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Colloquium: Readings in Early American History
Fall Semester 2004
History 6934-02
Professor Sally Hadden
Class Location: Bellamy 404
Class Hours: W 2:30-5:30
Office: Bellamy 409
Office Hours: MW 11:30-12:30 or by appointment
Means of Contact: office phone 644-9519; mailer.fsu.edu/~shadden/courses/earlyamerica/
Course Description: This class is an intensive readings course, which will introduce you to important works of colonial American history published in the last 15 years. The written assignments are designed to complement the main course work, namely your oral description and analysis of the books and articles we will read. This class will provide an excellent overview of major new publications, and provides good preparation for graduate written exams in this field.
Course Requirements: This course has 3 grade components: class participation (60%); 5 reading précis (20%); and a bibliographic essay (20%). You will be required to complete all components to receive a passing grade in the class.
Reading Précis: You will be required to submit 5 reading précis for the course, 2 in the first 5 weeks of term, 2 in the second five weeks of term, and 1 in the last five weeks of term. You may choose which books you wish to create précis for. The best précis (those that meet the highest standards) may be distributed to class members in subsequent course meetings, as samples of what a good précis should look like; these samples will be distributed anonymously (student author's name removed). The lowest précis grade will be dropped in computing your overall grade for this course requirement.
Bibliographic Essay : You will create a bibliographic essay of approximately 10 pages, covering a specific area or subfield within the history of early America. This is not intended to be a historiographic essay, in which the interplay and evidence of each source is analyzed, nor future trends forecast, but rather is a broad overview of literature already published in the field, describing the main questions being asked, naming the best works in the field, and emphasizing which specific areas are growing or receiving less attention than in the past. The focus of the bibliographic essay will be on works published in the last 25 years. Your essay will include both monographs and journal articles. Sample bibliographic essays will be distributed at the first class meeting.
Textbooks : All texts are available for purchase at the FSU Bookstore or Bill's Bookstore. Most are also on reserve at Strozier Library as well (these are starred ** in the margin).
**Bernard Bailyn, Voyagers to the West
Carol Berkin, First Generations
**Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone
**James Brooks, Captives and Cousins
**Richard Bushman, Refinement of America
**Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith
Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana
Alison Games, Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World
**David Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment
**James Horn, Adapting to a New World
Karen Kupperman, ed., Major Problems in American Colonial History (2d ed.)
Rebecca Larson, Daughters of Light
**James Merrell, Into the American Woods
Jane Merritt, At the Crossroads
**Dan Richter, Facing East from Indian Country
Peter Thompson, Rum Punch and Revolution
**Dan Vickers, A Companion to Colonial America
Richard White, The Middle Ground
Recommended text: For students who need a basic textbook to cover the period's main events and major figures, this is a brief introduction. We will not be reading it in class, but you may find it useful for clarifications as you read.
Mary Geiter and J. A. Speck, Colonial America
Students with Special Needs: Students with disabilities covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act should follow these directions: 1) provide documentation of your disability to the Student Disability Resource Center (108 Student Services Building, 644-9566); 2) bring a statement from the SDR to the instructor during the first week of class, indicating the accommodations you will require to complete the course.
Academic Honor Code and Plagiarism : Any attempt to represent someone else's writing or research as your own will be grounds for failure for the entire course. The Academic Honor Code of FSU applies to all work in this course. The student handbook contains information about how to avoid violating the Academic Honor Code. You are expected to know the various types of plagiarism, and to take steps to avoid any plagiarism in your own work. Should you have any questions about what plagiarism is, please consult the instructor.
Schedule of Lectures and Assigned Readings
Selections marked with an ** may be found in Kupperman, ed., Major Problems in American Colonial History 2d ed.
Week One: August 25
Course introduction. Overview of major trends in the field.
Week Two: September 1
David Hall, Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England
Marilyn Westerkamp, “Religion,” in Daniel Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , ch. 15
Plus one of the following two selections: Jon Butler, “Magic, Astrology and the Early American Religious Heritage, 1600-1760” American Historical Review 85 (1979): 317-46; **Virginia DeJohn Anderson, “Migrants and Motives: Religion and the Settlement of New England,” New England Quarterly 58 (1985): 339-383.
Week Three: September 8
Rebecca Larson, Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700-1775 OR
Jon Butler, Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People (ch. 1-6)
Plus one of the following two selections: **Jane Kamensky, “Words, Witches, and Women Trouble: Witchcraft, Disorderly Speech and Gender Boundaries in Puritan New England,” Essex Institute Historical Collections 128, p.228-307; Carol Karlsen, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman , ch. 4.
Week Four: September 15
Alison Games, Migration and the Origins of the English Atlantic World
Ned Landsman, “Migration and Settlement,” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , ch. 4
Plus one of the following two selections: **Karen Kupperman, “Errand to the Indies: Puritan Colonization from Providence Island through the Western Design,” William and Mary Quarterly 3 rd ser. 45 (1988): 70-99; **Jack Greene, “Colonial South Carolina and the Caribbean Connection,” South Carolina Historical Magazine 88 (1987): 192-210.
