Browse Items (36 total)

This is one of the first visual depictions of the New World with images of its natives. It is a German woodcut print by an unknown creator. The print is taken from the descriptions provided by early explorers of the New World and gives Europeans one…

Observations gathered out of a Discourse of the Plantation of the Southerne Colonie in Virginia by the English, 1606 is an exert from one of George Percy’s journals. It was re-printed in the anthology compiled by the Reverend Samuel Purchas,…

This primary document is a letter and a first-hand account of life for indentured servitudes, and draws parallels between the treatment of indentured servants and slavery. It also provides a look into the difficulties of settling the New World. As it…

Painting of well known anti-slavery writer of 18th century.

Photograph of the Germantown Petition of 1688.

Photograph of title page of All Slaves Keepers that keep Innocents in Bondage, Apostates.  Book by Benjamin Lay.

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…

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…

“Sir Thomas Dale to the president and counsell of the companie of adventurers and planters in Virginia” is a letter that was written by Sir Thomas Dale to the Virginia Company in England about the state of the colonies upon his arrival in 1611. Dale…

The slave codes, though varying by state, set precedents of legal standing for both enslaved people, and slaveholders. It legalized racial hierarchy and denied any type of citizen worthy rights for people of color, and did little to protect the…