This section of the timeline of United States history concerns events from before the lead up to the American Revolution.
Adam Thoroughgood [Thorowgood] (1604–1640) was a colonist and community leader in the Virginia Colony who helped settle the Virginia counties of Elizabeth City,Lower Norfolk and Princess Anne,the latter,known today as the independent city of Virginia Beach.
John West was an early member of the Virginia General Assembly and acting colonial Governor of Virginia from 1635 to 1637,the third West brother to serve as Governor and one of the founders of the West Family of Virginia,which would include many politicians.
John Casor,a servant in Northampton County in the Colony of Virginia,in 1655 became one of the first people of African descent in the Thirteen Colonies to be enslaved for life as a result of a civil suit.
Anthony Johnson was an Angolan-born man who achieved wealth in the early 17th-century Colony of Virginia. Held as an indentured servant in 1621,he earned his freedom after several years and was granted land by the colony.
Richard Lee I was an English-born merchant,planter and politician who was the first member of the Lee family to live in America. Poor when he arrived in the colony of Virginia in 1639,Lee may have been both the colony's wealthiest inhabitant and as its largest landholder by the time of his death,owning 15,000 acres (23 sq mi) in Virginia and Maryland. In addition to holding several important government and military posts,he became a merchant,planter and politician and served a term in the House of Burgesses. He managed to negotiate several major political upheavals for his economic gain.
Christopher Reynolds was not a politician but was sent as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses for one session to rebuke in the late 1652 session the alleged excesses of his predecessor,which Reynolds did.
Elizabeth Key Grinstead (or Greenstead) (1630 –January 20,1665) was one of the first Black people in the Thirteen Colonies to sue for freedom from slavery and win. Key won her freedom and that of her infant son,John Grinstead,on July 21,1656,in the Colony of Virginia.
Captain Thomas Harwood emigrated from Britain and became a soldier,landowner and politician in the Colony of Virginia. He founded a family which like him for generations often represented the area now known as Newport News,but which in his day was known as Mulberry Island,and later Warwick River and still later Warwick County. Despite coming into conflict with royal governor Sir John Harvey in 1635,and a gap in legislative service,Harwood became the 5th speaker of the House of Burgesses.
Robert Wynne (1622–1675) was a Virginia politician and landowner. He was one of the men representing Charles City County in the House of Burgesses from 1658 until 1675,and in 1658 and during the Colony's "Long Parliament" fellow burgesses selected him as their Speaker 1662–74. This was the second longest tenure of any Speaker.
Gideon Macon was an early American settler.
John Punch was a Central African resident of the colony of Virginia who became its first slave. Thought to have been an indentured servant,Punch attempted to escape to Maryland and was sentenced in July 1640 by the Virginia Governor's Council to serve as a slave for the remainder of his life. Two European men who ran away with him received a lighter sentence of extended indentured servitude. For this reason,some historians consider John Punch the "first official slave in the English colonies," and his case as the "first legal sanctioning of lifelong slavery in the Chesapeake." Some historians also consider this to be one of the first legal distinctions between Europeans and Africans made in the colony,and a key milestone in the development of the institution of slavery in the United States.
George Fawdon,also spelled in various sources as George Fawden,George Fawder,George Fadoin,George Faudon,George Fawdoune,George Faudown,George Fawdowne,and George Fowden,was an early Virginia colonist,landowner,militia officer,county court clerk,county clerk justice and legislative representative (politician). He served at least two terms as a burgess in the Virginia House of Burgesses in the 1640s and 1650s representing Isle of Wight County,Virginia.
Colonel Sir James Drax was an English planter and military officer. Born in Stoneleigh,Warwickshire,Drax migrated to the English colony of Barbados and acquired ownership of several sugar plantations and slaves. Drax was expelled from Barbados by the Royalists because he was a Parliamentarian,but he returned in 1651 when the island was returned to Parliamentarian control. Drax returned to England,where he died in 1662. He would go on to establish a dynasty of wealthy slave owning sugar planters.
Matthias Sention Sr. was a founding settler of Dorchester,Massachusetts,of Windsor,Connecticut,of Wethersfield,Connecticut and of Norwalk,Connecticut.
Irish indentured servants were Irish people who became indentured servants in territories under the control of the British Empire,such as the British West Indies,British North America and later Australia.
John Graweere also known as John Gowen was one of the First Africans in Virginia,who was a servant who earned enough money to pay for his son's freedom. He filed a lawsuit to free his son,arguing that he wanted to raise him as a Christian. The court agreed and freed the son.
John Carter was an English merchant who emigrated to the Virginia colony,where he speculated in land,established plantations using indentured and enslaved labor,and served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. He founded the more famous branch of the Carter family of Virginia. The immigrant ancestor of the other branch,Thomas Carter of Barford plantation may have been related since both came from the same English village,and while Thomas Carter initially settled in Northumberland County,both men eventually settled in Lancaster County.
Sir Richard Kemp was a planter and politician in the Colony of Virginia. Kemp served as the Colony's Secretary and on the Governor's Council from 1634 to 1649. As the council's senior member,he also served as the acting Colonial Governor of Virginia from 1644 to 1645 during travels by Governor Sir William Berkeley. Kemp had also worked closely relation with Berkeley's predecessor,Sir John Harvey.
