Yale University
Colonial Charters, Grants and Related Documents
Scroll to Massachusetts and link to the colonial documents establishing the colonies' earliest forms of government and laying the foundation for self-governing and eventual independence from England. Beginning with The Charter of England...
University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma College of Law: Resolutions of the Stamp Act
Presents the complete text of the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress which included fourteen resolutions and was accompanied by several petitions denying Parliament's authority to tax the thirteen colonies.
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Mapping the New World
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson allows students study two 17th-century maps of Virginia and think...
University of North Carolina
Unc: History of the Negro Church: Electronic Edition
This website is quite unique, in that it compiles historical data in a segmented form of the birth and evolution of Black Christianity in America. Carter G. Woodson, one of the most respected names relative to the anthology of the Negro,...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake
This very thorough site will fascinate those interested in forensic anthropology. You will learn what you can read from bones, how a face can be reconstructed from a skull, clues you can read from a burial, and about forensic cases both...
National Women’s History Museum
National Women's History Museum: Anne Hutchinson
Considered one of the earliest American feminists, Anne Hutchinson was a spiritual leader in colonial Massachusetts who challenged male authority.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Puritan New England: Massachusetts Bay
An overview of the Puritans who established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the New Haven Colony and Rhode Island. The internal and external struggles with these colonies is discussed including the Salem Witch Trials, King Philip's War,...
A&E Television
History.com: Revolutionary War Timeline
The Revolutionary War was an insurrection by American Patriots in the 13 colonies to British rule, resulting in American independence.
Black Past
Black Past: Cuffe, Paul Sr.
This interesting encyclopedia entry tells about Paul Cuffe, a black abolitionist and philanthropist who attempted to form a colony in Africa for freed slaves.
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian:examining Passenger Lists
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students use primary source documents to investigate central historical questions. In this investigation, students critically examine the passenger lists of ships headed to New England and Virginia to...
Curated OER
National Park Service: Savannah, Ga: Lasting Legacy of Colonial City Planning
The site explores the colonial history of the city of Savannah, Georgia. This interactive lesson has excellent information, an inquiry question, historical context, maps, readings, images, and activities.
Library of Congress
Loc: America as a Religious Refuge
One of the primary reasons for colonization of the New World was to escape European religious persecution. This site provides stories of religious nonconformists, militants, zealots, reformers, and the faithful.
US Department of State
U.s. Department of State: Albany Plan of Union, 1754
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.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Numismatics: Coins and Currency in Colonial America
Valuable lessons in the history of Europeans' early exploration and settlement of America can be gained by following the money used in trade. Coins and Currency exhibition lets you examine evidence of Spanish, British, Dutch, French, and...
Yale University
Yale Law School: Resolutions of the Continental Congress, 1765
Contains the primary text of the resolutions against the Stamp Act sent to King George III.
Yale University
Avalon Project: Mayflower Compact 1620
Read the actual words of these earliest Americans and their attempt at self-government with the writing of the Mayflower Compact. Link directly to other colonial charter pages.
Curated OER
Carolinas & Georgia
This site provides an extensive look into the people and events surrounding the founding of the original 13 colonies in America.
Wikimedia
Wikipedia: Bacon's Rebellion
Wikipedia provides an entry about Bacon's Rebellion, an uprising in 1676 in the Virginia Colony led by Nathaniel Bacon. It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part. A similar uprising...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts, Grade 11: The Scarlet Letter
Young scholars explore the role and impact religion had on the establishment of the American colonies and its continued influence throughout the formation of the American identity. Foundational literary works, speeches, and documents...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: Biographies: Moses Austin 1761 1821
A good resource that provides the life history of Moses Austin, one of the founders of the lead industry in America. Before he died, he had a vision of establishing an American colony in Spanish controlled Texas.
University of Illinois
University of Illinois: Early Trade With China: Mercantilism [Pdf]
The American colonies in the British empire were exploited in the name of mercantilism. The following excerpt explains the idea behind mercantilism and how it was put into practice.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: A Summary of the 1765 Stamp Act
From the Colonial Williamsburg website, a great summary of the crisis caused by the British attempts to enforce the Stamp Act in the American colonies.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Beginnings of Revolutionary Thinking: Impact of Enlightenment
The ideas of the Enlightenment began in Europe, but they were acted upon in the American colonies. See how the philosophies of John Locke and Rousseau influenced the thoughts and actions of Puritan clergy and political figures like...
Bill of Rights Institute
Bill of Rights Institute: Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams was born on September 22, 1722, in Quincy, Massachusetts. He entered Harvard College at the age of 14. During the 1760s, Adams became a leader of the Patriot resistance to the British government's attempt to tax the American...
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