US HISTORY I: FROM THE
COLONIAL PERIOD TO 1877
AMST 201—Fall 2006
Colin
S. Cavell, Ph.D. Course Room No.: S17-229
Class UTH: 9:00-9:50 [Ramadhan—9:10-9:50] INTERNET: cscpo@arts.uob.bh
Office
Hours: By appointment only Office No.: S17-263
VOICE: 17438775 (W) 17729091 (H)
Survey of American history from the early American
experience to the end of the Era of Reconstruction, with an overview of
political institutions, constitutional development, the revolution, the
sectional crisis, the Civil War, race relations, economic development, foreign
policy, and intellectual and cultural ideas.
Grading Policy: 20%
for Attendance*; 20% for the Class Presentation; 20% for the Midterm Exam; 20%
for the Research Paper; and 20% for the Final Exam. A Guidelines sheet will be
distributed outlining the requirements for your Class Presentation and for your
Research Paper.
Attendance Policy*: Attendance in class is mandatory. It is the student’s responsibility to sign
the attendance sheet each day of class; failure to sign the attendance
sheet—even if in attendance—will be counted as an absence. If your unexcused absences exceed 25% of the
total number of lectures of the course in this semester, you will be automatically
withdrawn from the course and be given a grade of (WF) which will be counted
towards your GPA. As well, you are
expected to follow the syllabus and accordingly be prepared for each day's
class. This means that you must read the
pre-assigned readings before class so that you will be prepared to discuss and
debate in class the subject matter scheduled for that day and answer questions
related to the issues being covered. NOTE: TURN OFF all cell phones during class.
* Absence from class may be made up by preparing a two-page, typed (i.e. using maximum 12 point font size and maximum
double-spaced text with one-inch margin on all sides), summary on the missed material scheduled to be covered the
day(s) of your absence. The summary must
be in your own words and must not be copied material from the text(s), the
internet, or any other source(s). Times
New Roman font is strongly recommended; however, if you use an alternative
style, make sure your font does not resemble italic or bold text. Also, Comic Sans MS font is not allowed.
Required
Texts:
Nash, Gary B. & Julie Roy Jeffrey, et al. 2006. The
American People: Creating A Nation and A
Society. SVE. Seventh Edition.
New York, NY: Longman
Publishers USA.
InfoUSA: Information USA [CD-ROM]. 2002. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State, Office
of International Information Programs.
[Supplied by professor.]
Sept. 17: Introduction to U.S. History: What Is History? What Is Its Utility? Why Study U.S. History?
PART ONE: A COLONIZING PEOPLE,
1492-1776
Sept.
19: Ancient America and Africa
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 1 “American Stories: Four Women’s Lives Highlight the Convergence
of Three Continents,” “The Peoples of
America Before Columbus,” “Recovering the Past:
Archaeological Artifacts”
Sept. 21: Ancient America and Africa
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 1 “American Voices: The Legend of the Great League of the
Iroquois,” “Africa on the Eve of Contact,” “Europe on the Eve of Invading the Americas,” “American Voices: Gomes Eannes de Zurara, The Arrival of a
Slave Ship at Lagos, Portugal,” “Conclusion: The Approach of a New Global Age”
Sept. 24: [First day of Ramadan 1427]
Sept. 24: Europeans and Africans Reach the Americas [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 2 “American Stories: Old World Sojourners Mingle with New World Inhabitants,” “Breaching the Atlantic,” “American Voices: Christopher Columbus, The Encounter with the
Taíno,” “The Spanish Conquest of America,” “American Voices: Titu Cusi Yupanqui, The Inca Attempt to
Repulse the Spanish at Cuzco,” “Analyzing History: The Columbian Exchange,” “England Looks West”
Sept. 26: Europeans and Africans Reach the Americas [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 2 “African Bondage,” “Recovering the Past: Illustrated Travel Accounts,”
“Conclusion: Converging Worlds”
Sept. 28: [Last day for dropping courses]
Sept. 28: Colonizing a Continent in the Seventeenth
Century [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 3 “American Stories: An African on the Virginia Frontier,” “The Chesapeake Tobacco Coast,” “Recovering the
Past: Houses,” “Analyzing History: The Atlantic Slave Trade,” “Massachusetts and Its Offspring”
Oct. 1—Nov. 23: [Withdrawal
period with “W”]
Oct. 1:
Colonizing a Continent in the Seventeenth Century [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 3 “How Others See Us: John Josselyn, A Description of New
Englanders,” “From the St. Lawrence to
the Hudson,” “Proprietary Carolina: A
Restoration Reward,” “The Quakers’ Peaceable Kingdom,” “American Voices: William Penn, To the Delaware Chiefs,” “New
Spain’s Northern Frontier,” “An Era of Instability,” “Conclusion: The Achievement of New Societies”
Oct. 3: The
Maturing of Colonial Society [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 4 “American Stories: A Struggling Farmer’s Wife Finds True
Religious Commitment,” “The North: A Land of Family Farms,” “The Plantation
