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World: Continents and Oceans - Map Quiz Game - Seterra

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There are seven continents and five oceans on the planet. In terms of land area, Asia is by far the largest continent, and the Oceania region is the smallest. The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world, and it is nearly two times larger than the second largest.

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The U.S.: 50 States - Map Quiz Game - Seterra

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With 50 states in total, there are a lot of geography facts to learn about the United States. This map quiz game is here to help. See how fast you can pin the location of the lower 48, plus Alaska and Hawaii, in our states game! If you want to practice offline, download our printable US State maps in pdf format.

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By playing Sheppard Software's geography games, you will gain a mental map of the world's continents,
countries, capitals, & landscapes! Learn the locations and capitals all 50 States with our fun and interactive games
for kids - and adults. Levels range from beginner to expert.

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USA 50 States Game- Geography Map Game - Level 1

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An interactive map game on the 50 states in the United States of America - a Geography game by regions

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By playing Sheppard Software's geography games, you will gain a mental map of the world's continents,
countries, capitals, & landscapes! Learn the locations and capitals all 50 States with our fun and interactive games
for kids - and adults. Levels range from beginner to expert.

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Place the State! USA 50 States - Geography Map Game - Level 2 - with regions

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Drag the state to its correct location! An interactive map game on the 50 states in the United States of America - a Geography game by regions

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More Geography Games! Lots of interactive map games

Click on the US states to find their names.

Click on the correct state. You may
select regions.

Drag each state onto the map by region.

Drag each state
onto the map.

Click on the correct state (no outlines given).

Type the first three letters of the
state's name.

Click on the continents and oceans of the world to find out their names.

Click on the correct continent or ocean (you may select regions.)

Drag each continent or ocean onto
the map.

Type the first three letters of the continent
or ocean's name.

Pick the correct state
for the highlighted capital, by region.

Pick the correct state for the highlighted capital.

Keep checking
back for more!

Type the first three letters of the state capital's name.

]

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USA 50 States - Geography Map Game - Level 3

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More Geography Games! Lots of interactive map games Click on the US states to find their names. Click on the correct state. You may select regions. Drag each state onto the map by region. Drag each state onto the map. Click on the correct state (no outlines given).

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GeoGuessr is a geography game which takes you on a journey around the world and challenges your ability to recognize your surroundings.

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History: Westward Expansion and the Old West for Kids

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Kids learn about the history of the Westward Expansion and the Old West of the United States as pioneers settled the west as the country expanded. Educational articles for teachers, students, and schools including daily life on the frontier, gold rush, Pony Express, timeline, glossary, and people.

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Westward Expansion, 1790–1850 | Interactive Map

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Westward Expansion, 1790–1850 | Interactive Map

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Westward Expansion, 1790–1850 | Interactive Map | PBS LearningMedia

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Explore the territorial and population changes in the United States between 1790 and 1850 and consider the factors and resources that shaped and enabled westward expansion. After 1787, the newly established United States began to take an active part in the exploration of North America. Cities grew up in land that was once frontier, gradually shifting the center of population westward.

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Mythology is the rich collection of traditional tales called myths from cultures all over the world. Many myths date back to ancient times. They are stories about how the...

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Westward Expansion, 1860–1890 | Interactive Map

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Westward Expansion, 1860–1890 | Interactive Map

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Westward Expansion, 1860–1890 | Interactive Map | PBS LearningMedia

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In this interactive map, explore several ways in which the United States experienced substantial growth between the years 1860–1890. Population centers, railroad networks, and improved agricultural lands are pictured in decade increments against base maps, reflecting natural barriers to growth and the presence of Native tribal populations.

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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski

Manifest Destiny was the 19th-century belief that it was the divine mission of the United States to expand westward across North America. People who held that belief thought that it was the duty of Americans to spread democratic and Protestant ideals across the continent.

American journalist John L. O'Sullivan coined the phrase in an 1845 newspaper editorial. In it he spoke of America's "manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our multiplying millions." The roots of the concept, however, can be traced to American and European writers of the colonial period. They professed the belief that God had ordained them to supplant the pagan practices of native peoples in the West. Manifest Destiny thus provided justification for the United States to acquire territory all the way to the Pacific Ocean and beyond.

Beginning in the 1600s and 1700s, the English who colonized North America had considered ways to venture into the wilderness and tame it. The desire for territorial expansion continued after the United States became an independent country. In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States. Expansionists eager to acquire Spanish Florida were part of the drive for the War of 1812. After Andrew Jackson invaded Florida in 1818, the two countries signed the Transcontinental Treaty (Adams-Onís Treaty). With the treaty Spain ceded Florida and renounced its claim to the Oregon country.

During the 1820s American settlements spread westward. This expansion led to unrest on the country's western borders. President Jackson's Indian removal policy of the 1830s devastated the Southeast Indian way of life. The policy forced the Cherokee and other Indian nations to cede their lands to the United States and relocate west of the Mississippi River. The infamous Trail of Tears caused the deaths of some 15,000 Indians during the journey west.

In the 1840s the United States and Britain settled a land dispute in western North America. Through diplomacy the two countries accepted the 49th parallel as the boundary between the United States and Canada. That made the Oregon country a U.S. territory. The U.S. victory in the Mexican-American War (1846-48) resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty gave the United States more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square kilometers) of Mexican territory. This land included most of what are now Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and western Colorado.

However, the acquisition of new western territories revived arguments among the states over slavery. In fact, those disputes brought the era of Manifest Destiny to an abrupt close. Plans were underway to tie the eastern United States to the Pacific Coast with a transcontinental railroad. This led to the country's final land acquisition before the American Civil War. U.S. Minister to Mexico James Gadsden purchased a large parcel of land (present-day southern Arizona and southern New Mexico) in 1853 for a southern railroad route. The idea that it would travel through the South provoked the North. Americans soon found themselves involved in additional arguments that postponed further expansion.

After the Civil War the concept of Manifest Destiny was briefly revived on a few occasions. For example, in 1867 the United States purchased Alaska. In what was called the "New Manifest Destiny," the United States acquired territory outside of North America. In 1898 Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War. As a result, the United States acquired Spanish territories in the western Pacific and Latin America. That same year the United States annexed Hawaii.

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Manifest Destiny was the 19th-century belief that it was the divine mission of the United States to expand westward across North America. People who held that belief thought...

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An American Indian people, the Nez Percé originally lived in the region of the lower Snake River in what is now northeastern Oregon, southeastern Washington, and central…

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Kids learn about the Nez Perce Native Americans including their traditional history, language, clothing, food, government, facts, and where they got their name.

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Long ago, Indian families had everyday lives much like we do today. Homes had to be built and kept neat. Treasures, tools and toys had to be carefully stored. Food had to be prepared for storage and cooked. Clothes had to be made and repaired. People found different ways to do these things, depending on what their homeland(s) offered.

For the Nez Perce in the Blue Mountains region of what is now eastern Washington and eastern Oregon, hunting and fishing and gathering were important traditional activities.

Some 3,500 years ago, the climate in this region was more moist and cool than at perhaps any other time since the Ice Age. Wallowa Lake, in the heart of the Nez Perce homeland, was created by glaciation; the Wallowa Mountains were carved by nine major glaciers during the last two million years.

Flooding and erosion over the years changed the availability of river resources in the lower lands, and much of the hunting and food gathering activity of the Nez Perce and other tribes moved to the upland country. Because of this, more Indians than at any other time lived in the Blue Mountains. This period ranged from 2,500 to 4,200 years ago.

Later in time, approximately 2,500 years ago, environmental conditions and the regional climate shifted and became more like those of today. Salmon once again became a focal point of local resources and economies.

Villages of numerous pithouses grew up along the rivers, and small family groups made seasonal foraging trips throughout the Blue Mountains and the Wallowas. They hunted game and gathered a variety of different foods, including huckleberries and camas roots.

"What's for dinner!"

When Europeans came to the New World, they found the Indians eating unusual foods. The Europeans had never seen or tasted corn, potatoes, tomatoes, or melons -- all grown in Indian gardens. Indians also showed them how to grow beans, squash, and pumpkins.

When Columbus landed in the Americas, he discovered people tending cornfields 18 miles long.

Huckleberries grow low to the ground in the mountains; they are similar to blueberries but are smaller and more tasty. They are still a favorite of the Nez Perce of others today; they are used in jams, jellies, and pies.

Huckleberries and other berries -- such as serviceberries and currants -- were often used by the Nez Perce to make a staple food called pemmican.

Meat is sliced very thin, then dried, and then pounded or ground with stones to a dry powder. Chopped dried berries are added to the powdered meat, and then melted fat (such as deer fat or buffalo fat) is mixed in.

This mixture, when finished, would keep well and was very tasty and nutritious. The closest thing we have to this today would be rather like mincemeat pie, which is usually a mixture of meat and fruits and spices.

Pemmican Recipe

You can make something very much like pemmican at home. Try this recipe: 1 cup beef jerky, very finely shredded

½ cup dried cranberries or cherries, chopped

¼ cup unroasted sunflower seeds

2 tablespoons peanut butter, melted

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Mix everything together and form it into small balls or flatted cookie shapes. Chill in refrigerator overnight.

Click here for more recipes and information about traditional foods of the Nez Perce

The Tipi

The Indians on the Plains hunted the huge herds of buffalo that roamed the grasslands. They used the meat, the hides, the bones, and virtually all parts of the buffalo to make almost everything they needed. The buffalo didn't stay in one place, but roamed across the prairies in search of areas where grass was plentiful. The people followed them, and so they needed portable homes that could be moved quickly and easily.

Some Indians who did not move around so much made homes from sticks and poles and bark -- these were called wickiups, like the one on the left below. It's pronounced "wicky up."

The Nez Perce and other tribes called their beautiful portable homes "tipis." You will often see the word spelled tepees or teepees, but the correct spelling is tipi. It means "living place."

Tipis were made from buffalo skins held up by poles. The poles were most often made from lodgepole pine -- so named because the trees grow tall and slender and strong and are just the right size and strength for tipi poles or "lodge" poles. The bark is removed from the tree as soon as the tree is cut down; if the bark is left on the tree for very long it hardens up and can't be removed. The peeled poles are pretty and strong.

It took between 10 and 40 hides for one tipi, depending upon how big the buffalo were and how big the tipi was, and new tipis were made in the spring to replace old ones that had worn out. Modern tipis are made from canvas.

