Colonial Americas History Posters
for the social studies classroom and home schoolers.

Richard Hakluyt
b. c. 1552/3; England
d. 11-23-1616; London

The first serious English geographer William Hakluyt gathered accounts about the wide-ranging travels and discoveries of the sixteenth-century explorers. Intended to assist navigation and trade, Hakluyt's writing also advocated for colonies in North America.

The Spanish Empire spread across present day Central America, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico, the Southeastern, Southern Coastal, Southwestern and California Pacific Coast regions of the United States.

St. Augustine, in the state of Florida, was founded in 1565, making it the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the United States. (Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, was founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1496, and is the oldest European founded city in the New World.)

Santa Fe, New Mexico was established in 1608, and is considered the 3rd oldest European city in North America (and was abandoned 1680-1692 because of Indian raids).

The first successful Spanish mission was Mission Loreto, founded on October 25, 1697 at the Monqui settlement of Conchó in the present city of Loreto, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Father Junipero Serra founded a chain of 21 missions in Alta (upper) Californina, present day state of California, beginning at the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, on July 1, 1768.

France's American colonial empire began in 1605 with the establishment of Port Royal in the colony of Acadia, current day Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec and by 1699 the French claimed Louisiana and a trade network through the Mississippi Valley up to the Great Lakes.

The French also founded colonies in the Caribbean West Indies islands of Saint Kitts, Guadeloupe, Martinque, Saint Lucia and the western half of Hispaniola (Haiti), and French Guiana on the South American coast.

The Roanoke Colony, in present-day Dare County, North Carolina, is also known as the “Lost Colony”.

The failed colony was a 1585-87 business venture financed and organized by Sir Walter Raleigh. The entire colony, including Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the New World, disappeared when resupply ships didn't arrive from England for three years.

Sir Richard Grenville was also involved in the Roanoke Colony.

Jamestown, regarded as the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, was founded on May 14, 1607 on Jamestown Island of the Virginia Colony.

Jamestown and the James River were named for King James I of England (he was also King James VI of Scotland), the son of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots.

Did you know? - In 1609 the Virginia Company sent a relief flotilla to Jamestown with supplies and more settlers. Unfortunately, for Jamestown, a storm blew the flotilla apart and the flagship “Sea Venture” wrecked on the island of Bermuda.

It is thought that William Shakespeare's 1611 play The Tempest was inspired by an account of Sir George Somers who was in charge of the relief effort, survivor of the wreck, and founder for the settlement of Bermuda for the crown.

English sea explorer Henry Hudson, in the employ of the Dutch East India Company in 1609, layed the foundation for the Dutch colonization of the area around modern New York City.

A fur trading post at Albany was established in 1614 and the settlement of New Amsterdam was founded in 1625 by Willem Verhulst and his council who selected Manhattan Island as the optimal location. New Amsterdam became New York City.

The Mayflower, Mayflower Compact, 1620

“In the name of God, amen, we whose names are under written, the loyal subjects of our dread soveraigne Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, Franc and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glorie of God and advancements of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and countrie, a voyage ot plant the first colonie in the Northerne parts of Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of the another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civill body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherence of the ends aforesaid: and by virtue hereof to enacte, constitute and frame such just and equall laws, ordenances, acts, constiutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the general good of the colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cap-Codd, the 11 of November, in the year of the raigne of our soveraigne lord, King James of England, Franc and Ireland, the eighteeth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. ANO DOM 1420.

New England Colonies

During the first half of the 17th century, thousands of English families crossed the Atlantic Ocean to escape the hardships of living in England. They were fleeing religious persecution and strict rule of King James I and, later, his son Charles I.

Both James I and Charles I believed in the “divine rights of kings” and ruled with absolute power. And both kings threatened anyone who questioned their authority or the power of the English church. Unhappy with their life in England, many families chose to make the dangerous journey across the Arlantic to the New World, where they hoped to find peace and religious freedom. Although life in the rugged New England wilderness was hard, families created strong communities there. Men hunted, cleared the land, built homes, and formed churches. And women, often with the help of their children, grew vegetables, dried fish, and raised animals for food and clothing, By 1650, New England was the richest region in the colonies.

Pilgrims and Puritans -
Two groups of English Protestant settled in New England, where they hoped to establish their own churches and live freely according to their religious beliefs. The Pilgrims broke from the Church of England in 1607. They traveled on the Mayflower in search of a safe home for their religious community, landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in December of 1620. Because they had separated completely from the English church, the Pilgrims were also called "Separatists." The second group was the Puritans. Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans had not split completely from the Church of England. The strong faith of both the Pilgrims and the Puritans helped them survive outbreaks of disease and the harsh New England winters. But life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was not always peaceful: big arguments, usually about religion, forced some people to move from Massachusetts and set up their own settlements elsewhere. These settlements eventually became the remaining New England colonies of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

Native Americans helped the early New England colonists survive. They taught the new settlers many necessary skills, such as how to build animal traps, use fish heads for fertilizer, and construct birch bark canoes. Indians also introduced the settlers to many important foods, including corn, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, and beans, The colonists traded with the Indians, exchanging tools, pots, guns, and horses for animal fur. But conflicts between the Indians an settlers grew as more and more settlers arrived, forcing native tribes to move from their land. These conflicts would explode over the next 250 years.

