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The Atlantic World, 1492-1888 - History 3
Professor Games
Georgetown University email: gamesa@georgetown.edu
Fall, 2002
"Oh, the frontier is only the difference between two ways of looking at things. Any road will take you across it if you really want to get there."
The Statue, in George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
The events and processes initiated by Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492 transformed the world of Columbus's contemporaries and shaped the world we live in today. Drawing together the histories of four continents, Europe, Africa, North America and South America, this course explores the nature and meaning of the new Atlantic world created as a consequence of the Columbian encounter. This course examines the Atlantic world through the experiences of the men and women who inhabited it from the mid-fifteenth century through approximately 1800. The Atlantic ocean itself, then, functions as a frontier, as a zone of interaction, and as a powerful connector between profoundly variant cultures. A volatile mixture of people and pathogens, of labor systems and crops, of nations, empires, and subjects, contributed to the painful and unexpected emergence of this new Atlantic community. The unforeseen and, for many, tragic consequences of this process of cultural conflict and exchange lie at the heart of this class. Topics will include the destruction and reconfiguration of indigenous societies, the labor migrations of Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans, the new world societies that developed in North and South America, independence movements, slavery, and different strategies of accommodation, resistance, and rebellion.This course is designed to permit students to move into the second semester of world history or European Civilization. All three courses will use 1800 as the approximate mid-year mark, although this class will stray into the nineteenth century in order to address the age of Atlantic revolution and the abolition of slavery in the Americas.
Books available for purchase at the Leavey Center Bookstore (check for cheaper prices on the web) and on reserve at Lauinger Library:
Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins: three seventeenth-century lives (1995)
Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1782 (2001) (Fenn's book is currently available in hardcover in the bookstore. The book will come out in paperback in October, so you can wait until then to purchase it).
Robin Law and Paul E. Lovejoy, eds., The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua (2001)Most of the reading for this class is available on electronic and paper reserve in Lauinger.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Six short (no more than two pages) papers, due over the course of the semester in discussion sections (30%)
midterm examination on October 23 (10%)
final examination on December 12 (30%)
participation in weekly discussion groups (30%)Papers
These SHORT (1-2 printed pages, or no more than 500 words) papers are intended to permit you to think about the reading before our discussions. They are due in Thursday discussion sections over the course of the semester. There are eleven discussion sections, and you are required to write six of these short reaction papers. You may hand in only one paper for any discussion section. Everyone is allowed to write an optional seventh paper in order to replace the grade of a weak paper, but the same rules apply to this extra paper. It is your responsibility to make sure that you complete the six (or seven) papers in a timely fashion.
The papers are due at the beginning of class. You must be present in class to receive credit for completing the assignment: unless you have been unexpectedly hospitalized or called away on a family emergency, do not give your friends papers to hand in for you. There will be no exceptions from these requirements. Plan ahead. If your computer and/or printer are unreliable and you wish to write a paper, get the paper done well ahead of time or invest in a typewriter. You cannot hand in these short papers at any later date for any kind of credit.
In your paper, you should engage one of the questions assigned by the instructor for any given week. Questions will be available at least a week ahead of time. In answering the question, you must make use of all available and appropriate evidence. It must be clear in your paper that you have done all of the reading. At the same time, you should not use any outside sources for these papers. Your papers must reflect your own original thinking about the assigned reading. No collaboration is permitted in any of the work for History 3. The professor and teaching assistant will not read drafts of these papers: the papers must reflect your independent thinking. If you wish to engage a question other than the ones assigned, please check with the teaching assistant or professor beforehand.
All short reaction papers will be graded on a five point scale. A 3 is roughly equal to a B. Stronger papers will receive a 4 or 5. A paper with more than one grammatical or stylistic error will receive no higher than a 4. A paper with four or more grammatical or stylistic lapses will automatically receive no higher than a 2. Any paper which misuses sources will receive a zero. Please be sure to read the attached style sheet. Form and content are inseparable, and you should take the time to proofread and edit your papers rigorously.
Be scrupulous in citing your sources in all your written work. All violations of Georgetown's policies on plagiarism and academic honesty will be handled by the Honor Council. If you do not understand these policies, please talk to the professor or the teaching assistant.
