This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces newspaper printer John Peter Zenger, who tested the freedom of the press long before the first amendment was written. He commited sedition against the governor, but he was acquitted by a jury which favored free speech.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the major European powers' fight for control of the Old World. These conflicts were mirrored in France, Spain, and England's holdings in America where the colonists and Native Americans got drawn into the wars over trade routes and land claims.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces England's attempts to regulate colonial trade by passing the Navigation Acts—which included adding new taxes and controlling seaports. Americans were angered by the acts of legislation even though they helped stimulate the economy.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes mercantilism, an economic system which rested on the exchange of raw goods from North America with manufactured goods from England. The practice eventually enraged the colonists, who saw it as England's effort to assert its control over the colonies.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary introduces joint-stock companies, which financed the settlement of colonies in the New World. These private companies raised money by selling stock and eventually rewarding investors with the profits from American goods.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the establishment of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, in 1607. The first years were extremely difficult for the colonists, under the leadership of John Smith. Food was scarce and relations with the Native Americans were tense.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the departure of a group of Puritan Separatists from England aboard the Mayflower to settle a colony in America. In Plymouth, MA, they signed the Mayflower Compact, promising that all decisions of the new colony would be made by the majority.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the Dutch settlement in New Amsterdam (now New York City) to establish a stronghold in the fur trade.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes how the Wampanoag Indians helped the English Puritans survive at their new colony at Plymouth, MA. Chief Massasoit and Plymouth Governor William Bradford signed a treaty of peace that lasts more than 50 years and resulted in the first Thanksgiving.
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This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the Stamp Act, a British tax on all printed material, from marriage licenses to playing cards. It infuriated colonists.
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