"#primary source"

"For a Noble Man, a Prince": Images and Identity in Colonial America

Images and objects from paintings to wallpaper and almanac prints to furniture served to shape their owners identities in British America before the revolution. This activity assists in deciphering the messages in visual images that convey social status and economic power in the late colonial period.

This is part of the "Lessons for Looking" project out of the City University of New York

"For a Noble Man, a Prince": Images and Identity in Colonial America

1782: - Letters From an American Farmer : Letter III - What Is An American - St. John de Crevecoeur, 1782

Students would have a little trouble with the language, though much less than they would with the federalist papers. Anyone looking for insight into the daily life of most colonists would do well by reading this primary source

1782: - Letters From an American Farmer : Letter III - What Is An American - St. John de Crevecoeur, 1782

A brief history of the Pequot war - John Mason, John Underhill

These are contemporary accounts written by the perpetrators of the Mystic Massacre. Many contemporary historians and international jurists have judged the Pequot War an act of genocide.

A brief history of the Pequot war - John Mason, John Underhill

A Condensed Look into the Journey of Charles Woodmason Across the Carolina Backcountry – Mapping the Great Awakening

This description of a contemporary book written in the 18th century and easily available at Internet Archive (and searchable) is just the sort of treasure trove that teachers can mine for primary source materials that could energize their classes with reality.

A Condensed Look into the Journey of Charles Woodmason Across the Carolina Backcountry – Mapping the Great Awakening

A tour of America by Patrick M'Robert in the years 1774 & 1775.

47 pages book about the colonies written in 1774. Insight into roads, methods of travel, dress, habits and culture of the people Patrick met while traveling through New York and northern colonies. Tables of currency rates, roads and prices for tranports

A tour of America by Patrick M'Robert in the years 1774 & 1775.

American Beginnings: 1492-1690, Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature, Toolbox Library, National Humanities Center

A collection of primary resources-historical documents, literary texts,and works of art-thematically organized with notes and discussion questions from National Humanities Center from National Humanities Center

American Beginnings: 1492-1690, Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature, Toolbox Library, National Humanities Center

Bartolomé de las Casas A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES written 1542, published 1552

THE primary document that provides the most evidence of European treatment of Native Americans in the late 15th century. This can be used with students

Bartolomé de las Casas A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES written 1542, published 1552

Becoming American: The British Atlantic Colonies, 1690-1763, Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature, Toolbox Library, National Humanities Center

Civics and Government - Themed Resources

Review an early draft of the Constitution with revisions and marginal notations as well as the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation. Read about presidents and the presidency, leaders of the new nation, elections, and inaugurations. Find resources to teach about constitutional issues ranging from women's suffrage to slavery and desegregation from Library of Congress

Civics and Government - Themed Resources

Codex Mendoza (1542) – The Public Domain Review

The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, created about twenty years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico with the intent that it be seen by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. It contains a history of the Aztec rulers and their conquests, a list of the tribute paid by the conquered, and a description of daily Aztec life, in traditional Aztec pictograms with Spanish explanations and commentary

Codex Mendoza (1542) – The Public Domain Review

Colonel William Byrd on Slavery and Indented Se...

In this 1739 from a aristocratic slave owner to a Trustee of the colony of Georgia, teachers and students can look into the complexity of slavery in the 1730s. How can a plantation owner who profits from slavery complain about the system and wish that Britain would end slavery in the colonies? How can a slaveowner express such disgust for slave traders (who, he claims, would paint their wives and children's faces black if they could get away with selling them)? If you look close enough, you can see his prediction of John Brown's dream of a slave insurrection in the mountains.

Colonel William Byrd on Slavery and Indented Se...

Colonial and Early America - Themed Resources

Learn about colonization and the colonial experience by examining maps, letters and other primary documents. Trace the origins and celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States through images and documents. From Library of Congress

Colonial and Early America - Themed Resources

Colonizing the Bay | EDSITEment

This lesson focuses on the content of John Winthrop’s speech and how it illuminates the Puritans’ beliefs, goals, and programs. It requires a close reading of a difficult text – but one that yields significant benefits to those who persist and analyze it closely.

Colonizing the Bay | EDSITEment

Cultures at Jamestown

Three cultures converged at Jamestown - the Powhatan Indians, the English and the Africans - each of whom had their own unique way of life. Students compare and contrast these three cultures and learn about their interactions.

Cultures at Jamestown

Description of the New Netherlands : Donck, Adriaen van der, 1620-1655 (Book)

This 24 page description of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was not translated until the 19th century, leaving much of the history of the colonies to the English, and not the Dutch. Teachers should have students search the word "Indians" to see the half dozen or so descriptions of disease, how Natives saw colonists and other interactions with the Native Americans

Description of the New Netherlands : Donck, Adriaen van der, 1620-1655 (Book)

Diary of an Indentured Servant, by John Harrower, 1900 (Book)

Diary of John Harrower, 1773-1776 : Diary of an Indentured Servant, by John Harrower, 1900 (Book)

Diary of an Indentured Servant, by John Harrower, 1900 (Book)

Diary of John Harrower, 1773-1776 : Indentured Servant

El Requerimiento by Juan López de Palacios Rubios (1513)

This document sets forth the legal and religious justification of Europeans to conquest native populations of the Americas and take their land. The last two paragraphs could be included in a document exercise for students. How does this weave legal and religious justification? How does absolve soldiers from moral responsibility for war? Students having difficulty understanding the text should be reminded that native populations had an even more difficult time

El Requerimiento by Juan López de Palacios Rubios (1513)

El Requerimiento by Juan López de Palacios Rubios (1513) – Encyclopedia Virginia

Of all of the primary documents we share with students the Requerimiento shows the sheer malovency of the Spanish in the Americas - essentially it says, do this or we will kill your wives and children and it will be your fault, not ours.

