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1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America
(Florida)
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1500s - Spanish Conquistadores explore
Florida and Baja California
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1600s - Spanish Missionaries arrived
bringing disease which wiped out Native
Americans in Florida
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1606 - King James I of England signed a
charter for the Virginia Colony in the New
World
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1607 on May 14th three ships arrived to
establish the Virginia Colony, Susan
Constant, Godspeed, and the Discovery
with 120 emigrants who established Jamestown.
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1612 - Ships bringing new emigrants returned
to England with superior quality tobacco
collected from plantations along the James
River.
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1614 - Marriage of English settler, John
Rolfe, to Pocahontas, daughter of the Chief of
the Powhatans established a treaty for almost
8 years with the Native Americans.
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1621/22 - On March 22nd Chief Powatan's
brother, Opechankeao, led Native Americans who
attacked the 1,240 white colonists and killed
347 of them. The colonists retaliated and
massacred many Native Americans. A great
plague followed and out of the 5,000 white
settlers that had arrived in a three year time
frame only 300 survived.
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1624/25 - King James I of England dissolved
the charter for the Virginia Company and the
Virginia Colony became a Crown Colony.
Jamestown Census in Feb. 1624 records 183
persons living in Jamestown and 35 others on
the Island outside of the town proper. Thomas
(age 38) and Adria Harris (age 23) (our
ancestors) had survived the Indian attack and
the plague. Thomas had arrived in 1611 on the
"Prosperous" and Adria had arrived in 1621 on
the "Marmaduke."
Virtual Jamestown
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1625 - In January the Jamestown Census showed
1,232 people with 124 residents in "James
City" and 51 for the Island. On March 27th,
King James I of England died and was succeeded
by his son, Charles I.
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1634 - King Charles I confirmed the headright
system that started in 1618 to increase the
population of the Virginia Colony. The person
who financed the transportation of an
immigrant received 50 acres of land in the
Virginia Colony. As the grant itself did not
pay the entire cost, the immigrant became
indentured or contracted to work for a
specified time to pay for his or her
transportation.
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1635 - Virginia Colony population at 3,000.
Ships brought 1,500 to 2,000 settlers to
Virginia yearly.
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1641 - King Charles I appointed William
Berkeley as Governor of the Virginia Colony.
Berkeley fulfilled that role from 1641-1652
and again from 1660-1677.
Green Spring Plantation near James River
and Williamsburg
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1649 - King Charles I beheaded as a result of
the English Civil War. Cavaliers
(Loyalists/Royalists) supported the monarchy
and Roundheads supported Oliver Cromwell, who
won the war. Seven ships crowded with
passengers most of them Loyalists/Royalists
and 1,500 prisoners went to the Virginia
Colony. There were 12 counties in Virginia and
20 churches.
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1660 - King Charles II, son of King Charles
I, was invited back to England to reign after
Oliver Cromwell and his son had died. However,
the monarchy no longer had the power and
authority like before the English Civil War.
"One source of revenue which would not involve
(Charles II) with Parliament was Virginia,
whose colonists were shipping to London
cargoes" of tobacco. "Since the faraway
colonists had no power with which to threaten
him, he regarded them as no more than sheep to
be fleeced." He enforced a navigation act
where colonists' tobacco was required to go
through England as the middle man to European
markets with an added tax. "The European
consumers refused to buy at the raised prices.
Soon the planters' shipments gathered in
merchants' warehouses and became a glut on the
English market. In a few years prices dropped
from fourpence a pound in Cromwell's
interregnum (11 year reign) to one penny (from
eight cents to two cents)" under Charles II.
"One good man (with 50 acres) could raise
1,500 pounds of tobacco in one year. (Under
Cromwell) At fourpence a pound, the average
settler grossed about 25 English pounds a
year. Under Charles II, the average planter
grossed only about 6 English pounds a year.
