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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
America Already Had a Few Customs when the English Colonists 1st Arrived
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1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) A Land Crab
1 1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Village of Pomiooc 1585
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) An Indian Chief
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Village of Pomiooc
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Festive Dance
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) A Fire Ceremony
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Manner of Fishing
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Cooking Fish
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Turtle
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Women Already in America when English Colonists 1st Arrived
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1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Woman and Young Girl 1585
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Woman
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Man and Woman Eating
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Woman and Baby of Pomeiooc
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Woman of Secoton
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Woman of Florida
Theodor de Bry’s engraving of an American Indian woman, published in Thomas Hariot’s 1588 book A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia.
1616 An Anglicized Pocahontas
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Women in America Timeline 1607-1620
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Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
1606
The First Charter of Virginia; April 10
1607
Virginia. The British establish their first American colony at Jamestown named for King James I, who ascended to the throne only four years earlier. Virginia was named for the virgin Queen Elizabeth, who never married. England was financially pressed following years of war with Spain. To raise funds to explore the New World, to bring back gold and other riches, and to seek the Northwest Passage to the Middle East and India, James I grants a proprietary charter for the Chesapeake region to two competing branches of the Virginia Company, which were supported by private investors--the Plymouth Company and the London Company. Of the original 105 settlers, only 32 survived the first year.
1608
First English women arrive at Jamestown contributing to Jamestown's ultimate survival. Lord Bacon, a member of His Majesty's Council for Virginia, stated about 1620 that "When a plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well as with men; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pieced from without."
Anne Burras came to Jamestown in 1608 married John Laydon three months after her arrival becoming the first Jamestown wedding. Anne and John raised four daughters in the new Virginia wilderness.
John Smith (1580-1631) claims (some 24 years later & 7 years after her death) that Pocahontas saves him from execution by Algonquian Chief Powhatan who was her faher.
1609
The Dutch East India Company sends Henry Hudson on a seven month voyage to explore the area around present-day New York City and the river north to Albany, which bears his name. The Dutch claimed the land.
Temperance Flowerdew, arrived at Jamestown with 400 ill-fated settlers in the fall of 1609. The following winter, dubbed the "Starving Time," saw over 80 percent of Jamestown succumb to sickness, disease and starvation. Temperance survived but soon returned to England. By 1619, Temperance returned to Jamestown with her new husband, Governor George Yeardley. After his death in 1627, she married Governor Francis West and remained in Virginia until her death in 1628.
The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23
1609-1612
Tobacco cultivation is introduced in Virginia and within a decade becomes the colony's chief source of revenue.
1611
Authorized version of King James Bible published
The Third Charter of Virginia; March 12
1613
Pocahontas is taken hostage by Jamestown colonists in the first Anglo-Powhatan war.
A Dutch trading post is set up on lower Manhattan island.
1614
Pocahontas is baptized a Christian and marries John Rolfe, one of the Jamestown colonists.
General Charter for Those who Discover Any New Passages, Havens, Countries, or Places; March 27
Grant of Exclusive Trade to New Netherland by the States-General of the United Netherlands; October 11
1616
Pocahontas and John Rolfe departed for England, where she met King James I. Pocahontas and Rolfe were awarded funds to return to the colony to establish a college to Christianize the Powhatan Indians, but on beginning the trip home she died unexpectedly, in March 1617, at Gravesend, England, where she is buried.
John Smith writes A Description of New England.
1619
Virginia settlers were first granted their own personal property, the acreage dependent on the time and situation of their arrival. This was the beginning of private property for Virginia men. The men, however, asked that land also be allotted for their wives who were just as deserving "...because that in a newe plantation it is not knowen whether man or woman be the most necessary." The Virginia Company of London hoped to anchor their discontented bachelors to the soil of Virginia by using women as a stabilizing factor. They ordered that "...a fit hundredth might be sent of women, maids young and uncorrupt, to make wives to the inhabitants and by that means to make the men there more settled and less movable...." Ninety arrived in 1620 and the company records reported in May of 1622 that, "57 young maids have been sent to make wives for the planters, divers of which were well married before the coming away of the ships."
The first session of the first legislative assembly in America occurs as the Virginia House of Burgesses convenes in Jamestown. It consists of 22 burgesses, all men, representing 11 plantations.
Twenty Africans, 17 men & 3 women, are brought by a Dutch ship to Jamestown for sale as indentured servants, marking the beginning of slavery in Colonial America.
Petition for a Charter of New England by the Northern Company of Adventurers; March 3
1620
Massachusetts. A group of 101 Puritan Separatists frustrated in their attempts to achieve reform within the Church of England sail on board the Mayflower to America and establish Plymouth Colony on C
ape Cod in New England. When 41 men from the group set up the the Mayflower Compact establishing a form of local government in which the colonists agree to abide by majority rule and to cooperate for the general good of the colony, later colonies us it as a model as they set up governments. Plymouth was absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony with the issuance of the Massachusetts Bay charter of 1691.
Charter of New England; November 3
Mayflower Compact; November 11
The first public library in the colonies is organized in Virginia with books donated by landowners
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet.
Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
1606
The First Charter of Virginia; April 10
1607
Virginia. The British establish their first American colony at Jamestown named for King James I, who ascended to the throne only four years earlier. Virginia was named for the virgin Queen Elizabeth, who never married. England was financially pressed following years of war with Spain. To raise funds to explore the New World, to bring back gold and other riches, and to seek the Northwest Passage to the Middle East and India, James I grants a proprietary charter for the Chesapeake region to two competing branches of the Virginia Company, which were supported by private investors--the Plymouth Company and the London Company. Of the original 105 settlers, only 32 survived the first year.
1608
First English women arrive at Jamestown contributing to Jamestown's ultimate survival. Lord Bacon, a member of His Majesty's Council for Virginia, stated about 1620 that "When a plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as well as with men; that the plantation may spread into generations, and not be ever pieced from without."
Anne Burras came to Jamestown in 1608 married John Laydon three months after her arrival becoming the first Jamestown wedding. Anne and John raised four daughters in the new Virginia wilderness.
John Smith (1580-1631) claims (some 24 years later & 7 years after her death) that Pocahontas saves him from execution by Algonquian Chief Powhatan who was her faher.
1609
The Dutch East India Company sends Henry Hudson on a seven month voyage to explore the area around present-day New York City and the river north to Albany, which bears his name. The Dutch claimed the land.
Temperance Flowerdew, arrived at Jamestown with 400 ill-fated settlers in the fall of 1609. The following winter, dubbed the "Starving Time," saw over 80 percent of Jamestown succumb to sickness, disease and starvation. Temperance survived but soon returned to England. By 1619, Temperance returned to Jamestown with her new husband, Governor George Yeardley. After his death in 1627, she married Governor Francis West and remained in Virginia until her death in 1628.
The Second Charter of Virginia; May 23
1609-1612
Tobacco cultivation is introduced in Virginia and within a decade becomes the colony's chief source of revenue.
1611
Authorized version of King James Bible published
The Third Charter of Virginia; March 12
1613
Pocahontas is taken hostage by Jamestown colonists in the first Anglo-Powhatan war.
A Dutch trading post is set up on lower Manhattan island.
1614
Pocahontas is baptized a Christian and marries John Rolfe, one of the Jamestown colonists.
General Charter for Those who Discover Any New Passages, Havens, Countries, or Places; March 27
Grant of Exclusive Trade to New Netherland by the States-General of the United Netherlands; October 11
1616
Pocahontas and John Rolfe departed for England, where she met King James I. Pocahontas and Rolfe were awarded funds to return to the colony to establish a college to Christianize the Powhatan Indians, but on beginning the trip home she died unexpectedly, in March 1617, at Gravesend, England, where she is buried.
John Smith writes A Description of New England.
1619
Virginia settlers were first granted their own personal property, the acreage dependent on the time and situation of their arrival. This was the beginning of private property for Virginia men. The men, however, asked that land also be allotted for their wives who were just as deserving "...because that in a newe plantation it is not knowen whether man or woman be the most necessary." The Virginia Company of London hoped to anchor their discontented bachelors to the soil of Virginia by using women as a stabilizing factor. They ordered that "...a fit hundredth might be sent of women, maids young and uncorrupt, to make wives to the inhabitants and by that means to make the men there more settled and less movable...." Ninety arrived in 1620 and the company records reported in May of 1622 that, "57 young maids have been sent to make wives for the planters, divers of which were well married before the coming away of the ships."
