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Read this at first. It is a children's version in simple English.

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Explorers for Kids: Christopher Columbus

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Kids learn about the biography and life of explorer Christopher Columbus. He discovered the Americas for Spain.

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This shows his life in more detail

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Here you can read about how the original (=ursprünglich) life in America was affected.

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Colonization ruptured many ecosystems, bringing in new organisms while eliminating others.

The Europeans brought many diseases with them that decimated Native American populations.

Colonists and Native Americans alike looked to new plants as possible medicinal resources.

Environmental changes

The European presence in America spurred countless changes in the environment, negatively affecting native animals as well as people. The popularity of beaver-trimmed hats in Europe, coupled with Native Americans' desire for European weapons, led to the overhunting of beavers in the Northeast. Soon, beavers were extinct in New England, New York, and other areas. With their loss came the loss of beaver ponds, which had served as habitats for fish as well as water sources for deer, moose, and other animals. Furthermore, Europeans introduced pigs, which they allowed to forage in forests and other wildlands. Pigs consumed the foods on which deer and other indigenous species depended, resulting in scarcity of the game native peoples had traditionally hunted.

European ideas about owning land as private property clashed with indigenous people's understanding of land use. Native Americans did not believe in private ownership of land; instead, they viewed land as a resource to be held in common for the benefit of the group. Colonizers erected fields, fences, and other means of demarcating private property. Indigenous people who moved seasonally to take advantage of natural resources now found areas off-limits, claimed by colonizers.

Introduction of disease

Perhaps the single greatest impact of European colonization on the North American environment was the introduction of disease. Microbes to which native inhabitants had no immunity caused sickness and death everywhere Europeans settled. Along the New England coast between 1616 and 1618, epidemics claimed the lives of 75 percent of the indigenous people. In the 1630s, half of the Huron and Iroquois people living near the Great Lakes died of smallpox. The very young and the very old were the most vulnerable and had the highest mortality rates. The loss of the older generation meant the loss of knowledge and tradition, while the deaths of children only compounded the trauma.

Some indigenous people perceived disease as a weapon used by hostile spiritual forces, and they went to war to exorcise the disease from their midst. These " mourning wars " in eastern North America were designed to gain captives who would either be adopted or ritually tortured and executed to assuage the anger and grief caused by loss.

New plants make new medicines

European expansion in the Americas led to an unprecedented movement of plants across the Atlantic. A prime example is tobacco, which became a valuable export as the habit of smoking took hold in Europe. Another example is sugar. Columbus brought sugarcane to the Caribbean on his second voyage from Spain in 1493, and thereafter a wide variety of other herbs, flowers, seeds, and roots.

Notably, Europeans traveled to America to discover new medicines. The task of cataloging the new plants found there led to the emergence of the science of botany. Early botanists included the English naturalist Sir Hans Sloane, who traveled to Jamaica in 1687 and there recorded hundreds of new plants.

Native Americans, who possessed a vast understanding of local New World plants and their properties, would have been a rich source of information for those European botanists seeking to find and catalog potentially useful plants. Enslaved Africans, who used medicinal plants in their native land, adapted to their new surroundings by learning the use of New World plants through experimentation and from the indigenous inhabitants. Native Americans and Africans employed their knowledge effectively within their own communities.

What do you think?

How did the environment of the Americas suffer from European contact? How did it benefit?

Did the markets in Europe influence the development of botany and agriculture in the New World? How so?

How did indigenous people and colonists exchange both knowledge and materials to make new medicines?

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Environmental and health effects of European contact with the New World (article) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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Here you can read about the effects on America and on Europe

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The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey

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Even though his name is often associated with the "discovery" of the Americas, Columbus was hardly the first person to set foot on the continents. Native Americans had lived throughout North and South America before Columbus arrived, and Norse explorers landed on Newfoundland at least 500 years before Columbus's first voyage. Even though he wasn't the first European to visit the Americas, however, Columbus's impact on the continents and on the area that would become the United States was incredible.

Sparking the Age of Exploration

Columbus didn't discover any uninhabited land, but he did spark a new age of exploration in Europe. After his reports, every European power sent explorers, and later colonists, to the new world. According to The History Channel, Columbus' early voyage lit the spark that led to an explosion of European colonization. Less than 300 years after his voyage, Europeans living in North America established the United States. The British Broadcasting Company notes that Columbus' unparalleled skills as a navigator allowed him to make the discovery before other European explorers could.

Genocide of Native Americans

Perhaps the ugliest black mark on the United States' historical record is the aggressive and often deliberate eradication of Native Americans. Columbus helped set the precedent for the genocidal campaigns that followed his voyages. According to The Daily Banter, Columbus began murdering indigenous people on his very first day in the so-called "new world." Author and historian Charles C. Mann argues that, in addition to ordering the deaths of disruptive native people, Columbus also helped to spread deadly diseases like smallpox and typhus throughout North America. When colonists of what would become the United States arrived, they followed Columbus's lead. The United States was built on land cleared of indigenous people by war and disease that were first initiated by Columbus.

Related Articles

The Slave Trade

Columbus also helped to establish the slave trade that would later dominate the southern United States. According to The History Channel, Columbus kidnapped and enslaved hundreds of indigenous people, forcing them to work on plantations and as servants. Later colonists and explorers followed his example. Slavery quickly spread from the island of Hispanola to South America, Mexico and the areas that would become the American South.

The Columbian Exchange

Possibly the single biggest effect of Columbus' voyages was the event researchers call "the Columbian Exchange." For millennia, the plants and animals of the Americans had been isolated from the rest of the world by massive oceans. Columbus and the explorers that followed him changed all that. They brought horses, chickens and other livestock to the Americans and returned to Europe with corn, potatoes, tomatoes and hundreds of other species. This biological exchange transformed the United States, according to Mann. Columbus and those who followed created a market for tobacco, for example, that later fueled the American economy. The importation of horses transformed Native American culture and allowed more rapid transportation across North America.

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How Did Christopher Columbus Affect the History of the United States?

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Even though his name is often associated with the "discovery" of the Americas, Columbus was hardly the first person to set foot on the continents. Native Americans had lived throughout North and South America before Columbus arrived, and Norse explorers landed on Newfoundland at least 500 years before Columbus's first voyage.

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The English arrive at Jamestown.
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On December 6, 1606, the journey to Virginia began on three ships: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America.

The site for Jamestown was picked for several reasons, all of which met criteria the Virginia Company, who funded the settlement, said to follow in picking a spot for the settlement. The site was surrounded by water on three sides (it was not fully an island yet) and was far inland; both meant it was easily defensible against possible Spanish attacks. The water was also deep enough that the English could tie their ships at the shoreline - good parking! The site was also not inhabited by the Native population.

