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Period: to
1600-1700
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Formation of Jamestown
Jamestown is the first permanent English colony, albeit not a very successful colony. The settlers there had no concept of survival with having to steal from the Indian settlers around them and building their settlement on a swampy march that was filled with mosquitoes. -
John Rolfe grows tobacco
John Rolfe begins growing tobacco in the Jamestown colony. This act solidified the Virginia's dominance in cash crops and plantations for massive profit to be exported to England. -
The first African slaves came to America
Native Americans were dying out due to the diseases that the "Old" World had given to all of them. The Native American population had dwindled to about a fifth of their original population and the Europeans could no longer massively exploit them for labor as they had once done. Instead, they utilized the slave trade that was already happening in Africa and brought 30 African slaves to the colonies, changing the labor system from indentured servitude to hard slave labor. -
Plymouth Establishment
The first permanent English settlement in the are of New England. They utilized the Mayflower Compact, a group contract to form a civil group based around laws for the good of the people there. It wasn't completely democratic as the travelers of the Mayflower only gave themselves these rights and others would have to wait for said rights. -
King Phillip's War
The chief of the Wampanoags, Metacomet a.k.a King Phillip, waged war against the Puritans in the area New England. King Phillip resented the efforts by Puritans to convert Native Americans to Christianity and after a series of killings from both sides, it escalated to a large scale war with the Indians ravaging many towns before the colonists launched a counter attack against them and put them down. This war was significant in the fact that the English were determined to conquer the area. -
Bacon's Rebellon
Nathaniel Bacon led a rebellion against Virginia to destroy the Indians. The settlers were already taking up a lot of the Indian's land and tensions from taxes and falling tobacco prices made it worse. The rebellion burnt down Jamestown but Bacon died due to disease which ended the rebellion. The only reason Virginia opposed the destruction of the Indians was to preserve their trade. -
Pueblo Revolt
The most significant defeat that the Indians had ever given to the Europeans that were trying to conquer the new world. After the massive destruction that the Pueblo Revolt gave to Spain, it took them 12 years to reestablish control over New Mexico -
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution is the sudden transfer of power after Parliament urged Mary and William III of Orange to overthrow James II from the throne. James, at that time, defied Parliament actively and embraced Catholicism. Parliament had only tolerated him, but when the birth of a Roman Catholic heir was announced, Parliament had Mary and William assume the throne, because they were Protestant and Parliament reasserted their power, forever changing the power between ruler and Parliament. -
First Slave codes are enacted by South Carolina
The slave codeds were rules regulating slaves lifes, such as South Carolina's code stating that all "Negroes, Mulattoes, and Indians" were enslaved for life and children of enslaved mothers were too. -
Salem Witch Trials
Occurring in the Salem Village, the Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials were many women were accused of witchcraft and some executed/imprisoned. The hysteria of the incident represents the heavy religious belief of the times with the cause of all the accusing being ambiguous. It could be that the victims of "witchcraft" were experiencing PTSD from seeing loved ones dying or just adolescent kids stirring up trouble.