This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the English Puritans search for a place to practice their religion freely. They settled and eventually thrived in present-day Massachusetts, but they suffered the hardships of building a new colony.
This feature is no longer available.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the Quebec Act, issued by British Parliament, which further agitated colonists who were still reeling from the Stamp Act.
This feature is no longer available.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the early 1500s in New Spain, when the issue of slavery became controversial. Dominican priest Bartolome de Las Casas issued reports of brutal savagery by the conquistadors against the Native Americans.
This feature is no longer available.
This iCue Mini-documentary introduces the Spanish explorers Vasco Nunez del Balboa, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro's, who ventured across the Atlantic two decades after Columbus's famous voyages. The Spanish often used savage tactics to subdue Indian tribes and steal their wealth.
This feature is no longer available.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the establishment of the Georgia colony by philanthropist James Oglethorpe as a refuge for criminals from England's debtor prisons. At first he banned slavery for fear of an African insurrection, but eventually relaxed his rules to attract more immigrants.
This feature is no longer available.
This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces Maryland's establishment when King Charles I granted the land to Lord Baltimore, a devout Catholic. His appointment angered the Protestant population already settled in Maryland.
This feature is no longer available.
"The role of St. Augustine and Florida is often overlooked in the study of US colonial history, a study that often begins with the founding of Jamestown. Participants in this seminar explore the history and the cultures that created this fascinating colonial city. They examine the role the sea played in the city’s founding and development; the nature of the relationship between Spanish colonists and Native Americans; the role of the military in the founding, development, and everyday life of colonial Spanish St. Augustine; the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in shaping the colonial experience of the Spanish settlement; how women, native peoples, and people of color fit within the colonial social hierarchy. They reflect on the question of who writes history and how it is disseminated and the larger role that Spanish exploration and colonization played in America’s development."
These more than 200 documents explore cultural connections between the experiences of African Americans and Irish immigrants in America. Materials relate to individual leaders, historical events, economic, political, and social factors, and cultural achievements. A section entitled "Making Connections" offers 15 questions about historical events and people that represent the intertwined histories of Africans and Irish in America.
Other topics include the end of English participation in the slave trade, the emergence of the nativist Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s, and Ku Klux Klan activities against Catholics and blacks after the Civil War. A section on "Acceptance" explores perceptions of individual and group identities and four timelines focus on displacement, oppression, discrimination, and acceptance in America. "Voices" provides a sample of 13 public statements and interviews on ethnicity and race from ordinary modern Americans. The site also provides a bibliography; an essay by writer James McGowan, a black American with an Irish paternal grandfather; and links to related websites.