HISTORY 4010/5010: Colonial America
Spring 2012

Co-Instructors: Dr. Jim Williams and Mr. Michael Fletcher
Dr. Williams's information:
Todd Hall 128 (Albert Gore Research Center)
As director of the Gore Research Center, my hours vary considerably. Please call or email in advance to set up a time to see me.
Office phone with voicemail: 898-2633
E-mail: Jim DOT Williams AT mtsu DOT edu
Web page: www.mtsu.edu/~jhwillia
Mr. Fletcher's information:
Phone: (615)542-4926; E-mail: Michael.Fletcher@mtsu.edu

You may find the following handouts useful and are welcome to copy them:

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The goal of this course is to promote the intellectual and personal development of all the participants. We do this by examining the colonial period of North American history approximately to 1760. Our approach is decidedly regional and comparative as we place colonial America in its Atlantic context, that is, by looking at the connections between Africa, the Americas, and Europe. We survey the exploration, colonization, and maturation of distinctive regions (New France, New England, the Middle Colonies, the Chesapeake, the Lower South, the West Indies, and the Spanish frontier) of North America by distinctive European groups: Spanish, French, English, Dutch, German, and others. Central to our study will be the place of Indians and Africans in the diverse societies forged during the colonial period. After examining the development of widely divergent societies in North America, we will consider possible sources of convergence in the mid-eighteenth century.

Secondarily, this course is intended to teach the craft of history and to allow students to improve their analytical and writing skills. Interpreting and synthesizing primary and secondary works are essential elements of the course.

CLASS MEETING EXPECTATIONS AND MEMBERS' RESPONSIBILITIES

These will be discussed on the first day of class and agreed upon by all members of the class. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in any form in this course. Whether you intend to break the rules is irrelevant. The most likely way that you can behave dishonestly is to commit plagiarism. There are several types of plagiarism, and you are responsible for understanding all of them. Be particularly careful in this class not to copy word-for-word from one of the books (or any other source) without putting those quoted words in quotation marks or without providing the necessary source notation. If you are found to have committed plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty, you will receive a zero on that assignment, and your penalty may increase to failure in the course, depending on the circumstances. Dr. Williams will also notify the dean of judicial affairs, who may apply additional sanctions (probation, expulsion, etc.) according to university policy. If you have questions about academic dishonesty and university policy, please consult your student handbook, the student affairs web site, or Dr. Williams.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Alan Taylor, American Colonies, Penguin History of the United States, vol. 1, ISBN 9780142002100
Miguel León-Portilla, ed., The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, new expanded edition, ISBN 9780807055007
Michael Pye, The Drowning Room, ISBN 0140141499
Allan Greer, ed., The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America, ISBN 0312167075

Graduate students will do additional readings that do not require the purchase of additional books.

CLASS DISCUSSION LIST BY EMAIL

Every class member will be subscribed to the class discussion list using her or his MTSU email account, and all members are expected to participate during the course in the discussion. The system is very simple: every email sent to colonial@mtsu.edu will be distributed automatically to everyone in the class. NOTE: Do not send personal emails meant only for Dr. Williams to this address. Also, this system has nothing to do with D2L; it does not require you to login or do anything other than use your MTSU email account like you do with other email.

WRITING CENTER

Students are encouraged to use the University Writing Center to improve their written work in this course. The center is located in the Walker University Library. Visit www.mtsu.edu/uwc for more information about hours, policies, and services. The staff of faculty and graduate assistants will work with students at any stage of the writing process on issues such as organization, unity, coherence, opening and closing paragraphs, diction, and grammar, but they will not proofread or edit student writing.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

If you have a disability that may require assistance or accommodation, or you have questions related to any accommodations for testing, note takers, readers, etc., please speak with Dr. Williams as soon as possible. Students may also contact the Office of Disabled Student Services (898-2783) with questions about such services.

