Social Studies · Grades 6-8 · 1607–1815
Early American History
In 1607, about a hundred English colonists built a fort on a swampy river in Virginia. Within two hundred years, their world had turned into a new country. How did that happen?
A colony is a settlement ruled by a faraway country. England's colonies in North America grew up on land where Native nations already lived. Africans were brought there by force and enslaved.
This unit follows that story from the first colonies to the young United States. Each lesson has a timeline, maps, key people, real words from the time, a quiz and questions to talk about.
Lessons
The Thirteen Colonies
New England, Middle and Southern colonies: who founded them, how people made a living, and what daily life was like for families, servants, enslaved people and Native nations. With a hand-drawn map and a quiz.
The Road to Revolution Coming soon
Taxes, protests and the war for independence, told in brief.
From the Articles to the Constitution Coming soon
How the new states tried one plan of government, then wrote another.
The Young Republic Coming soon
Washington, Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, and the War of 1812.
The big picture
- 1607 Jamestown, Virginia, becomes the first permanent English settlement in North America.
- 1620 The Pilgrims land at Plymouth, in what is now Massachusetts.
- 1732 Georgia, the last of the thirteen colonies, receives its charter.
- 1776 The colonies declare independence from Great Britain.
- 1787 Delegates in Philadelphia write the U.S. Constitution.
- 1803 The United States buys the Louisiana Territory from France.
- 1812–1815 The United States and Britain fight the War of 1812.
How do we know? Historians read letters, diaries, laws and ship records from the time. Archaeologists dig up forts, homes and graves, like the remains of the 1607 fort at Jamestown. Native nations also keep their own histories, passed down over generations.
Older students can go deeper with the high school unit on the American Revolution.