1603 Mathieu Da Costa, a free black explorer, guides the French through parts of Canada and the Lake Champlain region of what is now New York state. 1603

1607 Jamestown is founded in Virginia. 01-01

1613 Jan Rodriquez, a free sailor working for a Dutch fur trading company is assigned to live with and trade among the Native Americans on the island of Manhattan. 1613

1619 Approximately 20 blacks from a Dutch slaver are purchased as indentured workers for the English settlement of Jamestown. These are the first Africans in the English North American colonies. 01-01

1620 The Pilgrims reach New England. 01-01

1624 The first African American child born free in the English colonies, William Tucker, is baptized in Virginia. 01-01

1625 The first enslaved Africans arrive in the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City) with the Dutch West India Company. They quickly become the citys first municipal labor force, clearing land of timber, cutting lumber, cultivating crops, and constructing roads and fortifications. 01-01

1629 The first enslaved Africans arrive in what is now Connecticut. 01-01

1634 Slavery is introduced in Maryland. 01-01

1636 Dutch minister Everadus Bogardus summons a teacher from Holland to Manhattan Island to provide religious training to Dutch and African children. This is the first example of educational efforts in Colonial North America which are directed toward persons of African descent. 1636

1641 Massachusetts explicitly permits slavery of Indians, whites, and Negroes in its Body of Liberties. It is the first mainland British colony to legalize slavery. 01-01

1641 Mathias De Sousa, an African indentured servant who came from England with Lord Baltimore, is elected to Marylands General Assembly. 01-01

1642 Virginia passes a fugitive slave law. Offenders helping runaway slaves are fined in pounds of tobacco. An enslaved person is to be branded with a large R after a second escape attempt. 01-01

1643 The New England