The inside and outside of a tipi was often decorated with "paint" made from natural dyes and colors. The front of the tipi was laced together with sticks, and the top of the tipi had "smoke flaps" that could be held open with poles to let smoke out, or folded shut to keep out snow and rain. In the heat of summer, the bottom could be rolled up to let a cool breeze pass through.

The big difference between a tent and a tipi is the tipi's liner. This is a short wall of hides that is strung around the poles on the inside of the tipi cover. It makes the tipi like an "envelope house" where the cold air from outside enters at the bottom of the tipi cover, goes up several feet between the cover and the liner, then enters the tipi already pre-warmed. It creates a ventilation system that ensures that the tipi is cool in summer, warm in winter, and not nearly so smoky or wet as a tent. It's an engineering marvel.

Oftentimes in the spring, all the members of a tribe gathered at one great camp. A council tipi or "lodge" was built in the center and the different bands or family groups put their tipis in a circle around it. Each band had a certain section of the circle so that people could find each other easily. A person would always know where to find an old friend because their tipi would be in the same place each spring.

When women gathered together to work on a new tipi, they enjoyed a special feast. It took about a day for them to make a new tipi.

When it was time to move the tipis, the women did the work, too. Generally speaking, two people who are taking their time can put up or "pitch" a large tipi in about 20 minutes. In contests, though, two Indian women could put up a tipi in less than three minutes! When it was time to move, the women would take down (or "strike") the tipi; it was rolled up and tied to a travois, along with the other things to be moved.

The Crow tribe had some tipi lodges so large that 40 men could eat dinner together in one.

Some families made small "dog house" tipis for their dogs. When it was time to move on, the dog's tipi was taken down and tied to a travois that the dog pulled to the next camp. Mothers also made toy tipis for their daughters to play with.

A tipi door always faces east so that the wind blows against the back of the tipi, and the rising sun will warm and wake the sleeping family.

Learn to make a toy tipi on the Make It Yourself! page.

Parfleche

The Nez Perce made large bags, or suitcases, like envelopes to store and carry their food and clothing. Parfleche, pronounced "parflesh", were made from hides, and were often beautifully decorated. They were easy to store inside the tipis, and could be hung from the tipi poles. They could also be stacked on a travois for moving.

Make It Yourself!

Travois

The Indians who lived on the Plains traveled a lot, following the herds of buffalo and moving seasonally to areas with good supplies of other foods. They didn't use carts or wagons, but instead made a travois to carry their belongings. Two long poles were tied together, and a person could hold the ends of the poles over their shoulders. The other ends of the poles would drag on the ground. Tipis, clothing, and other items were packed and tied onto the poles. Parfleches full of food and tools were tied on top.

For many years, Indians used dogs to pull travois poles that were fastened to a harness made of strips of rawhide.

After the Spanish ships brought horses to the New World, the Indians used horses to pull the travois piled with their belongings. Children could ride on top of the load.

Some tribes made small pole carriages on top of the travois for young children to ride in, so they wouldn't fall off and get hurt during travel.

Find out how to make your own dog travois on the Make It Yourself! page.

Canoes

People living near rivers or lakes built small boats from whatever was available. They used reeds, sewn skins, hollowed-out tree trunks, or tree bark. The Iroquois made canoes from elm or spruce bark fastened to a wooden frame. Their canoes were very lightweight and easy to carry. The Paiute Indians in southeast Oregon and northern Nevada collected armloads of tule reeds (pronounced too-lee), which are like cattails only thinner, and bound them together for rafts and canoes. They could slip quietly over a lake or marshy area for hunting birds and fishing.

Most canoes were steered with wooden paddles. On rivers where the water was too fast or too shallow, the canoe could be carried across land for a ways, or "portaged."

Learn to make your own toy canoe here!

Fishing Lures

Fish were an important food for Indian families. They were caught in many different ways.

Some tribes made hand-knotted nets, both large and small. Some of the tribes in the Pacific Northwest still fish with large dipnets, from a platform built up above the edge of the riverbank. Others use a seine net (pronounced "sayn") to catch many fish at once.

Some tribes made a fish trap from sticks. Others built dams with rocks, dirt, and fallen trees; they would then scoop the fish from the water with baskets.

Some tribes in the Southwest used special plants to catch fish. They ground up parts of these medicinal plants and tossed the powder into the water of a small pool or pond. The poison stunned the fish so that they floated to the top of the water and the people could pick them up easily.

Some fishermen tied a lure made of feathers to a line and dangled it in the water. When a fish came up to it, the fish was speared.

Or, much like flyfishing today, Indians made a hook with feathers to imitate an insect or tiny fish that the larger fish would bite. They made the fishhooks from sharpened pieces of bones, antlers, shells, wood, or even cactus spines.

Drumbeats

Indians traditionally used drums with most dances and songs -- and they still do. Drums can be made from many different materials; the simplest drum was a hollow log with a piece of rawhide covering the end. The drummer tapped on the rawhide "drum head" with his hands or a stick.

"Water drums" were used by some tribes; a log was hollowed out on one end and about an inch of water was poured inside. A hide (from buffalo or deer or other animals) was stretched and tied tightly over the open end. The water inside changed the drum's sound.

Drums were usually round, but people in the northwest part of California also made and used square drums.

Find out how to make your own drum on the Make It Yourself! page.

A Bounty of Beads

The Nez Perce put beads on many things -- belts, clothing, shoes, horse gear, tipis, cradleboards, and, of course, around their necks!

Beads were made from a variety of materials that people could find or trade for. Shells, bones, pebbles, claws, nuts, seeds, porcupine quills, dried berries, deer and elk antlers, buffalo horns, pieces of metal, hardened clay, birds' talons -- all of these and more were used as decorative beads. Holes were drilled into beads with stone or wood tools. In later years, they traded with fur trappers for glass beads made in Europe.

"Pony beads" were single-color glass beads that were brought West on horse pack strings for trading. "Seed beads" are tiny beads that the Indians sewed onto clothing to create fancy designs.

Shell gorgets were often worn by Indians in the southeastern part of the United States. Others carved shapes from shells and other materials using tools made from bone or stone; the tools had to be harder than the shells in order to carve them. These pendants were worn around the neck.

Find directions for making your own beads and necklaces - even an imitation bear claw necklace! - on the Craft It Yourself! page.

Pipe Bone Breastplate

Many of the people living in the Plains and Plateau areas wore breastplates for decoration. They were first made from the narrow dentallum shells acquired in trading with the coastal tribes.

Later they were made from buffalo and other bones and were called "pipe bones." Settlers made them to trade with the Indians, too. Click here to Craft It Yourself!

Clothing - Vests, Breechcloth, Leggings, Cuffs, Anklets and Dance Bustles

The Nez Perce and other tribes made warm and beautiful clothing from animal hides or fabric they traded for.

Vests were useful, easy to make, and often beautifully decorated. Geometric designs were favored, but floral designs were often used, too.

Buckskin was a favorite material. It is made from the hide of a deer. (Buckskin can be made from elk hide, also, but it is much heavier!) First the hide is soaked, then the hair is scraped off using a sharp tool. It's a lot of work to get all the hair off. After the hide is scraped very clean, it's like thin dry leather. It's soaked again overnight in a special mixture to make it soft, like a conditioner, and then it's stretched and pulled and stretched as it dries to make it soft and pliable like a nice suede or velvet fabric. After that the buckskin is smoked -- not like a pipe but a different way. It is hung up above a slow and gentle fire in a lot of smoke for a long time. The smoke conditions and preserves the buckskin and makes it kind of waterproof and gives it a special color and fragrance.

Indians wore breechcloths made of buckskin or other fabric, 12 inches wide and about 6 feet long. They were draped in front and back over a belt at the waist. They were worn by boys and men, and tribes made them in different styles and from various materials.

Decorated bands were often worn by the Nez Perce and other tribes on the wrists and arms. They weren't very practical for daily work or hunting, but were worn for ceremonies, feasts, and dances -- and they still are today. These cuffs were usually made from buckskin or rawhide and were decorated with beads, shells, and fringe.

Not meant for everyday wear, anklets were worn for dancing -- and they still are worn today at pow-wows and Indian dance competitions. Their graceful sway and bounce adds to and enhances the dancer's movements. Some of the Indians in the Northern Rocky Mountain areas used the long white hair of mountain goats for their anklets. People in other areas used grass, plant fibers, or yarn made from sheep's wool.

Dance bustles are used for extra decoration and drama in ceremonial dances. Some big bustles made with lots of feathers look a lot like certain birds during mating dances, like wild turkeys and sage grouse for example, who fluff up their feathers and look very fancy and dramatic while they "dance" during the mating season.

Learn how to craft your own clothing and beaded headbands on the Craft It Yourself! page.

Face Paint

You have probably seen face-painting booths at fairs and festivals -- for fun. But Indians painted their faces and bodies for many reasons besides fun. They painted their bodies with designs to protect them before they went to war; they painted their faces for beauty, just as girls and women now use make-up. They used paints to protect their skin from sun and wind, just as we use sunscreen today. Paint also kept flies, bees, and other annoying insects away, the same way we use bug spray today.

Sometimes people painted their faces to show that they belonged to a certain club or society. Faces were painted for ceremonies, or to mourn someone who had died.

Cosmetic note: Besides face painting, many natural sources were used cosmetically. Walnut hulls, for example, were rubbed onto grey hair to make it dark again. Rattlesnake grease made a good skin softener.

Indians made the paints they used out of special clays, charcoal, berries, and moss that they ground up. They used stones to grind the materials into powder, and then mixed the powdered dye with animal fat.

A good sunscreen was made by rubbing buffalo fat onto the face, spreading powdered paint over it, and then rubbing it in. Some warriors painted their faces with streaks running down from their eyes to show that they were crying for the success of their expedition. Scouts would paint their faces white to symbolize the wolf, whose power was thought to be of great help when scouting.

An Indian could show others that he wanted to be left alone -- or had fallen in love -- by painting his face black and then using his fingernails to scrape a zigzag pattern from his hairline down to his chin.

Colors of paint meant specific things. Most of the tribes used colors to indicate these meanings:

black = death

red = power and life

blue = sky

yellow = joy and victory

white = peace

War Bonnets

Today, soldiers earn medals and ribbons for acts of bravery in the military. Indian warriors earned eagle feathers that were displayed on headbands.

