Timeline
Timeline: Colonial Self-Governance
Key steps in the development of representative institutions and local self-rule from Jamestown to the Continental Congress.
9 events spanning 1619-1774
House of Burgesses meets in Virginia
The first representative assembly in English America established the habit of colonial lawmakers meeting to tax and legislate locally.
View event pageMayflower Compact creates a civil body politic
The Plymouth settlers bound themselves to laws made for the common good, giving early expression to self-government by consent.
View event pageRoger Williams founds Providence
Providence rested on unusual principles of conscience and local consent, widening the colonial experience of self-rule.
View event pageFundamental Orders of Connecticut are adopted
The Orders provided one of the earliest written colonial frameworks for elected government and regular political authority.
Boston rebels overthrow the Dominion governor
Colonists in Massachusetts threw off the Dominion of New England and reasserted local control after years of centralized imperial rule.
View event pageAlbany Plan of Union proposes coordinated colonial government
Franklin's plan did not pass, but it revealed that leaders were already thinking about intercolonial structures for common action.
View event pageStamp Act Congress convenes
Delegates from several colonies met to coordinate petitions and arguments against parliamentary taxation without representation.
View event pageCommittees of Correspondence expand intercolonial coordination
The committees created a more permanent communication network for resistance, helping local grievances become continental politics.
View event pageFirst Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia
The Congress marked the highest pre-independence form of colonial cooperation and gave political shape to a common American cause.
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