This course schedule is a living document and subject to minor to moderate changes. The version of the course schedule on the course website (this one!) is the authoritative version. Always check this version of the schedule to confirm the day’s reading and assignment deadlines, as well as office hours.
Please complete each set of readings before class on the date shown.
(HITM = History in the Making)
Week 1: Introductions
January 13:
- In class: Map activity
- In class: Introductions
- In class: Lenses
January 15:
- Read the syllabus and course schedule.
- Read “How to read in this course.”
- Read Jesse Stommel, “Why I Don’t Grade”
- In class: Digital scrapbook assigned
- In class: Research project assigned
Week 2: Indigenous North America prior to European contact
January 20: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Class does not meet.
January 22:
- Read HITM chapter 1 (1.1-1.5).
- Read Native American creation stories.
- Go to the Native Land website and study the map. If you grew up in North America, zoom into a place where you lived while you were in elementary, middle, or high school. Find out as much as you reasonably can about the indigenous peoples who inhabited that land, and be prepared to share with others. If you grew up outside of North America, pick any place in North America that interests you.
- In class: Sign up for research project themes
Week 3: The Early Modern global context. Contact and catastrophe.
January 27:
- Read HITM chapter 2 (2.1 – 2.2.3, 2.4.2 – 2.6).
- Read/view primary sources:
January 29:
- Read HITM chapter 3 (3.1 – 3.3, 3.3.2, 3.4, 3.4.2 – 3.5.1, 3.5.3 – 3.7).
- Read primary sources:
- Read Taryn Luna, “Newsom apologizes for California’s history of violence against Native Americans”
Weeks 4 and 5: English colonization
February 3:
- Read HITM chapter 4 (4.1 – 4.1.1, 4.4 – 4.9).
- Read Anthony Kronman, “Hiding the dark parts of our history on campuses is bad for our democracy,” and be ready to share your opinion in a small group.
February 5:
- Note: No digital scrapbook for today
- Read “John Winthrop dreams of a city on a hill”
- Read President Reagan’s farewell address.
- In class: Research instruction
February 10:
- Read DeNeen L. Brown, “A symbol of slavery—and survival”
- Explore The 1619 Project. Select 3 items for special study and come to class prepared to talk about them.
- Read Ishaan Tharoor, “The 1619 Project and the far-right fear of history.”
February 12:
- Note: no digital scrapbook for today
- Read HITM chapter 5 (5.1 – 5.2, 5.2.3 – 5.7).
- Read Puritans’ beliefs about children (.docx) and consider the question at the end of page 1 of the document.
- First digital scrapbook check-in –> New due date February 19.
Week 6: Growing pains
February 17: Presidents’ Day. Class does not meet.
February 19:
- Read HITM chapter 6 (6.1-6.6).
- Read Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
- First digital scrapbook check-in (extended deadline)
Week 7: Road to the American revolution
February 24:
- Read HITM chapter 7 (7.1 – 7.6).
- Read “Olaudah Equiano describes the Middle Passage”
- Study the stowage map of the slave ship Brookes
- Read “Alibamo Mingo, Choctaw leader, Reflects on the British and French, 1765”
February 26:
- Read HITM chapter 8 (8.1 – 8.2.3, 8.3.9 – 8.7).
- Listen to the Scene on Radio episode “Rich Man’s Revolt.”
- “Abigail and John Adams Converse on Women’s Rights, 1776”
Week 8: The Confederation and the Constitution. Federalism.
March 2:
- Read HITM chapter 9 (9.1 – 9.6).
- Read Judith Sargent Murray, excerpt from “On the Equality of the Sexes.”
March 4:
- Note: no digital scrapbook for today
- Read HITM chapter 10 (10.1 – 10.6)
- Read “Thomas Jefferson’s Racism, 1788”
- Read “Black scientist Benjamin Banneker demonstrates black intelligence to Thomas Jefferson, 1791”
- Annotated bibliography due.
Weeks 9 and 10: The early republic. Lewis and Clark.
March 9:
- No digital scrapbook for today.
