Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Geography and Its Impact on Colonial Life
Beginning with a discussion on how people adapt to or relocate to environments, this lesson encourages students to explore why the Colonists settled in specific regions. In groups, students examine primary documents, analyzing Colonists'...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690 1730
Primary resource material on the ideas, scientific and religious, of the colonial period from 1690 to 1730.
Other
American Revolution: A Naval History of the American Revolution
This online reproduction of the original 1913 text by Gardner W. Allen is organized chronologically beginning in 1775 and ending with 1783. An appendix includes source citations, a list of vessels, officers, privateers and other...
Other
Hillcrest: England and Its Colonies [Pdf]
A textbook chapter about England and its relationship to its American colonies. Included are maps and map questions, study help, and assessments.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Travel in the 18th Century
This site has a lesson plan that contrasts the methods of travel during Colonial Times, with those of today.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Teaching With Dear America: Colonial Period
Activities useful in presenting American colonial life. Find references to novels, a colonial home, and a diary entry activity.
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...
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...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: William Byrd (1674 1744)
A short essay about William Byrd from the colonial period of American history who detailed life in the Southern colonies.
National Women’s History Museum
National Women's History Museum: Anne Hutchinson: American Women's Movement
This lesson focuses on the life and trials of Anne Hutchinson, who fought for the rights of women in mid-17th century New England.
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: King Philip's War
[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson in which students analyze original documents to evaluate the conflict between colonists under King Philip and Native Americans.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Colonial House
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]
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Young America in Art
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...
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: William Pitt's Defense of the American Colonies
This site contains the address Pitt gave against the Stamp Act in front of the House of Commons. His address helped secure the Act's repeal.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Beginnings of Revolutionary Thinking: What Is the American?
Even colonial America was a melting pot of people from far away. Read about the diversity of the population and why it had an effect on the possibility of rebellion and revolution.
Ducksters
Ducksters: American Revolution for Kids: Daily Life During the Revolutionary War
Kids learn about daily life during the Revolutionary War including homes, clothes, food, school, and other fun facts. Take a quiz at the end to see what you learned!
Curated OER
National Park Service: Joseph Bellamy House: The Great Awakening in New England
This site describes the influence of the Reverend Joseph Bellamy and religion in 18th century colonial life. This lesson plan has excellent information, an inquiry question, historical context, maps, readings, images, and activities.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Colonial Williamsburg: Redefining Family
This site from the Colonial Williamsburg Museum explores the different "families" of colonial Williamsburg. Content includes a focus on each cultural group: white, Native American, and black.
Other
History of the Russian Settlement at Ft. Ross,california
Details Russian expansion across Asia, over the Bering Strait to Alaska, and then down the coast to California. Their settlement, relations with the Spanish, life in Ft. Ross, and departure are chronicled here.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Architecture of New England,southern Colonies
Describes the chronology of architectural design in New England and the South and what the architecture revealed about class building techniques. Includes ideas for lesson activities.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Copley, the Copley Family
John Singleton Copley was the undisputed king of portraiture in the American colonies. Read about his life and view a picture of his family portrait in this essay.
PBS
Africans in America: Phillis Wheatley
This website briefly describes the life of Phillis Wheatley, poetess and freed slave.
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: John Dickinson (1732 1808)
Dickinson has correctly been called the "Penman of the Revolution" by later historians. But his activities extended fortwo decades into the life of the new republic, years in which Dickinson's contributions were many. Dickinson's career...
PBS
Africans in America: Lucy Terry Prince: Freed Slave and Poet
This website describes the life of Lucy Terry Prince, first female African American poet. She obtained her freedom by marrying a wealthy free black man who purchased her freedom.