Experiences of Americans from the colonial era through the Civil War

M7A1: Final Paper
Your Final Paper will address the following module and course outcomes:

Module Outcome: Conduct research, write, and organize a paper addressing the differing experiences of Americans from the colonial era through the Civil War (CO#6/Gen. Ed. Outcome 4.2, CO#7/History Program Outcome 1)
Course Outcome/History Program Outcome 1: Objectively evaluate a variety of historical sources (primary & secondary) for their credibility, position, and perspective.
Course Outcome/ General Education Outcome 4.2: Interpret and evaluate individual and group differences and similarities and explain how they may be influenced by factors such as race, gender, national origin sexual orientation, age, class, religion and/or disabilities.
In an essay of approximately 5–7 pages (1250–1750 words), excluding title page and references, address the following question:

Some Americans consider their nation’s history as the story of inevitable and ever-increasing freedom and opportunity. For the period from 1492–1867, was this true for all Americans, or only some? Make sure you address at least two different groups of colonists/Americans from the following list:
Enslaved Africans/African Americans
Native Americans
Women (you may break this group down further, i.e. native-born white women or African American women)
Immigrants (after the creation of the United States) (you may consider all immigrants or break this down by group as well, for example German immigrants or Irish immigrants)
Religious minorities (for example Catholics, Quakers, or Jews)
As far as possible, your paper should make use of the ideas, sources, and themes that you covered in this course. Your paper should have at least 4–6 sources, including any relevant ones from your module papers. At least two of your sources should be primary sources. Sources should be cited and referenced in either APA (Links to an external site.) or Chicago (Links to an external site.)/Turabian format.

For outside material, you can find scholarly secondary sources from the Excelsior College Library (Links to an external site.) or a primary source from the Excelsior College Library (Links to an external site.) or from this list of pre-approved primary source websites in US History (Links to an external site.). You should NOT use non-scholarly websites such as Wikipedia. If you have questions about appropriate sources, please contact your instructor.

You should save your paper as a Word file and submit it through the Module 7 dropbox. Your paper is due at the end of Module 7.

Your Final Paper should include:

An introduction paragraph with a clear thesis statement outlining your overall argument
Body paragraphs with specific evidence from primary and secondary sources from the course as well as any necessary outside research to support your points
In-text citations and references in APA (Links to an external site.) or Chicago/Turabian (Links to an external site.) style
A conclusion paragraph that synthesizes the information you present and summarizes your main points
For help with writing, see the Excelsior College OWL (Links to an external site.).

Compose your work using a word processor (or other software as appropriate) and save it frequently to your computer. Be sure to check your work and correct any spelling or grammatical errors before you upload it. When you are ready to submit your work, click “Browse My Computer” and find your file. Once you have located your file, click “Open” and, if successful, the file name will appear under the Attached files heading. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Submit.”