Graphic
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Early American Trade With China: Global Economy, 1775 [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
A PDF of a global map of the world economy in 1775.
Handout
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Early American Trade With China: Getting Rich in the China Trade [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
The early China trade was a small but important part of the developing economy of the United States. Trade with China provided opportunities for great profits although it also carried great risk.Merchants who engaged in trade with China...
Activity
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Early American Trade With China: American Ideas About Trade [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
American businessmen in the late 18th and 19th centuries were very interested in finding markets all over the world for their goods and actively pursuing opportunities for foreign trade. The young nation needed to earn money to pay back...
Primary
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Early Trade With China: Early American Trade Routes to China [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
Primary
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Early American Trade With China: Log of the Empress of China [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
The following are excerpts from logs of the Empress of China, the first American ship to sail toChina after American independence. The ship left New York on February 22, 1784 and reached Canton on August 28. All excerpts are taken from...
Primary
University of Illinois

University of Illinois: Early American Trade With China: John Swift's Letter Home [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
The American ship Empress of China left New York on February 22, 1784 and arrived in Canton, China six months later on August 18. John White Swift, the ship's purser, wrote the following letter to his father in Philadelphia in July,...
Unit Plan
Curated OER

National Park Service: Saugus Iron Works: Life & Work at an Early American Site

For Students 9th - 10th
Use this site to learn about life and work at an early American industrial site. Understand the need for iron ore for the early Puritans through excellent history info, an inquiry question, maps, images, readings, activities and more....
Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Colonial Economy

For Students 9th - 10th
Whatever early colonial prosperity there was resulted from trapping and trading in furs. In addition, the fishing industry was a primary source of wealth in Massachusetts. But throughout the colonies, people relied primarily on small...
Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Colonization

For Students 9th - 10th
For a variety of reasons, those who came to settle the early colonies sought a new homeland. Puritans, for example, established several settlements in Massachusetts. These English colonists were a pious, self-disciplined people who...
Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Colonial Period

For Students 9th - 10th
The early settlers to the New World began to map strategy for their own system of government. This site details that strategy and what kinds of events spawned the idea of representative government.
Primary
PBS

Pbs Online News Hour: Economic Forecast

For Students 9th - 10th
In early 2001, a group of the nation's top economists got together to comment on the economic slowdown in the US and predict how long it would last and what kind of an impact it would have.
Website
University of Notre Dame

Department of Special Collections: The Coins of Colonial and Early America

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides links to a variety of coins used in the colonies and in the confederation. Extremely detailed.
Website
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: Economic Growth and Stability

For Students 9th - 10th
Overview of the early 20th Century, post-depression era period of economic growth and stability brought about by Keynesian economics and the New Deal.
Website
Internet History Sourcebooks Project

Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: Coffee Fazenda of Brazil 1911

For Students 9th - 10th
The Modern History Sourcebook provides this great look at what life would be like on a coffee plantation during the early 20th century. It describes the houses, life on the plantation, colonists, and harvests.
Handout
PublicBookshelf Corporation

The Financial Panic of 1873

For Students 9th - 10th
This excerpt from The Great Republic by the Master Historians, published in the early 1900s, provides a near-contemporary discussion of one of the many financial panics, depressions, and bank runs that plagued the American economy in the...
Primary
Other

All the News? American Revolution & Maryland's Press

For Students 9th - 10th
Explore this collection of digitized historical newspapers and broadsides from the 1760s about pre-Revolutionary topics. Requires Adobe Reader.
Article
Other

People of Mexico Living Up to the Ideals of the Revolution

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides in-depth information about the Mexican Revolution and the people that took part in it.
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teachers: Child Labor in America

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Historical photographs provide students with a firsthand look at the issue of child labor during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In this lesson plan, students will use photographs to further understanding of the...