

1600s - The Surprising History Behind America's Stand Your Ground Laws
The idea of the right to defend oneself may seem universal, but in her new book Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair...


1607 - How the English occupied Kecoughtan, Virginia
Kecoughtan in Virginia was originally named Kikotan (also spelled Kiccowtan, Kikowtan etc.), the name of the Algonquian Native Americans...

1607 to 1763 - Virginia's Early Relations with Native Americans
The Indians living in the area where Jamestown was settled must have had mixed feelings about the arrival of the English in 1607. One of...


1609 - Starving Settlers in Jamestown Colony Resorted to Cannibalism
The harsh winter of 1609 in Virginia’s Jamestown Colony forced residents to do the unthinkable. A recent excavation at the historic site...


1609 - Expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain
The Expulsion of the Moriscos (Spanish: Expulsión de los moriscos, Catalan: Expulsió dels moriscos) was decreed by King Philip III of...


1614 - America’s First Cash Crop: Tobacco
The year was 1614, and the sailing ship Elizabeth was setting off from the young English colony of Jamestown, bound for London with a...


1619 - How Slavery Affected African American Families
In some ways enslaved African American families very much resembled other families who lived in other times and places and under vastly...


1619 - The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding
The year the first enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown is drilled into students’ memories, but overemphasizing this date distorts...


1622 - Anthony Johnson: A Man in Control of His Own
Both African slaves and European indentured servants labored in Virginia in the 1620s. Indentured servants agreed to work for a planter...


1650s to Present - Society of Friends
Society of Friends, also called Friends Church, byname Quakers, Christian group that arose in mid-17th-century England, dedicated to...