Warbonnets were treasured and worn by men who had earned the right to wear each feather by doing a brave deed. A council would listen to the man tell about the experience, and then decide if he deserved the honor of wearing another feather.

If a man won more honor feathers than he could fit on the band around his head, he could add rows of feathers hanging down his back.

Some men won so many honors that their bonnets dragged on the ground, so they put the extra feathers on a lance or pole for display.

Eagle feathers are serious medicine -- they were used because they were hard to get and because the eagle was a powerful bird. The wearer hoped he might get some of the eagle's power from the feathers.

You can make different styles of warbonnets. The Blackfoot bonnet has all the feathers sticking up around the headband. The Apache bonnet is a cap with feathers that droops over the head all around.

Western Plains tribes wore bonnets that went over the back, sometimes reaching the ankles.

Craft It Yourself!

Special Shield

A warrior made a special shield and used it for protection. It was held in one hand during battle to deflect arrows and bullets from attackers, and it also gave spiritual protection to its owner.

A man made his shield carefully and usually decorated it with designs he had dreamed about. Special feathers and small bags of precious stones or amulets were tied onto the shield for good luck.

The shield was displayed in a special place in the home, and was usually buried with the man when he died.

Learn to make your own shield on the Make It Yourself! page.

Coup Stick

In many tribes, the highest honor that could be earned was touching a live enemy with the bare hand or a coup stick.

Coup is pronounced "coo" and is used today to mean "score" or "achievement." It is French for "a hit" and rhymes with blue.

Many warriors took coup sticks with them into battle. A warrior who got close enough to an enemy to touch him with a coup stick was considered far braver than one who killed an enemy with a bow and arrow from a distance. An eagle feather could be earned for each coup in battle. Some daring warriors went into battle armed only with their coup stick! There were war societies called Kit Foxes and Crazy Dogs. They were clubs that met and decided how points could be earned by members who were counting coup. Coup sticks were about the same height as the man. They were decorated with feathers, fur, and beads.

Learn to make your own coup stick on the Make It Yourself! page.

Pictographs

Pictographs are paintings that were done on rocks or cave walls or the cliffs alongside rivers -- many of them over a thousand years ago. The Indian artists used ground-up clay, sand, or plant dyes mixed with coloring and binding agents such as blood, eggs, or tree sap.

Some of the early pictograph artists painted with their fingers. Later, though, they made brushes and pens and other tools from sticks, animal hairs, or plant stems. Some of them spattered paint by blowing through a hollow reed or flicking colored pigments off a frayed stiff/ended stick.

Learn to make your own pictograph paintings on the Make It Yourself! page.

Sign Language

The Indian peoples of North America spoke over 300 different languages. Many of the tribes traveled and traded with other tribes who didn't speak their language. How could they talk to each other! They invented a silent way of speaking with their hands.

Sign language seems to have developed on the Plains. The Kiowa, Sioux, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Blackfoot understood and used sign talk with each other. In 1885, there were more than 110,000 sign-talking Indians in the United States, and 200 years ago, there were at least 600 tribes in North America who spoke 300 different languages.

Using silent hand signals also came in handy when hunters sneaked up on a buffalo herd. They could signal each other without making a sound that might scare the animals away. Indians also used sign language to speak with traders or to make treaties between warring tribes.

Sign language is a bit different from spoken words. To ask a question, you must make the sign that means "question" first. Use the sign for "question" for the words: what, where, why, and when.

For example, if you want to ask, "What is your name?" you make the sign "question," then "you," then "called." "How old are you?" becomes "question," "how many," "you," "winter." (Many tribes kept track of the years by counting the winter.)

"I'm going home" is signed with "I," "go," "house." It's signed like this:

Games and Activities

People everywhere have always enjoyed making up and playing games. Games were taught to children, who remembered them and taught them to their children. Games have been played for learning, for entertainment, or even for worship.

Many different games have been passed down by Indian ancestors. Games were played in all tribes, by both grown-ups and children. A lot of time was spent making the game pieces, learning the rules, and practicing the skills to be good at the games. They liked games of chance with dice made of things they found around them. They liked games played in teams, such as ball games. They also played games of skill that kept them strong for the work they needed to do, like hunting. One example would be the Stick Game.

One of the biggest differences between Indian games and white people's games is the concept of "winner" and "loser." Many Indian games do not have a "loser." Unlike many white people's games, teamwork is far more important in Indian games than the score is.

Sometimes only certain people were allowed to play a certain game. Perhaps it was a game only for girls, for example, or only for warriors. And some games could only be played at certain times of the year.

Toys

Nez Perce girls and boys played with toys that helped them learn how to be grown-ups. Their parents and grandparents made small baskets, pots, bows and arrows, horses, and even tipis for the children to play with. The girls often played "house" while the boys pretended to hunt.

Little girls sometimes put real puppies in toy cradleboards and carried them around pretending they were babies.

Sometimes they would make a small travois by lashing lightweight poles or branches together and strapping them to a dog. The children piled their toys on the travois and pretended they were moving camp with their horse.

Plains children enjoyed little villages of small tipis made by their parents. The girls worked around the pretend camp while the boys hunted. If the boys caught a prairie dog or squirrel or rabbit, the girls would roast it over a small fire -- a little feast that delighted their parents.

Storytelling

Telling stories was popular with all Indian tribes. A favorite storyteller or the chief often would tell stories about the tribe's past -- or stories that explained religious beliefs. Adults and children enjoyed listening to stories, just as we do now. They told stories for entertainment during long winters and to pass on the beliefs and values of the people. Children were taught many stories, and they kept them in their memory to share with their own children.

Stories from Europe that we call fairy tales begin with "once upon a time." Indian stories often begin with "before the people came."

Storytelling was a special activity, and each tribe had different rules about it. The White Mountain Apaches, for example, told stories only between dusk and dawn and when it was cold.

Indians liked to use stories to teach lessons about how to act and how to live with others. They also used stories in healing ceremonies.

Some stories were so important they could only be told by certain people at certain times.

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Nez Perce National Historic Trail - Just for Kids

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Young Joseph became chief in 1871. In 1877 he reluctantly agreed to move to a reservation. However, after members of his band murdered white settlers, he attempted to escape to Canada with his followers (about 200 to 300 warriors and their families). For more than three months Chief Joseph led them more than 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. They were able to defeat the U.S. troops in many battles but were greatly outnumbered. Chief Joseph surrendered on October 5, 1877. He gave a moving speech, in which he said "From where the Sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. "

Chief Joseph and his band were taken to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) where many died. In 1885 they moved to the Colville reservation in what is now north-central Washington. Chief Joseph was never allowed to return to his ancestral land. He died at Colville on September 21, 1904.

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Young Joseph became chief in 1871. In 1877 he reluctantly agreed to move to a reservation. However, after members of his band murdered white settlers, he attempted to escape to Canada with his followers (about 200 to 300 warriors and their families).

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Kids learn about the biography of Chief Joseph an important Native American Indian and chief of the Nez Perce tribe.

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Westward Expansion: Crash Course US History #24

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If you've ever dreamt of traversing the American frontier as a pioneer, making crucial decisions, and hunting for food along the Oregon Trail, then The Oregon Trail is the game for you.

In this historical educational strategy video game, you'll be transported back to the year 1848, leading a covered wagon party from Independence, Missouri, to the fertile Willamette River and valley in Oregon.

Your leadership skills will be tested as you make choices about supplies, resource management, and your route while overcoming various challenges and setbacks.

Historical Beginnings

The Oregon Trail has a rich historical background. It was initially created as a text-based game in 1971 and later published by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium ( MECC) in 1975.

The game was re-imagined and released in its graphical form in 1985 for the Apple II. The year is 1848, and you'll assume the role of a wagon leader guiding a group of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon.

You'll make pivotal decisions on supplies, resource management, and the route you take while navigating treacherous rivers and facing unpredictable events such as storms and disease.

Creating an Educational Icon

The game was the brainchild of a dedicated team at MECC led by game designer R. Philip Bouchard. Over a ten-month period from 1984 to 1985, they crafted this educational masterpiece. The Oregon Trail marked a pivotal shift for MECC, transitioning from games and software on mainframe computers to home computers.

It was MECC's first product primarily aimed at home consumers rather than schools.

The game made history by being one of the first educational video games of its kind, blending entertainment and learning seamlessly.

The Journey

As you embark on your journey to Oregon, you'll face a series of challenging decisions. You start by selecting your character's profession: banker, carpenter, or farmer.

Each choice comes with its own difficulty level and an initial sum of money to begin your journey. Then, you'll name your character and the four members of your party.

You'll need to purchase essential supplies like oxen, food, clothing, ammunition, and spare wagon parts from Matt's General Store.

The journey is divided into sixteen segments, each concluding at a landmark, such as a river crossing or a fort. These landmarks offer various choices, like acquiring supplies, conversing with fellow travelers, or deciding how to cross a river.

You'll need to make critical choices when navigating rivers, including fording, caulking, or paying for a ferry. The state of the river and weather conditions affect your chances of crossing without any hiccups.

Along the way, the prices for supplies rise, and you'll need to make the right decisions to ensure your party's survival.

Surviving the Trail

The journey between landmarks involves traveling for days over hundreds of miles. You'll receive updates on the date, weather conditions, the health of your party, available food supplies, distances to the next landmark, and the distance covered.

Embrace the spirit of the pioneers on a treacherous journey to the Wild West.

Random events can occur, like storms causing delays or party members falling ill. The player can control the pace of travel, the amount of daily food rations, rest periods, trade with other parties, and even hunt for food.

The hunting component is presented as a mini-game where you control a character who shoots animals for food. Careful resource management and strategic choices are key to success on the trail. The game concludes when your party either reaches Willamette Valley or when all members succumb to illness or injury.

Your performance is scored based on several factors, creating a sense of competition and replayability.

The Oregon Trail: A Legacy Preserved

The Oregon Trail has left an indelible mark in the world of education and gaming. It gained immense popularity in schools during the 1980s and 1990s, serving as an effective teaching tool.

The game's enduring legacy has earned it a place in the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Generations of players have experienced the trials and tribulations of the trail, making it a cultural landmark.

Play The Oregon Trail online

The Oregon Trail game is accessible online, without the need for downloads or emulators.

You can relive the experience in your web browser, making it a convenient option for both desktop and mobile devices. Play The Oregon Trail online, in a web browser.