The first session of the first legislative assembly in America occurs as the Virginia House of Burgesses convenes in Jamestown. It consists of 22 burgesses, all men, representing 11 plantations.
Twenty Africans, 17 men & 3 women, are brought by a Dutch ship to Jamestown for sale as indentured servants, marking the beginning of slavery in Colonial America.
Petition for a Charter of New England by the Northern Company of Adventurers; March 3
1620
Massachusetts. A group of 101 Puritan Separatists frustrated in their attempts to achieve reform within the Church of England sail on board the Mayflower to America and establish Plymouth Colony on C
ape Cod in New England. When 41 men from the group set up the the Mayflower Compact establishing a form of local government in which the colonists agree to abide by majority rule and to cooperate for the general good of the colony, later colonies us it as a model as they set up governments. Plymouth was absorbed by Massachusetts Bay Colony with the issuance of the Massachusetts Bay charter of 1691.Charter of New England; November 3
Mayflower Compact; November 11
The first public library in the colonies is organized in Virginia with books donated by landowners
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet.
Women in America Timeline 1621-1650
.
Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
1621
One of the first treaties between colonists & Native Americans is signed as the Plymouth Pilgrims enact a peace pact with the Wampanoag Tribe, with the aid of Squanto, an English speaking Native American.
First Thanksgiving celebrated at Plymouth.
Charter of the Dutch West India Company; June 3
Ordinances for Virginia; July 24-August 3
1622
Maine was settled in 1622. Massachusetts Bay colony encroached into Maine during the English Civil War; but, with the Restoration, Maine regained autonomy in 1664.
A Grant of the Province of Maine to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, esq., August 10
A sudden attack by Powhatan Indians on the English colony at Jamestown results in the death of nearly 400 settlers including women & children.
1623
New Hampshire grew from a series of land grants dating from 1623 to 1680. For much of its history the colony was controlled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The settlement at Exeter was founded in 1638 by John Wheelwright, a disciple of Anne Hutchinson, who was banned from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by her fellow Puritans. By 1691, it became the royal Province of New Hampshire. One disputed New Hampshire grant territory (New Hampshire claimed it, a judge awarded it to New York) later became the state of Vermont.
1624
New York. The island of Manhattan is purchased from local Indians by the Dutch; the colony is named New Netherlands & its capital New Amsterdam. The first group of 34 families of Dutch settlers disperse up the Hudson River, to the Delaware River area in New Jersey, to Governor's Island, Manhattan Island, & Long Island.
Warrant for William Ussling to Establish a General Company for Trade to Asia, Africa, America and Magellanica; December 21
The Virginia Company charter is revoked in London & Virginia is declared a Royal colony.
1625
Charles I comes to the throne in England.
1626
Dutch colonist Peter Minuit buys Manhattan island from Native Americans for 60 guilders (about $24) & names the island New Amsterdam.
Notification of the Purchase of Manhattan by the Dutch; November 5
1628
Slavery is introduced into Manhattan by the Dutch.
Thomas Morton & colonists at Merrymount dance around a maypole and celebrate May Day, upsetting the Plymouth Pilgrims. In June, Capt. Miles Standish eradicates the settlement & sends Morton back to England.
1629
Massachusetts. John Winthrop (1588–1649) assumes leadership of the English settlers in present-day Salem; this marks the beginning of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop chooses Boston as his seat of government.
Charter of the Colony of New Plymouth Granted to William Bradford and His Associates; January 13
Grant of Land North of the Saco River to Thomas Lewis and Richard Bonighton by the Council for New England; February 12
The Charter of Massachusetts Bay; March 4
Sir Robert Heath's Patent 5 Charles 1st; October, 30
Grant of Hampshire to Capt. John Mason, November 7
Grant of Laconia to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason by the Council for New England; November 17
England's King Charles I dissolves parliament & attempts to rule as absolute monarch, spurring many to leave for the American colonies.
1630
Population: 3,000 colonists in Virginia; 300 at Plymouth. Between 1630-1640, another 16,000 colonists will arrive.
1630 – 1643
English Puritan families immigrate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
1632
Maryland. Lord Baltimore of England receives a charter from King Charles I for land north of the Potomac River. Lord Baltimore is Catholic & draws up a charter allowing the establishment of churches of all religions. Although Maryland was an early pioneer of religious toleration in the British colonies, religious strife between denominations was common in the early years.
Charter of Maryland; June 20
1633
Williamsburg, first known as Middle Plantation, is founded in Virginia
The first town government in the colonies is organized in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
1634
Royal Commission for Regulating Plantations; April 28
1635
Boston Latin School, for boys, is established as the first public school in America.
Confirmation of the Grant from the Council for New England to Captain John Mason
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to John Wollaston, Esq., April 18
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to Mr. Mason, By the Name of Masonia; April 22
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to Mr. Mason, By the Name of New Hampshire; April 22
Declaration for Resignation of the Charter by the Council for New England; April 25
The Act of Surrender of the Great Charter of New England to His Majesty; June 7
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire From Mr. Wollaston to Mr. Mason, June 11
Grant of His Interest in New Hampshire by Sir Ferdinando Gorges to Captain John Mason; September 17
1636
North America's first university, for men, is founded at Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and soon receives a large bequest from John Harvard
Massachusettes First American built slave carrier, Desire, is launched in Massachusettes
Rhode Island. Providence Plantation was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Baptist minister fleeing from religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was joined there by Anne Hutchinson after her banishment. In 1663, a Royal Charter was granted by Charles II of England for the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The charter guaranteed religious freedom for all -- even Jews. See this blog for Anne Hutchinson's trial record.
A small Jewish population existed in Rhode Island, the only one in the original 13 British colonies of North America in which they were able to practice their religion freely.
Connecticut. The River Colony was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English gained control by the late 1630s. Two other English colonies merged into the Connecticut Colony: Saybrook Colony in 1644; New Haven Colony in 1662.
20 January. Boston clergyman John Wheelwright preaches a sermon supporting the ideas of Anne Hutchinson and her followers and is thereby sentenced to banishment on 12 November. Anne Hutchinson is sentenced to banishment at the same time.
To prevent the re-election of Governor Vane, who is sympathetic to Anne Hutchinson and her ideas, John Winthrop moves the voting to Newtown & thus is himself elected Governor of the colony.
December. Under the leadership of Peter Minuit, a group of Swedish colonists establishes a settlement called New Sweden on the Delaware River.
1637
Proclamation Against the Disorderly Transporting His Majesty's subjects to the Plantations Within the Parts of America; April 30
Commission to Sir Ferdinando Gorges as Governor of New England by Charles; July 23
New Haven was settled in late 1637. New Haven was absorbed by Connecticut Colony with the issuance of the Connecticut Charter in 1662.
1638
Anne Hutchinson is expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for “traducing the ministers” & for advocating personal revelation of the role of the Puritan clergy. Her family and other religious dissenters found Rhode Island. See this blog for Anne Hutchinson's Trial record.
Delaware.
In 1638 the New Sweden Company created the first permanent settlement of Delaware & created an outpost named after the queen of Sweden, Fort Christina. The end of the Swedish rule came in 1655. In 1664, after James, Duke of York, captured New Amsterdam. They renamed New Amstel New Castle. This effectively ended Dutch claims to any land in colonial North America. Delaware was governed from New York by a Deputy of the Duke of York from 1664 to 1682. After William Penn was granted the province of Pennsylvania in 1681, he received the lands of Delaware from the Duke of York.
