Colonial America: International at the Creation

Resources in the Primary Source Library, and Beyond

• Resources for Educators
• Resources for Students
• Video and Multimedia

Resources for Educators

Armitage, David and Michael J. Braddick, eds. The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Call Number: 970 Bri

Berlin, Ira. Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1998.

Award-winning work by University of Maryland Historian provides a comprehensive look at the world of slavery, complete with many primary sources; see also Berlin"s new work Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves for a closer look at the experience of slavery.

Call Number: 326 Ber

Buerklin, Janet. Life in Colonial America: A Fifth Grade Social Studies Instructional Unit. Newtonville, MA: Newton Public Schools, 1999.

A fifth grade unit created by Newton Public Schools that includes several lesson plans and activities. A front pocket with added pictures to use for handouts.

Call Number: 973.2 Lif

Calloway, Colin G. New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.

"Contents: Introduction: the kaleidoscope of early America ----1.--Imaging and creating a new world ----2.--Healing and disease ----3. The--stuff of life ----4. A--world of dreams and bibles ----5.--New world warfare and a new world of war ----6.--New world diplomacy and new world foreign policies ----7.--New nomads and true nomads ----8.--Crossing and merging frontiers ----9.--New peoples and new societies ----Conclusion: new Americans and first Americans."

Call Number: 970.01 Cal

Calloway, Colin G., ed. Dawnland Encounters: Indians and Europeans in Northern New England.Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, c1991.

"A collection of documents describing the full range of encounters of Indians and Europeans in northern New England during the Colonial era. Together with period illustrations, the documents testify to the richness and variety of the inter-ethnic relations in northern New England. They also show that while conflict certainly occurred, the encounters were also marked by cooperation and accommodation. "

Call Number: 970.44 Cal

Focused primarily on the Wampanoag Indians, who were part of the Woodland Indians of New England, and King Philip's role in the tribe. Unit objectives focus on the daily lives of both the early settlers and the Indians.

Call Number: PS-TCU 974.004 Can

Castillo, Susan and Ivy Schweitzer, eds. The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.

This anthology contains ample evidence that nations other than Britain were also colonizing the continent and that the Native American population was not averse to reacting loudly and eloquently to what were, for them, disastrous consequences. This collection is divided into three sections: "Exploration and Contact to 1600," "New World Identities: Exploration and Settlement to 1700," and "The Eighteenth Century." Except for a handful of familiar English-speaking writers (Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, Ben Franklin, etc.), the writers here are new to most anthologies. Together they correct our view of early America, revealing its cultural diversity and laying bare the nearly universal greed that motivated the era's colonizing efforts.

Call Number: 810.8 Lit

Crosby, Alfred W. Germs, Seeds &: Animals: Studies in Ecological History.Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, c1994.

Contents: The Columbian voyages, the Columbian exchange, and their historians -- Ecological Imperialism: the overseas migration of Western Europeans as a biological phenomenon -- The biological metamorphosis of the Americas -- The British Empire as a product of continental drift -- Infectious disease and the demography of the Atlantic peoples -- Virgin soil epidemics as a factor in the Aboriginal depopulation of America -- "God . would destroy them, and give their country to another people ." -- Hawaiian depopulation as a model for the Amerindian experience -- The demographic effect of American crops in Europe -- Demography, maize, land, and the American character -- Reassessing 1492 -- Life (with all its problems) in space.

Call Number: 304.2 Cro

Daniels, Bruce Colin. Puritans at Play: Leisure and Recreation in Colonial New England. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.

"Contents: Introduction: Puritanism, play, and American culture -- SECTION ONE: DID PURITANS LIKE FUN?: Sober mirth and pleasant poisons: historians, Puritan ambivalence, and the concept of pleasure in early New England -- SECTION TWO: INTELLECTUAL AND CULTURAL ENTERTAINMENT: Quiet times: reading for pleasure and profit -- Music and theater struggle for legitimacy -- SECTION THREE: GATHERING TOGETHER: Congregational socializing: gathering together at the meetinghouse -- Civic socializing: parties for the common good -- SECTION FOUR: MEN AND WOMEN FROLIC TOGETHER: Frolics for fun: dances, weddings, and dinner parties -- The progress of romance: sex and courtship -- Drinking and socializing: alcohol, taverns, and alehouse culture -- SECTION FIVE; SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS: Men frolic by themselves: sport and games in a male culture -- The fragmentation of social experience: age, gender, location, and social class -- SECTION SIX; PURITANS, REVOLUTIONARIES, AND AMERICANS: The Puritan legacy: the national inheritance."

