Comprehensive information about the colonial period of American History. Includes information about New England, colonies, government, people, The French and Indian War, and the Salem Witch Trials.

Although some believe that the history of the American Revolution began long before the first shots were fired in 1775, England and America did not begin an overt parting of the ways until 1763, more than a century and a half after the...

In 1773, however, Britain furnished Adams and his allies with an incendiary issue. The powerful East India Company, finding itself in critical financial straits, appealed to the British government, which granted it a monopoly on all tea...

The early 1600s saw the beginning of a great tide of emigration from Europe to North America. Spanning more than three centuries, this movement grew from a trickle of a few hundred English colonists to a flood of millions of newcomers....

The 18th-century statesmen who met in Philadelphia were adherents of Montesquieu's concept of the balance of power in politics. This principle was supported by colonial experience and strengthened by the writings of John Locke, with...

One of Jefferson's acts doubled the area of the country. At the end of the Seven Years' War, France had ceded to Spain the territory west of the Mississippi River, with the port of New Orleans near its mouth -- a port indispensable for...

General Thomas Gage, an amiable English gentleman with an American-born wife, commanded the garrison at Boston, where political activity had almost wholly replaced trade. Gage's main duty in the colonies had been to enforce the Coercive...

The religious and civil conflict in England in the mid-17th century limited immigration, as well as the attention the mother country paid the fledgling American colonies. In part to provide for the defense measures England was...

The year 1767 brought another series of measures that stirred anew all the elements of discord. Charles Townshend, British chancellor of the exchequer, was called upon to draft a new fiscal program. Intent upon reducing British taxes by...

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...

Such social reforms brought many women to a realization of their own unequal position in society. From colonial times, unmarried women had enjoyed many of the same legal rights as men, although custom required that they marry early. With...

A description of religious strife and factions in the 17th Century. Provides a detailed and comprehensive account of the Puritans, their life and culture, as they migrate to America and establish themselves in New England.

Article with photographs on the expansion of the new England Colonies to include the Middle and Southern Colonies. Links to primary source documents.

A short essay about William Byrd from the colonial period of American history who detailed life in the Southern colonies.

Based on the theory that because the King had given the colonists so many freedoms, and he had problems on the home-front, the colonists' will was strengthened. This contributed to the Revolution. There are links to Virginia's First...

Colonial House video segment in which Colonists and the Passamaquoddy people encounter each other for the first time in a reenactment of a New England settlement in 1628. [4:38]

Brief discussion of early immigration and its effect on the population of Colonial America between 1680 and 1775.

This site, as a companion to a high school A.P. U.S. History course, offers a lengthy series of outlines and charts timelining U.S. history, from America's colonial beginnings to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. By providing the...

The Baldwin Project is a site which presents books from the past on the internet. This excerpt from American History Stories, Volume II by Mara L. Pratt provides a description of the Daughters of Liberty from a different point of view.

Part of Fordham University's Internet Modern History Sourcebook, this site gives historical background and extensive web resources on American Independence.

Webisode 1-Independence. The history of the United States is presented in a series of webisodes, within each are a number of segments.Included are links to lesson plans, teacher guides, resources, activities, and tools.

This resource provides an essay discussing the migration of American colonists into the Ohio River Valley and the impact on the Native Americans living in the area.

The text of a 1649 colonial act concerning religion in Maryland. Describes punishment of any who reject Christian teaching.

Background information about the literature of the Colonial period in American history. Discussions of capitalism, Puritan theology, and stewardship as found in the thought and literature of the period.