Timeline of the Impactful Events in the History of the U.S. During 17th-19th Centuries

To begin with, the establishment of Jamestown is a significantly important event. Jamestown is the first permanent English colony; therefore, Jamestown, Virginia marks the beginning of U.S. history. It’s remarkable, but it is much more fascinating to know that the culture and way of thinking of these Virginian’s influenced, formed and shaped the heritage of today’s United States.

However, before the settlement of Jamestown occurred, King James I granted a charter allowing the existence of the Virginia Company of London, a group of investors. The company’s fundamental purpose was to establish settlements in North America in hopes of finding gold and silver for profit alongside other English national goals (due to the granted charter). These were their support for the conversion of American Indians into the Anglican religion, the counterbalancing of expansion of other European nations and the search for a northwest passage to the Orient.

Later, on December of 1606, 105 male settlers left from England with Captain Christopher Newport on the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery. In late April 1607, the men arrived at the coast of Virginia with 104 passengers. Before establishing though, the men sought for a location with deep water anchorage and a great defense position. On May 13, after two weeks of exploration, they began to establish 40 miles inland on the James River named after their king.

Afterwards, they began to settle down into the swampy land by building forts and a few cottages. The establishment then obtained its very own government, a council of seven with one president. However, trouble began to rise when the settlers began to struggle to survive. The men were surrounded by over 20,000 Algonquin Indians who were ruled by their powerful leader, Powhatan. Their relations to these Algonquin Indians was initially hostile, in spite of this, trading opportunities were then established (such as food and supplies in exchange for beads and iron tools.) However, they were not always “friendly” to the English. Rather, the Algonquin Indians often attacked Jamestown or signaled for peace.

Then again, that was not the only threat to their survival, but so was the swampy climate. It introduced diseases amongst the men, but alongside the heat, sweat and terrible hygiene, the diseases spread much rapidly. After a few months, half of the men were dead. The remaining survivors were low in food supply for the winter and were extremely late for the planting season. What made matters worse was that most of the men were not even skilled laborers or farmers; on the other hand, most were upper-class Englishmen.

These men lacked respect and denied the stubborn leadership of President Edward Wingfield and instead inclined towards Captain John Smith due to his charisma, toughness and cleverness. Smith gave the men hope by having them plant the corn received by the Indians and improving their homes and defenses for attacks.

Nevertheless, in 1608, a boat arrived at Jamestown containing its very first two women and other passengers. In 1609, John Smith departed to England which was followed up by the “starving time”. Through this period, 440 of the 500 new settlers died within 6 months due to the lack of food. Jamestown was at its fault until enterpriser John Rolfe began to plant tobacco in 1614. The swampy land was the perfect kind of land for this plant and their only hope for survival was successful helping Jamestown to thrive. In fact, it was extremely successful that by 1624 Jamestown became the capital of Virginia. It survived may attacks from the Indians and other varying disasters until 1698, where its statehouse was burned down. This became the end of Jamestown and forced the people to move into a new capital, Williamsburg.

1770: The Boston Massacre

The Boston Massacre was a deadly riot that occurred in March 5, 1770. It was all due to the continuous terrorization that the working-class men gave to the British Troops. But then again, one could say that these terrorizations are not the first in line for causing the bloodshed.

It is all brought back to the tensions caused in Boston by the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts. The American colonists were extremely resentful of these acts and created chaos by rebelling against these taxes and uniting amongst the cries of, “no taxation without representation.” Consequently, more than 2,000 British troops were sent to Boston to enforce Britain’s tax laws and maintain order within the 16,000 colonists.

Instantaneously, the people should have calmed under the supervision of the troops, but instead, the working-class men tormented and insulted the British troops on a daily. Even so, fights between the loyalists (those loyal to the British government) and patriots (those against) were extremely common. For example, the patriots often vandalized stores with British goods and attacked the merchants and its customers.

In another occasion though, February 22, 1770, a group of patriots were attacking a loyalist’s shop. Officer Ebenezer Richardson lived near the shop and attempted to end the ruckus from his home by firing his gun. This, though, caused the death of an 11-year-old boy named Christopher Seider and created enraged patriots. However, a few days later, a last “not so serious fight” between a few local workers and British soldiers occurred.

