America @250

Britain returned in overwhelming strength to New York during the summer of 1776. Washington’s army suffered defeat on Long Island and narrowly escaped destruction. The Americans retreated through Manhattan, across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. […]

“Independence was declared in words. It had to be sustained by sacrifice, endurance, alliance and war.” AN ARMY BEFORE A NATION After Lexington and Concord, thousands of New England militia surrounded British forces in Boston. […]

By early 1775, Massachusetts resistance had become organized and armed. Provincial leaders gathered military supplies at Concord; militia companies trained as minutemen. General Thomas Gage, the royal governor, received orders to enforce imperial authority and […]

In 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act. It allowed the financially troubled East India Company to sell tea directly in the colonies, making legal tea cheaper even with the remaining duty. British officials expected consumers […]

The Townshend duties of 1767 taxed imported glass, lead, paper, paint and tea. Colonists renewed boycotts, while customs enforcement intensified. British troops arrived in Boston in 1768. Their presence angered residents who viewed a standing […]

The Stamp Act Congress brought delegates from nine colonies to New York, where they declared that only colonial representatives could tax the colonists. Groups calling themselves Sons of Liberty organized protests, sometimes using intimidation and […]

From Protest to Rebellion, 1763-1775 “The Revolution began before independence-with an argument over power, consent and the rights of British subjects.” VICTORY CREATES A CRISIS Britain emerged from the French and Indian War in 1763 […]

The French and Indian War began in 1754 as a struggle over the Ohio Valley and became part of a global contest known as the Seven Years’ War. Britain and its colonies fought France and […]

In the 1730s and 1740s, the Great Awakening swept through the colonies. Itinerant preachers spoke to large outdoor crowds, stressing personal conversion over established hierarchy. The movement divided congregations but crossed colonial boundaries, encouraged new […]

Distance from Britain required colonists to manage much of their daily public life. Royal governors represented imperial authority, but elected assemblies controlled local taxation and spending in many colonies. County courts, town meetings, juries and […]

NEW ENGLAND Rocky soil and a short growing season encouraged small farms, fishing, shipbuilding, lumbering and maritime trade. Compact towns gathered around meetinghouses. Congregational traditions shaped Massachusetts and Connecticut, though Rhode Island became an important […]

From Settlements to a New Society, 1620-1763 “Separate colonies became neighboring societiesand slowly discovered what they shared.” THIRTEEN COLONIES, MANY BEGINNINGS The thirteen colonies did not begin as a single national project. They were established […]

Thirteen years after Jamestown, the Mayflower arrived in present-day Massachusetts. Its passengers included religious Separatists seeking the freedom to build a community according to their beliefs, as well as other migrants pursuing opportunity. Before going […]

In 1607, an English expedition established Jamestown in Virginia, the first enduring English settlement in what became the United States. The site offered defensive advantages but poor drinking water, disease and difficult farming conditions. Many […]

Europeans Arrive, New Worlds Collide “What one people called discovery, another experienced as arrival-and soon as upheaval.” AN OCEAN BECOMES A ROAD For thousands of years, the Atlantic Ocean separated societies that knew nothing of […]

Apersistent misconception holds that early Indigenous Americans lived only in small, scattered bands. Communities varied greatly, but some created substantial towns and regional centers. Cahokia, near the Mississippi River across from modern St. Louis, contained […]

There was no single Indigenous culture in North America. The continent contained hundreds of nations, languages, political traditions and ways of life. Arctic peoples developed extraordinary knowledge of ice, sea, weather and animal migration. Along […]

“America did not begin with independence. It began with people.” A CONTINENT BEFORE A COUNTRY Long before there was a United States, before the thirteen colonies, before the Mayflower, and before Europeans called these lands […]