The United States
The United States is a work in progress – and this blog — Welcome to Left Right and Center — an online exploration of United States History, where it began 243 years ago. This is an educational journey of American History — the good, bad and ugly.
A work in progress
Colonial America
Europeans first came to the Americas to increase their wealth and influence in world affairs. The first colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. Many of the people who settled in Colonial America came to escape religious persecution.
It is widely believed that in 1619 the Dutch traders brought the first African slaves taken from a Spanish ship to Jamestown Colony and that was the beginning of slavery in Colonial America. However, according to History.com, there were significant numbers of slaves brought to the region as early as 1526 which played a role in early Colonial America. Several Colonial Colleges kept slaves as workers and relied on them to operate the Colleges.
These colleges included:
- Brown University
- Columbia University
- Georgetown University
- Hamilton College
- Harvard University
- The University of Pennsylvania
- Princeton University
Colonial America where it all began with the Pilgrims, the founders of Plymouth, Massachusetts. They arrived in 1620. In both Virginia and Massachusetts, the colonists thrived with some assistance from Native Americans. Squanto, also known as Tisquantum, was a Native American of the Patuxet tribe of the Wampanoag confederation who acted as an interpreter and guide to the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth during their first winter in the New World. Squanto also taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, which became an important crop, as well as where to fish and hunt beaver. They were a Native American band. They lived primarily in and around modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Patuxet has been extinct since 1622.
By 1650 England had established a dominant presence on the Atlantic Coast in Colonial America where it all began. By the early 1700s enslaved Africans made up a growing percentage of the colonial population. And, by 1770 nearly 2 million people lived and worked in Great Britan’s 13 North American colonies.
On September 9, 1776, the Continental Congress formally declares the name of the new nation to be the “United States” of America. This replaced the term “United Colonies,” which had been in general use.
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