This resource describes how New Netherland, later to be called New York, was originally possessed by the Dutch. Many traditions stem from the practices that they started.

A brief look at the population increase in colonial America. Find out where all these immigrants came from and what they did in the colonies. From PBS.

Learners play the role of colonists from the Revolutionary War period. Each group has decided to host a dinner party for some "famous faces" of the American Revolution. There are FOUR parts to this project: research, seating chart, music...

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....

Documents many of the important events in the life of Statesman Robert R. Livingston. Outlines his accomplishments, and provides two photographs and and an illustration of important pieces.

This article chronicles the life of John Jay, one of America's founding fathers and the first chief justice of the Supreme Court. Includes a portrait and illustrations.

A brief look at the fascinating life of African American poet, Phillis Wheatley. Provides two portraits, and a sample page from Wheatley's collection of poems.

This website briefly describes the life of Phillis Wheatley, poetess and freed slave.

A lesson in the culinary delicacies of the Plymouth Plantation in 1627. For this integrated lesson, students examine the history of foods eaten during this colonial era and prepare an actual meal based on what they have learned. This...

A brief biography of James Madison. Find out why James Madison was called the father of the constitution. Learn how his life affected the United States. (In Spanish)

A biography of Patrick Henry which focuses on his years as a lawyer and his involvement in the American Revolution. Content also includes a fact sheet on his life.

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...

Understand the virtues valued by Franklin, and other eighteenth-century men and women, by perusing this list.

Provides a few statistics on slaves in Maryland and Virginia and then contrasts the lives of field hand vs household or urban slaves.

Comprehensive description of slaves in South Carolina. Click on the topics on the left to take you to a wealth of information about the lives of slaves in South Carolina.

Four original source accounts, and four related maps, of successful English, French, and Spanish settlements in North America and the Caribbean that explain the qualities of these settlements and their reasons for permanence and prosperity.

Three seventeenth-century homes in Pennsylvania and New York and three accounts from those English colonies of the factors leading to prosperity and permanence.

As part of the Smithsonian Art Museum's database of artists, this site provides biographical information on Childe Hassam in addition to an extensive listing of his works as displayed at the museum.

A collection of primary sources to explore the motivations and realities behind life in the American colonies.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson in which students analyze original documents to evaluate the conflict between colonists under King Philip and Native Americans.

By reading this section of a chapter on "Colonial Societies," students will be able to explain the reasons for the rise of slavery in the American colonies, describe changes in Indian life, including warfare and hunting, contrast...

Overview and biographical facts on the life of Anne Hutchinson, an early colonist of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who was banished from Boston in 1637 for her religious and feminist beliefs and fled to the Rhode Island Colony.

Brief biography of artist Robert Feke, the early American artist who painted "Isaac Royall and his Family."

Overview and biographical facts on the life of George Calvert, founder of the Maryland Colony.