-
Virginia Founded
Virginia is founded under a patent for the London Company and becomes the first British colony in North America.One key source of goods was from trade with American Indians, but when conflicts erupted between settlers and the natives, trade would stop and settlers went hungry. King James I revoked the charter of the bankrupt company and took direct control of the colony, England's first royal colony. -
House of Burgesses
The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first legislature in the English colonies in America. It first met on July 30, 1619 at a church in Jamestown. Its first decision was to set a minimum price for the sale of tobacco. It became a symbol of representative government. The 22 members were elected by the members of the colony. The House met once a year and could create laws. These laws, however, could be vetoed by the governor. -
Massachusetts Founded
Massachusetts was the second colony to be established out of the thirteen colonies. It was established in 1620 by John Winthrop and other Puritans in Massachusetts Bay. The Pilgrims, who had emigrated from England to the New World to escape religious persecution, developed friendly relations with the Native American people in the area. A civil war in England in the 1630s drove some 15,000 more settlers to the Massachusetts Colony, a movement known as the Great Migration. -
Mayflower Compact
The Pilgrims traveled to the New World on the Mayflower. They signed the Mayflower Compact aboard the Mayflower on November 11, 1620. It was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was based on majoritarian model and allegiance to the king. Basically, it was a social contract among the Pilgrims that they would follow the compact's ordinances in order to maintain order and survive. -
Maryland Founded
King Charles I subdivided the Virginia colony. He chartered a new colony and granted control of it to George Calvert, as a reward for this Catholic nobleman's service. The new colony of Maryland thus became the first proprietary colony. To avoid persecution in England, wealthy English Catholics emigrated to Maryland and established plantations. Maryland's economy and society was much like that of neighboring Virginia. There was greater tolerance of religious diversity among Protestant sects. -
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
The Hartford settlers drew up the first written constitution in American history, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. IT established a representative government consisting of a legislative elected by a popular vote and a governor chosen by that legislature. -
New England Confederation Formed
New England Confederation,a federation of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth established in May 1643 by delegates from those four Puritan colonies. Several factors influenced the formation of this alliance, including the solution of trade, boundary, and religious disputes, but principal impetus was a concern over defense against attacks by the French, the Dutch, or the Indians. Because of their divergence from precepts, settlements were refused admission to the confederation. -
Rhode Island Founded
Roger Williams founded the settlement of Providence in 1636, after being banished from the Bay colony. It recognized the rights of American Indians and paid them for the use of their land. Anna Hutchison was also banished from the Bay colony, so she founded the colony of Portsmouth near Providence. Roger Williams was granted a charter from the Parliament that joined Providence and Portsmouth into a single colony. Because this colony tolerated diverse beliefs, it served as a refuge for many. -
Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were a series of laws passed by the British Parliament that imposed restrictions on colonial trade. British economic policy was based on mercantilism, which aimed to use the American colonies to bolster British state power and finances. -
The Halfway Covenant
A form of church membership among the Congregational churches of New England allowed by decisions in 1657 and 1662 and permitting baptized persons of moral life and orthodox faith to enjoy privileges of full membership except the partaking of the Lord's Supper -
South Carolina Founded
As a reward, Charles II granted a tract of land to eight nobles, who in 1663 became the proprietors of the Carolinas. In 1670, in southern Carolinas, a few colonists from England and some planters from the island of Barbados founded a town. Initially, the southern economy was based on trading furs and providing food for the West Indies. By the middle of the 18th century, South Carolina's rice-growing plantations worked by enslaved Africans resembled the economy and culture of the West Indies. -
North Carolina Founded
As a reward, Charles II granted a huge tract of land to eight nobles, who in 1663 became the lord proprietors of the Carolinas. There, farmers from Virginia and New England established small, self-sufficient tobacco farms. The region had few good harbord and poor transportation; compared to South Carolina, there were fewer plantations and less reliance on slavery. North Carolina in the 18th century earned a reputation for democratic views and autonomy from British control. -
New York Founded
In 1664, the king granted, the Duke of York, the lands lying between Connecticut and Delaware Bay. James ordered his agents in the renamed colony of New York to treat the Dutch settlers well and to allow them freedom to worship as they pleased. James ordered new taxes, duties without the consent of a representative assembly. Taxation met strong opposition from New York's English-speaking settlers. In 1683, James yielded by allowing New York's governor to grant broad civil and political rights. -
Connecticut Founded
The Connecticut River Valley attracted other settlers who were unhappy with the Massachusetts authorities. The Reverend Thomas Hooker led a large group of Boston Puritans into the valley and founded the colony of Hartford in 1636. In 1665, New Haven, the second settlement in the Connecticut River Valley, joined with the more democratic Hartford settlers to form the colony of Connecticut. The royal charter for Connecticut granted it a degree of self-government, including election of the governor. -