On March 5, 1770, in a snowy evening, British soldier Hugh White was by himself guarding the king’s money in the Custom House. Angry American colonists came along and threatened White with their insults and aggression. For his own safety and defense, White took his sword and struck a colonist resulting of him being attacked by snowballs, ice and rocks. The fire bells the began to ring bringing many of the male colonists out into the streets making the crowd much larger for Hugh White.

Later, White could no longer take the crowd and called for reinforcements. Captain Thomas Preston and other soldiers then arrived to aid British soldier Hugh White. However, this did not help with the situation at all. The colonists continued attacking the British soldiers until an individual soldier opened fire after having supposedly heard “fire”. Soon, other soldiers opened fire into the crowd too causing the death of five colonists (amongst them was Crispus Attucks.)

Hours later, Captain Thomas Preston and the other soldiers were arrested. Meanwhile, this event became a tool for the Sons of Liberty leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. They used this in order to encourage rebellion. Seven months later, the arrested men were allowed to have a fair trial with John Adams as their lawyer to determine whether they were guilty or not and if they will be receiving the death penalty.

In result, most of the soldiers and Preston were found not guilty, except for two soldiers; Hugh Montgomery and Matthew Kilroy who were found guilty for manslaughter. In effect, the Boston Massacre only increased the distrust between the British and Americans by a large ratio. Soon the colonists began to feel a sense of independence from Britain and began to define themselves as more American and less British.

1800-1848: The Age of Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson was best known for being the common man. He was born into poverty in 1767 and lost his mother and two brothers when the British invaded the Carolinas in 1780-1781. This event caused Jackson to have a great disliking for the British. Although his education wasn’t as high, by his late teen years he read law permitting him to be admitted into the North Carolina bar in 1787.

By pursuing the career of an attorney, Andrew Jackson was able to thrive and become an extremely rich slave owner in Tennessee. In 1796, his political career began when he was elected to be in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1797, he declined to be re-elected and soon became the judge of Tennessee’s superior court. However, Jackson was later selected to be the head of the state militia.

Later, during the War of 1812 Andrew Jackson served as a major general and assisted the U.S. forces into victory. Soon after, he gained attention nationally after becoming a military hero through his contribution in the war. By 1824, he ran for office but lost against his opponent John Adams. Despite of this loss, four years later, Jackson ran for office again and won for presidency creating a turning point in American politics (since the center of political power shifted from East to West).

From his victory, two political parties then developed; the Democrats (those for Andrew Jackson) and the Whigs (those against) which were led by Clay and Daniel Webster. Later, an issue regarding the National Bank came up and became a huge debate between both parties. Jackson was against the wealthy northerners, especially bankers, therefore, he opposed the bank in fear of them taking power over the liberties of the common people. Meanwhile, Clay and Daniel Webster argued for its recharter to Congress, but Andrew Jackson vetoed the recharter. As a result, the Bank War occurred and caused a severe downfall in the economy causing many businesses to close down leaving thousands without a job.

In May 27, 1830, Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill that proposed the construction of a highway in between Maysville and Lexington (best known as the Veto of the Maysville Road Bill). Jackson disagreed with the idea that the federal government should help with internal improvements such as canals and roads. In 1832, the Nullification Crisis then occurred between the federal government and South Carolina. The state attempted to declare federal tariffs from 1828 and 1832 invalid and void them within state boundaries. This was because the Southerners expected for their president to lower taxation rates from the north, but instead, Jackson ordered for the armed forces to go and enforce the law in South Carolina. South Carolina was then forced to step down and Jackson was credited for the preservation of the Union.

Later, Georgia stole millions of acres of land guaranteed to the Cherokee Indians under federal law. Andrew Jackson took no action to enforce the law, but in 1835, he did have the Cherokee Indians sign a treaty to receive new land in the west of Arkansas. This relocation occurred in 1838 and caused thousands of deaths on the Trail of Tears.

1844-1877: The Civil War

The Civil War was one of the greatest battles in American history. This battle caused a deterioration between the Southern and Northern states. However, the Civil War helped answer two big questions; whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether the United States was going to continue being the greatest slave owning country.

The national government did not permit slavery into territories that were not yet states. Seven southern states formed the Confederate army and then claimed Fort Sumter as their own in April 12, 1861 marking the beginning of the Civil War.