Conclusion

The Oregon Trail is not just a video game, it's a piece of educational history.

With its roots dating back to the 1970s, the game has introduced countless players to the trials and tribulations of westward expansion in the 19th century.

The combination of historical context, strategic decision-making, and resource management makes it a compelling and enduring experience.

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The Oregon Trail is an educational strategy video game created by the MECC. Play (unblocked) The Oregon Trail game online, in a web browser, for free.

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The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Popular Graphic Arts Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.

Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-09855 (digital file from original print) LC-USZC4-668 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZC2-1332 (color film copy slide) LC-USZCN4-52 (color film copy neg.) LC-USZ62-737 (b&w film copy neg.)

Call Number: PGA - Crofutt--American progress (B size) [P&P]

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As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)

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1 print : chromolithograph ; 37.6 x 49 cm (sheet) | Print shows an allegorical female figure of America leading pioneers westward, as they travel on foot, in a stagecoach, conestoga wagon, and by railroads, where they encounter Native Americans and herds of bison.

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Kids learn about the history of the American Civil War including causes, timeline, generals, battles, daily life, Abraham Lincoln, the North vs. South, border states, and slavery. Educational articles for students, schools, and teachers.

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In the 1860s the Northern and Southern parts of the United States fought against each other in the American Civil War. The war started after 11 Southern states separated...

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The American Civil War was a major conflict in the history of the United States. It lasted four years (1861- 1865) and resulted in 620,000 deaths.

Southern states felt threatened by Republican Abraham Lincoln's election as President as they believed he would abolish slavery with his anti-slavery agenda so eleven seceded from the Union forming their own country called the Confederate States led by Jefferson Davis.

This war ended when General Robert E Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9th and then on May 10th, General Joseph Johnston also surrendered.

American Civil War background

17th and 18th centuries

There was a lot of slavery in America. In the mid-19th century, the continuous westward expansion plus the rise of abolitionism triggered a debate about slavery.

August 1831

Nat Turner led around 75 black people in a slave rebellion. More rebellions occurred, so southern states implemented strict slave codes.

October 16th, 1859

John Brown took over a weapons store at Harpers Ferry and started a slave rebellion. He was caught and hanged for treason but many northerners came to his defense because he had done something they thought was good.

The abolitionist movement also began as an effort to end slavery. It started as a religious movement, but then it became a controversial political issue that divided people. The movement created heated debates and violent confrontations.

Abraham Lincoln as President

Lincoln was the first U.S. president who was not born in the 13 original colonies that were here at the start of the United States. He spent most of his childhood in Kentucky.

Lincoln debated with Senator Stephen Douglas about a law that would let people in Kansas and Nebraska decide whether or not they wanted to be part of our country.

December 20, 1860

After Lincoln won, some southern states seceded from our country. By February 1861, more states had left too - Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana

April 1861

Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas had also left because they did not want to be part of this Confederation. Jefferson Davis became its President then.

The conflict of slavery

Slavery was the main issue of contention between the North and South. The Union sought an end to slave labor, while the Confederacy wanted it protected for their economy to thrive.

In 1861, eleven states seceded from America and formed their own country called "The Confederate States." Led by Jefferson Davis, they fought against Lincoln's Republican party who won with a promise to abolish slavery.

Nevertheless, the South depended on slaves for cotton. The North had different jobs because it had more bays and harbors, which are good for the fishing and shipbuilding industries.

Events in the American Civil War

The start of the American nation was complicated by slavery. The US began as a group of colonies. Slavery was never solved and there was growing unrest.

Following the secession of some states, the Confederate government demanded that Union troops abandon southern forts. Lincoln refused and instead ordered them to resupply these forts with food and other basic necessities.

April 12, 1861

Union and Confederate troops had a first encounter at Fort Sumter. The Confederate forces bombarded the sea fort. Major Robert Anderson surrendered on April 14th when he evacuated Charleston Harbour.

July 21, 1861. The Battle of Bull Run

This was the first big fight for the country. Union and Confederate armies fought on. The Union troops started from Washington, D.C to hit the Confederates at Manassas Junction in Virginia.

After a while, they were having trouble fighting so they had to retreat back to Washington. Then it was getting dark so they stopped and went home.

The Confederate victory gave the South a lot of confidence. The North realized that they would not win the war as easily as they thought.

July 1 to 3, 1863. The Battle of Gettysburg

This battle meant a turning point in the American Civil War. The Northern and Southern armies fought for three days. The most important battle was Gettysburg.

The Confederates were fighting for their freedom from the Union Army. They were both very strong and had lots of weapons to use on each other, so they fought with guns, cannons, horses, bayonets, and anything else they could find.

The clash at Gettysburg was a big fight. Union troops had about 95,000 soldiers. The Confederate troops were about 75,000. There were about 25,000 Union soldiers and 28,00 Confederate troops who died in the three days of fighting.

Gettysburg was the biggest battle in North America of all time. Some people say it is like an American Waterloo because so many people died there too.

November 19, 1863. The Gettysburg Address

President Abraham Lincoln gave a famous speech at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. He said his now-famous speech in 272 words. The speech was about how the Union had grown to be a struggle for liberty and equality.

From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Civil War happened in many places. The two most common places were the states of Virginia and Tennessee, which were mostly where fighting occurred. It also happened at sea, on the brown water of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, on the Atlantic Ocean near France.

Some of the major battles during the Civil War were the First and Second Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Antietam, Battle of Fredericksburg, Battle of Ironclads, Gettysburg (Battle), Chancellorsville (Battle), Vicksburg (Battle), and Shiloh.

Photography was new when the Civil War happened. Cameras and all of the materials used were too heavy and unstable to take pictures during a battle. But some pictures exist, including images of artillery bombardments, gunboat broadsides, and battle smoke at Nashville or Fredericksburg.

December 1863

Abraham Lincoln said the Civil War was happening to help keep a government that is "of the people, by the people and for the people." As an attempt to reunite America, President Lincoln issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction to offer pardons to Confederates who would support America and its Constitution.

The American Constitution and slavery

During the Revolutionary War, there was a document called the Constitution of the US. It said that slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person to tax and have representation.

Those who did not want slaves thought slavery should not be counted at all, but those that wanted slaves knew that if it was counted as one whole person, then they would have less representation because they could no longer count slaves among their population totals, and slaves were not allowed to vote.

From the start of the Civil War, slaves acted to get their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation helped them, by agreeing with them that the war for preserving the Union should become a war for freedom. It made it easier to fight and also helped us politically.

With the Emancipation Proclamation, African-Americans volunteered to fight for the Union. They used weapons to fight off the Confederacy. In October 1,000 African-Americans were in the Army and 18 were in the Navy.

As one moment in history when slavery was finally destroyed, The Emancipation Proclamation is now seen as part of our great documents of freedom.

The end of the American Civil War

April 9, 1865

The Union won the war. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia. The war ended when the Union took the last Confederate troops on the western side of America away from Galveston, Texas.

There were 1,522 Medals of Honor given to Northern troops during and after the Civil War. The Confederate Army did not have combat medals.

The war was hard on the country, and many people died. Soldiers were typically buried where they died. But some soldiers died in hospitals. They were buried near the hospital. Many other soldiers died and were not found or never buried in a cemetery.

Today the Confederate Battle Flag is controversial because it remains a symbol of racism, slavery, and white supremacy.

Conclusion

The American Civil War ended in 1865 after a four-year-long war. 620,000 soldiers were killed, and the country was divided into two parts - North and South. Ultimately President Lincoln succeeded in abolishing slavery but at what cost?

The Civil War was one of the most important events in America's history. It made us who we are today. The Civil War decided whether the United States would be a nation or a group of separate states that could break apart. It also helped decide if slaves could be free.

Sources

P.S. If you enjoyed what you read and are a teacher or tutor needing resources for your students from kindergarten all the way up to high school senior (or even adults!), check out our partner sites KidsKonnect, SchoolHistory, and HelpTeaching for hundreds of facts, worksheets, activities, quizzes, courses, and more!

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The American Civil War Facts for Kids | History, Lincoln, Emancipation

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The American Civil War was a major conflict in the history of the United States. It lasted four years (1861- 1865) and resulted in 620,000 deaths. Southern states felt threatened by Republican Abraham Lincoln's election as President as they believed he would abolish slavery with his anti-slavery agenda so eleven seceded from the Union forming their own country called the Confederate States led by Jefferson Davis.

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Kids History: Daily Life During the Civil War

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Kids learn about what daily life was like during the Civil War. With men at war, the women and children were on the homefront.

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The Road to the Civil War | History for Kids

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Ulysses S. Grant | Article

Library of Congress

Ulysses S Grant was the biggest hero of the Civil War. Johnny Clem might well have been the smallest. Ten years old when he ran away from home and joined the second Michigan Regiment, the drummer boy won fame at the battle of Shiloh, where he put down his drum, picked up a gun, and shot a Confederate colonel. All across the Union, Clem was celebrated as a hero. But Johnny Clem wasn't the only young person to be affected by the Civil War. In fact, it would be hard to find a kid that wasn't.

When war broke out in 1861, kids across the North and the South said goodbye to their fathers, brothers, uncles, and cousins -- or joined the military themselves. As many as 20% of Civil War soldiers were younger than 18. That was the minimum recruiting age for Union soldiers, but many people willingly overlooked the law. The Confederacy set no minimum age. Many young soldiers enlisted as musicians -- drummers, fifers, or buglers. In theory, musicians didn't fight. But once a battle began, these kids often armed themselves - to save their own lives or the lives of their friends.

It's hard to imagine the horrors teenage soldiers experienced. They charged through hailstorms of bullets while the bodies of their friends fell all around them. They listened as wounded men pleaded for their mothers, for a drink of water, or for death to come. They assisted surgeons, standing by as they sawed off mangled arms and legs - often without an anesthetic. They endured the horrors of Andersonville, a Confederate prison in which thousands of Union men died of starvation and disease. They were killed in battle or suffered physical and mental wounds that they would carry for the rest of their lives.

If the greatest horrors of the war occurred on the battlefields, civilians experienced their own shares of hardship. Families whose men went to war made up for their absence. Kids helped run family farms and businesses. They planted and harvested crops, chopped wood, and butchered animals for food. They drove horses, cooked, and cared for siblings. They wrote letters to their absent relatives, and prayed for them to come home safe. Many never did.

