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Jamestown Settlement
a living history museum operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is located near the site of Jamestown, the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America, founded on May 14, 1607. -
Mayflower Compact: 1620
the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower -
Petition of Right:
Major English constitutional document that sets out specific liberties of the subject that the king is prohibited from infringing. -
English Bill of Rights
An act that the Parliament of England passed on December 16, 1689. The Bill creates separation of powers, limits the powers of the king and queen, enhances the democratic election and bolsters freedom of speech. -
Albany Plan of Union: July 10, 1754
Suggested by Benjamin Franklin, the Albany Plan of Union was a plan to create a unified government for the original thirteen colonies. The document was established in Albany, New York -
Stamp Act
An act of the British Parliament in 1756 that exacted revenue from the American colonies by imposing a stamp duty on newspapers and legal and commercial documents. Very unpopular among the Colonists -
Boston Massacre: March 5, 1770
The Boston Massacre was the killing of five colonists by British regulars on March 5, 1770, it occurred due to the tensions in the American colonies that had been growing since Royal troops -
Boston Tea Party: December 16, 1773
A political protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, they boarded the ships and threw the chests of tea into Boston Harbor -
American Revolution Begins
a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. -
Second Continental Congress
The convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the summer of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that, soon after warfare, declared the American Revolutionary War had begun. -
Declaration of Independence
The statement which announced that the thirteen American colonies, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer under British rule. -
Articles of Confederation: March 1, 1781
The agreement among all thirteen original states in the United States of America that served as its first constitution. It provided a system to conduct diplomacy with Europe and deal with territorial issues and Native American relations -
Constitution Convention
Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787. -
Philadelphia Convention
Although the Convention was intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, was to create a new government rather than fix the existing one -
Magna Carta: 1215
Also called “The Great Charter,” this document issued by King John was used as a practical solution for a problem in his rule around the year of 1215. It established for the first time that everyone, including the King and/or royalty, must abide by laws. -
Shays Rebellion: 1787
a series of protests in 1786 and 1787 by American farmers against state and local enforcement of tax collections and judgments for debt. -
First Continental Congress
The meeting of delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies that met on September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. -
Intolerable Acts: 1775
American Patriots' term for a series of punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea party. They were meant to punish the Massachusetts colonists for their defiance in throwing a large tea shipment into Boston harbor
