-
1215
Magna Carta
A royal charter of rights agreed to bu King John of England at Runnymead, near Windsor -
Jamestown settled
The first English settlement in North America -
Mayflower compact
The first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower, consisting of separatists puritans, adventurers, and tradesmen -
Petition of Right
An English constitutional setting out specific individual protections against the state, reportedly of equal value to Magna Carta and Bill of Rights. -
English Bill of Rights
A landmark act in the constitutional law of England that sets out certain basic rights civil rights and clarifies who would be next to inherit the crown -
Albany Plan of union
A plan to create a unified government for the 13 colonies suggested by Benjamin Franklin then a senior leader and a Delegate from Pennsylvania. -
Stamp Act
An act of the Parliament of Great Britain which imposed a direct tax on the British colonies in America and required that many printed materials in the colonies be produced on stamped paper produced in London. -
Boston Massacre
A confrontation in which British soldiers shot and killed several people while being harassed by a mob in Boston. -
Boston tea party
A political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston -
First Continental Congress
A meeting of Delegates from the 12 of 13 British Colonies that became the United States -
Intolerable Acts
Punitive Laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. Laws were meant to punish the Massachusetts -
Second Continental Congress
A meeting of Delegates from the 13 colonies in America which united in the America Revolutionary War. -
American Revolution Begins
An ideological and political revolution which occurred in Colonial North America -
Declaration of Independance
The pronouncement adopted by the second continental congress meeting in Philadelphia. -
Shay's Rebellion
An armed uprising in Western Massachusetts in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state's government's increased efforts to taxes both on individuals and their trades. -
Philadelphia Convention
The constitutional convention that took place from May 25th to September 17th. -
Connecticut Compromise
An agreement that large and small states reached during the constitutional convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution.