Call Number: 790.1 Dan.

Deloria, Philip J. and Neal Salisbury, eds.A Companion to American Indian History. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.

Call Number: 970 Com

Demos, John P. The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. New York: Vintage, 1995.

Examines true accounts of British New England settlers taken captive by Native Americans.

Call Number: 973.2 Dem

Earle, Alice Morse. Home Life in Colonial Days. Stockbridge, MA: Berkshire House Publishers, 1993 (orig. 1898).

Detailed account of how American colonists lived, worked, ate, traveled, prayed and played, by a popular historian of the late 19th century.

Call Number: 973.2

Eisenberg, Bonnie. Women in Colonial and Revolutionary America: 1607-1790. Washington, DC: The Mid-Atlantic Equity Center, 1989.

Biographies of 10 women who lived between 1630-1800 within the borders of the 13 British colonies; includes European-American, African-American, and Indian women.

Call Number: 973.2'071 Eis pb

Fitzhugh, William W. and Elisabeth I. Ward. Vikings: the North Atlantic Saga. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press in Association with the National Museum of Natural History, 2000.

Articles gathered on the occasion of an exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 29, 2000-September 5, 2000.

Call Number: 970.01 Vik

Frost, Orcutt. Bering: The Russian Discovery of America.New Haven, Yale Univ. Press, 2003.

Vitus Jonassen Bering (1681-1741) led two expeditions that consumed most of his adult life-and eventually led to his death-he journeyed from St. Petersburg to Siberia and ultimately to the northwest coast of America. Along with the members of his expedition (thousands participated in the second expedition), Bering greatly expanded the Russian empire, pioneered the geography of the North Pacific Ocean, and laid the groundwork for Russian trade and settlement in the American West. Drawing on a wide range of new evidence-including personal letters and archaeological evidence derived from the recent discovery of Bering's grave site-the author reconstructs Bering's personality, his perilous voyages

Call Number: Not in Primary Source library

Hakim, Joy. Making Thirteen Colonies. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Presents the history of the United States from the colonization of the New World through the middle of the eighteenth century.

Call Number: 973.2 Hak pb

Hatfield, April Lee. Atlantic Virginia: Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century. Philadelphia: PENN/University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

"Through networks of trails and rivers inland and established ocean routes across the seas, seventeenth-century Virginians were connected to a vibrant Atlantic world. They routinely traded with adjacent Native Americans and received ships from England, the Netherlands, and other English and Dutch colonies, while maintaining less direct connections to Africa and to French and Spanish colonies. Their Atlantic world emerged from the movement of goods and services, but trade routes quickly became equally important in the transfer of people and information.

Much seventeenth-century historiography, however, still assumes that each North American colony operated as a largely self-contained entity and interacted with other colonies only indirectly, through London. By contrast, in Atlantic Virginia, historian April Lee Hatfield demonstrates that the colonies actually had vibrant interchange among themselves and with peoples throughout the hemisphere, as well as with Europeans."

Call Number: 975.5 Hat.

Kent, Noel. Hawaii: Islands under the Influence. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983.

An overview of the history of Hawaii from the early 1700s to about 1980, focusing on the most thoroughly "international" region of the United States. Provides an incisive look at severe depredations on native Hawaiian population, culture, and economic power, as well as the important role of Japanese, Filipino, and other international populations. Lively and absorbing reading.

Call Number: Not in Primary Source library

Kish, Jeanette M. Colonization: 1521-1763. Villa Maria PA: The Center for Learning, 2000.

Uses various documents from U. S. history as the basis for student analysis and interpretation, with activities to develop critical thinking skills.

Call Number: 973.2'071 Kis pb

Kupperman, Karen O. America in European Consciousness, 1493-1750. Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va. by the University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

Analyzes European writings about America in scholarly, artistic, religious, and popular cultural texts.

