617-357-1775
Contact us

Research Aids

Primary Sources

Images

General Collection

  • Sabin Americana
    Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900's. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more.
  • Colonial North America
    A remarkable and wide-ranging set of images as part of an ongoing, multi-year project to digitize 700,000 pages of all known archival and manuscript materials in the Harvard Library on 17th- and 18th-century North America. The collection extends well beyond New England to Canada, other areas of the Americas, the Atlantic islands, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Great Britain, continental Europe, and parts of Africa. Over 200 years of colonial-era history are represented to cover the centuries of European exploration and colonialism.
  • Early Encounters in North America
    Early Encounters in North America: Peoples, Cultures, and the Environment documents the relationships among Native American, African and European peoples in North America from 1534 to 1850. Using diaries, memoirs, letters, travel accounts and other primary sources, this collection focuses on personal accounts and provides unique perspectives from many people, including traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, native peoples, and officials, both men and women.
  • America's Historical Imprints
    This collection of monographs, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents, and ephemera includes four cross-searchable components: Early American Imprints, Series I (Evans, 1639-1800, + supplements); Early American Imprints, Series II (Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819, + supplements); American Pamphlets, Series 1, 1820-1922 (from the New-York Historical Society); and American Broadsides & Ephemera.
  • North American Women's Letters and Diaries
    North American Women's Letters and Diaries offers a large collection of women's diaries and correspondence spanning more than 300 years.
  • American Founding Era: Rotunda
    Rotunda’s American Founding Era Collection offers primary and secondary source documents from some of the most preeminent figures of that age. These digital editions of the papers of many of the major figures of the early republic are presented in a fully searchable and interoperable online environment. This platform includes the papers of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madision, Dolly Madision, Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, John Jay and more.
  • Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
    Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) is a digitized library representing most of the significant English- and foreign-language texts published in Great Britain and the colonies during the eighteenth century. Subject access to this collection is provided by the British Library’s online English Short Title Catalogue.
  • American Memory
    Gateway to primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States.
  • Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive
    Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions. It consists of books, serials, manuscript collections, supreme court records and briefs, reference articles, and encyclopedias. The database is in four parts: Part I: Debates over Slavery and Abolition; Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World; Part III: The Institution of Slavery and Part IV: The Age of Emancipation.

Primary Sources

Primary Sources are original sources: they were created by someone who participated in or observed an event. They include diaries, newspapers, government documents, photographs, and other manuscripts.


Newspapers

  • American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection, Series 1-5
    This collection of historical periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society documents life in America from the Colonial period through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Cover-to-cover digitizing gives access not only to the main text, but also to advertisements, illustrations, obituaries, cover art, and more.
  • Early American Newspapers, 1690-1876
    Digitized versions of early American Newspapers from The American Antiquarian Society, private collections and The Library of Congress, Brown, Harvard, et al. Based on the microfilm collection of the same name.
  • American Periodicals Series (Collection I)
    This collection includes digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century. Titles range from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine and America's first scientific journal, Medical Repository; popular magazines such as Vanity Fair and Ladies Home Journal; regional and niche publications; and groundbreaking journals like The Dial, Puck, and McClure's.
  • Caribbean Newspapers,1718-1876
    A component of the database America’s Historical Newspapers, this collection documents more than 150 years of Caribbean and Atlantic history. The material is mostly in English, with some in Spanish, French, and Danish. Countries represented include Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Guadaloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Nevis, Puerto Rico, St. Bartholomew, St. Christopher, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, the Virgin Islands, and Bermuda.
  • Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection
    The largest single collection of English news media from the 17th and 18th century, the Burney Collection Newspapers provides rare and often unique content for scholarly research into a wide range of political, educational, economic and journalistic study. It charts the development of the newspaper as it is currently known from irregularly published transcriptions of Parliamentary debates to coffee house news books to its current form.

Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources are secondhand sources. They were created by historians who drew their information from primary sources. The most typical types of secondary sources are books and academic journal articles.


Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

  • American National Biography Online
    The American National Biography Online provides information about prominent people from all eras who have influenced and shaped American history and culture. It contains detailed articles, internal cross-references, robust bibliographies, thousands of photographs and illustrations, and links to external web resources.

Dissertations & Theses

Dissertations & Theses can be used as secondary sources and in some cases it may be easier to find a dissertation or thesis that addresses your specific topic.

  • ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
    ProQuest Dissertations & Theses includes citations, some abstracts, and many full texts for dissertations and theses ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester. The full text of most U. S. dissertations and master’s thesis from 1995 forward.

Oxford Reference Online

Books at Libraries

  • Library of Congress
    Use the catalog to find books, eBooks, scholarly journal articles, magazine articles, newspapers, and more.
  • University Libraries
    The catalog at Harvard University, for example, is good resource for print books and government documents. Many of these are available by interlibrary loan.

Finding Books on WorldCat

  • WorldCat
    WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information. You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos—all of the physical items you're used to getting from libraries. WorldCat can be used to verify citations, locate an item in another library, or to provide accurate citation information for inter-library loan requests. (Does not include citations to individual articles, stories in periodicals, or book chapters).

Interlibrary Loan

  • Interlibrary Loans
    Use Interlibrary loan to request any books, journal articles, theses/dissertations, newspapers, or other sources that the university libraries don't have. With print books and some other sources you may have to wait 1-2 weeks for them to be delivered, but electronic copies of things like scholarly journal articles can be accessed in a matter of days!

eBooks

  • Hathitrust Digital Library
    HathiTrust is a partnership of research institutions committed to digital preservation of the cultural record. The Digital Library provides access to public domain and some in-copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.
  • Google Scholar
    Use Google to find books, eBooks, scholarly journal articles, etc.

Browse the Boston Library

  • Library Catalog
    Historians find some of their best books by browsing the shelves. Click on the link to browse the Boston Public Library for history books:

Scholarly Journal Articles

  • JSTOR
    Images of the full text of many scholarly titles in a range of subject areas, including literature, biological sciences, economics, finance, and statistics. Search the archive or pull up a specific article.
  • Project MUSE
    Project MUSE provides full-text access scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. The database is a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University and other university presses and not-for-profit publishers. Also included are the UPCC collections in Asian and Pacific Studies, and Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction.
  • America: History & Life with Full Text
    Provides historical and cultural coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes information abstracted from journals published worldwide.
  • Google Scholar
    Google Scholar is a freely available scholarly search engine that allows you to search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles – from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
  • Academic Search Premier
    Academic Search Premier contains full text and peer-reviewed publications. It also contains indexing and abstracts for news sources and refereed journals in nearly every area of academic study including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, ethnic studies and more.

Selected Bibliography

Pequot War


Cave, Alfred A. The Pequot War. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts, 1996.

Drake, Samuel G. The History of the Indian Wars in New England from the First Settlement to the Termination of the War with King Philip, in 1677. New York, NY: Burt Franklin, 1990.

Jacobus, Donald Lines. List of Officials, Civil, Military and ecclesiastical of Connecticut Colony from March 1636 through 11 October 1677, and of New Haven colony without separate existence; also soldiers in the Pequot War. New Haven, CT: Order of Founders and Patriots of America, 1935.

Orr, Charles. History of the Pequot War — the contemporary accounts of Mason, Underhill, Vincent and Gardner. Cleveland, OH: The Helman-Taylor Company, 1897.

Shepard, James. Connecticut Soldiers in the Pequot War of 1637. Meriden, CT: The Journal Publishing Company, 1913.

Tebbel, John and Keith Jennison. The American Indian Wars. New York, NY: Bonanza Books, 1960.

King Philip's War


Bodge, George Madison. Soldiers in King Philip's War being a critical account of that war with a concise history of the Indian Wars of New England from 1620-1677. Official lists of the Soldiers of Massachusetts Colony serving in Phillip's War, and sketches of the principal officers, copies of ancient documents and records relating to the War, also lists of the Narraganset Grantees of the United Colonies — Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut. Boston, MA: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 2014; reprint of 1896 edition.

_________. Soldiers in King Philip's War — containing lists of the Soldiers of Massachusetts Colony, who served in the Indian Wars of 1675-1677 with sketches of the principal officers, and copies of ancient documents and records relating to the war. Boston, MA: Printed for the author, 1891.

Church, Col. Benjamin. Diary of King Philip's War 1675-76. Tiverton, RI: Lockwood Publications, 1975.

Church, Thomas. The History of Philip's War, commonly called The Great Indian War, of 1675 and 1676. Also, of the French and Indian Wars at the eastward in 1689, 1690, 1692, 1696, and 1704. Exeter, NH: J. & B. Williams, 1829.

