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A drawing of a ship firing cannons at another vessel.

On the Colonial Power Struggle That Would Give Birth to the City of New York

For historian Russell Shorto, it was all about water.
by Russell Shorto via Literary Hub on March 18, 2025
Martin Howard, left, and Stephen Hopkins came to opposing conclusions about their colonial British identities.

Two Colonists Had Similar Identities, But Only One Felt Compelled to Remain Loyal

What might appear to be common values about shared identities can serve not as a bridge but a wedge.
by Abby Chandler via The Conversation on January 4, 2024
A man watching a maypole celebration.

Lord of Misrule: Thomas Morton’s American Subversions

When we think of early New England, we picture stern-faced Puritans. But in the same decade that they arrived, Morton founded a very different kind of colony.
by Ed Simon via The Public Domain Review on November 24, 2020

“Infection Unperceiv’d, in Many a Place”: The London Plague of 1625, Viewed From Plymouth Rock

In 1625, New England’s “hideous and desolate” isolation suddenly began to seem a God-given blessing in disguise.
by Peter H. Wood via We're History on April 15, 2020

Learning from Jamestown

The violent catastrophe of the Virginia colonists is the best founding parable of American history.
by Brianna Rennix via Current Affairs on March 15, 2019

Twenty-Four Things You Should Know about Pocahontas

To begin with, her formal name was Amonute.
by Akim Reinhardt via 3 Quarks Daily on March 5, 2018
Sketch of tobacco cultivation at Jamestown.

The Other Founding

A review of two books exploring the importance and legacy of the founding of the English colony at Jamestown.
by Alan Taylor via The New Republic on September 24, 2007
Signatures on a treaty.

The Treaty on the Severn River

Baltimore is Native American land — that's the first thing I want you to know.
by Emma Katherine Bilski via Contingent on November 30, 2024
A painting of a group of Puritans walking through a snowy forest, with the men carrying rifles.

The Puritans Were Book Banners, But They Weren’t Sexless Sourpusses

From early New England to the present day, censors have acted out of fear, not prudishness.
by Peter C. Mancall via Zócalo Public Square on November 25, 2024
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
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
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

A Modest Proposal

More importantly, our misappropriation of “puritan” has allowed scholars to ignore and the public to misunderstand religion.
by Carla Gardina Pestana via Commonplace on May 21, 2024
Statue of Pocahontas.

Pocahontas, Remembered

After 400 years, reality has begun to replace the lies.
by Victoria Sutton via Unintended Consequences on December 24, 2023
Destruction of tea in the harbor and text protesting the Tea Act.

The Many Myths of the Boston Tea Party

Contrary to popular belief, the 1773 protest opposed a tax break, not a tax hike. And it didn't immediately unify the colonies against the British.
by Meilan Solly via Smithsonian on December 15, 2023
Cover of book Seeing Red.

The State of Nature

From Jefferson's viewpoint, Native peoples could claim a title to their homelands, but they did not own that land as private property.
by Michael John Witgen via UNC Press Blog on November 13, 2023
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
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
A lithograph of Phillis Wheatley and the first page of her book, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."

Phillis Wheatley’s “Mrs. W—”: Identifying the Woman Who Inspired “Ode to Neptune”

Who was that traveler? And what did she signify to the poet?
by J. L. Bell via Commonplace on May 16, 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
Portrait of Samuel Adams with sunglasses photoshopped onto his face.

How Samuel Adams Fought for Independence—Anonymously

Pseudonyms allowed Adams to audition ideas and venture out on limbs without fear of reprisal.
by Stacy Schiff via Literary Hub on November 3, 2022
Black and white photograph of two women and three children standing or kneeling and surrounded by potatoes.

Which Foods Aren’t Disgusting? On Carla Cevasco’s Violent Appetites

“The connection between a hot temper and an empty stomach,” explained through a history of colonial interactions with indigenous peoples.
by Rachel B. Herrmann via Nursing Clio on October 4, 2022
Line of TV vans on road preparing to broadcast the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
partner

We Learned of The Queen’s Death Instantly. That Wasn’t The Case in 1760.

Back when monarchs had much more power—and news was far from instantaneous—it had major implications in the American colonies.
by Helena Yoo Roth via Made By History on September 19, 2022

Appetite for Destruction

Indigenous Americans knew how to avoid starvation. Colonists were too hungry to notice.
by Carla Cevasco via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 27, 2022
Daniel Mytens' painting of George Calvert, the First Lord Baltimore (1578-1632). (Collection of the Enoch Pratt Free Library / Baltimore, Maryland).

The English Origins of American Toleration

Can the origins of American religious freedom be traced to the religious and political history of England and its empire?
by Scott Douglas Gerber via Law & Liberty on June 15, 2022
Overhead view of Jamestown

Colonial Jamestown, Assailed By Climate Change, Is Facing Disaster

The 400-year-old site of Jamestown, Va., battered by flooding and climate change, is listed as endangered.
by Michael E. Ruane via Retropolis on May 4, 2022
Lithograph portrait of William Franklin

Governor William Franklin: Sagorighweyoghsta, “Great Arbiter” or “Doer of Justice”

The actions of one New Jersey royal governor demonstrate a rare case of impartial justice for Native Americans.
by Joseph E. Wroblewski via Journal of the American Revolution on April 7, 2022
English painting of Pocahontas by Simon van de Passe.

The Moment That Changed Colonial-Indigenous Relations Forever

How a massacre on March 22, 1622 irrevocably shaped relations between Indigenous Americans and English colonists.
by Peter C. Mancall via TIME on March 22, 2022
Patricia Hearst in front of SLA flag, 1974; CSU Archives/Everett Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.

American Captivity

The captivity narrative as creation myth.
by Ed Simon via The Hedgehog Review on March 1, 2022
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