Lesson Plan Pilgrims, the Mayflower Compact, and Thanksgiving Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy, World History 3, 4, 5 Click here to download this four-lesson unit.
Lesson Plan “A City upon a Hill” from John Winthrop’s “A Modell of Christian Charity,” 1630 Government and Civics 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Click here to download this four-lesson unit.
Lesson Plan Differing Views of Pilgrims and American Indians in Seventeenth-Century New England Economics, Government and Civics 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Background Wampanoags Much of what is known about early Wampanoag history comes from archaeological evidence, the Wampanoag oral tradition (much of which has been lost), and documents created by seventeenth-century English colonists....
Lesson Plan Democracy in Early America: Servitude and the Treatment of Native Americans and Africans prior to 1740 World History 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Essential Questions How did European explorers and colonists who came to the New World for "Gold, Glory and/or God" justify their treatment of Native Americans, enslaved Africans, and indentured servants? To what extent were there...
Essay Colonization and Settlement, 1585–1763 John Demos Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy, World History 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ American colonial history belongs to what scholars call the early modern period. As such, it is part of a bridge between markedly different eras in the history of the western world. On its far side lies the long stretch we call the...
Lesson Plan The Virginia Colony 9, 10 Objective In presenting to students documents dating from the earliest European contact with the Americas, teachers are faced with problems of accessibility. The language is often daunting, and the relevance for students of American...
Lesson Plan New Amsterdam: The Center of the Dutch Settlement Geography 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+ Teaching with Russell Shorto’s book Island at the Center of the World Objectives Students will examine primary documents and secondary sources to analyze the effects of the Dutch West India Company settlement in North America....
Essay The Discovery of the Americas and the Transatlantic Slave Trade Ira Berlin In the middle of the fifteenth century, Europe, Africa, and the Americas came together, creating—among other things—a new economy. At the center of that economy was the plantation, an enterprise dedicated to the production of exotic...
Essay History Times: The Colonial Era Gilder Lehrman Institute Economics, Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy 2, 3, 4, 5 Crossing the Atlantic Ocean Imagine saying goodbye to family, friends, and familiar places to take a dangerous voyage across thousands of miles of ocean in a small wooden ship. Your destination: a strange and often hostile land. Yet,...