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Jamestown
The Jamestown settlement in Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699. -
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Anglo-Powhatan Wars
The Anglo–Powhatan Wars were three wars fought between settlers of the Virginia Colony and Algonquin Indians of the Powhatan Confederacy in the early seventeenth century. The first war started in 1609 and ended in 1614. The second war lasted from 1622 to 1626. The third war lasted from 1644 until 1646 and ended when Opechancanough was captured and killed. That war resulted in a boundary between the Indians and colonial lands that could only be crossed for official business with a special pass. -
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French and Iroquois Wars
The French and Iroquois Wars were fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America which pitted the Iroquois against the Hurons, northern Algonquians and their French allies. As a result, the Iroquois destroyed several confederacies and tribes through warfare: the Hurons or Wendat, Erie, Neutral, Wenro, Tionontate, Susquehannock, Mahican and northern Algonquins whom they defeated and dispersed, some fleeing to neighboring peoples and others assimilated, routed and killed. -
Slavery begins in Virginia
After the first Africans arrived at Jamestown in 1619, slavery and other forms of bondage were found in all the English colonies; some Native Americans were enslaved by the English, with a few slaveholders having both African and Native American slaves,[16] who worked in their tobacco fields. Laws regarding enslavement of Native Americans vacillated between encouraging and discouraging slavery. The number of enslaved native people reached a peak at the end of the seventeenth century. -
Plymouth & Pilgrims
Plymouth Colony was founded by a group of Puritan Separatists who came to be known as the Pilgrims. It was the second successful colony to be founded and it was the first permanent English settlement in the New England region. The colony established a treaty with Wampanoag Chief Massasoit which helped to ensure its success. The colony was ultimately merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony and other territories in 1691 to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay. -
Mayflower Compact
The Pilgrims had originally hoped to reach America in early October using two ships, but delays and complications meant they could use only one, the Mayflower. The Mayflower Compact, originally titled Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth, was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower, consisting of separatist Puritans, adventurers, and tradesmen. The purpose was to give the Puritans a government. -
Providence of New Hampshire
The Providence of New Hampshire was founded. -
Jamestown Massacre
The Jamestown massacre took place in the English Colony of Virginia. Powhatans came unarmed into their houses with deer, turkeys, fish, fruits, and other provisions to sell. Then grabbed tools and weapons available and killed all the English settlers they found, including men, women, and children of all ages. Chief Opechancanough led the Powhatan Confederacy in a coordinated series of surprise attacks; they killed a total of 347 people, a quarter of the population of the Virginia colony. -
Providence of Maryland
The Providence of Maryland was founded. -
Harvard founded
The school came into existence in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—though without a single building, instructor, or student. In 1638, the college became home for North America's first known printing press. Three years later, the college was renamed in honor of deceased Charlestown minister John Harvard who had bequeathed to the school his entire library and half of his monetary estate. The school's first students were graduated in 1642. -
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Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict that took place between 1636 and 1638 in New England between the Pequot tribe and an alliance of the colonists of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes. The war concluded with the decisive defeat of the Pequot. About 700 Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity and hundreds of prisoners were sold into slavery. -
Providence of Carolina
The Providence of Carolina was founded. -
Providence of New Jersey
The Providence of New Jersey was founded. -
Providence of New York
The Providence of New York was founded. -
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King Philip's War
King Philip's War was an armed conflict in 1675–1678 between indigenous inhabitants of New England and New England colonists and their indigenous allies. The war is named for Metacom, the Wampanoag chief who adopted the name Philip because of the friendly relations between his father Massasoit and the Mayflower Pilgrims. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay in April 1678. -
Providence of Maine
The Providence of Maine was founded. -
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania was founded. -
French colonization of Texas
The French colonization of Texas began with the establishment of a fort in present-day southeastern Texas. It was established in 1685 near Arenosa Creek and Matagorda Bay by explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle. He intended to found the colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River, but inaccurate maps and navigational errors caused his ships to anchor instead 400 miles (640 km) to the west, off the coast of Texas. The colony survived until 1688. -
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King William's War
King William's War was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg. It was the first of six colonial wars fought between New France and New England along with their respective Native allies before France ceded its remaining mainland territories in North America east of the Mississippi River in 1763. -
Salem Witch Trials
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than two hundred people were accused. Thirty were found guilty, nineteen of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death for refusing to plead, and at least five people died in jail.
