The Origins of America: Indians, Settlers, and Slaves in a Colonial World
Fall 2007
Internet Resources
New France
France in America
This collaboration between the Library of Congress and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France presents a digital library documenting the French presence in North America from the early 16th century through the 19th century. Books, manuscripts, maps, and prints are accessible online.
New France: New horizons / Nouvelle-France: Horizons Nouveaux
This site has 350 digitized documents and other printed primary sources.
English Settlement
Virtual Jamestown
The Virtual Jamestown Archive is a digital research, teaching and learning project that explores the legacies of the Jamestown settlement and "the Virginia experiment." Among other features, this site has LOTS of primary sources.
Colonial Williamsburg
While this is primarily a tourism website, it is also rich in educational resources. You can select "Experience the Life," choose from 12 categories ranging from animals to food to the African-American Experience, and find information and resources about each topic. Teacher Resources include virtual tours, audio and video files, and electronic field trips, which I was unable to access in reasonable time with my dial-up connection, but it sure sounds interesting!
Plymouth Colony Archive Project
All the primary sources you could ever want about the Plymouth Colony. Also has research papers, biographical profiles of colonists, and material culture studies. This is a very cool site.
The First Thanksgiving: You are the Historian
This excellent, vivid, easy-to-use site created by Plimoth Plantation enables students to use the skills of historians to peel away the layers of myth and misconception surrounding "The First Thanksgiving" and discover what might really have happened. The Teacher's Guide alone is a model resource.
Colonial Connecticut Records, 1636-1776
A scanned and partially searchable version of the 15-volume Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, from April 1636 to October 1776.
African Slavery
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Has good information on the transatlantic and domestic slave trade.
Africans in America
PBS companion site has a section covering "1450-1750: The Terrible Transformation," including a narrative, an extensive resource bank containing historical documents and contemporary analysis by historians, and a teacher's guide.
Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy, 1718-1820
This project provides detailed data on more than 100,000 slaves and free blacks in Louisiana from 1718 to 1820, gleaned from historical documents of French, Spanish, and British origin. The database is searchable. One example: The researcher who compiled the archive documents 96 different African ethnicities of slaves in Louisiana during this period.
Slavery in New York
From the New-York Historical Society, take a virtual tour of galleries that explore different eras, starting with the Atlantic slave trade and New York City; slavery in Dutch New York; and the growth of slavery in British Colonial New York. There's also a teacher's guide, fact sheet, and other downloadable educational resources.
The Northern Frontier
Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
The excellent site of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association/Memorial Hall Museum offers a thorough and comprehensive examination of the Deerfield Raid from all points of view. Tremendous content, images, and teaching resources.
Fort Number Four
Educators section has materials on Rogers' Rangers; guide to teaching with Winter People; activities with colonial money and tools; a variety of lesson plans on colonial history, Abenaki culture, and the Seven Years' War; bibliography and web links
Seven Years' War
The War That Made America
Site developed in conjunction with the film of the same name produced to commemorate the 250th anniversary (2004-2010); lots of links, downloadable Educator's Guide.
Miscellaneous
Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project
Considered by historians in the know to be among the best and most comprehensive of many websites about the Salem Witch Trials. Includes transcripts of the full record of the court proceedings, as well as contemporary letters, sermons, and other writings.
Archive of Early American Images
An archive of images of the colonial Americas from books printed or created in Europe between about 1492 and 1825.
Religion and the Founding of the American Republic
This Library of Congress website contains brief essays on religious persecution in Europe that led to emigration, and religious experience in 18th-century America, including the Great Awakening of 1740-45, that accompany the online exhibits featuring images and texts from the LOC archives.
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