Week 1: August 24. Introductions, discussion on the course, syllabus and other logistical issues. Text, Chapter 1. Topics for discussion: The difference between primary and secondary sources. The Americas and Europe on the Eve of Colonization and Columbus’s journey of discovery. The Columbian Exchange and European “ceremonies of possession.” Also The Reformation, the English monarchy, how European events affected America, and the Roanoke expedition. European colonization begins.
For next week, go to History Matters and read the probate inventory of Thomas Springer and then listen to Barbara Clark Smith’s talk on the value personal inventories have to historians. Also listen to how she interprets Springer’s life based on his inventory. Next go to The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Select one individual's probate from the many listed and write your interpretations of the individual on the blog. Base it on what you learned from Barbara Clark Smith's talk. Is the person rich/poor? Educated? Religious? What was his profession? How can you tell?
Week 2: September 5. Text, Chapters 2 and 3.
European colonization of North America begins
Topics for discussion: The Great Migration. Also the Puritans and Pilgrims. Who were these people and what are their differences? What were the differences between the British colonies and why were these differences important?
Secondary Source Reading The Great Disease Migration and The Great Food Migration.
Primary Source Reading:Mayflower Compact, Letter from Jonathan Edwards to Thomas Prince, Jonathan Edwards' sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Week 3: September 12. Text, Chapters 4 and part of 5. Colonies Become Established, an American Identity Begins, and the Foundations of Nationhood are established. The American Revolution begins. Topics for discussion: How did a people who claimed to be British eventually rebel against Britain? What factors helped push the American colonies toward independence? The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment; what did they contribute to American thought and independence? Breaking away. How and why the initial stimulus for rebellion came from the gentry. What was the role of the yeoman/poor class? When did the rebellion become a revolution? What’s the difference?
Primary Source Reading: The Albany Plan, The Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress, William Pitt's Speech on the Stamp Act,
Week 4: September 19 Text, Chapter 5 (cont.).Continued discussion of the American Revolution. Topics for discussion: What were the British concerns and what were the colonists’? Who was right? Half the class will be asked to argue the position of the British and half the class will be asked to argue the position of the Americans.
Primary Source Reading: the Declaratory Act, the Resolutions of the First Continental Congress, the Declaration and Resolves of the Second Continental Congress, the Declaration of Independence.
>>>Assignment<<< For next class, each student must post on the blog their Major Project topics. Include a one paragraph statement of what you intend to write about.
Week 5: September 26. >>>>FIRST TEST. First ½ of today’s class. Chapters 1-5<<<<<
Text, Chapter 6.
The Great Experiment Begins. Topics for discussion: The Articles of Confederation, the Constitution and their similarities and differences. The Federalists and Anti-Federalists: what were their differing philosophies? States-rights vs. a strong federal government. What the new Constitution meant to women and slaves. Why “the masses” were feared so much and what protections the new Constitution had against them. How the seeds of civil war were sown.
Primary Source Reading: Articles of Confederation the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the The Federalist, Number 10 of the Federalist Papers and Thomas Jefferson on Slavery.
Week 6: October 3. Text, Continuation of Chapter 6 and all of Chapter 7. The Violence of Party Politics, 1788-1800: Can’t We All Just Get Along? Topics for discussion: Ordinary people and the new Republic, the formation of political parties. Who were the “Republicans?” Your impressions of Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson vs. Hamilton. Your impressions of Alexander Hamilton. The election of 1800; really a peaceful “revolution”?
Week 7: October 10. Text, Chapter 8. Republicanism, Jefferson and the War of 1812.Topics for discussion: How did Jefferson as president differ from his two predecessors? Did Jefferson embrace the feared “masses” or push them away? Did the Louisiana Purchase signify a compromise of Jefferson’s principles? The causes of the War of 1812 and why it was important.
Review the War of 1812 web-site.
Week 8: October 17. Text, Chapter 9. Nation Building, Nationalism and the Market Revolution: Off to a Good Start? Topics for discussion: The Market Revolution and its many factors. What made it revolutionary? America expands West and tells Europe "hands-off" the western hemisphere.
Primary Source Reading: The Monroe Doctrine
Week 9: October 24. Text, Chapter 10.
“The Age of Jackson."
Topics for discussion: “Jacksonian Democracy,” its foundations, principles and legacy. The Bank War, Indian Removal, the Nullification Crisis and other factors of Jackson’s presidency. Was Jacksonian Democracy different from or similar to Jeffersonian Republicanism?
Primary Source Reading: Andrew Jackson's Bank Veto Message (1832), Cherokee Nation v. State of Georgia (1831).
>>>>Assignment for next class <<<< Read one of the listed slave narratives at the Library of Congress's, Born into Slavery, and describe it on the blog. Who was the slave? How were they treated? What did they think of emancipation?
Week 10: October 31 Text, Chapter 11. Slavery and Antebellum America.Topics for discussion: The various forms of slavery. How did slavery differ throughout the United States? The stratification of Southern society. How/why the South justified slavery and how/why the North wanted it abolished. King Cotton!
Primary Source Readings: Slave Spirituals, Go Down Moses, All God's Chillun Got Wings and Free at Last. The Introduction and chapter called, Luxuries at the Great House, of Frederick Douglass's, Autobiography.
Week 11: November 7. >>>>>> SECOND TEST first ½ of the class. Chapters 6-11 <<<<< Text, Chapter 12. The Rise of the Middle Class, the American Family and the Second Great Awakening. Topics for discussion: The difference between the first Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening. The United States and social reforms. The country is pushed closer to civil war.
Secondary Source Reading: The National Park Service's web-site on the Mormon Trail, PBS's web-stie, The Transcontinental Railroad.
Primary Source Reading: The Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848,
Week 12: November 14. Text, Chapter 13. Go West Young Man: America Expands. Topics for discussion: The beginnings of industrialization and mass immigration West. The Mexican-American War and Manifest Destiny. What do you think about the country’s move west? Influx of emigrants, especially the Irish and Germans and what it meant to American society and economy. Any similarities to immigration today? Texas becomes it's own country.
Primary Source Reading: The Texas Declaration of Independence, 1836. William Barret Travis, Letter from the Commandancy of the Alamo (1836). The Treaty of Velasco, May 1836. Joint Resolution of Congress, December 1846, admitting Texas as a state.
Week 13: November 21. Text, Chapter 14. Things Get Heated Up: The Sectional Crisis and the Winds of War. Topics for discussion: The seeds of civil war sprout and begin to bear fruit. The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the many attempts to postpone war. The further sectionalism of political parties. FOR NEXTCLASS, Visit the online archive: Valley in the Shadow. Questions to be considered from this site will be discussed in class. Post your findings on the blog.
Primary Source Reading: Valley of the Shadow. Fugitive Slave Act. Read the Plot Overview of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Letter from Jefferson Davis to Charles Searles.
November 28. NO CLASS
Week 14: December 5. Text, Chapter 15. Secession and the Civil War. Topics for discussion: The beginnings of Civil War and the prosecution of War. The Emancipation Proclamation. Web exercise: Will discuss the Valley in the Shadow web site and materials as assigned. Half the class will argue the position of the South. Half will argue the position of the North based on the web site.
Primary Source Reading: Mississippi Resolutions on Secession (1860). Letter from Jefferson Davis to Franklin Pierce. Constitution of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis's First Inaugural Address. Lincoln's First Inaugural Address. Emancipation Proclamation. Gettysburg Address. Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.
Week 15: December 12. Chapter 15 (cont.). Summation of the course. Q & A session related to test. PAPERS/PROJECTS DUE
Week 16: December 19 FINAL EXAM on chapters 12-15
