Uncovering the Past Through Primary Sources

This month we've began the journey to understand the events leading up to the American Revolution. We began by creating a historical timeline and zooming into the 1600's. From there we studied different maps to determine the purpose behind colonization. Our understandings include:

From there, we dug into the original charter written in 1606 by the lawyers in King James' English courts. Not to be deterred by 400 year-old language, we sought out dictionaries, atlases, and magnifying lenses to understand the intent of the original companies. We were surprised by the language we uncovered regarding spreading Christianity to the native people in America. Reading the original document helped us to better understand the perspective and purpose of the original founders of Jamestown.

Our next steps are to study historical maps, archeology dig reports, and journal entries of the different forts that were constructed in America in the 1600's. We of course had to kick off this research by building our own pillow forts!