Once the spot was chosen the instructions sent by the Virginia Company, with the list of the council members (chosen by officials in England), was read. The names were kept in a sealed box on the ship (each ship had a sealed copy). The first President of the new Virginia colony was to be Edward Maria Winfield. The other six council members were: Bartholomew Gosnold, Christopher Newport, John Martin, John Ratcliffe, George Kendall, and John Smith.

By June 15, the fort was completed. It was triangle shaped with a bulwark at each corner, holding four or five pieces of artillery. The settlers were now protected against any attacks that might occur from the local Powhatan Indians, whose hunting land they were living on. Relations had already been mixed between the newcomers and the Powhatan Indians. On June 22, Captain Newport left for England to get more supplies for the new settlement.

Not long after Captain Newport left, the settlers began to succumb to a variety of diseases. They were drinking water from the salty or slimy river, which was one of several things that caused the death of many. The death tolls were high. They were dying from swellings, fluxes, fevers, by famine, and sometimes by wars. Food was running low, though then Chief Powhatan starting to send gifts of food to help the English. If not for the Powhatan Indians help in the early years, the settlement would most likely have failed, as the English would have died from the various diseases or simply starved.

By late 1609, the relationship between the Powhatan Indians and the English had soured as the English were demanding too much food during a drought. That winter of 1609-10 is known as the "Starving Time." During that winter the English were afraid to leave the fort, due to a legitimate fear of being killed by the Powhatan Indians. As a result they ate anything they could: various animals, leather from their shoes and belts, and sometimes fellow settlers who had already died. By early 1610 most of the settlers, 80-90% according to William Strachey, had died due to starvation and disease.

In May 1610, shipwrecked settlers who had been stranded in Bermuda finally arrived at Jamestown. Part of a fleet sent the previous fall, the survivors used two boats built on Bermuda to get to Jamestown. Sir Thomas Gates, the newly named governor, found Jamestown in shambles with the palisades of the fort torn down, gates off their hinges, and food stores running low. The decision was made to abandon the settlement. Less than a day after leaving, however, Gates and those with him, including the survivors of the "Starving Time," were met by news of an incoming fleet. The fleet was bringing the new governor for life, Lord Delaware. Gates and his party returned to Jamestown.

Harvesting Tobacco.
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In 1612, John Rolfe, one of many shipwrecked on Bermuda, helped turn the settlement into a profitable venture. He introduced a new strain of tobacco from seeds he brought from elsewhere. Tobacco became the long awaited cash crop for the Virginia Company, who wanted to make money off their investment in Jamestown.

On July 30, 1619, newly appointed Governor Yeardley called for the first representative legislative assembly. This was the beginning of representative government in what is now the United States of America.

In that same year, the first documented Africans were forcibly captured and brought to Virginia to work the tobacco fields. It is contested whether, at the time, these people were considered indentured servants or enslaved peoples however, historical evidence suggests they were often treated in a manner that more closely resembles enslavement as we understand it today.

Also in 1619, the Virginia Company recruited and shipped over about 90 women to become wives and start families in Virginia, something needed to establish a permanent colony. Over one hundred women, who brought or started families, had arrived in prior years, but 1619 was when establishing families became a primary focus.

Peace between the Powhatan Indians and the English, brought about by the conversion and marriage of Pocahontas (kidnapped by the English in 1613) and John Rolfe in 1614, ended in 1622. In March of that year the paramount chief, then Opechancanough, planned a coordinated attack against the English settlements. He was tired of the English encroachment on Powhatan lands. Jamestown escaped being attacked, due to a warning from a Powhatan boy living with the English. During the attack 350-400 of the 1,200 settlers were killed. After the attack, the Powhatan Indians withdrew, as was their way, and waited for the English to learn their lesson or pack up and leave. Once the English regrouped they retaliated and there was fighting between the two peoples for ten years, until a tenuous peace was reached in 1632.

On May 24, 1624, the Virginia Company's charter was revoked by King James I due to overwhelming financial problems and politics, and Virginia became a royal colony, which it remained until the Revolutionary War. This shift in control did not change the English policy towards the Powhatan Indians. Despite peace being declared in 1632, English encroachments on Powhatan lands continued undiminished as more settlers arrived in the Colony.

In April 1644, Opechancanough planned another coordinated attack, which resulted in the deaths of another 350-400 of the 8,000 settlers. The attack ended when Opechancanough was captured in 1646, taken to Jamestown, and shot in the back by a guard - against orders - and killed. His death brought an eventual death to the Powhatan Chiefdom; it was reduced to tributary status. His successor signed the first treaties with the English, which made the Powhatan Indians subjects of the English.

Bacon's Rebellion.
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Bacon's Rebellion, in 1676, saw more struggles in Jamestown. The settlers were unhappy about their tobacco being sold only to English merchants due to the Navigation Acts, high taxes, and attacks on outlying plantations by American Indians on the frontiers. Nathaniel Bacon got about 1,000 settlers to join him and take care of the "Indian Problem." Bacon forced Governor Berkeley to give him an official commission to attack the American Indians to blame. Bacon and his followers, however, did not differentiate between those tribes responsible for the attacks and those who were loyal to the English. Governor Berkeley declared Bacon a rebel and civil war erupted in the colony. In September, Bacon and his followers set fire to Jamestown, destroying 16 to 18 houses, the church and the statehouse. Not long after, in October, the Rebellion began its end with the death of Nathaniel Bacon of the "bloody flux." Eventually, many of the rebels were captured and 23 were hanged by Governor Berkeley.

As a result of Bacon's Rebellion, another treaty was signed between the English and the Virginia Indians. More tribes were part of this treaty than the one of 1646. The treaty set up more reservation lands and reinforced a yearly tribute payment of fish and game that the tribes had to make to the English.

In 1698, fire struck Jamestown again. The fire was evidently started by a prisoner awaiting execution in the nearby prison. The fire destroyed the prison and the statehouse, though many of the public records were saved. In 1699, the government and capital were moved from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, renamed Williamsburg. People continued to live on Jamestown Island and owned farm lands, but it ceased to be a town.

Today, Jamestown Island is a historic site, though there is still a private residence on the island. It is preserved by the National Park Service and Preservation Virginia for visitors to learn about the importance of Jamestown and what was born out of its being the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Bibliography

Egloff, Keith and Deborah Woodward. First People: The Early Indians of Virginia. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1992.

Haile, Edward Wright (editor). Jamestown Narratives: Eyewitness Accounts of the Virginia Colony: The First Decade: 1607-1617. Chaplain: Roundhouse, 1998.

McCartney, Martha W. Jamestown: An American Legacy. Hong Kong: Eastern National, 2001.

Price, David A. Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 2003.

Kelso, William M. and Beverly Straube. Jamestown Rediscovery 1994-2004. Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 2004.

Wood, Karenne (editor). Charlottesville: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2007.

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A Short History of Jamestown - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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On December 6, 1606, the journey to Virginia began on three ships: the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I.

