A House Divided: The United States, 1830-1890

History 276, Fall 2006

Professor: Rebecca Edwards office: Swift Hall 35

e-mail: reedwards office hours: Mon. 2-4 Wed. 1-3,

Telephone: x5675 Thurs. 3-4:30, and by appointment

The war itself, the victory of the Union, and the relations of our equal States, present features of which there are no precedents in the past.

--Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas

Course Objectives

This course introduces major themes in the history of the United (and disunited) States between 1830 and 1890. On what basis did the nation exist at the start of this era? What caused the Civil War? How and why did the Union win? What other wars—against native peoples in the West, and over land and labor—raged before and after the Civil War? How did the experience of all these conflicts affect Americans, and what were their consequences? In what ways did the post-war decades set the stage for the emergence of modern America?

Course Requirements

I. Reading and Discussion

The following books are available at the Vassar Bookstore and on reserve at the library:

Micahel Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

(Bedford/St. Martin’s edition, ed. David Blight)

Richard H. Sewell, A House Divided: Sectionalism and Civil War, 1848-1865

Ambrose Bierce, Civil War Stories

Eric Foner, Nothing But Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy

Charles M. Sheldon, In His Steps

Additional readings will be on reserve in the Vassar Library or handed out in class. We will also view several films. You are not required to attend the scheduled film viewings but you must view each video before we discuss it in class, as noted on the schedule. All are on reserve in the library.

You are expected to complete all readings on time and attend class ready to discuss them. Attendance and participation are crucial factors in your final grade (15%).

II. Writing Assignments

1. A short paper analyzing primary documents in relation to Michael Zakim's book Ready Made Democracy; due Wed., Sept. 13 at the start of class (roughly 10% of final grade)

2. A roughly four-page analysis of a Civil War eyewitness document, due Wed., Oct. 25 at the

start of class (15%)

3. A research paper of about 10-12 pages, including prospectus and bibliography due Wed., Sept. 27, and a final paper due by 5 pm on Friday, Dec. 8 at my office, Swift 35 (25%)

Policy on late papers: Except in case of illness or emergency that requires an absence, extensions cannot be granted on short papers whose content will be discussed in class. Any request for an extension on the research paper should be made in advance of the deadline. If no extension is granted the late policy is as follows: for the first three days, the grade falls by one-third letter for each day of lateness. (Thus an A paper becomes an A- in the first 24 hours after it was due, a B+ in the next 24 hours, and a B in the next.) After three days the grade will fall by one full letter per day (the A paper now becomes a C, D, and F.) Weekends count as days; if you plan to complete an overdue paper on a Saturday or Sunday we can make arrangements in advance for you to deliver it. You must complete all the assignments in order to pass the course.

III. Examinations

Midterm exam (10%)

Regularly scheduled final examination (25%)

Policy on Missed Exams: You must consult the Dean of Studies for a make-up final.

Note on Disabilities: Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered with the Office of Disability and Support Services. Please schedule an appointment with me early in the semester to discuss any accommodations for this course which have been approved by the Director of Disability and Support Services as indicated in your DSS accommodation letter.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Mon. Sept. 4 Introduction to the Course

Wed. Sept. 6 Lecture: Antebellum Transformations

Mon. Sept. 11 Discussion: Sartorial Affairs

Read Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy, Introduction, Ch. 2, Ch. 4 - 7, and Conclusion

Wed. Sept. 13 Lecture/Discussion: Sartorial Affairs, Part 2

FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE TODAY

Read document packet to accompany Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy (handout)

Mon. Sept. 18 Discussion: Duelers and Gougers, North and South

Read the following:

Edward Pessen, "How Different from Each Other Were the Antebellum North and South?," American Historical Review 85 (1980): 1119-49. available through the library's electronic database at J-STOR.

Elliot J. Gorn, "'Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch': The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry," AHR 90 (1985): 18-43, also available through J-STOR.

Kenneth S. Greenberg, "The Duel as Social Drama," from Masters and Statesmen: The Political Culture of American Slavery (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), 23-41. (handout)

*Wed. Sept. 20 Lecture: Religion, Domesticity, and Reform

Mon. Sept. 25 Discussion: Slavery and Antislavery

Read Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (introduction and the narrative)

Read Jean Baker, "The Negro Issue: Popular Culture, Racial Attitudes, and Democratic Policy,"

from Affairs of Party: The Political Culture of Northern Democrats in the Mid- Nineteenth Century (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), 212-258. Reserve.

