A look at the life of a brilliant colonial American who was a mathematician, astronomer, inventor, surveyor and writer. (In Spanish)

In-depth site includes videos and interactive learning activities to help you learn more about Maryland as it was being founded. Play the game that lets you build your own plantation and find out all the problems colonists faced in...

Analyzes the role slavery played in the history and economy of the British Empire, explains the effects of the 1739 Stono Rebellion and the 1741 New York Conspiracy Trials, and describes the consumer revolution and its effect on the life...

How did we go from thirteen British colonies to the United States of America? Explore the major hardships of life under British rule, how the colonists decided to break away, and how they set a path for a new and independent government....

A clear explanation of the system of indentured servitude that supplied Virginia tobacco plantations with the labor force they needed in order to manage their crops. Explains how such servants were able to earn their own land, and how...

A site with examples and information about early American paintings from 1671-1829. Use the timeline to click on a time period, or click and select by artist, genre, or place of origin. Also includes an extensive bibliography.

South of New England, half of all immigrants arrived in various forms of unfreedom: as indentured servants, apprentices, tenants, convicts, or slaves. George Washington's namesake--a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses named George...

English immigrant in the New World, Anne Bradstreet became an acclaimed poet of Puritan New England. Click on "Anne Bradstreet Activities" for related artifacts and activities.

A comprehensive article from Maryland Historical Magazine written about the indentured servants, particularly those in Hampton, Maryland.

This unit focuses on the "Journey Motif" using the following works: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, "Shooting An Elephant" by George Orwell, "Journey" by Edna St. Vincent Millay,"Sailing to Byzantium" by William Butler Yeats, "The...

An informative exploration of the life of Simon Bolivar, the man known in South America as the "Liberator," because he led revolutions against Spanish colonial overlords in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia.

Presents key ideas for examining the cultures of Native American tribes that lived in North America in early colonial times. Discusses the major groups, the way of life of each group, and where they lived.

A detailed biography of the life of Tisquantum, known as Squanto. Covers some history of the Plymouth Colony and of relations between the colonists and the native peoples.

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...

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...

Pushing back aggressions by Europe's greatest powers, Haiti's 'founding father' set the stage for the world's first sovereign Black state. How did Toussaint L'ouverture born into bondage in the French colony of Saint-Domingue...

Portraits of early New Englanders as well as four buildings from seventeenth-century New England that accompany accounts in those British colonies of struggles, Indian hostilities, and economic success.

What do you know about creating a family history? This site offers a complete lesson plan for developing a sense of how your own family history fits into the bigger picture of the world's history.

Excerpts of letters written by Catharine Parr Traill, which she collected and published, along with her journals, in The Backwoods of Canada (1836). In these excerpts, she writes about her arrival in Newfoundland and a journey to Quebec.

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.

An historical site from the Smithsonian American Art Museum that shows the growth of America through art work by over 45 artists. This site by the Smithsonian Institute has fascinating images showing American artists depicting the...

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.