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Jamestown
In June of 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, the Virginia Company, to establish an English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. In December of that year, 104 settlers sailed from London with Company instructions to build a secure settlement, find gold, and seek a water route to the Pacific. -
Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by separatist Congregationalists who called themselves "Saints". Later they were referred to as Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers. They were fleeing from religious persecution by King James of England. -
The Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Continental Congress meeting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies,[2] then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.