Davidson, et al., Nation of Nations, Vol I.
Davidson, et al., Nation of Nations Document Set, Vol I.
Alden T. Vaughan and Edward W. Clark, eds., Puritans Among the Indians: Accounts of Captivity and Redemption, 1676-1724.
Philip Vickers Fithian, Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
* additional readings handed out in class.
 
 

Overview and Objectives

      This course is an introduction to major themes in American history before 1877.  Our approach will be unconventional.  Rather than focus on great men and  events, we will look at broad social patterns.  Emphasis will be on domestic political and social developments and cultural/intellectual themes.  This course will also stress the interpretation of primary sources--  documents written during the time under discussion.  You are expected to critically analyze these readings and develop your own conclusions about them.   The primary goal of the course is to get you to see how events and people are products of complex and historically conditioned forces.  Why is it that an aristocratic class of slave-holders that modeled itself on the British gentry led the world's first modern democratic revolution?  Why did northerners, who were generally as prejudiced towards blacks as southerners, come to oppose slavery by the 1850's?  As this course unfolds you will find that the answers to such questions are never straightforward.  I expect that as you grapple with these and other questions, you will gain a new appreciation for the complexities of our nation's past, and how that past continues to shape current social, cultural, and political controversies.

Course Requirements

    Each week you will read primary and secondary sources that focus on a particular topic or related topics.  We will set aside time each week to discuss and critique the readings.  The aim is to situate them within the broad historical context provided by my lectures and the textbook.  The primary and secondary readings, and the discussions they stimulate, constitute the core of the course and you will be tested heavily on them.

    There will be two mid-terms and a final exam.  Each will consist of two parts: a take-home essay (4-6 pages typed); a standard in-class identification and short essay section.  The take-home essay is more properly a paper, in that you will be asked to present your interpretation of one or more of the assigned readings.  I will provide an assignment sheet for each paper at least three weeks before they are due.

    For the purposes of EIU's writing portfolio requirement, HIS 2010 is defined as a writing intensive course.  Students therefore have the option of submitting first drafts of the mid-term and final papers.  These should be handed in to me at least one week before the due date.  I will critique these drafts, point out obvious errors of grammar and organization, and suggest ways to improve the paper.  Almost all students can benefit from handing in a first draft of a paper assignment.  However, doing so does not guarantee an A or even a B on the final draft.

Grades will be computed as follows:

First Mid-term exam:        30%
Second Mid-term exam:   30%
Final examination:             30%
Discussion                        10%
(including in-class exercises, participation, and quizzes)

Schedule

Week I:        Renaissance and Reconnaissance in Red, White and Black
Read: Nation of Nations: Ch. 1
        Documents: Ch. 1
        * Begin Vaughan & Clark, Puritans Among the Indians

Week II:    Colonial Virginia: Race, Class, and the Origins of American Slavery
Read:  Nation of Nations: Ch. 2
    Documents: Ch. 2
    * Continue Vaughan & Clark, Puritans Among the Indians

Week III:    Colonial New England: Pilgrims, Puritans, and the New Orthodoxy
Read: Nation of Nations: Ch. 3
    Documents: Ch. 3
    Handouts:
    * Continue Vaughan & Clark, Puritans Among the Indians

Week IV:    The Trouble with Witches and Indians
Read: Handouts:
    Samuel Parris, "Christ Knows How Many Devils There Are"
    * Finish Vaughan & Clark, Puritans Among the Indians

Week V:     Abundance & Diversity: The Middle Colonies, 1630-1750
Read:  Nation of Nations: Ch. 4
    Documents: Ch. 4
    Handouts:
    Gottleib Mittelberger, "Journey to Pennsylvania"
    * Begin Fithian, Journal

*** First Mid-Term Exam ***

Week VI:    The American Revolution: Social and Imperial Origins
Read: Nation of Nations: Chs. 5 & 6
    Documents: Chs. 5 & 6
    Handouts:
    Rhys, Isaac, "Preachers & Patriots: Popular Culture and the Revolution in Virginia"
    Thomas Breen, "Loss of Independence"
    Thomas Paine, "The Crisis, Number Three"
    * Continue Fithian, Journal

Week VII:    From Revolution to A Republic
Read:  Nation of Nations: Ch. 7
    Handouts:
    James Madison, "Federalist, No. 10"
    Thomas Jefferson, "Draft Constitution for Virginia"
    idem., "A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom"
    idem., excerpts from Notes on the State of Virginia
    * Finish, Fithian, Journal

Week VIII:    Aristocratic Politics in the Early Republic, 1790s-1810s
Read: Nation of Nations: Chs. 8 & 9
    Documents: Chs. 8 & 9
    Handouts:
    Alexander Hamilton, "On Manufacturers"
    Jefferson, "First Inaugural Address"

Week IX:     The Market Revolution: The Transformation of Northern Society
Read:  Nation of Nations: Ch.10
    Documents: Ch. 10
    Handouts:
    Lucy Larcom, "A New England Girlhood"
    Harriet Robinson, "Loom & Spindle, Or Life Among the Early Mill Girls"
    Excerpts from Mechanics' Free Press; True Workingmen
    Thomas Skidmore, "Rights of Man to Property"
    "Debates on the Homestead Bill," Congressional Globe

*** Second Mid-Term ***

Week X:     How to Achieve Democracy by Making War on Banks, Monopolies, and Indians
Read: Nation of Nations: Ch.11
    Documents: Ch. 11
    Handouts:
    Moses Thatcher, "Address to the Anti-Masonic Convention of Massachusetts"
    Andrew Jackson, "2nd. Annual Message" (Excerpts on Indian Removal)
    "Appeal of the Cherokee Nation"
    * Begin Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Week XI:    The Second Great Awakening: Gender, Class, and Perfectionism in Jacksonian America
Read:  Nation of Nations: Ch.12
        Documents: Ch. 12
        * Continue Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Week XII:      Destiny Manifested: Western Expansion & Slavery
Read: Nation of Nations: Ch. 14
    Documents:  Ch. 14
    Handouts:
    Thomas Hart Benton, "The Destiny of the Race"
    Finish Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

Week XIV:    Long Division:  The Triumph of Sectional Nationalisms
Read:  Nation of Nations: Ch. 15
    Documents: Ch. 15
    Handouts:
    Thomas Dew & William Harper, "The Pro-Slavery Argument"
    James Henry Hammond, "Mud-Sills Speech"
    Republican Party Platform of 1860

Week XV:    Civil War & Reconstruction
Read:  Nation of Nations: Chs. 16 & 17
    Documents:  Chs. 16 & 17