Call Number: 970 Ame

Landers, Jane. Black Society in Spanish Florida. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, c1999.

Contents: Precedents for Afro-Caribbean society in Florida -- The origins of a Florida sanctuary: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose -- Transitions -- Black entrepreneurs and property-holders -- Black religious life -- The lives of Black women -- Slaves and the slave trade -- Crime and punishment -- Black military service -- Racial geopolitics and the demise of Spanish Florida.

Call Number: 975.9 Lan

Lepore, Jill. The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity. New York: Knopf, 1998.

An extremely accessible history of the war from the Indian and settlers sides; references and includes many primary documents. This conflict, in 1670s New England, was the bloodiest American war in terms of civilian casualties relative to the poulation at the time. 973.24 Lep

Littlefield, Daniel C. Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Examines the African heritage of rice cultivation in colonial South Carolina. Littlefield discusses the choices rice planters made in securing workers from certain African regions; he also discusses the knowledge these Africans brought to the plantation economy. Littlefield argues that expertise in rice cultivation mostly came to South Carolina from Africa. Rice was grown by the Malagasy, the people of Madagascar, and by many peoples of Upper Guinea (a region encompassing the modern nations of Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia). South Carolina planters, in fact, paid the highest prices for workers from Senegambia (the environs of the Senegal and Gambia rivers), a major center of rice cultivation in Africa. Littlefield argues that, throughout the era of the slave trade, South Carolina merchants and planters showed an increasingly sophisticated knowledge of African regions and ethnic groups. He also asserts that not only African labor, but African expertise helped generate the wealth of the opulent Carolina Lowcountry.

Call Number: 975.7 Lit

Manning, Patrick, ed. Slave Trades, 1500-1800: Globalization of Forced Labour. Hampshire; Variorum, 1996.

Scholarly articles detailing the evolution of slavery in African, Islamic, European, and finally, New World, societies.

Call Number: 326 Man

McDougall, Walter A. Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004.

A history of the public attributes of the colonies and early nation--the ethnic and racial groups (including Native Americans), its states, religious denominations, political parties, wars and institutions. There's little social history here or the history of ideas and culture, little about subjects like women, gays, historical myths and memory. McDougall's particular strength is that he keeps individuals front and center: the work is alive with humans and their struggles and achievements.

Call Number: 973.2 McD

Nash, Gary B. Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Contents: Before Columbus -- Europeans reach North America -- Cultures meet on the Chesapeake -- Cultures meet in the Northeast -- Coastal societies: resistance, accommodation, and defeat -- Europe, Africa, and the New World -- The African ordeal under slavery -- The transformation of European society -- Wars for empire and Indian strategies for survival -- The Seven Years War and its aftermath -- The tri-colored American Revolution -- The mixing of peoples."

Call Number: 973.2 Nas pb

Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar. Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.

Perhaps the first extensive travel account of Europeans in North America, Cabeza de Vaca's diary chronicles the struggles of a small band of shipwrecked Spaniards making their way overland from Florida to Mexico in the 1520s.

Call Number: 970.01 DeV pb

Palmer, Colin A. The worlds of unfree labour: from indentured servitude to slavery. Aldershot; Brookfield, Vt: Ashgate, Variorum, c1998.

Comparative views on different forms of slavery and servitude in the New World in the early modern era.

Call Number: 306.3 Pal

Piersen, William Dillon. From Africa to America: African American History from the Colonial Era to the Early Republic, 1526-1790. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.

Offers an analysis of how the institution of indentured servitude evolved into chattel slavery when linked with racism. His chronicles of early slave insurrections and African American efforts on behalf of abolition are rarely available in more general histories of the period. As a vital prelude, Piersen provides a cogent description of the social and political structure of West African kingdoms in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Call Number: 973.0496 Pie pb

Royal Geographic Society. Oxford Atlas of Exploration. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

With an informative text, supported by 100 specially drawn maps and 300 photographs and illustrations, this book traces the journeys of the discoverers of our world, recording their achievements and their varied motives.

Call Number: REF 912 Atl

Salisbury, Neal. Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1643. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Call Number: 974.02 Sal pb

Sweet, David G. and Gary B. Nash, eds. Struggle and Survival in Colonial America. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press, 1981.

