These four videos take students from Native America before European contact through the Declaration of Independence in 1776, helping them understand the people, choices, and conflicts that shaped the country.

Many Nations, Many People: Native America Before 1492

Discover the diverse Native nations of North America before 1492. This program explores the Eastern Woodlands, Cahokia, the Southwest, the Great Plains, and the Pacific Northwest Coast, showing how geography and natural resources shaped food, housing, government, and trade. Students examine a continent of thriving communities and interconnected societies while recognizing the continuing presence and cultural traditions of Native nations today.

Two Worlds Collide

Explore how European arrival transformed the Americas and connected societies across the Atlantic. This program follows Columbus’s voyage, European competition, and Spanish conquest, examining Spanish and Taíno perspectives and the limits of surviving accounts. Students learn how the Columbian Exchange reshaped diets, environments, and communities, alongside the devastating effects of disease, displacement, forced labor, and the expanding transatlantic slave trade. 

English Colonies in America

Explore how Jamestown and Plymouth grew from struggling settlements into part of England’s thirteen colonies. This program examines motives for colonization, survival challenges, regional economies, and early representative government. Students learn about indentured servitude and the development of racial slavery, as well as Native nations’ roles in colonial survival and the effects of disease, land expansion, and conflict on Native communities. 

Declaration of Independence: Why the Colonies Chose Revolution

Explore how Jamestown and Plymouth grew from struggling settlements into part of England’s thirteen colonies. This program examines motives for colonization, survival challenges, regional economies, and early representative government. Students learn about indentured servitude and the development of racial slavery, as well as Native nations’ roles in colonial survival and the effects of disease, land expansion, and conflict on Native communities.