SYLLABUS

Messiah College
HIS 335: Age of Jefferson and Jackson
Fall 2002
MWF 10:00-10:50
F 345

Instructor: John Fea, Ph.D
Office Hours:  MW:  8:30-9:45am; Thu: 8:30-9:20, and by appointment.
Hoffman 101  Phone: x2253
e-mail: jfea@messiah.edu

Course Description
This course examines the early years of the United States from the ratification of the Constitution through the 1830s.  In 1789, Americans were faced with the task of building working political institutions out of the principles set forth in the Constitution and establishing a stable and unified society out of a divided and diverse collection of societies and peoples.  American leaders also had to deal with a slew of international crises that brought them into conflict with powerful European countries that showed little respect for American interests.  In the decades following the American Revolution, American leaders and citizens were forced to define exactly what independence from Great Britain meant in the context of everyday life.  Would the country be predominantly rural and agricultural or urban and commercial?  Would the character of the new nation be defined by the ideas of elite “founding fathers” or by the will of ordinary people?  How did the notion of “democracy” change during the fifty-year period under consideration in this course and how did such changes influence developments in politics, social life, religion, and economics?  How did the rapid changes taking place in the nation during the early republic influence the plight of women, Native Americans, slaves, and free blacks?  Together we will examine this exciting period in the American past and try to think responsibly about how this important era helps us to understand American society presently, at the turn of a new millennium.

Required Textbooks  (Available in the Campus Book Store)
Peter Onuf and Leonard Sadosky, Jeffersonian America
James P. Ronda, Lewis and Clark Among the Indians
Donald Wright, African-Americans in the Early Republic
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale
Paul Johnson, A Shopkeepers Millennium
Harry L. Watson, Liberty and Power
Outside Reading (See Below)

A Word on Outside Reading: In addition to the textbooks listed above, we will also rely on required outside reading found on the Internet and on reserve in Murray Library.  Your course schedule below will tell you where the reading can be found.  Materials listed as “on reserve” can be read or copied in Murray.  Materials to be read on-line will be followed by a web address where the article or document can be found. I strongly encourage you to print these Internet or reserve documents and articles, mark them up, and bring them to class with you.

Course Requirements
This course will include both lecture and discussion. You are expected to complete the assigned reading before the class period in which it will be discussed and arrive prepared to actively engage in class discussion.  This will be VITAL to your success in this course.  You will be evaluated based on the following:

2 Papers    40%
2 Exams    40%
Participation and Attendance   20%
(Including possible reading quizzes)

Notes:
· Students who do not take both exams and hand-in both papers, no matter how late, will fail the course
· Late papers will be penalized half a letter grade for each class period it is late.  Papers handed-in more than 5 class periods late will receive a failing grade, but must still be handed-in before the end of the semester in order to receive a passing grade for the course.
· AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT:   Any student whose disability falls within ADA guidelines should inform the instructor at the beginning of the semester of any special accommodations or equipment needs necessary to complete the requirements for this course. Students must register documentation with the Office of Disability Services (OM 342).  If you have questions, call extension 5358.
· Plagiarism will be penalized according to college policies.  According to the Student Handbook, plagiarism is “submitting as one’s own work part or all of any assignment (oral or written) which is copied, paraphrased, or purchased from another source, including on-line sources without the proper acknowledgment of that source. Examples include:  failing to cite a reference, failing to use quotation marks where appropriate, misrepresenting another's work as your own.”  The penalty for plagiarizing all or most of a paper is the assignment of an ‘F’ for the course.

Papers
These 5-7 page papers will ask you to address a question or topic related to class readings and lectures. Choose a paper from Group One and one from Group Two.  You can answer these questions through course material (reading, lecture, discussion) alone, but may include any relevant outside materials if you wish.

Group One:

Due on October 2: At the turn of the nineteenth century, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton championed two very different visions for the future of American society.  How did these visions differ and what were the long-term implications of each vision for the future of America?  As you write in the year 2002, which view, in your opinion, has been most influential?

Due on October 28: Discuss the role of Northern women in early national society.  Compare and contrast their role in society to that of early republican males.  Was the early republic a particularly liberating time for American women?

Due on November 6: How might the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition be told differently if it were told from the perspective of the Natives that they encountered?
 

Group Two:

Due on November 20: What were the factors that influenced slave social life and political behavior in the South between 1789 and 1831? Use specific examples to support your claims.

Due On December 4: Assess the impact of the Second Great Awakening on early 19th century American culture.  Did the Awakening serve as a democratizing force in American life?  Or did it contribute to middle class attempts to constrain democratic impulses?

