U.S. History to Reconstruction

U.S. History to Reconstruction

Assignment 1 due Monday 20 September (10%)
Over the course of the semester you will write a series of essays regarding the major themes of the course. You should write as much as appropriate but the majority of successful essays will be five to ten pages (5-10 pp) in length. It will be almost impossible to fully answer the question in less than five pages (typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12 point font recommended) but please try not to exceed twelve pages.

As a reminder, on the essays I provide numerous questions to guide you through each of the essays, but please do not simply answer the questions point for point. The ultimate goal is to write cohesive essays not compile a set of fragments. Please therefore provide an introduction and conclusion to each essay. You are strongly encouraged to write (or at least re-write) your introduction AT THE END, so that they actually introduce the essay you have completed. In addition, you will not cover all of the sub-themes equally but you will decide which are the most important points to cover IN ORDER TO make the most effective arguments.

You are expected to make arguments, which requires that all ideas are logically coherent and are supported with evidence. Without evidence you are only making assertions, which cannot be properly evaluated. Without logic and coherence, you are simply rambling. Any argument will be considered, as long it is coherent and supported by specific historical evidence. Deal with one topic per paragraph, use topic sentences and the active voice. See below for guidance:
http://www.bartleby.com/141/strunk5.html

You are expected to review all of the sources and all sections of the textbook in order to understand the issues, although for analytic clarity you will focus on some sections and but a few sources. The most successful essays will use sources from BOTH The Yawp/Boyer AND Cobbs. That said, the greatest emphasis should be on the primary sources and interpretive essays from Major Problems.

No matter what, you are primarily answering the central question of the essay. This essay will answer what is history, what was the impact of colonization on Native American nations, what were the foundations of European colonies, providing specific historical evidence.

Assignment 1: Intro, Exploration, and Conquest

Remember, you will not address all parts of the question, but will focus on answering the question using the most relevant evidence

What is History (20%)?

Readings:
Cobbs and Gjerde, “Introduction”
Cobbs and Gjerde, Chapter 1, “Native Peoples”

What are “problems” in U.S. history? Provide an example. Note that these are problems of interpretation.
What is a primary source? What is a secondary source? Provide examples of primary and secondary sources from Chapter 1 (Cobbs and Gjerde pp 1-36). Discuss the specific challenges faced by students and scholars in dealing with primary and secondary sources.
Are all historical arguments equally valuable? Are all opinions valid? Consider that although there can be multiple right answers, there are most definitely also wrong answers (people who hold anti-historical beliefs—examples include Holocaust deniers and “birthers.” Note that they hold their opinions despite evidence that disproves them). How does that work? And do be clear that even if people believe lies and factual errors, they remain lies and factual errors.
What was the impact of the arrival of Europeans in larger numbers to North America into the seventeenth century (40%)?
Readings

Boyer, Chapter 1, “Native Peoples”
Boyer, Chapter 2, “Atlantic”
Yawp, “Indigenous America”
Yawp, “Colliding Cultures”

Cobbs and Gjerde, Chapter 1, “Conquest/Old Worlds Make New Ones,”
Introduction (on Tisquantum)
Salisbury, “Old World”
Merrell, “New World (3d ed)”

Cobbs and Gjerde, Chapter 2, “Conquest/Colonial Settlements,”
Merrell, “New World (4th ed)”

Extra Credit: Columbus, Sahagun and Nahua Artist or Land Use

In this discussion, focus on the essays by Drs. Salisbury and Merrill, and use the Yawp/Boyer texts for context (note that it is in chapter 2 in the 4th edition). Use the primary sources for extra credit. You are also allowed to use the primary sources from the Yawp for extra credit, but please cite them explicitly to ensure you get credit.
It is clear that the lives of Native Americans of North America changed in the seventeenth century. As Merrell points out, epidemic disease, new flora and fauna, and man-made material goods negatively transformed many landscapes and societies. He also points out the danger of dependency of European trade goods. He sums up the Native Americans as the “dispossessed”
Although natives were eventually marginalized, Dr. Neal Salisbury points out that (Native) Americas also adapted as they had for many centuries, and their relationships with the Europeans and Euro-Americans were complex. As he states, eventually (native) Americans were marginalized, but “in the interim natives and colonizers entered into numerous relationship…and often supported one another diplomatically or militarily against common enemies.” Note that this is no way means to deny the suffering Americans faced after the arrival of the “Christian” invaders, but to show that many (Native) Americans remained powerful and in control of their lives for centuries after the arrival of Europeans.
Appleby argues that the encounter of the Americas by Europeans, on the other hand, enabled them to challenge the religious authority of the Catholic Church over knowledge and curiosity. How did that happen? What were the results?
Given these realities, how should we explain the history of the first centuries of contact and colonization (1490s to early 1700s) between natives and European (especially English) immigrants/colonizers? How is Tisquantum reflective or representative of these proceses?
Is it accurate to say that many Native American nations remained powerful or significant economic, political and military entities until the late 1700s?
What was the basis of economic and political life in the colonies in the slave colonies of the Chesapeake and the Carolinas versus or in contrast to that of New England and the middle colonies (40%)?

Everyone
Boyer, Chapter 3, “Emergence”
Boyer, Chapter 4, “Empire”
Yawp, “Colliding Cultures”
Yawp, “British North America”
Yawp, “Colonial Society”

Option 1 — 3d ed
Cobbs, Chapter 2, “Southern Colonies”
Introduction, and “Slaves, Byrd, Tobacco, and Equiano”
Morgan, “Paternalism”

Cobbs, Chapter 3, “New England”
Introduction and “World of Goods”
Extra Credit: Winthrop and Breen, “Goods”

Option 2 —-4th edition
Cobbs, Chapter 3, “British Colonial Development”
Introduction and “World of Wonder” and “World of Goods”

This is one of the rare essays where the bulk of the material comes from Boyer/Yawp
Boyer looks at the foundation and development of colonial societies in North America in chapters 3 and 4. The Yawp looks at these events at the very end of Chapter 2 “Colliding Cultures,” (predominantly) Chapter 3 “British North America” and the beginning of Chapter 4 “Colonial Society”

In the late 17th century, and especially after Bacon’s rebellion, the position of African American and especially black slaves declined in the British colonies. Explain what happened, the labor systems, and how these societies functioned overall. Be sure to use the material from chapter 4 in the discussion of southern slavery. The Yawp goes into greater detail explaining that models of race were changed as a result of the transformation from Native American slavery to African slavery. What is clear from both accounts is that a system was created unlike anything humans had ever created before: a capitalist, plantation-based system of labor exploitation that turned humans into property, defined by race, and with slavery beginning before birth. Other forms of coerced labor, like indentured servitude were racialized as well.

Although slavery and plantations were not unknown in the British middle colonies and New England, the economic and social foundations of these societies were quite different. Describe the social (family and religion), economic (small-scale farming and commerce) and religious foundations of society in New England and the middle colonies. Be sure to use the Boyer or Yawp texts to avoid conflating these regions. They had many similarities but New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island etc) and the middle colonies (New York, Pennsylvania, etc) had very different histories. The Yawp discusses the latter as “New Colonies.”

Using Cobbs, if you have edition 3, compare the portrayal of southern colonies by Morgan (chapter 2) versus that of New England in Breen (chapter 3). If you have the fourth edition, compare the descriptions of Hall and Breen in chapter 3.

For extra credit compare these four sections (New England, middle colonies, Chesapeake and Carolinas) to New Spain and New France. You can focus on similarities or differences, and organize the comparison/contrast however you wish.

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