American Culture

Working the fertile soil of New Amsterdam, a part of the New York Colony, depended heavily on slave labor. By the 1700s, nearly 30,000 people resided within New York, one of the four Middle Colonies.

South Carolina was founded by Spanish explorers in 1526. It was settled 144 years later by the British, who established a permanent colony near present-day Charleston in 1670.

An English explorer claimed North America on behalf of the English crown; because of the belief that Native Americans had no property rights, the king of England gave permission for the founding...

In 1733, Georgia became the last of the 13 British colonies in North America, established nearly 50 years after New Hampshire. The province was named after King George II, who granted the charter...

Before the area known today as New York became the 11th state in the Union, it was a colony---first under the Dutch, then under the English. This period of New York history lasted for a century...

An English prison reformer, James Edward Oglethrope, sought to establish a place in the New World (North America) to allow debtors released from prison a means to begin a new life. His dream to...

Jamestown, Virginia was America's first successful English settlement. The colony was an experiment in the New World and became a pioneer in American culture.

In 1883, Emma Lazarus wrote, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,...

Colonial America was not a singular unit. Instead, it was a complicated tangle of chartered and crown colonies, each governed separately, under its own particular arrangements, and possessing an...

The colony of North Carolina was established with an Anglican religion by order of the royal charter. Because of the rugged terrain and the way it made communication and travel difficult, the...

The Colonial period ran from the 1630s through the American Revolution. Life for colonists was hard, and they depended on their families for survival. The household may have included not only...

Life in colonial Jamestown was difficult and challenging, with few rewards. The native population was constantly attacking, food was sometimes scarce, and winters could be brutal. However, the...

The Virginia Colony existed between 1607 and 1776. During that period, the colony went through a series of changes in both denomination and power, but the lifestyle of those living there remain...

Originally the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, New York, had a vital role in the early history of the Americas. Its central location, both along the coast and between Canada and the Atlantic Coast,...

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was among the original colonial settlements in the area that is now the United States. Settled by English colonists in 1630, the colony was centered in Boston and...

The original design of the Connecticut state flag is over 100 years old, although the central crest of the flag dates back to the historic settlers of Saybrook colony. The main theme of the flag...

One of the original 13 Colonies, Maryland has a unique history all its own. It became a land of tobacco plantations, was a border colony for slavery, home to the Chesapeake Bay ports of Baltimore...

There was a lot more to Colonial Life in Massachusetts than Thanksgiving Day and the Salem Witch Trials. This is what life was like for Colonial settlers in Massachusetts.