• Maine posters
• Vermont posters
• Nathaniel Hawthorne posters

Middle Colonies

By the year 1700, Philadelphia had become the major trading center of the Middle Colonies. Wheat, the most important crop of the region, was brought to Philadelphia from the surronding area. From there, it was shipped to Europe, the West Indies, and other American colonies. Most of the city's residents were single men trying to make money in the trading business. Many had come to the colonies as indentured servants – that is, they agreed to work without pay for a few years in exchange for passage to the New World and a place to live. By 1700, the shipbuilding and iron industries had developed to a point at which many men could earn a decent living in these jobs. The few women working in the city at this time clerked in shops and stitched clothes for export to Europe and elsewhere.

Quaker meetings were common in the Middle Colonies. The Quakers, also known as the Society of Friends, settled in the region after William Penn, a Quaker leader who had been jailed for his beliefs in England, founded Pennsylvania, or “Penn's Woods”, in 1681. Quakerism began in England during the early 1600s as a protest against the Church of England's elaborate ceremonies and its ties to the government and the king. At their meetings, the Quaker faithful often sat in silence, waiting for what they believed was God speaking directly to them. Anyone who felt he or she had been given a message from God could rise and speak freely. In Colonial America, Quakers lived not only in Pennsylvania, but also in Rhode Island, North Carolina, and western New Jersey. Quakers were among the first in the colonies to condemn slavery on moral grounds.

Southern Colonies

By 1750, the Southern Colonies had become the wealthiest region in Colonial America. Charleston, South Carolina, was an important shipping city. Planters in the large rural areas near the eastern seaboard grew tobacco, rice, and indigo. Many plantations were located on bays or rivers, where products could be loaded on ships to be sent overseas or to other American colonies. More than 150,000 slaves and 50,000 Bristish convicts provided cheap labor for planters. Poor white farmers, many still indentured to the sponsors who provided their passage to America, farmed and raised animals in the wooded areas of the South. But unlike slaves, indentured servants had some hopes of rising out of poverty if their farms were successful.

In the 1740s, preachers such as George Whitefield [aka Whitfield] revitalized the religious life of many colonists by giving passionate sermons to thousands of people, usually in outdoor settings. Whitefield's central message was that everyone was born a sinner and that people must actively find God in order to avoid going to hell. This message spread quickly throughout the colonies. Hundreds of thousands of people listened to the words of Whitefield and strengthened their faith in God. Because this message was shared by rich and poor, by whites and blacks, it is thougt to be one the earliest truly “national” movements in America. Often referred to as the “Great Awakening,” this movement gave slaves and the white population a shared experience as it actively changed the way people practiced religion throughout America.

Anne Hutchinson
b. July, 1591; England
d. 8-20-1643; killed by Indians in what is now Pelham Bay Park, NY.

Anne Hutchinson, née Marbury, was a key figure in the development of religious freedom in the American colonies.

Hutchinson taught that salvation was through inward grace and not through performing religious works in Bible study and discussion groups she held in her home.

FYI ~ Mary Dyer, one of the Boston Martyrs, was a follower of Anne Hutchinson's teaching.

Anne Hutchinson quotes ~
• “But now having seen Him which is invisible I fear not what man can do unto me.”
• “How did Abraham know that it was God that bid him offer his son, being a breach of the sixth commandment?”
• “If any come to my house to be instructed in the ways of God what rule have I to put them away? Do you think it not lawful for me to teach women and why do you call me to teach the court?”
• “One may preach a covenant of grace more clearly than another... But when they preach a covenant of works for salvation, that is not truth.”

• women posters
• American Jezebel, The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans

Map of New Sweden
c. 1638-1685

Nya Sverige was a Swedish settlement along the Delaware River (as in George Washington “Crossing the Delaware”). The colony was centered on Fort Christina (now Wilmington DE), named for Queen Christina of Sweden, and included parts of Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The founder of New Sweden was Peter Minuit who was hired by the Swedes after he was relieved of his post with the colony of New Netherlands.

British Colonies and Northern New France, 1750-1760
Map depicting the colonies of England and France during the French and Indian War. The spine of the Appalachian Mountains and the Great Lakes form a natural boundary to settler's ambitions.

The United States in 1792
Legend: The Mississippi was then the western boundary of the United States, but we had a claim on the Oregon country. England, Spain and Russia also claimed Oregon.

• more maps and charts posters

A Colonial Six Dollar Bill of 1776, an American Fifty Dollar Bill of 1779

• money posters

Colonial Correspondence