Timeline

Timeline of Events Leading to the Revolution — From the First Settlements to the Declaration of Independence

Colonies & Settlements

1585: First English colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh — Roanoke Island (North Carolina)
1587: Roanoke colony mysteriously disappears
1607: English settle at Jamestown, VA — First charter of Virginia Company
1620: British Pilgrims arrive at Plymouth, MA on the Mayflower
1624: New Netherlands founded by Dutch West India Company
1631: First settlements in Delaware at Lewes by the Dutch
1634: Maryland founded by George Calvert (Lord Baltimore)
1636: Roger Williams founds Providence, Rhode Island
1639: New Hampshire founded by John Wheelright
1664: Duke of York, King Charles II brother, gains control of Dutch lands, makes grant to found New Jersey
1664: Colony of Connecticut charted by England, combining Connecticut and Rhode Island
1670: Charlestown (South Carolina) founded
1674: British reclaim New York from Dutch
1681: William Penn receives land from Charles II, claims Pennsylvania in 1683
1682: Delaware becomes part of Pennsylvania
1692: New Hampshire separated from Massachusetts
1704: Delaware granted its own assembly
1729: Carolinas separated into North and South
1732: Georgia settled by James Oglethorpe
1776: The Declaration of Independence

Key Events

1651: First Navigation Acts passed by British Parliament
1754-1763: The French and Indian War
1763: The Proclamation of 1763
1764: The Sugar Act
1764: The Currency Act
1765: The Stamp Act
1765: The Quartering Act
1766: The Declaratory Act
1766: The Townsend Revenue Acts
1770: The Boston Massacre
1773: The Tea Act
1773: The Boston Tea Party
1774: The Coercive Acts
1774: The Massachusetts Government Act
1774: The First Continental Congress
1775: Lexington and Concord — The first fighting
1775: Battle of Bunker Hill

Origination of Slavery

1619: First slaves in the colonies — arrive on Dutch ship in Virginia
1638: First public slave action in the colonies — in Jamestown Virginia
1641: Massachusetts gives first legal recognition to slavery in the colonies
1643: Slavery legalized in New England as part of the New England Confederation
1661: Virginia becomes the first southern colony to legally establish slavery
1668: First abolitionist movement started by the Quakers in Pennsylvania