Take a close look at the United States Bill of Rights, the ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It was written a long time ago-1791. Move your cursor over the picture below to see if you can read the rights given to American citizens.

The original text of "The Report of the Committee of Correspondence to the Boston Town Meeting, Nov. 20, 1772", written by Samuel Adams and including the preface by Benjamin Franklin written for the edition printed in England.

A collection that uses primary sources to explore religion during the Colonial period of United States History.

A collection of primary sources which explores cross-cultural conflicts during the Colonial period of United States history.

This collection uses primary sources to explore Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

This collection uses primary sources to explore The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

A collection uses primary sources to explore the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

An extensive collection of original maps drawn during the colonial period of United States history.

Take a close look at this document that was written in Philadelphia in 1787. It gives us the rights that we still have today. Select a thumbnail, and then roll over the picture to zoom in.

A collection of primary sources to explore the motivations and realities behind life in the American colonies.

Scroll to Massachusetts and link to the colonial documents establishing the colonies' earliest forms of government and laying the foundation for self-governing and eventual independence from England. Beginning with The Charter of England...

Primary resource material on the ideas, scientific and religious, of the colonial period from 1690 to 1730.

Primary source documents on how the political relationship between the colonies and Great Britain changed from 1690 to 1763 and how the colonists responded.

Essay on the Enlightenment as typified in America by Benjamin Franklin.

This is the full text of the five-act play The Tempest by William Shakespeare including a list of characters and an epilogue.

The original text of British Prime Minister William Pitt's actual speech to Parliament describing his disapproval of the Stamp Act and why he felt it should be repealed.

A collection that uses primary sources to explore the Boston Tea Party.

View the complete text of the 1620 British Charter for the settlement of New England granting authority to colonize and govern.

This site contains a brief history of newspapers in colonial America. Also provides links to the texts of the papers themselves, looking back at the actual words used in American Colonial newspapers.

Contains the primary text of the resolutions against the Stamp Act sent to King George III.

Click on Connecticut for a list of and links to the colony's earliest government documents establishing its laws, religious toleration, and means of taxation.

An excellent facsimile copy of The New England Primer from 1807. (Site has links to individual pages.)

Clickable index for the full text of the 1805 New England Primer, a textbook that made public education possible in the early United States.

Writings of philosopher John Locke on religious toleration, government and society from which students will gain an understanding of the underpinnings of American government.