University of Notre Dame
Department of Special Collections: Colonial Currency
This resource from the Notre Dame University provides a comprehensive look at the currency of colonial America. Includes pictures and explanations of currency, lottery tickets and fiscal documents. All are listed chronologically by colony.
McGraw Hill
Mc Graw Hill: Colonial Economy and Patterns of Society
Although tied to pages from a specific text, these AP study questions allow anyone to consider aspects of colonial economics. (Answers to some of the questions are located at the following link:...
Digital History
Digital History: Diversity in Colonial America
Read about the diversity in colonial America and the ways founders of colonies tried to encourage settlement in their colony.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & Making of America: The Slave Experience: Men, Women & Gender
Learn about issues related to slave gender roles at this PBS series site that features illustrations and documents dating back to the Colonial, Antebellum, and Reconstruction periods in American history.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: The Industial Revolution
At one time, humans, fueled by the animals and plants they ate and the wood they burned, or aided by their domesticated animals, provided most of the energy in use. All life operated within the fairly immediate flow of energy from the...
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: Colonial America
A detailed resource of recommended children's books on Colonial America, including discussion and research starters, teaching activities, and title suggestions.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate in Early Colonial America
Several examples of pots for coffee, tea, and chocolate from the colonial period. Learn how Americans adopted the practice of drinking coffee and tea, and how this practice affected society, daily life, and the decorative art created by...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Predicting Weather
Site from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation combines Science and Social Studies. As students examine the various methods of predicting the weather, in Colonial Williamsburg.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Gardening in the 18th Century
Site offers students the opportunity to design their own gardens. Several disciplines can be used through this imaginative group lesson.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: English Iii, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three seventeenth-century buildings, two portraits, and three original accounts from Virginia and the Carolinas about the qualities and conditions of life in these southern English colonies that led to success and growth.
Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors: Archiving Early America: Early Virginia River Trade
Learn about the waterways in Virginia that colonists used to expand their way of life, especially for tobacco sales.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Politics in Colonial Virginia
This site explores the politics involved in Colonial Williamsburg, leading up to the American Revolution. Content focuses on famous speeches, documents, and influential people.
History Teacher
Historyteacher.net: Late 17 C and 18 C American Society: Quiz (1)
This 11-question multiple choice quiz is immediately scored and includes a variety of questions covering life in the early colonies.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Colonies: Motivations and Realities
A collection of primary sources to explore the motivations and realities behind life in the American colonies.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: The Slave Experience: Living Conditions
This PBS series site reveals the diverse circumstances and living conditions experienced by slaves and indentured servants in America by reading documents dating to the Colonial, Antebellum, and Reconstruction periods.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Religion, Women, and the Family
This National Humanities Center site from the University of Delaware discusses family life, childrearing, and the importance of religion in colonial America as written about in various books.
Read Works
Read Works: Growing Up Long Ago
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the typical life of a child during the 1800's. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial African American Life
Provides a few statistics on slaves in Maryland and Virginia and then contrasts the lives of field hand vs household or urban slaves.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Young America in Art
An historical site from the Smithsonian American Art Museum that shows the growth of America through art work by over 45 artists. This site by the Smithsonian Institute has fascinating images showing American artists depicting the...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Utopian Promise: Anne Bradstreet
English immigrant in the New World, Anne Bradstreet became an acclaimed poet of Puritan New England. Click on "Anne Bradstreet Activities" for related artifacts and activities.
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry's speeches and leadership have earned him an honored place in American history. This article provides a brief overview of his life, as well as a portrait of this founding father.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Benjamin Franklin: An Extraordinary Life (Teacher's Guide)
Go directly to the teaching resource that accompanies the PBS series "Benjamin Franklin: An Extraordinary Life, An Electric Mind" to find eight lesson plans that support the study of Benjamin Franklin and his place in history. Lessons...
Smithsonian Institution
National Postal Museum: Art of the Stamp: Roanoke Voyages
View the artwork for a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1984 to commemorate the voyages to Roanoke Island. Includes a short passage on Sir Walter Raleigh's commissioning of the famous expedition that represents the beginning of English life...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Text Sets: The American Colonies
Collection of 14 Grade-Leveled texts (4-11) on the topic "The American Colonies." What was life like for European settlers in the New World? How did American colonies function before the Revolutionary War? Explore life in the...