Timeline 1730-1739

1730

The population in the colonies is estimated at 655,000

William Parks of Maryland establishes a printing press in Virginia.

Baltimore is founded in the Maryland colony.

Both men & women begin wearing white stockings, made of silk or cotton.

John Wesley (1703-1791) & Charles Wesley (1707-1788) found the Methodist sect in Oxford, England

North Carolina Cherokee leaders visit London & confer with the king. They pledge friendship to the English & agree to return runaway slaves & to trade exclusively with the British.

America's first synagogue, Shearith Israel (The Remnant of Israel) is built on Mill Street in Lower Manhattan.

1731

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and members of his Junto Club found a circulating library in Philadelphia, the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), wife of George Washington, is born on June 2 near Williamsburg, Virginia.

Work is begun on building Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Public concerts are held in Boston & Charleston, S.C.

The Spanish reverse a 1730 decision & declare that slaves fleeing to Florida from Carolina will not be sold or returned.

1732

George Washington (1732-1799), first President of the United States, is born on February 22 in Virginia.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) begins publishing "POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK" (for the year 1733) which contains weather predictions, humor, proverbs, & epigrams.

The game of ninepins (bowling) is played for the first time in New York City.

A theatrical company from London performs for the first time in New York City.

Georgia is the last of the thirteen English colonies to be settled. It is established not so much for economic opportunity, but to be a military barrier between Spanish-owned Florida & the Carolinas. It is also set up as a refuge for former prisoners & the poor. It also would prevent slaves escaping from South Carolina from reaching Florida, where they could gain their freedom. Charter of Georgia; June 9.

Slaves aboard the ship of New Hampshire Captain John Major kill both captain & crew, seizing the vessel and its cargo.

1733

The Molasses Act, passed by the English Parliament, imposes heavy duties on molasses, rum and sugar imported from non-British islands in the Caribbean to protect the English planters there from French and Dutch competition.

James Oglethorpe (1696-1785) names Georgia in honor of King George II. He also founds the city of Savannah.

The first serious outbreak of influenza sweeps through New York City and Philadelphia; about three-fourths of the population is affected.

The New York "WEEKLY JOURNAL" is published by John Peter Zenger (1697-1746), opposing policies of the colonial government.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) preaches on “The Great Awakening” in New England—a religious revival that emphasizes man’s sinful nature.
Jews settle in Savannah, Georgia.

Quaker Elihu Coleman's A Testimony against That Anti-Christian Practice of MAKING SLAVES OF MEN is published.

Rebekah Chamblit (1706-1733) reportedly conveys A DECLARATION, DYING WARNING AND ADVICE OF REBEKAH CHAMBLIT. A YOUNG WOMAN AGED NEAR TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS, EXECUTED AT BOSTON SEPTEMBER 27TH. 1733. BEING THEN FOUND GUILTY OF FELONY, IN CONCEALING THE BIRTH OF HER SPURIOUS MALE INFANT, OF WHICH SHE WAS DELIVERED WHEN ALONE THE EIGHTH DAY OF MAY LAST, AND WAS AFTERWARDS FOUND DEAD... (See the Declaration on this blog.)

1734

John Peter Zenger, editor of the NEW YORK WEEKLY Journal, is imprisoned in New York for upholding freedom of the press. He is accused of libeling New York Governor William Cosby. In 1735, Zenger is acquitted when his attorney, Andrew Hamilton, says that the charges cannot be libelous because the accusations against Cosby were true. While Zenger is imprisoned, his wife continues to publish the newspaper.

1735

John Adams (1735-1826), 2nd President of the U.S., is born on October 30, in Massachusetts.

The first opera performed in the colonies, “Flora,” opens in Charleston, South Carolina.

Women’s status in the colonies changes due to increasing wealth. Newspapers tell of runaway wives and elopements.

John Peter Zenger: A BRIEF NARRATIVE OF THE CASE AND TRYAL OF JOHN PETER ZENGER. Zenger explains the story of the court case that links his name to the notion of freedom of the press. Arrested for alleged libelous statements made in several issues of the New-York Weekly Journal in 1734, Zenger had been brought to trial in 1735. The jury found him not guilty, & the acquittal gained an important precedent for American freedom of the press

Under an English law Georgia prohibits the importation & use of black slaves. Georgia petitions Britain for the legalization of slavery.

Louis XV, King of France, declares that when an enslaved woman gives birth to the child of a free man, neither mother nor child can be sold. Further, after a certain time, mother and child will be freed.

Scots-Irish immigrants begin coming to North Carolina in large numbers, settling mainly in the Piedmont. Most are second-generation colonists moving south down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania, Maryland, & Virginia, but a few come directly from Northern Ireland.

