Description: This class traces the ways in which Europeans, American Indians, and Africans created a new world on the North American continent between 1500 and the early 1760s. Our focus will be on the section of the mainland colonized by England, although our discussions will touch on French, Spanish, and Dutch efforts as well. Class themes include: the difficulties involved in replicating European society in North America; the differences that emerged between the various colonies; the Native Americans’ reactions to the problems and possibilities presented by colonization; the important role played by Africans and slavery in the formation of American society; the struggle between European imperial powers; and the social, economic, and political maturation of eighteenth-century British America.

Format: We will meet for 75 minutes twice a week. The first 50 minutes of Monday’s class will generally be devoted to a lecture, which will be followed by 25 minutes of discussion. Wednesday’s class will be devoted entirely to discussion.

Requirements: Students will write two short (4-6 pages) papers, help lead a class discussion, and take mid-term and final exams. 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 105 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.

Attendance policy: You are allowed two absences. After that, your class participation grade will go down a full grade (e.g., from A to B) each time you are absent. Because this policy does not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences, I strongly recommend that you save your absences for an illness or emergency.  Two late arrivals count as an absence.

Participation: I wish to emphasize as strongly as possible that the success of this class depends on each person pulling her or her share of the load. This means, in a word, participation. I expect, and members of this class should expect, active contributions from everyone. We look for thoughtful inquiry and exchange, even when ideas are tentative or only partially formed. Stay caught up in the reading; think about what you have read; come to class prepared to discuss it. Pay attention to lectures; think about how they relate to the reading; come to class prepared to discuss material presented in the lectures. In order to facilitate participation, each student will be assigned to a group and each group will lead one class period’s discussion.

Grading: I will determine grades using the following formula:

Paper #1 = %15
Paper #2 = %20
Midterm = %20
Final = %30
Participation = %15

Assigned Texts:
James Axtell, The Indians’ New South: Cultural Change in the Colonial Southeast
Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
Kathleen M. Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, & Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia
David D. Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England
Barry Levy, Quakers and the American Family: British Settlement in the Delaware Valley
Stanley N. Katz et al., Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development
Gary B. Nash, The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the America Revolution
Daniel Vickers, Farmers & Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630-1850
Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815

Lecture/Reading Schedule:

Week 1:
            8/23 - Introduction; logistics
            8/25 - Lecture: Separate Histories: Social Dynamics in Two Old Worlds
                        Reading: Brown, pp. 13-41
Week 2:
            8/30 - Lecture: New People, New Challenges: North America, c. 1600
            9/1 - Reading: Axtell, pp. 1-24
                     Berlin, pp. 17-28
                     Crosby, "Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in the Aboriginal
                                    Depopulation in America," in Katz et al., pp. 3-14

Week 3:
            9/6 - Labor Day; class canceled
            9/8 - (Brief) Lecture: The Founding of Virginia
            Reading: Brown, 1-9, 42-74
                          Axtell, 25-40

Week 4:
            9/13 - Lecture: Chesapeake Society and the Origin of American Slavery
            9/15 - Reading: Brown, pp. 75-186
                        Berlin, pp. 1-14, 29-46
                        Discussion Leaders: Group 1

Week 5:
            9/20 - Lecture: Puritanism and the Founding of New England
            9/22 - Reading: Vickers, pp. vii-viii, 1-29
                                    Hall, pp. 3-116
            Discussion Leaders: Group 2

Week 6:
            9/27 - King Philip’s War and the Evolution of New England Society
            9/29 - Reading: Vickers, pp. 31-83
                        Hall, pp. 117-212
                    Discussion Leaders: Group 3
 

Week 7:
            10/4 - Lecture: The Mid-Atlantic and the Deep South
                        PAPER #1 DUE
            10/6 - Reading: Jack P. Greene, "Colonial South Carolina and the Caribbean
                                                                Connection," in Katz et al., pp. 179-198
                                    Berlin, pp. 47-76
                                    Levy, pp. vi-vii, 3-22, 123-152; skim pp. 25-119
                                    Discussion Leaders: Group 4

Week 8:
            10/11 - Lecture: Empires and Cultures, c. 1700
            10/13 - Reading: Daniel K. Richter, "War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience," in
                                                                    Katz et al., pp. 201-234
                        White, pp. ix-xv,1-53
                        Axtell, pp. 41-44
                        Discussion Leaders: Group 5

Week 9:
            10/18 - MIDTERM EXAM
            10/20 - Reading: White, pp. 50-185
            Discussion Leaders: Group 6
 
Week 10:
            10/25 - Movie - "Black Robe"; take-home worksheet
            10/27 - Discussion. Bring completed worksheet; must be typed.

Week 11:
            11/1 - Lecture: The Spectrum of English Settlement in North America
            11/3 - Reading: T. H. Breen, "An Empire of Goods: The Anglicization of Colonial
                                                        America, 1690-1776," in Katz et al., pp. 367-398
                        Levy, pp. 153-230
                        Adrian Howe, "The Bayard Treason Trial: Dramatizing Anglo-Dutch
                                                Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century New York City," in Katz et al., pp. 330-364
                Discussion Leaders: Group 7

Week 12:
            11/8 - Lecture: Maturation and Awakening: New England, 1700-1750
            11/10 - Reading: Vickers, pp. 205-259
                        Hall, pp. 213-245
                        Susan O’Brien, "A Transatlantic Community of Saints: The Great
                                                Awakening and the First Evangelical Network, 1735-1755," in Katz et al., pp. 555-581
                And one of the following:
                        Leigh Eric Schmidt, "'The Grand Prophet,’ Hugh Bryan: Early Evangelicalism’s Challenge to the Establishment and Slavery in
                                                        the Colonial South," in Katz et al., pp. 604-616
                        Martin E. Lodge, "The Crisis of the Churches in the Middle Colonies, 1720-1750," in Katz et al., pp. 581-604
            Discussion Leaders: Group 8

Week 13:
            11/15 - Lecture: The Embrace of Empires: Trade, War, and the Eighteenth-Century Creeks
            11/17 - Reading - Axtell, 45-71
                            Berlin, pp. 95-194
            Discussion Leaders: Group 9

Week 14:
            11/22 - The Urban North
                Reading: Nash, ix-xv, 1-146
            Discussion Leaders: Group 10
            11/24 - Class canceled; Thanksgiving holiday.

Week 15:
            11/29 - Lecture: Slavery and the Quest for Stability in Virginia and South Carolina
                PAPER #2 DUE
            12/1 - Reading: Brown, 187-318
            Discussion Leaders: Group 11

Week 16:
            12/6 - The Seven Years’ War: A Dangerous Triumph
                        Reading: White, pp. 186-268
                        Nash, pp. 146-183
                Discussion leaders: Group 12
            12/8 - Conclusions; class evaluations

Final Exam: date/time/place TBA