The first colonial printing press is set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, owned by a woman, Mrs. Jose Glover. Mrs. Glover took financial charge of the first press in Cambridge upon her husband's death on the sea journey to America. Her's was the only press in the colonies. She established the business and, until her marriage to Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College in 1641, served as owner/publisher, with Stephen Daye as "the overseer or manager." Mrs. Glover Dunster died in1643
1639
Richard Fairbanks, given responsibility for delivering mail in Massachusetts, is allowed to charge a penny per letter
Fundamental Orders; January 14
Grant of the Province of Maine; April 3
Fundamental Agreement, or Original Constitution of the Colony of New Haven, June 4
Agreement of the Settlers at Exeter in New Hampshire, August 4
1640-59
Civil war breaks out in England as the culmination of the rivalry between Charles I & Parliament. The Battle of Naseby (1645) ends in triumph for the Parliamentary army led by Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658). Charles I was executed in 1649. England, Scotland, & Ireland are collectively declared a commonwealth, with Cromwell acting as Lord Protector. During the period of strict Puritan rule, the arts are suppressed, theaters are closed, & cultural patronage declines as the elites retire to their safer country seats.
1640
New Netherlands forbids residents from harboring or feeding runaway slaves.
When Ann Hibbens of Boston insisted that she had the right to complain about the work of male carpenters she hired, the church elders attacked her for thinking she can manage these affairs better than her husband, "which is a plain breach of the rule of Christ." She is excommunicated, and 16 years later, she is hanged for witchcraft.
William Bradford, &c. Surrender of the Patent of Plymouth Colony to the Freeman; March 2
Plantation Agreement at Providence; August 27 - September 6,
1641
Massachusettes legalizes slavery
Government of Rhode Island-March 16-19
The Combinations of the Inhabitants Upon the Piscataqua River for Government, October 22
1643
Anne Hutchinson & family murdered by Native Americans near Eastchester, Long Island (N. Y.)
Patent for Providence Plantations - March 14
The Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England; May 19
Government of New Haven Colony; October 27 - November 6
New England Confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven adopts a fugitive slave law.
With her friends, Lady Deborah Moody (c 1585-c 1659) leaves the orthodoxy of the Massachusetted colony to set up a community based on religious tolerance in Gravesend, Long Island. After receiving a patent from the Dutch in 1645, she participates in the town council meetings, helping to draw up the plans for the town & select magistrates.
In his 1643 writings about the Narragansett indians, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams describes the women's work: taking down, carrying, & setting up the mats or house coverings, when the people move from summer to winter homes. They also "plant, weede, & hill, & gather & barne all the corne."
1646
In Massachusetts, the general court approves a law that makes religious heresy punishable by death.
In New Haven, Anne Eaton, the governor's wife, attacks the church on the issue of baptism of infants. She and 3 of her female supporters are put on trial. Supporter Mrs. Leech points to the "untruths" in church doctrine.
Robert Child and others protest the intolerance of Massachusetts Puritans toward those of other faiths; in response, Governor John Winthrop & others justify their policies & banish Child.
1647 - 1648
First woman barrister in the colonies, Margaret Brent (1601-1671) of Maryland, seeks & is denied the right to vote in the assembly. The unmarried Brent, one of the largest landowners in Maryland, asks the Maryland Assembly for two votes, one for herself & another as Leonard Calvert's administrator & Lord Baltimore's attorney. Her request is denied.
1648
In England, George Fox founds Society of Friends (Quakers)
1649
Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England.
1650
Anne Bradstreet’s (c. 1612-1672) The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America is published, without her knowledge, in London by her brother-in-law. The collection includes rhymed discourses & chronicles
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu.
Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
1621
One of the first treaties between colonists & Native Americans is signed as the Plymouth Pilgrims enact a peace pact with the Wampanoag Tribe, with the aid of Squanto, an English speaking Native American.
First Thanksgiving celebrated at Plymouth.
Charter of the Dutch West India Company; June 3
Ordinances for Virginia; July 24-August 3
1622
Maine was settled in 1622. Massachusetts Bay colony encroached into Maine during the English Civil War; but, with the Restoration, Maine regained autonomy in 1664.
A Grant of the Province of Maine to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and John Mason, esq., August 10
A sudden attack by Powhatan Indians on the English colony at Jamestown results in the death of nearly 400 settlers including women & children.
1623
New Hampshire grew from a series of land grants dating from 1623 to 1680. For much of its history the colony was controlled by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The settlement at Exeter was founded in 1638 by John Wheelwright, a disciple of Anne Hutchinson, who was banned from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by her fellow Puritans. By 1691, it became the royal Province of New Hampshire. One disputed New Hampshire grant territory (New Hampshire claimed it, a judge awarded it to New York) later became the state of Vermont.
1624
New York. The island of Manhattan is purchased from local Indians by the Dutch; the colony is named New Netherlands & its capital New Amsterdam. The first group of 34 families of Dutch settlers disperse up the Hudson River, to the Delaware River area in New Jersey, to Governor's Island, Manhattan Island, & Long Island.
Warrant for William Ussling to Establish a General Company for Trade to Asia, Africa, America and Magellanica; December 21
The Virginia Company charter is revoked in London & Virginia is declared a Royal colony.
1625
Charles I comes to the throne in England.
1626
Dutch colonist Peter Minuit buys Manhattan island from Native Americans for 60 guilders (about $24) & names the island New Amsterdam.
Notification of the Purchase of Manhattan by the Dutch; November 5
1628
Slavery is introduced into Manhattan by the Dutch.
Thomas Morton & colonists at Merrymount dance around a maypole and celebrate May Day, upsetting the Plymouth Pilgrims. In June, Capt. Miles Standish eradicates the settlement & sends Morton back to England.
1629
Massachusetts. John Winthrop (1588–1649) assumes leadership of the English settlers in present-day Salem; this marks the beginning of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop chooses Boston as his seat of government.
Charter of the Colony of New Plymouth Granted to William Bradford and His Associates; January 13
Grant of Land North of the Saco River to Thomas Lewis and Richard Bonighton by the Council for New England; February 12
The Charter of Massachusetts Bay; March 4
Sir Robert Heath's Patent 5 Charles 1st; October, 30
Grant of Hampshire to Capt. John Mason, November 7
Grant of Laconia to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason by the Council for New England; November 17
England's King Charles I dissolves parliament & attempts to rule as absolute monarch, spurring many to leave for the American colonies.
1630
Population: 3,000 colonists in Virginia; 300 at Plymouth. Between 1630-1640, another 16,000 colonists will arrive.
1630 – 1643
English Puritan families immigrate to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
1632
Maryland. Lord Baltimore of England receives a charter from King Charles I for land north of the Potomac River. Lord Baltimore is Catholic & draws up a charter allowing the establishment of churches of all religions. Although Maryland was an early pioneer of religious toleration in the British colonies, religious strife between denominations was common in the early years.
Charter of Maryland; June 20
1633
Williamsburg, first known as Middle Plantation, is founded in Virginia
The first town government in the colonies is organized in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
1634
Royal Commission for Regulating Plantations; April 28
1635
Boston Latin School, for boys, is established as the first public school in America.
Confirmation of the Grant from the Council for New England to Captain John Mason
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to John Wollaston, Esq., April 18
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to Mr. Mason, By the Name of Masonia; April 22
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire to Mr. Mason, By the Name of New Hampshire; April 22
Declaration for Resignation of the Charter by the Council for New England; April 25
The Act of Surrender of the Great Charter of New England to His Majesty; June 7
Grant of the Province of New Hampshire From Mr. Wollaston to Mr. Mason, June 11
Grant of His Interest in New Hampshire by Sir Ferdinando Gorges to Captain John Mason; September 17
1636
North America's first university, for men, is founded at Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and soon receives a large bequest from John Harvard
Massachusettes First American built slave carrier, Desire, is launched in Massachusettes
Rhode Island. Providence Plantation was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Baptist minister fleeing from religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was joined there by Anne Hutchinson after her banishment. In 1663, a Royal Charter was granted by Charles II of England for the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The charter guaranteed religious freedom for all -- even Jews. See this blog for Anne Hutchinson's trial record.
A small Jewish population existed in Rhode Island, the only one in the original 13 British colonies of North America in which they were able to practice their religion freely.
Connecticut. The River Colony was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English gained control by the late 1630s. Two other English colonies merged into the Connecticut Colony: Saybrook Colony in 1644; New Haven Colony in 1662.