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Most people are familiar with the story of Pocahontas - the Native American princess who fell in love with Englishman John Smith during the height of conflict between the English settlers and the indigenous people of the Americas. In 1995, Disney released an artistically beautiful animated film showing the supposed events that unfolded between John Smith and Pocahontas. Although Disney is known for creating fictional tales, many people believed that Disney's account of the life of Pocahontas was a true reflection of past events: the love between Pocahontas and John Smith, the bravery Pocahontas showed when saving John Smith's life, and the tragic ending when John Smith returned to England for medical treatment. However, this depiction is a far departure from the actual events that occurred, and from the real life of Pocahontas.

It is believed that Pocahontas was born around 1595 to a Powhatan chief. Her given name at birth was Matoaka, although she was sometimes called Amonute. "Pocahontas" was a derogatory nickname meaning "spoiled child" or "naughty one." Matoaka's tribe was a part of a group of about thirty Algonquian-speaking tribes located in Tidewater, Virginia.

During Matoaka's childhood, the English had arrived in the 'New World' and clashes between the colonizers and the Native Americans were commonplace. In 1607, John Smith, an Admiral of New England and an English soldier and explorer, arrived in Virginia by ship, with a group of about 100 other settlers. One day, while exploring the Chickahominy River, John Smith was captured by one of Powhatan's hunting parties. He was brought to Powhatan's home at Werowocomoco. The accounts of what happened next vary from source to source. In John Smith's original writing, he told of having a large feast, after which he sat and spoke with Chief Powhatan. In a letter written to Queen Anne, John Smith told the story of Matoaka throwing herself across his body to protect him from execution at the hands of Powhatan. It is believed that John Smith was a pretentious man who told this lie to gain notoriety. In the Disney version, Matoaka/Pocahontas is depicted as a young woman when she saved John Smith, but by his accounts, she was only a 10-year-old child when these events occurred, and therefore highly unlikely that there was any romance between them.

Matoaka often visited the settlement at Jamestown to help the settlers during times when food was in short supply. On 13 th April, 1613 AD, during one of these visits, Samuel Argall captured Matoaka to ransom her for some English prisoners held by her father. She was held hostage at Jamestown for over a year. During her captivity, tobacco planter John Rolfe took a 'special interest' in the attractive young prisoner, and he eventually conditioned her release upon her agreeing to marry him. Matoaka was baptized 'Rebecca' and in 1614, she was married John Rolfe - the first recorded marriage between a European and a Native American.

Two years later, John Rolfe took Matoaka to England to use her in a propaganda campaign to support the colony of Virginia, propping her up as the symbol of hope for peace and good relations between the English and the Native Americans. 'Rebecca' was seen an example of a civilized 'savage' and Rolfe was praised for his accomplishment in bringing Christianity to the 'heathen tribes'.

While in England, Matoaka ran into John Smith. She refused to speak with him, turning her head and fleeing from his presence - a far cry from the undying love between the two as portrayed in the Disney movie. In 1617, the Rolfe family boarded a ship to return to Virginia. However, Matoaka would not complete this journey home. She became gravely ill - theories range from smallpox, pneumonia, or tuberculosis, to her having been poisoned - and she was taken off the ship at Gravesend where she died on March 21, 1617. It is believed she was 21 years old when she died. Sadly, there were no fairy tale endings for Matoaka.

The real story of 'Pocahontas' would make a greater movie than the one produced by Disney, as her tragic life
Sources:
Pocahontas - Biography. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/pocahontas-9443116#synopsis.

The Pocahontas Myth - Powhatan.org. Available from: http://www.powhatan.org/pocc.html.

The Real Story Of Pocahontas Is Much Darker Than The Disney Movie - Business Insider. Available from: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-real-story-of-pocahontas-2014-4.

Pocahontas - Wikipedia. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas.

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The True Story of Pocahontas as NOT told by Disney

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Most people are familiar with the story of Pocahontas - the Native American princess who fell in love with Englishman John Smith during the height of conflict between the English settlers and the indigenous people of the Americas. In 1995, Disney released an artistically beautiful animated film showing the supposed events that unfolded between John Smith and Pocahontas.

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Easy start: A video about the Pilgrims and their voyage

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Easy start: A video about the Pilgrims and their voyage

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Pilgrims for Kids | History of Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving

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Kids learn about the history of the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony of Colonial America including the Mayflower voyage, establishing a Puritan settlement, their leaders, Squanto, the Native Americans, and Thanksgiving.

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The people we know as Pilgrims have become so surrounded by legend that we are tempted to forget that they were real people. Against great odds, they made the famous 1620 voyage aboard the ship Mayflower and founded Plymouth Colony, but they were also ordinary English men and women. To understand them, it is important that we look beyond the legend. This story will help you get to know these people, now known as the Pilgrims, through their first years in New England.

England was a Roman Catholic nation until 1534, when King Henry VIII (reigned 1509-1547) declared himself head of a new national church called the Church of England. Although he and his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603), changed some things that made the Church of England different from the Roman Catholic Church, a few people felt that the new Church retained too many practices of the Roman Church. They called for a return to a simpler faith and less structured forms of worship. In short, they wanted to return to worshipping in the way the early Christians had. Because these people wanted to purify the church, they came to be known as "Puritans." Another group, considered very radical, went even further. They thought the new Church of England was beyond reform. Called "Separatists," they demanded the formation of new, separate church congregations. This opinion was very dangerous; in England in the 1600s, it was illegal to be part of any church other than the Church of England.

The Separatist church congregation that established Plymouth Colony in New England was originally centered around the town of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, England. Members included the young William Bradford and William Brewster. Like others who refused to follow the Church of England's teachings, some of them were harassed, fined or even sent to jail. When they felt they could no longer suffer these difficulties in England, they chose to flee to the Dutch Netherlands. There, they could practice their own religion without fear of persecution from the English government or its church.

The Pilgrims in Holland (the Netherlands)

Although they had religious freedom, life in the Netherlands was not easy. The Separatists had to leave their homeland and friends to live in a foreign country without a clear idea of how they would support themselves. The congregation stayed briefly in Amsterdam and then moved to the city of Leiden. There they remained for the next 11 or 12 years. Most found work in the cloth trades, while others were carpenters, tailors and printers. Their lives required hard work. Even young children had to work. Some older children were tempted by the Dutch culture and left their families to become soldiers and sailors. Their parents feared that they would lose their identity as English people. To make matters worse, the congregation worried that another war might break out between the Dutch and Spanish. They decided to move again.

The Move to America

After careful thought, the congregation decided to leave Holland to establish a farming village in the northern part of the Virginia Colony. At that time, Virginia extended from Jamestown in the south to the mouth of the Hudson River in the north, so the Pilgrims planned to settle near present-day New York City. There they hoped to live under the English government, but they would worship in their own, separate church. Because their own money wasn't enough to establish their village, they entered into an agreement with financial investors. The company of investors would provide passage for the colonists and supply them with tools, clothing and other supplies. The colonists in turn would work for the company, sending natural resources such as fish, timber and furs back to England. All assets, including the land and the Pilgrims' houses, would belong to the company until the end of seven years when all of it would be divided among each of the investors and colonists. The colonists and investors had many disagreements, but eventually the Pilgrims were able to leave Europe for America.

