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| 1686 |
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| DOMINION OF NEW ENGLAND formed through consolidation of the New England colonies. Sir Edmund Andros was made governor. Andros arrived in Boston (Dec. 20) and assumed the government of Plymouth and Rhode Island. In 1687 he assumed the government of Connecticut and demanded the charter, which Captain William Wadsworth concealed in a hollow tree, the famous Charter Oak. | 1 |
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| 1688 |
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| The Glorious Revolution in England led to a Bill of Rights that ensured the traditional powers of Parliament, ended the divine right of kings to govern, and forced James II into exile. | 2 |
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| 1689 |
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| Upon news of the flight of James II from England, the people of Boston rose in revolt, imprisoned Andros, and restored charter government. Similar action was taken in Rhode Island and Connecticut. | 3 |
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| 1691 |
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| New charter for Massachusetts, which included Plymouth, Maine, Nova Scotia, and all land north to the St. Lawrence. The electoral franchise was extended and religious liberty secured to all except Catholics. Sir William Phips was made governor. | 4 |
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| 1692 |
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| Salem witchcraft trials. A group of poor Puritans sought to avenge themselves against wealthier church members by bringing charges of witchcraft against their families. About 174 men and women were arrested and about 22 “witches” were executed. | 5 |
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| 1700 |
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| Under the conquest of Europeans, the Indian population and culture continued to decline on the eastern seaboard. | 6 |
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| 1701 |
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| Founding of Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut. | 7 |
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| 1702–13 |
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| Boston artisans and laborers staged bread riots to prevent the export of grain during Queen Anne's War. | 8 |
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| 1710 |
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| After this date, Boston merchants began purchasing enslaved Africans in increasingly large numbers. The number of slaves in other northern cities also began a comparable rise. | 9 |
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| 1728 |
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| Death of Cotton Mather (b. 1663), prolific author of Puritan tracts. More liberal were the writings of a later divine, Jonathan Edwards (1703–58). | 10 |
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| 1730s–40s |
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| The Great Awakening. Starting in the mid- to late 1730s, an evangelical religious revival shook the colonies, particularly in the Northeast. The Awakening challenged and weakened the authority of the clergy and the Church and undermined denominational boundaries. | 11 |
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