Stories of 23 little known inhabitants of Spanish, Portugese and English colonies of the New World between the 16th and the 19th centuries, dealing with the challenges of a harsh social environment.

Call Number: BC Str pb

Taylor, Alan. American Colonies. New York: Viking, 2001.

Challenges traditional Anglocentric interpretations of colonial history by focusing more evenly on the myriad influences on North America's development. Beginning with the Siberian migrations across the Bering Straits 15 millennia ago, Taylor lays out the complicated road map of ownership, occupation and competition involving the Native Americans, African slaves and Spanish, Dutch, French and English colonists. He covers settlement and conquest from Canada to Mexico, and from the West Indies and mainland colonies to the Pacific islands. "The colonial intermingling of peoples and of microbes, plants, and animals from different continents was unparalleled in speed and volume in global history," he writes. Taylor delves deeply into topics given scant mention in most histories: the crucial role of the West Indies in the 17th-century economy and the particular brand of brutality that supported it; cultural disparities among the many Native peoples that influenced their mutually dependent relations with the various colonizers.

Call Number: 973.2 Tay

Taylor, Dale. The writer's guide to everyday life in Colonial America. Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer's Digest Books, 1997.

A reference book of facts about life in Colonial America designed to give authentic background for writers. Includes information on events, regional characteristics, food, fashion, family life.

Call Number: 973.2 Tay

Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

A history of Spanish exploration and settlement from Ponce de Leon's landing in 1513 to the end of Spain's North American empire in 1821. Most of the book is devoted to Spain's political and military activities in North America. One chapter traces the social history of Spaniards in the New World while the last chapter explores history's verdict of Spain's treatment of colonists and Indians.

Call Number: 975.02 Web pb

Wyss, Hilary E. Writing Indians: Literacy, Christianity and Native Community in Early America.Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000.

Brings together captivity narratives, missionary tracts, diplomatic exchanges and other writings to illuminate the complex cultural interchange between Native Americans and Europeans.

Call Number: 810.9'897 Wys

Resources for Students

Art, Suzanne. Ancient Times: The Story of the First Americans. Lincoln, Mass.: Pemblewick Press

First of two volumes dealing with early history of Native Americans, for grades 5-8. Includes review questions and activities.

Call Number: 970.01 Art pb

Audience: MS

Egger-Bovert, Howard. USKids History Book of the American Colonies.Boston: Little, Brown

Discusses the reasons Europeans settled in America, the growth of the original colonies, and the reaction of the peoples already living in the "New World."

Call Number: j 973.2 Egg pb

Audience: MS

Emert, Phyllis R., ed.. Colonial Triangular Trade: An Economy Based on Human Misery.Carlisle, Mass.: Discovery Enterprises Ltd

Call Number: 326 Col pb

Audience: MS

Gray, Edward G. Colonial America: A History in Documents.New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Eight thematic chapters treat English and European expansion, the process of settlement, Native Americans and the colonists, indenture and slavery, family life, religion, the genteel classes, and common material goods and luxuries. Each chapter begins with concise introductory remarks that create a clear context for the lists, letters, drawings, maps, portraits, ads, diagrams, news stories, diary entries, poems, and other documentation that follow.

Call Number: Not in Primary Source library

Audience: MS/HS

Harrington, M.R. The Indians of New Jersey: Dickon Among the Lenapes. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers U.P., 1966.

An English boy journeys in search of his kidnapped Indian brother Little-Bear and learns the ways of the five Indian nations making up the Iroquois League.

Call Number: j FIC Har

Audience: MS

Haskins, James. Against All Opposition: Black Explorers in America. New York Walker & Co., 1992.

Surveys lives and adventures of black explorers who helped in discovering new worlds.

Call Number: BC Has

Audience: ES/MS

Haskins, James. Building a New Land: African Americans in Colonial America. New York: Amistad, 2001.

Discusses the changing roles, rights, and contributions of Afro-Americans in the United States during the colonial period from 1607 to 1763. Also includes a chronology of significant events

Call Number: Not in Primary Source library

Audience: ES/MS

Freedman, Russell. In the Days of the Vaqueros: America's First True Cowboys. New York: Clarion, 2001.

