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Master of American History and Government

Ashland University

AHG 603:

The Colonial Era

Sunday, July 6 to Friday, July 11, 2008

Instructors: Todd Estes and David Tucker

Course Focus:

This course examines aspects of the political, social, religious, economic and cultural development of the British North American colonies. It pays special attention to the development of representative political institutions and how these emerged through the confrontation between colonists and King and proprietors.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course, students should:

  1. Understand the social and economic life of colonial America and how that affected colonial politics
  2. Understand the changes in politics and political thinking that occurred in Colonial America
  3. Understand the most important issues in relations between the colonies and Great Britain
  4. Understand the character of colonial religion and how that affected life in the colonies

Course Requirements:

Students auditing the course as a part of a Teaching American History Grant program must complete the readings and fully participate in the seminars during the week.

Required Texts:

Schedule

Sunday, July 6

4:30 - 6:00pm:
Introduction & Session 1 – The New World (Professor Tucker)

Focus:

What does the Tempest tell us about how Englishmen looked at the new world? Both The Tempest and the Mayflower Compact concern events that occurred offshore before the beginning of an adventure in a new land. What lessons do the two different events (the writing and signing of the Compact and the storm at the beginning of play and the reaction of characters to it) teach us? What do they tell us about how humans react to adversity? Do the people and characters in the two events react differently? If so, what accounts for the differences in their reactions? Prospero uses magic. Do we take magic as seriously as some 16th and 17th century Europeans did? Why not? How does that affect how we live? How are the characters in the Tempest changed by their experiences on the Island? Do the changes they experience help us understand what happened to the colonists in North America?

Readings:

  • Shakespeare, The Tempest
  • Mayflower Compact (CP p. 5-6)
  • Alan Taylor, American Colonies, ch. 2, pgs. 23-49

7:00 - 8:30pm:
Session 2 – Ashbrook Lecture (Attendance Required)

Monday, July 7

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 3 – North America, Natives, and the Impact of Colonization (Professor Estes)

Focus:

What expectations did Europeans bring with them to North America? How did the initial encounters between Europeans and Natives shape later interactions between them? In what ways did encounters with Europeans transform Native societies and cultures? What impact did differences in land use patterns between Europeans and Native make on the environment?

Readings:

  • Taylor, ch 9 (pp. 188-203)
  • Kupperman, ch 2 (pp. 26-38 documents only)
  • Colin Calloway, "New Peoples and New Societies" in Kupperman (pp. 17-25)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 4 – A Factious People: The Middle Colonies (Professor Estes)

Focus:

What were the dominant characteristics of the Middle Colonies in contrast with those in the South and New England? What was the practical effect of the extreme diversity found in this region? How did the colony settled by Quakers turn out so differently from the colony settled by Puritans? What drove the economy of the Middle Colonies?

Readings:

  • Taylor, ch 12 (pp. 246-272)
  • Kupperman, ch 7 (pp. 180-203 documents only)

2:00 - 3:30pm:
Session 5 – Salem Witch Trials (Professor Tucker)

Focus:

Were the accusations and trials a delusion? If so, what made the delusion believable? Do you see any patterns or larger meanings in the accusations? What kind of people were accused? Who were the accusers? What kinds of people might have had an interest in accusing someone of witchcraft or in supporting such accusations?

Readings:

  • Hall, Witchhunting in Seventeenth-Century New England, pgs. 280-314 (CP p. 9-27)
  • Boyer and Nissembaum, Salem-Village Witchcraft, pgs. 3-17, 117-123 (CP p. 29-42)
  • Rabinowitz, "The Sacrosanct Accusation" (CP p. 43-44)

Tuesday, July 8

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 6 – The Great Awakening (Professor Estes)

Focus:

What caused the Great Awakening? What were the distinctive characteristics of New Light preachers such as George Whitefield? What role did emotion-and emotional sermons-play in the revivals? In what ways was Whitefield also a master at marketing the Awakening and combining print and oral culture?

Readings:

  • Taylor, ch 15 (pp. 339-362)
  • Kupperman, ch 11 (pp330-345 documents only)
  • Frank Lambert, "George Whitefield, the Grand Itinerant" in Kupperman (pp. 353-364)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 7 – Jonathan Edwards (Professor Tucker)

Focus:

How does Edwards conceive of God and the Universe He has made? What is man's place in it? Would witches have a place in it? What is man's relationship to God, according to Edwards? Do you see any connections between Edwards' ideas and the way that the Puritans lived or hoped to live in New England?

