colonial life library

Fort Niagara

Fort Niagara, New York, a United States Army post on the eastern shore of the Niagara River on Lake Ontario.

Francis Daniel Pastorius

Pastorius, Francis Daniel (1651–1720?), a German-American colonist. In 1683 he led a group of Mennonites to America and laid out Germantown (now part of Philadelphia), Pennsylvania.

History of the Log Cabin

Log Cabin, a box-like dwelling made of small logs. The log cabins of the American pioneers were simple in construction because trees were their only building material, and the ax, adz, and auger were their only tools.

Jacob Leisler

Leisler, Jacob (1640?–1691), the leader of a revolt in colonial New York, 1689–91.

James Edward Oglethorpe

Oglethorpe, James Edward (16961785), an English army officer and colonizer. Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia in 1733 and governed it until 1743.

Jean Ribaut

Ribault (or Ribaut), Jean (1520?–1565), a French colonizer in the New World. In 1562 Ribault with 150 Huguenots (French Protestants) landed at the mouth of the St.

John Alden

Alden, John (1599?–1687), one of the Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony. He was a cooper (maker of barrels) from Southampton, England, and came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

John Endecott

Endecott (or Endicott), John(1589?–1665), an English colonial governor of Massachusetts.

John Smith

Smith, John (1579?–1631), an English soldier of fortune, explorer, and author who played a prominent role in the founding of Virginia.

Julien Dubuque

Dubuque, Julien (1762–1810), a French-Canadian adventurer. He was the first white settler in Iowa, and from 1788 until his death held exclusive right from the Fox Indians to mine lead in the area of the present-day city of Dubuque.

London Company

London Company, or Virginia Company of London, a branch of an English joint-stock company chartered in 1606 to establish colonies in North America.

Massachusetts Bay Company

Miles Standish

Standish, Myles or Miles (1584?–1656), the military leader of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony.

Patroon

Patroon, in United States history, a Dutch landowner who had manorial estates in New Netherland (later called New York).

Pennsylvania Dutch

Pennsylvania Dutch, the popular name for Pennsylvania Germans, their dialect, style of art and architecture, and regional cookery.

Peregrine White

White, Peregrine (1620–1704), the first child born in New England of English parents, William and Susanna White.

Peter Stuyvesant

Stuyvesant, Peter (1592?–1672), the last director-general of New Netherland, the Dutch colony that became New York.

Peyton Randolph

Randolph, a family of Virginians active in public life in colonial times and in the early days of the republic.

Pilgrims

Pilgrims, the English settlers who founded Plymouth colony in Massachusetts as the first permanent settlement in New England.

Pine Tree Money

Pine Tree Money, the name given to the first coins struck in the North American colonies.