According to some estimates, there are more guns than people in the United States. Learners decide if America should enact more gun control laws. They analyze information about gun deaths in the United States by year, read about the...

Detailed essay which shows how colonial self-government developed prior to the Revolutionary War.

Discusses development of representative government especially in the New England colonies.

Find out about the development of self-government in the English colonies and the responsibilities of the colonial legislatures.

Background information about the literary traditions of the pre-Colonial and Colonial period. Includes information about Native American oral traditions and Native American cultures. Follow the links to the Early American era and to...

Scroll through this site from the Modern History Sourcebook of Fordham University to New England and click on the primary source documents concerning Edmund Andros. This site contains dozens of links related to colonial America. Sections...

America was victorious in the Revolutionary War, but now faced a slew of problems while trying to set up our new nation. Study how we attempted to solve the problems of establishing a government, forming our economy, meeting the needs of...

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.

The major cities in colonial America played a huge role in preparing for the Revolutionary War, both in terms of ways of governing and philosophy. Read about Philadelphia, Williamsburg, New York, and Boston and the events in those cities...

Biographical note on Patrick Henry, the lawyer, patriot, orator, and symbol of the American struggle for liberty and self-government during the American Revolution.

Two opposing philosophies concerning the relationship between government and its citizens were expressed by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke in the 17th century. Compare these two philosophies and see how they were related to the colonists'...

The Anthropology Division's African collection is extensive in terms of geographic coverage. It includes North Africa, West Africa, and Madagascar, although its greatest concentration of material is from central and southern Africa. The...

Independence Hall Association provides a listing of important colonial dates. Also listed are the historical events which the Bell commemorates throughout American History.

Resource chronicles the life and times of Jacob Leisler, "a political figure [who] played a major role in the North American world of European settlements in the seventeenth century," and leader of the Leisler's Rebellion.

A one-page summary of the life and philosophy of influential eighteenth-century Anglo-Irish Parliamentarian Edmund Burke, whose theories of government led him to sympathize with the American colonists against the British crown, to...

A review of the Age of Revolution, particularly as it was perceived in the American colonies. See how the various actions taken by the British government to control the colonists resulted in uniting the colonists and set the stage for...

The American Revolution was close to 200 years in the making. Read about the philosophies and attitudes toward government, as well as the diverse populations who came to the British colonies, that eventually fomented rebellion.

A terrific look at the twenty-seven specific reasons Thomas Jefferson cited in the Declaration of Independence and the support for those reasons of why the colonists felt justified in breaking the bonds with Great Britain.

Learn all about the Albany Plan of Union from this article from the U.S. Department of State. Find out why it was proposed, what the plan would provide for, and the results.