Readings:

  • Jonathan Edwards:
    • "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" (CP p. 47-64)
    • "Of Being" (CP p. 65-68)
    • "Beauty of the World" (excerpt) (CP p. 69)
    • "The Nature of True Virtue" (Ch. 1) (CP p. 70-74)
    • Taylor, Ch 8 (159-186)

    4:30 - 6:00pm: Session 8 – The Urban Crucible (Professor Estes)

    Focus:

    What important roles did cities play in Colonial America? How did cities serve as a nexus between farms in the backcountry and the markets of the Atlantic World? What kind of political and social worlds did colonial cities contain? How did cities come to play crucial roles in the American Revolution?

    Readings:

    • Kupperman, ch 14 (pp. 436-453 documents only)

Wednesday, July 9

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 9 – Women and Family Life, Slaves and Slave Culture (Professor Estes)

Focus:

In what ways did white women in various colonial regions have power? In what ways did they not? What kinds of slave cultures emerged in the colonies among slaves and in the interactions between whites and slaves? What dynamics affected family life in both slave and free communities?

Readings:

  • Taylor, ch 7 (pp. 139-157)
  • Kupperman, ch 10 (pp. 287-301 documents only)
  • Carr and Walsh, "The Experience of White Women in the Chesapeake" in Kupperman (pp. 72-79)
  • Jane Kamensky, "Outspoken Women and Witchcraft Accusations" in Kupperman (pp. 145-151)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 10 – The French and Indian War and Imperial Politics (Professor Tucker)

Focus:

What was the nature of the British Empire? Where does power in it reside? Why is this an important question? Did the way that one answered it affect one's view of colonial politics? How did the wars that the Colonists fought change their views of the empire? How did the wars change the empire?

Readings:

  • Taylor, Ch 18 (420-443)
  • Penn's Plan of Union (1697) (CP p. 77)
  • Franklin, "Albany Plan of Union" (1754) (CP p. 78-80)
  • Governor Francis Bernard, "Principles of Law and Polity, Applied to the Government of the British Colonies" (1764) (CP p. 81-84)

2:00 - 3:30pm:
Session 11 – The Colonial Economy and the Empire of Goods (Professor Estes)

Focus:

How did the Colonial economy depend on the Atlantic and Caribbean trade? In what ways did American colonists have great importance as consumers? How did the significance of both consumption and production by colonists factor in their growing importance as colonies? How did consumer boycotts of British imports play a major role in the American Revolution?

Readings:

  • Taylor, ch 14 (pp. 302-337)
  • Kupperman, ch 12 (pp. 366-378 documents only)

Thursday, July 10

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 12 – Benjamin Franklin (Professor Tucker)

Focus:

What does Franklin's story tell us about the world in which he lived and the attitudes of its inhabitants?

Readings:

  • Franklin, Autobiography, pgs. 1-76

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 13 – Benjamin Franklin, continued (Professor Tucker)

Focus:

What does Franklin's story tell us about politics in the colonies and the empire in the decades before the Revolution?

Readings:

  • Franklin, Autobiography, pgs. 77-146

2:00 - 3:30pm:
Session 14 – Political Development (Professor Tucker)

Focus:

What does The Candidates reveal about politics in eighteenth-century Virginia? How does politics now differ from politics then? How does the language we use differ from the language used in the eighteenth-century? Does different language mean a different understanding? Does The Candidates exemplify any of the issues that Beeman discusses? Some historians believe that the Revolution had already taken place by the time the fighting started. What would you conclude based on the readings below?

Readings:

  • Beeman, The Varieties of Political Experience in Eighteenth-Century America, chs. 1, 10 (CP p. 87-108)
  • Munford, The Candidates (CP p. 109-149)

Friday, July 11

9:00 - 10:30am:
Session 15 – Anglicization, Convergence, and the Coming of the Revolution (Professor Estes)

Focus:

What long term factors of social, economic, and cultural developments led to American colonies toward great convergence by 1763? How did social convergence explain how colonies moved individually in various directions but collectively toward each other? What were the effects of the long term process of Anglicization? How did Anglicization reach a peak in 1763? What roles did both convergence and Anglicization play in the coming of the American Revolution?

Readings:

  • Taylor, ch 18 (pp. 421-443)
  • Kupperman, ch 13 (pp. 401-419 documents only)
  • John Murrin, "The Dilemma of American National Identity" in Kupperman (pp. 460-465)

10:50am - 12:20pm:
Session 16 – Review and Questions (Professors Estes and Tucker)

1:30 - 3:00pm:
Session 17 – Final Comprehensive Examination