Existing comment:
1513-1604: Early Spanish and French colonies:
The Spanish and French explore and establish colonies in North America. St. Augustine is founded in 1565, and, under the Spanish crown, the settlement provides refuge and freedom for slaves who accept Catholicism. In 1604, the French establish he colonial territory of Acadia, which includes parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provides and present-day New England. Both Spanish and French colonizers work to convert the American Indians to Catholicism.
1607: English colonization begins:
England's first successful colony in America is established in Jamestown.
1617: Pocahontas visits the British king:
Pocahontas, the daughter of Chief Powhatan and wife of early Jamestown settler James Rolfe, visits England and is presented at the court of King James I.
"In the early 1600s, the English did not yet think in racial terms. Status and religion were more important. Pocahontas was received so well in London because she was royalty."
-- Karen Kupperman, historian, New York University
1619: First Africans in Virginia:
The first Africans in the English colonies arrive in Jamestown. Africans are already held as slaves in the Portuguese and Spanish colonies of South America and the Caribbean, but their status in early Virginia is less clear.
"The first Africans who arrived in Jamestown in 1619 were not initially perceived as slaves; slavery had to be created and established as a new institution in these colonies."
-- Audrey Smedley, anthropologists, Virginia Commonwealth University |