British, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Dutch Colonies

Learn which nations colonized each territory in the Americas and why

Understand the ecology and economy of each colony

Explore the history of people of mixed African and Indian descent in the Americas

Plantation economy- large scale farming in which crops are produced mainly for export

Freedmen- former slaves who were freed from their masters

Loyalists- colonists who supported the British during the American Revolution

Trail of Tears- when Indians were forcefully marched west to present-day Oklahoma by the United States government in 1830s

Africans helped lead the expeditions of French and Spanish explorers

Sugarcane

Indigo

Cotton

Coffee

tobacco

English arrived in the Americas to colonizebrought women with

themPlantations on east

coast of U.S.

See an interactive map of the British colonies

Read a list of supplies for the Virginia Colonists

See a colonist’s report about Virginia

Watch a film on early life in the Virginia colony

Watch a documentary about the history of the Black Loyalists

Black Loyalists (Nova Scotia and Ontario, Canada)Supported British

in American Revolution

Promised landRead the diary of a Black Loyalist

• Brought few women so they mixed with Africans and Indians

• Colonize, extract resources, Christianize Indians• Had the most colonies throughout the Americas

Read how the Spanish described the Indians of Mexico

Read Columbus’s letter to the King and Queen of Spain

BrazilExtraction of resources, plantationsChristianize Indians

Watch how sugarcane is harvested

Canada- fur trappers and tradersSome Caribbean coloniesArrived without women

French trappers trading with Indians

Read what a French trapper had to say about Louisiana

• Mainly in the Caribbean • Did not bring women to create permanent

colonies • Until 1900s Dutch Afro-descendants were

main population of Guiana

Blacks lived among Seminoles over 50 years

Some were interpreters for Seminoles when dealing with colonizers

Indians helped run away slaves, but also sold them back to masters

15,000 enslaved blacks on the Trail of Tears

Cherokee Freedmen

See an interactive map of where the Black Seminoles lived Black Cherokee

Garifuna

Also called Black Caribs Never slaves Skilled warriors

Mascogos Black Seminoles

that relocated to Mexico

Rebelled against slavery

Seee Garifuna culture and history Mascogo leader John Horse

Read the Treaty of Paris 1783

The treaty of Paris 1783 ended the American Revolutionary war with Great Britain and the 13 colonies were declared free.