The entire congregation could not come to America together. Those who could settle their affairs in Leiden went first while the greater number, including their pastor John Robinson, remained behind. The congregation purchased a small ship, Speedwell, to transport them across the sea and to use for fishing and trading in America. At Southampton, a port in England, they were joined by a group of English colonists who had been gathered by the investors. Speedwell and Mayflower - a ship rented by the investors - departed for America together. After twice turning back to England because Speedwell leaked, they were forced to leave the ship. As a result, many families were divided when some passengers had to be turned back for lack of space. A month after first leaving England, on September 6, 1620, Mayflower set out alone with 102 passengers.

Arrival at Plymouth

Mayflower arrived in New England on November 11, 1620 after a voyage of 66 days. Although the Pilgrims had originally intended to settle near the Hudson River in New York, dangerous shoals and poor winds forced the ship to seek shelter at Cape Cod. Because it was so late in the year and travel around Cape Cod was proving difficult, the passengers decided not to sail further and to remain in New England. It was here, in Cape Cod Bay, that most of the adult men on the ship signed the document that we know as the Mayflower Compact. It laid the foundation for the community's government.

A party of the most able men began exploring the area to find a suitable place to settle. After several weeks, the exploring party arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned Wampanoag community. The plentiful water supply, good harbor, cleared fields, and location on a hill made the area a favorable place for settlement.

Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Harbor on December 16, 1620 and the colonists began building their town. While houses were being built, the group continued to live on the ship. Many of the colonists fell ill. They were probably suffering from scurvy and pneumonia caused by a lack of shelter in the cold, wet weather. Although the Pilgrims were not starving, their sea-diet was very high in salt, which weakened their bodies on the long journey and during that first winter. As many as two or three people died each day during their first two months on land. Only 52 people survived the first year in Plymouth. When Mayflower left Plymouth on April 5, 1621, she was sailed back to England by only half of her crew.

Building a Town & Relationships with Native People

Although they occasionally caught glimpses of Native People, it wasn't until four months after their arrival that the colonists met and communicated with them. In March 1621, they made a treaty of mutual protection with the Pokanoket Wampanoag leader, Ousamequin (also known as Massasoit to the Pilgrims). The treaty had six points. Neither party would harm the other. If anything was stolen, it would be returned and the offending person returned to his own people for punishment. Both sides agreed to leave their weapons behind when meeting, and the two groups would serve as allies in times of war. Squanto, a Wampanoag man who had been taken captive by English sailors and lived for a time in London, came to live with the colonists and instructed them in growing Indian corn.

In the fall of 1621, the colonists marked their first harvest with a three-day celebration. Massasoit and 90 of his men joined the English for feasting and entertainment. In the 1800s this famous celebration became the basis for the story of the First Thanksgiving.

Over the next six years, more English colonists arrived and many of the people who had to stay behind in England or Holland when Mayflower left England were able to join their families. By 1627, Plymouth Colony was stable and comfortable. Harvests were good and families were growing. In 1627, about 160 people lived in Plymouth Colony.

Why "Pilgrims"?

A pilgrim is a person who goes on a long journey often with a religious or moral purpose, and especially to a foreign land. After the Mayflower arrived, the first baby born was a boy. His parents (William and Susannah White) named him Peregrine - a word which means travelling from far away and also means pilgrim. The writer of Mourt's Relation in 1622 refers to the Plymouth Colonists as pilgrims. Governor William Bradford calls the Plymouth settlers pilgrims when he writes about their departure from Leiden, Holland to come to America: "They knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lifted up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country; and quieted their spirits." Governor Bradford also wrote a poem in which he refers to himself as a pilgrim.

'Pilgrim' became (by the early 1800s at least) the popular term applied to all the Mayflower passengers - and even to other people arriving in Plymouth in those early years - so that the English people who settled Plymouth in the 1620s are generally called the Pilgrims.

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The people we know as Pilgrims have become so surrounded by legend that we are tempted to forget that they were real people. Against great odds, they made the famous 1620 voyage aboard the ship Mayflower and founded Plymouth Colony, but they were also ordinary English men and women.

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Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists ( Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people. The American holiday is particularly rich in legend and symbolism, and the traditional fare of the Thanksgiving meal typically includes turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. With respect to vehicular travel, the holiday is often the busiest of the year, as family members gather with one another.

Plymouth's Thanksgiving began with a few colonists going out "fowling," possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they "in one day killed as much as...served the company almost a week." Next, 90 or so Wampanoag made a surprise appearance at the settlement's gate, doubtlessly unnerving the 50 or so colonists. Nevertheless, over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident. The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to speak in broken English and Wampanoag. This was a rather disorderly affair, but it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip's War (1675-76), in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Native Americans lost their lives.

The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "Thanksgivings," days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought. The U.S. Continental Congress proclaimed a national Thanksgiving upon the enactment of the Constitution, for example. Yet, after 1798, the new U.S. Congress left Thanksgiving declarations to the states; some objected to the national government's involvement in a religious observance, Southerners were slow to adopt a New England custom, and others took offense over the day's being used to hold partisan speeches and parades. A national Thanksgiving Day seemed more like a lightning rod for controversy than a unifying force.

Thanksgiving Day did not become an official holiday until Northerners dominated the federal government. While sectional tensions prevailed in the mid-19th century, the editor of the popular magazine Godey's Lady's Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, campaigned for a national Thanksgiving Day to promote unity. She finally won the support of President Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, during the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26.

The holiday was annually proclaimed by every president thereafter, and the date chosen, with few exceptions, was the last Thursday in November. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, however, attempted to extend the Christmas shopping season, which generally begins with the Thanksgiving holiday, and to boost the economy by moving the date back a week, to the third week in November. But not all states complied, and, after a joint resolution of Congress in 1941, Roosevelt issued a proclamation in 1942 designating the fourth Thursday in November (which is not always the last Thursday) as Thanksgiving Day.

As the country became more urban and family members began to live farther apart, Thanksgiving became a time to gather together. The holiday moved away from its religious roots to allow immigrants of every background to participate in a common tradition. Thanksgiving Day football games, beginning with Yale versus Princeton in 1876, enabled fans to add some rowdiness to the holiday. In the late 1800s parades of costumed revelers became common. In 1920 Gimbel's department store in Philadelphia staged a parade of about 50 people with Santa Claus at the rear of the procession. Since 1924 the annual Macy's parade in New York City has continued the tradition, with huge balloons since 1927. The holiday associated with Pilgrims and Native Americans has come to symbolize intercultural peace, America's opportunity for newcomers, and the sanctity of home and family.