- Read HITM chapter 11 (11.1 – 11.6; just lightly skim 11.3.1).
- “Abigail Bailey Escapes an Abusive Relationship, 1815”
- “Tecumseh calls for Pan-Indian Resistance, 1810”
March 11:
- Read Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes (xiii – 68).
March 16:
- Note: no digital scrapbook for today
- Read Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes (69 – 119).
March 18:
- Note: Today’s digital scrapbook covers readings from both March 16 and March 18.
- Read Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes (123-192).
Week 11: Spring break
March 23-27: Spring break. Class does not meet.
Week 12: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
March 30:
- Read Mongrel Nation, 1-55.
- Note: Digital scrapbook for March 30 & April 1 is combined, and it will be your final digital scrapbook entry.
April 1:
- Read Mongrel Nation, 59-99.
- Optional listening: Interview with Clarence Walker on NPR (runs from 20:52 to 35:08)
- Optional: Take a live video tour of Monticello, Jefferson’s plantation. (Cost: $10)
Week 13: Jacksonian America
April 6:
- Read HITM chapter 12 (12.1 – 12.6)
- Andrew Jackson, Annual address to Congress, regarding Indian removal (1830)
- Read Lewis Ross et. al., “Appeal of the Cherokee Nation” (1830)
- Read “Missouri Compromise documents, 1819-1820,” paying special attention to Thomas Jefferson’s letter to John Holmes
- Draft thesis + outline or mind map due.
April 8:
- Listen to the This Land podcast, episodes 1-5.
- Each episode is between 24 and 34 minutes.
- Here are the (imperfect) episode transcripts.
- Listen to the Code Switch episode “The Difficult Math of Being Native American”
- Optional reading and listening: Learn about the Mashpee Wampanoag case.
Week 14: Antebellum revival and reform. Westward expansion
April 13:
- Read HITM chapter 13 (13.1 – 13.6)
- Read Alexis de Tocqueville, “How Americans Understand the Equality of the Sexes” (1840)
- Read “Harriet H. Robinson Remembers a Mill Workers’ Strike” (1836)
- Read Robert Purvis, “Black Philadelphians Defend their Voting Rights” (1838)
- Read “Nat Turner Explains the Southampton Rebellion” (1831)
- Second digital scrapbook check-in due.
April 15:
- Read HITM chapter 14 (14.1 – 14.5)
- Read Pun Chi, “Chinese Merchant Complains of Racist Abuse” (1860)
- Study John Gast’s painting American Progress (1872)
- Study the anti-immigrant cartoon “The Problem Solved” (1860)
Week 15: Sectional crisis and Civil War
April 20:
- Read HITM chapter 15 (15.1 – 15.6).
- Read Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”(1852)
- Read Lucy B. Armstrong, “Wyandotte Woman Describes Tensions Over Slavery” (1849)
- Read “George Fitzhugh Argues that Slavery is Better than Liberty and Equality” (1854)
April 22:
- Read HITM chapter 16 (16.1 – 16.2.3, 16.3.9 – 16.7).
- Read Walt Whitman’s poems “O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”
Week 16: African American legacies of slavery and emancipation
April 27:
- Read “Jourdon Anderson writes his former enslaver.”
- Read “Frederick Douglass on Remembering the Civil War”.
- Read “‘My mother was sold from me’: After slavery, the desperate search for loved ones in ‘last seen ads.’”
- Read “Slavery’s descendants say a reparations check won’t make the pain go away.”
- Research paper (+ self-assessment) OR Discord reflection + self-assessment due.
April 29:
- Read Gillian Brockell, “Some white people don’t want to hear about slavery at plantations built by slaves.”
- Watch “Okra Soup with Michael Twitty”
- Read Michael W. Twitty, “Dear Disgruntled White Plantation Visitors, Sit Down.”
- Course evaluations
Week 17: Finals week
May 4 (final exam day, no class meeting in Zoom):
Digital scrapbook reflection due by noon- Reflection on the transition to online learning (due by noon)
- Participation (in classroom + on Discord) self-assessment (due by noon)