Anne Bradstreet was the first woman to be recognized as an accomplished New World Poet. Her volume of poetry The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America ... received considerable favorable attention when it was first published in London in 1650. Bradstreet's work has endured, and she is still considered to be one of the most important early American poets. (Poetry Foundation)
Olaudah Equiano was an abolitionist and writer whose autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789), became the first internationally popular slave narrative. In it, Equiano expresses a strong abolitionist stance and provides firsthand testimony of the transatlantic slave trade as well as a detailed description of life in what is present-day Nigeria. (Britannica)
Anne Hutchinson was an influential Puritan spiritual leader in colonial New England who challenged the religious doctrines of her time. Through the popularity of her preaching, and her unorthodox beliefs, Hutchinson garnered the disapproval of the elders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In direct violation of Puritan doctrine and church structure, she believed heaven was open to those who worshipped God through a personal connection, without the need for any church intervention. These and other beliefs caused Hutchinson and her family to be banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (History)
William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania and one of the first champions of expressive freedoms in the American colonies, demonstrated how a free society could work and how individuals of different races and religions could live together in liberty and peace. The principles of freedom that Penn promoted and adopted helped lay the framework for the First Amendment.
(Free Speech Center, MTSU)
Among the most famous women in early American history, Pocahontas, also known as Amonute and Matoaka, is credited with having helped the struggling English settlers in Virginia survive in the early 1600s. The explorer John Smith—who claimed Pocahontas saved his life—hailed her as “the instrument to pursurve this colonie from death, famine, and utter confusion.” (National Women's History Museum)
English soldier and explorer Captain John Smith was born in Lincolnshire and had an adventurous life as a soldier, pirate, enslaved person, colonist and author—though many historians question the details of his life. He claims to have had his life saved by Pocahontas, a Native American woman who allegedly fell in love with him. Smith played a key role in the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. (History)
John Winthrop was an English lawyer best known as the Puritan leader of the first large wave of the Great Migration of Puritans from England to North America in 1630 CE and governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which they settled and expanded upon, and the founder of the city of Boston. Winthrop is also known for the conflicts between his government and religious dissenters such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker, who were expelled by the colony and settled the regions now known as Rhode Island and Connecticut. (World History Encyclopedia)
Exploration and Colonial America (1492-1755) by
The series begins with a collection of exploration and colonial documents, and continues to cover every time period in American history.
Milestone Documents in American History: Exploring the Primary Sources That Shaped America by
Landmark reference source covering major themes in American history, with emphasis on African American history, women's history, immigration history, as well as 21st-century issues ranging from terrorism to campaign finance to LGBTQ rights.
AMERICA: OR, A POEM ON THE SETTLEMENT Of THE BRITISH COLONIES; Addressed To the Friends of Freedom, and their Country. By a Gentleman educated at Yale-College by 
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States by 
The Inconvenient Indian by 
Indigenous Continent by 
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People by
A history of the United States for young people told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples, revealing how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the U.S. empire.
Native Americans in Early North Carolina by 
Native Carolinians by 
The Rediscovery of America by
The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America. Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century.
