PS
I finally learned why the quotes follow the period or full stop…it turns out it is all because of cheap metal being used in early printing presses in North America. I assume that the British had better and cheaper access to printing “dies” therefore a broken period could more easily be replaced. Since the British were very opposed to the newsletters and pamphlets that were being printed here, I also assume they made it that much more difficult to get printing press parts.

“Before the advent of mechanical type, the order of quotation marks with full stops and commas was not given much consideration. The printing press required that the easily damaged smallest pieces of type for the comma and full stop be protected behind the more robust quotation marks. Typesetters’ style still adheres to this older tradition in formal writing. It is taught to American schoolchildren when they learn how to draft prose, and is strictly observed in most books, newspapers, magazines, and journals.”