Due December 11:  Henry Watson describes political life in Jacksonian America as a clash between “Liberty” and “Power.”  What does he mean by this and how did this clash specifically play itself out in American life in the 1830s and 1840s?
 

Tentative Class Schedule

DATE   PROGRAM AND ASSIGNMENTS

Sept. 4   Introduction to the Course

Sept. 6    The American Constitution: A Roof Without Walls?
READ: John Murrin, “A Roof Without Walls” (On Reserve)

Sept. 9   The Founders Republic
READ: Benjamin Rush, Thoughts and the Mode of Education in a Republic
 Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, October 28, 1813

Sept. 11:   The Anthropology of the Founding Fathers
   READ: Federalist #10

Sept.  13:  Federalists in Power

Sept. 16:  Alexander Hamilton’s Vision for America

Sept. 18:  The Whiskey Rebellion and Federal Power
READ:  Richard Kohn: “The Washington Administration’s Decision to Crush the Whiskey Rebellion” (On Reserve)

Sept. 20:  Oppositional Politics:  Jefferson’s Vision
   READ:  Jefferson’s Manufactures from Notes on the State of Virginia
    Onuf, Chapter 1

Sept. 23: DISCUSSION: The Hamilton vs. Jefferson and the implications of their plans for the future of America.

Sept. 25: Early American Diplomacy:  The United States and France
 READ: Proclamation of Neutrality
 Onuf, 172-200.

Sept. 27: Early American Diplomacy: The United States and Spain/Alien and Sedition Acts
 READ:      The Alien Act
              The Sedition Act
              The Virginia Resolution

Sept. 30: The Election of 1800
 READ: Review Onuf, 33-41.

Oct. 2: The Appeal of the Jeffersonians
 READ: Onuf, Chapter 2

Oct. 4: Republican Motherhood and Wifehood in the Early Republic

Oct. 9: DISCUSSION: A Midwife’s Tale
 READ: Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale (Entire Book)

Oct. 11:   MOVIE: "A Midwife’s Tale"

Oct. 14: Movie Discussion
Optional Web Site: DoHistory.Org

Oct. 16: The Louisiana Purchase
 READ: Onuf, Ch. 3

Oct. 18: MIDTERM EXAM

Oct. 21: Lewis and Clark Among the Indians
 READ: Ronda, Chapters 1-3
  Onuf, “Jefferson and the Indians” (On Reserve)

Oct. 23: Lewis and Clark Among the Indians
 READ: Ronda, Chapters 4-6

Oct. 25:  Lewis and Clark Among the Indians
 READ: Ronda, Chapters 7-9

Oct. 28:  Southern Culture and Economy in the Early Republic
 READ: Wright, Chapter 1

Oct. 30:  Planters and Pro-Slavery Arguments
 READ: Wright, Chapter 3
  John H. Hammond, Slavery is Not a Sin, 1853
  George Fitzhugh, The Blessings of Slavery

Nov. 1:  Slave Culture
 READ: Wright, Chapter 2

Nov. 4: The Marshall Court: The Last Bastion of Federalism

Nov. 6: War with England (1812)

Nov. 8: The War of 1812 and American National Identity

Nov. 11: Social and Economic Change in the Early Republic
 READ: Watson, Chapter 1
  Johnson, Chapters 1-2

Nov. 13: Social and Economic Change in the Early Republic

Nov. 15: The Second Great Awakening and its Results
 READ:  Charles Finney, What is a Revival, 1834

Nov. 18:   The Second Great Awakening and its Results

Nov.  20: DISCUSSION: Johnson, Shopkeepers Millennium, Ch. 3-6

Nov. 22: Jacksonian America: Liberty and Power
 READ: Watson, Chapters 2-3, pp.96-104

Nov. 25: Jacksonian America: Indian Removal
 READ: Watson, 104-113

Dec. 2:  Jacksonian America: States Rights and Nullification
 READ: Watson, 113-131

Dec. 4: Jacksonian America: The National Bank and Economy
 READ: Watson, Chapter 5

Dec. 6: The Era of Reform

Dec. 9:   Anti-Slavery Movements
   READ: Wright, Chapter 5
    Eric Foner, “Abolitionism and the Labor Movement” (On Reserve)
    William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator (Selection)

Dec. 11:   Other Reform Movements

Dec. 13:   The Emergence of the Second Party System
   READ: Watson, Chapter 8.

FINAL EXAM: TBA