Wed. Sept. 27 Lecture: Wars in the West

RESEARCH PROSPECTUS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE TODAY

Mon. Oct. 2 Discussion: Life in the West … and with the Army in Mexico

Read any TWO of the following (either two chapters/parts from one book OR sample two different works); all books on reserve:

Paul Foos, A Short Offhand Killing Affair: Soldiers and Social Conflict during the Mexican- American War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002); ch. 3, 5, or 6.

John Mack Faragher, Women and Men on the Overland Trail (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979), any chapter(s) of your choice.

Susan Lee Johnson, Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush (New York: Norton, 2000); any chapter(s) except ch. 6.

David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986 (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1987), any chapter prior to Civil War.

Wed. Oct. 4 Lecture: The 1850s and the Coming of the War

Mon. Oct. 9 Lecture and Discussion: “And the War Came”

Read Sewell, House Divided, chapters 1-4

Wed. Oct. 11 MIDTERM EXAM

Fri. Oct. 13, field trip to the schooner Amistad for those who can go

FALL BREAK

Mon. Oct. 23 Lecture: Eight Ways to Look at the Civil War

Read Sewell, House Divided, chapters 5-9; Lincoln, "Gettysburg Address," "Final Emancipation Proclamation," "Second Inaugural Address" (handouts)

Wed. Oct. 25 Discussion: The War They Experienced

CIVIL WAR EYEWITNESS PAPERS DUE TODAY

Mon. Oct. 30 Lecture: Legacies of the Civil War

Wed. Nov. 1 Discussion: More Legacies of War

View film: "Long Shadows," video #5065 (89 min.)

Read Edward L. Ayers, “What We Talk About When We Talk About the South,” from All Over

the Map: Rethinking American Regions, ed. Edward L. Ayers et al (Baltimore: Johns

Hopkins University Press, 1996), 62-82. Handout.

Thomas Bender, "Freedom in an Age of Nation-Making," from A Nation Among Nations:

America's Place in World History (New York: Hill and Wang, 2006), 116-181. Reserve.

Mon. Nov. 6 Lecture: The New Political Order

Wed. Nov. 8 Discussion: Reconstruction

Read Foner, Nothing But Freedom

Read Barbara J. Fields, “Ideology and Race in American History,” in Region, Race, and

Reconstruction, ed. J. Morgan Kousser (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 143-177. Reserve.

Mon. Nov. 13 Lecture: Whither the United States in the 1870s?

Wed. Nov. 15 Discussion: Money

Read "Reach" and "Money," from Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 37-59, 81-103

Mon. Nov. 20 Lecture: Wars of Incorporation

Wed. Nov. 22 Discussion: Wars in the West

Watch "Last Stand at Little Big Horn" (film on reserve)

Read Patricia Nelson Limerick, “Haunted America,” from Something in the Soil: Legacies and

Reckonings in the New West (New York: Norton, 2000), 33-73..

Mon. Nov. 27 Lecture: Mass-Market Capitalism and Its Discontents

Wed. Nov. 29 Discussion: The Social Gospel

Read Sheldon, In His Steps, ch. 1-26 (pp. 1-171)

Mon. Dec. 4 Lecture: Toward the 20th Century

Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour," online at:

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/chopin.html

Mark Twain, “The United States of Lyncherdom,” online at:

http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/mixed_lit/twain_lyncherdom.htm

Wed. Dec. 6 Conclusions

Analysis of Primary Documents in Relation to

Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy

Read and study the packet of ten primary documents handed out in class. In an essay of approximately three double-spaced pages, analyze several of these documents in relation to Zakim's book.

"Several documents" may mean as few as two or as many as five or six. You may use these documents to support Zakim's arguments, or to suggest complications in his analysis, or to suggest limits or problems with his approach. In any case you will need to have read Zakim's book carefully, and you will probably need to cite Ready-Made Democracy in order to show how it relates to the documents in question.

In three pages you will not want to try to explain everything these documents may tell us. Your goal is to select one topic, or cluster of topics, on which to concentrate your analysis. Your paper will be graded on your ability to:

* read carefully and make accurate use of evidence from the primary sources;

* synthesize materials from several documents;

* develop a focused and compelling argument;

* write in a clear, engaging, and persuasive style;

* cite all the information you use in footnotes or endnotes, in the proper format.

You must cite all the sources you use in the proper format.

This paper is due at the start of class on Wednesday, September 13.

Short Essay on a Civil-War Eyewitness Document

In an essay of roughly four double-spaced pages, with citations and bibliography in the proper format, analyze a theme in a narrative, diary, or set of letters written by an eyewitness to the U.S. Civil War. That person may have been an American or a foreign visitor; a general or an ordinary soldier; a participant in political and diplomatic affairs in the US or Confederate capital, or in nursing or civilian mobilization; or in fact anyone, North or South, free or enslaved, who experienced the war years on the battlefield or home front.

