History 470: The Colonial Heritage1607-1763
Instructor: Birte Pfleger
Office: KHC 4033
Office hours: T, TH 10-11AM; 2-3 PM
Phone: (323) 343-2044
History Department: (323) 343-2020
http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/history/course.htm
E-mail: bpflege@calstatela.edu
Web address: http://www.calstatela.edu./faculty/bpflege/
Learning, like democracy, is participatory
This course offers an overview of major themes and historiographical debates in early American
history. We will read about and analyze different approaches to colonial history that address the
environment as historical agent, interactions among Native Americans, Europeans and Africans, as
well as emerging ideas about race, gender and ethnicity.
Required Text:
• Course Reader; available in class or online: http://www.aacolor.com
It is also available at AA Color Copy, 4400 E. 7th Street, Long Beach 90804 (Ximeno cross street)
(562) 987-1947
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, second edition, Louis P. Masur, ed. (The Bedford Series in
History and Culture), available at the bookstore.
Grades
Discussion leadership
Class Participation
Map Quiz
Reading Journal
Benjamin Franklin Paper
Final Draft Franklin Paper (optional)
15%
15%
5%
30%
20%
15%
(93-100% = A; 92.9-90% = A-; 89.9-87.5%= B+; 87.4 - 83%= B; 82.9.-80% = B-; 79.9-77.5% = C+;
77.4 -73% = C; 72.9-70 = C-; 69.9-60 = D; 60- = F)
In this upper division course it is vital that everyone comes to class prepared and participates in
discussions. Each student will have the opportunity to lead class discussions on assigned readings at
least once during the quarter (depending on enrollment). Your job for the day will be to introduce the
readings to us and to lead the group through the important issues of the readings. Think of this as a
team teaching exercise. You should begin with a brief introduction to the author/s (where applicable;
find out what books he/she has written, where the author teaches etc. The Internet is a great place to
search for that information). After that you will launch the group into a discussion of the issues: what
does the author argue? What evidence does the author use? How does she/he make the argument? Do
you see problems with article? How does the article relate to other readings or discussions? How do
the primary sources relate to the argument? What questions are not addressed? Visual aids are always
useful for presentations, either in the form of a one-page outline, a list of questions, pictures or
overhead transparencies. You may also divide the class into groups and assign questions to them. In
the past students have also come up with very creative role-plays or games to illustrate a topic or issue.
ASSIGNMENTS
On October 5 you will be asked to complete a blank map to indicate the following;
British Colonies: Write the names (abbreviations are fine) in the appropriate British colony:
Connecticut
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Delaware
New Jersey
South Carolina
Georgia
New York
Virginia
Maryland
North Carolina
Massachusetts Pennsylvania
British Regions: Now draw lines around each region of British colonies and write in the region's name
(in bold below). Historians use these regions to talk about areas in colonial America where colonies
shared similar features. There are four regions (three mainland U.S.) and two sub-regions within the
South.
New England: NH, MA, CT, RI
Mid-Atlantic: NY, NJ, DE, PA
South: MD, VA, NC, SC, GA
Chesapeake (northern part of the South): MD, VA
Deep South (southern part of the South): NC, SC, GA
West Indies: Islands southeast of Florida (circle the arrow that points toward them)
French and Spanish Presence: Label the areas where other major European groups explored and
colonized. The exact boundaries of these regions changed over time.
Instructions for the argument summaries in your reading journal are in your course reader. Please
follow these instructions carefully. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions after reading the
instructions.
During the last 2 weeks of the quarter we will concentrate on Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography.
Together with your knowledge of colonial life, you will write an analytical paper about the
autobiography and its meaning. More detailed instructions will be made available at the appropriate
time. Your paper should be double-spaced, 5-7 pages, 12-point Times font with one-inch margins.
You will have the option to re-write your paper as your final project for this course.
Links to get help completing writing assignments:
http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/write_cn/tutoring.htm
http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/write_cn/sites.htm
LATE POLICY, CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM, LOST ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADE
DISPUTES
All late assignments will be marked down. Failure to hand in an assignment by the due date without
prior approval may result in failure of the course. Any cheating or plagiarism may result in the failure
of the course. I do not plan to lose assignments. However, it is your responsibility to keep a second
copy of your assignments. If I cannot locate a copy of your assignment and you cannot produce a
duplicate, then I will have to assume that you did not complete the assignment.
If you believe an assignment has been incorrectly graded, you may discuss the matter with me within
one week from when the assignment was returned to you. Any assignment on which you ask for regrading (aside from math error) is as equally likely to be graded down as it is to be graded up. Also
keep in mind that I may react more positively if you have a respectful and courteous attitude. If you
believe you have incorrectly received too high a grade, just consider it a cosmic gift.
