of a new and mighty nation had begun and was in rapid progress.



IV.


THE COLONIAL ERA.

[Sidenote: England's Acquirements.]

The Colonial Era, intervening between the permanent colonization of the
Atlantic coast and the momentous time when the colonies united to assert
their independence, may be said to have been comprised within a period
of a little more than a century. In 1664 England had acquired possession
of the whole colonized territory from the Kennebec to the southern
boundary of South Carolina. Georgia was still unsettled, and remained
to be colonized some sixty years after by that good and gallant General
Oglethorpe, who forbade slavery to be introduced into the province, and
prohibited the sale of rum within its limits. Florida was still held by
the Spanish, the only continental power which then had a foothold on the
Atlantic border of what is now the United States.

[Sidenote: Colonial Progress.]

The century of settlement and growth which we call the Colonial Era was
full of hardship, romance, brave struggling with great difficulties,
fortitude, and alternate misfortune and success. As we look back upon it
from this distance, however, we do not fail to be struck with the steady
and certain progress made towards a compact and enduring nationality.