In the South, where most of the war's major battles were fought, civilian children endured even more misery. They huddled underground as bullets pierced the walls of their homes and artillery burst all around them. They stood by as their homes were turned into command posts or field hospitals. They tended wounded soldiers and watched them die. When the battles ended their homes and farms were often in ruins. Their fields and even their yards were littered with rotting corpses. Their animals and their food crops were destroyed or taken by soldiers. They faced disease and even starvation.

Yet for some Southern children - African American slaves - this brutal war meant freedom. Even before the war, enslaved children had escaped to the North with their families and on their own. As soon as the war began, African Americans began to slip behind Union lines and seek refuge. After President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, this stream of refugees turned into a flood.

Often, home for emancipated slaves was no more than a wooden packing crate in a primitive encampment. Food was scarce, and disease rampant. As many as half of all blacks in such encampments died of diseases such as malaria and typhoid. But still, there was hope. Sympathetic Northerners set up schools to teach blacks of all ages to read and write. And like young Northern whites, young African Americans joined the army and fought for the Union cause. They, too, experienced the horrors of war, at places such as Fort Wagner, South Carolina, and Saltville and Petersburg, both in Virginia.

Still, through all of the madness of war, children remained children. In schoolyards and farmyards, boys dressed as soldiers marched and played war. Girls imitated the nurses of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which provided medical care to the soldiers. Kids read magazines such as Our Young Folks that contained stories of soldiers like Johnny Clem and encouraged kids to sacrifice for the war effort. And sacrifice they did, sending food packages, bandages, and clothing to soldiers in the field.

When the war ended in 1865, children felt both joy and sadness. Many soldiers returned home safe, but some came home wounded. Others didn't make it home at all. Almost every child in America had lost a relative in the war. While Northern children celebrated victory, young Southerners shared the humiliation of defeat. Many young African Americans enjoyed freedom for the first time. But that freedom would be limited by racism.

No matter who they were or where they lived, young people across America were glad that the bloodiest war in American history had ended at last. But for most kids who survived, the war would never quite be over. It had forced them to endure hardships and to grow up fast enough to take on adult responsibilities. It had shown them just how horrible the world could be. And they would never forget it.

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Kids in the Civil War | American Experience | PBS

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When war broke out in 1861, kids across the North and the South said goodbye to their fathers, brothers, uncles, and cousins - or joined the military themselves.

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Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States. Learn about his biography, the Civil War, and his life story.

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View this video on YouTube, or for teachers, download it from Vimeo.

The Civil War remains the bloodiest conflict in American history. Follow the events as they unfold - from the firing on Fort Sumter, to the single bloodiest day at Antietam, to the Confederate surrenders at Appomattox Court House and Bennett Place. Our collection of animated maps bring battles of the American Civil War to life, complete with troop movement animations, narratives, reenactment footage and more.

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View this video on YouTube, or for teachers, download it from Vimeo. The Civil War remains the bloodiest conflict in American history. Follow the events as they unfold - from the firing on Fort Sumter, to the single bloodiest day at Antietam, to the Confederate surrenders at Appomattox Court House and Bennett Place.

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Browse battlefield maps on this page and follow the battles and troop movements during the Civil War.

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This incredible map allows students to click on any of the battles in the Civil War to learn about their significance.

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Experience the Civil War and Revolutionary War like never before and tour the battlefields in panoramic view. Jump from battlefield to battlefield using our virtual tours that offer historic detail on battle highlights and points of interest, compelling photography, lively video, in-depth articles and more.

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Experience the Civil War and Revolutionary War like never before and tour the battlefields in panoramic view. Jump from battlefield to battlefield using our virtual tours that offer historic detail on battle highlights and points of interest, compelling photography, lively video, in-depth articles and more.

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The National Civil War Museum - A Threshold 360 Virtual Tour

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American Civil War Museum Virtual Exhibits

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American Civil War Museum Virtual Exhibits

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Online Exhibits - American Civil War Museum

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Explore the stories of the Civil War and it’s legacies through online exhibits that compliment the physical exhibits at the ACWM.

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The American Civil War - OverSimplified (Part 1)

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The American Civil War  - OverSimplified (Part 2)

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The Civil War, Part I: Crash Course US History #20

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The Civil War Part 2: Crash Course US History #21

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Battles of the Civil War: Crash Course US History #19

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One of the most famous aerialists of the 1930s, Clem Sohn was known to leap from planes at 15,000 feet or more, wearing a homemade suit consisting of metal rods and canvas sails, which gave him wings as long as his arms.

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Sports are an integral part of human history. Learn more about the Olympics, the Kentucky Derby, Jackie Robinson, Negro League Baseball, the Super Bowl and more.

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The Origins of 7 Popular Sports | HISTORY

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Find out how sports including basketball, football and hockey were invented.

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What has been documented in the history of sports takes us back at least 3,000 years to ancient Greece, with the introduction of formal sports.

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A History Timeline About Athletics. Athletics, also known as track and field, has a rich and storied history that dates back to ancient…

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In 1999 the Olympic Truce Foundation was set up to promote international peacemaking efforts, reviving a tradition from ancient Greece in which wars were suspended during the Games.

In war-torn countries, sport can sometimes bring people together and help build lasting peace. In 2002 a football match held in Afghanistan's national stadium - used by the Taliban regime for executions - was a positive symbol of change.

During the two world wars, many great athletes, sportsmen and women were killed or injured, either through serving in the armed forces or as civilian casualties. These conflicts also caused serious disruption to professional sporting organisations in Britain and throughout the world. However, sport still remained a vital form of recreation and entertainment for both civilians and service personnel.

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In 1945 George Orwell wrote that serious sport was 'war minus the shooting'. He argued that sport was not a means of promoting peace between nations but was more likely to cause tensions than solve them. Three years after Orwell's article was published, Britain hosted the Olympic Games in London.

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The Olympics, FIFA, and why we love sports: Crash Course Games #17

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Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Digital Exhibits

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Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Digital Exhibits

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Digital Exhibitions | Nero Leagues Baseball Museum

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Explore the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum digital exhibitions.

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National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Virtual Tour

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National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Virtual Tour

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National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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Virtual Field Trip : 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues

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The Negro leagues were associations of African American baseball teams in the United States. They were active largely between 1920 and the late 1940s. The principal Negro…

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The 32 featured players below were selected after consultation with John Thorn, the Official Historian for MLB, and other Negro Leagues experts. More players will be added regularly as we seek to preserve and honor those who helped define the Negro Leagues, and its impact on the game.

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History of Negro League players and teams

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Negro Baseball League: Breaking Barriers

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Negro Baseball League: Breaking Barriers

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Negro League Baseball - Breaking Baseball's Color Barrier - US History - Extra History

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Undeniable Episode 1: Women of The Negro Leagues

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Undeniable Episode 2: The International Impact of the Negro Leagues

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Jackie Robinson: The First African American to Play in the MLB | Mini Bio | BIO

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Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play baseball in the modern era of the major leagues. He played as an infielder and outfielder for the Brooklyn Dodgers from...

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How Nelson Mandela Used Rugby as a Symbol of South African Unity | HISTORY

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In a nation bitterly divided by apartheid, Mandela used the game to foster shared national pride.

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The Great Depression: Crash Course US History #33

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The Dust Bowl for Kids | Bedtime History

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During the 1930s much of the world faced harsh economic conditions. Many people were out of work, hungry, or homeless. This period is called the Great Depression. It started...

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There are tons of links to explore at the bottom of the webpage!

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Learn about the Great Depression including its causes, the New Deal, Hoovervilles, Bonus Army, daily life, stock market crash, crime, entertainment, legacy, and facts. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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Kids learn about the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression including how they got their name, what they were, who lived there, how big were they, hobos, soup kitchens, and facts. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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Causes of the Great Depression | Daily Bellringer

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Great Depression Era Culture | DAILY BELLRINGER

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The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression | Daily Bellringer

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The worst drought (lack of rain) in U.S. history hit the southern Great Plains in the 1930s. High winds stirred up the dry soil. This caused huge dust storms that ruined farmland. The affected region came to be known as the Dust Bowl. It included southeastern Colorado, western Kansas, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and northeastern New Mexico.

Human mistakes made the drought worse. During World War I (1914-18) farmers planted new fields of wheat. Their plows removed grasses that had held the soil in place. Cattle grazing on ranches removed more grass. The loss of the grass cover loosened the soil. Winds blew it away in dust storms called "black blizzards." The storms blocked out the Sun and piled dirt in drifts.

During the drought, fields produced only one-fourth as much wheat and corn as before. Farmers struggled even more because the drought came during the Great Depression. The depression was a time of great economic hardship. People whose farms were ruined could not find other jobs. Many moved to California, where farms were still operating.

The U.S. government helped the Dust Bowl area recover. Government programs planted grass and trees. A government agency taught farmers better farming methods. Near the end of the 1930s rainfall finally increased. By the early 1940s the fields were productive again.

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The worst drought (lack of rain) in U.S. history hit the southern Great Plains in the 1930s. High winds stirred up the dry soil. This caused huge dust storms that ruined...

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The National Endowment for the Humanities

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Semiarid, constantly windy, and prone to droughts-with long dry spells coming along every twenty years or so-the grasses were what kept the land together, what kept it from deteriorating into outright desert. Their tangled roots held the topsoil in place, prevented it from blowing away and exposing the dense layer of hardpan underneath. But so much rich earth, left to the good graces of nature, is hard to resist. And in the late nineteen-teens and throughout the twenties, the grass was dug up and plowed over and the churned soil left behind planted in wheat, a booming crop at the time. It was, as Oliver Edwin Baker of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics put it in 1923, "the last frontier in agriculture": sodbusting the ancient Plains for a buck-and there were plenty of takers.

What followed, however, when a decade-long drought hit in 1931, was interpreted as Biblical: a nexus of Old Testament-worthy plagues that left people of the Plains wondering if God had abandoned their country, reneging vengefully on the promise of man's dominion. The loosened soil, now dry and free to blow with the winds, became massive dust storms that suffocated cattle and sickened children; there were swarms of pests-jackrabbits and grasshoppers-that consumed anything even marginally edible in their path; and, of course, without rain, absolutely nothing grew. Bereft of its grasses, the land was wrecked, not only unfarmable, but brutally inhospitable, with dirt drifts that could whip up and kill you. To protect their eyes and lungs, people wore masks that made them look like they belonged on a World War I battlefield. To protect their fields (if they were lucky enough to grow anything), they sprayed them with cyanide. To feed their kids, they sold their starving cattle to the government for a dollar a head and watched them be destroyed. To control the rabbits, they organized community picnics that culminated in bloody clubbing sprees, the carcasses left to waste in piles. This, in its broadest outlines, was the strange, self-blighted world of the Dust Bowl, a shifting zone of catastrophes (defined by what counties in the region happened to be suffering most at a given time) so sweeping and destructive that they beggar description, if not belief. It is also the world of Ken Burns's latest documentary.

