Listed below are the primary documents that are required reading for this course.
Where applicable, I have indicated what portions of the documents you should read. If you find that one or more of these links are not working properly, let me know ASAP.
Notes on using these readings:
*As a condition of being a student at USA, it is assumed that you have access to a computer and can work online. If you have difficulties with computer access, contact me immediately so that we can make other arrangements. You are responsible for these readings regardless of your computer situation.
*We may find it necessary to add or remove a reading or two over the course of the semester. You will be responsible for keeping up with any changes in the reading assignments, and so periodically check back to this page.
*These are predominantly primary documents: they will not always be easy to read or to understand. Please feel free to discuss these readings with me outside of class if you want/need another perspective. Using the readings, your textbook, and lectures, be able to identify these works (who, what, when, where) and to understand their historical context and significance.
*As you read these documents, consider 1) what the respective authors want us to know about their time, and 2) what if any of these ideas live on in our own time.
Week 1 Worlds Apart: Pre-Columbian America and Europe
Seneca Indian origin myth, "The Woman Who Fell From the Sky"
Abenaki Indians tell of the "Strange Origins of Corn"
Aristotle on the ideal society from Politics , 350 BCE
Pico Della Mirandola, Oration on the
Dignity of Man, 1486
Iroquois
Confederation: Gayanashagowa, "The Great Binding Law"
Week 2 Conquest and Compromise: Spain and France in the New World
Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico, 16th Century
New Laws of the Indies, 1542
De Las Casas, Apologetic History of the Indies,
1566
Charter of Acadia from Henry IV to Pierre du Gast, 1603
Samuel de Champlain, The Founding of Quebec,
1608
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Memorandum on Trade, 1664
Week 3 Masters, Servants and Slaves in the Chesapeake
Sex and Race Relations in a Southern Colony
Indentured servitude in Virginia, ca. 1640
Edward Waterhouse, Declaration, 1622
From servitude to slavery: Colonial laws
Bacon's Rebellion, Declaration, 1676
Thomas Jefferson on slavery from Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781
Week 4 Errand Into the Wilderness: The Puritan Mission
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity, 1630
Examination of Anne Hutchinson, 1637
Anne Bradstreet, A Dialogue Between Old England and New, 1642
Testimony against Bridget Bishop from the Salem Witch Trials, 1692
Aftermath of Salem: Petitions for Compensation, 1710-11
Week 5 Review documents weeks 1-4 for Exam 1
Week 6 Reason, Religion and Colonial Life
John Locke, The Two Treatises on Government, 1690
Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, 1741
Nathaniel Cole, going to hear George Whitefield preach, 1740
Thomas Paine compares Christianity to Deism
Benjamin Franklin, The Albany Plan of Union, 1754
Samuel Davies, "The Constituents of a Good Soldier", 1755
Governor Glen, on the Indians and Geo-politics, 1761
Week 7 Whose Revolution Was It?
Trenchard & Gordon, Cato's Letters, 1720-23
Dr. Joseph Warren, Oration on the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre, 1772
The Declaration of Independence, 1776
Slaves' Appeal to Royal Governor Thomas Gage, 1774
John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer, Letter 2
The Diary of Joseph Plumb Martin, a Revolutionary War Veteran
Edmund Burke's Speech on Reconciliation, 1775
Week 8 Counter-revolution: The Rise and Fall of Federalism
James Madison, Number 10 from The Federalist Papers, 1787
Mercy Otis Warren, Observations on the New Constitution, 1788
Alexander Hamilton, Report on Manufactures, 1791 (excerpts)
George Washington's Farewell Address to the Nation, 1796
William Manning, The Key of Libberty, 1798
Week 9 Institutes for a Landed Democracy
Mary Dewees's Journal, 1787: Philadelphia to Kentucky
Land Ordinance of 1785 Townships under 1785 Ordinance
Benjamin Rush, On the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic, 1786
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Jefferson's Address to the Wolf and the People of the Mandan Nation, 1806
William Bartram's Journey Through Alabama, ca. 1777 (Pickett's account,1851)
Week 10 Review documents weeks 6-9 for Exam II
Week 11 Tyranny of the Majority: The Age of the Common Man
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1831 (Book 1, Chap. 13)
John Ross letter protesting Indian removal, 1836
Thomas Woodcock, journey on the Eerie Canal, 1836
Andrew Jackson's Farewell Address, 1837
Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address, 1838
Mormon Extermination Order, 1838
The Declaration of Sentiments, 1848
Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?", 1852
Week 12 Slavery, the Republic and the Old South
Alexander Telfair, Plantation Rules
The Confessions of Nat Turner, 1831
Sojourner Truth, "Ar'n't I a Woman?" speech, 1851 (Fannie Gage account, 1863)
Frederick Law Olmstead, The Cotton Kingdom, 1852
William Lloyd Garrison, "No Compromise" speech, 1854
James Henry Hammond defends slavery, 1858
Alabama Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers Project (1930s):
Charity Anderson, Mobile, AL
Walter Calloway, Birmingham,
AL
Emma Crockett, Livingston, AL
Week 13 The Far West and the Territorial Crisis
John L. O'Sullivan on "Manifest Destiny", 1839
James Polk's Address to Congress Asking for War against Mexico, 1846
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849
The Dred Scott Decision, reported in the New York Times, 1857
John N. Seguin, The Fate of the Tejanos, 1858
Week 14 The Failed Experiment: Civil War and the Fall of the Old Republic
William Lloyd Garrison, "No Compromise" Speech, 1854
John Brown's Speech before his execution, 1859
Alabama Constitution of 1861 (First Ordinance)
Alexander Stephens, the Cornerstone Address, 1861
General McClellan's letter to Lincoln, 1862
William Sherman's Letter to the Leaders of Atlanta, 1864
Week 15 America's Unfinished Revolution
Terms of Lee's Surrender at Appomattox Court House, 1865
Virginia Freedmen address the People and Congress, 1865
Congressional Investigation into the Ku Klux Klan, 1871
