Colonies — Bunk History

The silhouette of a colonial American man overlayed on the front page of Publick Occurrences.

Why the Debut Issue of America’s First Newspaper Was Also the Publication’s Last

The paper angered colonial officials by repeating a scandalous rumor and condemning a British alliance with the Mohawk.

by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on September 25, 2024

The first British gravestone in the American colonies, a slab of black limestone with an engraving of a knight.

America’s Oldest Surviving Tombstone Probably Came From Belgium

How researchers analyzed limestone to determine the age and origins of the grave maker, which marked the final resting place of a prominent Jamestown colonist.

by Sarah Kuta via Smithsonian on September 25, 2024

A drawing depicting the 1637 massacre at the Pequot village of Mystic.

Tribute and Territory in the Pequot Country

Seventeenth-century maps and conflicts in colonial New England.

by Alice King via Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center on July 17, 2024

Illustration of the harmful effects of alcohol on a Seneca village

America's First Addiction Epidemic

The alcohol epidemic devastated Native American communities, leading to crippling poverty, high mortality rates — and a successful sobriety movement.

by Christopher Finan via Longreads on August 29, 2017

Painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

When Did Colonial America Gain Linguistic Independence?

By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, did colonial Americans still sound like their British counterparts?

by Chi Luu via JSTOR Daily on July 4, 2017

Allyson Gray strolls through Dragon Run, Virginia.

The Hidden Story of Native Tribes Who Outsmarted Bacon’s Rebellion

A scene of conflict that was lost to the ages has been unearthed, assembling an indigenous perspective on events at the very root of America’s founding.

by Gregory S. Schneider via Washington Post on September 20, 2024

Aerial photo of housing projects in the Bronx.

Suffering, Grace and Redemption: How The Bronx Came to Be

On the early history of New York City's northernmost borough.

by Ian Frazier via Literary Hub on September 6, 2024

Forest of pine trees.

Tree of Peace, Spark of War

The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.

by Ian Rose via JSTOR Daily on September 4, 2024

Costumed man and tourists in Colonial Williamsburg.

Where MAGA Granddads and Resistance Moms Go to Learn America’s Most Painful History Lessons

Welcome to Colonial Williamsburg, the largest living museum that is taking a radical approach to our national divides.

by Laura Jedeed via Politico Magazine on August 31, 2024

Drawing of a classic pirate figure, wtih an earring, a tricorn hat, and a satchel, yelling orders at a crew while a ship burns in the background

Were Pirates Foes of the Modern Order—or Its Secret Sharers?

We’ve long viewed them as liberty-loving rebels. But it’s time to take off the eye patch.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on July 15, 2024

Members of the Mason family, St. Inigoes, Maryland, circa 1890–1909.

How Bondage Built the Church

Swarns’s book about a sale of enslaved people by Jesuit priests to save Georgetown University reminds us that the legacy of slavery is the legacy of resistance.

by Tiya Miles via New York Review of Books on May 2, 2024

Cover of essays by John Dickinson.

Principled Resistance and the Trouble with Tea

For what did these Americans endure such painful hardship and sacrifice? For what were they taking such a significant stand? Surely, it wasn’t just about tea!

by Robert Guy via Journal of the American Revolution on February 27, 2024

Coral polyps.

Will the Sun Ever Set on the Colony?

Tracking the history of a curious scientific term.

by Whitney Barlow Robles via HNN on February 13, 2024

Another text is visible beneath a ripped piece of writing

How America's First Banned Book Survived and Became an Anti-Authoritarian Icon

The Puritans outlawed Thomas Morton's "New English Canaan" because it was critical of the society they were building in colonial New England.

by Colleen Connolly via Smithsonian on October 2, 2023

A painting of an American landscape with green hills and a river.

The Early Days of American English

How English words evolved on a foreign continent.

by Rosemarie Ostler via Lapham’s Quarterly on September 15, 2023

Painting of the english surgeon Edward Jenner inoculating a child.

