Timeline August 1619

Events in August 1619 3

• 1619 First representative assembly meets in Virginia Virginia House of Burgesses convenes at Jamestown Twenty-two burgesses elected from Virginia's plantations convened in the choir of the Jamestown church, forming the first elected representative legislative body in English North America. The assembly passed laws on tobacco prices, Sabbath observance, and relations with Native Americans before adjourning due to an outbreak of illness. It set a precedent for colonial self-government later followed throughout British America.
• 1619 First Africans arrive in English North America Enslaved Africans landed at Point Comfort, Virginia The English privateer ship White Lion brought approximately 20 to 30 enslaved Africans to the Virginia colony, landing at Point Comfort in late August 1619. They were sold to colonists in exchange for supplies. The event is widely cited as the documented beginning of African slavery in English North America.
• 1619 Ferdinand II elected Holy Roman Emperor Habsburg archduke takes the imperial throne amid the Bohemian revolt Following the death of Emperor Matthias, the imperial electors chose Archduke Ferdinand of Styria as Holy Roman Emperor in Frankfurt, despite the ongoing revolt of Bohemian Protestants against his rule. Ferdinand II's staunchly Catholic policies had already triggered the uprising that opened the Thirty Years' War. His election hardened the conflict with the Bohemian estates, who had already deposed him as their king.