John Winthrop's "Model of Christian Charity" was delivered as a sermon aboard the Arabella, as the Puritans approached their destination of Massachusetts Bay in 1630. The speech spells out his vision of the society they hoped to create...

After the War of Independence, Americans were unable to agree on the form of their federal government. This unit explores how those conflicts played out as the new Republic defined its identity in relation to other nations.

Unit explores, through a series of videos from notable scholars, the effects of the trade in slaves and of slavery itself on the new Americans of the time and helps students to understand how history, and the telling of history, affects...

After immigrating to the New England colonies, being captured by Wampanoag Indians, Puritan and author acclimates herself to the Native American culture as a form of survival and documents her time kept captive. See "Mary Rowlandson...

Article on the development and practices of the London Company, including discussion on the economy and resources in 17th Century colonial America.

This site examines the lives of African-Americans during colonial times in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia. Content provides background information, journal articles, diary entries, biography fact sheets, and more.

Twenty nine primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the qualities and conditions of African lives on the west coast before and during the European slave trade.

The early 1600s saw the beginning of a great tide of emigration from Europe to North America. Spanning more than three centuries, this movement grew from a trickle of a few hundred English colonists to a flood of millions of newcomers....

By 1640 the British had solid colonies established along the New England coast and the Chesapeake Bay. In between were the Dutch and the tiny Swedish community. To the west were the original Americans, then called Indians.

During the religious upheavals of the 16th century, a body of men and women called Puritans sought to reform the Established Church of England from within. Essentially, they demanded that the rituals and structures associated with Roman...

The empresario system in Texas provided a contract between settler and state. Find out the terms and responsibilities of each party in this site from Texas A&M University. Keep reading to find the duties of an epresario as outlined...

This very thorough site will fascinate those interested in forensic anthropology. You will learn what you can read from bones, how a face can be reconstructed from a skull, clues you can read from a burial, and about forensic cases both...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Young scholars read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry activity allows students study two 17th-century maps of Virginia and think...

This website is quite unique, in that it compiles historical data in a segmented form of the birth and evolution of Black Christianity in America. Carter G. Woodson, one of the most respected names relative to the anthology of the Negro,...

A map of the North American Colonies in 1643 at the establishment of the New England Confederation. The map is color-coded to show the territorial claims of the British, French, Dutch, and Swedish at the time, and shows the British...

A map of eastern North America in 1783 at the end of the American Revolutionary War, showing the territory of the newly formed United States as proposed by the Treaty of Paris, the Canadian border extending to the Ohio River proposed by...

A map of the thirteen colonies at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, showing major cities and towns, the Great Lakes, mountains, rivers, and coastline.

A map of the United Colonies at the beginning of the American Revolution (1776) showing colonial land claims to the Mississippi River, including the territories organized after the war. The map shows the Northwest Territory (organized in...

From 1774 to 1789, the Continental Congress served as the government of the 13 American colonies and later the United States. The First Continental Congress, which was comprised of delegates from the colonies, met in 1774 in reaction to...

This letter, from a farmer in 1767, addresses his conceerns regarding the Townshend Duties and their effect on the colonies as a whole.

Samuel Adams was born on September 22, 1722, in Quincy, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard College at the age of 14. During the 1760s, Adams became a leader of the Patriot resistance to the British government's attempt to tax the American...

Before Vietnam became the stage for an American war against international communism, it was a war between France and Indochina. France, concerned about losing their colonial holdings in Indochina and therefore losing international...

After studying the American Revolutionary War, students learn about the founding of the United States of America. Pretending to be the founding fathers, students will divide into small groups to create and design their own nation and...

Check out this informative site to learn more about life in the colonies before the Revolutionary War. Find out why the colonists had issues with "taxation without representation." "You will work independently and in pairs to learn about...