South,” “American Voices: Charles Woodmason, A Congregation in the Southern
Backcountry,” “Contending for a Continent,” “American Voices: Susanna Johnson, Adoption into a Native
American Tribe,” “The Urban World of Commerce and Ideas”
Oct. 5: The
Maturing of Colonial Society [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 4 “Recovering the Past: Household Inventories,” “How Others See
Us: Andrew Burnaby, On the
Pennsylvanians,” “The Great Awakening,” “Political Life,” “Conclusion: America in 1750”
Oct. 8: The
Strains of Empire [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 5 “American Stories: A Shoemaker Leads a Boston Mob,” “The Climatic Seven Years’ War,” “The Crisis
with England”
Oct. 10: The Strains of Empire [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 5 “The Ideology of Revolutionary Republicanism,”
“The Turmoil of a Rebellious People,” “Recovering the Past: Poetry,” “American Voices: A Petition from Massachusetts Blacks to Governor Thomas
Gage,” “American Voices: George Sims,
From ‘An Address to the People of Granville County’,” “Conclusion: On the Brink of Revolution”
PART TWO: A REVOLUTIONARY PEOPLE,
1775-1828
Oct. 12: A People in Revolution [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Film: Independence/Revolution,
Episodes 1 & 2, VHS (60 minutes)
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 6 “American Stories: Struggling for Independence,” “Bursting the Colonial Bonds,” “The War for
American Independence,” “The Experience of War”
Oct. 15: A People in Revolution [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 6 “Recovering the Past: Military Muster Rolls,” “American
Voices: Anna Rawle, From Her Diary, October 25, 1781,” “The Ferment of Revolutionary Politics,”
“American Voices: Timothy Dwight, ‘Columbia, Columbia, to Glory Arise’,”
“Conclusion: The Crucible of Revolution”
Oct. 17: Consolidating the Revolution [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Film: Liberty
for All?/Wake Up, America,
Episode 3, Part I, VHS (30 minutes)
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 7 “American Stories: Extending the Revolution,” “Struggling with the Peacetime Agenda,” “How
Others See Us: A View of Postwar America,” “Sources of Political
Conflict,” “American Voices: Philadelphia Jews Seek Equality Before
the Law, 1783,” “Political Tumult in the States”
Oct. 19: Consolidating the Revolution [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Film: Liberty
for All?/Wake Up, America,
Episode 4, Part II, VHS (30 minutes)
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 7 “American Voices: Massachusetts Regulators Appeal to the
People,” “Toward a New National
Government,” “Recovering the Past:
Patriotic Paintings,” “Conclusion:
Completing the Revolution”
Oct. 22: Creating a Nation [Ramadhan—8:50-9:30]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 8 “American Stories: Questioning Authorities,” “Launching the National Republic,” “The Republic in a
Threatening World,” “Recovering the Past:
Foreign Travel Journals,” “American Voices: A Member of the Boston African Society,
Celebrating the End of the African Slave Trade,” “The Political Crisis
Deepens,” “American Voices: Samuel
Miller, From Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century,” “Restoring American Liberty”
Oct.
23-25: Eid Al-Fitr 1427—Holiday [No classes]
Oct. 26: Creating a Nation
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 8 “Building an Agrarian Nation,” “A Foreign
Policy for the New Nation,” “Conclusion:
A Period of Trial and Transition”
Oct. 29: Society and Politics in the Early Republic
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 9 “American Stories: Creating New Lives,” “A Nation of Regions,” “How Others See
Us: Frances Trollope, Domestic
Manners of the Americans”
Oct. 31: Society and Politics in the Early Republic
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 9 “Indian-White Relations in the Early
Republic,” “Recovering the Past: Census
Returns,” “Perfecting a Democratic Society,” “American Voices: Abraham Camp Longs for True Freedom,” “The End
of Neo-Colonialism”
Nov. 2:
Society and Politics in the Early Republic
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 9 “Knitting the Nation Together,” “American
Voices: On First Viewing the Clermont,”
“Politics in Transition,” “Conclusion:
The Passing of an Era”
PART THREE: AN EXPANDING PEOPLE,
1820-1877
Nov. 5: Economic
Transformations in the Northeast and the Old Northwest
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 10 “American Stories: Discovering Success in the Midst of Financial
Ruin,” “Economic Growth,” “How Others
See Us: Alexis de Tocqueville, An
Analysis of the Lure of Commerce and Manufacturing,” “American Voices: Julia Hieronymus, Trials of a Teacher,”
“Early Manufacturing”
Nov. 7:
Economic Transformations in the Northeast and the Old Northwest
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 10 “A New England Textile Town,” “Urban Life,” “Recovering
the Past: Family Paintings,” “Rural
Communities,” “Conclusion: The Character
of Progress”
Nov. 9: Midterm
Exam
Nov. 12-16: Mid-semester break [No classes]
Nov. 19: Economic Transformations in the Northeast and
the Old
Northwest