Days of thanksgiving in Canada also originated in the colonial period, arising from the same European traditions, in gratitude for safe journeys, peace, and bountiful harvests. The earliest celebration was held in 1578, when an expedition led by Martin Frobisher held a ceremony in present-day Nunavut to give thanks for the safety of its fleet. In 1879 Parliament established a national Thanksgiving Day on November 6; the date has varied over the years. Since 1957 Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October.

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Thanksgiving Day | Meaning, History, & Facts

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Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the European colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people.

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Read this if you do not use material provided here.

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Read this first to get rough idea

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this is the best text I could find, written in easy English but full if information.

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From VOA Learning English, this is The Making of a Nation - American history in Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

This week in our series, we finish the story of the first thirteen American colonies. We'll tell about how the southern colonies developed.

Among the southern colonies, the northernmost was Maryland. The king of England, Charles the First, gave the land between Virginia and Pennsylvania to George Calvert in sixteen thirty-two. George Calvert was also known as Lord Baltimore. He wanted to start a colony with greater religious freedoms than existed in England. Calvert was Roman Catholic. Catholics could not openly observe their religion in England. They also had to pay money to the government because they did not belong to the Anglican Church, the Church of England.

George Calvert never saw the colony that was named Maryland. He died soon after he received the documents giving him the land. The land went to his son Cecil Calvert, who became the next Lord Baltimore. He had the power to collect taxes, fight wars, make laws and create courts in Maryland. Cecil named his brother Leonard as the colony's first governor.

Cecil Calvert believed that English Catholics could live in peace in Maryland alongside Protestants. So he urged Catholics in England to move there. To get more settlers, he allowed people to own farms and gave them some power in local politics. Some Catholics did go to Maryland, but not as many as he hoped. Protestants were in the majority. In sixteen forty-nine, Lord Baltimore accepted a Toleration Act passed by the local government. It guaranteed freedom of religion, but only for Christians.

King Charles the Second gave away more land in America in sixteen sixty-three. He gave eight English lords the territory known as Carolina. It extended south from Virginia into Florida, an area controlled by Spain. Spain also claimed the southern part of Carolina.

Spanish, French and English settlers had tried earlier to populate the area. The eight new owners promised forty hectares of land to anyone who would go to Carolina to live. They also promised religious freedom. The first successful Carolina settlers left England in sixteen seventy. They built a town in an area where two rivers met. They called it Charles Town, for King Charles. Spanish ships attacked the port city many times, but the settlers defended their land.

The settlers planted all kinds of crops to see what would grow best. They found that rice was just right for the hot, humid conditions. Also, their cattle and pigs did so well that the Carolina settlers started selling meat to the West Indies. Many of Charles Town's settlers came from Barbados, a port used in the West Indies slave trade. The settlers began buying black slaves to help grow the rice. By seventeen eight, more blacks than whites lived in the southern part of Carolina. The success of the farming economy depended on slave labor.

The northern part of the Carolina colony grew much more slowly than the southern part. Many settlers in the northern part were from neighboring Virginia. Some had left Virginia because people who disagreed with the Anglican Church were not welcome there.

Historians say the area that became North Carolina may have been the most democratic of all the colonies. The people generally did not interfere in each other's lives. Together, they faced a common enemy: the pirates who made the North Carolina coast their home base.

In sixteen seventy-seven, some of the people in the northern part of the Carolina territory rebelled against England. They did not like England's Navigation Acts. These laws forced people in Carolina to pay taxes to England on goods sold to other colonies. Some northern Carolina settlers refused to pay this tax. These independent thinkers even set up their own government and tried to break free of England. But the English soldiers in the colonies stopped the rebellion by arresting its leader.

There were growing differences between the people of northern Carolina and southern Carolina. Finally the owners of the colony divided it in seventeen twelve, forming what would become the states of North Carolina and South Carolina.

The last English colony founded in the New World was Georgia. It was established in seventeen thirty-two, under King George the Second. Georgia was the idea of a man named James Oglethorpe. He wanted to solve a problem in England involving a growing number of people who could not repay their debts. At that time, debtors were put in prison. This made it impossible for them to earn the money they needed to get out of debt.

Oglethorpe wanted to create a colony where debtors could go instead of going to prison. He wanted it to be a place where people could have good lives while they worked to earn money. But not many debtors wanted to go to Georgia.

The people who did settle there were much like the people in the other colonies. They did not agree with all of Oglethorpe's ideas. They wanted to do things he did not believe were right, like drinking alcohol and owning slaves. In the end the settlers won. They rejected Oglethorpe's ideas about how they should live.

Life was not easy in Georgia. Spaniards and pirates captured ships along the coast. Spain controlled Florida and also claimed Georgia and the Carolinas. Border fights were common. Oglethorpe lost all his money trying to establish Georgia. King George took control of the colony in seventeen fifty-two.

As new colonies were being established nearby, the colony of Virginia was growing. A way of life was developing there that was very different from that of the North. Most people in Virginia at this time were members of the Church of England. Religion was not as important a part of their lives as it was to the people in the North. In the New England colonies, members of the clergy were considered the most important. In the southern colonies, rich land owners were the more important.

People in Virginia did not live in towns, as people did in Massachusetts. They lived along rivers on small farms or on large farms called plantations. Being located on a river made it easy to export goods by ship. Virginians were sending large amounts of tobacco to England. It was the crop that earned them the most money.

But growing tobacco breaks down the soil. After a few years, nothing grew well on land that was planted with tobacco. The farmers had to stop planting anything on the land every few years. That meant they needed a lot of land. They also needed a large work force. So tobacco farmers in Virginia began to buy land -- and workers.

At first, they bought the services of indentured servants, poor people who had no money or jobs. These indentured servants agreed to work for a farmer for a period of four to seven years. After that they were free to work for themselves.

In sixteen nineteen, a Dutch ship brought a group of Africans to Jamestown. They had been kidnapped from their homes by African traders and sold to the ship's captain. He sold them to the Virginia settlers. These first Africans may have been treated like indentured servants. Later, however, colonists decided to keep them as slaves so they would not have to continue paying for workers. Slowly, laws were approved in Virginia that made it legal to keep black people as slaves. By seventeen fifty, there were more Africans in Virginia than any other group.

Indians did not make good slaves because they could run away. The slaves from Africa could not. They had no place to go.

Slavery in the South affected the course of American history. It divided the people and led to a civil war that nearly tore the nation apart. Slavery in the South will be our story next week.

You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for The Making of a Nation - American history in VOA Special English.

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America's Southern Colonies Expand - Program No. 7

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From VOA Learning English, this is The Making of a Nation - American history in Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week in our series, we finish the story of the first thirteen American colonies. We'll tell about how the southern colonies developed. Among the southern colonies, the northernmost was Maryland.

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This is full of details. Read it only after the overview. Choose the most important aspects only.