Links to University policy on plagiarism, cheating and student rights
http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/write_cn/plagiarism.htm
http://www.calstatela.edu/usu/csdp/StudentRights.html
EMAIL
You should obtain an e-mail account (if you do not already have one). The university provides this
service free of charge. Please make sure that your email address is on the course list so that you can
receive messages from the instructor. You are encouraged to communicate with the instructor via email, please treat email as an extension of my office hours. At times I will send messages to the class so be sure to check your e-mail regularly.
September 21: Introduction
September 26: Historiography
PLEASE print a copy of this article, read it and write your first argument summary for your reading
journal
http://www.historycooperative.org.mimas.calstatela.edu/journals/wm/60.4/jones.html
David S. Jones, “Virgin Soils Revisited,” William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 60, Issue 4.
September 28: New Worlds
Merrell, James H., “The Indians’ New World: The Catawba Experience,” William and Mary Quarterly
41 (1984) 537-565.
PRIMARY: “The Well-Baked Man,” American Indian Myths and Legends, Richard Erdoes and
Alfonso Ortiz, eds. (NY,1984) 46-7.
October 3: First Encounters
Brown, Kathleen, "The Anglo-Indian Gender Frontier," In Negotiators of Change, 26-48.
PRIMARY: Richard Frethorne’s letter to his father and mother, 1623, in Susan Myra Kingsbury, ed.
The Records of the Virginia Company of London (Washington, 1906-35) IV: 58-62.
October 5: Environmental Factors; MAP QUIZ!
Merrens, H. Roy and George D. Terry, “Dying in Paradise: Malaria, Mortality, and the Perceptual
Environment in Colonial South Carolina,” Journal of Southern History 50 (1984) 533-50.
October 10: Indian Slaves
Brett Rushforth, “’A Little Felsh We Offer You’: The Origins of Indian Slavery in New France,”
William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 60, Issue 4
October 12: African Slaves
Morgan, Edmund, “Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox,” repr. in Forging the American
Character John R.Wilson, ed. (Prentice Hall, 2000) Vol. I: 38-51.
PRIMARY: Transcript on Slavery, 1700s.
October 17: Winthrop Jordan, “Enslavement of Negroes in America to 1700,” Colonial America;
Essays in Politics and Social Development ed. Stanley Katz, et. a.
October 19: Religion - Europeans
Anderson, Virginia Dejohn, "Migrants and Motives: Religion and the Settlement of New England,
1630-1640," in Colonial America: Essays in Politics and Social Development Stanley N. Katz, John
M. Murrin and Douglas Greenberg, eds. 4th ed. (New York, McGraw-Hill, 1993), 96-130.
October 24: Christianity and Native Americans
Shoemaker, Nancy, “Kateri Tekakwitha’s Tortuous Path to Sainthood,” in Negotiators of Change:
Historical Perspectives on Native American Women Nancy Shoemaker, ed. (New York,1995) 49-71.
PRIMARY: Genesis 1-4, King James Bible(1800s)
PRIMARY: “Iroquois Creation Story” in Carol Klinck, ed. The Journal of Major John Norton, 1816.
(1970) 88-91.
October 26: Witchcraft & Women
Karlsen, Carol, “The Economic Basis of Witchcraft,” in Spellbound: Women and Witchcraft in
America Elizabeth Reis, ed. (Scholarly Resources, 1998) 1-24.
PRIMARY: The Tryal of Susanna Martin... From Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World
(Boston, 1693).
October 31: Witchcraft & Women II
Reis, Elizabeth, "Gender and the Meanings of Confession in Early New England" in Spellbound:
Women and Witchcraft in America Elizabeth Reis, ed. (Scholarly Resources, 1998) 53-73.
November 2: Reproduction in early America
Dayton, Cornelia Hughes, “Taking the Trade: Abortion and Gender Relations in an EighteenthCentury New England Village,” William and Mary Quarterly 48 (1991) 19-49.
November 7: Crossing Boundaries through marriage
Daniel R. Mandell, “The Saga of Sarah Muckamugg; Indian and African American Intermarriage in
Colonial New England,” in Sex, Love Race; Crossing Boundaries in North American History ed.
Martha Hodes, (1999), 72-90.
November 9: Anglo-American Men’s Work
Breen, Timothy H., “The Symbolic World of the Tobacco Planter,” in Major Problems in American
Colonial History (Lexington, 1993) 430-440.
PRIMARY: Virginia Planter William Byrd’s Diary, Dec 1740 in Another Secret Diary of William Byrd
of Westover ed. Maude Woodfin (Richmond, 1942) 116-124
November 14: Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
November 16: Benjamin Franklin
Reading: to be announced
November 21: Benjamin Franklin: paper due
Group discussion
November 23: Thanksgiving Holiday
November 28: Politics
Greene, Jack P, "Negotiated Authorities: The Problem of Governance in the Extended Polities of the
Early Modern Atlantic World," in Negotiated Authorities: Essays in Colonial Political and
Constitutional History (Charlottesville, VA, 1994), 1-24.
November 30: Benjamin Franklin revisited
December 7: Final draft of the Franklin paper due at my office