Question: How did the lives of Indigenous peoples in the Americas change after 1492?

Primary sources give us insight on phenomena and events that we did not personally experience or witness. This short writing assignment (1,000-1,250 words) gives you an opportunity to engage with assigned primary sources to make an argument about the consequences of the early encounters between Europeans and Indigenous Americans. Drawing on our assigned primary sources, respond to ONE of the questions below (do not answer both questions!)

1. How did the lives of Indigenous peoples in the Americas change after 1492? Using at least two of our assigned primary sources, make an argument about how people living in the Americas prior to 1492 responded to the arrival of Europeans. What do our sources suggest were some of the most important consequences of the encounter between Europeans and Native Americans (whether intention or unintentional)? How did Indigenous peoples adapt to and/or counter European arrival?

**OR**

2. How did European views of the world change after 1492? Using at least two of our assigned primary sources, make an argument about how one or more groups of colonists (e.g. the English, the Spanish, the French) began to view and/or approach the world differently after they encountered the land and peoples of the Americas. What do our sources suggest were some of the most important consequences of this encounter from a European perspective?

Regardless of which prompt you choose, your paper must engage in a close analysis of at least two of the primary sources we have read thus far (NOT any two primary sources, but two that you have discussed in section). The primary documents that we will have read by the time the paper is due are listed below. At least two of the below must be discussed in your paper; primary sources that do not appear here should not be analyzed in your paper.

1. 1, “Origins of Disease & Medicine”
2. 2 “Catalan Atlas”
3. 5 “Account of the Northern Conquest & Discovery of Hernando de Soto”
4. 1 “A brief relation of two sundry voyages”
5. 2 Portrait of Pocahontas
6. 5 “Account of the Marriage of Marie Rouensa”
7. 1 A New Map of the Island of Barbados
8. 1 “Editorial favoring Indentured Servitude over Slavery”
9. 3 “Observations on the Increase of Mankind”

Your argument should be primarily informed by your close and detailed analysis of assigned primary sources. While you may draw on assigned textbook readings and lectures to contextualize your analysis, no outside research is permitted. This means that any references you make must be to our course materials, NOT to websites, other books or courses, etc.

Your paper must be a typed, double-spaced, in 12’ font in a .doc or .docx format (no PDFS, Google docs etc.!) A paper of 1,000-1,250 words in this format will be 3-4 pages long. It should have a clear title, your name, and your TA’s name.

In the interest of saving space, when referring to a primary document you may simply put the appropriate document number from American Horizons (our ebook) in parentheses, e.g. “In the old days the beasts, birds, fishes and animals could all talk” (American Horizons, 1.1).