Freedman explores the often-overlooked role of the Central American cowherders who preceded by centuries the cowboys of popular lore and legend. With clear and engaging prose, he describes how the 1494 arrival of cattle and horses in Hispaniola led to a need for skilled and rugged horsemen able to control the eventually vast herds. While tracing the geographic spread of the vaqueros' work over time and the tasks and tools involved in the trade, he also weaves in some thought-provoking social history. Freedman notes that the vaquero lacked status in his own culture, and "remained for hundreds of years a poorly paid laborer." North American cowboys, who flourished for a far shorter time, as well as much later, enjoy the romanticized image that has never applied to vaqueros. The author characterizes the typical vaquero, rather than using individual examples, discussing the pride, skill, and courage required to succeed at the work.

Call Number: Not in Primary Source library

Audience: MS

January, Brendan. Science in Colonial America. New York: Franklin Watts, 1999.

Describes the scientific contributions made by people in colonial America, including medicine, astronomy, natural history and electricity.

Call Number: j 509.73 Jan pb

Audience: ES/MS

Kelley, Robin D.G., and Earl Lewis, eds. The Young Oxford History of African Americans.New York: Oxford Univeristy Press, 1995-1997.

An 11 volume series that introduces African-American history from the 15th through the 20th centuries.

Call Number: j 973.0496 Kel

Audience: MS/HS

Marrin, Albert. Empires Lost and Won: The Spanish Heritage in the Southwest. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1997.

Discusses the history of the southwestern region of the United States from the sixteenth century to the Mexican War, examining the interactions between the Spanish, Indians, and American pioneers.

Call Number: j 979 Mar

Audience: MS/HS

Stefoff, Rebecca. Colonial Life. New York: Benchmark Books, 2003.

Presents the history of the British colonies in North America, beginning with the Jamestown settlement, through excerpts from letters, pamphlets, journal entries, and other documents of the time.

Call Number: j 973.2 Ste

Audience: MS

Wood, Peter H. Strange New Land African Americans, 1617-1776. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996.

In very condensed form, Duke University historian Wood follows Africans, from those who traveled with the early Spanish explorers to those who fought in the early years of the American Revolution. He illuminates how differences among the colonies, between North and South America, and among European powers affected the Africans' experience, including their differing relations with the Native American population and the diversity of the Africans themselves. With deft strokes, Wood provides a political milieu and a broad international context, such as the effects of the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the Paris Treaty of 1762. As succinctly, he provides a vivid sense of African daily life-the acquisition of new languages, hairstyling, food, music, religion-and the effect that had on America.

Call Number: j 973.0496 Woo

Audience: MS/HS

Videos

Search for a Century. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, AV Dept.. Williamsburg, VA: The Foundation, 1980. 1 videocassette (59 min.): sd., col. ; 1/2 in.

Documents the archaeological dig for the lost 1618 settlement of Wolstenholme on the James River in Virginia.

Call Number: VID 975.5 Sea vhs

Audience: MS/HS

The Ancestors: Early Cultures of North America [500 Nations series]. RCS Video Production in association with Majestic Films and Television International; a Jack Leustig film.. Burbank, Calif.: Warner Home Video, 1994. 1 videocassette (49 min.): sd., col. ; 1/2 in..

The first of eight programs exploring the history and culture of North America. Computer animation shows how the Anasazi transformed the arid Southwest and constructed the 800-room Pueblo Bonito.

Call Number: VID 970 Fiv

Audience: HS/adult

The Terrible Transformation, 1450-1750 [Africans in America series, vol. 1]. Produced by PBS by WGBH Boston. Alexandria, VA Distributed by PBS Video, 1998. 1 videocassette (90 min.) sd., col. ; 1/2 in.

Call Number: VID 973.0496 Afr pt.1

Audience: HS/adult

Black Robe. Bruce Beresford, dir.  [Hollywood, CA] Samuel Goldwyn Home Entertainment, 1992. 1 videocassette (101 min.): sd., col.; 1/2 in. VHS.

In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. In French and Native American languages with subtitles.

Call Number: VID FIC Bla dvd

Audience: HS/adult

Primary Source Library

July 2005