EVALUATION OF HOW WELL YOU REACH THE COURSE GOAL

Your course grade will be determined by how well you convince the instructor that you have developed intellectually and personally through your understanding of the course materials. You determine how much you do and the quality of what you do in the following categories:

I. Attendance and class participation (20% of course grade): There will be approximately twenty-seven class periods this semester. To be eligible for an A in this category, you may not have more than three absences. To be eligible for a B in this category, you may not have more than five absences. To be eligible for a C, you many not have more than seven absences. To be eligible for a D in this category, you many not have more than ten absences. Those students with more than ten absences cannot receive more than 50% in this category. (If you miss more than ten classes, your chances of passing the course are dim.) The instructors will record a participation score for each student each day. That score reflects the amount and the quality of participation, and it will be used to calculate the actual grade in this category, in combination with the grade for which your attendance qualifies you. For those days that include a group assignment, your contribution to the group's work will also be evaluated and recorded. A great deal of this class revolves around discussion and group work in class. Your attendance each day is essential.

II. Participation in email discussion list (5% of course grade): Class members are expected to initiate discussion threads and to respond to other's threads throughout the semester. A score will be assigned based on the amount and quality of your participation.

III. Participation in the Centennial Memory Capsule project (5% of course grade): Class members are required to record a Centennial Memory Capsule conversation with an MTSU staff member of their choosing. Guidelines will be distributed later in the semester. This is a credit/no credit opportunity. If you complete the assignment, you will receive full credit.

IV. Essays on course units (5 total, 10% each for 50% of course grade): At the conclusion of the first five units on the schedule below, a short essay will be assigned that will ask class members to reflect and analyze on some question(s) relating to the material covered in that unit. Each essay should be no longer than three pages in length. More instructions will be given with each unit assignment.

V. Final essay (20% of course grade): The longest and most complex of the assignments this semester is the final essay. The assignment will be distributed after spring break and will ask you to respond to a broad statement or interpretation relating to the course subject. This is your only opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the major contours of early American history. It is in lieu of a final examination; you may wish to think of it as a take-home comprehensive exam.

The plus/minus grading system will be used, as follows: A (91-100), B+ (88-90), B (83-87), B- (80-82), C+ (78-79), C (73-77), C- (70-72), D+ (68-69), D (63-67), D- (60-62), F (below 60). Everyone who earns an A will receive an A; there are no limits.

Graduate and honors option students are required to complete more work than the other members of the course. You should meet with Dr. Williams to agree upon the details that apply to you.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Wednesday, Jan. 18: Introduction; Kennewick Man

Monday, Jan. 23: Ancient America
-->Read Taylor through p. 22 (including introductory matter!)

UNIT 1: THE SPANISH ATLANTIC

Wednesday, Jan. 25: "The colonizers" and European context
-->Read Taylor, chap. 2

Monday, Jan. 30: Early New Spain and the native perspective
-->Read Taylor, chap. 3, and Broken Spears through p. 149

Wednesday, Feb. 1: Cortés and the Aztecs
-->Read remainder of Broken Spears; Inga Clendinnen, "Fierce and Unnatural Cruelty": Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico," Representations, 33 (Winter 1991): 65-100 through this link; and packet 1
Last day to drop without a grade

Monday, Feb. 6: Spanish frontier and the Pueblo Revolt
-->Read Taylor, chap. 4, and packet 2

UNIT 2: NEW FRANCE

Wednesday, Feb. 8: Canada and Iroquoia
-->Read Taylor, chap. 5, and Greer, ed., The Jesuit Relations introduction

Monday, Feb. 13: "Black Robes"
-->Read The Jesuit Relations through p. 93
Unit 1 essays due in class

Wednesday, Feb. 15: French-Indian encounters
-->Read The Jesuit Relations to the end

Monday, Feb. 20: The Mohawk saint
-->Read K. I. Koppedrayer, "The Making of the First Iroquois Virgin: Early Jesuit Biographies of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha," Ethnohistory, 40:2 (Spring 1993): 277-306" through this link

UNIT 3: ENGLISH COLONIZING MODELS

Wednesday, Feb. 22: English adventurers, opportunities, and improvisation
-->Read Taylor, chap. 7, and Karen Ordahl Kupperman, The Jamestown Project (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007), chap. 2 (handout)

