The historical opening involving Haytham Kenway in Assassin's Creed III begins in 1754.
The game opens with Haytham, a British Templar, traveling to the American colonies to pursue an objective connected to the Templar Order. This opening introduces the colonial setting before the narrative shifts toward Ratonhnhaké:ton, also known as Connor, whose story unfolds during the American Revolution.
The date places the beginning of the historical narrative more than two decades before the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The game later moves through major events of the Revolution, including the Boston Massacre and the Battle of Bunker Hill.
A frequent mistake is answering 1775 because that is when much of Connor's Revolutionary-era storyline becomes prominent. Assassin's Creed III deliberately begins earlier, using Haytham's 1754 sequence to establish the conflict and the Kenway family connection.