Office hours rescheduled Friday 11/30

I have a family commitment Friday afternoon, so office hours that day will be 10:30AM-12:30PM instead of the usual 2-5PM.

Megan's Discussion Questions

For this week please read Charlotte Temple and remember to bring the novel to class!! I would like you to think about the impact of this book on early American culture, particularly young readers. Why was this book and other sentimental novels so popular? Do these novels have more than entertainment value? How are these sources revealing for historians?

Honors section discussion question for 11/29/07

As you were warned this morning, we will be discussing the sentimental novels on Thursday. Please have Charlotte Temple and one of the others read or at least looked at by then. What I would like you to consider is the value of novels like this as historical sources.
Why were books like this (especially Charlotte Temple) such a hot sellers in the Early American Republic? In what ways did the novels' themes seem to resonate with the social experience of young American readers in this period? Could such novels have actually influenced people's thinking, as some historians have suggested? How?

You don't have to answer every question above, but please answer some of them as substantively as you can.

Jonathan's Discussion Questions for Nov. 29/30

This week we will be discussing the sentimental novels and Charlotte Temple in particular. Here are a few things to ponder before our meeting and to respond to on this blog. Who was the author's intended audience? Does the novel have a purpose beyond entertainment? What does the novel tell us about the history of early America? And is a novel a valid historical source?

Sarah Haskins' Discussion Question 11/27-11/30

Remember to have read Charlotte Temple for this week's discussion. There will be a quiz over the book and be sure to bring questions about the next paper to class as well.

Compare the experiences of Charlotte Temple and the purpose of the author Susanna Rowson with the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson we read earlier this semester. What are their similarities and differences and how can you account for these? Some themes to think about might be: experiences of women in early America (account for different time periods), role of religion or "morality," theme of women in danger, "moral" of the narrative, etc. Be creative with this--I'm not necessarily looking for a specific answer. I just want you to think about how the American experience had (or had not) changed from King Philip's War to Revolutionary America.

Order of last lectures

I am having to prioritize these last lectures, a process that includes changing the order a bit. On Thursday, Nov. 29, we will skip ahead to the lecture (and readings) labeled "Sentimental Journey: Economic Change and the New Middle Class." This will be good background for those writing papers on Charlotte Temple and the other novels. Next Tuesday, Dec. 4, we will double back to "The Jeffersonian Experiment" and "The Cotton Kingdom" in an abbreviated form, then do as much of the other lectures as we have time for on the last lecture day, Dec. 6. I will issue a term sheet for the final next Friday (Dec. 7) once I see how far we get.

"Fathers of Their Country" lecture outline

As I have said in class a couple of times, the remaining lectures are going to leave out quite a lot. In this next section, for instance, we will be leaving out a lot of the details of Thomas Jefferson's and Alexander Hamilton's differences with each other. That and a lot more can be found in the reading, of course, but also in the full "Fathers of Their Country" presentation from last semester. Use that until I get the shorter outline for this year up, which I may not able to do for a few days.

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Megan Boccardi's Discussion Questions

Please continue reading Charlotte Temple and the other novels over the break. We will discuss these texts after the break. For this week please take a look at the Constitution, the debate over the Bank of the US by Jefferson and Hamiliton, the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves.

After reading these documents, please think about the Constitution and its impact on post-Revolutionary America. What role did the document play in shaping the relationship between the government and the people? How do debates over the national bank and the Alien and Sedition Acts continue the debate over the future of the nation? What role does intepretation play in these debates? Can we still see these debates in today’s society?

Honors section discussion question for 11/15: Part 1

The week after Thanksgiving we will be discussing Charlotte Temple and the other sentimental novels, so be warned. This week let's think about the Constitution. I know that kids today can't enough of the Constitution. Given the accidental free week off you guys got last week, I am going to ask two questions (in two posts), and I would like you to answer both online.

Question 1: What relationship does the Constitution have to the ideals of the Revolution as embodied in such documents as Common Sense, the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776: fulfillment, advance, or regression/counterrevolution? In other words, did the Constitution try to take the Revolution back?

Honors section discussion question for 11/15: Part 2

Question 2: Check the textbook for background on Alexander Hamilton's financial system and then read Thomas Jefferson's attack on the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States and Alexander Hamilton's defense of the constitutionality of the B.U.S. Explaining the two positions in your own words, who do you think had the better of the argument?

Sarah Haskins' Discussion Questions for 11/13-11/16

NOTE: We will be discussing and having a quiz over Charlotte Temple the section after Thanksgiving. For this week, we will discuss primary source documents from the online reader, including the debate over the Bank of the US (Jefferson and Hamilton's responses), the Alien Act, the Sedition Act, and the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. That makes quite a few documents, but they are all fairly brief.

