Colonial America to Reconstruction

8th Grade Review

1607-Settlement of Jamestown

• First permanent English settlement in North America

• Faced several hardships that made settlement difficult• Attacks from Native Americans

• Diseases

• Starvation

• Success supplies, cultivation of tobacco, & temporary peace with Native Americans

Battles of Lexington and Concord

• First battles of the American Revolutionary War.

• Tensions had been rising between the unfair treatment of the colonist by the King of England.• “No taxation without

representation!”

July 4, 1776 Thomas Jefferson writes the Declaration of Independence

• This document established American independence from Great Britain and created the United States of America.

Battle of Yorktown

• Last major military conflict of the American Revolutionary War.

• Basically ends the war in America’s favor.

1781-Articles of Confederation

• First Constitution of the United States

• Major problem: • Very weak federal gov’t

had too little power

1783-Treaty of Paris

• Treaty between United States and Great Britain

• Official document that ended the American Revolutionary War.

1787-U.S. Constitution

• Supreme Law of the Land

• Details the framework of the gov’t

• Guarantees citizens certain rights

1832- Nullification Crisis “Null and Void”

• Establishes state sovereignty• States can void a

federal law

1861-Civil War Begins

• 7 States secede from the U.S. after Abraham Lincoln is elected president.

• First shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter

1863- Emancipation Proclamation

• Issued by Abraham Lincoln

• Official document that outlawed slavery in the United States.

1865- Civil War Ends

• General Robert E. Lee & the South surrender to the Union at the Appomattox Courthouse

• Southern states are admitted back into the Union.

1877- End of Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments

• Reconstruction Amendments• 13th –Abolishes slavery

(FREE)

• 14th –Establishes citizenship rights (CITIZENS)

• 15th –Gives all male citizens the right to vote (VOTE)