You will most likely want to focus on one source or even part of one large source. But if you wish to use short accounts, such as letters to Abraham Lincoln reprinted in Lincoln’s Mailbag, or editorials in the New York Tribune, you will wish to draw on more than one. Your bibliography may well only list one source—if so, that’s fine! No secondary reading is required.

NOTE: I am willing to entertain proposals for less traditional “accounts,” such as songs, photographs, poems, plantation ledger books, or works of fiction. But all these are tricky in different ways, so you must do the legwork, discuss this with me, and get permission in advance. Also, be cautious and attentive if you are using sources that were written after the war ended, even as early as 1866.

Due at the start of class on October 25. Be prepared for in-class comparison of findings.

Printed Sources

A good starting point is the Vassar Library catalogue under the following subject headings:

United States History Civil War 1861-1865 Sources (22 entries)

United States History Civil War 1861-1865 Personal Narratives (111 entries); see also

subsequent entries for Personal Narratives, Confederate (82), Jewish (3), etc.

You may also want to browse The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries, an online resource available through the library catalogue. The following printed sources have been placed on reserve, so that a number of students can access them for research:

Garold L. Cole, Civil War Eyewitnesses: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles (two

volumes, one covering material published 1955-1986, and one 1986-1996)

Ira Berlin, ed., Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation (four volumes)

Microfilm Sources

You may find useful materials in such collections as Southern Women and their Families in the 19^th Century (Microfilm 943 with text guide) and the massive Records of Ante-bellum Southern Plantations (Microfilm 929 with text guide).

Online Sources

There are useful sources at the UNC site Documenting the American South, http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/texts.html, and other high-quality online sites like Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War, ttp://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/

As always, take careful note of the provenance of online sources.

History 276 Final Research Paper

Your assignment is to write a 10- to 12-page research paper analyzing some aspect of US history between 1830 and 1890. The topic is up to you, but you should keep the following in mind.

1) It is unwise to address a topic such as “Capitalism in America.” Even in a full-length book, Tumult and Silence at Second Creek, Winthrop Jordan uses fragmentary evidence from one alleged slave conspiracy to shed light on slavery, power, violence, humans’ capacity to resist and endure, and many other matters. When you get at the general by way of the particular your argument will gain, rather than lose, significance.

2) No one can write a good research paper with insufficient primary sources. Vassar has rich and extensive sources on 19th-century America but they do not cover every topic. There are some questions NO sources can answer, and some types of evidence (like quantitative data) take years to assemble. Adapt your research to the available primary sources.

3) Historians often make unexpected finds in the archives. This is part of the adventure of our discipline. You may go looking for a plantation owner’s diary and find, instead, slave medical records. Who knew! Be ready to change your outlook and approach.

Suggested Schedule

Before Sept. 18: Browse the syllabus, read ahead if post-Civil War topics interest you, and poke around in the library. Consider various sources. Vassar has a wonderful array of newspapers, including radical journals like The Liberator and The Revolution and indexes to the New York Times and New York Tribune; plus the Congressional Globe); extensive records of Union and Confederate militaries; innumerable volumes of diaries, letters, and memoirs; and journals like Harper’s Weekly. This does not begin to exhaust the possibilities. Focus as quickly as possible, then browse and narrow, read and narrow again. Recognize blind alleys and re-group as necessary. Review historical literature in the field. Schedule time each week to pursue research.

Week of Monday, Sept. 18: Discuss your proposed topic with the instructor in an individual meeting. A sign-up sheet will circulate in class.

At the start of class, Wednesday, Sept. 27: Submit a one- to two-paragraph prospectus plus bibliography. In the prospectus you should outline your topic, the questions you intend to ask, and any conclusions or discoveries you have made so far. The bibliography should identify most of the sources you intend to use, including (especially) primary sources.

By Thursday, Nov. 30 at 5 pm (OPTIONAL): Submit a rough draft if you would like me to review it. If you are stuck and have no draft yet, this is an excellent week to stop by for a problem-solving conversation during office hours. (Last week would have been even better!)

Friday, Dec. 8 by 5 pm: Submit your final draft at Swift Hall 35. In the final draft you must provide footnotes or endnotes in the proper format for history, as indicated on the course writing guide. You are also responsible for obtaining and reading Originality and Attribution at Vassar College—available free from the Dean of Studies office if you have lost your copy.