History 106-B: The Atlantic World, 1600-1850
Fall 2006
MWF, 10:00-10:50 a.m., Weidensall 302
Timothy Shannon
Office: Weidensall 215
Phone: 337-6567
E-mail: tshannon@gettysburg.edu
Office hours: Monday and Friday, 11:00am-12:00pm; Wednesday, 3:30-4:30pm; and by
appointment.
Purpose of the Course
The purpose of this course is to study the rise and fall of an Atlantic World System that tied
Europe, Africa, and the Americas into a web of economic and cultural interdependence. We will
examine different models of New World colonization by European colonial powers, the
ramifications of New World Slavery, encounters and conflicts between native and colonial
peoples, and the development of nation states in the Western Hemisphere. Throughout the
course, we will emphasize comparative analysis of historical events and trends, examining how
different peoples in different regions experienced colonization, slavery, trade, nation-making,
and emancipation in the Atlantic World.
Course Objectives
Students who complete this course successfully will be able to describe the rise and fall of
Atlantic World slavery, compare and contrast European encounters with Africans and Native
Americans, describe similarities and differences between systems of racial order in various
regions of the Atlantic World, and explain how colonial empires gave way to nation states in the
Americas by the mid-nineteenth century.
Students will become familiar with the primary sources most commonly used by historians of the
Atlantic World, learn to distinguish them from secondary sources, and develop their ability to
analyze both types of sources in writing persuasive historical arguments.
This course meets the college’s Multiple Inquiries requirement for the Humanities.
Readings
The following titles are available at the college bookstore:
Timothy Shannon, Atlantic Lives: A Comparative Approach to Early America
Roger Schlesinger, In the Wake of Columbus: The Impact of the New World on Europe, 14921650
David Northrup, Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850
Allan Greer, Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits
Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age
Dray, Philip, Stealing God’s Fire: Benjamin Franklin’s Lightning Rod and the Invention of
America
Sara Salih, ed., The History of Mary Prince
Other reading assignments will either be distributed in class as handouts or placed on reserve.
E-Mail and CNAV
Students in this course should be familiar with the use of their college email and CNAV
accounts. I will often use email to send students messages concerning the class, so be sure to
check it regularly for messages related to this course.
Assignments and Evaluation
Students will complete two exams and two papers (4-5pp. each). We will also have occasional
quizzes and assignments, and students will be evaluated for the quality of their participation in
group work and discussions. A student cannot pass the course without completing each of the
major assignments (mid-term, final, both papers). Final grades will be determined according to
the following distribution:
Final Exam
Mid-Term Exam
Papers (15% each)
Quizzes/Assignments
Participation
25%
25%
30%
10%
10%
100%
Exams
All exams will be in an essay format. Students must take the final exam during its scheduled
time: Monday, December 11, 8:30-11:30am.
Papers
See the handout distributed with the syllabus for details on these assignments.
Attendance and Classroom Policy
My expectation is that every student will arrive on time for every class. Students who arrive late
disturb a class already in progress, so please make every effort to be on time. Likewise, I expect
all students to remain in the class until it is over; kindly do not excuse yourself temporarily while
we are in session and do not schedule appointments that will require you to leave early.
Students may occasionally need to miss class because of a medical or family problem, or because
of a conflict with another school activity, such as a field trip. In such cases, I ask that you let me
know ahead of time that you will be absent. Students who miss an excessive number of classes
during the semester (i.e. more than three) should expect to have their final grades in the course
reduced accordingly.
If you carry a cell phone, turn it off before class starts. Ringing phones are an annoyance to
everyone when class is in session.
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Honor Code and Grading
I will distribute a handout early in the semester about the Honor Code’s application to
coursework in this class.
I grade exams according to how effectively students use the course materials as evidence in
constructing persuasive answers to essay questions. I grade papers for the quality of their
research, argument, and prose. I encourage students to pay close attention to the rules of style,
grammar, and documentation. I grade class participation according to each student’s effort to
arrive prepared for class, to take initiative for his or her own work, and to engage his or her
classmates thoughtfully in class discussions.
Schedule of Classes
Part I: Foundations of the Atlantic System
Aug 28
Introduction to the Course: Expectations and Requirements
Aug 30
What Came Before: The Islamic World System
Reading: Shannon, Atlantic Lives (hereinafter referred to as text), Introduction,
and Schlesinger, In the Wake of Columbus, begin.
Sep 1
Discussion: Europe’s Transition from Medieval to Modern
Reading: Schlesinger, In the Wake of Columbus, complete.
Sep 4
Atlantic Collisions
Reading: text, chapter 1.
Sep 6
The European-Indian Encounter
Reading: text, chapter 2.
Sep 8
Discussion: Captivated by Indians
Reading: text, chapter 3.
Sep 11
Origins of Atlantic Slavery
