PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Dutch New Netherland
This collection uses primary sources to explore the Dutch colony of New Netherland.
University of Virginia
University of Virginia: A View of the Rights of British America
Before writing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson made his views known through "A Summary View of the Rights of British America" and other essays. This essay discusses the historical roots of independence and inalienable...
University of Pennsylvania
Penn Library: Walum Olum Ii
Side-by-side English translation of The Walam Olum, which purports to be a pictographic record of the Delaware or Lenni Lenape Indians.
University of Pennsylvania
Penn Library: Walum Olum I
The Walam Olum purports to be a pictographic record of the Delaware or Lenni Lenape Indians. Linked to second page showing the side-by-side pictographs and English translation rendered in 1833.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Go Ahead, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A Spanish, an English, and a French account of the enormous challenges in maintaining a colonial presence in North America and of the potential national loss-of pride, wealth, and possibility for expansion-if nations abandoned these...
Digital History
Digital History: The French and Indian War [Pdf]
Read about George Washington's role in the beginning of the French and Indian War, which started in the wilderness of the English colonies and spread to Europe. Was this war a major cause of the American Revolution? Students are asked to...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Revolution Begins
General Thomas Gage, an amiable English gentleman with an American-born wife, commanded the garrison at Boston, where political activity had almost wholly replaced trade. Gage's main duty in the colonies had been to enforce the Coercive...
University of Illinois
University of Illinois: Early Trade With China: Early American Trade Routes to China [Pdf]
Once the colonies gained their independence, American ships began to search the oceansfor markets to replace the British colonial markets from which they were now excluded (theWest Indies) or in which they were subjected to heavy tax...
University of Illinois
University of Illinois: Early American Trade With China: Europe's Economic Tradition [Pdf]
Most well-educated American colonists (including early American leaders like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin) were familiar with the writings andideas of European scholars, so it makes sense that Americans came to...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Britain in the New World: Jamestown Settlement
Jamestown, although not a financial sucess, was the first succesful English colony in North America. Find out how the colony was financed, what the first colonists hoped to find, how the colony was governed, and the hardships that were...
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: Program for Communist of Indochina, 1930
This English translation of Ho Chi Minh's plan for the Communist Party of Indochina in 1930 provides a blueprint for his goal of the communist overthrow of the French colonial regime in Vietnam.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Chief Powhatan's Address to Captain John Smith (1609)
The Powhatan are Native American people from Virginia who share an Algonquian language. In 1607, the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia colony became the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. At the initial arrival of the...
National Women’s History Museum
National Women's History Museum: Mary Musgrove
Mary Musgrove become a negotiator between English and Native American communities and played an important role in the development of Colonial Georgia.
Other
Uwo: Early Writing in Canada Susannah Moodie
These are excerpts from Susannah Moodie's book 'Roughing it in the Bush'.
Other
Athabasca University: Centre for Language and Literature: Susanna Moodie
A biograhpy about Susanna Moodie, with information on her marriage and family life, emigration to Canada, and early publications. Read about her best-known book, "Roughing it in the Bush," and her latter works.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Enslaved Peoples, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Two Spanish accounts of enslaved Indians in the Caribbean and enslaved Africans in Mexico and statements of the difficulty of maintaining slavery and the lurking threat of a slave revolt.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Connecticut: A Case Study in Anti Imperialism
Lesson plan for 7th and 8th grade. Gives notes on imperialism, mercantilism and how Great Britain used the colonies as a source for raw materials.
PBS
Pbs Liberty!: Daily Life in the Colonies
Click on an object in the picture to learn more about its use and role in the colonies during the 18th century. Some things to learn about include, livestock, labor, and travel.
Other
Time Page: 13 Colonies: A Timeline
This is a great timeline that shows what happens in America between 1520 and 1788 when all the colonies have become states. Lots of events are listed.
Other
Civics Online: Map of the 13 Colonies
This colorful map depicts the original thirteen colonies as well as the rest of the eastern part of America, showing the owners of the land at that time.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Jamestown Changes
This cross-curricular lesson plan guides students to compare primary documents from Jamestown, Virginia to find the changes in life during the first few years of the settlement. This is an excellent plan that provides a link to an...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Slave Trade, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A West African map and three accounts of the development of slave acquisition display the process and the brutality of the Atlantic slave trade.
This Nation
This nation.com: Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress
This site provides the full text of the resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress.
Library of Congress
Loc: John Bull and Uncle Sam
Part of an exhibit that talks about the British exploration and settlement of America.