The Civil Rights Movement, led most notably by Martin Luther King, Jr., was a nonviolent movement that sought to end the Jim Crow style discrimination against African Americans throughout the country, mostly in the South. The movement was largely organized by ministers and found much support from the organization of black churches. Additionally, leaders encouraged civil rights lawyers, like Thurgood Marshall, to advance court cases that would end discriminatory laws and practices, such as segregation in schools, public transportation, and housing. Mass demonstrations, such as the March on Washington in 1963 and the Freedom March from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, brought widespread attention to the cause.

The Keating-Owen Act was a series of reforms aimed at ending the use and abuse of child labor in American industrial practices. The act was passed by Congress in 1916 but rendered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court only two years later. The specific nature of the bill stated that goods produced in a factory or mine worked by children under fourteen years of age could not be sold in interstate trade. The Supreme Court overturned it on the grounds that it exceeded the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce; however, it represented an important beginning to the end of child labor abuses in America.

The Red Scare and the age of McCarthyism were both time periods during the United States in which American sentiment was extremely strong and powerful, and those who expressed anti-American views, or pro-Communism views, were chastised and criticized for being unpatriotic. 

The experience of the colonial militia fighting the French-Indian war would prove invaluable when it came time to call in the militias for the Revolution. Without this conflict they might have remained disorganized and unaccustomed to battle. Furthermore, it helped embolden many, who might have otherwise erred, that the British could be beaten in battle. The French would come to the colonists’ aid in the Revolutionary War, but it was not due to this conflict – where they fought bloodily opposite one another. Native Americans were co-opted as part of the struggle, but hardly found themselves included in the political or social discourse after peace had been made. The British government, far from repealing harsh taxes and tariffs, imposed significantly more obtrusive ones in order to recoup the money lost in war. Finally, the French did lose the Louisiana territory, but it was ceded to the Spanish, not the British, who remained as much an obstacle to Western expansion as had the French. 

The key argument for Columbus' voyage west across the Atlantic Ocean was to find a shorter route to the Far East, which was importing spices and precious metals across the Eurasian landmass to Western Europe. The Catholic Church was also attempting to missionize into Asia. Most learned people in the late fifteenth century believed the earth was round. Where Columbus disagreed with the consensus was in his belief the Earth was much smaller. Many scholars at the time knew just how big the earth was, but did not believe there was a landmass between Japan and Western Europe. Columbus believed he had reached Indonesia when he landed in the Caribbean, and never thought he had discovered a new Continent.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects United States citizens from unreasonable search and seizure of property. In practical application it requires law enforcement to provide a warrant and valid cause before any invasion of privacy can take place. The Fourth Amendment was added to the Bill of Rights in response to British abuses of writs of assistance, which, in pre-Revolutionary America, allowed British colonial officials to inspect property whenever they pleased.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of “cruel and unusual punishment” when dealing with criminal practice. The Amendment has its roots in British common law and later the British Bill of Rights. The terms "cruel and unusual" are somewhat vague and open to interpretation. As a result, throughout American history, legal and judicial theorists have offered competing definitions of cruel and unusual; however, it is generally considered to prohibit mental and physical torture, as well as dehumanizing and humiliating treatment. 

During British colonial rule many Americans living on the frontiers were forced to house British soldiers. This practice was particularly common during the French-Indian Wars in the middle of the eighteenth century. The economic and social strain of this situation was one of the motivating factors behind the outbreak of revolution. After colonial rule was overthrown, the new United States government sought to prohibit forced quartering in the Constitution. This was achieved with the passage of the Third Amendment. 

New York was originally called New Amsterdam when it was established by the Dutch in 1614.  Surrounded by English settlements, the small colony was taken by the English in 1664 and rechristened New York.

The first permanent English settlement in the New World was Jamestown.  Plymouth, Massachusetts was founded in 1620.