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American History since 1877
Karl Jacoby
E-Mail: Karl_ Jacoby@brown.edu
Phone: 863-3009 (office)
HISTORY 51: AMERICAN HISTORY TO 1877
OVERVIEW: This class surveys the main contours of the American past from the Indian settlement of North America to the aftermath of the Civil War, with special emphasis on the experiences of "ordinary" people. Over the semester, we will analyze the multiple ways in which the men and women who lived in North America before 1877 worshipped their gods, organized their labor, structured their communities, and conceived of themselves as male and female, slave and free, black, white, and Indian. As all these topics are subjects of intense academic debate, a further goal of the class will be to familiarize students with the often contentious processes through which historians come to understand the past. The weekly readings will emphasize the analysis of primary documents, while periodic short writing assignments will give students the opportunity to formulate their own interpretations of historical events.
CLASS FORMAT: The class consists of two lectures and one section a week. Although lectures will introduce many key themes and historical debates, they will not duplicate the weekly reading. It is therefore essential that students complete the reading before section. ATTENDANCE AT SECTION IS MANDATORY. Any student who misses three or more sections without first discussing their absences with the professor can expect to fail the course.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS/ EXAMS: There will be three short writing assignments during the semester, as well as a mid-term and a final exam. As noted in the schedule below, the due dates for the papers are September 29, November 3, and November 17. IN FAIRNESS TO THE OTHER STUDENTS IN THE CLASS, LATE PAPERS WILL BE MARKED DOWN TWO-THIRDS OF A GRADE FOR EACH DAY THEY ARE OVERDUE (i. e. a B+ paper would after one day become a B-). The essays and exams will carry the following weight in determining one's final grade: papers (45%); midterm (15%); final (25%); section (15%). The final exam is Wednesday, December 20, at 2 PM. NO EARLY EXAMS WILL BE PERMITTED.
READINGS: Reading averages a book per week (the equivalent of 200-250 pages). All assigned books are available for purchase at the Brown Bookstore and on reserve at the Rockefeller Library. There will be regular readings from a textbook (A People and a Nation) supplemented by works from a variety of genres (journals, memoirs, newspaper articles, novels, folklore, oral histories).
BOOKS / ARTICLES:
James Axtell, "The White Indians of Colonial America"
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Benita Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offering
John Mack Faragher, Daniel Boone
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
Miguel Leon-Portilla, ed., The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account
of the Conquest of Mexico
James Mellon, ed., Bullwhip Days: The Slaves Remember
Philip Morgan, "Interracial Sex in the Chesapeake"
Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and a Nation, Volume I
Theda Perdue and Michael Green, eds. The Cherokee Removal
Michael Perman, The Coming of the Civil War
Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood" DAILY SCHEDULE:
Sept. 6: INTRODUCTION
Sept. 8: Indian America: 50,000 Years in 50 Minutes
READING: A People and a Nation , 3-31
Sept. 11: Disease and Dispossession: Smallpox Discovers America
Sept. 13: A Taxonomy of Empire: The Varieties of European Colonialism
Sept. 15: SECTION: The Broken Spears, xi-149
A People and a Nation, 33-57
Suggested Website:
Sept. 18: Of Cartoons and Conquest: Pocahontas Revisited
Sept. 20: Metacomet's Rebellion / King Philip's War
Sept. 22: SECTION: The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, 1-128
A People and a Nation, 59-85
James Axtell, The White Indians of Colonial America
Suggested Website:
Sept. 25: Plantation America: The Roots of Racial Slavery
Sept. 27: The Africanization of the South
Sept. 29: SECTION: Bullwhip Days, 3-250
WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1
Suggested Websites:
Oct. 2: The Back Country: Frontier or Middle Ground?
Oct. 4: The Struggle for Empire: the French and Indian War and Pontiac's
Rebellion Oct. 6: SECTION: Daniel Boone, 9-225
A People and a Nation, 87-113
Oct. 9: COLUMBUS DAY
Oct. 11: American Revolution: Choosing Sides
Oct. 13: MIDTERM EXAM
READING: A People and a Nation, 115-165
Suggested Website:
Oct. 16: The United States of America: Constructing a New Nation
Oct. 18: Agrarian America: Thomas Jefferson and the Pastoral Impulse
Oct. 20: SECTION: Notes on the State of Virginia, 5-182
Philip Morgan, "Interracial Sex in the Chesapeake"
A People and a Nation, 167-241
Suggested Websites:
Oct. 23: Second Great Awakenings: Euro-American and African-American
Revivals Oct. 25: Of Natives and Nations: The Cherokee Republic
Oct. 27: SECTION: Perdue et al., Cherokee Removal, 1-175
A People and a Nation, 277-301
Suggested Websites:
Oct. 30: The North I: Rhode Island Interlude: Brown and Slater
Nov. 1: The North II: "Free" Labor Ideology
Nov. 3: SECTION: The Lowell Offering, 13-112, 159-217
Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood"
A People and a Nation, 243-275
WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2
Suggested Websites:
Nov. 6: The South I: Nat Turner and the Varieties of Slave Resistance
Nov. 8: The South II: Slave Labor Ideology
Nov. 12: SECTION: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 3-124
A People and a Nation, 331-357
[Start Uncle Tom's Cabin}
Suggested Websites:
Nov. 13: Amistad and Abolitionism
Nov. 15: Women's Sphere and the World Beyond
Nov. 17: SECTION: Uncle Tom's Cabin
WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3
Suggested Websites:
Nov. 20: The Coming of the Civil War
Nov. 22: THANKSGIVING BREAK
Nov. 24: THANKSGIVING BREAK
READING: A People and a Nation, 359-424
Suggested Websites:
Nov. 27: The Internal Civil War: The New York Draft Riots and
Southern Unionists Nov. 29: The Limits of Reconstruction
Dec. 1: SECTION: The Coming of the Civil War, 17-22, 39-53, 113-129, 169-236
A People and a Nation, 427-456
Suggested Websites:
Dec. 20: FINAL EXAM
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