Unit 1: Early Colonization and the Growth of Colonies

Updated 2024-25 Unit Materials Available Here!
These materials have refreshed formatting and layout, but no substantive changes from the 2023-24 materials.

Cluster 1: North America's Indigenous Societies Before 1500 (Lessons 1-3)
How did the places they lived matter to the many Indigenous societies of North America? How do they still matter to Indigenous people today?

Lesson 1: How Do We Know What the United States Was Like 600 Years Ago?

Lesson 2: Indigenous North America Through Artifact Investigation

Lesson 3: North American Regions and Diverse Indigenous Societies before 1500

Cluster 2: European Nations and Their "New World" Colonies (Lessons 4-6)
What changed and why when Europeans came to the Americas?

Lesson 4: Analyzing Maps and Their Views of the Land

Lesson 5: Motives of European Nations in North America

Lesson 6: Comparing an Early English, French and Spanish Settlement

Cluster 3: Britain's North American Colonies Before 1750 (Lessons 7-13)
How were the North American colonies diverse, and what caused their differences?
What were the early interactions between British colonists and Indigenous people like? What were the causes of cooperation or conflict between them?

Lesson 7: Thirteen Colonies of British North America (Part I)

Lesson 8: Thirteen Colonies of British North America (Part II)

Lesson 9: A Meeting of Worlds: Cooperation and Conflict Between Indigenous & British Peoples (Part I)

Lesson 10: A Meeting of Worlds: Cooperation and Conflict Between Indigenous & British Peoples (Part II)

Lesson 11: Pocahontas—A Case Study

Lesson 12: Labor in British North America

Lesson 13: Sugar: How One Product Shaped the Colonies

Cluster 4: Slavery and the Struggle for Freedom in the Americas (Lessons 14-19)
How did African people survive and resist enslavement?
What role did European beliefs and values play in the origins of slavery?

Lesson 14: The Maafa, or the Great Disaster: The Middle Passage

Lesson 15: European Beliefs and the Origins of Slavery

Lesson 16: Race, Slavery, and Laws

Lesson 17: Preserving Knowledge: the Creation of an African Diaspora

Lesson 18: The Stono Uprising: Resisting Enslavement

Lesson 19: Introducing the Abolitionists

Cluster 5: The British American Colonies in 1750 (Lessons 20-21)
Did most people in the British colonies believe they were American in 1750?

Lesson 20: Inquiry: Did Most People in the British Colonies Believe They Were American in 1750? (Part I)

Lesson 21: Inquiry: Did Most People in the British Colonies Believe They Were American in 1750? (Part II)

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