COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR: ANTEBELLUM AMERICA, 1815-1860

This course is designed to expose students to the significant developments in American society during the four decades preceding the Civil War. It will examine the social, cultural, and political movements which shaped the emerging nation and which also led to sectional rivalry and war. The primary theme of the course will be the conflict between industrial capitalism (free labor/wage labor) in the North and slaveholding (slave labor) in the South. The course will also highlight such important themes as:

• The construction of gender roles and a "cult of domesticity"
• Historical roots of racism in America
• Revivalism and the subculture of evangelical religion
• Reform movements
• Expropriation of Native American lands & Indian removal
• The West as frontier, borderlands, conquest ("Manifest Destiny"), and sectional conflict
• The culture of "democracy" and partisan politics in America

This course will encourage students to develop their own interpretive framework for understanding the complexities of antebellum America.

REQUIRED READINGS:

The following books are required readings and are available at the College Bookstore:

Paul Johnson, Shopkeepers' Millennium.

James Stewart, Holy Warriors.

James Oakes, The Ruling Race.

Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave.

Deborah White, Arn't I a Woman.

Harry L. Watson, Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America.

Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men.

Michael Perman, The Coming of the American Civil War.

ADDITIONAL TEXTS:

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).

William Wells Brown, Clotel: or The President's Daughter (1854)in Three Classic African-American Novels. Edited by William L. Andrews. (Also includes Frederick Douglass, The Heroic Slave, and Harriet E. Wilson, Our Nig.)

Additional readings (listed in the class schedule below) are on reserve at McCabe Library. There will be several primary source documents as required readings each week, and they will either be distributed as handouts or on reserve in the History 46 Documents binder at McCabe Library.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Reading and class participation: Students are expected to attend all class meetings, complete the readings, and be prepared for discussion of the assigned reading each week. Discussion meetings are an integral part of the course, and all students are expected to attend and participate. The following is the History Dept. policy on attendance: "Students are required to attend all classes for the successful completion of the course. Unexcused absences will result in a lower grade."

Document Analysis: Each student will prepare two document analysis papers during the semester from the documents assigned each week. A document-analysis paper (2-3 pages) will set the document within its historical context -- explicating its meaning from the text, while also explaining the significant historical change it reflects. Students will be expected to contribute their analysis to the class discussion of that topic.

Short papers: Three papers (5-7 pages) will be written over the course of the semester. A handout will be distributed outlining the expectations and topics for the short papers. The short papers will be based on the required readings.

Research Paper: Students may write a longer research paper (20 pages), based on primary source research. This is a requirement for any Senior history major taking this course to complete their starred (*) course requirement. A handout that describes the possible topics and the various deadlines for this reasearch paper will be distributed to students. Students writing a research paper will not be responsible for writing the third short paper, but they will be responsbile for completing all the course readings and participating in all of the discussions.

Final Examination: A final examination will be given on the scheduled final exam date.

All assignments are due when stated in the syllabus. No extensions will be granted. Late papers will receive grade reductions.

CLASS SCHEDULE:

* = On reserve at McCabe Library

Sept. 3 INTRODUCTION.

Week 1.

Sept. 8 EMERGENCE OF A MARKET ECONOMY & BEGINNINGS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION

Sept. 10 DISCUSSION

Readings:

• Johnson, Shopkeepers' Millennium, pp. 3-61
• * Paul Johnson, "The Modernization of Mayo Greenleaf Patch," New England Quarterly (1982), 488-516.
• * Jeanne Boydston, "The Woman Who Wasn't There: Women's Market Labor and the Transition to Capitalism in the United States," Journal of the Early Republic 16 (Summer 1996), 183-206. Also reprinted in Paul A. Gilje, ed., Wages of Independence: Capitalism in the Early American Republic (1997), pp. 23-47
• * Christine Stansell, City of Women, Introduction, chap. 5-6 (pp. 76-129).

Documents:

• "The Prospect Before Us" & "American Manufactures" Niles' Weekly Register (1815 & 1817).
• Letter from Lowell (1844).
• Protests of Women Mill Workers (1846).
• J.S.C. Abbott, Mother at Home (1833).
• Mrs. A.J. Graves, Woman in America (1843).

Supplemental Readings:

Week 2.

Sept. 15 RELIGIOUS REVIVALISM, GENDER, FAMILY AND CLASS FORMATION

Sept. 17 DISCUSSION

Readings:

• Johnson, Shopkeepers' Millennium, pp. 62-141
• Stewart, Holy Warriors, pp. 3-32.
• * Nancy Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, chap 2 (pp. 63-100).

Documents:

• Elizabeth, A Colored Minister of the Gospel (1889), or
• The Life and Religious Experiences of Jarena Lee (1836).
• Peter Cartwright, The Autobiography of Peter Cartwright (1856), 35-39, 45-55.
• Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion, pp. 9-23.

Supplemental Readings:

Week 3.

Sept. 22 BENEVOLENCE & REFORM MOVEMENTS

Sept. 24 COLONIZATION & ABOLITIONISM- DISCUSSION

Readings:

• Stewart, Holy Warriors.
• * Lori Ginzberg, "Moral Suasion is Moral Balderdash," Journal of American History (1986), 601-622.

Documents:

• The Colonization Debate: For and Against (1827 & 1829).
• David Walker's Appeal (1829).
• Letter to The Liberator by the Andover Female Antislavery Society (1836).
• Angelina Grimke, Appeals to the Chrstian Women of the South (1836).

Supplemental Readings:

Week 4.

