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The Tobacco Colonies
King James I divided the Atlantic seaboard in two, giving the southern half to the London Company (later the Virginia Company) and the northern half to the Plymouth Company. The first English settlement in North America had actually been established some 20 years before, in 1587, when a group of colonists led by Sir Walter Raleigh settled on the island of Roanoke. -
Jamestown Settlement
A group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610. Tobacco became Virginia’s first profitable export -
The Plymouth Colony
The Pilgrims establish their own government, the basis of which was the Mayflower Compact, which they drafted on their journey to the New World on the Mayflower.
The Pilgrims, founded the second colony of the Plymouth Settlement in New England in 1620, located in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Mayflower Compact was a legal document written by the Pilgrims to specify basic laws and social rules for their new colony. -
The Great Migration
Mass migration of thousands of English people to the Americas that took place between 1630 and 1640. -
Connecticut/Rhode Island Settlement
Connecticut was initially settled colonists, led by Thomas Hooker to form a unified government creating a document called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. King Charles II officially united Connecticut as a single colony in 1662. Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded Providence.Two additional settlements were also formed in the area. All 4 settlements recieved a charter from England creating their own government eventually called Rhode Island -
New Hampshire/Delaware Colony
New Hampshire was founded by John Mason and settled by John Wheelwright. Delaware was settled in 1638 by Peter Minuit. -
Carolina Settlement
Carolina was settled. The main port was called Charles Town (Charleston) after the king. In 1729, North and South Carolina became separate Proprietary Colonies -
The Middle Colonies
King Charles II gave the territory between New England and Virginia, much of which was already occupied by Dutch traders and landowners called patroons, to his brother James, the Duke of York. New York was one of the most diverse and prosperous colonies in the New World. -
Pennsylvania Colony
The King of England granted the Quaker William Penn 45,000 square miles of land that was named Pennsylvania -
The French and Indian Wars
The French and Indian Wars was a name used in the United States for a series of intermittent conflicts between the years 1688 and 1763 in North America that represented colonial events related to the European dynastic wars.