Reading: Northrup, Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850, begin.
Sep 13
West Africa and the Slave Trade
Reading: text, chapter 4, and Northrup, Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850,
continue.
Sep 15
Discussion: Taking the Measure of Others across the Cultural Divide
Reading: Northrup, Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850, complete.
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Part II: Creating New World Societies
Sep 18
Race and New World Slavery
Reading: James H. Sweet, "Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought," William
and Mary Quarterly, third series, 54 (1997): 143-66 (JSTOR).
Writing Workshop
Sep 20
Atlantic Slavery and the Plantation Complex
Reading: text, chapter 5.
Sep 22
Maroons and Runaways
Reading: Kenneth Bilby, "Swearing by the Past, Swearing to the Future: Sacred
Oaths, Alliances, and Treaties among the Guianese and Jamaican Maroons,"
Ethnohistory 44 (1997): 655-89 (JSTOR).
Sep 25
Iberian Approaches to Colonization
Reading: María Elena Martínez, “The Black Blood of New Spain: Limpieza de
Sangre, Racial Violence, and Gendered Power in Early Colonial Mexico,”
William and Mary Quarterly, third series, 61 (2004): 479-520.
Sep 27
Racial Construction of Colonial Societies
Reading: text, chapter 6.
Sep 29
Discussion: Comparing Racial Categories and Social Orders
Reading: Guillaume Aubert, “’The Blood of New France’: Race and Purity of
Blood in the French Atlantic World,” William and Mary Quarterly, third series,
61 (2004): 439-78.
Oct 2
The English and Dutch Atlantic World Empire
Reading: J.H. Elliott, “Contrasting Empires: The Differences—Cultural
Religious, Ethnic, and Economic—between the Spanish and British Approaches
to their Empires in the Americas,” History Today 56 (2006): 12-22.
Oct 4
Constructing Gender
Reading: text, chapter 10.
Oct 6
Discussion: The Course of Colonization in North America
Reading: text, chapter 7.
Oct 9
No Class: Fall Break
Oct 11
France in North America
Reading: Greer, Mohawk Saint, begin
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Oct 13
Discussion: Black Robe (viewing on Thursday night, 10/12)
Reading: Greer, Mohawk Saint, continue
Oct 16
Discussion: The Pursuit of Souls in New France
Reading: Greer, Mohawk Saint, complete.
Oct 18
Review and Preparation for Mid-Term
Oct 20
Mid-Term Exam
Part III: Remaking the Atlantic World
Oct 23
No Class: McGill Research Seminar
Reading: Rediker, Villains of All Nations, begin.
Oct 25
Maritime Labor in the Atlantic World
Reading: text, chapter 8, and Rediker, Villains of All Nations, continue.
Oct 27
Discussion: Arrrrrr, Here there be Pirates
Reading: Rediker, Villains of All Nations, complete.
Oct 30
Atlantic Migrations
Reading: text, chapter 9.
Nov 1
Communication Networks
Reading: John J. McCusker, “The Demise of Distance: The Business Press and
the Origins of the Information Revolution in the Early Modern Atlantic World,”
American Historical Review 110 (2005): 295-321 (reserve).
Nov 3
Discussion: News of the Atlantic World
Pennsylvania Gazette Paper due at start of class.
Nov 6
The Enlightenment
Reading: Dray, Stealing God’s Thunder, begin.
Nov 8
The American and French Revolutions
Reading: Declaration of Independence and Declaration of Rights of Man and
Citizen (handout).
Nov 10
Discussion: The Ideology of the Atlantic Revolutions
Reading: text, chapter 11.
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Nov 13
Latin American Revolutions
Reading: Dray, Stealing God’s Thunder, continue.
Nov 15
Cents and Sensibility: The Trans-Atlantic Anti-Slavery Movement, I
Reading: Dray, Stealing God’s Thunder, continue.
Nov 17
Cents and Sensibility, II
Reading: Dray, Stealing God’s Thunder, continue.
Nov 20
Discussion: The Science of Revolution
Reading: Dray, Stealing God’s Thunder, complete.
Nov 22-24
Thanksgiving Break
Nov 27
The Haitian Revolution
Reading: Carolyn Fick, “Emancipation in Haiti: From Plantation Labour to
Peasant Proprietorship,” Slavery and Abolition 21 (2000): 11-40 (reserve).
Nov 29
Black Anti-Slavery
Reading: Abraham Bishop, "'The Rights of Black Men,' and the American
Reaction to the Haitian Revolution," Journal of Negro History 67 (1982): 148-54
(JSTOR) and text, pp. 244-50.
Dec 1
Discussion: Gender and Race in the Anti-Slavery Movement
Reading: Salih, History of Mary Prince.
Dec 4
Atlantic World Emancipations
Reading: Steven Mintz, “Models of Emancipation during the Age of Revolution,"
Slavery and Abolition, 17 (1996): 1-21 (reserve).
Dec 6
Atlantic World Legacies
Reading: text, chapter 12, and Gregory Rodriguez, “Mongrel America,” Atlantic
Monthly (January/February 2003): 95-97 (handout).
Dec 8
Course Evaluations and Review for Final Exam
Dec 11
Final Exam, 8:30-11:30 a.m.
The professor may alter the content and arrangement of this schedule during the semester as
necessary to accomplish the goals of the course.
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History 106: The Atlantic World
Professor Shannon
Fall 2006
Papers
The First Paper (4-5pp.)
Topics and Requirements
Each student will select one chapter from Atlantic Lives and write a paper that explores some
element of that chapter in greater detail. The paper must feature research done in sources
(primary and/or secondary) beyond Atlantic Lives and the course syllabus.
A good way to get started is by reading the chapter you have selected and paying close attention
to its "Suggested Readings” section. The works identified in that section will give you a boost in
starting your research.
Approaches
The following are some suggestions for how you might frame your approach to the paper. This
is not an exhaustive list; think creatively about what you want to do with the topic and feel free
to discuss your approach with me if you have questions about it.

