American History: Colonial Era to Civil War

The Colonial Era

  • The first successful English colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.
  • English Puritans came to America to escape religious persecution for their opposition to the Church of England.
  • In 1620, the Puritans founded Plymouth Colony in what later became Massachusetts. Plymouth was the second permanent British settlement in North America and the first in New England.
  • An English clergyman named Roger Williams left Massachusetts and founded the colony of Rhode Island, based on the
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US Civil War: Causes, Key Events, and Reconstruction

Lead-up to the Civil War

  • 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected as the candidate for the Republican Party, advocating for the abolition of slavery, tariffs to protect industry, and free homesteads for settlers in the West.
  • Abraham Lincoln is elected president in 1860.
  • (December 20): South Carolina Secession – The first state to secede from the federal Union.
  • (February 8, 1861): Provisional Constitution of the 6 Confederate States of America – An agreement among the seven original states (South Carolina, Georgia,
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