20 January. Boston clergyman John Wheelwright preaches a sermon supporting the ideas of Anne Hutchinson and her followers and is thereby sentenced to banishment on 12 November. Anne Hutchinson is sentenced to banishment at the same time.
To prevent the re-election of Governor Vane, who is sympathetic to Anne Hutchinson and her ideas, John Winthrop moves the voting to Newtown & thus is himself elected Governor of the colony.
December. Under the leadership of Peter Minuit, a group of Swedish colonists establishes a settlement called New Sweden on the Delaware River.
1637
Proclamation Against the Disorderly Transporting His Majesty's subjects to the Plantations Within the Parts of America; April 30
Commission to Sir Ferdinando Gorges as Governor of New England by Charles; July 23
New Haven was settled in late 1637. New Haven was absorbed by Connecticut Colony with the issuance of the Connecticut Charter in 1662.
1638
Anne Hutchinson is expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for “traducing the ministers” & for advocating personal revelation of the role of the Puritan clergy. Her family and other religious dissenters found Rhode Island. See this blog for Anne Hutchinson's Trial record.
Delaware.
In 1638 the New Sweden Company created the first permanent settlement of Delaware & created an outpost named after the queen of Sweden, Fort Christina. The end of the Swedish rule came in 1655. In 1664, after James, Duke of York, captured New Amsterdam. They renamed New Amstel New Castle. This effectively ended Dutch claims to any land in colonial North America. Delaware was governed from New York by a Deputy of the Duke of York from 1664 to 1682. After William Penn was granted the province of Pennsylvania in 1681, he received the lands of Delaware from the Duke of York.
The first colonial printing press is set up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, owned by a woman, Mrs. Jose Glover. Mrs. Glover took financial charge of the first press in Cambridge upon her husband's death on the sea journey to America. Her's was the only press in the colonies. She established the business and, until her marriage to Henry Dunster, President of Harvard College in 1641, served as owner/publisher, with Stephen Daye as "the overseer or manager." Mrs. Glover Dunster died in1643
1639
Richard Fairbanks, given responsibility for delivering mail in Massachusetts, is allowed to charge a penny per letter
Fundamental Orders; January 14
Grant of the Province of Maine; April 3
Fundamental Agreement, or Original Constitution of the Colony of New Haven, June 4
Agreement of the Settlers at Exeter in New Hampshire, August 4
1640-59
Civil war breaks out in England as the culmination of the rivalry between Charles I & Parliament. The Battle of Naseby (1645) ends in triumph for the Parliamentary army led by Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658). Charles I was executed in 1649. England, Scotland, & Ireland are collectively declared a commonwealth, with Cromwell acting as Lord Protector. During the period of strict Puritan rule, the arts are suppressed, theaters are closed, & cultural patronage declines as the elites retire to their safer country seats.
1640
New Netherlands forbids residents from harboring or feeding runaway slaves.
When Ann Hibbens of Boston insisted that she had the right to complain about the work of male carpenters she hired, the church elders attacked her for thinking she can manage these affairs better than her husband, "which is a plain breach of the rule of Christ." She is excommunicated, and 16 years later, she is hanged for witchcraft.
William Bradford, &c. Surrender of the Patent of Plymouth Colony to the Freeman; March 2
Plantation Agreement at Providence; August 27 - September 6,
1641
Massachusettes legalizes slavery
Government of Rhode Island-March 16-19
The Combinations of the Inhabitants Upon the Piscataqua River for Government, October 22
1643
Anne Hutchinson & family murdered by Native Americans near Eastchester, Long Island (N. Y.)
Patent for Providence Plantations - March 14
The Articles of Confederation of the United Colonies of New England; May 19
Government of New Haven Colony; October 27 - November 6
New England Confederation of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven adopts a fugitive slave law.
With her friends, Lady Deborah Moody (c 1585-c 1659) leaves the orthodoxy of the Massachusetted colony to set up a community based on religious tolerance in Gravesend, Long Island. After receiving a patent from the Dutch in 1645, she participates in the town council meetings, helping to draw up the plans for the town & select magistrates.
In his 1643 writings about the Narragansett indians, Rhode Island founder Roger Williams describes the women's work: taking down, carrying, & setting up the mats or house coverings, when the people move from summer to winter homes. They also "plant, weede, & hill, & gather & barne all the corne."
1646
In Massachusetts, the general court approves a law that makes religious heresy punishable by death.
In New Haven, Anne Eaton, the governor's wife, attacks the church on the issue of baptism of infants. She and 3 of her female supporters are put on trial. Supporter Mrs. Leech points to the "untruths" in church doctrine.
Robert Child and others protest the intolerance of Massachusetts Puritans toward those of other faiths; in response, Governor John Winthrop & others justify their policies & banish Child.
1647 - 1648
First woman barrister in the colonies, Margaret Brent (1601-1671) of Maryland, seeks & is denied the right to vote in the assembly. The unmarried Brent, one of the largest landowners in Maryland, asks the Maryland Assembly for two votes, one for herself & another as Leonard Calvert's administrator & Lord Baltimore's attorney. Her request is denied.
1648
In England, George Fox founds Society of Friends (Quakers)
1649
Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England.
1650
Anne Bradstreet’s (c. 1612-1672) The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America is published, without her knowledge, in London by her brother-in-law. The collection includes rhymed discourses & chronicles
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu.
Women in America Timeline 1651-1670
.
Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
1650s
Immigrants moving south from Virginia settle the coast of present-day North Carolina. A governor is appointed in 1664, but the first town is established by the arrival of the French Huguenots in 1704.1650
Slave Francis Payne of Northampton County, Virginia, paid for his freedom about 1650 by purchasing three white servants for his master's use. Francis Payne was married to a white woman named Amy by September 1656, when he gave her a mare by deed of jointure.
1651
First Indian Reservation is created near Richmond, Virginia.
1652
Rhode Island enacts the first law restricting slavery in the colonies and declares slavery illegal for more than 10 years.
Massachusettes requires all black and Indian male servants to receive military training
1654
Boat with twenty-three Jews, mostly refugees from Recife, Brazil, arrives in New Amsterdam (New York), marking the beginning of Jewish communal settlement in North America.
A Virginia court allows African Americans to hold slaves.
1655
Jews in New Netherlands are granted rights to trade, travel, and stand guard.
Elizabeth Key, daughter of a slave, sues for her freedom and wins in Virginia. (See blog for further information.)
1656
Members of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly referred to as Quakers, arrive in Boston from England. While springing from the same religious turmoil that gave rise to the Separatist movement, the Quakers lack respect for hierarchy and believe in man’s ability to achieve his own salvation. Tenets so contrary to orthodox Puritanism quickly turn most New Englanders against them.
Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans whip, imprison, & banish the first Quakers to arrive in the colony. Legislation in 1658 bars the Quakers from holding their services, called "meetings."
On 22 September 1656 in Maryland, an all-woman jury, the first in the colonies, acquits Judith Catchpole on charges of murdering her unborn child.
The small number of Quakers in Plymouth Colony congregate primarily in Sandwich on Cape Cod and in Scituate. Laws are passed forbidding any to transport Quakers into the colony, to give them “entertainment” (housing) or to attend a Quaker meeting. Punishments include fines, whipping, imprisonment or banishment. A number of people are brought before the courts on these charges.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony passes a law fining any person b
ringing a Quaker into the colony £100. A Quaker returning to the colony, after being expelled, will have their ears cropped and their tongues bored with hot iron.
Jews in New Netherlands are granted rights to own property and to establish a Jewish cemetery.
1657
Virginia passes a fugitive slave law strong
1658
At Oliver Cromwell's death, the English Commonwealth soon dissolves. The late monarch's heir is brought out of exile to rule as Charles II in 1660. The decades following the reestablishment of the monarchy are marked by a surge of artistic, literary, and dramatic output.
Three Quakers each lose an ear after returning to Massachusetts. The Boston authorities pass a new law with the penalty for expelled Quakers returning to the colony being death.
Long Island passes a similar anti-Quaker law.