Discussion Prompt: What exactly is at the root of the debate over the Alien and Sedition Acts and the National Bank? What are the positions of the debate and how can you best describe the nature of the conflict? Finally, in what ways are these political ideas and conflicts over the role and function of government still present today? You may wish to read in the text for background information on the political divisions and conflicts of this period to help in your analysis of the primary documents.

Jonathan's Discussion Questions for Nov. 15/16

Please keep reading Charlotte Temple and the other novels as you have time. We will discuss those works after Thanksgiving break. For this week, please read the U.S. Constitution, which can be found on the online reader or at the end of the textbook. Also take a look at Jefferson's Attack on the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States and Alexander Hamilton's Defense of the Constitutionality of the B.U.S. also to be found on the online reader. After reading the Constitution, do you think it an affirmation of the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence or a step away from them? How do Jefferson's and Hamilton's approach to Constitutional interpretation differ? Does it matter how you interpret the Constitution in determining whether it is a revolutionary or counter-revolutionary document?

Megan Boccardi's Discussion Sections

For this week please read the Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine's Common Sense from the on-line reader. Consider the purpose of these documents. How do they expand the rights of the individual? Why do these documents move beyond their purpose? How do these documents assess the relationship between the colonies and Britain?

Sarah Haskins' Discussion Questions 11/6-11/9

For this week's discussion have at least the Declaration of Independence and T. Paine's Common Sense read from the online reader. Even if you have read either before this course, please read them again in light of the themes and topics of this course.

Prompt: Relate the Declaration and Common Sense to John Locke's theories of government (social contract, right of revolution, natural rights, etc.). How are they similar and how do they differ? Why do you think Jefferson and Paine set up their arguments in the way that they did? Did they accurately reflect the conditions of colonial America at the time or were there other reasons for their arguments?

Paper questions on William Wells Brown, "Clotel; or the President's Daughter"

Here are some paper questions relating to William Wells Brown's Clotel or The President's Daughter, or in some cases, the appended comments. By the way, your reading of the novel will be greatly facilitated and enriched by first reading up on the Sally Hemings-Thomas Jefferson controversy, which is best done on the Monticello web site:

• What liberties did Williams Wells Brown take in fictionalizing the story of Thomas Jefferson and the Hemings family? What elements seem to come from Brown's own life and from the political purposes of the book?
• Clotel is generally considered the first known novel by an African American. Review and analyze it in that context. How did Brown's book reflect the experience and concerns of his generation of African Americans?
  
• Compare and contrast Clotel with another more popular early American novel: Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple or Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
  
• Analyze Clotel as a contribution to the abolitionists' political campaign against slavery. What particular abolitionist themes, arguments, and tactics does the book embrace, and which ones does it reject?
  
• Drawing on the rest of the course materials and the documents included with Clotel, give your own reasoned and well-documented view of Thomas Jefferson's place in American history. Does Jefferson deserve his reputation as a hero in the cause of liberty, was he a fraud who should be removed from our national pedestal, or somewhere in between?
  
• Taking Frederick Douglass's speech "What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?" (beginning on page 253 of "Clotel") as your starting point, think about how you would explain early U.S. history (1774-1860) to an African American child. Was Douglass's approach the best and most accurate way for African Americans to think of this period? Why or why not? What alternatives would you suggest?

Please note: each bullet point is meant as a separate alternative paper topic.

Jonathan's Discussion Questions Nov. 8/9

Please re-read the Declaration of Independence, which can be found on the online reader or in the Enlightenment reader or in the back of the textbook. If the purpose of this document was to simply state the reasons for American separation from Britain, why did Jefferson feel the need to use language referring to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"? Also read Thomas Paine's Common Sense, to be found on the online reader. Was his assessment of the situation between the colonies and Britain accurate? Why or why not?

Paper question on Sentimental Novels (Rowson & Brown/Foster)

The second round of papers are due one month from today, so it is time to get a new round of topics out. Here is the assignment if you choose to write on the sentimental novels. Another set of questions on slavery (using Clotel and the included documents) will follow soon:

Read Susannah Rowson's Charlotte Temple (the sequel Lucy Temple, is optional) and either The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown or The Coquette by Hannah Foster. Compare and contrast Charlotte Temple and the other novel. Then answer the following questions:

• Why were books like this (especially Charlotte Temple) such a hot sellers in the Early American Republic? In what ways did the novels' themes seem to resonate with the social experience of young American readers in this period? AND/OR
  
• We will be discussing the greatly elevated moral and cultural standing American women enjoyed in the wake of the Revolution, along with much greater access to basic education. Susanna Rowson was a great beneficiary participant in these trends. Do sentimental novels reflect that in any way? Can it reasonably be given any sort of feminist or pro-female reading, despite the fact that the heroines of these novels almost always die?