This course provides a basic history of American social, economic, and political development from the colonial period through the Civil War. It examines the colonial heritages of Spanish and British America; the American Revolution and its impact; the establishment and growth of the new nation; and the Civil War, its background, character, and impact. Readings include writings of the period by J. Winthrop, T. Paine, T. Jefferson, J. Madison, W. H. Garrison, G. Fitzhugh, H. B. Stowe, and A. Lincoln.
This site provides 253 narratives describing travels in the colonies and U.S. The collection includes works by authors not widely known as well as by Matthew Arnold, James Fenimore Cooper, Dickens, Washington Irving, Sir Charles Lyell, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other major figures. The collection is searchable and can be browsed by not only by author and title, but also by subject.
This course will introduce the student to a comparative history of New World societies from 1400 to 1750. The student will learn about European exploration and colonization as well as the culture of native peoples of the Americas. By the end of the course, you will understand how the New World evolved from fledgling settlements into profitable European colonies and how New World societies were highly varied polities. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: analyze what constituted the 'New World' in the fifteenth century; identify and describe the major tribes/native civilizations of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean at the time of European contact; identify and describe the effects of European colonization on native peoples; identify and describe the reasons for the European Age of Discovery in the New World; identify and describe early New World exploration and initial settlements by Portugal and Spain; identify and describe how and why the consolidation of powerful European states in the 1600s resulted in New World exploration, settlement, and commerce; compare and contrast New France, French Louisiana, the French West Indies, and French Guiana; compare and contrast British North America (New England, Middle and Lower Colonies), the British West Indies, and British Central and South America; compare and contrast New Spain, the Spanish Caribbean, and Spanish South America; analyze and describe Portuguese Brazil; identify and describe the African slave trade and will also be able to compare and contrast the enslavement of Africans in New World societies; identify and describe inter-European conflicts and European-Native Indian violence in the New World; analyze and interpret primary source documents that elucidate the causes and effects of exploration and colonization in the New World. (History 321)
In this section of our site, we have endeavored to provide teachers and students with useful primary and secondary materials to help foster understanding of early America through the life of George Washington. These resources can work on several levels. First, the twelve slides themselves provide a general chronology of the life of George Washington as well as secondary information on the larger historical context. Ideally, this background material reiterates your own class text readings and discussion. From here we hope you'll link to the accompanying primary document and questions. Manuscripts like Washington's school book exercises, an address to the Senate, his will and others give students the chance to examine the life and times of a leading figure in American history firsthand and in greater depth. Finally, throughout the lessons, we've tried to communicate just what it is that "historians" do by referring to the editing process along the way and giving students a chance to try their own hand at a transcription.
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