Some larger planters began to use black people
from Africa, whom traders brought up the
rivers on ships and offered for outright sale
as slaves. Several of the men in the
(Virginia) government, notably John Carter and
Richard Lee, grew very concerned about the
colonists' welfare." They drafted a petition
to Charles II with the "realities of the
conditions in which the colonists were
struggling for life. Governor William Berkley
took the petition to England, but King Charles
II ordered "Berkeley to stop complaining about
tobacco prices and squeeze more revenue from
the Colony by producing products England
needed - planks, silk, cordage, flax, hemp"
and set up urban centers for manufacturing.
"The largest proportion of the English
emigrants seem to have been agricultural
workers" not skilled manufacturers.
Plantations became shipping centers. "The
governor (Berkeley) and his councilors (large
plantation owners aka merchant-planters) were
forced to accept the reality that they
administered a forsaken people, exploited by a
sovereign who denied any moral obligation to
the governed." (Dowdey, 37-39)
"For the border clashes with the hostiles that
occurred at each push of settlers farther from
Jamestown, Berkeley stayed with the system of
forts even after this method had proved
futile" (Dowdey, 54).
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1671 - Virginia Colony population at 48,000.
6,000 indentured servants and 2,000 Negro
slaves.
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1676 - Bacon's Rebellion (6 months) -
Nathaniel Bacon led a group of frontiersman to
retaliate against Indians (hostiles) who were
murdering settlers on the edges of the
frontier. Governor William Berkeley declared
Bacon a rebel because he did not have
permission to raise a militia and Bacon's
actions were seen as an afront to Berkeley's
authority. Bacon and his followers descended
on Jamestown and forced Berkeley to give Bacon
an official commission. Later Berkeley
resended Bacon's commission. Bacon's men once
again marched on the capital, Jamestown, and
this time set fire to the houses, state house,
and church. Bacon died in October from
disease. His followers looted several large
plantations for supplies in November including
Colonel John Washington's estate (Great
Grandfather of future President George
Washington). Berkeley confiscated the
rebels property, and had many of them hanged
or imprisoned. Berkeley went back to England
to explain the insurrection to King Charles II
but died of illnes in July 1677 before he met
with the King. This event is sometimes
referred to as the "precursor to the American
Revolution," one-hundred years early. (Dowdey,
59-83).
Sources:
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Cavaliers and Pioneers
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Colonial Virginia Portraits
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Dowdey, Clifford.The Virginia Dynasties, Bonanza
Books, New York. 1969.
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Early Virginia Families Along the James
River
- Education:
First college in America.
Harvard Founded in 1636
Nine colleges were founded during the colonial
period:
1. Harvard (1636) - New England Colonies
2. William and Mary (1693) - Southern Colonies
3. Yale (1701) - New England Colonies
4. Princeton (1746) - Mid-Atlantic Colonies
5. Pennsylvania (1753) - Mid-Atlantic Colonies
6. Columbia (1754) - Mid-Atlantic Colonies
7. Brown (1764) - New England Colonies
8. Rutgers (1766) - Mid-Atlantic Colonies
9. Dartmouth (1769) - New England Colonies
Source: Foundations of American Education,
Sixth Edition page 119 / L. Dean Webb, Arlene
Metha. Published by Pearson Education. 2010
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William and Mary College Founded in 1693
to train ministers to take Christianity to
Native Americans. The second oldest college in
America. see
1701 for next event...
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Natural Resources: 1609-1639 Height of
French Fur Trading
for beaver pelts for hats in Europe. Frenchmen
traded with Huron Indians in Canada until Small
Pox decimated half the Huron Tribe so they moved
further West.
BBC Atlas of the Natural World North America
Land of the Eagle "Searching for Paradise"
Documentary 2006.
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Technology: Mid 1600s - Robert Boyle -
invented the vacuum chamber or air-pump,
started the Royal Society in London, England
for scientists to witness experiments and
discuss scientific topics. Known for Boyle's
Law - "If the volume of a gas is decreased,
the pressure increases proportionally."