Discussion sections
Attendance at discussion sections is mandatory. If your extracurricular activities (including employment, practices, rehearsals, competitions, performances, or meetings) conflict with this class, do not enroll! Everyone can miss a single discussion over the course of the semester without penalty: this exemption should accommodate illness, family emergency, or unavoidable schedule conflicts. The benchmark for discussion grades is a B. That is, if you attend every section and participate, you will receive a B for this portion of your grade. If you attend class faithfully but never participate, your grade will be no higher than a C. The grade will be lowered if you miss classes or raised for exemplary participation. Exemplary participation is characterized not simply by answering a question, but rather by interacting with other students in the class and by moving the discussion forward with your own questions, interpretations, and ideas. Discussions sections should be characterized by conversation among students, not by a dialogue between one student and the instructor. There are 11 discussion sections over the course of the semester. If you miss 4 or more, you will receive an F for this portion of the class.
You are strongly urged, moreover, to attend all lectures. No textbook exists to complement this class, and lectures will be the only opportunity for you to find a synthesis or narrative of events to provide context for the assigned reading. If you miss a lecture for any reason, it is your responsibility to procure any handouts and to borrow lecture notes from a classmate. All handouts will be available in a box outside my office (ICC 610B). Please do not ask the professor or the teaching assistant for their lecture notes.
Use of EvidenceHistory is a discipline that is dependent on the use of evidence. Historians are in the business of persuasion. Historians write interpretations and arguments. Their job is to muster evidence to persuade people of the authority and wisdom of their particular interpretation. The use of evidence is inseparable from any other aspect of historical writing: form, content, and evidence are interconnected. Thus, the misuse of evidence will sabotage your entire paper. Quotations must be used fairly: that is, they must reflect the sentiment of the source you quote. Misquoting by omitting crucial words is dishonest and will cast into question your whole argument. Likewise, you must present all the important evidence that pertains to your argument. If you ignore evidence that contradicts your argument, your paper is similarly dishonest. It is your job to take into account such evidence and to explain why it fails to negate your larger interpretation. The misuse of evidence is catastrophic in history papers. It should go without saying that failure to cite all sources is equally unacceptable.
Exams
Exams cannot be arranged to suit individual schedules (barring emergencies, as always). Please check exam dates before you enroll in this class. If you have a conflict with the final exam, you must take the exam during the University conflict time on December 19.
Grading Standards
Exam essays will be graded with the following general standards in mind:
An A essay: is clearly written with no grammatical lapses or major stylistic infelicities; it has an interesting and original argument which is supported consistently by well-integrated and well-chosen evidence; it demonstrates a comfortable command over the course material.
A B essay: adequately answers the assigned question or topic. It might be marred by problems of presentation, a weak or lackluster argument, or evidence that is used inconsistently or poorly.
A C essay: has some significant flaw. There is no argument; evidence is used poorly; the argument is not proven; the essay ignores obvious and important sources; the argument is unbalanced; there are some major writing problems.
A D essay: might have a good and interesting argument but makes insufficient use of evidence. A D essay might be so encumbered by grammatical lapses that it is impossible to evaluate the prose.
An F essay: disaster has struck.
Appealing a grade:
If you feel you have been graded unfairly, you are invited to discuss your grade with the person who graded your paper or exam (the professor or the teaching assistant) provided that you write a paragraph in which you explain how your work has been unfairly evaluated and hand that paragraph, with the original paper, to the professor or teaching assistant for her or his consideration before your conference. This paragraph should NOT address the process of writing your paper (your hard work, your conversations with the professor or teaching assistant) since it is not possible to grade effort. Rather, your paragraph must focus on your paper or exam alone: its thesis, structure, and evidence.
Schedule of class meetings, lecture topics, and reading assignmentsAugust 28 NO CLASS because of conflict with the Mass of the Holy Spirit
August 29 Discussion sections: course overview
September 2 No class meeting (Labor Day holiday)
September 4 Before 1492 and course introduction: what is Atlantic history?
