HSTY 111 Course Schedule

NOTE: All dates and assignments are subject to change. Please be aware of any announcements made in class or via the course website. All readings from the American Yawp are recommended but not required.

Last updated: December 3, 2019

Slide Decks

Date Topic Read Before Class Read in Class Do Before Class
Weds., Sept. 4 Introduction to the Course

Unit 1: What did the Pilgrims and Puritans want to accomplish in North America? Did they succeed?

Date Topic Read Before Class Read in Class Do Before Class
Mon., Sept. 9 What were the Pilgrims and Puritans thinking in the 1620s? Primary Sources Module
Weds., Sept. 11 What was North America like before the arrival of Europeans? Thomas Hariot, A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (1588), excerpt
Mon., Sept. 16 What did New English society look like in the seventeenth century? How did relations between English colonists and Native Americans develop?
Weds., Sept. 18 Writing exercise No in-person meeting Select one assigned Bible passage and write a 100-200 word essay that discusses how New England settlers adapted it in their society (due via Dropbox by 5pm) Writing in Your Own Words Module
Mon., Sept. 23 How did changes in imperial policies and religious practice shape colonial society? Accusations of witchcraft (1692, 1706)

Unit 2: How did European colonies in the Americas develop an economy with race-based slavery at its core?

Date Topic Read Before Class Read in Class Do Before Class
Weds., Sept. 25 What did early Americans think about slavery? Aristotle, The Politics (excerpt) Unit 1 essay due
Mon., Sept. 30 How did practices of slavery develop in the Americas before 1619? Secondary Sources Module
Weds., Oct. 2 How did Atlantic trade networks shape slavery? How did enslaved Africans experience the Middle Passage?
Mon., Oct. 7 How did Virginia and other colonies develop into “slave societies?” “Declaration of Nathaniel Bacon in the Name of the People of Virginia, July 30, 1676”
Weds., Oct. 9 What did the colonial economy look like in the eighteenth century? Jefferson’s Attitudes Toward Slavery, Monticello
Mon., Oct. 14 Columbus Day No class meeting
Weds., Oct. 16 Newspaper Research Day Bring laptop to class Unit 2 essay due

Unit 3: Why did the United States declare independence? In what ways did the meaning of independence differ among Americans?

Date Topic Read Before Class Read in Class Do Before Class
Mon., Oct. 21 What did Patriots say about independence?
Weds., Oct. 23 What did all of the grievances in the Declaration refer to?
  • Selected documents based on the grievances
Mon., Oct. 28 In what ways did Americans of various backgrounds react to the war for independence? Newspaper project due
Weds., Oct. 30 How did American political leaders design their new republics? Bill of Rights (1791) Writing an Effective History Paper Module
Mon., Nov. 4 To whom did the principles of the Revolution apply?
  • Dunbar, Never Caught, xi–xvii, 1–74
  • American Yawp: ch. 7, sect. II
Weds., Nov. 6 How did Americans excluded from political participation assert themselves? Dunbar, Never Caught, 75–126
Mon., Nov. 11 Veterans Day No class meeting
Weds., Nov. 13 How do we tell stories about hard-to-find individuals from the past? Dunbar, Never Caught, 127–97

Unit 4: Why did Southern states secede to protect slavery after the election of 1860? Why didn’t Northern states let them go?

Date Topic Read Before Class Read in Class Do Before Class
Mon., Nov. 18 What happened during the election of 1860? American Yawp: ch. 8, sect. III; ch. 11, sect. II; sect. III; ch. 14, sect. II Genesis 9: 20-27 Unit 3 essay due
Weds., Nov. 20 How did opposition to slavery develop? How did the abolition movement connect with other reform movements?
Mon., Nov. 25 How was evangelical Christianity connected to ideas about American expansion? Revolution project due
Weds., Nov. 27 No in-class meeting Happy Thanskgiving!
Mon., Dec. 2 Snow Day!  
Weds., Dec. 4 How did the political conflicts of the 1850s lead both the Confederacy and the United States to decide to go to war?
Mon., Dec. 9 How did the initial goals and ideals with which both sides entered the war evolve because of the experience of warfare? Common-place book due
Weds., Dec. 11 In what ways did the process of Reconstruction reflect the goals and aims of both the United States and the Confederacy during the Civil War? Unit 4 essay due