Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
History Is Fun: Cultures at Jamestown [Pdf]
A six-page discussion of the mix of cultures that converged in the colony of Jamestown and the challenges this presented. These cultures were the English settlers, the indigenous Powhatan people, and the African slaves. Despite many...
British Library
British Library: Teaching Resources: The Tempest: Slideshow Who Is Savage & Who Is Civilised?
These activities encourage students to explore the 'brave new world' of The Tempest in light of thought-provoking texts on early modern colonization. A link to a slideshow featuring images of Native Americans and Europeans which...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: English I, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Portraits of early New Englanders as well as four buildings from seventeenth-century New England that accompany accounts in those British colonies of struggles, Indian hostilities, and economic success.
Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Museum of History and Culture: Early Images of Virginia Indians
A collection of images of early Virginia Indians that includes information on interpreting the images and shows fanciful images that were not historically accurate.
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.
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.
Other
Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
This award-winning resource draws the reader into a consideration of history as witnessed from multiple perspectives. Discover the mystery of the French and Indian raid on colonial Deerfield, Massachusetts where five cultures clashed in...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Religious Pluralism in the Middle Colonies
Essay looks at the phenomenon of religious pluralism in the middle colonies. Author discusses religious sects in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, as well as African Americans and Native Americans.
iCivics
I Civics: Columbus to the Colonies
From the time Columbus first set foot in the New World, Europeans were fascinated with this new land. In this lesson, students learn about the Three Gs that drove them here- gold, God, and glory- and find out how these settlers gave...
Library of Virginia
Virginia Memory: Petition of the Meherrin Indians
A lesson exploring the steps taken by the Meherrin Indians in Virginia to try to protect their lands from encroaching colonists
Other
New Netherland Institute: Early Descriptions of New Netherland
Excerpts from Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, published in 1909, and available for free from Google Books. The first excerpt is from a 1644 account of Henry Hudson's descriptions of the new land he saw on his 1609 voyage. The...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Britain in the New World: The Growth of the Tobacco Trade
Many colonists came to Jamestown to find gold. Read about what finally brought money into the colony, and what John Rolfe's role was in that. Read about who the workers were who provided the labor for this new money source.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Discovering the Past/ an Introduction to Archaeology
This is a good, solid, but concise introduction to what archaeology is, how a site is set up, what one uses artifacts for, and how to approach a site. It is written for the teacher's newsletter from Colonial Williamsburg.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: The First Great Awakening
In the middle of the 18th century, a series of evangelical religious revival movements swept across colonial America. Known as the First Great Awakening, the movements were characterized by emotional religious conversions from a state of...
Ducksters
Ducksters: Connecticut State History for Kids
Students can study the history and timeline of the state of Connecticut including early explorers, Native Americans, colonial settlers, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War on this site.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Delaware State History for Kids
A site exploring the history and timeline of the state of Delaware including early explorers, Native Americans, colonial settlers, and the Revolutionary War.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: The Story of Pocahontas
In this lesson students learn that there are multiple versions of the story of Pocahontas and John Smith.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Ap Us History Study Guide, Period Two: 1607 1754
[Free Registration/Login Required] Advanced placement U.S. History learning module on the emerging colonial and native societies between 1607-1754. Resources for students include video, essays, timeline and primary source documents.
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
History Is Fun: Powhatan's Challenge and Opechancanough's Action [Pdf]
Describes the interactions between the Powhatan and the English, the different leadership styles of the brothers Wahunsonacock and Opechancanough, and the events leading up to the Powhatan War and Opechancanough's defeat.
Other
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities: Virginia Indian Heritage Trail [Pdf]
This 92-page guide has accurate information on tribes and sites in Virginia. It has tribal histories, biographies of well-known historical figures, photographs, and suggested readings.
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.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Myth and Truth: "The First Thanksgiving" [Pdf]
Contains plans for three lessons that examine the myth and reality behind the first Thanksgiving and the Wampanoag Native Americans in colonial America. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to...
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...