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 11 “American Stories: A Young Slave Discovers the Path to Freedom,”
“Building a Diverse Cotton Kingdom,” “Analyzing History: Slavery Expands with the Cotton Boom”
Nov. 21: Slavery and the Old South
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 11 “Morning:
Master and Mistress in the Big House,” “American Voices: George Fitzhugh, A Southern White
Justification of Slavery”
Nov. 23: Slavery and the Old South
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 11 “Noon: Slaves in House and Fields,” “American
Voices: Harriet Jacobs, A Female Slave
Sasses Her Abusive Master,” “Night:
Slaves in Their Quarters”
Nov. 26: Slavery and the Old South
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 11 “Recovering the Past: Folktales,” “Resistance and Freedom,” “How
Others See Us: Frederick Douglass, ‘What
to the Slave Is the 4th of July?’,” “Conclusion: Douglass’s Dream of Freedom”
Nov. 28: Shaping America in the Antebellum Age
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 12 “American Stories: Experiencing the Costs of a Commitment,” “Religious Revival and Reform Philosophy,”
“The Political Response to Change,” “American Voices: Speckled Snake, A Native American Reply to Jackson’s Removal Policy”
Nov. 30: Shaping America in the Antebellum Age
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 12 “Perfectionist Reform and Utopianism,” “Reforming
Society,” “Abolitionism and the Women’s Rights Movement,” “Recovering the
Past: Slave Narratives,” “American
Voices: Martha Wright’s New York Family
Helps a Fugitive Slave,” “Conclusion:
Perfecting America”
Dec. 3:
Moving West
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 13 “American Stories: The Surprises of a Missionary Life,” “Probing the Trans-Mississippi West,”
“Winning the Trans-Mississippi West,” “How Others See Us: A French Newspaper Comments on President
Polk’s Oregon Policy,” “Going West and East,” “Recovering the Past: Personal Diaries”
Dec. 5:
Moving West
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 13 “Living in the West,” “American Voices: Mollie Dorsey Sanford, On Arriving in Denver, June 1860,” “Cultures in
Conflict,” “American Voices: Four Bears,
From His Last Speech,” “Conclusion:
Fruits of Manifest Destiny”
Dec. 7: The Union in Peril
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 14 “American Stories: Four Men Respond to the Union in Peril,” “Slavery in the Territories,” “Recovering the
Past: Senate Speeches,” “American
Voices: Henry David Thoreau, Essay on
‘Civil Disobedience’, 1849,” “Political Disintegration”
Dec. 10: The Union in Peril
Film: The Civil War: The Cause, Episode One—1861, VHS (50
minutes/99 total)
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 14 “American Voices: Henry Villard, A German Immigrant Discovers
American Politics,” “Kansas and the Two Cultures,”
“Polarization and the Road to War”
Dec. 12: The Union in Peril
Film: The Civil War: The Cause, Episode One—1861, VHS (49 minutes)
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 14 “The Divided House Falls,” “Conclusion: The ‘Irrepressible Conflict’”
Dec. 14: The Union Severed
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 15 “American Stories: A War That Touched Lives,” “Organizing for War,” “How Others See
Us: ‘The American Difficulty,’ From Punch,
1861,” “Clashing on the Battlefield, 1861-1862”
Dec. 16-17: National Day of Bahrain—Holidays [no classes]
Dec. 19: The Union Severed
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 15 “American Voices: Isaac Watts, A Description of Camp Life with the Vermont Heavy Artillery,” “The Tide Turns, 1863-1865,” “American
Voices: Susie King Taylor, From Reminiscences
of My Life in Camp,” “Changes Wrought by War”
Dec. 21: The Union Severed
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 15 “Recovering the Past: Photography,” “Conclusion: An Uncertain Future”
Dec. 24: The Union Reconstructed [Research Papers Due]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 16 “American Stories: Blacks and Whites Redefine Their Dreams and
Relationships,” “The Bittersweet
Aftermath of War”
Dec. 26: The Union Reconstructed
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 16 “American Voices: Calvin Holly, A Black Union Soldier’s Letter
Protesting Conditions After the War”
Dec. 28: The Union Reconstructed [Last Day for In-Class Presentations]
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 16 “American Voices: James A. Payne, A Southern White Man’s Letter
Protesting Conditions After the War”
Dec. 30: Arafh Holiday
Dec. 31-Jan. 2: Eid Al-Adha Holiday [no classes]
Jan.
1, 2007: New Year’s
Day Holiday [no classes]
Jan.
4, 2007: The Union Reconstructed
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 16 “National Reconstruction Politics,” “The
Lives of Freedpeople,” “Reconstruction in the Southern States” “Recovering the
Past: Novels”
Jan. 7: The Union Reconstructed
Readings: Nash, et al., Ch. 16 “Conclusion:
A Mixed Legacy”
Jan. 9: Last day of classes; Review
Jan. 22, 2007: Final Exam
11:30-13:30
Jan. 28, 2007: Last day for submitting first semester’s
grades
Jan. 29-30, 2007: Ashura Holiday
Jan. 29-Feb. 22,
2007: Inter-semester
Break [Holidays]