Comparative essay (5-6 pages) discussing at least two aspects of diversity, race, power, and resistance in the colonial period with direct reference to the primary readings from the course.
Your essay should answer one the questions with a clear thesis statement and provide evidence from the lectures, text, and primary source readings. The goal for the essays is two-fold: To answer the question clearly with a well-argued essay and to demonstrate your familiarity and knowledge of the readings we did in class.
By using two aspects of diversity, your essay should do more than compare Europeans and Native American people. So your paper might look at different gender roles among Native American nations and Europeans. Or, your essay could look at how different groups of Europeans interacted with different groups of Native peoples. The questions below are by no means the only approach you can take to the final paper—if you want to choose another approach, please let me know ahead of time.
How did gender OR race define the identity of the various early Americans we studied, and how did gender relations differ between Native American, European, and Black people in North America?
Contact between Native American groups and Europeans was a central feature of early America. How did various groups of Europeans (Spanish, French, English—Puritans and Virginians, Dutch) view Indigenous nations? What do we know about how Native people viewed different groups of Europeans? What important simliarities or differences can you see?
How did Black people experience and resist slavery? Use enslavers and enslaved accounts to describe two-three key elements of the Black experience.
Was early America a multicultural community? In what ways? Was the presence of multiple groups embraced or resisted? How did the presence of multiple groups of people affect the development of early America?
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