American History to 1877
Major Problems of Interpretation

This course provides an introduction to the study of American history from the eve of European colonization through the close of Reconstruction. Rather than try to address all the significant historical developments that took place across four centuries, we focus on key topics which hold special interest for scholars and which figure centrally in debates over the meaning of the American experience today. By sacrificing"coverage" for in-depth analysis, we are able to pay particular attention to how historians do history and construct interpretations from various kinds of evidence. We also consider why historians sometimes disagree about how to read and evaluate the existing sources. Historical interpretation is "contested terrain." Yet it is not simply a matter of opinion where all points of view are equally valid. Historical interpretation involves creative investigation, careful documentation, critical thinking, and logical analysis. Over the course of the semester, students will be expected to develop and to explain their own interpretations regarding a host of major issues in the study of American history to 1877.

Format: Most weeks there will be lectures on Mondays and Fridays and discussions on Wednesdays. The discussions will focus on the assigned readings, which should be done on time. In preparation for class discussions, students will be required to post responses to study questions on Blackboard by 8:30 am the day of the discussion. Note that we will be using Blackboard 7, not the standard Oberlin version, for this course. The web address for Blackboard 7 is http://oncampus.oberlin.edu, and it can be reached by clicking on the "Blackboard 7" buttons below. Note also that attendance at discussion sessions is required and that student participation is expected.

Evaluation: Students will be evaluated on the basis of two 3-4 page papers (25% each), one 5-6 page paper (35%), and class participation, including contributions to Blackboard (15%). The instructor reserves the right to exercise some discretion in assigning final grades.

Honor Code: All student work is governed by the Oberlin College Honor Code. If you have a question about how the Code applies to a particular assignment, you should raise that question with the professor in advance of the due date.

Purchases: The following books are available at the Oberlin Bookstore and should be purchased.

• Alan Taylor, American Colonies (New York: Viking, 2001)
• Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, ed. Rolena Adorno and Patrick Charles Pautz (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003)
• Richard Cullen Rath, How Early America Sounded (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003)
• Thomas Paine, Common Sense, ed. Edward Larkin (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: Broadview Press, 2004)
• Joyce Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000)
• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, ed. John W. Blassingame et al. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001)

Schedule of classes and assignments:

Wed., Sept. 6

North America to 1490

Mon., Sept. 11

Discussion: First Impressions

• Taylor, American Colonies, ix-xvii, 23-66
• Cabeza de Vaca, The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, 1-176

Fri., Sept. 15

Early Virginia

 
Pocahontas

Mon., Sept. 18

Discussion: Collision of Cultures at Jamestown

• Taylor, American Colonies, 117-37
• Martin H. Quitt , "Trade and Acculturation at Jamestown, 1607-1609: The Limits of Understanding," William and Mary Quarterly 3rd. Ser., 52 (April 1995): 227-58 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
• Kathleen Brown, "In Search of Pocahontas," in Ian K. Steele and Nancy L. Rhoden, eds., The Human Tradition in Colonial America (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999), 71-95 [on reserve and on ERes]

Colonies in Conflict: Bacon's Rebellion and King Philip's War

"The Virginia Planters Best Tobacco"
Colonial Williamsburg website

Mon., Sept. 25

Rise of the Atlantic Slave Trade
First paper due

Wed., Sept. 27

Discussion: Slavery, Racism, and the Problem of Causation

• Oscar and Mary F. Handlin, "Origins of the Southern Labor System," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. Ser., 7 (April 1950): 199-222 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
• Carl Degler, "Slavery and the Genesis of American Race Prejudice," Comparative Studies in Society and History 2 (Oct.1959): 49-66 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
• Ira Berlin, "From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African-American Society on Mainland North America," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. Ser., 53 (April 1996): 251-288 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
• Recommended: Taylor, American Colonies, 138-57, 222-244

Fri., Sept. 29

No class (Yom Kippur)

Discussion: Soundscape of Early America

• Rath, How Early America Sounded, ix-xi, 1-119, 145-184
• Taylor, American Colonies, 246-300
  

Great Awakening and Global War

Imperial Reform and Colonial Resistance

Discussion: Logic of American Rebellion

• Taylor, American Colonies, 301-337, 420-443
• Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776) and selections from "Cato's Letters" [William Smith] and "The Forester" [Thomas Paine], Pennsylvania Gazette (1776) in Common Sense, ed. Larkin, 41-98 and 170-207.
• Declaration of Independence [on WWW]

How Radical Was the American Revolution?

Designing a Federal Republic

Discussion: Debate over the Federal Constitution

• [James Madison], Federalist No. 10 (1787) [on WWW]
• Speech by Melancton Smith, New York State Ratifying Convention, June 21-22, 1788 [on WWW]

Political Crisis of the 1790s

Contours of Economic and Geographic Growth, 1790-1850

Discussion: Social Dynamics in the Early Republic

• Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution, 1-160, 239-66

From Jeffersonian Republicanism to Jacksonian Democracy

Second Great Awakening and Social Reform

Discussion: Gender Ideology and the Significance of "Woman's Sphere"

• Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860," American Quarterly 18 (Summer 1966):151-74 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
• Nancy F. Cott, "Passionlessness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual Ideology, 1790-1850," Signs 4 (Winter 1978): 219-36 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
• Amy Kaplan, "Manifest Domesticity," American Literature 70 (Sept. 1998): 581-606 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]

Launching the American Industrial Revolution

The "Old South" in Black and White
Second paper due

Discussion: Interpreting the Slave Experience

• Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, ed. Blassingame et al., vii-xli, 1-86 [Note: You are also encouraged to refer to "Historical Annotations," 87-122, for help with the text.]

Radical Impulses: Immediate Abolitionism and Early Feminism

Discussion: The Perfectionist Vision of Early Oberlin

• Documents from Early Oberlin
  • Covenant of the Oberlin Colony [on WWW]
  • Prospectus for the Oberlin Collegiate Institute [on WWW]
  • Constitution of the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society [on WWW]

No class

Political Crisis of the 1850s

Discussion: Comparing the North and the South

• Eugene D. Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery, 2nd ed. (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press,1989), 13-39 [on ERes]
• Edward Pessen, "How Different from Each Other Were the Antebellum North and South?" American Historical Review 85 (Dec. 1980): 1119-49. [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]
• William G. Thomas III and Edward L. Ayers, "The Differences Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities," American Historical Review 108 (Dec. 2003) [on WWW]

A House Dividing

Civil War and Emancipation

Discussion: An Irrepressible Conflict?

• J.G. Randall, "The Blundering Generation," in Mississippi Valley Historical Review 27 (June 1940): 3-28.
• Foner, "Politics, Ideology, and the Origins of the American Civil War," in Foner, Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War, pp. 34-53 [on ERes]
• Gary J. Kornblith, "Rethinking the Coming of the Civil War: A Counterfactual Exercise," Journal of American History 90 (June 2003): 76-105 [in the History Cooperative, accessible from a campus computer]

Reconstruction

Retreat from Reconstruction

Discussion: The Meaning of the Civil War

• Abraham Lincoln, "The Gettysburg Address" (1863)
• Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address" (1865)