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Event Summary 1
The Jamestown Settlement
In 1606 King James I of England granted a group of investors
known as the Virginia Company a charter to set up a colony in
North America. The following year, settlers started the Jamestown
Colony in Virginia. The land was swampy, mosquitoes spread
malaria, and food shortages were a real problem. Many colonists
died as a result of the harsh living conditions in the Jamestown
Colony, but the Colony survived and eventually began to make
money by growing and exporting tobacco. In 1619, the Virginia
Company gave some Jamestown settlers a voice in government.
Male settlers could vote for representatives, who met in an
assembly called the House of Burgesses. The House of Burgesses
marked the start of representative government in the colonies, and
members of the House passed laws and guidelines for moral
behavior that would ensure the survival of the Jamestown settlers.
Event Summary 2
The Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded by a group of
English Protestants called Puritans in 1620. The Puritans were very
strict about the practice of religion, and several settlers left to
found their own colonies in the New England Area. The original
colony was governed by the Mayflower Compact which helped to
establish self-government in America. New England included the
northeast colonies that were to become Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. The New England area
had a harsh climate, with a short growing season and bitter winters.
Farms tended to be small because the land was made mostly of
hills and valleys, and most families lived by planting their own
crops. Religion was extremely important to the Puritan settlers, and
religious leaders set strict rules for moral and religious life.
Event Summary 3
The Great Awakening
Religion played an important role in the development of the
13 English colonies. An emotion-packed Christian movement
swept through the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s, and the
movement became known as the Great Awakening. It began
because some Christians believed that there had been a decline of
religious zeal in the colonies. The Great Awakening led to the rise
of many new organized churches, and this increased tolerance of
religious differences. It affected the way people viewed their
political rights and their governments, and people eventually
realized that if they had religious freedom, then they could also
decide how to govern themselves.
Event Summary 4
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, took place between
the 18th and early 19th centuries in Western Europe and the newly
established United States. The Enlightenment was an intellectual
movement that advocated reason as the basis of authority. The
Scientific Revolution was a very important part of the
Enlightenment that emphasized reason, science, rationality, and
natural law. The leaders of the Enlightenment believed they could
lead their nations to progress after a long period of tyranny and
superstition that was associated with the Middle Ages. Many
Enlightenment thinkers, such as John Locke and Montesquieu,
helped create the framework for the American and French
Revolutions by writing and speaking boldly about challenging
authority and creating responsible governments and social
contracts. The idea of individual people assuming responsibility
for their own government was a very new idea, and the idea that it
was the responsibility of citizens and ordinary people to overthrow
oppressive governments was one of the reasons that the American
Colonies revolted against the English Crown.
Event Summary 5
The Declaration of Independence
The United States Declaration of Independence was an act of
the Second Continental Congress adopted on July 4, 1776, which
declared that the colonies were independent of the Kingdom of
Great Britain (England). The document, formally entitled The
Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,
was written mostly by Thomas Jefferson and explained
justifications for separation from England. At the time when the
Declaration was issued, the American colonies were united in
declaring their independence from England, but were not yet
declaring themselves to be a single nation. The Preamble of the
Declaration was influenced by the spirit of republicanism, which
was used as the basic framework for liberty. In addition, it reflects
Enlightenment ideas and concepts such as those that were
proposed by political thinkers like John Locke.
Event Summary 6
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union,
commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, was the first
governing document, or constitution, of the United States of
America. The final draft was written in the summer of 1777 and
adopted by the Second Continental Congress on November 15,
1777 after a year of debate. The Articles set the rules for
operations of the United States and allowed Congress to make war,
print money, and borrow inside and outside the United States.
However, the Articles of Confederation did not allow Congress to
tax citizens, and the federal government had to request money
from the states. The inability to levy taxes was a severe weakness
of the Articles of Confederation. Under the Articles Congress
could make decisions, but it had no power to enforce them. There
was a requirement for unanimous approval before any
modifications or changes would be made to the Articles.
Event Summary 7
The Ratification of the Constitution
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the
United States of America. It was adopted in its original form on
September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in
Philidelphia, Pennsylvania, and later ratified by conventions in
each state in the name of “the people.” The United States
Constitution is the oldest written national constitution and has a
central place in American law and political culture. Benjamin
Franklin thought that the Constitution should only be ratified if all
of the states agreed unanimously to accept it, but it was decided at
the Constitutional Convention that only nine states would be
needed for it to go into effect. There was intense argument over
ratification in many of the states, but New Hampshire became the
ninth state to ratify the Constitution. On March 4, 1789, the
government under the Constitution of the United States of America
began operations.
Event Summary 8
The Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of rights consists of the first 10
amendments to the United States Constitution. An amendment is a
change or addition to the original Constitution. These amendments
limit the powers of the federal government, protecting the rights of
all citizens, residents, and visitors on United States territory. Some
of the rights that these amendments guarantee are: the freedoms of
speech, press, and religion; the people’s right to keep and bear
arms; the freedom of assembly; the freedom to petition; and the
rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure; cruel and
unusual punishment; and compelled self incrimination. The Bill of
Rights also restricts Congress’ power by prohibiting it from
making any law respecting the establishment of religion and by
prohibiting the federal government from depriving any person of
life, liberty, or property without due process of law. These
amendments came into effect on December 15, 1791, when ratified
by three-fourths of the States. The Bill of Rights plays a central
role in American law and government, and remains a fundamental
symbol of the freedoms and culture of the United States of
America.