What was America's first terrorist threat?
For centuries, the Barbary pirates plundered European and U.S. ships in the Mediterranean. How did America put an end to the kidnapping, enslavement and extortion? More »
Were the American colonists drugged during the Salem witchcraft trial?
The Puritans who conducted the witchcraft trials in Salem, Mass., suspected the devil was at work in their society. But could the madness have been caused by drugs?
What was America's first terrorist threat?
For centuries, the Barbary pirates plundered European and U.S. ships in the Mediterranean. How did America put an end to the kidnapping, enslavement and extortion?
Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America. On May 14, 1607, three ships from London landed here with 104 or 105 colonists.
Spotswood, Alexander (1676–1740), a British colonial official. His administration of Virginia, as lieutenant governor (1710–22), was the ablest in the colony's history.
American Colonial Life (1607-1776), the way of life in the 13 colonies that became the United States.
American Exploration and Settlement
Norsemen, including Leif Ericson, are generally believed to have been the first Europeans to visit the American continent, about 1000.
American Fur Company, a United States fur-trading company founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808.
Rutledge, Ann (1813–1835), the legendary first sweetheart of Abraham Lincoln. She was the daughter of James Rutledge, at whose inn Lincoln lived at various times while he was in New Salem, Illinois.
Baltimore, the hereditary title of the Calvert family, the English family that founded Maryland.
Gosnold, Bartholomew (?–1607), an English explorer and American colonist. In 1602 he explored the New England coast from Maine to Narragansett Bay, and gave Cape Cod its name.
Blockhouse, a fortified building about the size of a small house. It may be part of a fort or may stand alone.
Deerfield Massacre, February 29, 1704, a bloody raid against British colonists in Massachusetts by the French and their Indian allies during Queen Anne's War.
Randolph, Edward (1632–1703), an English colonial agent in America. He was sent to Massachusetts in 1676 as an agent of King Charles II to order the colony to answer complaints about various irregularities in the way it was conducting its affairs.
Winslow, Edward (1595–1655), an American colonial governor. In 1620 he sailed from England with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and became one of the founders of Plymouth Colony.
Fort Duquesne, a French fort built in 1754 at the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers form the Ohio River.