Students observing Rosh Hashanah should contact the instructor in advance, to make alternate arrangements for their discussion on this day.
Week Five: September 22
James Horn, Adapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeenth-century Chesapeake
Plus one of the following two selections: David Armitage, “Making the Empire British: Scotland in the Atlantic World, 1542-1707,” Past and Present 155 (1997): 34-63; **Lois Carr and Lorena Walsh, “The Planter's Wife: The Experience of White Women in Seventeenth-century Maryland,” William and Mary Quarterly 3 rd ser. 34 (1977): 542-571.
Week Six: September 29
Bernard Bailyn, Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the American Revolution
Plus one of the following two selections: **A. G. Roeber, “Dutch Colonists Cope With English Control,” from Bernard Bailyn and Philip Morgan, eds., Strangers within the Realm: Cultural Margins of the First British Empire , p.222-236; **Marianne Wokeck, “The Dynamics of German-Speaking Immigration to British North America,” from Ida Altman and James Horn, eds., To Make America: European Emigration in the Early Modern Period , p.204-43.
Week Seven: October 6
Ira Berlin, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
Philip Morgan, “African Americans,” and Verene Shepherd and Carleen Payne, “Comparisons: The Caribbean,” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , chs. 7, 18
Plus one of the following two selections: R.R.Menard, “From Servants to Slaves: The Transformation of the Chesapeake Labor System,” Southern Studies 16 (1977): 355-390; Philips Morgan and Michael Nicholls, “Slaves in Piedmont Virginia, 1720-1790,” William and Mary Quarterly 3 rd ser. 41 (1984): 85-101.
Week Eight: October 13
James Brooks, Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands
Daniel Usner, “Borderlands,” and Robert Ferry, “Comparisons: New Spain,” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , chs. 17, 19
Plus one of the two following selections: **David Weber, Spanish Frontier in North America , p.129-141; William Taylor, Drinking, Homicide and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (pages tba).
Week Nine: October 20
Daniel Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
David Anderson and Marvin Smith, “Pre-Contact: The Evidence from Archaeology” and James Merrell, “Indian History during the English Colonial Era,” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , chs. 1, 6.
Plus one of the two following selections: Bruce Trigger, “Early Native American Responses to European Contact: Romantic versus Rationalistic Interpretations,” Journal of American History 77 (1991): 1195-1215; Kathryn Braund, “Guardians of Tradition and Handmaidens to Change: Women's Roles in Creek Economic and Social Life during the Eighteenth Century,” American Indian Quarterly 14 (1990): 239-58.
Week Ten: October 27
Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 (ch. 1-8)
Richard Johnson, “Empire,” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , ch.5
Plus one of the two following selections: Gregory Dowd, “'Insidious Friends': Gift Giving and the Cherokee-British Alliance in the Seven Years' War,” in Andrew Cayton and Frederika Teute, Contact Points: American Frontiers from the Mohawk Valley to the Mississippi, 1750-1830 , 114-150; Elizabeth Perkins, “Distinctions and Partitions Amongst Us: Identity and Interaction in the Revolutionary Ohio Valley,” in Cayton and Teute, Contact Points , 205-234.
Week Eleven: November 3
James Merrell, Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier OR
Jane Merritt, At the Crossroads: Indians and Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700-1763
Plus one of the following two selections: **Colin Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America , p.178-194; **Gregory Dowd, “ A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815 , p.27-42.
Week Twelve: November 10
Richard Bushman, The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities
Cary Carson, “Consumption,” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , ch. 14.
Plus read one of the following two articles: **T.H. Breen, “Baubles of Britain: The American and Consumer Revolutions of the Eighteenth century” Past and Present 119 (1988): 73-104; T. H. Breen, An Empire of Goods: The Anglicization of Colonial America, 1690-1776” Journal of British Studies 25 (1986): 467-499.
Week Thirteen: November 17
Peter Thompson, Rum Punch and Revolution
Greg Nobles, “Class,” and Alan Tully, “Colonial Politics,” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , chs. 11, 12
Plus read one of the following two selections: Daniel Rodgers, “Republicanism: The Career of a Concept,” Journal of American History 79 (1992): 11-38; Carol Berkin, First Generations: Women in Colonial America , p.165-194.
Week Fourteen: November 24
No course meeting. You should use this time to complete your bibliographic essay, which is due on Monday November 29 by 5pm.
Week Fifteen: December 1
Elizabeth Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1782
John Brooke, “Ecology,” and Edward Countryman, “Postscript: Large Questions in a Very Large Place” in Vickers, ed., Companion to Colonial America , chs. 3, 23
Sally Hadden
401 Bellamy Bldg.
Dept. of History
Florida State University
Tallahassee FL 32306-2200
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All Contents © Sally Hadden
Last Revised:
January 3, 2005
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