Monday, Feb. 27: The Jamestown project
-->Read Taylor, chap. 8, and Andrew Fitzmaurice, "The Civic Solution to the Crisis of English Colonization, 1609-1625," The Historical Journal, 42: 1 (Mar. 1999): 25-51 through this link

Wednesday, Feb. 29: Jamestown rediscovered through archaeology
Unit 2 essay due in class

SPRING BREAK

Monday, Mar. 12: New England and the Indians
-->Read Taylor, chap. 9, and Virginia DeJohn Anderson, "King Philip's Herds: Indians, Colonists, and the Problem of Livestock in Early New England," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Series, 51: 4 (Oct. 1994): 601-624 through this link

UNIT 4: THE DUTCH COLONIES AND HISTORICAL FICTION

Wednesday, Mar. 14: Gretje in Amsterdam
-->Read Drowning Room through p. 136
Deadline to drop a course with a grade of "W"

Monday, Mar. 19: Gretje in New Amsterdam
-->Read Drowning Room to the end

Wednesday, Mar. 21: Gretje in fact and fiction
-->Read Gretje document packet and Taylor, chap. 12
Unit 3 essay due in class

Friday, Mar. 23: Last day to drop with a grade of W

Monday, Mar. 26: Women in early America--visit from Strickland Scholar Marla Miller
-->Read Marla R. Miller, "Gender, Artisanry, and Craft Tradition in Early New England: The View through the Eye of a Needle," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Series, 60: 4 (Oct. 2003): 743-776 through this link

UNIT 5: SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS

Wednesday, Mar. 28: The West Indies
-->Read Taylor, chap. 10

Monday, Apr. 2: Transatlantic slave trade
-->Read all 11 sections of the "Brief Overview of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade" section of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database through this link and David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 103-123 [handout]

Wednesday, Apr. 4: Slave societies and societies with slaves
-->Read Taylor, chap. 11, and Ira Berlin, "From Creole to African: Atlantic Creoles and the Origins of African-American Society in Mainland North America," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Series, 53: 2 (Apr. 1996): 251-288 through this link
Unit 4 essay due in class

Monday, Apr. 9: Archaeology of slavery
-->Read Patricia Samford, "The Archaeology of African-American Slavery and Material Culture," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Series, 53: 1 (Jan. 1996): 87-114 through this link and Leland Ferguson, Uncommon Ground: Archaeology and Early African America, 1650-1800 (Washington, D.C., 1992) [handout]

Wednesday, Apr. 11: Antislavery develops
-->Read Taylor, chap. 13; Thomas N. Ingersoll, "'Releese us out of this Cruell Bondegg': An Appeal from Virginia in 1723," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d Series, 51:4 (Oct. 1994): 777-782 through this link; and Mark A. Peterson, "The Selling of Joseph: Bostonians, Antislavery, and the Protestant International, 1689-1733," Massachusetts Historical Review, 4 (2002): iv, 1-22 through this link

UNIT 6: COLONIAL CULTURES

Monday, Apr. 16: Mixture of cultures
-->Read Taylor, chaps. 14-15, and Daniel B. Thorp, "Notes and Documents: Chattel with a Soul: The Autobiography of a Moravian Slave," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 112: 3 (July 1988): 433-451 through this link

Wednesday, Apr. 18: The "middle ground"
-->Read Taylor, chaps. 16-17
Unit 5 essay due in class

Monday, Apr. 23: Backcountry migrations and culture
-->Read Taylor, chaps. 18-19, and Daniel B. Thorp, "Assimilation in North Carolina's Moravian Community," Journal of Southern History, 52: 1 (Feb. 1986): 19-42 through this link

Wednesday, Apr. 25: Last day of class--colonial divergence or convergence?

Monday, Apr. 30: Final essays due no later than 5:30 p.m. in Dr. Williams's office, Todd Hall 128. You may turn in essays early (anytime before the due date) to me in the Gore Research Center. Under no circumstances will papers be accepted via email.

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