Pennsylvania Founded
Pennsylvania, from the beginning and by William Penn’s design, was a complex society of people of different ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds. This model of diversity became the basis for the American “melting pot.” In 1681, Penn crafted a government for Pennsylvania based on these Enlightenment principles. He rejected models of government that forced laws on citizens against their will. Penn emphasized self-government for the people.Penn welcomed settlers from all faiths to Pennsylvania. -
New Jersey Founded
James split New York in 1664. He gave the section of the colony to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. In 1674, one person recieved West New Jersey and the other East New Jersey. To attract settlers, both made generous land offers and allowed religious freedom and an assembly. Land titles in the Jerseys changed hands, and inaccurate property lines added to the confusion. The crown decided in 1702 to combine the two Jerseys into a single royal colony; New Jersey. -
Period: to
King Phillips' War
King Philip’s War, a violent and bloody conflict between the Wampanoag and English colonists.The underlying cause of the war was the colonists unrelenting desire for more and more land, but the immediate cause for its outbreak was the trial and execution of three of Metacom’s men by the colonists. Metacom and his men began attacking English settlements and killing English settlers. It looked like the colonists might have to abandon the frontier and withdraw into fortified seaside towns. -
New Hampshire Founded
To increase royal control over the colonies, King Charles II separated New Hampshire from the Bay colony in 1679 and made it a royal colony. Major industry in the New Hampshire Colony included fishing, livestock farming, potato farming, manufacturing of textiles and building ships. The New Hampshire Colony, experienced cold winters, and mild summers.Many of the first settlers came to New Hampshire, not in search of religious freedom but rather to seek their fortunes through trade with England. -
Pueblo Revolt
The Pueblo people, Native Americans living in what is now New Mexico, rose up against Spanish conquistadors in the wake of religious persecution, violence, and drought. The uprising aimed to reclaim Pueblo religious practices, culture, and land, which had been stripped away by Spanish conquistadors. Although the Pueblo uprising ultimately failed to take back Santa Fe from Spanish colonizers, the Pueblo people made a lasting impact on the dominant culture of the Southwest. -
Delaware Founded
The Delaware Colony was founded in 1638 by Peter Minuit and New Sweden Company. Delaware was administered as part of New York until 1682, when the duke of York ceded it to William Penn, who wanted it so that his colony of Pennsylvania could have access to the ocean. Though Penn tried to unite the Delaware counties with Pennsylvania, both sides resented the union. In 1704 he allowed Delaware an assembly of its own. Exported products and natural resources including cattle, grain, rice, wheat -
Toleration Act or 1689
The Toleration Act demonstrated that the idea of a “comprehensive” Church of England had been abandoned and that hope lay only in toleration of division. It allowed Nonconformists their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to acceptance of certain oaths of allegiance. Social and political disabilities remained, however, and Nonconformists were still denied political office (as were Roman Catholics). -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after 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. Eighteen others followed Bishop, while some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next months. -
Period: to
The Great Awakening
The Great Awakening was an outburst of Protestant Revivalism in the eighteenth century. The beliefs of the New Lights of the First Great Awakening competed with the more conservative religion of the first colonists, who were known as Old Lights. The religious fervor in Great Britain and her North American colonies bound the eighteenth-century British Atlantic together in a shared, common experience. -
Georgia Founded
In 1732, a 13th colony, Georgia was chartered. It was the last of the British colonies and the only one to receive direct financial support from the government in London. Britain wanted to create a defensive buffer to protect South Carolina plantations from the threat of Spanish Florida. Wealthy philanthropists thought it would relieve the overcrowded jails if debtors were shipped to an American colony to start life over (Georgia). -
Stono Rebellion
In 1739 the British colony of South Carolina was shaken by a slave uprising that culminated with the death of sixty people. Led by an Angolan named Jemmy, a band of twenty slaves organized a rebellion on the banks of the Stono River. After breaking into Hutchinson’s store the band, now armed with guns, called for their liberty. As they marched, overseers were killed and slaves were forced to join the company. The band reached the river where white colonists came, killing most of the rebels. -
Albany Congress
The Albany Congress was a meeting in the spring of 1754 attended by native leaders, colonial officials, and representatives from 7 of the British colonies. They discusses two important issues at the meeting: the Iroquois' alliance and the Albany Plan of Union. During this time, war with France was imminent. The colonies wanted to ensure they had the support of the Native Americans that they were actively trading with. -
Start of the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War was also known as the Seven Year's War. It was a long struggle between France and Britain. The French expanded into the Ohio River Valley. This led to repeated conflict with the British colonies, eventually resulting in a declaration of war. This was significant because it marked the end of salutary neglect of the British colonies. This also added to tensions between the colonists and British officials.
