Essay 1: Colonial American Settlements Primary Documents Essay Due Date: Satur

Essay 1: Colonial American Settlements Primary Documents Essay
Due Date: Saturday, September 9 at 11:59 PM – You MUST type your essay and works cited page and submit through D2L by this deadline.
Guiding Question/Prompt
For this essay assignment you will write an essay using at least THREE (3) primary documents in an examination of the colonial period. This topic allows you a great deal of freedom to examine life in the American colonies (before 1763). Your essay should include an arguable thesis in response to a guiding question or prompt. You may create your own guiding question, but questions you may want to consider include:
• How did the colonial settlements originate and/or develop?
• How did colonists and Native Americans and/or colonists and enslaved Africans relate to each other?
• How did ideas shape the experiences of colonial Americans?
• What was the (shifting) relationship between colonists and Great Britain?
Please let your primary sources from the time period guide your analysis and conclusions. There are many online and print primary sources relevant to this topic. You may complete your own research entirely, or partially or entirely rely on the documents compiled on the National Humanities Center and/or Library of Congress website. The specific tabs linked below includes materials targeted to this essay assignment.
Library of Congress Primary Documents – Colonial Period – Note: There are several topics on this webpage. You will choose one (e.g. “The English Establish a Foothold at Jamestown, 1606-1610”) and then select documents (at least three) from the selections below the overview for each topic.
National Humanities Center – The British Atlantic Colonies Primary Documents – Note: You will first need to select a theme (e.g. “Growth”) and then select documents (at least three) from the selections arranged by sub-topics (e.g. “The Colonies: 1690-1715”).
While your central aim is to analyze original sources from the time period (through roughly1763), please utilize chapters 1-3 in your textbook, American Promise, for background information and contextualization. You do not need to identify any further secondary sources, but any outside sources you utilize should be properly cited.
The essay response should be 3-4 pages in length (approximately 750-1000 words) and must include an arguable thesis and evidence pulled from the selected primary source readings. There is no maximum page limit. Please provide complete citations for any materials.
Guidelines
MLA formatting—you must use double spacing, a standard, 10-12 font (e.g. Times New Roman or Arial), parenthetical (in-text) documentation, and provide a works cited page and format your document/essay according to MLA guidelines.