European colonization
Only books to use: American Colonies: The Settling of North America by Alan Taylor — Ar’n’t I A Woman? by
Deborah Gray White
Only others sources to use: docs added
Instructions:
Upload your take-home examination as a single document to the Turnitin Module. Students who fail to do so
may lose credit on the final examination.
The take-home, essay part of the exam will test student’s familiarity with class readings and lectures. Students
should expect to use any reading assigned on the syllabus, supplementary materials, as well as lecture notes
in their answer. I will be especially attentive to the ways in which you use American Colonies and readings
posted.
In your essays, use the following prompts to construct an argument about the importance of markets,
geography, and/or gender in United States history. Remember to be specific in the details and evidence: dates,
names of important historical actors, specific groups, places, ideas, etc. This is a take-home examination, so
there is no reason not to include as much information—dates, names of important people and locations, and
even specific concepts—as possible in order to provide evidence for your arguments. Also, be specific when
discussing your citations, including both the author and title of a source and whether the source is a primary or
secondary source. Page numbers are required unless you have the ebook for Taylor, in which case a chapter
citation will be sufficient.
Students should expect to write at least 1,000 words for each essay, or 2,000 words total, for this assignment.
There is no maximum limit and students should write as much as they want.
Penalties: 1) Late work will be assessed at an automatic 10-point reduction for the essay portion of the
examination. 2) Failure to properly cite the source and page numbers will result in an automatic 30-point
deduction from each individual essay. 3) Use of any sources from outside of the class, including Wikipedia, will
result in an automatic 20-point reduction. 4) Repeated grammatical/writing errors may result in as much as a
20-point penalty.
([ Essay 1 ]) Argue for the importance of geography in the history of European colonization in the Americas, the
expansion of the United States as an “Empire of Liberty,” and the sectional conflict that characterized the Civil
War and Reconstruction. Consider both the east-west as well as north-south axis of expansion and territorial
conflict. Students should devote at least a paragraph each to the following geographic elements of this history:
the ways in which Native Americans viewed European arrivals and encroachments in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries; colonial conflicts between the British, Spanish, French, Dutch, and other European
powers; the meanings of the “frontier” in encounters between Europeans and Native Americans from the
colonial era to the earliest years of the United States; the territorial expansion of the United States following the
Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1812; and the emergence of Manifest Destiny during the era of the
Mexican- American War; the conflict over the spread of slavery into the territories; and the sectional conflicts
that characterized the Civil War and Reconstruction. In your answer, you must consider the roles of Native
Americans, the significance of slavery and race, and the importance of European immigration and immigrants.
([ Essay 2 ]) Explain how gender and sexuality were central to the European colonization of the Americas, the
development of the slave trade, and the establishment of social order and hierarchy in the British colonies of
North America and in the United States. Explain how gender and sexuality have been overlooked in American
history and the ways in which gender and sexuality have shaped daily life in the United States. In your answer,
you should focus on three distinct periods: 1) the early colonial period and the ways in which Native American,
African, and European gender roles differed from one another and were sometimes the source of conflict as
well as the ways in which sexuality cemented relations among these different groups; 2) the prerevolutionary
period and the ways in which gender shaped Euro-American society in the colonies, and focus especially on
your readings about gender in Puritan society (think about the readings on Salem) as well as the development
of white supremacy and patriarchy in the South; and 3) the early Republican period/the early nineteenth
century and the ways in which gender and sexuality shaped the dynamics of political and social activism
(especially abolitionism) among women and men, and especially the revival, spread, and practice of slavery in
the United States before the Civil War.
Tips for mastery:
1.)Use your opening to introduce your reader to your argument about the importance of your topic, for example
of markets, geography, or gender, as well as the supporting ideas you will explore. Your argument should be
more descriptive rather than argumentative or persuasive.
6/23/2020 Order 321491123
https://admin.writerbay.com/orders_available?subcom=detailed&id=321491123 3/4
2.)Use supporting evidence drawn from readings and lectures, and carefully describe whether your evidence is
primary source evidence, arguments or references made by authors of secondary sources (i.e. the
historiography), or information presented by me in class lecture. In your introduction, you will need to take into
account how you are going to justify your argument as well as the different kinds of supporting interpretations
and analyses required to distinguish between evidence from the time period under discussion (primary
sources) and the arguments or narratives constructed by professional historians (historiography, or secondary
sources).
3.)In your conclusion, briefly address the ways in which this history presents continuing challenges to our
understanding of both the past and present of United States history as well as any ways in which this history
has yet to be fully resolved.
Please quote with citations like this:
(Taylor 112) (“Name” “Pg Num”)
PLZ READ: And please do not use outside sources, please only the books and sources I provided/wrote, you
don’t have to use all, but at least 2, the small files I sent but MUST use the American Colonies by Alan Taylor.
Thank you. I usually use the website easybib.com for the Works Cited. I was told by support that “American
Colonies” was in this website’s library of books on hand for writers, I don’t know about “Ar’n’t I A Woman?” Also
if the language of the paper could be just “more simple” rather than simple English