Coleman, Emma L. New England Captives Carried to Canada between 1677 and 1760 during the French and Indian Wars. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1989.

Drake, James D. King Philip's War — Civil War in New England, 1675-1676. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999.

Drake, Samuel G. The History of King Philip's War, by the Rev. Increase Mather, D.D. also a History of the same war by the Rev. Cotton Mather, D.D. To which are added an Introduction and notes, by Samuel G. Drake. Albany, NY: J. Munsell, 1862.

Ellis, George W. and John E. Morris. King Philip's War — Based on the archives and the records of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and contemporary letters and accounts; with biographical and topographical notes. New York, NY: The Grafton Press, 1906.

Leach, Douglas E. Flintlock and Tomahawk — New England in King Philip's War. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 1958.

Schultz, Eric B. and Michael J. Tougias. King Philip's War — The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict. Woodstock, VT: The Countryman Press, 1999.

Society of Colonial Wars. A Record of the Ceremony and Oration on the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Monument Commemorating the Great Swamp Fight December 19, 1675 in the Narragansett Country Rhode Island. Boston, MA: Merrymount Press, 1906.

Queen Anne's War


Buckingham, Thomas. Roll and journal of Connecticut Service in Queen Anne's War, 1710-1711. New Haven, CT: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, 1916.

Donahue, Mary E. Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers, 1702-1722: Queen Anne's War to Dummer's War. Boston, MA: Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1980.

French and Indian War


Andrews, Frank DeWette. Connecticut Soldiers in the French and Indian War. Vineland, NJ: Frank DeWette Andrews, 1923.

Burrage, Henry S. Maine at Louisburg in 1745. Augusta, ME: Burleigh & Flynt, 1910.

Connecticut Historical Society. Rolls of Connecticut Men in the French and Indian Wars, 1755-1762 2 vols. Connecticut Historical Society Collections, vols. 9-10. Hartford, CT: Connecticut Historical Society, 1903-05.

Cowan, Maude R. Members of the Ancients and Honorable Artillery Company in the Colonial Period, 1638-1774. Washington, DC: 1999.

Donahue, Mary E. Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers, 1702-1722: Queen Anne's War to Dummer's War. Boston, MA: Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1980.

Doreski, Carole. Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers in the Seventeenth Century Conflicts. Boston, MA: Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1982.

Fiske, John. New France and New England. Boston, MA: Houghton and Mifflin & Company, 1902.

Goss, K. David, and Davis Zarowin. Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars, 1755-1756. Boston, MA: Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1985.

MacDonald, C. Ochiltree. The Last Siege of Louisburg. London, Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1907.

McKay, Robert E. Massachusetts Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars, 1744-1755. Boston, MA: Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1978.

Neagles, James C. U.S. Military Records — A Guide to Federal and State Sources, Colonial America to the Present. Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry, 1994.

Niles, Rev. Samuel, A.M. New England's Victory at Louisburg in 1745. Providence, RI: Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1986.

Pierce, Ebenezer W. Civil, Military and Professional Lists of Plymouth and Rhode Island Colonies 1621-1700. Boston, MA: 1881, reprinted Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1968.

Rawlyk, G. A. Yankees at Louisbourg — University of Maine Bulletin. Orono, Maine, University of Maine Press, 1967.

Voye, Nancy S. Massachusetts Officers in the French and Indian Wars, 1748-1763. Boston, MA: Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1975)

Watkins, William Kendall. Soldiers in the Expedition to Canada in 1690 and Grantees of the Canada Townships. Boston, MA: William K. Watkins, 1898.

Wrong, George M. Louisburg in 1745. The anonymous lettre d'un habitant de Louisbourg Cape Breton) Containing a narrative of an eye-witness of the siege in 1745. Toronto, ON: Warwick Brothers & Rutter, 1897.

______. An Account of the Treasurer of The Colony of Rhode Island for the Port Royall Expedition 1710. Providence, RI: Standard Printing Company, 1916.

______. Muster Rolls of Rhode Island Troops Enlisted During The Old French War. To Which is added the Journal of Captain William Rice in The Expedition of 1746. Providence, RI: Standard Publishing Company, 1915.

______. Roll and Journal of Connecticut Service in Queen Anne's War 1710-1711. Conn.The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Press, 1916.

______. Roll of Members of the Military Company of the Massachusetts Now Called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, With a Roster of the Commissioned Officers and Preachers, 1638-1894. Boston, MA: Mudge & Son, 1895.

