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Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
My Timeline
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Aug 5, 1502
First Spanish Slaves
There was a Spanish merchant; his name was Juan de Cordoba. He was the first man to send slaves over to the new world. The Spanish authorities would not let him take over more than one slave though. -
Oct 8, 1507
The First Known Smallpox Outbreak In the New World
The first recorded outbreak of smallpox in the New World occured on the island of Hispaniola and took over the native Taino population. -
Dec 12, 1517
The Sweating Sickness Disease Occurs
Sweating sickness was a mysterious and highly deadly disease that struck England, and later spread through out Europe. The symptoms were dramatic and sudden, with death often occurring. How it came about remains unknown. -
Jun 29, 1525
Powhatan
In 1525 Esteban Gomez claimed Powhatan as land for Spain. The Powhatan is the name of a Virginia Indian confederation of tribes. It is estimated that there were about 14,000-21,000 of these native Powhatan people in eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607. -
Sep 5, 1558
The Puritans
The Puritans were a group of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this case was founded by some Marian English Calvinist Protestants from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England, as an activist movement within the Church of England. -
Jan 21, 1580
John Smith
John Smith was an explorer, an English Soldier, and an Author. He established the first English settlement in Jamestown in 1606. He was born in 1580 and died in 1631. -
Pocahontas
Pocahontas was a Indian in Virgina, and was the Chief of Powhatan's daughter. She was remembered for assisting colonial settlers at Jamestown. She then converted to Christianity and married the English settler John Rolfe, the she became Rebecca Rolfe. -
The Virginia Company
The Virginia Company refers to a pair of English joint stock companies by James I on 10 April 1606. The two companies called the Virginia Company of London (or the London Company) and the Virginia Company of Plymouth (or Plymouth Company) operated with identical charters but with differing territories. -
The First African Slaves
Virginia, acquired its first African American slaves in 1619, after a ship arrived, carrying a cargo of about 20 African Americans. Most slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves; there was also a small number of white slaves. -
The First Law Makers
The first law makers was a group of white, slave owning, rich men. There posssy was called the House of Burgesses; and they were created by the Virginia Company. -
The Massachusetts Colony
The Massachusetts Colony was started by the Separatists and Puritans. Separatists in England fled to Holland in 1608 and then decided to go to America where they could create a home for themselves in their Massachusetts Colony. -
The Pilgrims
A pilgrim is a traveller (literally one who has come from a different place) who is on a journey to a holy or better place. Typically, this is a physical journeying (often on foot or by ship) to some speicial place that is in their particular religious believings. -
The Mayflower Compact Was Signed
The Mayflower Compact was the first document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists (or pilgrims) who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. The document was signed on November 11, 1620 so that the pilgrims could sail on the Mayflower. -
The Plague Disease
The pilgrims first brought the plague disease to America. It hit everyone but it targeted mostly the Native Americans, and not so much the pilgrims; even though the Pilgrims brought it over. 90% Native Americans died because of that disease. -
Dutch West India Company
The Duth West India Company was a chartered company (also known as the DWC) of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx. The purpose of the charter was to get rid of competition, particularly Spanish or Portuguese, between the many trading posts made by merchants. -
The First Thanksgiving
The first Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth in 1623. 53 pilgrims celebrated this Thanksgiving; but they did not call it a thanksgiving, although did give thanks to God. To the pilgrims this day of thanks was purely religious, -
The First African American Marriage
The marriage was between Archibald Lewis (a black man) and Hannah Davis (a black woman). It all happened in Richland County (the exact place is not specified. -
King Charles II grants permission for a new colony
The Province of Carolina, originally chartered in 1629, was an English and later British colony of North America. It was led by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, who was the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, the Province of Carolina was controlled from 1663 to 1729 by these lords and their the next to be rulers. -
The Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies. Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. Other survivors were sent away. At the end of the war (in 1638), about seven hundred Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity. -
Charles II becomes King
King Charles became King right when the British Empire was starting to collapse. He was a Catholic King, and ruled three kingdoms, England, Scotland, and Ireland. -
The Blue Laws Were Approved
The Blue Laws of the Colony of Connecticut, is from the generic term "blue law" which means any laws that have to do with any activities on a Sunday. After the laws were approved, they were printed in London, England, in 1656 and sent to all homes in New Haven. -
Quakers In The U.S
The first known Quakers in America were missionaries who arrived there in 1656. Soon other Quakers arrived from Europe, and many others who had already lives there converted to Quakerism. The colony of Rhode Island, with its policy of religious freedom, was a very very common destination for the Quakers. -
William Penn
William Penn was the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American Colony, and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was also a philosopher, and he helped plan out the Philadelphia we know today. He was born on the 14th of October and died on the 30th of July in 1718 at the age of 73. -
The First Official Law of Slavery
The first commercial sale of slaves took place in Pennsylvania in 1684. when the British merchant ship Isabella landed in Philadelphia with 150 African American slaves. Most of these enslaved people were bought over by members of the Quaker religion. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials were several events in court before they decided to kill those who did witchcraft in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and in colonial Massachusetts. This took place between the February of 1692 and the May of 1693.