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Fall 2001 Prof. Joshua Piker
Office Hours: W 9:00-10:00 Office:308 DAHT
F 1:00-3:00 Phone: 325-6351 or 325-6002
Classroom: DAH 103 E-mail: jpiker@ou.edu
Meeting Time: MW 2:30-3:20
F - Discussion sections
History 1483: American History to 1865
Description: This class provides students with an overview of America's social, political, and cultural development from the beginnings of European colonization to the American Civil War. Two themes will run through the lectures and readings: 1) the emergence of sectional differences and the ways in which they were (and were not) overcome; 2) the varied experiences of Europeans, Africans, and American Indians, and the manner in which each group contributed to the course of American history.
Format: The class will be structured around a combination of lectures, discussion sections, and out-of-class readings. Because it is important that you attend class regularly, there will be approximately ten in-class attendance "pop quizzes." You must be present for at least seven of these quizzes. If you are present for only six, your class participation grade drops by one letter; if you are present for only 5, this grade drops by two letters, and so on. There will be no make-up quizzes; if you are absent the day of a quiz, you fail that quiz.
Requirements: Students will write one short (4-6 pages) paper and take mid-term and final exams. All exams are closed book/note; all will require you to write essays. I will provide you with study guides prior to each exam to help you prepare efficiently. In general, students are expected to attend class, to complete the assigned reading before class, and to participate in class discussions. The average length of the weekly reading assignments is 68 pages, but note that some weeks have significantly longer assignments than others; plan your schedules accordingly. If you have a disability requiring special accommodations, please see me during the first week of the semester. I will determine grades using the following formula:
Mid-term = %20
Paper = %25
Final = %30
Participation = %25
Assigned Texts:
Edward Countryman, How Did American Slavery Begin?
John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America.
Michael P. Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil War: Selected Writings and Speeches.
Michael P. Johnson, Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents to 1877.
Walter Johnson, Soul By Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market
Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and a Nation: A History of the United States to 1877 (Brief
Edition/Fifth Edition).
Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic.
NOTE: I will post the outline for each lecture on my web-site by noon of the day on which the lecture is scheduled. I will also use an overhead projector to display the outline while I lecture. However, I strongly recommend that you take the time to print off the day's outline before the lecture. The syllabus for this class can be found at http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/P/Joshua.A.Piker-1/1483.htm. Click on the day's lecture title for the outline.
Class Schedule
Prologue
Week 1) 8/20-8/24
Lecture 1: Introduction; logistics
Lecture 2: America, c. 1500
Discussion 1: Introduction; logistics (Part II)
Section 1: Colonial America
Part 1: the 1600s
Week 2) 8/27-8/31
Lecture 3: New Peoples, New Challenges: America, c. 1600
Lecture 4: The Founding of Virginia and the Displacement of the Indians
Discussion 2: Norton, Chapters 1 and 2
Week 3) 9/3-9/7
Lecture 5: Labor Day; class canceled
Lecture 6: Tobacco, Unfree Labor, and Bacon's Rebellion: The Rise of Slavery in Virginia
Discussion 3: Countryman, pp. 3-10, 17-48, 65-80, 85-96.
Johnson, Reading, pp. 35-40
Week 4) 9/10-9/14
Lecture 7: Puritanism and the Evolution of New England
Lecture 8: King Philip's War and the Emergence of a New Northern Landscape
Discussion 4: Demos, Preface and pp. 1-76
Norton Chapter 3
Johnson, Reading, pp. 55-57
Part 2: 1700 -- c. 1750
Week 5) 9/17-9/21
Lecture 9: From Colonies to Empire
Lecture 10: Evolving American Societies: South Carolina and Pennsylvania
Discussion 5: Demos, pp. 77-167
Norton, Chapter 4
Week 6) 9/24-9/28
Lecture 11: Evolving American Societies: New England and the Beginnings of an American Experience
Lecture 12: Evolving American Societies: Africans and Indians
Discussion 6: Demos, 168-252
Johnson, Reading, pp. 66-75
Section 2: Revolution and Republic
Part 1: From Monarchy to Democracy
Week 7)10/1-10/5
Lecture 13: MID-TERM EXAM
Lecture 14: A Dangerous Triumph: The Seven Years' War and the Beginnings of Imperial Crisis
Discussion 7: Class Canceled; fall holiday
Week 8) 10/8-10/12
Lecture 15: America's Revolution and America's Rulers: Challenges to Monarchy and the American Ruling Class
Lecture 16: Victory and Its Discontents: From Revolution to Constitution
Discussion 8: Norton, Chapter 6
Taylor, pp. 3-85.
Norton, A-9 to A-15 ("Constitution") - see end of book
Week 9)10/15-10/19
Lecture 17: Winning the Battle and Losing the War: The Ruling Class, the Constitution, and the 1790s
Lecture 18: The Republican Revolution and the Beginnings of a Democratic America
Discussion 9: Taylor, pp. 86-198
Johnson, Reading, pp. 136-139, 143-148
Part 2: Freedom's Implications
Week 10) 10/22-10/26
Lecture 19: Lewis & Clark and Company: The Expanding Republic
Lecture 20: From a Society with Markets to a Market Society: Competency and Capitalism
Discussion 10: Taylor, pp. 199-291
Week 11) 10/29-11/2
Lecture 21: Republican Motherhood, Religion, and Reform
Lecture 22: Removals: Native Americans and African Americans in the Early Republic
Discussion 11: Norton, Chapter 9
Johnson, Reading, pp. 154-157, 163-167
Section 3: E Pluribus Unum?
Week 12) 11/5-11/9
Lecture 23: Politics, 1820s-1830s: Sections and Parties
PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF MONDAY'S CLASS
Lecture 24: Slave Life in the Antebellum South
Discussion 12: Norton, Chapters 10 and 11
Johnson, Reading, pp. 188-192
Johnson, Lincoln, pp. 16-22
Week 13) 11/12-11/16
Lecture 25: Undermining Slavery: Resistance, Free Blacks, and Abolitionists
Lecture 26: East of the Frontier and North of Slavery: Native Americans and African
Americans in the North
Discussion 13: Johnson, Soul By Soul, pp. 1-116
Week 14) 11/19-11/23
Lecture 27: Movie: "The Gold Rush" (Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1996).
Lecture 28: Class Canceled; Thanksgiving Holiday
Discussion 14: Class Canceled; Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 15) 11/26-11/30
Lecture 29: The Mexican-American War and the Ideology of Manifest Destiny
Lecture 30: Expansion's Legacy: 1848-1854
Discussion 15: Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, 30-35
Johnson, Reading, pp. 196-200
Johnson, Soul By Soul, pp. 117-220
Week 16) 12/3-12/7
Lecture 31: A House Divided: The Failure of Compromise
Lecture 32: The Civil War: Battlefields and Other Sites of Conflict
Discussion 16: Norton, Chapter 15
Johnson, Abraham Lincoln, pp. 62-69, 81-91, 96-99, 108-115, 186-187,
192-194, 199-204, 218-219, 255-258, 263, 292-293, 307-310, 320-321.
Johnson, Reading, pp. 227-232
FINAL EXAM: date/time/place TBA