Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated by dragging the pointer on the timeline bar, located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile. To filter by a specific topic, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. To learn more, click “Read More” below.

Read More
Typed reproduction of a letter petition to the governor and council dated March 30, 1624 from Jane Dickenson Widdowe
Reproduction of the petition of Jane Dickenson Widdowe (1624).

Jane Dickenson petitions the colony of Virginia for release from bondage.

1624

COL
EUR
INDG
IS
Reproduction of the petition of Jane Dickenson Widdowe (1624).

Dickenson's husband signs a contract of indenture to secure passage from England to the colonies. He is killed in the Second Anglo-Powhatan War, and she is captured by the Pamunkey community and later ransomed. Still bound by her husband's contract, she testifies that the contract “differeth not from her slavery [with] the Indians.”