National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: English Iii, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three seventeenth-century buildings, two portraits, and three original accounts from Virginia and the Carolinas about the qualities and conditions of life in these southern English colonies that led to success and growth.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Townshend Acts
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...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Rebellion, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Five documents that examine a range of reactions to colonial rebellion and associated resistance to royal authority in English colonies in Barbados, Virginia, and Massachusetts.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: American Revolution: American and British Strengths and Weaknesses
Read a brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses of both the Americans and British in the Revolutionary War. How could such a well-funded, militarily strong country be defeated by a former colony, one with no money, little military...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The First Dutch Settlers
Read about the Dutch colonization of the Hudson River Valley in this comprehensive essay about the Dutch in America. Pages 3-7 deal with the Dutch colonies.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Colonial Indian Relations
By 1640 the British had solid colonies established along the New England coast and the Chesapeake Bay. In between were the Dutch and the tiny Swedish community. To the west were the original Americans, the Indians.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Revolution Begins
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...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The British Move South
With the French now involved, the British stepped up their efforts in the southern colonies since they felt that most Southerners were Loyalists. A campaign began in late 1778, with the capture of Savannah, Georgia. Shortly thereafter,...
University of Illinois
University of Illinois: Early Trade With China: Early American Trade Routes to China [Pdf]
Once the colonies gained their independence, American ships began to search the oceansfor markets to replace the British colonial markets from which they were now excluded (theWest Indies) or in which they were subjected to heavy tax...
University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina: Causes of the American Revolution [Pdf]
Goes through the various events that led up to the American Revolution and the actions and responses of the British and the Colonies.
Other
Maryland Colonial Essay Contest: Native Americans of Maryland
This student essay discusses the Native Americans of Maryland that helped the colonists settle the land and survive, but were, in turn, run off of the land.
Lumen Learning
Lumen: Early American and Puritan Literature: "A Model of Christian Charity"
"A Model of Christian Charity" is a 1630 sermon by Puritan layman and leader John Winthrop, who delivered on board the ship Arbella while en route to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is also known as City upon a Hill and denotes the...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: A New Colonial System
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...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: State Constitutions
The success of the Revolution gave Americans the opportunity to give legal form to their ideals as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, and to remedy some of their grievances through state constitutions. As early as May 10,...
Other
American revolution.org: Sins of the Fathers: Religion and Revolution
An academic essay describing the ways in which "religion is an active if not a determinative" cause for the American Revolution. The essay describes three influential areas: (1) religion and liberty, (2) religion and community, and (3)...
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...
A&E Television
History.com: The Native American Chief Who Drove Out Spanish Colonists and Nearly Expelled the English
In the summer of 1561, Spanish explorers abducted Opechancanough, a Powhatan Indian youth from the Chesapeake Bay tidewater region and brought him to the royal court of Spain. The kidnapping set off a chain of events that would alter the...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Servitude, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Two examples of indenture contracts and three accounts of indentured servitude, including positive as well as admonitory views, in the Chesapeake English colonies.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Rule, American Beginnings: 1492 1690
Three documents reflecting official views of how to rule and regulate a successful colony in New France, Jamaica, and the Spanish Indies. Includes teacher reasources for framing discussion.
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Sugar and Stamp Acts
Reasons for the Sugar Act and the Stamp Act are briefly described. The article also describes the colonial assemblies' reasons for fearing and speaking out against these taxes. The biggest question, Parliament's right to tax the...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Taxation Without Representation
The issue thus drawn centered on the question of representation. From the colonies' point of view, it was impossible to consider themselves represented in Parliament unless they actually elected members to the House of Commons. But this...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Boston "Tea Party"
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...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: William Richardson Davie 1756 1820
One of the eight delegates born outside of the thirteen colonies, Davie was born in Egremont, Cumberlandshire, England, on June 20, 1756. In 1763 Archibald Davie brought his son William to Waxhaw, SC, where the boy's maternal uncle,...
University of Groningen
American History: Biographies: James Mc Henry
McHenry was born at Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1753. He enjoyed a classical education at Dublin, and emigrated to Philadelphia in 1771. The following year, the rest of his family came to the colonies, and his brother and...