Other
Virtual Jamestown: Laws on Slavery
This site provides the original text of Virginia colonial laws concerning different aspects of slavery for Africans, Native Americans, and indentured servants.
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: King Philip's War
[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson in which students analyze original documents to evaluate the conflict between colonists under King Philip and Native Americans.
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
History Is Fun: Jamestown Questions and Answers [Pdf]
This document presents important questions about the Jamestown settlement, along with detailed answers. Topics include the Native American Powhatan Indians and their interactions with the settlers, the purpose of creating the settlement...
National Geographic
National Geographic: Society: A History of Trade in New York City
A lesson based on the New York City seal that explores the trading relationship between the Dutch and Native Americans in New Amsterdam.
Texas Public Broadcasting
Texas Pbs: Texas Our Texas: Spanish Colonial 1689 1821
Learn about the struggle between the native tribes and the Spanish missionaries during the Spanish Colonial era in Texas from 1690 until 1821.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Colonial Indian Relations
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, the Indians.
PBS
Pbs:the Living Edens/manu Native People of Manu
An article on the Machiguenga, the native people of the Manu rainforest in Peru. This article talks about their culture, history, and their use of plants and animals.
Digital History
Digital History: Dimensions of Change in Colonial New England
Dissension in Massachusetts Bay Colony resulted in the formation of other New England colonies. Read about their formations, and the impact on the Native Americans in the area.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: New World: Part I: American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A variety of paintings and drawings that display European images of their first encounters with the land, plants, animals, and native peoples of the western hemisphere. With questions for discussion.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Conquest, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
A series of illustrations and accounts of Spanish conquest of Indians that reflect the fascination with and the brutality directed against native cultures.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Power, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Fifty seven primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-and one secondary historical account that explore imperial conflict, European economic rivalry, and the impact of colonial rule on native peoples.
Digital History
Digital History: Struggles for Power in Colonial America
A very brief explanation of the power struggle between the French and English in the New World and how the Native Americans were caught in the middle.
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota: Immigration: Racial Encounters in Colonial America
Copper plate engravings offer one example of the racialization of colonized peoples. At the turn of the 17th century, most Europeans' visual conceptions of the Americas came from the engravings of the workshop of Flemish print-maker...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: American Indians and English Settlers in Colonial America
In this instructional activity, 5th graders examine the relations between Indians and the settlers in the 1600s and 1700s. Background information for teachers is included. Students will work in groups to look at three different colonies...
A&E Television
History.com: The First Thanksgiving Celebration
[Free Registration/Login Required] Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday in the United States. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Native Americans shared an autumn harvest feast that is acknowledged today as one of the first...
A&E Television
History.com: 7 Famous Loyalists of the Revolutionary War Era
From a son of Benjamin Franklin to a Mohawk leader to the governor of Massachusetts, these men chose to side with the British. In a way, the American Revolution was also a civil war. By 1774, American colonists were divided into two...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica: 300 Women Who Changed History: Pocahontas
Encyclopedia Britannica provides a brief biography of Pocahontas, the legendary Native American heroine who saved the life of Captain John Smith.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Three Worlds, Three Views
Essay examining the cultural and environmental changes spanning 300 years in the pre-Revolutionary South as three worlds, Native American, European, and African collide. Site includes guiding questions for student discussion and scholars...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Transatlantic Trade
An overview of the Transatlantic Trade whereby Europe, Africa, and the America's engaged in a network of people, raw materials, finished goods, merchants, and sailors bringing wealth to colonial empires. The consequences of the...
PBS
Pbs: About All You Can Eat: A Feast at Plimouth Plantation
A lesson plan in the culinary delicacies of the Plymouth Plantation in 1627. In this integrated lesson plan, students examine the history of foods eaten during this colonial era and prepare an actual meal based on what they have learned....
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: The Spanish, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Two maps and four accounts of the Spanish exploration of North America that reflect the goals of the conquistadors and fascination with the land they examined-and the brutality of their treatment of native peoples.
Other
Arkansas Archeological Survey: Indians of Arkansas
A detailed view of the Native peoples who inhabited Arkansas, both pre- and post-European contact with history, archaeology, and culture addressed. The navigation menu on the left provides links to specific periods of time and to...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: Washington's Rise Begins: A Journal of a Noteworthy Journey
In this lesson, 5th graders examine letters and entries from George Washington's diaries to understand more about his character and ambitions, and the conflict and cooperation that existed between the French and English colonists and the...
Curated OER
National Park Service: Fort Raleigh: The Roanoke Voyages: A Mystery Story for Young People
The history of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island is told in story form. It tells of the conflict between England and Spain to establish a foothold in the New World, the voyages arranged by Sir Walter Raleigh, the establishment of a...