The essay provides background material for a junior high school unit, The Emergence of the New American. The unit deals with the colonial period in America in terms of the evolution of the political American. Separate sections of the paper discuss the format of the course, the Englishman in the 17th century, the lure of the new world, changes over the generations in the new world, slavery, the influence of geographical differences in North and South in shaping people's lives, the old colonial system, and royal government in America. The final section of the paper traces the conditions which gave rise to American political attitudes. The author notes that even though early settlers patterned their governments after English Parliament, a very different kind of government and attitude toward government existed. Since government in the colonies was everybody's business, it lost the sanctity and awe with which it had been surrounded in England. A table of contents of the four-part unit is included. Some titles in Part I include: What Motivated Englishmen to Plant Colonies in America?; On New England; and On Virginia. Part II presents Bodo, the Life of a Medieval Peasant, and two articles on Virginia. Part III is the game, Empire (see SO 012 054), and Part IV covers the New American, sections of Samuel Sewall's diary, readings about an indentured servant, a slave, George Washington, and the conflict between the colonial assemblies and the royal governors. (KC)