Hierarchical Racial Discrimination in America

Analyze a specific form of hierarchy, for example race, class, or gender, in America from 1607 to 1845.  In your paper you might explore how hierarchy changed over time, what conditions made hierarchy possible, and how groups attempted to combat hierarchy and what opposition and constraints they encountered.

Should use more primary sources and should have 8 or more sources.

Have 6 pages need 4 to 6 more and for the first 6 to be edited and more detailed and include more sources and to be re-written to flow with and include the entire time from 1607-1845.

HAVE TO USE: Kingdom of Matthias by Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz

Should use the readings and known knowledge:

Readings:

Jack Hitt, “Mighty White of You: Racial Preferences Color America’s Oldest Skulls and Bones,” Harper’s, July 2005, pp. 39-55 on Canvas

04: Wednesday, January 25: Creating the Atlantic World

Readings:
Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin Press, 2002), pp. 24-37, 51-66 on Canvas

Documents: Christopher Columbus, The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to America, (1492-1493), on Canvas; Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain, (1632), on Canvas; Mexican Accounts of Conquest from the Florentine Codex, (c. 1547), on Canvas; Bartolomé de Las Casas, The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account, (1542), on Canvas; “Two Views on Columbus Day,” (1991 and 2005) on Canvas

05: Friday, January 27: Sections

Week 3:

06: Monday, January 30: The Atlantic Slave Trade

Readings:

“Why Were Africans Enslaved?” in David Northrup, ed., The Atlantic Slave Trade, Second Edition (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), pp. 1-29 on Canvas

Documents: John Hawkins, “An Alliance to Raid for Slaves” (1568), Willem Bosman, “Trading on the Slave Coast” (1700), Olaudah Equiano, “Kidnapped, Enslaved, and Sold Away” (c. 1756) on Canvas

07: Wednesday, February 1: An English Empire in the Americas

Readings:

Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, The Many Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, and Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Atlantic (Boston: Beacon Press, 2000), pp. 8-35 on Canvas

Documents: George Peckham, “A True Reporte of the Late Discoveries,” (1583); Richard Hakluyt, the Younger, “Discourse of Western Planting,” (1584); Richard Hakluyt, the Elder, “Inducements to the Liking of the Voyage Intended towards Virginia,” (1585) on Canvas

08: Friday, February 3: Sections

Week 4:

09: Monday, February 6: Encounter

Readings:

Kathleen Brown, “The Anglo-Algonquian Gender Frontier,” in Negotiators of Change Historical Perspectives on Native American Women, ed. Nancy Shoemaker (New York: Routledge, 1995), pp. 26-48 on Canvas

Documents: John Winthrop, “But What Warrant Have We To Take That Land” (1629) (See document collection in “08”); John Smith, “Description of Virginia” on Canvas; Father Paul LeJeune, “Encounter with the Indians” on Canvas

10: Wednesday, February 8: Colonial America: Chesapeake

Readings:

Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin Press, 2002), pp. 138-157 on Canvas

Documents: [Virginia Company], “A True Declaration of the Estate of the Colonie in Virginia,” (1610) (See document collection in “08”); James Revel, “The Poor Unhappy Transported Felon’s Sorrowful Account of His Fourteen Years Transportation at Virginia in America,” (c. 1680) on Canvas; “Servitude and Slavery in 17th-Century Virginia Courts,” (1630-89) on Canvas

11: Friday, February 10: Sections

Week 5:

12: Monday, February 13: Colonial America: New England

Readings:

Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin Press, 2002), pp. 158-186 on Canvas

Document: Mary Rowlandson, from “The Narrative of Mary Rowlandson” (1682) on Canvas

13: Wednesday, February 15: Colonial America: Lowcountry

Readings:

Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin Press, 2002), pp. 222-244 on Canvas

Document: “The Stono Rebellion in South Carolina” (1739) on Canvas

14: Friday, February 17: Sections

Week 6:

15: Monday, February 20: Colonial America: Middle Colonies

Readings:

Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin Press, 2002), pp. 246-272 on Canvas

Document: Gabriel Thomas, “Pennsylvania, The Poor Man’s Paradise” (1698) on Canvas

16: Wednesday, February 22: Colonial (Dis)Order

Readings:

Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker, “Sailors and Slaves in the Revolution,” in The Social Fabric, ed. Thomas L. Hartshorne (New York: Longman, 2006), pp. 131-49 on Canvas

Documents: “New Jersey Land Riots” (1746 and 1748) on Canvas; William Livingtons, “The Vanity of Birth and Titles; with the Absurdity of Claiming Respect without Merit” (1753) on Canvas; Paxton Boys, “Manifesto” (1764) on Canvas; North Carolina Regulators, “Shew Yourselves to be Freemen” (1769) on internet (Links to an external site.); J. Hector St. John Crèvecoeur, “What is an American?” (1770) on Canvas

