13 English Colonies: Before Independence

Lesson Overview
Students will investigate a series of maps depicting a voyage by Sir Francis Drake which involved attacks on the Spanish settlements off the coast of Africa (Santiago), Caribbean (Santo Domingo), South America (Cartagena), and North America (St. Augustine). Students will then examine a map of the entire voyage. Students will look closely at the details of each of these depictions and draw conclusions about the individual events as well as the entire voyage

Lesson Overview
Students will develop visual literacy skills by analyzing the images from John White Alexander’s mural in the Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress, while learning about the history of the Library of Congress. Then, students will further their skills by using tools of art and design to analyze other images from the Library’s extensive online collections.

Lesson Overview
Students will analyze a set of pictograph documents created by native peoples of Puebla, Mexico in 1531. Students will take on the role of historians, study the documents, and create a scenario to explain what these documents were for, who created them, and why. The codex was an accounting of excess taxation and students will decode the images and tabulate the quantities of goods paid to the local government.

Lesson Overview
The 1507 World Map by Martin Waldseemüller is one of the world’s most important maps. For the first time, this map labels America and shows the continent as a separate land mass. It is often referred to as America’s Birth Certificate. Students will investigate this map by looking closely at the details of each section of the map and then draw conclusions on the revelation of this new and unusual world to the people of 1507.

Grades 6-8:
European settlement patterns were influenced by geographic conditions such as access to water, harbors, natural protection, arable land, natural resources and adequate growing season and rainfall. Examine a variety of primary sources to determine why colonists were drawn to a particular region of the country.