colonial America – News Stories About colonial America - Page 1

new study

Aug 24, 2024 9:00 AM CDT

Jamestown DNA Reveals a Family Secret

Researchers discover what would have been a scandalous birth at the time

(Newser) - Researchers studying the DNA of a man buried at the colony of Jamestown 400 years ago have uncovered a secret in his prominent family—he was born "illegitimate," which would have been scandalous in his day, per a release at Phys.org . What's more, his family appears...

Virginia Colonial-Era
Garden Yields Clues
to Enslaved Workers

Aug 23, 2024 11:41 AM CDT

Virginia Colonial-Era Garden Yields Clues to Enslaved Workers

Archaeologists excavating Martha Washington's first father-in-law's opulent Williamsburg garden

(Newser) - Archaeologists in Virginia are uncovering one of colonial America's most lavish displays of opulence: An ornamental garden where a wealthy politician and enslaved gardeners grew exotic plants from around the world. Such plots of land were the 18th-century equivalent of buying a Lamborghini. The garden in Williamsburg belonged to...

Scientists Hunt for the Ship Rhode Island Colonists Torched

Scientists Hunt for Remains
of Colonists' Act of Rebellion

May 11, 2022 1:30 PM CDT

Scientists Hunt for Remains of Colonists' Act of Rebellion

The HMS Gaspee was burned off Rhode Island in 1772

(Newser) - A new effort is underway to find the remains of a British ship that Rhode Island colonists burned 250 years ago, marine archaeologists and state officials announced Tuesday. The June 10, 1772, burning of the HMS Gaspee was an an act of rebellion that some proud Rhode Islanders maintain was...

Spot Where Salem 'Witches' Were Hanged Identified

Jan 14, 2016 7:29 AM CST

Spot Where Salem 'Witches' Were Hanged Identified

Proctor's Ledge is the fateful spot

(Newser) - Nearly a century ago, historian Sidney Perley identified the place in Salem, Mass., where 19 accused witches met their end in 1692; now, finally, confirmation. The Salem News reports that the seven scholars who compose the Gallows Hill Project have after a five-year effort definitively determined that Proctor's Ledge...

Historians Closer to
Learning Lost Colony's Fate

Historians Closer to Learning Lost Colony's Fate

Ground-penetrating radar may help solve mystery of Roanoke Island

(Newser) - New research has shed a little more light on one of America's longstanding mysteries: the disappearance of more than 100 colonists on North Carolina's Roanoke Island. The British settlers disappeared in 1590, three years after their arrival. Two hints persisted as to their fates: The word "Croatoan"...

America's Oldest Unsolved Murder May Be Solved

Jamestown researchers think they've identified remains

(Newser) - Colonial America's oldest unsolved mystery involved remains that have been known only as "JR102C," or "JR" for short, but their owner's true name may have finally been uncovered. The bones were found, buried in a coffin, under an old roadbed in Jamestown in 1996, WTKR...

New York, Age 400,
Looks Back to Holland

Sep 11, 2009 10:16 AM CDT

New York, Age 400, Looks Back to Holland

Exhibition features letter signaling founding of Manhattan

(Newser) - Today is an unhappy date in New York, but tomorrow is a much more joyous anniversary—on Sept. 12, 1609, Henry Hudson sailed up the river that now bears his name, leading to the founding of New Amsterdam. The Dutch royal family will visit for the anniversary, and two historical...