Dust Bowl is "a Ken Burns film" in what might by now be called the traditional sense-that is to say, a beautifully wrought, latitudinous, and, at the very least, aspirationally definitive work of filmic nonfiction, right at home among the documentarian's prior oeuvre. Like Baseball, Jazz, The Civil War, or just about any other work from Burns's long filmography, it has the feel of a history proper. There are old photographs and grainy footage; contemporaneous accounts from magazines, newspapers, and correspondences; and a small cadre of talking heads (most of the professorial variety)-all drawn seamlessly together, as if the past and its detritus came ready-made for the screen. But for all the archive-culling and careful scholarship that makes it so quintessentially Burnsian, Dust Bowl is also, at its core and at its most compelling, a subtly different sort of animal from those that came before it. The hallmarks of Burns's style don't form the base of the film so much as its buttresses-the necessary but unmistakably peripheral materials that give shape and place to the raw stories of its real stars: a few men and women who, more than seventy years ago, as boys and girls, witnessed firsthand the worst manmade ecological disaster in American history. Tapping their childhood memories, Burns's vision of the Dirty Thirties departs ever so slightly from the sense of staid authority that his viewers have come to expect and takes on something of the haunting quality of a remembered nightmare: visceral but vague, fragmented, and, at times, almost unreal.

It is a wholly appropriate approach to the terrors of the Dust Bowl. Consider: What do three hundred fifty million tons of airborne dirt, blown up on sixty-mile-an-hour winds and crackling with electricity, look like? How does it feel to watch that cloud roll in? To be caught up in its abrasive, blinding rage? Measurements and meteorological data, film and still photographs, even eyewitness reports can only suggest so much-and Burns, deft storyteller that he is, knows it. He knows that, of the resources available to him, it's the child's-eye view, a naive and poignant focus on the so-called small picture, the apparently miscellaneous detail that all but magically gives expression to whatever is unfathomable beyond it. When, in the film, Robert "Boots" McCoy recalls the first big dust storm to rip through the Plains, it isn't his description of the black blizzard itself that hits home ("it was just like midnight in the middle of the day," he says, "just like midnight with no stars"), but the vignette with which he wraps up the experience of having a mountain-range worth of earth envelop everything around him: "Mother would pray about it, you know. And us kids"-he means him and his elder sister-"were little. And we stayed pretty close to Ma, I can guarantee you." No fact or artifact could make the storm any more visible, any more real, for the viewer than the act of sympathetic imagination that it takes to conjure an image of this mustachioed, older gentleman as a kid, huddled against his praying mom as the dark dirt blasted their home. It is an image that sticks. And it sticks because it makes the mass of the storm intimately intelligible.

Again and again, the survivors interviewed in Dust Bowl remind us that they witnessed the hard times on the Plains as children, knowing nothing but "a brown world," as one puts it, and trying, as best they could, to make sense of the overwhelming hardship, grief, and courage that surrounded them. Adult anxieties linger at the edges of their memories-failed crops, repossessions, the possibility of starvation, the shame of relief, the escape of suicide-but those weren't the kinds of troubles that, back then, they were prepared to fully process. What they remember are evocative slivers of that reality. They remember when dad killed the family's calf (the children, their father knew, needed its mother's milk just to stay alive), and the tough chore of trampling thistles (the only food left to feed the cattle), and the sight of a red morning sun, which, father said, augured a "bad day" (i.e., dust-storm weather). That their versions of events are from childhood memories takes nothing from their historic value. It is only a different history, metonymic and, set within the context that Burns and his scholars provide, all the more powerful for it.

Make no mistake: The film doesn't dodge the tough stuff. The children of the Dust Bowl saw things that no one, no matter what their age, should see. And they are as capable as any witness of telling those things with devastating directness. Calvin Crabill, for instance, saw in action the U.S. government's plan to stabilize the price of beef (the Depression was on, too) and lend a hand to the Plains farmers: Buy up emaciated, worthless herds of cattle and kill them. "What they did," he says, "was they took a bulldozer and made a mammoth ditch, a mammoth ditch, and drove all the cattle down in there. And then there were men above with rifles, and I would say maybe ten or twenty men with rifles, and they shot the cattle." The slaughter is represented in the film by the sound of gunshots. "I'll never forget," he continues, "standing there as a little boy. I was probably eight or nine years old when they started shooting those cattle. It's a sight to this day that-the average person couldn't stand it. But, as a little kid, it was very rough, because that was our stock."

And the most affecting moment in the film comes from Floyd Coen, whose little sister, like hundreds of others, succumbed to what doctors at the time called "dust pneumonia," a respiratory illness caused by tiny inorganic particles in the windblown dust. She died in one room of the family's two-room house, he tells the camera, while he lay sick with the same illness in the other. The doctor brought the toddler's body out on a table leaf, for everyone to see one last time, before carrying her off to the mortuary. "That was the hardest thing on me," Coen says, "and still is. She was such a perfect little thing." The man's face registers such fresh emotion at the recollection that it's hard to watch.

But we do watch. Because, in the grand scheme of Burns's film, it is only a flicker and then gone-just enough pathos to register the human consequences of tearing up the grasslands; but not enough to come off like some kind of over-impassioned indictment of those who, out of ignorance or greed or hubris, did the actual tearing. The Plains, these children's stories movingly (if only implicitly) argue, should have been left a profusion of grass-if they had, growing up on them would have been less difficult, less painful. But the kids were blameless of that mistake. And their blameless suffering makes them a resonant symbol of those blameless sufferers who might come after them. That is precisely where Burns ends his four-hour trek: with a worry (not quite a warning) about the future of the Plains, a worry that comes with its own brief history and bridges the gap between the Dirty Thirties and today.

New Deal efforts at soil conservation brought back the land. When the rains came back in '39, and dust storms started to settle down, farmers on the Plains turned to the Ogallala Aquifer, the 174,000-square-mile water table beneath them, to satisfy their crops' needs. In a region with so little and such unreliable rainfall, it made sense: All the water that they could ask for was right there, under their feet, and the technology to get at it finally was affordable. Wells started cropping up everywhere, some feeding crops that required more moisture than the wheat lost only a decade or two earlier. What seemed like a good idea at the time "was the beginning of a bad idea," said one old-timer at the close of the film. The Ogallala recharges, but slowly, capturing only 0.024 to 6 inches per year, depending on the specific area in question: much too slowly to keep up with the demands of the irrigation wells, which now number in the hundreds of thousands. Just how much water the aquifer holds is difficult to know, but its volume has been dramatically drawn down since 1950. At the present rate of depletion, the aquifer could, at some point, be pumped dry. And when that happens, the Plains, the people who live there, and their children could face the possibility of another Dust Bowl.

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Semiarid, constantly windy, and prone to droughts-with long dry spells coming along every twenty years or so-the grasses were what kept the land together, what kept it from deteriorating into outright desert. Their tangled roots held the topsoil in place, prevented it from blowing away and exposing the dense layer of hardpan underneath.

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Kids learn about the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression including when and where it took place, the dust storms, drought, Black Sunday, Okies, government aid, and migration to California. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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Google Arts and Culture: American Civil War Collection

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Google Arts and Culture: American Civil War Collection

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The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North, which also included some geographically western and southern states, proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights in order to uphold slavery.
Of the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states were declared by partisans to have seceded from the country, and the so-called Confederate States of America was organized in rebellion against the U.S. constitutional government. The Confederacy grew to control at least a majority of territory in eleven states, and it claimed the additional states of Kentucky and Missouri by assertions from native secessionists fleeing Union authority.

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American Civil War - Google Arts & Culture

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The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people.

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Google Arts and Culture: Great Depression Collection

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Google Arts and Culture: Great Depression Collection

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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States. The timing of the Great Depression varied across the world; in most countries, it started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. The Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how intensely the global economy can decline.
The Great Depression started in the United States after a major fall in stock prices that began around September 4, 1929, and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of October 29, 1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide gross domestic product fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II.
The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor countries. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade fell by more than 50%.

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The Great Depression - Google Arts & Culture

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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States.

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National Geographic Education - National Geographic Society

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Mapping the Dust Bowl Migration

by James Gregory

The press called them Dust Bowl refugees, although actually few came from the area devastated by dust storms. Instead they came from a broad area encompassing five southern plains states: Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. More than half a million left the region in the 1930s, heading for California and other western states. Below are interactive maps and charts that show various dimensions of the Dust Bowl Migration to California and the West. The first shows the number of migrants who settled in California between 1935 and 1940. Another shows county by county where the migrants settled. The maps are hosted by Tableau Public. If slow, refresh the page. .

Move between four maps by selecting tabs below

Source: These maps are based on research first published in James N. Gregory, American Exodus: The Dustbowl Migration and Okie Culture in California. The U.S. Census data is from the Minnesota Population Center's IPUMS USA: Steven Ruggles, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 6.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2015, the following samples: 1900 1%, 1910 1%, 1920 1%, 1930 1%, 1940 1%, 1950 1%, 1960 1%, 1970 1% Metro FM1, 1980 1% Metro, 1990 1%, 2000 1%.

Maps and calculations: James Gregory.

Additional maps and charts

Upwards of 7 million African Americans left the South during the 20th century, settling mostly in the big cities of the North and West. In doing so they transformed more than their own lives. This Great Migration transformed cities and set the foundations for reconstructions of race, politics, and even the regional balances of the nation. This section includes six interactive maps and charts.

Who settled in the big cities of the North and West? Three interactive maps show the answers decade by decade.

Six maps and charts compare the migration patterns of all southerners: Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Natives, Whites.

Here are charts and tables showing who moved to each state and who left each state. Using birthplace information, we track decade-by-decade the population origins of California, Florida, Texas, Illinois, New York, Hawaii, and every other state, showing countries of birth and states of birth. Secondly, we show where people from each state settled, how many stayed and how many left.

