Write a short paper (4-5 typed, double-spaced pages) in response to ONE of the following statements. Whether you agree or disagree with the statement, your paper should make your position clear and cite specific historical evidence to support it. You are expected to draw on at least three of the assigned readings in framing your response. A major goal of this assignment is for you to synthesize and interpret material presented in the course through Wednesday, Sept. 23.

This assignment is governed by the Oberlin College Honor Code. Be sure to identify the sources of all direct quotations, paraphrased passages, and important assertions derived from the work of others. You may use footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical notations for this purpose. Although papers will be evaluated mainly on the basis of content, the quality of your presentation also counts. The professor values clarity, logic, originality, documentation, and concise prose.

PAPERS ARE DUE IN CLASS ON MONDAY, SEPT. 28. Late papers will be penalized. Please do not ask for an extension except in cases of dire emergency.

1) "Although it has become fashionable in certain circles to blame Europeans for the destruction of Native American societies, in truth the historical record is morally ambiguous. While Indians died at horrendous rates after Europeans began colonizing North America, microbes--not evil conquerors--were mainly responsible for this outcome. If some colonizers sought to exploit indigenous peoples, others wished only to spread Christianity or to trade with Native Americans on a mutually beneficial basis. Furthermore, it isn't fair to expect sixteenth- and seventeeth-century Europeans to act according to late-twentieth-century beliefs in cultural pluralism and human equality. Judged by their own values, the European intruders did the best they could to bridge the enormous cultural gap that divided them from native peoples."

2) "The key to understanding the patterns of social interaction in eighteenth-century North America, including both group conflict and cross-cultural cooperation, is religion. Personal identities and collective behavior were rooted mainly in spiritual, rather than secular, concerns. Groups that shared similar cosmologies were able to live in peace with one another; groups with incompatible religious world views were not. Neither racial identity nor economic interest mattered nearly as much as religion in determining the character and outcome of encounters between Euro-Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans during the 1700s."