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Colonies Timeline

  • Roanoke

    Roanoke
    Sir Walter Raleigh founded this town.
    This was the first temporary English settlement in the Americas.
    John White went back to England to get supplies but was there 3 years because of the war with Spain.
    When he came back, the people were gone. All that he found was a carving of the word "Croatoan" in a nearby tree.
    He never saw his family and friends again. Notes
  • Jamestown

    Jamestown
    Founded by the Virginia Company, this was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, located on the coast of Virginia. It was on a swamp and only 38 of the 150 settlers made it through the first winter. John Smith was the leader of this colony. The Indians taught them how to grow tobacco and this turned the settlement around. Source: Notes
  • New York

    New York
    The colony of New York was first settled by the Dutch. They created a fort in present day Albany. They wanted to settle a lot of cities there but few Dutchmen wanted to actually move there so they could not. Source: https://www.historycentral.com/TheColonies/NY1.html
  • House of Burgesses

    House of Burgesses
    Based in Virginia, it was the first democratically founded legislature in North America. It was formed because the people of the colonies didn't want to be governed by a king across the ocean. This helped lead to the Revolutionary War. Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/2f.asp
  • Great Migration

    Great Migration
    This was a period of English puritans moving to the colonies from England.
    They left England because of religious persecution and economic reasons.
    There were two types of puritans, separatists and non-separatists.
    They came over on the Mayflower.
    They founded the Plymouth colony, named after a city in England.
    These people were called Pilgrims. Source: https://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-great-puritan-migration/
  • Mayflower and Mayflower Compact

    Mayflower and Mayflower Compact
    In 1620, 35 Pilgrims came over from England on the Mayflower. They wanted to land near the Virginia colony, but after 65 days at sea, they landed at Cape Cod. Before they got off the ship, they signed the Mayflower Compact, which was the first form of self government in the colonies. They founded the Plymouth Colony. They had a lot of fatalities the first winter, but Squanto taught them how to grow corn. They signed a treaty and ate together. That became know as the first Thanksgiving. NOTES.
  • Massachusetts Bay Colony

    Massachusetts Bay Colony
    This colony was settled by Puritans in 1630. They got a charter from King Charles I and approximately 1000 Puritans moved there. They were led by John Winthrop. He gave the famous "City on a Hill" speech. By 1643, this colony had over 20,000 people. There were a lot of dissenters in this colony but some of them went on to form other New England colonies. This colony became the largest and most influential New England Colony. Source: Notes
  • Maryland

    Maryland
    This colony was settled by Lord Baltimore in 1632. Lord Baltimore was Catholic. He convinced King Charles I to grant him 100 million acres of land to settle. He wanted the colony to only be Catholics, but it turned into all Christians. It started as a proprietary colony but later became a royal colony just like the rest of them. In 1649, the Toleration Act of 1649 granted all Christians religious freedom in the colony. Source: Notes
  • Rhode Island

    Rhode Island
    This is a New England colony founded by Rodger Williams in 1635. Rodger was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for speaking out against government authorities. He founded it with the intent of having no religious persecution. Source: Notes
  • Conneticut

    Conneticut
    It was settled for a Puritan congregation. They gained control of the region in 1637 from the Dutch. A couple years later it was the sight of the Pequot War. It was a big part of self government due to the Charter Oak incident. Source: https://www.landofthebrave.info/connecticut-colony.htm
  • Maryland Toleration Act

    Maryland Toleration Act
    This act granted religious tolerance to all Christians living in Maryland. It was meant to be only Catholics at first, but all Christians came flooding into the colony. Source: https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/868/maryland-toleration-act-of-1649
  • Carolina

    Carolina
    This colony was founded by supporters of King Charles II. He granted 8 of them land. They started growing cash crops of rice, indigo, and tobacco and needed a lot of workers for them, so they got big into slavery. By 1720, slaves outnumbered free men in the colony 2:1. In 1729, it became a royal colony and split into North and South Carolina. Source: Notes
  • Bacon's Rebellion

    Bacon's Rebellion
    Nathaniel Bacon led an attack with Virginia settlers against William Berkeley. He was the governor of Virginia at the time. The people were unhappy with the Native American attacks on the frontier. Berkeley raised an army to fight back. Some people believe that Bacon had a personal vendetta with Berkeley, so that's why he retaliated.
    Source: Notes
  • Pennsylvania

    Pennsylvania
    This colony was founded by William Penn after he received a charter from King Charles II in 1681. He founded it as a "Holy Experiment." Every man that settled there received 50 acres of land and the right to vote. In the 1660's the Quakers started. They were an antiwar, antislavery group. Source: Notes
  • Salem Witch Trials

    Salem Witch Trials
    A couple of young girls started this incident. They claimed to be possessed by the devil, they accused people of witchcraft. The people had several trails during the period of the spring. They had brutal consequences for being a witch. To test if they were a witch, they tied a bag of rocks to them and threw them in the ocean. If the floated, they were a witch, if not, they were not a witch. A total of 27 people died from this, with one being crushed to death. Source: Notes
  • Great Awakening

    Great Awakening
    This event swept through the 13 colonies in the 1730s. This made the people of the colonies want a renewal of faith, because the colonies were religiously divided during this time. Many philosophers and preachers of the day started to preach more about Calvinism rather than Christianity. Source: https://www.history.com/topics/british-history/great-awakening
  • Albany Plan

    Albany Plan
    This was a plan to create a unified form of government for the thirteen colonies. It was all started by Benjamin Franklin. This plan was very complex and that is one of the reasons it failed. It failed also because the colonies were afraid to give up their self government. Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Albany-Plan-of-Union
  • French-Indian War

    French-Indian War
    Also called the seven years' war, this war started by the French expanding their land into the territory of the Ohio River Valley. The British colonies did not like how the French took so much of their land so they attacked Fort Duquesne. The Indians fought on Britain's side and because of that, eventually they won the war and took over the French land.
  • Proclamation of 1763

    Proclamation of 1763
    This was issued because the British won the French-Indian War. This proclamation prohibited colonists from settling west of Appalachia. It was issued on October 7, 1763 by King George III. Source: http://www.ushistory.org/us/9a.asp#targetText=After%20Britain%20won%20the%20Seven,of%20valuable%20North%20American%20land.
  • Salutary Neglect

    Salutary Neglect
    The colonies were not happy with tax laws and trade laws, so the British government stepped out of the scene for a while to see how the colonies did. In this period of time, the colonies learned how to manage their own government without the British controlling them. Source: https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-was-salutary-neglect-important-791725