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The press called them Dust Bowl refugees, although actually few came from the area devastated by dust storms. Instead they came from a broad area encompassing Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. More than half a million left the region in the 1930s, heading for California and other western states.

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The Jamestown Colony was the first permanent English settlement in America. It was founded on May 14, 1607, on a peninsula of the James River in what is now the state of…

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There are a lot of great additional links at the bottom of this webpage!

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Colonial America for Kids: Jamestown Settlement

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Kids learn about the Jamestown Settlement of colonial America including the first settlers, John Smith, the Powhatan tribe, the Staving Time, interesting facts, and Pocahontas.

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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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Google Arts and Culture: Jamestown Collection

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Google Arts and Culture: Jamestown Collection

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The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River about 2.5 mi southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S., and was considered permanent after a brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island, later part of North Carolina. Jamestown served as the colonial capital from 1616 until 1699.
Despite the dispatch of more settlers and supplies, including the 1608 arrival of eight Polish and German colonists and the first two European women, more than 80 percent of the colonists died in 1609-10, mostly from starvation and disease. In mid-1610, the survivors abandoned Jamestown, though they returned after meeting a resupply convoy in the James River.
In August 1619, the first recorded slaves from Africa to British North America arrived in what is now Old Point Comfort near the Jamestown colony, on a British privateer ship flying a Dutch flag.

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The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.

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Jamestown Settlement | Jamestown Colony | Educational Story for Kids | Kids Academy

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Maps - Historic Jamestowne Part of Colonial National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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Date Posted: 8/3/2023Alert 1, Severity closure, Rehabilitation of Colonial Parkway continues with additional Parkway closures

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Jamestown | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Jump to: Background Suggestions for Teachers Additional Resources After five grueling months at sea, a small group of soldiers, laborers, and aristocrats from England completed a 3000-mile journey across the Atlantic and stepped off their ship to greet an unfamiliar new land. The year was 1607 and the land they chose to live on became the first permanent settlement of the British in North America.

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Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

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Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

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The History of Jamestown Colony For Kids

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The Story of Us: Early Settlers Fight for Freedom

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The Story of Us: Early Settlers Fight for Freedom

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Early Settlers Fight For Freedom | America: The Story of Us (S1, E1) | Full Episode

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explore the history of jamestown's early years

The Fort Period at Jamestown lasted from 1607, when the first colonists arrived, to circa 1624. By then, the settlement was expanding and James Fort had mostly fallen out of use. To explore key events from this period and the years leading up to it, click on a year in red below. Events shown in gold pertain directly to Jamestown, while events in green took place elsewhere in Virginia and events shown in white provide context or background information. Linked names, topics, and images lead to more information elsewhere on the website.

You can also explore our map of the fort site to learn more about what the archaeology at Jamestown has revealed.

before 1600

1600

1601

1604

1605

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Visit the real thing at Historic Jamestowne, explore the actual location and active archaeological dig, Jamestown Rediscovery, home of the first successful English settlement.

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Visit the real thing at Historic Jamestowne, explore the actual location and active archaeological dig, Jamestown Rediscovery, home of the first successful English settlement.

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John Smith’s “Virginia” was originally published separately in London in 1612 and then in the 1612 Oxford publication of John Smith’s A Map of Virginia: With a Description of the Countrey, the Commodities, People, Government and Religion. Subsequently it appeared in several other works by Smith and other commentators on Virginia. It remained the most influential map of Virginia until the last quarter of the 17th century and many of the place names used by Smith remain in use.

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The Colony of Roanoke’s Mysterious Disappearance | The UnXplained (Season 3)

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How Did A Whole Village Disappear? (The Lost Colony of Roanoke Mystery)

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The Lost Colony - Fort Raleigh National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)

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Discover the story of The Lost Colony on Roanoke Island and unearth a mystery
that has baffled historians for centuries.

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Lots of great links at the bottom of this webpage!

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Kids learn about Greek Mythology and the gods, goddesses, and heroes of Mount Olympus including Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Aphrodite, the Titans, Heracles, Achilles, Apollo, Artemis, and fun facts.

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Greek Mythology for Kids | What is mythology? Learn all about Greek mythology

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33 Myths about the Ancient Greek Gods for Kids - Ancient Greece for Kids

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The ancient Greeks believed their gods often got involved in the lives of mortals, sometimes to help, sometimes to hinder, and sometimes quite accidentally, causing all kinds of trouble. According to the storytellers, the ancient Greek gods were not always the most thoughtful of magical beings. Although the storytellers were quite inventive, and each told a myth in their own way, each god’s personality and powers remained the same from story to story. That’s because the ancient Greeks knew their gods well.

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Of all the Ancient Greek facts, their stories of the gods have to be one of the most fascinating!Join National Geographic Kids as we meet some of them...
It was believed that the family of Greek gods lived in a cloud palace above Mount Olympus (the highest mountain in Greece). These gods were thought to have special powers, and each had control over a different aspect of life. Many of them also appear in the tales of Greek mythology.

Zeus was the king of the gods, and the most powerful. He was the god of the sky and thunder, and controlled the weather. He had different powers, his most famous being the ability to hurl lightning bolts at those who displeased him! He hated dishonesty, and would punish those who lied or broke promises.

Hera was Zeus' wife and queen of the gods. She was the goddess of women, marriage and family. Hera was well worshipped by the Ancient Greeks, and the oldest and most important temples of the region were built in honour of her. Her sacred animals were the cow, lion and peacock.

Poseidon was the brother of Zeus, and god of the sea and earthquakes. Although one of the gods of Mount Olympus, he spent most of his time in the ocean. His weapon was a trident which was said to be so powerful it could shake the earth and shatter any object! He had a reputation for being bad-tempered and moody, and would seek revenge on those who angered him.

Did you know we have a FREE downloadable Greek Mythology primary resource? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. The Greeks believed Aphrodite was created from the foam of the sea on the shores of Paphos, Cyprus. She was considered the most beautiful of the gods, and later married Hephaestus, god of metalwork and fire. Her sacred animal was the dove.

Hades was Zeus and Poseidon's elder brother. Although a god of Mount of Olympus, Hades rarely left his dark kingdom, the underworld, where he ruled over the dead. Because he represented death, Hades was the most feared of the Ancient Greek gods - some people even refused to say his name! Hades was aided in the underworld by his three headed dog, Cerberus.

A son of Zeus, Hermes was the messenger of the gods. He was also responsible for guiding the dead to the underworld. Hermes was said to be the fastest of the gods and wore winged sandals and a winged hat. He was also known for his intelligence and wit, and would help Zeus with his important decisions.

Demeter was the goddess of agriculture, vegetation and crop growth. She was also associated with the seasons. The Ancient Greeks believed that her daughter, Persephone, was taken from her for four months each year, during which Demeter would grieve and withdraw her gifts from the world, creating winter.

A son of Zeus, Apollo was the Greek god of music, arts, light and medicine. He was famous for playing the lyre (an instrument a bit like a small U-shaped harp) - and he was also believed to have invented the lute (a pear-shaped string instrument). Although associated with health and healing, together with his twin sister Artemis, he could bring disease and plague to humans.

Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, skill and war. She taught humans various skills and crafts such as weaving, and would protect heroes during war. She was said to be Zeus' favourite daughter, so much so that he would allow her to use his weapons - even this blastastic thunderbolt! Her sacred animal was the owl.

Love reading about the Ancient Greeks? Then be sure to check out our other fab features...

Photos: Getty Images UK

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The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece! - National Geographic Kids

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Meet the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece here at National Geographic Kids. Learn about Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Aphrodite and other Greek deities!

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Introduction
The stories of the ancient Greeks about their gods, heroes, and explanations of the nature and history of the universe are known as Greek mythology. These stories, or myths, have survived for more than 2,000 years. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, which inherited much of Greek culture.

Like the myths of many other cultures, those of ancient Greece tell how the world was created and help explain why things happen. The ancient Greeks worshipped many gods. Their mythology deals with the creation of the gods and the struggle among them for supreme power. Many Greek myths recount the love affairs and quarrels of the gods. Myths also tell of the effects of the gods' adventures and powers on the world of human beings. In these stories, the gods' activities are linked with natural phenomena such as thunderstorms or the seasons and with religious sites or rituals.

Some Greek myths were primarily religious. For information on the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Greeks, see Greek religion. While some Greek myths were viewed as embodying divine or timeless truths, others were legends that the Greeks believed had some historical basis. In other words, these stories were thought to have been based on events that really happened or on people who really lived. Folktales, consisting of popular recurring themes and told for amusement, also found their way into Greek myth.

Sources of the Myths
Greek mythology originated as oral literature, or stories told out loud. The ancient Greeks told their myths over and over again before they were written down. There are thus many different versions of these ancient stories.

Today the Greek myths are known primarily from written Greek literature such as the Iliad and the Odyssey. These classic epics-long, narrative poems praising heroic deeds-are said to have been written by the poet Homer. He may have flourished in the 9th or 8th century bc. The Iliad, set during the Trojan War, recounts the story of the wrath of the Greek warrior Achilles. The Odyssey tells of the long wanderings and adventures of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he travels home from the war. The fullest and most important source of myths about the origin of the gods is the epic Theogony. It was written by the Greek poet Hesiod about 700 bc. Hesiod's Works and Days, another source of myths, tells of various ages of humankind. Many of the ancient Greek lyric poets preserved various myths. The odes of the poet Pindar, who flourished in the 6th-5th century bc, are particularly rich in myth and legend. The tragedies of the playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, all of the 5th century bc, are remarkable for the variety of the traditions they preserve.

Types of Myths
Myths of Origin and the Ages of the World
In their myths the ancient Greeks attempted to make the universe understandable in human terms. Greek mythology includes stories that tell how the world was created and the nature of the universe. The ancient Greeks viewed Earth as a flat disk afloat on the river of Ocean. The Sun (Helios) traveled across the heavens in a chariot by day and sailed around Earth in a golden bowl at night. Natural cracks in the ground were popularly regarded by ancient Greeks as entrances to the underground house of Hades -the home of the dead.

In the Theogony, Hesiod related the history of the gods. He wrote that Gaea (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven) had many children, including the Cyclopes and the 12 gods called Titans. Led by Cronus, the youngest Titan, the Titans rebelled against Uranus. After they took power, Cronus ruled as the chief god. Eventually, however, Zeus, one of Cronus's sons, in turn rebelled against him. For 10 years the Titans fought Zeus and his brothers and sisters, until at last Zeus was victorious. He then became the chief god.

