SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS, HISTORY 121, Summer 2008
Updated June 21, 2008

Topic summaries linked below are required reading.

Documents listed below are required reading.
Writing Projects

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE AND AMERICAN HISTORY
Personal History Essay (Optional) due. May be posted in Blackboard Intros.

Part 1: Discovery & Settlement of America, 1607-1760

• Background of American History
• Colonial Introduction
• Colonization
• Native American Cultures
• Virginia: The Jamestown Disaster

Practice Quiz 1 must be taken this week.

• Read Syllabus, Course Policy
• Read Blackboard Instructions & Course Description and Objectives
• See How to Succeed, Test Taking, Study Hints, Writing Tips, Grading policy & How to Avoid Plagiarism.
• Read Welcome Letter
• Visit the ELI Orientation Page.

Documents:

• John Smith: Jamestown
• Indentured Servant Letter
• Mayflower Compact

LIFE IN COLONIAL AMERICA

• The Protestant Reformation in Germany & England
• New England Puritans
• Middle & Southern Colonies
• Slavery in the Colonies
• Religion in Colonial America
• The Great Awakening
• The Enlightenment in America
• Women in Colonial America
  

Last day to drop with tuition refund: May 31

Documents:

• John Winthrop
• William Bradford
• Mary Jemison
• Pennsylvania Charter
• Poems by Anne Bradstreet
• Maryland Act on Religion
• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
• Gottlieb Mittelberger
• The Middle Passage
• Jonathan Edwards
• Virginia Slave Laws

The AMERICAN COLONIES & the BRITISH EMPIRE

• Colonies and Empire—Mercantilism and the Navication Acts
• Second Hundred Years' War
• The Coming Revolution

Take Quiz 1 this week.

Documents

• The Albany Plan of Union
• James Otis

Blackboard Discussion Forums for Part 1

Quiz covers all readings through week 3.

Part 2: Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1800

• American Revolution Overview
• Background Events, 1761-1774
• Representation: Actual & Virtual
• War of Independence 1775-1777
• Saratoga
• The Revolutionary War 1778-1783
• Yorktown
• The Treaty of Paris, 1783

First Essay Due

Documents

• Stamp Act Resolutions
• Boston Port Act, 1774
• Continental Congress Resolutions
• Henry: “Liberty or Death!”
• Paine's Common Sense
• Declaration of Independence

Essays do not have to be done in order.

THE NATIONAL PERIOD: THE NEW NATION BEGINS, 1783-1787

• Government under the Articles of Confederation
• The Northwest Ordinance

The CONSTITUTION

• The Philadelphia Convention 1787
• Ratification & the Bill of Rights

Inactive Students dropped June 13

Documents

• The Virginia Bill of Rights
• Blacks Petition on Taxation
• The Treaty of Paris, 1783
• Virginia Religious Freedom
• The Northwest Ordinance
• Constitution & Bill of Rights
• Mason, Madison, Franklin & Henry on the Constitution
• Franklin: Constitution
• Madison: Federalist #10
• P. Henry: Against Ratification

THE NEW REPUBLIC, 1789-1800

• Repubican Government Underway
• The 1790s Part 1: Washington
• Politics: Federalists and Republicans
• The French Revolution and America
• Hamilton and Financial Reform
• The 1790s Part 2: Adams

Midterm exam should be completed this week. Exam pass in Blackboard/Exams.

Documents:

• The Sedition Act of 1798
• Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions

Discussion Forums for Part 2

Part 3 Jeffersonian & Jacksonian Democracy, 1800-1840

• Political Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
• Foreign Affairs
• Madison as President
• The War of 1812

THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS

• James Monroe's Administration
• Sectional Issues
• Monroe Doctrine
• John Marshall and the Court
• Missouri Compromise
  

Second Essay Due

Documents

• Jefferson 's First Inaugural
• Madison 's War Message
• Chronology of War of 1812
• Hartford Convention Resolutions

Documents: John Marshall & the Supreme Court:

• Marbury v. Madison
• Dartmouth College v. Woodward
• McCullough v. Maryland
• Gibbons v. Ogden

Discussion Forums for Part 3

THE TRIUMPH OF WHITE MEN'S DEMOCRACY

• Andrew Jackson & the Rise of the Common Man
• The Strange Affair of Peggy Eaton
• Jackson & The Bank
• The Nullification Crisis
• The Cherokee Indian Removal

Take Quiz 2 This Week

Documents:

• Webster's Union Address
• Marshall: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
• South Carolina Nullification
• Jackson: Reply to S. Carolina
• Jackson's Bank Veto

Last Date to withdraw without grade penalty: July 9

THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION: AN AGE OF REFORM

• Tocqueville's America
• Religion, Reform & The Second Great Awakening
• Women's Rights

Third Essay Due

Documents:

• Tocqueville on America
• Seneca Falls Declaration

Discussion Forums for Part 3

Part 4: Expansion, Slavery and Civil War, 1840-1865

• Part 4 Introduction
• The 1840s: Tyler Administration
• Texas
• The Mexican-American War
• Manifest Destiny & Oregon Fever
• Social and Cultural Issues
• African-Americans on the Plantation
• The Abolitionist Movement

Documents:

• Texas Independence
• President Polk's War Message
• William Lloyd Garrison
• Views of Slavery

Discussion Forums for Part 4

THE SECTIONAL CRISIS: The 1850s

• The 1850s
• 1850 Compromise
• The Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Rise of Abraham Lincoln
• The Dred Scott Decision
• The !860 Election & Secession

Fourth Essay with Site Visit Due

Documents:

• 1850 Compromise Debates: Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Seward
• Dred Scott v Sandford
• Republican Platform, 1860

CIVIL WAR: THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION

• Civil War Introduction
• The Civil War 1861-1862
• Antietam: First Turning Point
• Lincoln and Emancipation
• The War in the West to Shiloh
• The Civil War in 1863
• Second Turning Point: Gettysburg
• Third Turning Point: Vicksburg
• The Civil War 1864-1865

Take Final Exam This Week. Exam pass in Blackboard/Exams.

Documents:

• South Carolina Ordinance of Secession
• Virginia Ordinance of Secession
• Lincoln 's 1st Inaugural Address
• The Confederate Constitution
• Alexander Stephens's Cornerstone Speech
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Lincoln 's 2nd Inaugural Address
• Sherman to the People of Atlanta

Discussion Forums for Part 4

Final Exam and all essays must be completed by August 11.