1659
Quakers William Robinson & Marmaduke Stephenson are hanged for refusing to leave Massachusetts. Mary Barrett Dyer, a follower of Anne Hutchinson & later a Quaker, is scheduled to hang with them but is reprieved at the last minute.
1660
Mary Barrett Dyer is executed on Boston Common for her Quaker proselytizing & for defying an expulsion order by returning to Boston. She is one of four Quakers hanged between 1659 and 1661. See this blog for Mary Dyer's letters from jail to her husband.
The English Crown approves a Navigation Act requiring the exclusive use of English ships for trade in the English Colonies & limits exports of tobacco and sugar & other commodities to England or its colonies.
An Act for Supressing the Quakers is passed in Virginia.
Charles II, King of England, orders the Council of Foreign Plantations to devise strategies for converting slaves and servants to Christianity.
1660s
The first native Africans were brought to Virginia in 1619. They were hired, with rights of contract, for work on large plantations of tobacco, rice, & indigo. By the 1660s, plantation owners change the laws & revoke contracts, so that African men, women, & children cannot earn their freedom.
After her husband's death in 1660, Margaret Hardenbrook de Vries (later Philipse) takes over his business as a merchant buying furs and shipping them to Holland in return for Dutch products, which she sells in New Amsterdam. Although she remarries, she continues to run the business until she dies in 1690. See blog for life of Margarieta Hardenbrook De Vries Philipse.
1661
Massachusetts continues to punish Quakers by hanging those who refuse to leave the colony. After a royal edict requires Massachusetts authorities to release imprisoned Quakers & return them to England, the authorities allow them to leave for other colonies. Corporal punishment for Quakers & other dissenters is suspended in the Massachuset
ts Bay colony by order of Parliament.
1662
Virginia General Assembly declares children of enslaved women to be slaves.
Massachusetts reverses a ruling dating back to 1652, which allowed blacks to train in arms. New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire pass similar laws restricting the bearing of arms.
1663
The Carolinas. King Charles II of England grants a charter for the Carolina colonies to 8 loyal supporters. The Province of Carolina was divided into North Carolina & South Carolina in 1712. (Both colonies became royal colonies in 1729.)
A Declaration and Proposals of the Lord Proprietor of Carolina, Aug. 25-Sept. 4
Navigation Act of 1663 requires that most imports to the colonies must be transported via England on English ships.
In Gloucester County, Virginia, the first documented slave rebellion in the colonies takes place.
Maryland legalizes slavery.
1664
The British take control of New Amsterdam & New Netherlands, introduce English constitutional forms. The Dutch settlers were able to retain their properties & worship as they please. The Colonial Dutch style of art & life remains pervasive in New York throughout the 18th century.
The Concession and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of New Caesarea, or New Jersey, to and With All and Every the Adventurers and All Such as Shall Settle or Plant There; February 10
Grant of the Province of Maine; March 12
The Duke of York's Release to John Ford Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret; June 24
Anne Bradstreet’s MEDITATIONS DIVINE AND MORALL
is a collection of her prose devotional writings written for her son Simon, which draw on her daily experiences. Probably written between 1655-1665, but found after her death in 1672.
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Maryland is the first colony to take legal action against marriages between white women and black men.
The State of Maryland mandates lifelong servitude for all black slaves. New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia all pass similar laws
1665
Legislation in several states tightens the bonds of slavery. English law provides that slaves may be freed if they convert to Christianity a
nd establish legal residence, but Maryland, New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia pass laws allowing conversion & residence without freeing any slaves.
Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina
Charter of Carolina; June 30
Great Plague of London begins.
1666
Maryland passes a fugitive slave law.
1667
Virginia declares that Christian baptism will not alter a man or a woman's status as a slave.
New Jersey passes a fugitive slave law.
1669
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina : March 1
1670
The State of Virginia prohibits free blacks and Indians from keeping Christian (i.e. white) servants.
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu
.
Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
1650s
Immigrants moving south from Virginia settle the coast of present-day North Carolina. A governor is appointed in 1664, but the first town is established by the arrival of the French Huguenots in 1704.1650
Slave Francis Payne of Northampton County, Virginia, paid for his freedom about 1650 by purchasing three white servants for his master's use. Francis Payne was married to a white woman named Amy by September 1656, when he gave her a mare by deed of jointure.
1651
First Indian Reservation is created near Richmond, Virginia.
1652
Rhode Island enacts the first law restricting slavery in the colonies and declares slavery illegal for more than 10 years.
Massachusettes requires all black and Indian male servants to receive military training
1654
Boat with twenty-three Jews, mostly refugees from Recife, Brazil, arrives in New Amsterdam (New York), marking the beginning of Jewish communal settlement in North America.
A Virginia court allows African Americans to hold slaves.
1655
Jews in New Netherlands are granted rights to trade, travel, and stand guard.
Elizabeth Key, daughter of a slave, sues for her freedom and wins in Virginia. (See blog for further information.)
1656
Members of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly referred to as Quakers, arrive in Boston from England. While springing from the same religious turmoil that gave rise to the Separatist movement, the Quakers lack respect for hierarchy and believe in man’s ability to achieve his own salvation. Tenets so contrary to orthodox Puritanism quickly turn most New Englanders against them.
Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritans whip, imprison, & banish the first Quakers to arrive in the colony. Legislation in 1658 bars the Quakers from holding their services, called "meetings."
On 22 September 1656 in Maryland, an all-woman jury, the first in the colonies, acquits Judith Catchpole on charges of murdering her unborn child.
The small number of Quakers in Plymouth Colony congregate primarily in Sandwich on Cape Cod and in Scituate. Laws are passed forbidding any to transport Quakers into the colony, to give them “entertainment” (housing) or to attend a Quaker meeting. Punishments include fines, whipping, imprisonment or banishment. A number of people are brought before the courts on these charges.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony passes a law fining any person b
ringing a Quaker into the colony £100. A Quaker returning to the colony, after being expelled, will have their ears cropped and their tongues bored with hot iron.Jews in New Netherlands are granted rights to own property and to establish a Jewish cemetery.
1657
Virginia passes a fugitive slave law strong
1658
At Oliver Cromwell's death, the English Commonwealth soon dissolves. The late monarch's heir is brought out of exile to rule as Charles II in 1660. The decades following the reestablishment of the monarchy are marked by a surge of artistic, literary, and dramatic output.
Three Quakers each lose an ear after returning to Massachusetts. The Boston authorities pass a new law with the penalty for expelled Quakers returning to the colony being death.
Long Island passes a similar anti-Quaker law.
1659
Quakers William Robinson & Marmaduke Stephenson are hanged for refusing to leave Massachusetts. Mary Barrett Dyer, a follower of Anne Hutchinson & later a Quaker, is scheduled to hang with them but is reprieved at the last minute.
1660
Mary Barrett Dyer is executed on Boston Common for her Quaker proselytizing & for defying an expulsion order by returning to Boston. She is one of four Quakers hanged between 1659 and 1661. See this blog for Mary Dyer's letters from jail to her husband.
The English Crown approves a Navigation Act requiring the exclusive use of English ships for trade in the English Colonies & limits exports of tobacco and sugar & other commodities to England or its colonies.
An Act for Supressing the Quakers is passed in Virginia.
Charles II, King of England, orders the Council of Foreign Plantations to devise strategies for converting slaves and servants to Christianity.
1660s
The first native Africans were brought to Virginia in 1619. They were hired, with rights of contract, for work on large plantations of tobacco, rice, & indigo. By the 1660s, plantation owners change the laws & revoke contracts, so that African men, women, & children cannot earn their freedom.
After her husband's death in 1660, Margaret Hardenbrook de Vries (later Philipse) takes over his business as a merchant buying furs and shipping them to Holland in return for Dutch products, which she sells in New Amsterdam. Although she remarries, she continues to run the business until she dies in 1690. See blog for life of Margarieta Hardenbrook De Vries Philipse.
1661
Massachusetts continues to punish Quakers by hanging those who refuse to leave the colony. After a royal edict requires Massachusetts authorities to release imprisoned Quakers & return them to England, the authorities allow them to leave for other colonies. Corporal punishment for Quakers & other dissenters is suspended in the Massachuset
ts Bay colony by order of Parliament.1662
Virginia General Assembly declares children of enslaved women to be slaves.
