CHRONOLOGY

1606

  • Virginia Company receives royal charter.

    • 1607

  • English colonists found Jamestown; Pocahontas “rescues” John Smith.

    • 1607–1610

  • Starvation plagues Jamestown.

    • 1612

  • John Rolfe begins to plant tobacco in Virginia.

    • 1617

  • First commercial tobacco shipped to England.

  • Pocahontas dies in England.

    • 1618

  • Powhatan dies; Opechancanough becomes Algonquian chief.

    • 1619

  • First Africans arrive in Virginia.

  • House of Burgesses begins to meet.

    • 1622

  • Opechancanough leads first uprising in Virginia.

    • 1624

  • Virginia becomes royal colony.

    • 1630s

  • Barbados colonized by English.

    • 1632

  • Colony of Maryland founded.

    • 1634

  • Colonists begin to arrive in Maryland.

    • 1640s

  • Barbados colonists grow sugarcane with slave labor.

    • 1644

  • Opechancanough leads second uprising.

    • 1660

  • Navigation Act requires colonial products be shipped only to English ports.

  • Virginia law defines slavery as inherited, lifelong servitude.

    • 1663

  • Royal charter granted for Carolina colony.

    • 1670

  • Charles Towne, South Carolina, founded.

    • 1670–1700

  • Slave labor system emerges in Carolina and Chesapeake colonies.

    • 1676

  • Bacon’s Rebellion erupts.

    • 1680

  • Pueblo Revolt takes place.