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Jamestown
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia.The settlement was located within the territory known as Tsenacommacah. The natives initially welcomed the colonists with dancing, feasting and tobacco ceremonies. -
Virginia House of Burgesses
The Virginia House of Burgesses was the first legislature anywhere in the English colonies. It first met at a church in Jamestown. The first order of business was to set a minimum price for tobacco -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymoth Colony. -
Plymoth Rock
Plymoth rock was where the Pilgrams first came with the Mayflower. -
Maryland Toleration Act
The Maryland Toleration Act was a law mandating religious tolerance for trinitarian Christians. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion was an armed rebellion in 1676 by Virginia settlers led by young Nathaniel Bacon against the rule of Governor William Berkeley. -
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution was the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III. William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascending of the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England. -
English Bill of Rights
It was a restatement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Maryinviting them to become joint sovereigns of England. It lays down limits on the powers of the crown and sets out the rights of Parliament and rules for freedom of speech in Parliament -
Salem Withc Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. -
John Peter Zenger
John Peter Zenger was a German American printer, publisher, editor and journalist in New York City.He was a defendant in a landmark legal case in American jurisprudence, known as "The Zenger Trial", in which his lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, established that truth is a defense against charges of libel.In late 1733, Zenger began printing The New York Weekly Journal to voice his opinions critical of the colonial governor, William CosbyIn November 1734 Zenger was arres -
French and Indian War
The war was fought primarily between the colonies of British America and New France. They declared war on each other in 1756. In the same year, the war escalated from a regional affair into a world-wide conflict.France ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Florida (which Spain had ceded to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana, Cuba). -
Proclamation of 1763
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued October 7, 1763, by King George III following Great Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America after the end of the French and Indian War. The purpose of the proclamation was to organize Great Britain's new North American empire and to stabilize relations with Native North Americans through regulation of trade, settlement, and land purchases on the western frontier. -
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act imposed a direct tax by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America, and it required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London, carrying an embossed revenue stamp.These printed materials were legal documents, magazines, newspapers and many other types of paper used throughout the colonies. -
Quartering Act
Parliament enacted them to order local governments of the American colonies to provide the British soldiers with any needed accommodations. It also required colonists to provide food for any British soldiers in the area. -
Declaration Act
an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which accompanied the repeal of the Stamp Act 1765. Parliament repealed the Stamp Act because boycotts were hurting British trade and used the declaration to justify the repeal and save face. The declaration stated that Parliament's authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament's authority to pass laws that were binding on the American colonies. -
The Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre was an incident on March 5, 1770, in which British Army soldiers killed five male civilians and injured six others. British troops had been stationed in Boston, capital of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, since 1768 in order to protect and support crown-appointed colonial officials attempting to enforce unpopular Parliamentary legislation. -
The Tea Act
A related objective was to undercut the price of tea smuggled into Britain's North American colonies. This was supposed to convince the colonists to purchase Company tea on which the Townshend duties were paid, thus implicitly agreeing to accept Parliament's right of taxation. The Act granted the Company the right to directly ship its tea to North America and the right to the duty-free export of tea from Britain. -
Boston Tea Party
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston. Disguised as American Indians, the demonstrators destroyed the entire supply of tea. They boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor. -
1st Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve colonies. The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic boycott of British trade; rights and grievances; and petitioned King George III for redress of those grievances. -
Second Continental Congress
The second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. By raising armies, directing strategy, appointing diplomats, and making formal treaties, the Congress acted as the de facto national government of what became the United States.[1] -
Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War between Great Britain on one side and the United States of America and its allies on the other. The other combatant nations, France, Spain and the Dutch Republic had separate agreements; for details of these, and the negotiations which produced all four treaties -
Declaration of Independence
A statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a union that would become a new nation—the United States of America
