So far, what has been the most important thing you’ve learned in class?
What has been the most difficult historical trend or reading that you’ve encountered?
What important questions remain unanswered for you?
What classroom activities or assignments have been the most effective in helping you learn this semester? Why?
Declaration of Independence and other Founding Documents 92 pp.
Taylor (chaps. 14-15; 18) 82 pp.
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (50-100) 50 pp.
Points of Entry:
Seven Year's War
http://www.militaryheritage.com/7yrswar.htm
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/frin.htm
Benjamin Franklin:
http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/
http://www.english.udel.edu/lemay/franklin/
Founding Documents:
http://www.ushistory.org/DECLARATION/
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/declare.asp
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/articles.html
Pontiac's War:
http://www.forttours.com/pages/pontiac.asp
Questions for discussion:
Do you think the Seven Years War was the first global war? Why?
How do the early founding documents relate to the Seven Years War?
What do you think are the most important causes and outcomes of the war? Why?
This week covers the early impact of African Americans and Native Americans in North America. Despite the brutality of slavery and incessant land seizures, both groups produced enduring legacies that survived the colonial and early national periods.
Readings:
Taylor, chaps. 8-11
Equiano, intro.
Points of Entry:
slavery in colonial Williamsburg:
http://www.history.org/almanack/people/african/aaintro.cfm
Equiano Museum:
http://www.equiano.org/about_equiano.html
Deerfield Raid in New England:
http://www.1704.deerfield.history.museum/home.do
Captivity Narrative:
http://www.archive.org/details/captivity_restoration_rowlandson_0912_librivox#
Questions for discussion:
How did slavery shape colonial racial ideologies?
Do you think Native-English encounters in New England influence the way the colony evolved?
Paper Grading Rubric:
| | Grading Criteria: Excellent Paper A/A- | Grading Criteria: Good B+/B/B- | Grading Criteria: Fair C+/C/C- | Grading Criteria: Poor D+/D-/F |
| Thesis | Clear; stated up front; thoughtful; strong topic paragraph or sentence | Slightly unclear; no strong introduction | Unclear thesis and introduction | No thesis or introduction |
| Structure | Strong transitions between ideas; clear references to argument; clear arc (beginning/ middle/end) | Generally clear, but weak transitions; vague references to thesis | Somewhat coherent but weak transitions; vague or no reference to thesis | Lack of structure or coherence |
| Analysis | Demonstrates an understanding of the readings; connects evidence with argument | Reference to but not a clear understanding of readings; vague connection between evidence and argument | Very weak understanding of readings; little connection between evidence and argument | Unable to demonstrate analysis or understanding of sources |
| Evidence | Clearly highlighted; multiple examples; use of variable sources | Ambiguous use of sources; one-dimensional use | Unclear and/or little use of sources | Little or no use of evidence |
| Mechanics | No typos, fragments, or run-on sentences; no awkward constructions; no misuse of citations | Minor typos and grammatical errors; run-on sentences | Frequent typos, grammatical, and punctuation errors; frequent run-on sentences | Poorly written with frequent errors |
Short Paper #1
Staking out new territory in Southwest borderlands studies, the readings by Brooks and Habicht-Mauche both attempt to reveal the fluidity of labor systems, gender ideology, and interregional interactions that emerged and dissipated on the Southwest/Plains borderlands over five centuries. While each author tackles different aspects of these interactions, both set out to redefine the emergence and maintenance of the borderlands economy.
In Captives and Cousins, Brooks' interdisciplinary approach boldly expands recent historical views of the Southwes borderlands. Indeed, the multiple disciplines utilized in Captives and Cousins--anthropology, archeology, literary and cultural theory, as well as oral, economic and ethnohistory—will cultivate more interdisciplinary scholarship. Incorporating a sweeping time period (16th-19th centuries), and region (extending between California and Missouri) this study follows the trajectory of a borderlands exchange economy shared within the plains, pueblo, desert, and plateau regions. Unlike previous studies that highlight the "clash of cultures," Brooks argues that the similarities between Spanish, Navajo, Pueblo, Comanche, and other communities helped to initiate and maintain a dynamic regional economic system. While significant cultural differences existed, these groups "shared an understanding of the production and distribution of wealth as conditioned by social relations of power" (p. 363).