In the epic Works and Days, Hesiod described five ages of the world, tracing the decline of humankind over time. First came the Golden Age, the time when Cronus and the Titans ruled the world. The people of the Golden Age never grew old, were free from toil, and passed their time in fun and feasting. When they died, they became guardian spirits on Earth. Zeus ruled over the next periods, the Silver, Bronze, Heroic, and Iron ages. After the people of the Silver Age began neglecting the gods, Zeus hid the people in the Earth where they became spirits among the dead. He then created the people of the Bronze Age, but they were violent and destroyed one another. Next came the more civilized Heroic age. The heroes of this time fought in celebrated conflicts, such as the Trojan War, that had been recounted in the great Greek epic poems. Finally came the Iron Age, a time full of troubles. Hesiod identified the Iron Age as the age in which he was living.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Patrick O'Neill Riley

Hesiod explained the presence of evil in the world through the story of Pandora, the first woman on Earth. Prometheus, a fire god and divine trickster, had stolen fire from heaven and given it to mortal men. This gift angered Zeus, and he had Pandora created as punishment. Pandora had a mysterious jar that her husband ordered her not to open. Out of curiosity, she opened it anyway, and evils, hard work, and disease flew out to plague humanity. Only hope remained in the jar.

Myths of the Gods
Ancient Greek myths about the gods described their births, victories over monsters or rivals, love affairs, and special powers. Some myths told of their connections with a religious site or ritual. The gods had tremendous powers. They were generally pictured as being much like men and women, only superior-stronger, more beautiful, and immortal (living forever). Even so, they had numerous shortcomings. The gods often acted out of jealousy, vanity, or spite.

Zeus, the chief god, ruled over the world from the top of Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. A sky god, he made thunder and lightning, rain, and the winds. Zeus ruled together with 11 other gods, who were members of his family. Each of these gods embodied or controlled specific natural forces or areas of life. Zeus's brother Poseidon ruled over the sea, while his brother Hades ruled over the underworld. Hera, the sister and wife of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage and of women. Zeus's sister Hestia was the goddess of the home and family.

Zeus's favorite daughter was Athena. She was the goddess of wisdom and crafts and the protector of the city-state of Athens. Athena was also the goddess of the more civilized side of war, while her brother Ares represented war's brutal violence. Their sister Aphrodite was the goddess of love.

Apollo, a son of Zeus, was both revered and feared. He presided over religious and civil law and was the god of light, music, poetry, healing, and prophecy. In later myths he was associated with the Sun. Apollo's twin sister, Artemis, became associated with the Moon. Artemis was also the goddess of the hunt and of wild animals.

Hermes, a son of Zeus, was the messenger of the gods, as well as a trickster. He was the god of roads, travelers, dreams, and thieves, and he delivered the dead to the underworld. Hephaestus, another of Zeus's sons, was the god of fire and metalworking. Because he was lame, his parents kicked him out of heaven.

In addition to these 12 major gods, there were numerous lesser ones. Dionysus was the god of wine and fruitfulness. Pan was a rural deity of fertility. Asclepius was the god of medicine. Of the many folk deities, the nymphs were nature goddesses associated with trees or water. The Graces were three sisters who were goddesses of fertility and beauty. The Muses, another group of sister goddesses, served as patrons of the arts and sciences. The three Fates were old women who determined human destinies, including the length of a person's life. The Furies were goddesses of vengeance who punished the wicked.

Major figures in Greek and Roman mythology

Major figures in Greek mythology

Myths of Heroes
The ancient Greeks also told stories about heroes, human beings who performed amazing feats. Hero myths included elements from tradition, folktale, and fiction. Some of the heroes of Greek mythology were likely based on people who actually lived. Their legends, however, have been greatly embellished with fiction.

The heroes of Homer's epics were noted warriors. Achilles was the bravest, handsomest, and greatest warrior of the Greek army of Agamemnon in the Trojan War. He slew the Trojan hero Hector. Other heroes from the Iliad include the Greeks Menelaus, Ajax, Diomedes, Odysseus, and Nestor and the Trojans Aeneas and Paris.

One of the most celebrated heroes of Greek mythology was Heracles (Hercules), who was known for his tremendous strength. Like many other Greek heroes, he had one divine parent: he was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene. Heracles was made to perform 12 very difficult feats (labors), including cleaning in one day the Augean stables (King Augeas's stables, which had not been cleaned in 30 years) and fetching golden apples guarded by nymphs known as the Hesperides. The last of his 12 labors was to descend into the underworld and bring back the fearsome three-headed guard dog Cerberus.

Another hero known for his descent to the underworld was Orpheus. Blessed with superhuman musical skills, he sang and played the lyre so beautifully that animals, trees, and even rocks danced around him. When his wife, Eurydice, was killed by a snake, Orpheus went to the underworld in search of her. His music and grief so moved Hades that the god agreed to let Orpheus take Eurydice back to the land of the living. There was one condition: neither of them could look back as they left. They almost made it out of the underworld. When Orpheus saw the Sun, however, he unthinkingly turned to share his delight with Eurydice, and she disappeared.

Some Greek heroes were known for slaying monsters. The hero Perseus killed Medusa, one of the Gorgons, who were winged female monsters with snakes for hair. Perseus cut off Medusa's head, and out of her blood was born the winged horse Pegasus. The hero Bellerophon tamed and rode Pegasus. With the horse's help, Bellerophon killed a fire-breathing female monster called the Chimera. Theseus, another Greek hero, slew many legendary villains, including the Minotaur, a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull.

The Greek hero Jason led a band of 50 heroes, called the Argonauts, on a quest in the ship Argo. Jason's uncle had seized the throne of Iolcos, which rightfully belonged to Jason's father. The uncle promised to let Jason take over as king if he retrieved the Golden Fleece-the golden wool of a ram-from distant Colchis. After an adventurous voyage, Jason won the fleece with the help of the princess Medea.

Other Myths
Certain myths, in which goddesses or heroes were temporarily imprisoned in the underworld, explained the cycle of the seasons. The best-known myth of this type tells how Hades seized Persephone and brought her to the underworld to be his wife. Persephone's father was Zeus, and her mother was Demeter, the goddess of agriculture. In Demeter's grief at her daughter's kidnapping, she neglected the harvest and caused a widespread famine. Zeus thus commanded Hades to return Persephone to Demeter. However, Persephone had eaten the seed of a pomegranate while in the underworld. For this reason, she could not return permanently. Instead, Persephone had to spend part of each year-the winter-in the underworld with Hades and return aboveground to her mother each spring.

In some Greek myths a god transforms into an animal in order to deceive a goddess or a woman. Zeus, for example, took the form of a bull when he carried off the princess Europa. In another myth, he became a swan to attract Leda. Other stories tell of people being changed into flowers or trees. The nymph Daphne was transformed into a laurel tree in order to escape from Apollo. Narcissus was a beautiful young man who gazed so long at his reflection in the waters of a spring that he either pined away or killed himself. A flower sprang up where he died.

In other types of myths, the gods appeared on Earth disguised as men and women and rewarded any help or hospitality offered them. The gods also punished men and women who claimed to be superior to them in some way. Similar to such stories is the moral tale about Icarus, who flew too high on wings of wax and feathers made by his father, Daedalus. When Icarus got too close to the Sun, his wings melted. He tumbled into the sea and drowned. Another such myth tells of Phaethon, the son of Helios, who failed to perform a task too great for him-controlling the horses of the chariot of the Sun.

Also popular were myths of fairylands. Some myths told of encounters with unusual creatures, such as the Centaurs, who were part man and part horse. There were also tales of distinctive societies, such as the Amazons, a nation of female warriors.

Influence on Western Art and Literature
The myths of ancient Greece have remained unrivaled in the Western world as sources of imaginative and appealing ideas for art and literature. Painters, sculptors, poets, and other writers from ancient times to the present have been inspired by Greek mythology. They discovered that the stories' themes were still significant and relevant for the people of their time. Artists and writers have borrowed and adapted elements from the myths, retelling ancient stories in modern ways. Greek mythology has thus had a profound effect on the development of Western civilization.

Ancient Greek mythology was featured not only in poems, plays, and other literature but also in visual art. Characters and themes from Greek myths appear on ancient Greek pottery and sculpture. The ancient Romans based much of their mythology on that of the Greeks, though they gave their gods different names. Together, ancient Greek and Roman mythology are called Classical mythology. The ancient Roman poet Ovid's retelling of Greek myths in his Metamorphoses was highly influential on later writers and artists.

During the Renaissance, Europeans rediscovered Classical art and literature. Master painters in Italy added a new dimension to Greek mythology. Among the best-known Italian Renaissance paintings based on Classical mythology is Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus ( Venus being the Roman version of the Greek goddess Aphrodite). Other examples include paintings of the Leda myth by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo as well as Raphael's The Triumph of Galatea, which portrays a sea nymph.

Through works in the Latin language-above all those of Ovid-Greek myth influenced poets such as Dante and Petrarch in Italy and Geoffrey Chaucer in England. The myths later inspired the Elizabethan poets and John Milton in England. Jean Racine in France and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Germany revived ancient Greek drama. Racine's play Phèdre, for example, was based on Hippolytus, a drama by the Greek playwright Euripides. The French poet Jean de La Fontaine based many of the tales in his Fables on the ancient Greek stories known as Aesop's fables. Nearly all the major English poets from William Shakespeare to Robert Bridges turned for inspiration to Greek mythology. The Trojan War celebrated in Homer's Iliad, for instance, inspired Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde and Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida.

In later centuries, Classical themes were reinterpreted by such major dramatists as Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in the United States, and T.S. Eliot in England. Great modern novelists inspired by Greek mythology include James Joyce of Ireland and André Gide of France. Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses was written as a modern parallel to Homer's Odyssey.

Greek mythology has also inspired musicians. The German composers Christoph Gluck and Richard Strauss, the German-French composer Jacques Offenbach, the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, and many others have set Greek mythological themes to music.

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Introduction The stories of the ancient Greeks about their gods, heroes, and explanations of the nature and history of the universe are known as Greek mythology. These stories, or myths, have survived for more than 2,000 years. Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, which inherited much of Greek culture.