In-depth analysis: identify some element of the chapter's topic that you would like to
investigate in greater depth.

Primary source(s): identify a significant primary source or sources associated with the
chapter's topic and write a paper based on the analysis/comparison of these sources.

Biographical study: select one of the people featured in the chapter and research and
write about the person’s life beyond what is featured in the chapter selection on him or
her.
Deadline
Early in the semester, I will assign students to the chapters on which they will work. I will then
assign due dates for the papers according to the chapters, usually falling within one to two weeks
after that chapter is discussed in class.
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The Second Paper (4-5pp.)
“The Freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestick”: The Pennsylvania Gazette and
the Atlantic World
In the eighteenth-century Atlantic World, people, goods, and information moved together in a
constant flow between major cities and seaports. A good way to measure the content and pace of
this exchange is by examining colonial newspapers, which collected news from around the world
and packaged it for local consumption. One such newspaper was the Pennsylvania Gazette,
published in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin and David Hall.
We have in the library a complete series of facsimile reprints of the Pennsylvania Gazette,
published weekly, from 1728 until 1789. It may be found in 25 bound volumes in the
Periodicals stacks on the lower level (call no. AP 2 .A2 U5). Your assignment is to select and
read several issues of the Pennsylvania Gazette and write about some aspect of the newspaper’s
content that interests you. You may choose to read consecutive issues or issues spread out over
time (e.g. ten year intervals).
In conjunction with this reading in the Pennsylvania Gazette, I expect you to identify and use at
least two other sources (primary or secondary) that will help you analyze the newspaper’s
content.
This assignment is due at the start of class on Friday, November 3.
For Both Papers:

Internet Sources
o While you may include some internet resources in your research, you may not
rely solely on such sources.

Documentation
o Each paper should have a bibliography and footnotes or endnotes completed in
proper format (see handout).

Penalty for Late Work
Any late work will have its final grade reduced by one full letter grade for each
class period it is overdue. Furthermore, I will not accept any paper that is submitted
more than one week overdue unless I have granted prior permission to do so. Lastly,
please bear in mind that I will not accept a paper submitted to me as an email
attachment.
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