Carole Shammas,   shammas@usc.edu                          Fall 2006

History Dept. SOS 265                                                 MW 4-5:20

Office hours:  M 5:30-6:30, W 2-3 & by appt.               classroom Taper 203

213-740-1671

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~shammas/Hist349/index.htm  course website

HISTORY 349: COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA TO THE 1760s

Subject of the Course

The history of colonial North America is part of two larger histories -- the history of western European imperial expansion  and the history of individual nation states in the Americas – each with its own agenda. To satisfy at least some of the needs of  both histories, this course, geographically, will treat not only the British colonies that formed the original 13 states of the United States but areas in the West Indies that remained in the empire. It will also deal with areas such as New Mexico that later became part of the United States but originally had been in the Spanish Empire.   Demographically, the history of colonial North America involves peoples from three migrations, the  Pacific migrations of   groups whose descendants Europeans called Indians, the largely voluntary migrations of western Europeans, and the forced migration of peoples from sub-Saharan Africa.

            The course is divided into five parts.

Part I  Indians and  Early European Expansion - The subject here is the nature of Indian settlement in the Americas and, also, European developments that produced the migration of military adventurers and Christian missionaries, the two groups that had the most impact initially on the native population of the Americas and their cultures. Early differences in the contact experiences of Indians with Spanish and English may account for a mestizo tradition in Latin America and its relative absence in Anglo-America. 

Part II  Empires of Trade, Plantation Complexes, and Chattel Slavery – European consumer demand for tropical goods (sugar, tobacco, chocolate, tea, coffee) created world economic system dominated by competing European powers. In the Americas, plantation complexes gobbled up the capital and labor exported from western Europe and Africa in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. European nations such as Great Britain rose to global positions of power and wealth based upon control of the tropical goods trade. These highly specialized plantation complexes, however, created very unusual agricultural communities with problems that carried into the 20^th c.     

Part III  Protestant Dissenter Colonies: Demographic and Institutional Success – Much less valued by European colonial powers but more successful in terms of population and institutional growth were colonies such as Puritan Massachusetts and Quaker Pennsylvania that were one of the end results of the Protestant Reformation in Europe.   To achieve economic viability, sectarian colonies began competing with the European merchant community— the origins of the Yankee trader. Their sectarian impulses, though, threatened internal stability, as indicated by the Salem witchcraft incidents and Quaker pacifism. 

Part IV 18^th C. Cultural Developments  -- Native-born descendants “Creoles”  from the Atlantic migration, both European and African, came to predominate in the 18^th c., so at this point it becomes relevant to ask what survived from the “home” culture and what new had evolved in the American environment. Special attention will be paid to (1) the absence in America of one established church and the effects that had on both enlightenment activity and evangelicalism, (2) the very small public sphere during the colonial period , and (3) the dominance of transatlantic commercial networks and how these characteristics shaped the history of North America.

Part V Wars of Empire and the Origins of the American Revolution – There were very few years during the eighteenth century when Britain and its colonies were not at war with the subjects of other European powers and their Indian allies. North America increasingly became a major theatre in those wars until finally in 1754 it was a colonial confrontation involving a young Virginian George Washington that set off a major global conflagration known as the Seven Years War (French and Indian War).  Given the incredible victory scored by the British in that conflict, why do some argue it led to the American Revolution?

Assignments and Grading

            Reading assignment completion dates are listed in the schedule. Grades are based on the following formula midterm (20%), final (30%), paper (25%), oral and written classroom discussions (25%). The paper and discussion assignments will be explained more fully in class. Both examinations will have IDs and essay questions. The final will be cumulative.

            Students are expected to attend every class and arrive on time. Please notify me if illness or an emergency occurs, causing you to miss a class. At the beginning of most class sessions, I will ask yu to respond in writing to a question based on the readings for that day. Class discussion will begin with that question. Your responses will be graded on a check plus, check, check minus basis. Missing responses will receive an F.

            Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to Carole Shammas as early in the semester as possible.