September 5 NO DISCUSSION SECTIONS
Establishing the Iberian Model, 1400-1570: Trade, Invasions, and Adaptations
September 9 Europe, Africa, and Christopher Columbus
September 11 Expanding Empires: Spanish, Aztec, and Inca
September 12 Discussion section: 1492 and all that: making sense of the quincentennial and Columbus
Reading: Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise (New York, 1991), pp. 350-370 (reserve)
Ward Churchill, "Deconstructing the Columbus Myth," in John Yewall, Chris Dodge, and Jan DeSirey, eds., Confronting Columbus: An Anthology (Jefferson, NC, 1992), pp. 149-158 (reserve)
Noble David Cook, Born to Die (Cambridge, 1998), pp. 1-39 (reserve)
excerpt from the Journal of Christopher Columbus (for October 11, 1492) in Parry and Keith, eds., New Iberian World, v. 2, pp. 29-30 (reserve) excerpt from Bartolome de Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (New York, 1992), pp. 14-17 (reserve)September 16 Evangelization in the New World
September 18 Conquest Societies: indigenous responses
September 19 Discussion section: Debating the Conquest and Assessing the Role of the Church
Reading: excerpts from New Iberian World, v. 1
The Requirement, pp. 288-290 (reserve)
Sepulveda, Las Casas, and Vargas Machuca on the justice of the conquest, pp. 323-334 (reserve)
excerpts from New Iberian World, v. 3
Friars defend their orders to Emperor, pp. 400-403 (reserve)
excerpts from Miguel Leon-Portilla, The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico (Boston, 1992), pp. 149-162 (reserve)
Cortes comments on the people of the Yucatan, 1519, in J. Bayard Morris, ed., Five Letters of Cortes to the Emperor (Routledge, 1928), pp. 21-25 (reserve)
excerpt from Bartolome de Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (New York, 1992), pp. 71-79 (reserve)
J. Jorge Klor de Alva, "Martin Ocelotl: Clandestine Cult Leader," in David Sweet and Gary Nash, eds., Struggle and Survival, chapter 7 (reserve)
Elaboration and Competition, 1565-1670: Europe, North America, and the CaribbeanSeptember 23 The Reformation and Counter-Reformation: the race for souls and swag
September 25 The New Europes
September 26 Discussion section: Piracy
Reading: Marcus Rediker, " "Under the Banner of King Death": The Social World of Anglo-American Pirates, 1716-1726," The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 38 (1981): 203-227 (reserve)
Marcus Rediker, "Liberty Beneath the Jolly Roger: The Lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, Pirates," (including primary accounts of Mary Read and Anne Bonny) in Margaret S. Creighton and Lisa Norling, eds., Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700-1920 (Baltimore, 1996), pp. 1-33, chapter 1 (reserve)
Jo Stanley, "The Women among the Boys," in Jo Stanley, Bold in Her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages (1995), pp. 36-50 (reserve)
John Exquemelin, The Buccaneers of America (1684; reprint 1951), excerpts, pp. 58-60 (organizing a pirate ship); 69-77 (an account of Roche Brasiliano); 144-145 (Henry Morgan, the attack on Porto Bello, and human shields); 158-167 (Henry Morgan's attack on Maracaibo) (reserve)
"Captain Edward Low and his Crew," in Daniel Defoe, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724; reprint, 1972), pp. 282-304 (reserve)September 30 European Migration and Settlement in the Atlantic
October 2 Atlantic History in the News, I: The story of the Pequots and their Casino
October 3 Discussion section: European Migration
Reading: Fynes Moryson, Itinerary, in C. Litton Falkiner, Illustrations of Irish History and Topography (London, 1904), pp. 228-232, 310-325 (reserve)
Natalie Zemon Davis, Women on the Margins (parts two and three)Labor and Other Commodities
October 7 Coerced Labor in the Atlantic World
October 9 The Atlantic Slave Trade
October 10 Discussion section: When is a slave a slave?
Reading: Igor Kopytoff and Suzanne Miers, "African "Slavery" as an Institution of Marginality," in Miers and Kopytoff, editors, Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (Madison, 1977), pp. 3-14, 76-78 (reserve)
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, edited by Robert J. Allison (Boston, 1995), pp. 33-54 (all of chapter 1, and chapter two until he boards the ship) (reserve)
excerpt from the narrative of Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (James Albert), in Potkey, ed., Black Atlantic Writers, pp. 28-34 (reserve)
Jean Barbot, Description of the Gold Coast of Guinea, Letter 21, pp. 546-553 (reserve)October 14 NO CLASS: Columbus Day Observance
October 16 Sugar
October 17 Discussion section: What did the Atlantic slave trade mean for Africa and Africans?
