Browse Items (36 total)

This is a first hand account by Gottlieb Mittelberger, who was a German schoolmaster and organist who traveled to Pennsylvania in 1750. He goes over the experiences he and others endured during travel to colonial America. The ships were extremely…

Part of Governor Shape’s correspondence, this details the buildup of French fortifications in the Ohio valley. The French construction discouraged English colonists and proved to be a point of great tension for Sharpe. Highlighting a key factor of…

In this source, Governor Dinwiddie seeks to gain Native American allies against the French, part of a British effort to acquire native allies. This highlights the alliances that formed prior to the war.

This is a letter from French Catholic Jesuit minister Pierre Biard to General Claude Acquaviva
of the Society of Jesus, at Rome, May 26, 1614. It describes Father Biard's capture in New France by
the English and their violent treatment. It also…

Richard Ingoldesby makes a direct request by way of letter to use the military might of the Iroquois League. Here he calls upon the Five Nations to participate in land raid against the French in Canada. This letter was written during the time of…

This is an exert from John Eliot’s diary while he was a Puritan missionary to American Indians.
It describes his many relationships with several different chieftains and various other Native American
groups. As well as their relationships with…

As European conflicts escalate outside of the North American continent, there was little attention paid to the colonies. The West Indies were identified as the crown jewels of the Americas, so if problems were to erupt their attention was focused…

This letter is from Luis de Quirós to Juan Baptista de Segura of the Spanish Catholic Jesuit
Society. It details Luis de Quirós’s experiences with the Native Americans in which he asks for
seeds to trade with Native Americans, and gives a good…

In 1751, Benjamin Franklin wrote to James Parker discussing the advantageous of forming a union of their own. In it Franklin shows amazement of how “Six Nations of ignorant savages would be capable of forming a scheme for such a union, and be able to…