National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Then and Now Life in Early America
Select from lesson plans that challenge students to compare everyday objects from colonial times to present day objects. Links to sites with photos and other primary sources will assist students in their comparison.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Life in Colonial America
This instructional activity presents an explanation about who the early colonists were and why they came to America. Students will explore their lives and the economy by navigating the Internet. Students will conclude the instructional...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Colonial House
Companion website for Colonial House, a televised experiment in historical reenactment, provides information and insight about what daily life, in 1628, must have been like for English settlers in early America. With video clips from the...
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...
Other
History of the Usa: Colonial Life: Colonial Government
Find out the similarities and differences between the governments of the English colonies in this detailed account of early colonial government from the 1904 text written by Henry William Elson, History of the United States of America.
The Henry Ford
The Henry Ford: A Colonial Family and Community
Students are asked to be historical detectives. Using primary documents, they uncover information about the life and community of the Daggetts of northeastern Connecticut in the 1700s.
University of California
The History Project: Aztec Life as Revealed in the Codex Telleriano Remensis
The Aztec pictorial manuscript later known as the Codex Telleriano-Remensis was created in sixteenth-century Mexico, about a generation after contact. It is considered one of the most beautiful and informative remaining works by the...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Religion in Early Virginia
This examination of religion in Virginia gives you an idea of where Anglicanism fit into colonial life there.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Colonial Economy
Whatever early colonial prosperity there was resulted from trapping and trading in furs. In addition, the fishing industry was a primary source of wealth in Massachusetts. But throughout the colonies, people relied primarily on small...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial Religion
The site provides a detailed overview of role religion played in the lives of the colonists. Content explores how religion played a part in the Revolution, and the statute for religious freedom, as well as providing a lesson plan, a link...
Organization for Community Networks
Academy Curricular Exchange: A Practical Experiment in Colonization
A detailed lesson plan depicting life in the early American colonies.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Colonial Network News: Ben Franklin Flies a Kite
The students will create a news program about Benjamin Franklin and life in colonial times. The students will work in groups of complete research and prepare a video presentation. Students will utilize books and various web sites to...
Other
Early American Paintings in the Worcester Art Museum
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.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg History
This page goes directly to the homepage of Colonial Williamsburg, which historically reenacts the life of early English settlement in Virginia.
Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors: Archiving Early America: Early Virginia River Trade
Learn about the waterways in Virginia that colonists used to expand their way of life, especially for tobacco sales.
Black Past
Black Past: Phillis Wheatley
This on-line encyclopedia article gives information about Phillis Wheatley, the Boston slave who surprised colonial America with her poetry. She was the first African-American woman to have her work published.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Saugus Iron Works: Life & Work at an Early American Site
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....
Schools of California Online Resources for Education
Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute: Courts in Colonial Virginia
Overview of the early court system in Colonial Virginia and the challenges colonists faced interpreting British law for local purposes.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Colonial Period Society
This site provides an explanation of the influence of the frontier on the landed gentry and the role of education in the society.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art and Identity in British North American Colonies
Consider the English identity of American colonists by examining the sorts of imported goods and decorative arts Americans chose to purchase and display.
Curated OER
Wells Thorn House: 1600 1740: Early Colonial Style: Interior Room
An interior view of an early American colonial parlor.
Mayflower History
Mayflower history.com: Women of Early Plymouth
An interesting account of the decisions that had to be made about whether or not to bring women along on the Mayflower. There was a higher mortality rate among the women it turned out, but that may have been due to the fact that women...
History Teacher
Historyteacher.net: Late 17 C and 18 C American Society: Quiz (1)
This 11-question multiple choice quiz is immediately scored and includes a variety of questions covering life in the early colonies.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: George Washington: Growing Up in Colonial Virginia
George Washington was shaped by early adversity. Read a brief description of his early life up to the cusp of the beginning of his military career.