Here's a couple of other Crash Course US History videos that are relevant to this time period: The Quakers, the Dutch, and the Ladies and The Natives and the English.
The Chesapeake Colonies were the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Province of Maryland, later Maryland, both colonies located in British America and centered on the Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland was a proprietorship. A sole proprietorship, also known as the sole trader or simply a proprietorship, is a type of business entity that is owned and run by one individual and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business. The owner receives all profits (subject to taxation specific to the business) and has unlimited responsibility for all losses and debts. Every asset of the business is owned by the proprietor and all debts of the business are the proprietor's.
Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. It is an important symbol in American history. There are no contemporaneous references to the Pilgrims' landing on a rock at Plymouth, and it is not referred to in Edward Winslow's Mourt's Relation (1620–21) or in Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation (1620–47). The first written reference to the rock's existence is recorded is in 1715, when it is described in the town boundary records as "a great rock." The first written reference Pilgrims landing on a rock is found 121 years after they landed. The Rock, or one traditionally identified as it, has long been memorialized on the shore of Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Do you want to visit? Check this out.
On March 16, 1621, an important event occurred for the Pilgrim Fathers. A Native American, Samoset, walked into their Plymouth settlement and called out "Welcome Englishmen, Welcome Englishmen." Obviously, the Pilgrims were amazed to hear him speak this English phrase. He seemed friendly, so the Pilgrims greeted him openly, yet cautiously. Samoset told them he would return with his friend who spoke better English. When he returned as he had promised, he brought not only his friend Squantum (Squanto). Samoset introduced Squantum to the Pilgrims as "a native of this place who had been in England and could speak better English than himself."
"This is Winthrop’s most famous thesis, written on board the Arbella, 1630. Winthrop’s intent was to prepare the people for planting a new society in a perilous environment, but his practical wisdom is timeless." His sermon is considered one of the most important in early America and is titled, A Model of Christian Charity.
To learn more about the first American Thanksgiving, see here, or reference the resources below:
Thanksgiving Day (Jour de l'Action de grâce in Canadian French) is a national holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Several other places around the world observe similar celebrations. It is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada. In the United States, Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. It has been an annual tradition since 1863. As a federal and public holiday in the U.S., Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and New Year, Thanksgiving is a part of the broader holiday season.
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders similar to this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving. Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." She explained, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."
Here's an article from Huffington Post titled: 'Thanksgiving To Almighty God': Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations From George Washington To Barack Obama
In 2013, two holidays happen on the same day. Here's an article from The New York Times titled Holidays Holding Hands When Thanksgiving and Hanukkah Collide
Here's a video about the very beginning of Thanksgiving.

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