into Exile. Only his death stopped him from becoming the governor of Virginia.
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William Penn, who was a rich Quaker, received land as a payment for a debt that Charles the 2nd owned to his father. Penn named the colony as Pennsylvania.
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Penn granted his colonists the right to elect represntatives to the legislature.
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The Calvert and Penn families had argued over the boundaries of their respective colonies for some time. Somewhere in the early 1760's, they hired Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to map the boundary and lay a line of stones, creating the Mason Dixon line,
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Around this time, a Franciscan monk by the name of Junipero Serro founded a mission at San Diego.
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Georgia, the last British colony set up in America, was founded by James Oglethorpe.