El Requerimiento by Juan López de Palacios Rubios (1513) – Encyclopedia Virginia

Encyclopedia Virginia: An Act directing the trial of Slaves, committing capital crimes; and for the more effectual punishing conspiracies and insurrections of them; and for the better government of Negros, Mulattos, and Indians, bond or free

Instead of giving students excerpts from a set of documents and asking them to analyze and interpret them, you could ask them to just comb through one giant document and find what they could find. This would be the document, and slavery in the colonies would be the topic. Here they'll find explicit punishments that include getting ears nailed for giving false testimony and death for conspiracy. Students will also see how difficult it is to free slaves under this 1723 law

Examining Passenger Lists | Stanford History Education Group

What can passenger lists from ships arriving in North American colonies tell us about those who immigrated? And what can those characteristics tell us about life in the colonies themselves? In this lesson, students critically examine the passenger lists of ships headed to New England and Virginia to better understand English colonial life in the 1630s.

Examining Passenger Lists | Stanford History Education Group

Farber Gravestone Collection

The Farber Gravestone Collection is an unusual resource documenting the sculpture on over 9,000 gravestones most of which were made prior to 1800. Many of the tombstones are from the 1600s. Why not do something different for your "day before Halloween" lesson this year and have students look through these primary source artifacts tell us something about some of the people who lived at that time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbhR1f_L_xE

Farber Gravestone Collection

Freedom Narratives

The Project uses an online digital repository of autobiographical testimonies and biographical data of Atlantic Africans to analyze patterns in the slave trade of West Africa, specifically in terms of where individuals came from, why they were enslaved, and what happened to them. Freedom Narratives focuses on people born in Africa and hence in most cases had been born free rather than on those who were born into slavery in the Americas or elsewhere.

Freedom Narratives

Fugitive Slaves laws (1619-1865) - Marion Gleason

This is a compendium of colonial, state and federal fugitive slave laws. Available for research, or quick skimming to reveal the nature of slavery this resource shows how quickly runaway slave laws came to the colonies right after the Pilgrims. It also shows the overlapping of indentured servant law and slave law and how the system of slavery evolved over 250 years

Fugitive Slaves laws (1619-1865) - Marion Gleason

History of the New World by Girolamo Benzoni; 1565

De las Casas wasn't the only person to write a first-hand account of the conquest of native populations. This book was written by a Milanese merchant was republished in eleven editions between 1565 and 1727 and its popularity contributed to an intense negative perception of Spain.

History of the New World by Girolamo Benzoni; 1565

HSI: Historical Scene Investigation - Finding Aaron (Escaped slave; 1767)

In this case, students follow the life and escape attempts of an enslaved man named Aaron of the course of four years. Students utilize runaway slave advertisements from the Virginia Gazette from 1767 to 1771 to track multiple escapes by Aaron and the quest of his masters to recapture him. Although the evidence paints only a partial picture of Aaron's life, students are challenged to a plausible explanation of what happened to Aaron between December, 1767 and January, 1771

HSI: Historical Scene Investigation - Finding Aaron (Escaped slave; 1767)

Images of the New World | EDSITEment

This lesson will enable students to interact with written and visual accounts of this critical formative period at the end of the 16th century, when the English view of the New World was being formulated, with consequences that we are still seeing today.

Images of the New World | EDSITEment

Indenture Records Project - Digitization from the American Philosophic Library & Museum

Interactive visualizations of data following themes of distance, gender, and time-based on records of 5,000 indentured servants registered in Philadelphia from 1771 through 1773. The presentation of these materials already has questions and a narrative path, it would not take more than a half-hour of a teacher's time to turn this site into a valuable instructional exercise

Indenture Records Project - Digitization from the American Philosophic Library & Museum

Indentured servants were sold - primary source reading

Indentured servants were sold at auctions like slaves. Teachers could use this to show how some who would like to make the slavery system seem less harsh than it was can explain how "whites were sold at auction as well" - which is true, but the warrant between the evidence and the claim is invalid. This particular example of an indentured servant is interesting also because he returned to Europe and tried to persuade others to avoid immigration to the colonies

Indentured servants were sold - primary source reading

Inventory of Robert Carter's Estate, November 1733

What did one of the richest men in British North American own? This answers that question. Students can be asked what they would think about looking through the personal inventory of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk? Here they get to do just that. This provides insight into the material culture of the wealthy colonists but a truly detailed look into slavery. Just click on the locations and look at the names and ages of the persons he enslaved.

Inventory of Robert Carter's Estate, November 1733