SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS, HISTORY 121, Spring 2008
Updated March 4, 2008 8:47 PM

This Page will continue to be updated: Attention will be called to changes affecting exams. Note that there are no “holidays” in distance courses: Schedule your own breaks consistent with this schedule.

INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE AND AMERICAN HISTORY

Background of American History
Personal History Essay (Optional) due. May be posted in Blackboard Intros.

• Read Writing Instructions
• 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.
• Visit the ELI Orientation Page.

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

• Colonial Introduction
• Colonization
• Native American Cultures
• Virginia: The Jamestown Disaster
• The Protestant Reformation in Germany & England
  

Documents:

• John Smith: Jamestown
• Indentured Servant Letter
• Mayflower Compact
• John Winthrop
• William Bradford
• Mary Jemison
• Pennsylvania Charter

LIFE IN COLONIAL AMERICA

• 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

Documents:

• 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

First Essay Due this week.

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.

American Revolution: Victory at Yorktown

• The Revolutionary War 1778-1783
• Yorktown
• The Treaty of Paris, 1783

Inactive Students dropped Feb 18

Documents

• The Virginia Bill of Rights
• Blacks Petition on Taxation
• The Treaty of Paris, 1783

Discussion Forums for Part 2

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
  

Documents:

• 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 Takes Over: The DriftToward War
• 1812: 2nd War for Independence

Documents

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

THE ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS

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

Second Essay Due this week

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
  

Documents:

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

Last Withdrawal Date without Grade Penalty March 26

THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION: AN AGE OF REFORM

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

Take Quiz 2 this week

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: The Tyler Administration
• Texas
• The Mexican-American War
• Manifest Destiny & Oregon Fever
  

Documents:

• Texas Independence
• President Polk's War Message

Discussion Forums for Part 4

SLAVERY AND SECTIONALISM

• Social and Cultural Issues
• African-Americans on the Plantation
• The Abolitionist Movement

Third Essay Due this week

Documents:

• 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
  

Documents:

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

Apr 28

15

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

Fourth Essay with Site Visit Due this week

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

Discussion Forums for Part 4

CIVIL WAR: TO APPOMATTOX

• Third Turning Point: Vicksburg
• The Civil War 1864-1865

Final Exam must be completed by May 12. Exam pass in Blackboard/Exams.

Documents:

• Lincoln 's 2nd Inaugural Address
• Sherman to the People of Atlanta

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