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The Southern Colonies: The Establishment and Settlement of the 13 original colonies

Map of Southern Colonies
This Map shows the five Southern Colonies of Colonial America composed of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies provides important information and interesting facts about each of the 13 Colonies including the date the colony was established, the region (New England, Middle or Southern) the systems of Colonial government, religion, details of trade and economic activity and the names of famous people associated with the founding and establishment each colony.

For additional facts and info refer to Colonial Society . The Southern Colonies provides the ability to see at a glance the differences between the regions on a chart.

Southern Colonies Chart

Date Name of Colony
or Settlement Region Government Religion Major Towns Famous
People

1607

Virginia Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Jamestown, Williamsburg and Richmond

John Smith

1633

Maryland Colony

Southern

Proprietary

Anglicans and Baptists

Baltimore and Annapolis

George Calvert

1653

North Carolina Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Brunswick Town and Raleigh

Lords Proprietors

Charter of Carolina

1663

South Carolina Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Charleston and Sumter

1732

Georgia Colony

Southern

Royal

Anglican
and Baptist

Savannah, Hardwicke and Wrightsboro

James Oglethorpe

Southern Colonies Chart

1620

Plymouth Settlement
(De-established 1691)

Southern

Royal Charter

Puritan, Anglican
and Baptist

Jamestown

William Bradford

Information and Facts about the Southern Colonies
Information and facts about the the Southern Colonies of Colonial America:

Fact 1 - Geography: The geography of the Southern Colonies featured fertile soil, hilly coastal plains, forests, long rivers and swamp areas

Fact 2 - Natural Resources: Fish, forests (timber) and good agricultural land, farming was important. Exported agricultural products to other colonies

Fact 3 - Religion: Not dominated by a specific religion which gave way to religious freedom for Baptists, Anglicans and others. Refer to Religion in the Colonies

Fact 4 - Climate: Warmest of the three regions, winters not difficult to survive, but the hot and humid summers gave rise to the spread of disease. The warm climate made it possible to grow crops throughout the year and was ideally suited for plantations

Fact 5 - Trade / Exports: Tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo (dye), lumber, furs, farm products - refer to Colonial Times

There were considerable differences between the New England, Middle and Southern regions. Economic activities and trade were dependant of the environment in which the Colonists lived refer to Southern Colonies Colonies - Economic Activity & Trade
Triangular Trade. The geography and climate impacted the trade and economic activities of Southern Colonies. The Southern Colonies concentrated on agriculture and developed the plantations exporting tobacco, cotton, corn, vegetables, grain, fruit and livestock. The Southern Colonies had the largest slave population who worked on the Slave Plantations. Plantations grew cotton, tobacco, indigo (a purple dye), and other crops. Some of the Southern plantations were massive and consisted of the main house, slave quarters, a dairy, blacksmith's shop, laundry, smokehouse and barns which made the plantations to large degree, self-sufficient. Crops were traded for items that could not be produced on the plantations including farm tools, shoes, lace, and dishes.

Southern Colonies Government
All of the systems of government in the Southern Colonies elected their own legislature, they were all democratic, they all had a governor, governor's court, and a court system. The systems of Government in the Southern Colonies were either Royal or Proprietary. Definitions of both of the government systems are as follows:

Royal Government: The Royal Colonies were ruled directly by the English monarchy

Propriety Government: The King granted land to people in North America, who then formed Proprietary Colonies.

For additional facts and information refer to Colonial Government.

Southern Colonies Religion
The Southern Colonies were not dominated by a single religion which gave way to more liberal attitudes and some religious freedom. There were predominantly Anglicans and Baptists in the Southern region and Colonies. For additional facts and information about religion refer to Religion in the Colonies .

Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies article provides important information and interesting facts at a glance about the Southern Colonies including the date the colonies were established, the systems of government, religions, details of trade and the economic activities in the Southern Colonies. The names of important people associated with the founding and establishment of the Southern Colonies. A helpful, illustrated educational resource for teachers, kids and children.

Colonial America Time Period Southern Colonies Timeline
Discover interesting information and facts about the history of the Southern. For a more comprehensive history timeline detailing specific events relating to all of the 13 Colonies refer to . This Southern Colonies Timeline provides a list detailing key events and dates of this amazing period in Colonial history. The five Southern Colonies of Colonial America composed of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. A comprehensive list of the key events which are important to the Southern Colonies Timeline.

Southern Colonies Timeline

Southern Colonies Timeline

Maryland was settled. King Charles I gave land to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore to create a haven for Catholics in America.

1651
1651 1660 1663 The Navigation Acts. The colonies represent a lucrative source of wealth and trade. Navigation Acts regulate colonial trade and enable England to collect duties (taxes)

1675-l676 Bacon's Rebellion. Bacon's Rebellion was an uprising in 1676 - 1677 against American Indians and the colonial government in the Virginia Colony and Bacon's Declaration of the People

King James II appoints Sir Edmund Andros to serve as Captain General and Governor in Chief of New England. Sir Edmund Andros causes dissension with the colonists as he does not have to answer to any elected assembly

1711

1711-1713: The Tuscarora War in Northern Carolina. The Tuscarora tribe was defeated by James Moore and Yamasee warriors

17 58

The Anglo-Cherokee War (1758-1761) - The Cherokee uprising in present-day Tennessee, Virginia and the Carolinas.

1765 The Stamp Act of 1765

Colonies Timeline

Southern Colonies Timeline - 1607 to 1696

Southern Colonies
The Southern Colonies provides important information and interesting facts at a glance about each of the 13 Colonies including the date the colony was established, the regions (New England, Middle or Southern Colonies) the systems of government, religions, details of trade and economic activities and the names of important people associated with the founding and establishment of the 13 Colonies. The 13 Colonies Chart provides the ability to see the differences between the regions quickly and is a useful educational resource for kids and children

Southern Colonies

Interesting Facts and information via the Southern Colonies

Southern Colonies history timeline

Fast Facts and info with the Southern Colonies

The Southern Colonies is great resource for kids

Social Studies Homework help for kids on Southern Colonies

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Check out this site for facts about the Southern Colonies. The Government, Geography and Religion of the Southern Colonies. Fast facts about the Southern Colonies

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Start at 7.47. This video gives you a good impression of life in the South, but I recommend watching it after reading the texts and then to add some details.

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Making the Thirteen Colonies  The Southern Colonies

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Easy start: A video about the Boston Tea Party

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Easy start: A video about the Boston Tea Party

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The Boston Tea Party 1773, (The American Revolution)

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Why Did the Boston Tea Party Happen?

In the 1760s, Britain was deep in debt, so British Parliament imposed a series of taxes on American colonists to help pay those debts.

The Stamp Act of 1765 taxed colonists on virtually every piece of printed paper they used, from playing cards and business licenses to newspapers and legal documents. The Townshend Acts of 1767 went a step further, taxing essentials such as paint, paper, glass, lead and tea.