______. Roll of New Hampshire Men at Louisburg, Cape Breton, 1745. Concord, NH, Edward N. Pearson, 1896.

______. The Muster Rolls of Three Companies Enlisted by the Colony of Rhode Island in May, 1746, for an Expedition Against Canada proposed by Great Britain. Providence, RI: Standard Printing Company, 1915.

Other Topics


Bradford, William, and Samuel Eliot Morison. Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647: The Complete Text. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952.

Burgess, Douglas R. The Politics of Piracy: Crime and Civil Disobedience in Colonial America. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2014.

Bushman, Richard L. The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities. New York, NY: Alfred Knopf, 1992.

Butler, Jon. New World Faiths: Religion in Colonial America. Oxford; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Calloway, Colin G. The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America. Oxford; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Cantwell, Anne-Marie E., and Diana Dizerega Wall. Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of New York City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.

Chidsey, Donald Barr. The Loyalists: the Story of Those Americans Who Fought Against Independence. New York, NY: Crown Publishers, 1973.

Coffman, D.Maris, Adrian Leonard and William O’Reilly, eds. The Atlantic World. London: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group, 2015.

Earle, Alice Morse. Home Life in Colonial Days. Stockbridge, MA: Berkshire House Publishers, 1898, 1992.

Eltis, David, and David Richardson. Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

Gangewere, Robert J. The Exploited Eden: Literature on the American Environment. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1972.

Goodwin, Maude Wilder. Dutch and English on the Hudson: A Chronicle of Colonial New York. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1920.

Hackett, David G.  The Religion on Which All Men Agree: Freemasonry in American Culture. Berkeley, CT: University of CA Press, 2014.

Harris, Sharon M. Women's Early American Historical Narratives. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003.

Hutchins, Zachary McLeod.  Community without Consent: New Perspectives on the Stamp Act. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 2016.

Hutchinson, Dale L. Disease and Discrimination: Policy and Pestilence in Colonial Atlantic America. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2016.

Krawczynski, Keith, ed. History in Dispute. Vol. 12: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. Detroit, MI.: Gale, 2003.

Krawczynski, Keith.  Daily Life in the Colonial City. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2013.

Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. The Jamestown Project. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.

Kwarteng, Kwasi. War and Gold: A 500-year History of Empires, Adventures, and Debt. New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2014.

Levack, Brian P. The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Marrin, Albert. Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars 1690-1760. New York, NY: Atheneum, 1987.

McDonald, Kevin P. Pirates, Merchants, Settlers, and Slaves: Colonial America and the Indo-Atlantic World. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015.

Moore, Lindsay R.  Women before the Court: Law and Patriarchy in the Ango-American World, 1600-1800. Manchester, NH: University Press, 2019.

Morgan, Kenneth. Slavery and Servitude in Colonial North America: A Short History. New York, NY: New York University Press, 2001.

Perkins, Edwin J. The Economy of Colonial America.  New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1980.

Pettigrew, William A. Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672-1752. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2013.

Philbrick, Nathaniel, and George Guidall. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Prince Frederick, MD: Recorded Books, 2011. 

Rawley, James A., and Stephen D. Behrendt. The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

Smith, Carter, ed. Daily Life: A Source on Colonial America. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook Press, 1991.

Smith, Carter, ed.  The Explorers and Settlers: A Source on Colonial America. Brookfield, CT: Millbrook Press, 1991.

Stratton, Billy J. Buried in Shades of Night: Contested Voices, Indian Captivity, and the Legacy of King Philip's War. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.

Winthrop, John, Richard S. Dunn, and Laetitia Yeandle. The Journal of John Winthrop, 1630-1649. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1996.

Videos


Desperate Crossing: Untold Story of the Mayflower. New York, NY: Films Media Group, 2011.

Founding Mothers. New York, NY: Films Media Group, 2005.

In the Beginning. New York, NY: Films Media Group, 1987.

No Rest for the Wicked: Protestantism and Economics. New York, NY: Films Media Group, 2009.

TEDTalks: Eric Sanderson - Picturing New York, Before the City. New York, NY: Films Media Group, 2009.

YouTube: Early Military Resources at NEHGS: Colonial Wars to War of 1812. Boston, MA: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 2015.

Timeline

Pequot War (1637)

  • 26 May 1637: A force of colonial militia and their Narragansett and Mohegan allies destroy key Pequot fort near what is now West Mystic, Connecticut.

