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Royal African Company
(day month unclear)
The Royal African Company was a company set up by the Stuart family and London merchants and led by James, Duke of York, Charles II's brother. Its charter issued in 1660 gave it a monopoly on English slave traide.
It is significant for it is the marked beginning of the slave trade in England, as well as one of the first slave providers to N. America. -
Half-Way Covenant
The Half-Way Covenant was a form of partial church membership created by New England created byReverend Solomon Stoddard, who felt that the people of the English colonies were drifting away from their original religious purpose.
The Half-Way Covenant provided a partial church membership for the children of church members, whom accepted the Covenant and were allowed to be baptized.
It led to the first Great Awakening. -
Bacon's Rebellion
(month day unclear)
Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising led by Nathaniel Bacon becaue Virginians resented Governor Berkeley's friendly policies towards the Natives, as well as long term resentment over high taxes, low prices for tobacco, and resentment over special privileges given those close to the governor. After a series of Native attack where Berkeley refused to retaliate, the colonists began attacking Indians, expatriated Berkeley, and torched the capitol. Shows yeoman discontent. -
Leisler's Rebellion
Leisler's Rebellion was an uprising in New York where Jacob Leisler seized control of lower New York, and ruled it from 1689 to 1691. It reflected colonial resentment against the policies of the deposed King James II and also left the colony split in two factions. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft. 29 people were convicted and hanged.
The supernatural beliefs in the devil were blaimed when things like infant death, crop failures or friction among the congregation occurred.
Example of mass hysteria. -
Poor Richard's Almanac
Poor Richard's Almanack was a yearly almanac published by Benjamin Franklin and was a best seller in the American colonies.
It served to educate, guide, and entertain the American populace. -
Zenger Trial
After a year as New York’s governor, William Cosby striped the popular Supreme Court Chief Justice Lewis Morris of his position which led to a campaign to force the governor back to England by distriuting The New-York Weekly Journal printed by Peter Zenger.
Zenger was imprisoned yet released in 9 months time.
It is significant for British governors were reluctant to charge American printers with seditious libel after the verdict. -
Molasses Act
The Molasses Act imposed a tax on imports of molasses from non-British colonies and was passed for the purpose of making British products cheaper than those from the French West Indies.
It was to be one of the causes to the Reolutionary War. -
Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening was when pastoral styles began to change. Leaders of the Awakening had little interest in merely engaging parishioners' minds and wanted far more to elicit an emotional response from their audience.
It was in response to the declining religious fervor of the era. -
The Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion was a slave rebellion that commenced iin the colony of South Carolina. Jemmy was a literate slave who led 20 other enslaved Kongolese and recruited 60 other slaves and killed 22–25 whites before being intercepted by a local militia. This led to the Negro Act of 1740 that restricted slave assembly, education and movement. It also established penalties against slaveholders' harsh treatment of slaves. -
Regulator Movement
When efforts to reform taxes were unsuccessful and the courts seemed to favor the causes of the wealthy, Regulator groups arose to close down local courts and suppress tax payments.
The movement did not survive, but tensions between east and west remained.
This movement showed how much tension there was between the rural west, and rich educated east, as well as tensions between newcomers and the established order. -
Paxton Boys
The Paxton Boys was a group that murdered twenty Natives made of Presbyterian Scots-Irish frontiersmen from central Pennsylvania. It was formed in response to fear and hatred of the natives and caused largely by the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion.
It was one of the first times the idea that natives were the more peaceful was ever considered yet also showed the extreme hostilities between natives and the frontiersmen.