Assignment

Primary Source Assignment (worth up to 70 points)

Each student will choose a theme pertaining to colonial America (1607-1776) that they would like to learn about for this week.  Students will find 6 primary sources from this theme. 

Students will provide:

· a complete APA reference for each source

· a picture of each source

· a 2-3 sentence description of their source

· a paragraph explaining at least 3 different ways historians could use that primary source

Putnam, A. (1706). The Repentance of a Witchcraft Accuser. Retrieved January 18, 2016.

This essay, written by John Winthrop the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, described the city of Boston and its 4,000 residents, its government, and the role of the church in the colony.  It also ends with a statement about local Native Americans saying that “For the natives, they are near all dead of the smallpox, so the Lord hath cleared our title to what we possess.”

Historians can use this document in at least 3 different ways.  First, the basic descriptions of Massachusetts and Boston allow historians to have a better understanding of the city’s development.  Second, its description of the death of Native Americans to smallpox helps scholars to know where disease struck and which groups were affected by European diseases.  Finally, and most important, is Winthrop’s statement about Native American death, reflecting Puritanical beliefs about God’s will for Christian communities.  Winthrop saw the death of Indians as a divine proof from God that colonization and taking the land and resources from Native Americans was what God wanted for the Puritans.