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25 Early American History Events
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English colony at Jamestown Virginia
The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a group of investors who hoped to profit from the venture. Chartered in 1606 by King James I, the company also supported English national goals of counterbalancing the expansion of other European nations abroad, seeking a northwest passage to the Orient, and converting the Virginia Indians to the Anglican religion -
First Africans brought to North America
They were from the kingdom of Ndongo in Angola, West Central Africa, and had been captured during war with the Portuguese. While these first Africans may have been treated as indentured servants, the customary practice of owning Africans as slaves for life appeared by mid-century. The number of African slaves increased significantly in the second half of the 17th century, replacing indentured servants as the primary source of labor. -
Pilgrims land at Plymouth
during the reign of King James I, around 100 English men and women set sail for the New World aboard the Mayflower. The ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, in present-day Massachusetts, two months later, and in late December anchored at Plymouth Rock, where they would form the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England. Though more than half the original settlers died during that grueling first winter, with the help of the Ntives they were able to create a sucessful colony. -
Salem Witch Trials
After a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill, while some 150 more were accused over the next several months. -
French and Indian War
Also known as the Seven Years’ War, this New World conflict marked another chapter in the long imperial struggle between Britain and France. When France’s expansion into the Ohio River valley brought repeated conflict with the claims of the British colonies, a series of battles led to the official British declaration of war in 1756. Boosted by the financing of future Prime Minister William Pitt, the British turned the tide with victories at Louisbourg, Fort Frontenac and the French-Canadian stro -
Boston Massacre
The riot began when about 50 citizens attacked a British sentinel. A British officer, Captain Thomas Preston, called in additional soldiers, and these too were attacked, so the soldiers fired into the mob, killing 3 on the spot, and wounding 8 others, two of whom died later -
Boston Tea Party
Seeking to boost the troubled East India Company, British Parliament adjusted import duties with the passage of the Tea Act in 1773. While consignees in Charleston, New York, and Philadelphia rejected tea shipments, merchants in Boston refused to concede to Patriot pressure. Samuel Adams and the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in the Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard. This resulted in the passage of theCoercive Acts in 1774. -
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration summarized the colonists’ motivations for seeking independence. By declaring themselves an independent nation, the American colonists were able to confirm an official alliance with the Government of France and obtain French assistance in the war against Great Britain. mainly written by Thomas Jefferson. -
Revolutionary War Ends (Treaty of Paris)
Negotiated between the United States and Great Britain, ended the revolutionary war and recognized American independence. The Continental Congress named a five-member commission to negotiate a treaty–John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens. However due to obsticles, only Adams, Franklin, and Jay conducted the treaty. -
Shay's Rebellion
a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. Although farmers took up arms in states from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the rebellion was most serious in Massachusetts, where bad harvests, economic depression, and high taxes threatened farmers with the loss of their farms. The rebellion took its name from its symbolic leader, Daniel Shays of Massachusetts. -
Constitution Ratified
On May 25, 1787, the Constitutional Convention convened at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to draft a new constitution. On June 21, 1789, New Hampshire becomes the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land. -
Whiskey Rebellion
In order to create a self-supporting and effective government, Treasury Secretary Hamilton knew he needed to find a steady source of revenue. He proposed an excise tax on whiskey produced in the United States, and Congress instituted the levy in 1791. The farmers of western Pennsylvania, many of whom distilled whiskey and profited from its sale, proved outright.In July of 1794, a force of disaffected whiskey rebels attacked and destroyed the home of a tax inspector. the renelion eventually grew. -
Lewis & Clark Expedition
Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1803 to explore the northwest territory in order to observe a transcontinental route and natural resources. In 1804, about 45 men headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark moved up the Missouri River, crossed the Rocky Mountains, and from the Columbia River, reached the Pacific Ocean by November 1805. They returned to St. Louis by September 1806 with great fanfare and important information on native people, plants and animals, an -
War of 1812
an armed conflict between the United States and the British Empire. The British restricted the American trade since they feared it was harmful for their war with France and they also wanted to set up an Indian state in the Midwest in order to maintain their influence in the region. That’s why 10,000 Native Americans fought on the side of the British in this war. Canada allied with Britain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMXqg2PKJZU&index=11&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s -
Missouri Compromise
An effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. Developed to create equality between slave and free states. -
Trail of Tears
as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. -
Texan Indepence
During the Texas Revolution, a convention of American Texans meets at Washington-on-the-Brazos and declares the independence of Texas from Mexico. The delegates chose David Burnet as provisional president and confirmed Sam Houston as the commander in chief of all Texan forces. The Texans also adopted a constitution that protected the free practice of slavery, which had been prohibited by Mexican law. -
Mexican American War (Treaty of Guadalupa Hildelgo)
ended the Mexican-American War in favor of the United States. The war had begun almost two years earlier, in May 1846, over a territorial dispute involving Texas. The treaty added an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the including the land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Mexico also gave up all claims to Texas and recognized the Rio Grande as America’s southern boundary. -
Gold Rush in California
thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area; by the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000 A total of $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted from the area during the Gold Rush, which peaked in 1852. -
Compromise of 1850
Divisions over slavery in territory gained in the Mexican-American (1846-48). War were resolved in the Compromise of 1850. It consisted of laws admitting California as a free state, creating Utah and New Mexico territories with the question of slavery in each to be determined by popular sovereignty. -
Kansas Nebraska Act
Allowed Kansas and Nebraska to determine which type of state, slave or nonslave, the two states would be. Repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Abraham Lincoln elected President
Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, beating Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, John C. Breckinridge of the Southern Democrats, and John Bell of the new Constitutional Union Party. Lincol's win was one of the causes of the Civil War.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roNmeOOJCDY&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s&index=18 -
Civil War
Southern states seceded from the Union states creating the Confederate States, who fought for states rights. Lincoln was president of the Union and Jefferson Davis was president of the Confederate states. Union eded up being victorious. -
Transcontinental Railroad completed
A golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, signaling the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. -
Reconstruction Ends
President Andrew Johnson in 1865 and 1866, new southern state legislatures passed restrictive “black codes” to control the labor and behavior of former slaves and other African Americans.During Radical Reconstruction, which began in 1867, newly enfranchised blacks gained a voice in government for the first time in American history. In less than a decade, however, reactionary forces–including the Ku Klux Klan–would reverse the changes wrought by Radical Reconstruction in a violent backlash.