NOTE: All dates and assignments are subject to change. Please be aware of any announcements made in class, via the course website, or on Blackboard.

Last updated: January 21, 2021

Unit 1: The Imperial Crisis

Date	Format	Topic	Read to Prepare for Class	Do to Prepare for Class
Mon., Jan. 25	Zoom	Course Introduction		Fill out entrance survey
Wed., Jan. 27	Remote	Reading Day
Thu., Jan. 28	Zoom	Thinking About Revolution	Nikole Hannah-Jones, “The 1619 Project: Introduction,” New York Times Magazine, Aug. 14, 2019. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “‘Pursuits of Happiness’: Dark Threads in the History of the American Revolution,” in The Harvard Sampler: Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century, ed. Jennifer M. Shephard, Stephen Michael Kosslyn, and Evelynn Maxine Hammonds (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2011), 341–66.
Mon., Feb. 1	Zoom	Seven Years’ War	“The Albany Plan of Union, 1754,” Founders Online, National Archives.
Wed., Feb. 3	Remote	Reading Day
Thu., Feb. 4	Zoom	The Ideology of Revolution	Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1967), ch. 3.
Mon., Feb. 8	Zoom	The Stamp Act Crisis	Review America’s Historical Newspapers
Wed., Feb. 10	Remote	Reading Day	Zabin, The Boston Massacre, xi–xvi, 1–78.
Thu., Feb. 11	Zoom	Taxes and Empire	John Dickinson, Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania Letter I, Pennsylvania Gazette, Dec. 3, 1767 Letter VII, Pennsylvania Gazette, Jan. 14, 1768
Mon., Feb. 15	No class meeting	Presidents’ Day
Wed., Feb. 17	Remote	Reading Day	Zabin, The Boston Massacre, 79–159.
Thu., Feb. 18	Zoom	Consumer Culture	Newspaper advertisements, 1771 (See Blackboard for details on what to read)
Mon., Feb. 22	Zoom	Violence and Protest		Timeline entry due
Wed., Feb. 24	Remote	Reading Day	Zabin, The Boston Massacre, 160–221.
Thu., Feb. 25	Zoom	Class Visit: Prof. Serena Zabin	Zabin, The Boston Massacre, 222–28.
Mon., Mar. 1	Zoom	Liberty or Slavery	Cæsar Sarter, “Address, To those who are Advocates for holding the Africans in slavery,” Essex Journal and Merrimack Packet, August 17, 1774.
Wed., Mar. 3	Remote	Reading Day	Maier, American Scripture, introduction, ch. 1.
Thu., Mar. 4	Zoom	Patriots and Loyalists	Samuel Seabury, Free Thoughts, on the Proceedings of the Congress at Philadelphia (New York: [James Rivington], 1774), Early American Imprints, ser. 1, no. 13602. Alexander Hamilton, A Full Vindication of the Measures of Congress (New York: James Rivington, 1774).

Unit 2: The War for Independence

Date	Format	Topic	Read to Prepare for Class	Do to Prepare for Class
Mon., Mar. 8	Zoom	The rage militaire of 1775		Zabin reflection due
Wed., Mar. 10	Remote	Reading Day	Maier, American Scripture, chs. 2–3.
Thu., Mar. 11	Zoom	Towards Independence	Thomas Paine, Common Sense (Philadelphia, 1776), excerpt. Declaration of Independence (1776)
Mon., Mar. 15	Zoom	Creating American Republics	Constitution of Massachusetts (1780) Constitution of Pennsylvania (1776)
Wed., Mar. 17	Remote	Reading Day	Fenn, Pox Americana, introduction, chs. 1–2.
Thu., Mar. 18	Zoom	War and Deprivation	Rachel B. Herrmann, “‘No Useless Mouth’: Iroquoian Food Diplomacy in the American Revolution,” Diplomatic History 41, no. 1 (January 2017): 20–49.
Mon., Mar. 22	Zoom	A Perpetual Union?	Articles of Confederation (1781) Eliga Gould, “When did America Really Become Independent?” Uncommon Sense—The Blog, July 4, 2017.
Wed., Mar. 24	Remote	Reading Day
Thu., Mar. 25	Zoom	The War in the South	Fenn, Pox Americana, chs. 3–5.

Unit 3: The Critical Period and the Early Republic

Date	Format	Topic	Read to Prepare for Class	Do to Prepare for Class
Mon., Mar. 29	Zoom	Reading Freedom in the Law	African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Society—review documents: Revolutionary Participation The Struggle for Freedom The Legal End of Slavery in Massachusetts
Wed., Mar. 31	Remote	Reading Day	Fenn, Pox Americana, chs. 6–7.
Thu., Apr. 1	Zoom	Freedom for all?	Ruth Wallis Herndon & Ella Wilcox Sekatau, “The Right to a Name,” Ethnohistory 44, no. 3 (Summer 1997): 443-54. Adam McNeil, “Black Patriotism and Black Death in the Aftermath of the American Revolution,” Black Perspectives, Oct. 16, 2019.
Mon., Apr. 5	Zoom	A More Perfect Union?	United States Constitution (1787)
Wed., Apr. 7	Remote	Reading Day	Fenn, Pox Americana, ch. 8, epilogue.
Thu., Apr. 8	Zoom	The Continental View	“The American Revolution in North America,” Ben Franklin’s World, ep. 163, Dec. 5, 2017.
Mon., Apr. 12	Zoom	New Politics for a New Nation I	Bill of Rights (1791)
Wed., Apr. 14	Remote	Writing Day
Thu., Apr. 15	Zoom	New Politics for a New Nation II	Shira Lurie, “Liberty Poles and the Fight for Popular Politics in the Early Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic 38, no. 4 (2018): 673–97.	Fenn reflection due

Unit 4: Beyond the Revolution

Date	Format	Topic	Read to Prepare for Class	Do to Prepare for Class
Mon., Apr. 19	No class meeting	Patriots’ Day
Wed., Apr. 21	Remote	Reading Day	Maier, American Scripture, ch. 4, epilogue.
Thu., Apr. 22	Zoom	Remembering the Revolution	Emily Sneff, “Convulsions Within: When Printing the Declaration of Independence Turns Partisan,” Age of Revolutions, July 4, 2018.
Mon., Apr. 26	Zoom	Atlantic Contexts I	Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789) Declaration of Independence of Haiti (1804) (Blackboard) Address of Simón Bolivár at the Congress of Angostura (1819)
Wed., Apr. 28	Remote	Reading Day	Christopher Brown, “The Fight over Slavery in the Revolutionary Era | Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History,” Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2011.
Thu., Apr. 29	Zoom	Atlantic Contexts II	Caitlin Fitz, Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions (New York: Liveright, 2017), ch. 4.	Maier reflection due
Mon., May. 3	Zoom	Revolutionary Legacies I	Find a contemporary example of remembering the American Revolution in American culture.	Send the item to Prof. Adelman before class.
Wed., May. 5	Remote	Writing Day	Work on your final essay.
Thu., May. 6	Zoom	Revolutionary Legacies II	We will continue the conversation from Monday.