Sept. 29 ABOLITIONISM, PLUS "ULTRAISMS" OF ALL KINDS

Oct. 1 CULTURE OF THE OLD SOUTH

First short paper due (by 5pm).

Readings:

• * Kenneth S. Greenberg, Honor and Slavery, chap. 1 (pp. 3-23)
• * Elliott Gorn, "'Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch': The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry," American Historical Review 90 (1985), 18-43.

Documents:

• Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Convention (1848).

Week 5.

Oct. 6 FILM/VIDEO (TO BE ANNOUNCED)

Oct. 8 SLAVEHOLDING IN THE SOUTH & THE ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY - DISCUSSION

Readings:

• Oakes, The Ruling Race.
• * Catherine Clinton, The Plantation Mistress, chap. 2.
• * Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds, chap. 6 (pp. 208-38)

Documents:

• John Pendleton Kennedy, Swallow Barn (1832).
• Diary of Sarah H. Gayle (1828).
• Advertisements for Runaway Slaves in North Carolina Newspapers (1820-60)

Supplemental Readings:

FALL VACATION: NO CLASS - October 13 & 15

Week 6.

Oct. 20 SLAVE LABOR & THE LIFE OF A SLAVE

Oct. 22 DISCUSSION

Readings:

• Northup, Twelve Years a Slave.

Supplemental Readings:

Week 7.

Oct. 27 SLAVE RESISTANCE

Oct. 29 GENDER, FAMILY, AND AN AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE - DISCUSSION

Readings:

• White, Ar'n't I a Woman.
• * Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black Consciousness, chap. 1.

Documents:

• The Confessions of Nat Turner (1832).
• "Resistance" in Dorothy Sterling, ed., We Are Your Sisters.

Supplemental Readings:

Week 8.

Nov. 3 JACKSONIAN POLITICS & "AGE OF THE COMMON MAN"(?)

Second short paper due (by 5pm).

Nov. 5 DISCUSSION

Readings:

• Watson, Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America.
• * Edward Pessen, Riches, Class, and Power Before the Civil War, chap. 3, pp. 31-43.
• * Daniel W. Howe, The Political Culture of the American Whigs, pp. 1-42.

Documents:

• Jackson's Veto of the Maysville Road Bill (1830).
• Henry Clay's Response (1830).
• Jackson's Veto of the Bank (1832).
• Daniel Webster's Response (1832)
• South Carolina's Ordinance of Nullification (1832).
• Jackson's Proclamation on Nullification (1832).

Supplemental Readings:

Week 9.

Nov. 10 LABOR, RACE, GENDER AND ANTEBELLUM POLITICS

Nov. 12 CULTURE OF DEMOCRACY - DISCUSSION

Readings:

• * Alexander Saxton, Rise and Fall of the White Republic, pp. 67-72, 127-54, 165-81.
• * Bruce Levine, Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of the Civil War, chap. 5, pp. 121-144.
• * Elizabeth R. Varon, "Tippecanoe and the Ladies, Too: White Women and Party Politics in Antebellum Virginia," The Journal of American History 82 (Sept. 1995), 494-521.
• * Norma Basch, "Marriage, Morals, and Politics in the Election of 1828," The Journal of American History 80 (Dec. 1993), 890-918.

Documents:

• Mechanics Free Press (1828).
• Thomas Skidmore, The Rights of Man to Property! (1829).
• True Workingman (1846).

Supplemental Readings:

Week 10.

Nov. 17 IMMIGRANTS AND NATIVISM

Nov. 19 NATIVE AMERICANS, THE TRAIL OF TEARS, & "MANIFEST DESTINY" - DISCUSSION

Readings:

• * Tyler Anbinder, "The Ideology of the Know Nothing Party," inJon Gjerde, ed., Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History, pp. 152-60. [From Tyler Anbinder, Nativism and Slavery: The Northern Know Nothings and the Politics of the 1850s (1994).
• * Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, ed., The Cherokee Removal, pp. 24-48, 82--126,

Documents:

• Thomas R. Whitney, A Defense of the American Policy (1856)
• "Plea from a Chickasaw" (1826).
• "Tushpa Crosses the Mississippi."
• George Catlin, critique of Indian removal (1841).

Supplemental Readings:

Week 11.

Nov. 24 TRANS-APPALACIAN FRONTIER -- EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE WEST

Nov. 26 THANKSGIVING - NO CLASS

Readings:

• * Lisbeth Haas, Conquests and Historical Identities in California, 1769-1936 (1995), chap. 2 (pp. 45-88).

Documents:

• Amelia Stewart Knight, Crossing the Plains (1853).
• David Crockett, On Law and the Frontier (1834).

Supplemental Readings:

Week 12.

Dec. 1 IDEOLOGY AND POLITICS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

Dec. 3 SECTIONAL CONFLICT AND SECESSION - DISCUSSION

Readings:

• Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men.
• * Mary P. Ryan, Civic Wars, chap. 4 (pp. 135-80).

Documents:

• Lincoln, Reaction to Dred Scott Decision (1857)
• R. Purvis and C.L. Remond, Reaction to Dred Scott Decision (1857)
• Lincoln, House Divided Speech (1858)
• "The Record of the Black Republicans," New Orleans Daily Crescent (1860).

Supplemental Readings:

Week 13.

Dec. 8 EXPLAINING THE CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

Dec. 10 CONCLUSIONS: THE CIVIL WAR AND BEYOND - DISCUSSION

Third short paper due (by 5pm).

Readings:

• Perman, The Coming of the American Civil War.

Dec. 11 Research Papers Due (5:00pm}

Final Examination: Date & Time: _______________________________