American History 1492 – Columbus – voyages to the Americas 1607 – 1st permanent English colony in America – (Virginia) 1614 – Dutch settle in New Amsterdam (New York) 1619 – 1st African slaves brought to North America by the Dutch Virginia established the first legislative assembly in America 1620 - Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, with 102 men and women from a calvinist separatist community seeking a place in the new world to practice their religion. The "Pilgrims" landed in 1620 and founded Plymouth Colony in what became Massachusetts, the first New England colony. 1636 - Harvard College, the first institute for higher education in a north American colony, established at Cambridge in Massachusetts 1643 - Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay formed the United Colonies of New England 1650 -There are now an estimated 40,000 people in the American Colonies. 1773 – Britain passed the “Tea Act” – strong opposition in American colonies The Tea Act, passed by Parliament in May of 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The Townshend Duties were still in place, however, and the radical leaders in America found reason to believe that this act was a maneuver to buy popular support for the taxes already in force. The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants. Colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to Britain. In Charleston the cargo was left to rot on the docks. In Boston the Royal Governor was stubborn & held the ships in port, where the colonists would not allow them to unload. Cargoes of tea filled the...