Reading

All books can be found in the USC bookstore and all, except for those available on-line, are also on reserve in Leavey Library

T. H. Breen and Timothy Hall, Colonial America in an Atlantic World

David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed

Ramon Gutierrez, When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away

Mary Beth Norton, In the Devil’s Snare (also an e book, see Homer)

Trevor Burnard, Masters, Tyranny, and Desire

Patricia Bonomi, Under the Cope of Heaven

Fred Anderson, Crucible of War (also an e book see Homer)

Schedule

Aug  21  Intro. Major Questions in Colonial North American History  

AMERICAN INDIANS AND EARLY EUROPEAN EXPANSION

Aug  23  The Variety of  Indian Societies in the Americas ca. 1500

               Reading: Breen pp 1-13, 83-86, 109-112; Gutierrez intro and ch. 1;

Aug  28 Military Adventurers and the Beginnings of the Atlantic Migration

              Reading: Breen pp. 18-27, 29-43, ch 3 ;  Gutierrez ch. 2;

Aug  30 Christian Missionaries and Indian Societies

              Reading: Breen pp. 131-34, 204-206; Gutierrez ch. 3

Sept    6  Indian Demographic Disaster

               Reading: Breen pp. 44-52 and Gutierrez ch. 4

TRADE EMPIRES, PLANTATIONS, AND CHATTEL SLAVERY

Sept  11  Virginia -- Plantation colony or Replanted English villages?

                Reading: Breen ch 4 and Fischer pp. 3-11 and 207-252

Sept  13  European Consumers and New World Planters

               Reading: Breen ch 6 ; Burnard ch 1 

Sept  18  Africa and the Plantation Complex

                Reading: Breen pp. 13-18, 60-67, 324-332

Sept  20  Bacon’s Rebellion and the Colonial Political System

               Reading:  Breen ch. 7; Fischer pp. 252-274;

DISSENTER COLONIES: THE SUCCESS OF THE CRANKY

Sept  25   Reformation America and the Puritans

                Reading: Breen ch. 5 and Fischer pp. 13-57,  103-125

Sept  27   Religious Revolutionaries: Quakers

                Reading: Breen ch 8 and Fischer pp. 419-475

Oct     2   Demographic Success Story

                 Reading: Fischer pp. 69-93 and 481-522

Oct     4    Salem Witchcraft Controversy

                 Reading: Breen pp 227-8; Norton intro ch 1-2; Fischer pp125-130

Oct     9   Community,   Surveillance and the Indians

                Reading: Breen pp 216-223; Norton ch 3-5

                Fischer pp. 87-102, 181-205

Oct    11  The Great Smugglers: Dissenters and Mercantile Development

                Reading: Breen pp. 235-9; Fischer pp 151-158 & 555-566;

                Norton ch 6-8 & conclusion

 Oct  16   Midterm

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS

Oct    18    The Glorious Revolution Creates the British Empire

                  Reading: Breen pp 223-35

 Oct   23     The New Migration

                  Reading: Breen pp 245-65, Burnard ch 2  Fischer pp. 605-662

                  Paper Assignment

Oct    25     Creole Dominance and Anglo Institution Building after the Glorious

                  Revolution- church, legal system, govt.

                  Reading: Breen 298-308, 332-49; Burnard ch 3; Bonomi Part I;

                  Fischer pp. 332-340, 344-349, 354-60, 374-384    

Oct   30      Household Govt. and Social Rank in Multi-racial societies

                  Reading: Gutierrez ch. 5,7; Burnard ch 5, Fischer pp. 274-332 & 662-86

Nov    1     Institutional Controls in Spanish and British America

                  Reading: Gutierrez ch 8-9; Burnard  pp. 228-240, Fischer 747-782

Nov    6     Was there a Great Awakening or is it just Religion in America?

                  Reading: Breen pp 310-321,  Bonomi ch. 5-6

Nov    8     The Enlightenment in America

                  Reading: Breen pp 308-10; Burnard ch 4 and 8; Fischer pp 715-727

WARS OF EMPIRE AND THE ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Nov  13    The First Global War – the players

                  Reading: Breen 265-270 and ch 14; Anderson intro.

Nov  15    The War in America        

                  Reading: Anderson prologue, part 1 and 2

Nov  20     The War in London

                  Reading: Anderson part 5

 Nov  22     Would there have been a Revolution without the Seven Years War? 

                   Reading: Anderson part 8; Gutierrez ch 10

                  Paper due

Nov   27    Discussion of  findings from paper assignment

Nov   29    Colonial Society and Later U.S. History

                  Reading: Fischer conclusion 783-898

Final examination  Wednesday Dec 6  4:30-6:30 pm.