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On September 8, 1565, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed on the shore of what is now called Matanzas Bay and began the founding of the Presidio of San Agustin. Later the settlement would be called St. Augustine, Florida. -
The establishment of the Roanoke Colony was an attempt by Sir Walter Raleigh to found the first permanent English settlement in North America. The English, led by Humphrey Gilbert, had claimed St. John's, Newfoundland in 1583 as the first North American English territory at the royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I. -
North Carolina was first settled in 1587.121 settlers led by John White landed on present-day Roanoke Island on July 22, 1587. It was the first English settlement in the New World. On August 18, 1587, White's daughter gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World. -
Tobacco became the long awaited cash crop for the Virginia Company, who wanted to make money off their investment in Jamestown. ... Also in 1619, the Virginia Company recruited and shipped over about 90 women to become wives and start families in Virginia, something needed to establish a permanent colony. -
On April 5, 1614, Pocahontas and John Rolfe married with the blessing of Chief Powhatan and the governor of Virginia. Their marriage brought a peace between the English colonists and the Powhatans, and in 1615 Pocahontas gave birth to their first child, Thomas. In 1616, the couple sailed to England. -
The General Assembly was established by Gov. George Yeardley at Jamestown on July 30, 1619. It included the governor himself and a council—all appointed by the colonial proprietor (the Virginia Company)—along with two elected burgesses (delegates) from each of the colony's 11 settlements. -
Plymouth Colony, America's first permanent Puritan settlement, was established by English Separatist Puritans in December 1620. The Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedom, or simply to find a better life. -
Harvest festival observed by the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The most prominent historic thanksgiving event in American popular culture is the 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the settlers held a harvest feast after a successful growing season. -
Persecuted in England for his Quaker faith, Penn came to America in 1682 and established Pennsylvania as a place where people could enjoy freedom of religion. The colony became a haven for minority religious sects from Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, and Great Britain. -
Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to the English without a fight. King Charles II had granted the lands between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers to the Duke. He then granted land to two of his friends, Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, that would become New Jersey.