The British government felt the taxes were fair since much of its debt was earned fighting wars on the colonists' behalf. The colonists, however, disagreed. They were furious at being taxed without having any representation in Parliament, and felt it was wrong for Britain to impose taxes on them to gain revenue.

Boston Massacre Enrages Colonists

On March 5, 1770, a street brawl happened in Boston between American colonists and British soldiers.

Later known as the Boston Massacre, the fight began after an unruly group of colonists-frustrated with the presence of British soldiers in their streets- flung snowballs, ice and oyster shells at a British sentinel guarding the Boston Customs House.

Reinforcements arrived and opened fire on the mob, killing five colonists and wounding six. The Boston Massacre and its fallout further incited the colonists' rage towards Britain.

Tea Act Imposed

Britain eventually repealed the taxes it had imposed on the colonists except the tea tax. It wasn't about to give up tax revenue on the nearly 1.2 million pounds of tea the colonists drank each year.

In protest, the colonists boycotted tea sold by British East India Company and smuggled in Dutch tea, leaving British East India Company with millions of pounds of surplus tea and facing bankruptcy.

In May 1773, British Parliament passed the Tea Act which allowed British East India Company to sell tea to the colonies duty-free and much cheaper than other tea companies-but still tax the tea when it reached colonial ports.

Tea smuggling in the colonies increased, although the cost of the smuggled tea soon surpassed that of tea from British East India Company with the added tea tax.

Still, with the help of prominent tea smugglers such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams -who protested taxation without representation but also wanted to protect their tea smuggling operations-colonists continued to rail against the tea tax and Britain's control over their interests.

Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty were a group of colonial merchants and tradesmen founded to protest the Stamp Act and other forms of taxation. The group of revolutionists included prominent patriots such as Benedict Arnold, Patrick Henry and Paul Revere, as well as Adams and Hancock.

Led by Adams, the Sons of Liberty held meetings rallying against British Parliament and protested the Griffin's Wharf arrival of Dartmouth, a British East India Company ship carrying tea. By December 16, 1773, Dartmouth had been joined by her sister ships, Beaver and Eleanor; all three ships loaded with tea from China.

That morning, as thousands of colonists convened at the wharf and its surrounding streets, a meeting was held at the Old South Meeting House where a large group of colonists voted to refuse to pay taxes on the tea or allow the tea to be unloaded, stored, sold or used. (Ironically, the ships were built in America and owned by Americans.)

Governor Thomas Hutchison refused to allow the ships to return to Britain and ordered the tea tariff be paid and the tea unloaded. The colonists refused, and Hutchison never offered a satisfactory compromise.

Facts: What Happened at the Boston Tea Party

That night, a large group of men-many reportedly members of the Sons of Liberty- disguised themselves in Native American garb, boarded the docked ships and threw 342 chests of tea into the water.

Said participant George Hewes, "We then were ordered by our commander to open the hatches and take out all the chests of tea and throw them overboard, and we immediately proceeded to execute his orders, first cutting and splitting the chests with our tomahawks, so as thoroughly to expose them to the effects of the water."

Hewes also noted that "We were surrounded by British armed ships, but no attempt was made to resist us."

Did you know? It took nearly three hours for more than 100 colonists to empty the tea into Boston Harbor. The chests held more than 90,000 lbs. (45 tons) of tea, which would cost nearly $1,000,000 dollars today.

Boston Tea Party Aftermath

While some important colonist leaders such as John Adams were thrilled to learn Boston Harbor was covered in tea leaves, others were not.

In June of 1774, George Washington wrote: "the cause of Boston...ever will be considered as the cause of America." But his personal views of the event were far different. He voiced strong disapproval of "their conduct in destroying the Tea" and claimed Bostonians "were mad." Washington, like many other elites, held private property to be sacrosanct.

Benjamin Franklin insisted the British East India Company be reimbursed for the lost tea and even offered to pay for it himself.

No one was hurt, and aside from the destruction of the tea and a padlock, no property was damaged or looted during the Boston Tea Party. The participants reportedly swept the ships' decks clean before they left.

Who Organized the Boston Tea Party?

Though led by Samuel Adams and his Sons of Liberty and organized by John Hancock, the names of many of those involved in the Boston Tea Party remain unknown. Thanks to their Native American costumes, only one of the tea party culprits, Francis Akeley, was arrested and imprisoned.

Even after American independence, participants refused to reveal their identities, fearing they could still face civil and criminal charges as well as condemnation from elites for the destruction of private property. Most participants in the Boston Tea Party were under the age of 40 and 16 of them were teenagers.

Coercive Acts

But despite the lack of violence, the Boston Tea Party didn't go unanswered by King George III and British Parliament.

In retribution, they passed the Coercive Acts (later known as the Intolerable Acts) which:

Closed Boston Harbor until the tea lost in the Boston Tea Party was paid for

Ended the Massachusetts Constitution and ended free elections of town officials

Moved judicial authority to Britain and British judges, basically creating martial law in Massachusetts

Required colonists to quarter British troops on demand

Extended freedom of worship to French-Canadian Catholics under British rule, which angered the mostly Protestant colonists

Britain hoped the Coercive Acts would squelch rebellion in New England and keep the remaining colonies from uniting, but the opposite happened: All the colonies viewed the punitive laws as further evidence of Britain's tyranny and rallied to Massachusetts' aid, sending supplies and plotting further resistance.

Second Boston Tea Party

A second Boston Tea Party took place in March 1774, when around 60 Bostonians boarded the ship Fortune and dumped nearly 30 chests of tea into the harbor.

The event didn't earn nearly as much notoriety as the first Boston Tea Party, but it did encourage other tea-dumping demonstrations in Maryland, New York and South Carolina.

First Continental Congress Is Convened

Many colonists felt Britain's Coercive Acts went too far. On September 5, 1774, elected delegates from all 13 American colonies except Georgia met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress to figure out how to resist British oppression.

The delegates were divided on how to move forward but the Boston Tea Party had united them in their fervor to gain independence. By the time they adjourned in October 1774, they'd written The Declaration and Resolves which:

Censured Britain for passing the Coercive Acts and called for their repeal

Established a boycott of British goods

Declared the colonies had the right to govern independently

Rallied colonists to form and train a colonial militia

Britain didn't capitulate and within months, the " shot heard round the world," rang out in Concord, Massachusetts, sparking the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Sources

A Tea Party Timeline: 1773-1775. Old South Meeting House.
The Boston Tea Party. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The Boston Tea Party. Massachusetts Historical Society.
The Boston Tea Party, 1773. EyewitnesstoHistory.com.
The Intolerable Acts. U.S.History.org.

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Boston Tea Party - Definition, Dates & Facts | HISTORY

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The Boston Tea Party was a political protest staged on December 16, 1773 at Griffin's Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts. American colonists, frustrated at Britain for imposing "taxation without representation," dumped 342 chests of British tea into the harbor. The event was the first major act of defiance to British rule over the colonists.