Massachusetts reverses a ruling dating back to 1652, which allowed blacks to train in arms. New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire pass similar laws restricting the bearing of arms.
1663
The Carolinas. King Charles II of England grants a charter for the Carolina colonies to 8 loyal supporters. The Province of Carolina was divided into North Carolina & South Carolina in 1712. (Both colonies became royal colonies in 1729.)
A Declaration and Proposals of the Lord Proprietor of Carolina, Aug. 25-Sept. 4
Navigation Act of 1663 requires that most imports to the colonies must be transported via England on English ships.
In Gloucester County, Virginia, the first documented slave rebellion in the colonies takes place.
Maryland legalizes slavery.
1664
The British take control of New Amsterdam & New Netherlands, introduce English constitutional forms. The Dutch settlers were able to retain their properties & worship as they please. The Colonial Dutch style of art & life remains pervasive in New York throughout the 18th century.
The Concession and Agreement of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of New Caesarea, or New Jersey, to and With All and Every the Adventurers and All Such as Shall Settle or Plant There; February 10
Grant of the Province of Maine; March 12
The Duke of York's Release to John Ford Berkeley, and Sir George Carteret; June 24
Anne Bradstreet’s MEDITATIONS DIVINE AND MORALL
is a collection of her prose devotional writings written for her son Simon, which draw on her daily experiences. Probably written between 1655-1665, but found after her death in 1672.If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
Maryland is the first colony to take legal action against marriages between white women and black men.
The State of Maryland mandates lifelong servitude for all black slaves. New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia all pass similar laws
1665
Legislation in several states tightens the bonds of slavery. English law provides that slaves may be freed if they convert to Christianity a
nd establish legal residence, but Maryland, New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia pass laws allowing conversion & residence without freeing any slaves.Concessions and Agreements of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of Carolina
Charter of Carolina; June 30
Great Plague of London begins.
1666
Maryland passes a fugitive slave law.
1667
Virginia declares that Christian baptism will not alter a man or a woman's status as a slave.
New Jersey passes a fugitive slave law.
1669
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina : March 1
1670
The State of Virginia prohibits free blacks and Indians from keeping Christian (i.e. white) servants.
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu
.
Women in America Timeline 1670-1700
.
Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
c. 1674 Elizabeth Clarke Freake (Mrs. John Freake) and Baby Mary, about 1671 and 1674
1672
A Declaration of the True Intent and Meaning of us the Lords Proprietors, and Explanation of There Concessions Made to the Adventurers and Planters of New Caesarea or New Jersey; December 6
George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers), & missionary William Edmundson visit Albemarle converting many colonists to Quakerism. Quakers are the first religious body to obtain a foothold in Carolina.
1673
Dutch military forces retake New York from the British; but in 1674, The Treaty of Westminster ends hostilities between the English & Dutch returning the Dutch colonies in America to the English.
The British Navigation Act of 1673 sets up the office of customs commissioner in the colonies to collect duties on goods that pass between colonies.
1674
New Jersey was divided into 2 separate colonies, East & West New Jersey in 1674, only to be reunited in 1702.
Grant of the Province of Maine; June 29
His Royal Highness's Grant to the Lords Proprietors, Sir George Carteret; July 29
New York declares that blacks who convert to Christianity after their enslavement will not be freed.
In Albany, Maria Van Cortlandt Van Rennselaer (1645-1688/9) manages her 24 mile square estate after the death of her husband in 1674. She does not remarry and clears title to the property when the English reclaim New York. (See more about Maria on this blog.)
1676
Nathaniel Bacon leads southside Virginians against the Indians and in violation of Governor Berkeley's wishes. He openly rebels against Berkley and burns Jamestown to the ground before dying of dysentery on October 26. Slaves and indentured servants participate.King Philip's War begins when Metacomet (King Philip) leads an attack against Swansea in retaliation for the Plymouth colony's execution of three Wampanoag tribe members. The bloody war rages up & down the Connecticut River valley in Massachusetts & in the Plymouth & Rhode Island colonies, eventually killing 600 English colonials & 3,000 Native Americans, including women & children on both sides. Metacomet is shot on 12 August 1676. In New Hampshire & Maine, the Saco Indians continue to raid settlements for another year and a half. Sir Edmond Andros finally makes peace in Maine on 12 April 1678.The Royal Africa Company is given a monopoly in the English slave trade bringing male & female slaves to the British American colonies.
When Bacon is marching back to Jamestown & things are looking bleak, his men are still supporting him. When one of the men, a Scotsman named Drummond, was warned that this was rebellion, he replied recklessly, "I am in over shoes, I will be in over boots."
His wife was even more bold. "This is dangerous work," said some one, "and England will have something to say to it." Then Sarah Drummond picked up a twig, and snapping it in two, threw it down again. "I fear the power of England no more than that broken straw," she cried.
The Charter or Fundamental Laws, of West New Jersey, Agreed Upon
Quintipartite Deed of Revision, Between E. and W Jersey: July 1
1677
Sarah Symmes Fiske (1627-1692) writes her only known literary work A CONFESSION OF FAITH: OR, A SUMMARY OF DIVINITY. DRAWN UP BY A YOUNG GENTLE-WOMAN, IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HER AGE, which would not be published until 1704. The work is a spiritual biography emphasizing Puritan theology and argument. (See this blog for more on Sarah Symmes Fiske.)
1678
Anne Bradstreet’s SEVERAL POEMS COMPILED WITH GREAT VARIETY OF WIT AND LEARNING…BY A GENTLEWOMAN OF NEW ENGLAND is published posthumously and includes revisions of her earlier work and a dozen new works found among her papers after her death and includes "On the Burning of Her Home," a short spiritual autobiography in prose; "Religious Experience;" and "Contemplation," regarded by many as her greatest poetic achievement. (See this blog for more on Anne Bradstreet.)
1679 Mrs. Richard Patteshall (Martha Woody) and Child. Attributed to: Thomas Smith, American, c 1650–1691
1680
The State of Virginia forbids blacks and slaves from bearing arms, prohibits blacks from congregating in large numbers, and mandates harsh punishment for slaves who assault Christians or attempt escape.
Duke of York's Second Grant to William Penn, Gawn Lawry, Nicholas Lucas, John Eldridge, Edmund Warner, and Edward Byllynge, for the Soil and Government of West New Jersey; August 6
Commission of John Cutt of New Hampshire; September 18
1681
Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania - July 11Charter for the Province of Pennsylvania; February 28
Province of West New-Jersey, in America; November 25
William Penn (1644–1718), a wealthy Quaker, receives a large land grant west of the Delaware River, Pennsylvania. Penn received the colony as payment in lieu of debt that the Crown owed his father, naval hero Sir William Penn. Establishment of the colony also solved the problem of the growing Society of Friends or "Quaker" movement in England, which was causing much embarrassment to the Church of England. While still in England, Penn outlined certain rights to its citizens. The three counties of the Delaware Colony, captured from the Dutch, were deeded to William Penn in 1682, but regained a separate existence in 1704.
Sarah Whipple Goodhue (1641-1681) writes "VALEDICTORY AND MONITORY-WRITING." Goodhue's letter to provide spiritual guidance to her family would be read for inspiration through the 19th century. The Ipswich, Massachusetts, native had written the work anticipating that she might die in childbirth. It offers advice to her husband & children and remains interesting for the light it sheds on colonial family life. (See this blog for the entire text of Sarah Goodhue's letter to her family.)
Maria, a slave is burned at the stake for trying, with 2 men, to burn down her master's house in Massachusetts. The court condemns her most severely, claiming she lacks "the feare of God before her eyes."
1682
Mary White Rowlandson (c. 1635-c. 1678) writes THE SOVEREIGNTY & THE GOODNESS OF GOD... BEING A NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY AND RESTAURATION OF MRS. MARY ROWLANDSON. One of the most famous and popular examples of colonial American prose chronicles Rowlandson's spiritual & physical travails after her 11 week captivity among Indians in 1676. It is the first widely popular book written by a woman. (See this blog for more on Mary Rowlandson plus the entire text of her book.)
