1619—The first General Assembly elected by the people is called in Virginia, by Governor Yeardley. Eleven boroughs, or towns, were each represented by two Burgesses, or citizens. It was the dawn of civil liberty in Virginia, and a germ of the future republic.
1620—Convicts are sent to Virginia, and negro slaves introduced.
—September 6th, the Puritans, discontented in Holland, set sail in the Mayflower, from Plymouth, England, for America, under the auspices of the “Plymouth Company.”
—December 21st they land on Plymouth Rock, and, amid great hardships, found a religious colony.
—James I. grants a charter to the Grand Council of Plymouth for governing New England.
1621—A district called Mariana granted to John Mason.
—Plymouth colony makes a treaty with Massasoit.
—Cotton first planted in Virginia.
1622—Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason obtain a charter of Maine and New Hampshire. They plant a colony on the Piscataqua river.
—An Indian conspiracy nearly proves fatal to the Virginia colony. March 22d, at noon, an attack is made on all the settlements, and in an hour nearly a fourth part of the colony is massacred. The colonists, in a bloody war, thoroughly chastise the Indians.