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Easy start: a video about the Declaration of Indepenndence

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Easy start: a video about the Declaration of Indepenndence

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What you might not know about the Declaration of Independence - Kenneth C. Davis

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The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress, states the reasons the British colonies of North America sought independence in July of 1776.

The declaration opens with a preamble describing the document's necessity in explaining why the colonies have overthrown their ruler and chosen to take their place as a separate nation in the world.

All men are created equal and there are certain unalienable rights that governments should never violate. These rights include the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When a government fails to protect those rights, it is not only the right, but also the duty of the people to overthrow that government. In its place, the people should establish a government that is designed to protect those rights. Governments are rarely overthrown, and should not be overthrown for trivial reasons. In this case, a long history of abuses has led the colonists to overthrow a tyrannical government.

The King of Great Britain, George III, is guilty of 27 specific abuses. The King interfered with the colonists' right to self-government and for a fair judicial system. Acting with Parliament, the King also instituted legislation that affected the colonies without their consent. This legislation levied taxes on the colonists. It also required them to quarter British soldiers, removed their right to trial by jury, and prevented them from trading freely. Additionally, the King and Parliament are guilty of outright destruction of American life and property by their refusal to protect the colonies' borders, their confiscation of American ships at sea, and their intent to hire foreign mercenaries to fight against the colonists.

The colonial governments tried to reach a peaceful reconciliation of these differences with Great Britain, but were continually ignored. Colonists who appealed to British citizens were similarly ignored, despite their shared common heritage and their just cause. After many peaceful attempts, the colonists have no choice but to declare independence from Great Britain.

The new nation will be called the United States of America and will have no further connections with Great Britain. The new government will reserve the right to levy war, make peace, make alliances with foreign nations, conduct trade, and do anything else that nations do.

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the declaration of independence (1776) synopsis

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the declaration of independence (1776) short summary

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the declaration of independence (1776) plot outline

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The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Second Continental Congress, states the reasons the British colonies of North America sought independence in July of 1776. The declaration opens with a preamble describing the document's necessity in explaining why the colonies have overthrown their ruler and chosen to take their place as a separate nation in the world.

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This video just provides a background: New Orleans is a city quite at the southern end of Louisiana. Watch this video to find out why there is so much French and Spanish culture in New Orleans.

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The Louisiana Purchase Explained [Turning Point in U.S. History]

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Contents

1. France and the Founding of New Orleans

2. New Orleans Under Spanish Rule and the Louisiana Purchase

3. New Orleans in the 1800s

4. New Orleans in the 20th Century

5. New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina

Situated on a bend of the Mississippi River 100 miles from its mouth, New Orleans has been the chief city of Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico's busiest northern port since the early 1700s. Founded by the French, ruled for 40 years by the Spanish and bought by the United States in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans is known for its distinct Creole culture and vibrant history. Significant battles of the War of 1812 and the Civil War were fought over the city. In its last hundred years the key struggles of New Orleans have been social (poverty, racial strife) and natural (hurricanes, floods and slowly sinking land).

France and the Founding of New Orleans

The first known residents of the New Orleans area were the Native Americans of the Woodland and Mississippian cultures. The expeditions of De Soto (1542) and La Salle (1682) passed through the area, but there were few permanent white settlers before 1718, when the governor of French Louisiana, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founded the city of Nouvelle-Orléans on the first crescent of high ground above the Mississippi's mouth. In 1722 he transferred Louisiana's capital from Biloxi. The same year a hurricane destroyed most of the new city, which was rebuilt in the grid pattern of today's French Quarter.

Did you know? New Orleans' Carnival traditions have centuries-old roots in French and Spanish Catholicism, as well as African and Native American traditions. The oldest krewes (social clubs) that host New Orleans' many Mardi Gras parades and balls were formed before 1860.

New Orleans Under Spanish Rule and the Louisiana Purchase

In 1762 and 1763 France signed treaties ceding Louisiana to Spain. For 40 years New Orleans was a Spanish city, trading heavily with Cuba and Mexico and adopting the Spanish racial rules that allowed for a class of free people of color. The city was ravaged by fires in 1788 and 1794 and rebuilt in brick with buildings and a cathedral that still stand today.

In 1803 Louisiana reverted to the French, who sold it to the United States 20 days later in the Louisiana Purchase. The final battle of the War of 1812 was fought in defense of New Orleans; Colonel Andrew Jackson led a coalition of pirates, free blacks and Tennessee Volunteers to defeat a British force outside the city.

New Orleans in the 1800s

During the first half of the 19th century, New Orleans became the United States' wealthiest and third-largest city. Its port shipped the produce of much of the nation's interior to the Caribbean, South America and Europe. Thousands of slaves were sold in its markets, but its free black community thrived. Until 1830, the majority of its residents still spoke French.

At the start of the Civil War, New Orleans was the largest city in the Confederacy, but it was only a year until Union troops, having captured its downriver defenses, took the city unopposed. During the Reconstruction era race became a potent political force, as emancipated slaves and free people of color were brought into the political process and, with the 1870s rise of the White League and the Ku Klux Klan, forced back out of it. Although the rise of railroads made shipping on the Mississippi less essential than it had been, New Orleans remained a powerful and influential port.

New Orleans in the 20th Century

By 1900, the city's streetcars were electrified, and New Orleans jazz was born in its clubs and dance halls. The city grew. New pump technology drove the ambitious draining of the low-lying swampland located between the city's riverside crescent and Lake Pontchartrain. New levees and drainage canals meant that many residents could live below sea level. Hurricanes in 1909, 1915, 1947 and 1965 damaged the city, but never catastrophically.

After World War II, suburbanization and conflicts over school integration drew many white residents out of the city, leaving a core that was increasingly African-American and impoverished. Despite these social changes, the city grew as a tourist attraction, with hundreds of thousands of annual visitors drawn to its Mardi Gras festivities and to the culture that had inspired playwright Tennessee Williams, trumpeter Louis Armstrong and chef Jean Galatoire.

New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck a haphazardly evacuated New Orleans. The Category 5 storm's winds tore away roofs and drove a storm surge that breached four levees, flooding 80 percent of the city. Hundreds were killed in the flooding and thousands were trapped for days in harsh circumstances before state and federal rescuers could reach them.

The waters receded, but a year later only half the city's residents had returned. Within five years 80 percent were back, but New Orleans-though as diverse, unique and historic as ever-remained far from reclaiming its 1930s nickname, "the city that care forgot."

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Situated on a bend of the Mississippi River 100 miles from its mouth, New Orleans has been the chief city of Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico's busiest northern

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Transatlanic Slave Trade, good to begin with

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Transatlanic Slave Trade, good to begin with

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The Plantation System in Southern Life (1950)

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The Real History of Slavery - Southern Negro