17: Friday, February 24: Sections

Week 7:

18: Monday, February 27: War and Rebellion

Readings:

Documents: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, Section I (Links to an external site.), Section II (Links to an external site.), Section III (Links to an external site.) on internet; Ann Hulton, “Loyalist View of Colonial Unrest” (1774) on Canvas; Thomas Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence” (1776); Abigail and John Adams, “Remember the Ladies” (1776) on Canvas; Joseph Brant, “Mohawk Loyalty to Britain” (1776) on Canvas; John Dickinson, “A Speech Against Independence” (1776) on Canvas; Slave Petitions for Freedom during the Revolution (1774-79) on Canvas

19: Wednesday, March 1: Founding of a New Nation

Readings:

Documents: William Finlay, “On Democracy, Banks, and Paper Money,” 1786 on Canvas; Shay’s Rebels, “Grievances,” 1786 on Canvas

20: Friday, March 3: Sections

*First segment of paper due at the beginning of class*

Week 8:

21: Monday, March 6: “We the People”

Readings:

Alfred F. Young, “The Pressures of the People on the Framers of the Constitution,” in Major Problems in American History, Volume I, 3rd Edition, eds. Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman et al., 139-146 on Canvas; Ron Chernow, “The Founding Fathers Versus the Tea Party,” New York Times (2010) on internet (Links to an external site.)

Documents: Constitution (1787) on internet (Links to an external site.); Bill of Rights (1791) on internet (Links to an external site.); Elbridge Gerry, “The Danger of the Levilling Spirit” (1787); George Clinton, “To The Citizens of the State of New York,” (1787); James Madison, “The Federalist, No. 10,” on Canvas

22: Wednesday, March 8: Competing Visions for the Early Republic

Readings:

Drew R. McCoy, “The Fears of the Jeffersonian Republicans” on Canvas; Linda Kerber, “The Fears of the Federalists” on Canvas

Documents: Governor Thomas Mifflin, “Proclamation on Unlawful Combinations,” 1794; Judge Alexander Addison, “On the Whiskey Rebellion” (1794) on Canvas

23: Friday, March 10: *Mid-Term Exam*

Week 9: Spring Break – Class Canceled

Week 10:

24: Monday, March 20: American Expansion and Indian Removal

Readings:

Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, Kingdom of Matthias, pp. 3-48

Document: Tecumseh’s Plea to the Choctaws and the Chickasaws on Canvas; James Tallmadge, “Denunciation of Slavery in Missouri” (1819) on Canvas

25: Wednesday, March 22: Market Revolution

Readings:

Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, Kingdom of Matthias, pp. 49-90

Documents: James Flint, “Panic of 1819” (1822) on Canvas; David Crockett, “Advice to Politicians” (1833) on Canvas

26: Friday, March 24: Sections

Week 11:

27: Monday, March 27: Northern Working Class

Readings:

Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, Kingdom of Matthias, pp. 91-164

Documents: B. Julianna, “Factory Life as it Is” (1845) on Canvas; “Accounts of Urban Riots” (1835) on Canvas; William Sanger, “New York Prostitutes” (1858) on Canvas

28: Wednesday, March 29: Northern Middle Class

Readings:

Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz, Kingdom of Matthias, pp. 164-180

Documents: Excerpt from David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829) on Canvas and William Lloyd Garrison’s “On the Constitution and the Union” on the internet (Links to an external site.)

29: Friday, March 31: Sections

Week 12:

30: Monday, April 3: Creating the “Old South”

Readings:

Stephanie McCurry, “The Two Faces of Republicanism: Gender and Proslavery Politics in Antebellum South Carolina,” Journal of American History, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Mar., 1992), pp. 1245-1264 on Canvas

Documents: Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, from Georgia Scenes on Canvas; Daniel R. Hundley, from Social Relations from Our Southern States on Canvas; Mary Boykin Chesnut, from The Private Mary Chesnut on Canvas; Reverend Thornton Stringfellow, A Brief Examination of the Scripture Testimony of the Institution of Slavery, 1841, on Canvas

31: Wednesday, April 5: Life in the “Quarters”

Readings:

Brenda Stevenson, “Distress and Discord in Virginia Slave Families, 1830-60,” in In Joy and In Sorrow: Women, Family, and Marriage in the Victorian South, 1830-60, pp. 103-124 on Canvas

Documents: Harriet Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl on Canvas; Frederick Douglass, from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass on Canvas