Virginia declares all imported African American servants to be slaves for life.
Mary Avery may have been the colonies' first woman publisher. She published The Rule of the New-Creature (a children's book) at Boston in 1682.
Duke of York's Confirmation to the 24 Proprietors; March 14
Penn's Charter of Libertie; April 25
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania; May 5
1683
A group of German Mennonites & Quakers founded the settlement of Germantown. They were led by Francis Daniel Pastorius who soon wrote a promotional piece to encourage more Germans to emigrate to Pennsylvania.
Quakers establish the first school in Pennsylvania. They are among the first to teach both girls & boys to read and write. Training in classical languages, history, & literature is available at a public school in Philadelphia beginning in 1689.
Mennonite and other German families begin to settle in Penn's colony.
William Penn & Native Americans negotiate a peace treaty at Shackamaxon under the Treaty Elm
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania: February 2
The Fundamental Constitutions for the Province of East New Jersey in America
The King's Letter Recognizing the Proprietors' Right to the Soil and Government ; November 23
1684
Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked ending the requirement of church membership for voting.
New York makes it illegal for slaves to sell goods.
1685
The Duke of York ascends the British throne as King James II. He creates The Dominion of New England with the consolidation of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, East Jersey, & West Jersey into a single larger colony in 1685. The experiment ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, and the nine colonies re-established their separate identities in 1689.
Protestants in France lose their guarantee of religious freedom as King Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, spurring many families to leave for America.
1686-88
New England Royal Governor Sir Edmund Andros begins issuing a series of unpopular orders aimed at the consolidation of colonies into one large settlement. He dissolves the assemblies of New York & Connecticut; limits the number of town meetings in New England to one per year; places the militia under his direct control & forces Puritans & Anglicans to worship together.
1687
Governor Andros, orders Boston's Old South Meeting House to be converted into an Anglican Church. In August, the Massachusetts towns of Ipswich & Topsfield resist assessments imposed by Andros in protest of taxation without representation.
1688
Catholic King James II of England flees to France after being deposed by influential English leaders.
Resolutions of The Germantown Mennonites; February 18
Commission of Sir Edmund Andros for the Dominion of New England; April 7
Quakers in Pennsylvania issue a formal resolution against slavery of men & women in America.
1689
Governor Andros is jailed by rebellious colonists in Boston. In July, the English government orders Andros to be returned to England to stand trial. Cotton Mather supports the rebellion.
The New England colonies reestablish their previous systems of government.
William III of Orange (the Netherlands) is crowned king of England with wife Mary, daughter of James II. They reign together until 1694, when Mary dies; William rules alone until 1702.
1689-1763
The French and Indian War begins with King William's War. Schenectady, N. Y. and other areas are burned by French and Native Americans; Massachusetts colonists capture Port Royal, Nova Scotia; and Canadian forces destroy Casco, Maine
.
Unknown Woman New York, 1690–1700 Attributed to Gerret Duyckinck from New York, (New Amsterdam) 1660–1710)
1691
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was organized October 7, 1691 by William & Mary. The charter was enacted May 14, 1692 and included Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, the Province of Maine & what is now Nova Scotia. The New Hampshire gained its independence
South Carolina passes the first comprehensive slave codes
Virginia passes the first anti-miscegenation law, forbidding marriages between whites and blacks or whites and Native Americans. And Virginia prohibits the manumission of slaves within its borders. Manumitted slaves are forced to leave the colony
In New York, the newly appointed Governor of New England, Henry Sloughter, arrives from England & institutes royally sanctioned representative government.
The Charter of Massachusetts Bay; October 7
1692
The Salem witch trials accuse 150 of which 20 are condemned to die including 14 women; most of the accused & the accusers are women.
1693
William & Mary College, named for the British rulers, is chartered in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Thomas Smith, attributed, Maria Catherina Smith, about 1690-93
1694
Rice cultivation is introduced into Carolina. Slave importation increases dramatically.
1695
First known Jew settles in Charleston, South Carolina.
Dinah Nuthead inherits her husband's printing press in St. Mary's City, Maryland. She moves it to Annapolis when the government relocates there, and continues to run the printing business.
1696
The Royal African Trade Company loses its slave trade monopoly, spurring colonists in New England to engage in trading male & female slaves for profit.
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania
The English pass the Navigation Act of 1696 requiring colonial trade to be done exclusively via English built ships. The Act also expands the powers of colonial custom commissioners, including rights of forcible entry, and requires the posting of bonds on certain goods.
1697
Massachusetts general court expresses official repentance for the witchcraft trials; Samuel Sewall confesses guilt from his Boston church pew.
King William's War ends as the French & English sign the Treaty of Ryswick.
1690-1700 Rebecca Bonum Eskridge. Unknown Artist.
1699
Cockacoeske, Queen of the Pamunkey Indians, signs a peace treaty with Virginia.
Peace treaty at Casco Bay, Maine, brings hostilities between the Abenaki Indians & the Massachusetts colony to an end.
English Parliament passes the Wool Act, protecting its own wool industry by limiting wool production in Ireland & forbidding the export of wool by Americans.
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
.
Timeline Of Events Directly Affecting Women
Copies of complete documents may be found by clicking on highlighted descriptions.
c. 1674 Elizabeth Clarke Freake (Mrs. John Freake) and Baby Mary, about 1671 and 16741672
A Declaration of the True Intent and Meaning of us the Lords Proprietors, and Explanation of There Concessions Made to the Adventurers and Planters of New Caesarea or New Jersey; December 6
George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers), & missionary William Edmundson visit Albemarle converting many colonists to Quakerism. Quakers are the first religious body to obtain a foothold in Carolina.
1673
Dutch military forces retake New York from the British; but in 1674, The Treaty of Westminster ends hostilities between the English & Dutch returning the Dutch colonies in America to the English.
The British Navigation Act of 1673 sets up the office of customs commissioner in the colonies to collect duties on goods that pass between colonies.
1674
New Jersey was divided into 2 separate colonies, East & West New Jersey in 1674, only to be reunited in 1702.
Grant of the Province of Maine; June 29
His Royal Highness's Grant to the Lords Proprietors, Sir George Carteret; July 29
New York declares that blacks who convert to Christianity after their enslavement will not be freed.
In Albany, Maria Van Cortlandt Van Rennselaer (1645-1688/9) manages her 24 mile square estate after the death of her husband in 1674. She does not remarry and clears title to the property when the English reclaim New York. (See more about Maria on this blog.)
1676
Nathaniel Bacon leads southside Virginians against the Indians and in violation of Governor Berkeley's wishes. He openly rebels against Berkley and burns Jamestown to the ground before dying of dysentery on October 26. Slaves and indentured servants participate.King Philip's War begins when Metacomet (King Philip) leads an attack against Swansea in retaliation for the Plymouth colony's execution of three Wampanoag tribe members. The bloody war rages up & down the Connecticut River valley in Massachusetts & in the Plymouth & Rhode Island colonies, eventually killing 600 English colonials & 3,000 Native Americans, including women & children on both sides. Metacomet is shot on 12 August 1676. In New Hampshire & Maine, the Saco Indians continue to raid settlements for another year and a half. Sir Edmond Andros finally makes peace in Maine on 12 April 1678.The Royal Africa Company is given a monopoly in the English slave trade bringing male & female slaves to the British American colonies.
When Bacon is marching back to Jamestown & things are looking bleak, his men are still supporting him. When one of the men, a Scotsman named Drummond, was warned that this was rebellion, he replied recklessly, "I am in over shoes, I will be in over boots."
His wife was even more bold. "This is dangerous work," said some one, "and England will have something to say to it." Then Sarah Drummond picked up a twig, and snapping it in two, threw it down again. "I fear the power of England no more than that broken straw," she cried.
The Charter or Fundamental Laws, of West New Jersey, Agreed Upon
Quintipartite Deed of Revision, Between E. and W Jersey: July 1
1677
Sarah Symmes Fiske (1627-1692) writes her only known literary work A CONFESSION OF FAITH: OR, A SUMMARY OF DIVINITY. DRAWN UP BY A YOUNG GENTLE-WOMAN, IN THE TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HER AGE, which would not be published until 1704. The work is a spiritual biography emphasizing Puritan theology and argument. (See this blog for more on Sarah Symmes Fiske.)