This "common understanding" served as the basis for the exchange of slaves and captives (primarily women and children), horses, livestock (sheep and cattle), and buffalo. In particular, the exchange of slaves reinforced and expanded the system. Unlike other slave systems at the time, the captives acted as kin and played an influential diplomatic role in the region. Serving as a cultural bridge between potential enemies/allies, captives conversant in the language of both their captors and "outsiders" assisted in important negotiations. According to Brooks, slaves' diplomatic skill ensured that the captive exchange system would thrive for centuries, despite the efforts of "modernizing" state authorities like Spain, Mexico, and the United States.
Despite his “blanket” of interdisciplinary sources, Brooks glosses over and/or overlooks some important factors emerging in the borderlands. While he describes the relative autonomy of women slaves and captives, an analysis of gender fails to adequately permeate his study. Although he peppers some anecdotal accounts illustrating the role of gender, a further investigation into this question would have strengthened his argument. Additionally, his approach also neglects a key set of players involved in many of these exchanges—the pueblos of the Rio Grande.
Addressing these key issues—particularly the role of gender in the borderlands— Judith Habicht-Mauche investigates the dynamic relationship shared between labor and gender that shifted before and after Euroamerican contact. Equally as important, Habicht-Mauche highlights the interaction between Pueblo and Plains technology, goods, and ideological systems. Writing before and after Captives and Cousins, Habicht-Mauche’s articles reveal the important methodological shifts that have occurred in recent years. In “Pottery, Food, Hides, and Women,” she highlights many of these changes as archeologists moved from cultural-ecological and world systems approaches to her (and subsequently Brooks’ approach) model of kin and household-based interactions as the engine of the borderlands economy. Reexamining the archeological record of distributed Puebloan ceramic technology across the Plains, Habicht-Mauche reveals the inadequacy of these older models while advancing a more gender-based approach. Habicht-Mauche shatters the earlier approaches while revealing the importance women in changing the nature of the Pueblo-Plains frontier—a discussion she expands upon in her later article “The Shifting Role of Women and Women’s Labor on the Protohistoric Southern High Plains.”
Before turning to this article, it is important to point out another important contribution that Habicht-Mauche put forward in this earlier study—the shift in gender and labor ideology before the insertion of Euroamericans into the bison economy. As she argues, the protohistoric period ruptured older political and economic systems that preceded later changes in the post-contact period. These changes occurred, she states, at the local level. Habicht-Mauche’s later study, however, she expands on the changing role of women in relation to the expansion of the bison economy. Picking up from her earlier study and responding to some of Brooks’ oversights mentioned above, she identifies the indigenous origins of male-status building and co-option of women’s labor. As she argues, “the development of the bison-oriented, trade-based economy entailed a major shift in the organization of labor, especially along gendered lines.
While Brooks’ study serves primarily as class-based analysis revealing the emerging hierarchical shifts between wealthy sheep/horse/captive holders and poor genizaros/livestock raiders, Habicht-Mauche identifies a gender-based component forming in the rapidly expanding bison economy on the eastern edge of Brooks’ borderlands. Very importantly, though, she points out that changing work roles for women didn’t necessarily mean a complete loss of agency. However, her research suggests that women’s autonomy definitively shrunk during this period. As she argues, “highly specialized bison-hunting lifestyles on the Southern High Plains created new arenas…within which social power and status were negotiated…these new arenas tended to be more open to the actions of individual, ambitious men than to most women” (p. 54).
The readings by both Habicht-Mauche and Brooks reveal that a careful and closer look at borderlands regions quickly reveal many more intricate and dynamic processes than previously assessed. Indeed, while the “core-periphery” lexicon still proves useful, both authors illustrate that more nuanced relationships are yet to be revealed in the Southwest borderlands.
Week 1: Course Introduction
Hello students and fellow travelers on the path(s) through U.S. history! This blog serves as a crucial companion to our weekly class time. Discussions will include further explorations into the assigned readings, suggested related websites and links, and questions about assignments and/or historical issues related to our course. It is also a tool for you to share questions and thoughts with each other.
A couple of brief ground rules:
This blog is meant for academic discussions directly related to the course only! No private information or inappropriate discussions please.
Discussions should be respectful, cooperative, and articulate. By all means, feel free to use this blog to debate but remember to do so with respect and keep in mind that you're all on the same journey and will be working together in class as well.
History is as much a synthesis of analytical frameworks and scholarly debates as “just the facts.” Thus, throughout this course we will tackle historical topics as historians frequently do—through spirited conversation.
As a way to kick off this conversation, I invite you watch this brief video which claims to reveal the history of the world in 7 minutes:
World History for Us All - History of the World in Seven Minutes Video
My question: is this history?
I look forward to your comments, questions, and discussions!
