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Jamestown
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America and was founded by the Virginia Company. Although they faced hardships of disease, hunger, and conflict with Native Americans they made it two years until help arrived. Tobacco became their first profitable export. -
Virginia House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the first democratically elected legislative body of government in America. It first met as a one-house assembly with a governor, four members of the council, and two burgesses from each of the towns. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Copact was signed by 41 English colonists on the Mayflower ship on the way to America. It was the first written framework of government established. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's rebellion was an uprising against Native Americans and the colonial government being unfair towards pricing, land, and the safety from local Indians. This was in opposition to the Governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley. His rebellion ended in defeat for the rebels. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem Witch Trials began in Massachusetts when young Puritan girls claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused other men and women of witchcraft. Chaos spread throughout Salem, and all who were convicted went to court for a trial. It resulted in 19 people sentenced to death by hanging. -
Trial of John Peter Zenger
John Peter Zenger was a NY printer that printed truth about the corrupt actions of the royal governor of New York. Zenger went to trial for being charged with seditious libel but was found not guilty. -
French and Indian War
The final Colonial War was the French and Indian. The ending of this war formed the Imperial Struggle between Britain and France. -
Proclamation of 1763
The Proclamation was issued by King George III that was supposed to establish a western border of the 13 colonies in America. It made it illegal for colonists to settle west of the Appalachians. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act required colonists to buy and put stamps on paper goods as in newspapers, diplomas, contracts, books, and documents. Almost everyone had to pay this tax. -
Quartering Act
The Quartering Act was designed to force local colonial governments to provide supplies and housing to British soldiers in the colonies. -
Declatory Act
The decalration stated that Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain. -
Boston Massecre
The Boston Massecre started out with a small argument between British soldiers and colonists. It escalated and ended with the soldiers opening fire into the crowd with five people dying. -
Tea Act
The Tea Act was designed to bail out the British East India Company and to expand the sea trade to all British colonies, selling excess tea at a small price. -
Boston Tea Party
Angry American colonists dressed up as Mohawk Indians and boarded three British ships dumping 342 crates of tea into the Boston harbor over the Tea Act to boycott. -
1st Continental Congress
The first Continental Congress met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia from September 5th to October 26, 1774. All of the colonies except Georgia sent delegates. -
2nd Continental Congress
The second Continental Congress was a group of delegates from the colonies that met in Philadelphia. This was soon after the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independence