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

New England Colonies - 1650

Poster Text: During the first half of the 17th century, thousands of English families creossed 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 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.

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

The Roanoke Colony, in present-day Dare County, North Carolina, is also known as the "Lost Colony". The failed colony was a 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.

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.

Landing of the Mayflower on Cape Cod, 1620

• theology posters

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. She taught that salvation was through inward grace and not through performing religious works.

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

Map Depicting the Destruction of the Spanish Colony of St. Augustine in Florida on 7th July 1586.

• Florida posters

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

Carmel Mission, One of the Chain of Missions Founded by Father Junipero Serra

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

• money posters

Colonial Correspondence