1678
Anne Bradstreet’s SEVERAL POEMS COMPILED WITH GREAT VARIETY OF WIT AND LEARNING…BY A GENTLEWOMAN OF NEW ENGLAND is published posthumously and includes revisions of her earlier work and a dozen new works found among her papers after her death and includes "On the Burning of Her Home," a short spiritual autobiography in prose; "Religious Experience;" and "Contemplation," regarded by many as her greatest poetic achievement. (See this blog for more on Anne Bradstreet.)
1679 Mrs. Richard Patteshall (Martha Woody) and Child. Attributed to: Thomas Smith, American, c 1650–1691 1680
The State of Virginia forbids blacks and slaves from bearing arms, prohibits blacks from congregating in large numbers, and mandates harsh punishment for slaves who assault Christians or attempt escape.
Duke of York's Second Grant to William Penn, Gawn Lawry, Nicholas Lucas, John Eldridge, Edmund Warner, and Edward Byllynge, for the Soil and Government of West New Jersey; August 6
Commission of John Cutt of New Hampshire; September 18
1681
Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania - July 11Charter for the Province of Pennsylvania; February 28
Province of West New-Jersey, in America; November 25
William Penn (1644–1718), a wealthy Quaker, receives a large land grant west of the Delaware River, Pennsylvania. Penn received the colony as payment in lieu of debt that the Crown owed his father, naval hero Sir William Penn. Establishment of the colony also solved the problem of the growing Society of Friends or "Quaker" movement in England, which was causing much embarrassment to the Church of England. While still in England, Penn outlined certain rights to its citizens. The three counties of the Delaware Colony, captured from the Dutch, were deeded to William Penn in 1682, but regained a separate existence in 1704.
Sarah Whipple Goodhue (1641-1681) writes "VALEDICTORY AND MONITORY-WRITING." Goodhue's letter to provide spiritual guidance to her family would be read for inspiration through the 19th century. The Ipswich, Massachusetts, native had written the work anticipating that she might die in childbirth. It offers advice to her husband & children and remains interesting for the light it sheds on colonial family life. (See this blog for the entire text of Sarah Goodhue's letter to her family.)
Maria, a slave is burned at the stake for trying, with 2 men, to burn down her master's house in Massachusetts. The court condemns her most severely, claiming she lacks "the feare of God before her eyes."
1682
Mary White Rowlandson (c. 1635-c. 1678) writes THE SOVEREIGNTY & THE GOODNESS OF GOD... BEING A NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY AND RESTAURATION OF MRS. MARY ROWLANDSON. One of the most famous and popular examples of colonial American prose chronicles Rowlandson's spiritual & physical travails after her 11 week captivity among Indians in 1676. It is the first widely popular book written by a woman. (See this blog for more on Mary Rowlandson plus the entire text of her book.)
Virginia declares all imported African American servants to be slaves for life.
Mary Avery may have been the colonies' first woman publisher. She published The Rule of the New-Creature (a children's book) at Boston in 1682.
Duke of York's Confirmation to the 24 Proprietors; March 14
Penn's Charter of Libertie; April 25
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania; May 5
1683
A group of German Mennonites & Quakers founded the settlement of Germantown. They were led by Francis Daniel Pastorius who soon wrote a promotional piece to encourage more Germans to emigrate to Pennsylvania.
Quakers establish the first school in Pennsylvania. They are among the first to teach both girls & boys to read and write. Training in classical languages, history, & literature is available at a public school in Philadelphia beginning in 1689.
Mennonite and other German families begin to settle in Penn's colony.
William Penn & Native Americans negotiate a peace treaty at Shackamaxon under the Treaty Elm
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania: February 2
The Fundamental Constitutions for the Province of East New Jersey in America
The King's Letter Recognizing the Proprietors' Right to the Soil and Government ; November 23
1684
Charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is revoked ending the requirement of church membership for voting.
New York makes it illegal for slaves to sell goods.
1685
The Duke of York ascends the British throne as King James II. He creates The Dominion of New England with the consolidation of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, East Jersey, & West Jersey into a single larger colony in 1685. The experiment ended with the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89, and the nine colonies re-established their separate identities in 1689.
Protestants in France lose their guarantee of religious freedom as King Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, spurring many families to leave for America.
1686-88
New England Royal Governor Sir Edmund Andros begins issuing a series of unpopular orders aimed at the consolidation of colonies into one large settlement. He dissolves the assemblies of New York & Connecticut; limits the number of town meetings in New England to one per year; places the militia under his direct control & forces Puritans & Anglicans to worship together.
1687
Governor Andros, orders Boston's Old South Meeting House to be converted into an Anglican Church. In August, the Massachusetts towns of Ipswich & Topsfield resist assessments imposed by Andros in protest of taxation without representation.
1688
Catholic King James II of England flees to France after being deposed by influential English leaders.
Resolutions of The Germantown Mennonites; February 18
Commission of Sir Edmund Andros for the Dominion of New England; April 7
Quakers in Pennsylvania issue a formal resolution against slavery of men & women in America.
1689
Governor Andros is jailed by rebellious colonists in Boston. In July, the English government orders Andros to be returned to England to stand trial. Cotton Mather supports the rebellion.
The New England colonies reestablish their previous systems of government.
William III of Orange (the Netherlands) is crowned king of England with wife Mary, daughter of James II. They reign together until 1694, when Mary dies; William rules alone until 1702.
1689-1763
The French and Indian War begins with King William's War. Schenectady, N. Y. and other areas are burned by French and Native Americans; Massachusetts colonists capture Port Royal, Nova Scotia; and Canadian forces destroy Casco, Maine
.
Unknown Woman New York, 1690–1700 Attributed to Gerret Duyckinck from New York, (New Amsterdam) 1660–1710) 1691
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was organized October 7, 1691 by William & Mary. The charter was enacted May 14, 1692 and included Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, the Province of Maine & what is now Nova Scotia. The New Hampshire gained its independence
South Carolina passes the first comprehensive slave codes
Virginia passes the first anti-miscegenation law, forbidding marriages between whites and blacks or whites and Native Americans. And Virginia prohibits the manumission of slaves within its borders. Manumitted slaves are forced to leave the colony
In New York, the newly appointed Governor of New England, Henry Sloughter, arrives from England & institutes royally sanctioned representative government.
The Charter of Massachusetts Bay; October 7
1692
The Salem witch trials accuse 150 of which 20 are condemned to die including 14 women; most of the accused & the accusers are women.
1693
William & Mary College, named for the British rulers, is chartered in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Thomas Smith, attributed, Maria Catherina Smith, about 1690-931694
Rice cultivation is introduced into Carolina. Slave importation increases dramatically.
1695
First known Jew settles in Charleston, South Carolina.
Dinah Nuthead inherits her husband's printing press in St. Mary's City, Maryland. She moves it to Annapolis when the government relocates there, and continues to run the printing business.
1696
The Royal African Trade Company loses its slave trade monopoly, spurring colonists in New England to engage in trading male & female slaves for profit.
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania
The English pass the Navigation Act of 1696 requiring colonial trade to be done exclusively via English built ships. The Act also expands the powers of colonial custom commissioners, including rights of forcible entry, and requires the posting of bonds on certain goods.
1697
Massachusetts general court expresses official repentance for the witchcraft trials; Samuel Sewall confesses guilt from his Boston church pew.
King William's War ends as the French & English sign the Treaty of Ryswick.
1690-1700 Rebecca Bonum Eskridge. Unknown Artist.1699
Cockacoeske, Queen of the Pamunkey Indians, signs a peace treaty with Virginia.
Peace treaty at Casco Bay, Maine, brings hostilities between the Abenaki Indians & the Massachusetts colony to an end.
English Parliament passes the Wool Act, protecting its own wool industry by limiting wool production in Ireland & forbidding the export of wool by Americans.
See:
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.
Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
.
Monday, August 15, 2011
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