Teaching Early American Topics

Electronic Web Sources for Early American Literature

New England


Anne Hutchinson's Examination at the Court at Newton - November 1637

Plimouth Plantation: Living Breathing History
"Plimoth Plantation is a non-profit, educational institution that is supported by admission fees, contributions, memberships, function sales, and revenue from our dining programs/services and museum shops. The museum receives support from private foundations, corporations, local businesses, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council."


Mary Rowlandson, Captivity Narrative

The Cotton Mather Home Page

New England Primer

The Poems of Edward Taylor

The Poetry of Michael Wigglesworth

John Winthrop, A Modell of Christian Charity

The Winthrop Papers
"The Winthrop Papers project is intended to continue the publication of historically significant papers relating to the Winthrop family. Winthrop materials in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society include a range of correspondence, commonplace books, printed works, maps, legal documents, portraits, artifacts, and photographs spanning the family's history from fifteenth century England to twentieth century America."

John Winthrop, Christian Experience

Fire and Ice: Puritan and Reformed Writings

America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century
"American as Refuge: The Seventeenth Century looks at the religious persecution in Europe that drove so many to the shores of British North America where these new settlers established colonies often centered on passionate religious convictions" Library of Congress

The First Thanksgiving Proclamation


17th c. Colonial New England, with special emphasis on the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692

The Salem Witchcraft Papers

Early American Studies Primary Works, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
"Eight electronic monographs prepared and posted online and published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These are 8 works out of about 1,100 collected in various series. All are full-text, searchable, and free-access, and are primary works involving some aspect of Early American studies. Scholars, researchers, and students are encouraged to browse, download, print, excerpt, save, etc.," Prepared by Paul Royster, Coordinator of Scholarly Communication, UNL Libraries

  • The Christian Commonwealth: or,The Civil Policy Of The Rising Kingdom of Jesus Christ. (London, 1659). By John Eliot
  • A Brief Description of New-York: Formerly Called New-Netherlands (London, 1670). By Daniel Denton
  • Old Mens Tears for Their Own Declensions (Boston, 1691). By Joshua Scottow
  • A Narrative of the Planting of the Massachusets Colony Anno 1628. (Boston, 1694). By Joshua Scottow
  • A two Years Journal in New-York: And Part of its Territories in America (London, 1701). By Charles Wolley.
  • The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. An Online Electronic Edition
  • De Bestiis Marinis, or, The Beasts of the Sea (St. Petersburg, 1751; English translation 1899). By Georg Wilhelm Steller.
  • David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations (Tuscarora Village, 1828). By David Cusick.