How Far Back Were Africans Inoculating Against Smallpox? Really Far Back.

When I looked at the archives, I found a history hidden in plain sight.

by Elise A. Mitchell via Slate on September 4, 2023

Men wielding muskets.

America’s Original Gun Control

Early in our history, firearms laws were everywhere.

by Robert J. Spitzer via The Atlantic on August 12, 2023

Southwestern Indian drawing of people at work.

Saline Survivance: The Life of Salt and the Limits of Colonization in the Southwest

Once highly valuable, salt affords a new look at life, environment, and sovereignty in the southwest borderlands.

by Annabel LaBrecque via Commonplace on July 18, 2023

Two white containers from English colonists, with a backdrop of a Virginia map.

Was the 1623 Poisoning of 200 Native Americans One of the Continent's First War Crimes?

English colonists claimed they wanted to make peace with the Powhatans, then offered them tainted wine.

by Peter C. Mancall via Smithsonian on May 22, 2023

An ad for a runaway slave in the Virginia Gazette, describing Thomas Greenwich, an "East-India Indian."

“Of the East India Breed …”

The first South Asians in British North America.

by Brinda Charry via HNN on May 7, 2023

Drawing of a Black man in court pleading with a judge in 1741.

Was the Conspiracy That Gripped New York in 1741 Real?

Rumors that enslaved Black New Yorkers were planning a revolt spread across Manhattan even more quickly than the fires for which they were being blamed.

by Ashawnta Jackson, Andy Doolen, Richard E. Bond, Thomas J. Davis via JSTOR Daily on April 30, 2023

The Middle Hutchinson: Elisha, 1641-1717

By leading the risky but eventually successful financial operation, Elisha justified his name.

by Dror Goldberg via Commonplace on April 4, 2023

Painting of a pond surrounded by lush vegetation.

A Paradise for All

The relentless radicalism of Benjamin Lay.

by Astra Taylor via Lapham’s Quarterly on March 21, 2023

18th-century map of Madagascar by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin.

The Hidden Treasures of Pirate Democracy

In his final book, David Graeber looks at an experiment in radical democracy and piratical justice in Madagascar.

by Marcus Rediker via The Nation on March 21, 2023

Map of Jamaica.

Revisiting Restoration

Women’s economic labor was essential to state function.

by Jonah Estess via Commonplace on March 1, 2023

Cover page of "Cotton Mather's Spanish Lessons." Beige cover with a small red image of a tonsured monastic scribe with a book in front of him, evidentally engaged in scholarship.

Structures of Belonging and Nonbelonging

A Spanish-language pamphlet by Cotton Mather explodes the Black-versus-white binary that dominates most discussions of race in our time.

by Joseph Rezek via Los Angeles Review of Books on February 1, 2023

Painting, James Daugherty, "Thanksgiving Greetings."

You Cannot Give Thanks for What Is Stolen

American artists were instrumental in propagating the false narrative of Thanksgiving, a deliberate erasure of violence against Indigenous peoples.

by Joseph Pierce via Hyperallergic on November 23, 2022

Sculpture of Olaudah Equiano, the Queen’s House, London

Olaudah Equiano’s Transnational Insights

A brief look into Equiano's life reveals that many Black figures were considerably more transnational in their movements and critiques than commonly assumed.

by Taylor Prescott via Black Perspectives on November 10, 2022

An art installation that evokes the Hollywood sign with the phrase "Indian Land".

Contest or Conquest?

How best to tell the story of oppressed peoples? By chronicling the hardships they’ve faced? Or by highlighting their triumphs over adversity?

by Daniel Immerwahr via Harper's on October 11, 2022

Map of British colonies of North America in 1776.

Colonial America Is a Myth

Rather than a “colonial America,” we should speak of an Indigenous America that was only slowly and unevenly becoming colonial.

by Pekka Hämäläinen via Made By History on October 10, 2022

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