Reading: Patrick Manning, "Social and Demographic Transformations," in David Northrup, ed., The Atlantic Slave Trade (Lexington, MA, 1994), pp. 148-160 (reserve)
Walter Rodney, "The Unequal Partnership Between Africans and Europeans," in David Northrup, ed., The Atlantic Slave Trade (Lexington, MA, 1994), pp. 135-147 (reserve)
David Northrup, Africa's Discovery of Europe (Oxford, 2002), chapters 3-4, pp. 50-106 (reserve)
Excerpt from narrative of Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, in Potkey, ed., Black Atlantic Writers, pp. 132-137 (reserve)
Jean Barbot, Description of the Coasts of Guinea, pp. 774-775, 778-783 (reserve)
"A Portuguese Doctor Describes the Suffering of Black Slaves in Africa and on the Atlantic Voyage" (1793), in Conrad, ed., Children of God's Fire, pp. 15-23 (reserve)
The Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, pp. 54-58 (reserve)
New Worlds for All, 1650-1800October 21 Africa in America
October 23 Midterm exam
October 24 NO DISCUSSION SECTIONS
October 28 Resistance to Enslavement
October 30 Atlantic History in the News, II: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
October 31 Discussion section: Masters, Overseers, Laborers, and Crops
Reading:
Billy Smith and Richard Wojtowicz, eds. Blacks who Stole Themselves: Advertisements for Runaways in the Pennsylvania Gazette (Philadelphia, 1989), pp. 17-27 (reserve)
Richard Ligon, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes, pp. 43-55 (reserve)
Excerpts from the manuscript diary of Thomas Thistlewood (reserve)
The Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, pp. 59-71 (reserve)
Documents 2.1-2.3, 4.2-4.3, and 7.1 on slavery in Brazil, in Conrad, ed., Children of God's Fire, pp. 54-62, pp. 163-178, pp. 290-292 (reserve)
Documents about English indentured servants (reserve)
Thomas Gage, Travels in the New World, excerpts, pp. 214-219 (reserve)
Solange Alberro, "Juan de Morga and Gertrudis de Escobar," in David Sweet and Gary Nash, eds., Struggle and Survival, chapter 9 (reserve)November 4 Indigenous recovery, indigenous demise
November 6 Hybrid worlds
November 7 Discussion Section: What was the impact of alcohol on native people in post-conquest societies?
excerpts from William Taylor, Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford, 1979), pp. 1-9, 28-72 (reserve)
excerpts from Peter Mancall, Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America (Ithaca, 1995), pp. 1-9, 63-84, 169-180 (reserve)
The Age of Imperial Crisis and Revolution, 1754-1825November 11 The Atlantic World at War
November 13 Imperial Reforms
November 14 Discussion section: War and Captivity
Reading: James Axtell, "White Indians," The European and the Indian (New York, 1981), pp. 168-206 (reserve)
"The Narrative of Mrs. Johnson" in Colin Calloway, ed., North Country Captives (Hanover, NH, 1992), pp. 45-87 (reserve)November 18 Creole Resistance in the post-war period
November 20 Atlantic Revolutions, I: the British and French Atlantic Worlds
November 21 Discussion section: disease and war in North America
Reading: Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox Americana (2001) (chapter 8 is optional)November 25 Atlantic Revolutions, II: the Spanish Atlantic
Regional Abolition and Global Migration: The Atlantic Reconsidered
November 27 Black and White Abolitionists in an Age of Revolution: from Sierra Leone to Emancipation, or, the Long Goodbye, 1792-1888
November 28 NO CLASS Thanksgiving Holiday
December 2 "Back" to Africa
December 4 The Global Atlantic and Course Review
December 5 Discussion Section: A Cosmopolitan's Perspective
Robin Law and Paul E. Lovejoy, eds., The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua (2001), pp. 85-250 (consult the introduction as your interest dictates)Thursday, December 12, 4-6pm Final Examination
© 2001 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Created November 2002.
