Contents

Preface .............................................................................3Hints for Teachers ............................................................41. Our Country So Long Ago ...................................... 112. The Northmen in America .....................................133. Prince Henry the Navigator ....................................154. Columbus and the Queen ....................................... 175. “Land! Land!” .........................................................196. Home Again ...........................................................217. How America Got its Name ...................................238. The Fountain of Youth ............................................259. French and Spanish Quarrels .................................2710. Around the World ...................................................2911. Sir Walter Raleigh ................................................... 3112. The Jamestown Men...............................................3313. The House of Burgesses .........................................3514. Henry Hudson ........................................................3715. The Mayflower .......................................................3916. Plymouth Rock ....................................................... 4117. The Beginning of Boston ........................................4318. Roger Williams .......................................................4519. King Philip’s War ....................................................4720. The Beginning of New York ....................................4821. William Penn ..........................................................5022. Bacon’s Rebellion ....................................................5223. Carolina and Georgia ..............................................5424. Down the Mississippi .............................................5625. Washington’s First Battle ........................................5926. Stories of Franklin .................................................. 6127. Braddock’s Defeat ...................................................64

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28. Wolfe at Quebec .....................................................6629. How England Treated Her Colonies .......................6830. The Anger of the Colonies ......................................7131. The Battle of Lexington .......................................... 7432. Bunker Hill .............................................................7633. The British Leave Boston ........................................7934. Declaration of Independence ..................................8135. Christmas 1776.......................................................8336. The Fight at Bennington .........................................8637. Burgoyne’s Surrender ..............................................8838. The Winter at Valley Forge .....................................9039. Famous Sea Fights ..................................................9240. The “Swamp Fox” ...................................................9441. A Traitor’s Death .....................................................9542. The Surrender of Cornwallis ...................................9743. Franklin’s Return ..................................................10044. Troubles After the War ......................................... 10345. The Constitution .................................................. 10546. The First President ...............................................10947. Washington’s Troubles .......................................... 11148. A Wonderful Invention ......................................... 11449. Death of Washington ............................................ 11750. The Louisiana Purchase ......................................12051. The First Steamboat .............................................12352. James Madison .....................................................12653. The War of 1812 ...................................................12854. “Don’t Give up the Ship” .......................................12955. The Star-Spangled Banner .................................... 13156. The Erie Canal ..................................................... 13357. More Land Bought ............................................... 13558. Andrew Jackson ....................................................138

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59. New Inventions ..................................................... 14160. Whitman’s Ride .................................................... 14361. The First Telegraph ............................................... 14562. The Mexican War ................................................. 14763. The Slavery Quarrel .............................................. 15064. The Rush to California ......................................... 15265. The Underground Railroad ................................... 15466. Harriet Beecher Stowe .......................................... 15767. John Brown’s Raid .................................................16068. Lincoln’s Youth ..................................................... 16369. The First Shot ....................................................... 16770. The Call to Arms .................................................. 17071. The President’s Decision ....................................... 17372. The Monitor and the Merrimac ............................ 17773. The Peninsular Campaign .................................... 17974. The Emancipation Proclamation ........................... 18175. The Battle of Gettysburg ......................................18476. The Taking of Vicksburg .......................................18677. The March to the Sea ........................................... 18978. Lee’s Surrender ..................................................... 19279. The Assassination of Lincoln ................................19480. Hard Times in the South ...................................... 19681. The Atlantic Cable ...............................................19982. Our Nation’s One Hundredth Birthday .................20383. Gold for Greenbacks .............................................20584. The Great Statue ..................................................20785. The Spanish-American War ..................................209Presidents of the United States .................................... 211

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1. Our Country So Long Ago

Learned men, who read the story of the earth in the mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, and seas which cover its surface, tell us that America, although known as the New World, is really older than Europe. The sun has shone on this continent for more centuries than we can count, and different kinds of men and animals have inhabited this land for many generations. The people native to this land had many different customs and ways of life. Today we call these people Native Americans.

The western and northern Native Americans lived by hunting and fishing, had no houses like ours, and were always roaming around in search of game. They were sheltered from the sun and rain by tents called wigwams. These people rowed about in canoes made of basketwork, of birch bark, or even of hollow tree trunks.

The Native Americans east of the Rocky Mountains had a different way of life than those living west or north. Besides hunting and fishing, they dug up roots with stone hoes, or with shells, and planted corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, tomatoes, tobacco, and sunflowers. They made winter garments by sewing skins together with sinews or plant fibers. In summer they had lighter clothes, rudely woven out of cotton or plant fibers.

The Native Americans in the South dwelt in what is now New Mexico and Arizona, and were also found in Mexico, Central America, and South America, as far down the map as Chile. The southern natives built canals, so as to lead the water far away from the streams into dry and barren lands. When the ground had thus been watered, or irrigated, it became very fruitful, and they could grow all the grain and vegetables they needed. The southern natives lived together in huge fortresses, built of sun-dried bricks, called adobe. Sometimes they built their houses on the ledges of steep rocks, or canyons. Such houses were called cliff dwellings and were built that way to defend themselves from any attack from foreign tribes.

These interesting people lived many centuries on this continent before any visitors from Europe reached its shores.

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies

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Sixteenth-century Europeans were impressed by the large amount of game and agricultural produce the Native People kept in storehouses against time of need.

H. A. Guerber

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2. The Northmen in America

The people in Europe had long been great travelers by land and sea, although it was not so easy to get about then as it is now. Indeed, on land they could go only in wagons, in litters, on horseback, or on foot; and on the water they used nothing but rowboats or sailboats, because no one had yet imagined that one could use steam or electricity. On the sea, even the boldest sailors did not dare venture far out of sight of land, for fear they would not be able to find their way back.

The best seamen in Europe were the Northmen, or Vikings. Already in the eighth century they used to sail out of the viks, or bays, in Norway every spring to go in search of adventures. These Northmen, Norsemen, or Normans little by little explored the coast of the North Sea and of the Atlantic Ocean, and finally came to the Strait of Gibraltar. Passing through this opening, they came to the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, where they cruised about, even visiting the Greek islands and the renowned city of Constantinople.

In the middle of the ninth century, one of these hardy seamen, after tossing about on the stormy seas several days, landed on an island which he had never seen before. This new place was Iceland, and he was so pleased with his discovery that he sailed home and persuaded his family and friends to go back there with him to settle down. In a few years, other Northmen came to live in Iceland, sailing across the Atlantic from time to time to visit their old homes and friends.

About a hundred years later, Eric the Red was driven out of Iceland for murder. He sailed westward and went to settle in an ice-covered new country, which he called Greenland, so as to attract other settlers. A number of them soon joined him there and began to trade with the Eskimos, a race of natives who lived in the coldest part of the country, where they hunted white bears and fished for cod and seals.

Eric’s son Leif would later set off west from Greenland in search of land a friend had mistakenly come upon. Leif coasted along Labrador and Nova Scotia, came to Cape Cod, and landed, it is thought, somewhere in Newfoundland, Canada, in the year 1000 A.D. Although Leif did not know it, they had been the first Europeans to see North America, which, as you will see, did not receive this name until many years later. Leif the Lucky found so many wild grapes in this region that he called the country Vinland (“Vineland”).

The Story of the Thirteen Colonies

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The Northmen, however, had a very hard time in America, for they were soon attacked by the native people. When they found that these attacks did not cease, they decided to leave the country, and went home in 1012. As far as we know, after that no ships from the North visited America for several hundred years.

Viking voyages to, and settlements in, Greenland and North America

Viking ship

H. A. Guerber

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