Postlude to the
First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-54)

  • 1 July 1654: Having assembled in Boston, English and colonial forces led by Major Robert Sedgwick — including a contingent of Roundheads — capture Acadia; this territory remains under English control until 1670.

King Philip's War (1675-76/78)

  • 24 June 1675: Wampanoag warriors led by Metacom or King Philip attack the Rhode Island village of Swansea, initiating a series of bloody — and enormously successful — Native raids against New England settlements that will continue for nearly a year.
  • 19 November 1675: In the “Great Swamp Fight” some 1,000 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth troops (plus Mohegan and Pequot allies) led by Josiah Winslow attack and burn heavily-fortified winter quarters of the Narragansett, located on a swamp-surrounded island in southern Rhode Island. All of the stronghold's occupants are killed, wounded, or flee.
  • 12 August 1676: King Philip is surrounded and killed at Mount Hope in Rhode Island. His death brings the war in southern New England to a close, but peace is not made in the northeast until 1678.

King William's War (1689-97)

Part of the European Nine Years War or
War of the League of Augsburg
  • 11 May 1690: Colonial expedition commanded by Sir William Phips takes Port Royal, Acadia.
  • 23 October 1690: Count Frontenac, Governor of New France, successfully repels Phips's attempt to seize Quebec.
  • 30 September 1697: Treaty of Ryswick ends the conflict and restores Port Royal to France.

Queen Anne's War (1702-13)

Part of the European War of the Spanish Succession
  • 28-29 February 1704: In the Deerfield Raid, a force of Wabanaki and Caughnawaga warriors and their French colonial allies devastates the Massachusetts frontier settlement of Deerfield.
  • 16 October 1710: British and colonial forces under Colonel Francis Nicholson and Sir Charles Hobby recapture Port Royal, this time permanently, and rename it Annapolis Royal.
  • 23 August 1711: British-led expedition, assembled and outfitted in Boston, fails to take Quebec when ten ships are wrecked at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.
  • 11 April 1713: In the Utrecht treaty ending Anglo-French hostilities in the Spanish Succession War, France permanently cedes Acadia to the British, who rename it Nova Scotia. Dummer's War (1724-25)
  • 23 August 1724: In the Norridgewock Fight, a party of colonial militia led by Captain Jeremiah Moulton defeats Wabanaki Indians at what is now Madison, Maine.
  • 11 October 1724: Wabanakis attack Fort Dummer, in what is now Brattleboro, Vermont.
  • 19 May 1725: Colonial militia routs Wabanakis.

War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-43)

War of the Austrian Succession
  • Spring, 1741: Some 500 Massachusetts volunteers take part in failed British amphibious expedition against the Spanish Caribbean stronghold of Cartagena de Indias. Only one-tenth of enlistees return home alive.

King George's War (1744-48)

Part of the European/Global War of the
Austrian Succession
  • 17 June 1745: With Royal Navy support, a New England expeditionary force commanded by Maine merchant William Pepperrell takes the fortified French port of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Canada. Pepperrell is made a British baronet for his service.
  • 18 October 1748: The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle concludes hostilities and returns Louisbourg to France.

French and Indian War (1754-63)

Part of the Global Seven Years War
  • 19 June 1755: Fort Beauséjour, in Nova Scotia, is captured by British and colonial troops under Colonels Robert Monckton and John Winslow. The region's Acadian settlers are deported in retaliation for their continuing resistance to pledging unconditional allegiance to the British Crown.
  • 8 September 1755: In the Battle of Lake George, Sir William Johnson, commanding a force of colonial troops supported by Mohawk allies, successfully repels French forces commanded by Ludwig August, Baron von Dieskau.
  • 8 July 1758: British assault against French Fort Carillon (now Ticonderoga) is bloodily repulsed and joint army of regulars and colonials withdraws in defeat.
  • 26 July 1758: Amphibious expedition commanded by General Sir Jeffrey Amherst and Admiral Edward Boscawen captures Louisbourg the second — and final — time. Two years later, British troops raze its fortifications.
  • 13 September 1759: British siege of Quebec ends in victory when Major General James Wolfe defeats the Marquis de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham outside the beleaguered city's gates.
  • 8 September 1760: British take Montreal; Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnial, Governor of New France, surrenders the whole of Canada.
  • 10 February 1763: Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years War in the New World, making Britain the supreme power in North America and bringing to a close the great epoch of the Colonial Wars.
Back To Top