Instructions – READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY
Write essays on three (3) of the following four (4) questions. Each essay should be about
750 words (roughly 3 typed, double-spaced pages). Combine all three essays into one file
and submit on Blackboard.
You need to have your own thesis as well as supporting evidence for your thesis. And
present your ideas in a clear, well-organized essay.
In writing your essays, be sure to refer to specific PRIMARY SOURCE documents
whenever possible. Your essays will be graded on your ability to explain clearly by
synthesizing your understanding of what you have read in the textbook with the
primary source documents we read each week. In order to get a good grade on this
exam, you must refer to and discuss the documents. I do not want a simple summary
of the textbook.
Do not plagiarize!!! This means: do not buy, steal or borrow someone else’s words. If
you use another writer’s words, put them in quotation marks and cite them properly
(make sure I know where you got them). You should feel free to quote from the
textbook or other sources, but make sure to give credit where it is due. If you have any
questions about plagiarism, check your student handbook or contact me directly.
Remember: using another’s words without proper citation – even if you didn’t mean
to!!! – is plagiarism and will result in – at least – a failing grade on the exam, possibly
even for the course.
It is your responsibility to demonstrate to me that you have done the work in writing
your essays. SAVE all notes, citations, drafts, library call-slips, book orders, downloads,
weblinks, etc. to show the work you have put into writing the papers. If you simply
purchase a paper called something like “The Columbian Exchange” or copy from a
website, you will fail the course and be reported to the Dean of Students.
You may use any sources you like, including my comments and your classmates’ words
from our discussion board. Again: just give credit when you use someone else’s words.
The Questions – CHOOSE THREE (3):
Use these questions as starting points for essays of your own construction, with your
own thesis.
1. One of the current controversies in our nation concerns how we memorialize our
past. How should we remember Columbus and the history of the arrival of Europeans in
the Western Hemisphere? What should we do about statues and holidays? Write an
essay making an argument for a historical memorial to this period. Be sure to discuss
specific people, events, and readings.
2. Why did the English colonize the New World after 1600? What was going on in
England in the late 16th- and early 17th centuries? What social and economic changes
were occurring which fostered colonization? What religious and political issues were at
stake?
3. Discuss the experiences of the English in the New World in the 17th century.
Compare the lifestyles of the American Indians, the Chesapeake colonists and the New
England settlers in the seventeenth century. Discuss also the relations between
European settlers and Native Americans in North America using specific examples. How
did things change by the middle of the 18th century?
4. Discuss the labor situation in the New World from the beginning of English settlement
to the middle of the eighteenth century. What problems did investors and settlers
(both voluntary and coerced) face, and how did they solve them? Why did African-
American slavery emerge as the dominant form of labor in the colonial south?
For all the questions you must use PRIMARY SOURCES as evidence!
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learning/explorations/1492/1492_menu.cfm
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=1&smtID=2
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=2&smtID=2
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/1492/
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1520cortes.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/aztecs1.html
https://www.historytoday.com/kate-wiles/map-tenochtitlan-1524
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=2&smtID=2
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=11&psid=3789
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=11&psid=3790