Ann Smith Franklin publishes "A BRIEF ESSAY ON THE NUMBER SEVEN." She is one of the first women printers in the American colonies, and the essay deals with the possible biblical significance of the number seven.

1736

Charles Theodore Pachelbel (1690-1750) gives organ concerts in New York City, bringing the Bach tradition to the New World.

Elisabeth Mixer, daughter of Deacon John Mixer and Abigail Fiske who had married in Connecticut on 15 August 1695 and gave birth to Elisabeth on 30 December 1702, revealed AN ACCOUNT OF SOME SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCES AND RAPTUROUS AND PIOUS EXPRESSIONS OF ELISABETH MIXER…OF WHAT GOD HAD DONE FOR HER SOUL, IN ORDER TO HER ADMISSION INTO THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN ASHFORD.

1737

The first colonial copper coins are minted, also in Connecticut.

Thomas Penn, son of William, attempts to claim more lands from the Minisink tribe of the Delaware. The original agreement, made by William Penn , was that as much land would be claimed as a man
could walk in a day & a half, understood by all to mean 30 miles. Thomas Penn, wanting to expand further west, hires two trained athletes to "walk" along newly cut paths & assists them with boats across streams. The "walkers" cover sixty miles & this incident becomes known as The Walking Purchase, the beginning of the end for the Quaker peace policy in the colony

1738

Population in the colonies is estimated at 800,000.

A smallpox epdemic begins in South Carolina.

The first successful glass factory is founded in Salem County, New Jersey.

Mail is first carried regularly through North Carolina on the post road that runs from Boston to Charlestown, S.C.

Elizabeth Timothy (?-1757) begins publishing the weekly newspaper, the "SOUTH CAROLINA GAZETTE."

John Wesley (1702-1791) and George Whitefield (1713-1779) immigrate to Savannah, Georgia as leaders of the “Great Awakening.” Whitefield's sermons promote the "Great Awakening" throughout the 1740s. One of the thousands impressed by his eloquence is Benjamin Franklin, who writes in his Autobiography, "I happened soon after to attend one of his Sermons, in the Course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a Collection, & I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my Pocket a Handful of Copper Money, three or four silver Dollars, and five Pistoles in Gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the Coppers. Another Stroke of his Oratory made me asham'd of that, and determin'd me to give the Silver; & he finish'd so admirably, that I empty'd my Pocket wholly into the Collector's Dish, Gold and all." Other preachers in this movement included Theodore Frelinghuysen of the Dutch Reformed Church, Gilbert Tennent (Presbyterian), and Jonathan Edwards.

Georgia's trustees permit the importation of black slaves.

Mary Katherine Goddard born in Connecticut. Becomes publisher of the Maryland Journal and 1st female postmistress. (See posting on Mary Katherine Goddard in this blog.)
Spanish Florida promises freedom and land to runaway slaves.

Imprint about Patience Boston (1711-1735) was published in Boston by S. Kneeland and T. Green, A FAITHFUL NARRATIVE OF THE WICKED LIFE AND REMARKABLE CONVERSION OF PATIENCE BOSTON ALIAS SAMSON; WHO WAS EXECUTED AT YORK, IN THE COUNTY OF YORK, JULY 24TH. 1735. FOR THE MURDER OF BENJAMIN TROT OF FALMOUTH IN CASCO BAY, A CHILD OF ABOUT EIGHT YEARS OF AGE, WHOM SHE DROWNED IN A WELL.

1739

War of Jenkins' Ear: England declares war on Spain; border skirmishes erupt between colonists in South Carolina and Georgia and the Spanish in Florida.

A measles epidemic breakes out in Boston.

Moravian Church founded in America by Bishop A. G. Spengenberg(1704-1792). Moravians introduce Saint Nicholas as a central feature of Christmas celebrations.

Violent uprisings by black slaves occur on three separate occasions in South Carolina. The Stono Rebellion refers to slaves in Stono, South Carolina, sacking & burning an armory & killing whites. The colonial militia puts an end to the rebellion before slaves are able to reach freedom in Florida.

Eliza Lucas Pinckney (c. 1722-1793) begins writing her journal. Her compiled letters and journal become the life chronicle of one of the leading women of the colonial era, a prominent South Carolina planter and mother of political figure Charles Pinckney (1757-1824). Not published until 1850, it reveals an intellectually curious successful 18th century businesswoman.

See Burt, Daniel S., editor. THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERICA'S LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO MODERN TIMES. Houghton Mifflin Internet.
HISTORY MATTERS. American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning (Graduate Center, CUNY) and the Center for History and New Media (George Mason University). Internet. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/
Yale Law School, The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy. New Haven, CT.