Norton Syllabus Atlantic History Seminar

The Atlantic World from Conquest to Revolution
History 272/AmSt 272

Professor Mary Beth Norton
Professor Rachel Weil
Professor Karen Graubart

Lectures: Monday, Friday 10:10-11 (131 Warren Hall)
Sections: Wednesday, 8:40-9:55 (145 McGraw) or 2:55-4:10 (145 McGraw or 366 McGraw)

After Europeans first crossed the Atlantic in the late fifteenth century, the ocean became a vast highway linking Spain, France, Britain and the Netherlands to the Americas and Africa. In this course we will examine the lives of the men and women who inhabited this new world from the time of Columbus to the 18th century revolutions in Haiti and North America. Topics will include the destruction and reconfiguration of indigenous societies; slavery and other forms of servitude; the resistance, rebellion and accommodation of indigenous groups and slaves; religion; and the construction of gender, race and ethnicity. Emphasis will be on reading and analyzing primary sources.

Books available for purchase at the Cornell Store

Calloway, Colin. The World Turned Upside Down (Bedford)
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative and other writings (Penguin)
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Bedford)
Greer, Allen, ed. The Jesuit Relations (Bedford)
Harriot, Thomas. A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia (Dover)
Hunt, Lynn. The French Revolution and Human Rights (Bedford)
León-Portilla, Miguel. The Broken Spears (Beacon)
Mier, Fray Servando Teresa de. The Memoirs of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier (Oxford)
Rowlandson, Mary. The Sovereignty and Goodness of God (Bedford)

Four 2-3 page papers giving your thoughtful response to the primary source readings, or an aspect of them. Two must be submitted by February 26, two by April 23. They are due at the beginning of the section for which those readings were assigned. Late papers will not be accepted. Do not simply summarize the readings but instead offer a considered analysis of the documents you choose to discuss.

Two 6-8 page essays due in class on March 7 and May 2. The topics will be the following:

Essay 1: Discuss the patterns of interaction between native peoples and Europeans, focusing on the reactions of native populations to European contact. Your answer must make concrete and sustained reference to documents drawn from at least two of the following four books: Harriot (A Briefe and True Report…), Calloway (The World…), Greer (Jesuit Relations), and León-Portilla, (Broken Spears). Due in class on March 7.

Essay 2: Write an essay that compares two of the following three memoirs: Equiano, Mier and Franklin. How do the similarities and differences you note reflect impact of the Atlantic world upon the writers and their respective positions within it?

Attendance and participation in sections are an important part of this class. Students are required to attend class prepared and ready to discuss the week’s readings

4 reaction papers 40% (10% each paper)
2 longer essays 40% (20% each essay)
attendance and informed participation 20%

Readings must be completed prior to Wednesday sections, and the books/reader should be brought to class.

Week One
Jan 20: Introduction
22: readings: Columbus’ letter with Zamora introduction (handout)
24: The world in 1492

Week Two
Jan 27: The making of the Atlantic World
29: reading: Thomas Harriott, A Brief and True Report…
31: The Columbian Exchange

Week Three
Feb 3: Religion I
5: Readings: Greer, Jesuit Relations, Intro, Sections 1-3, 6 and Calloway, The World Turned Upside Down, pp. 45-49 (John Eliot) and 54-61 (Samson Occom)
7: Religion II

Week Four
Feb 10: Conquest: Spanish America
12: readings: León Portilla, Broken Spears, pp. 1-149
14: Labor Systems: Spanish America

Week Five
Feb. 17: Conquest: North America
19: readings: Calloway, The World Turned Upside Down, pp. 1-94
21: Labor Systems: North America

Week Six
Feb. 24: Africa and Slavery
26: reading: Richard Ligon and Children of God’s Fire, excerpts (CR)
28: The Caribbean (Weil)

Week Seven
Mar 3: Resistance: North America
5: reading: Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, pp. 1-128
7: Resistance, Accommodation, Hybridity: Spanish America

Week Eight
Mar 10: The Maritime World
12: Imperial visions (note this is a Wed, lecture instead of section)
14: NO CLASS

Week Nine
Mar. 24: Inquisition and the Extirpation of Idolatry
26: readings: two Inquisitorial trials from Latin America (CR)
28: Mature economies in the north

Week Ten
Mar. 31: Honor, Gender and Ethnicity in Spanish America
Apr. 2: readings: Ben Franklin, The Autobiography
4: Bourgeois Sensibilities in Europe and North America

Week Eleven
Apr. 7: Rhetoric of Rights and Abolition
9: readings: Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative
11: Seven Years’ War

Week Twelve
Apr 14: Peasant Rebellions and creole consciousness
16: readings: Fray Servando Teresa de Mier, Memoir, pp. 1-22, 36-57, 97-141.
18: North American Revolution

Week Thirteen
Apr 21: Revolution and its impact on Europe
23: Lynn Hunt, French Revolution and Human Rights, pp. 1-31, 51-59, 77-84, 101-138
25: French and Haitian Revolutions

Week Fourteen
Apr 28: Independence and Dependency in Latin America
30: no section this week
May 2: Concluding discussion
Plagiarism policy