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Jamestown
Jamestown was the first permanent settlement in Virginia. Jamestown was the capital of the colony for 83 years (1616-1699). -
Virginia House of Burgesses
Virginia House of Burgesses was the first legislative assembly of elected representatives. The first meeting of the Virginia House of Burgesses was on July 30, 1619. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was signed by 41 English colonists on the ship "Mayflower". It was the first written framework of government established in what is now the United States. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion by Virginia settlers led by Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials was a series of hangings and prosecutions of people being accused of witchcraft. The Salem Witch Trials took place in Massachusetts from February 1962 and May 1963. -
trial of John Peter Zenger
The trial of John Peter Zenger led to the First Amendment of the Constitution. The trial was held all because John Peter Zenger published the New York Weekly Journal, which accused the government of rigging elections and allowing the French enemy to explore New York harbor. -
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is well known as the Seven Years' War. The war was between the colonies of British America and New France. The war started because of struggles for supremacy and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was basically a law that forbidded all settlers from settling past a line that was along the Appalachian Mountains. This proclamation followed Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act is the name given to a minimum of two Acts of British Parliament. Parliament enacted them to order local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accomodations or housing. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act was the first actual British tax on American colonists. Every newspaper, pamphlet, and other public and legal documents had to have a stamp, which of course cost money. -
Declatory Act
The Declatory Act was a declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act, It stated that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. -
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars. 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 tax imposed by th Townshend Acts. -
Boston Tea Party
A group of colonists protested the thirteen years of British oppression by attacking the merchant ships in the Boston Harbor. The Sons of Liberty and other colonists started throwing and dumping the tea into the water of the Boston Harbor. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act was an act of Parliament on Great Britain. It was designed to save the faltering East India Company from bankruptcy by greatly lowering the tea tax it paid to the British government. -
1st Continental Congress
The 1st Continental Congress was a meeting that consisted of twelve delegates out of the thirteen colonies. They met from September 5 until October 26, 1774. -
2nd Continental Congress
The 2nd Continental Congess was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started in the summer of 1775, in Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after the warfare in the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independece
The Declaration of Independence was a document that stated that the Thirteen colonies, who were at war with Great Britain, were now independent and sovereign states that were no longer part of the British Empire.
