|
HI
3140/AM3361: Natives & Strangers:
Cultural Encounters in the Americas, 1500-1800
Course Unit Director: Dr. Natalie Zacek
University
of Manchester
Department of History/Programme in American Studies
Autumn 2001/Spring 2002
Aims
*To encourage students to gain a
greater knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the history
of the nature and meaning of the wide spectrum of encounters which
took place between Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans in the
era of the European discovery and settlement of the Americas;
*To facilitate students' development
of skills in reading, discussing, and writing about a wide variety
of primary and secondary sources;
*To continue the development of students'
ability to work individually (researching and writing on topics for
essay assessment) and within a group (engaging in discussion with
and making oral and written presentations to seminar groups);
*To promote achievement in the areas
of written and verbal expression, facilitate critical and analytic
thinking, and to deploy evidence in the development of a degree and
style of argumentation commensurate with the level of third-year assessment.
Objectives
By the conclusion of the course,
the student will have demonstrated:
*A knowledge of the history of cultural
exchange in the period between 1500 and 1800;
*A sophisticated understanding of
and familiarity with the interdisciplinary methodology of history
and American studies, and of the use of primary sources in these disciplines;
*An ability to explore and evaluate
the dominant themes of cultural interchange, racial identity, gender
norms, and imperial authority in relation to the history of the Americas
in the period under study, and to develop a fuller understanding of
historiographical controversies;
*A high level of ability in working
effectively at both the individual and the group level, constructing
and sustaining verbal and written arguments to a level appropriate
to third-year undergraduates.
Content
This course examines the many kinds
of encounters which took place between Europeans, Africans, and Native
Americans in North America, the Caribbean, and Mexico in the period
from 1500 to 1800. It examines
the development of new societies in the Americas, the emergence of
a system of slave-based plantation agriculture, and the ways in which
these groups, separately and together, dealt with issues such as gender,
religion, sexuality, labour, material culture, and political change. Although it does not neglect the political
and economic components of European expansion, the course's central
focus will be on the ways in which individuals and groups from varying
racial and ethnic backgrounds encountered and understood one another,
and how they created societies and cultures in the Americas. Among
the topics studied will be the Columbian voyages, the Spanish conquest
of Mexico, the experience of the Middle Passage and slavery among
Africans and African-Americans, the rival Jesuit and Puritan attempts
to evangelise Native Americans, and the phenomenon of Indian capture
of white settlers. Students will work extensively with primary documents
including, but not limited to, slave narratives, Indian captivity
narratives, and missionary accounts in order to gain a thorough understanding
of the commonalities and singularities of these kinds of cultural
exchanges. The course may
also incorporate films such as Sankofa
or Aguirre, The Wrath of God as subjects for
discussion and/or written assignments.
Readings
The basic textbooks for the course
are available for purchase at Blackwell's bookstore in the Precinct
Centre and are on reserve at the JRUL. All other readings will be available as photocopies from the table
outside my office (Room N.2.8) at least one week in advance of each
tutorial.
Teaching method
The course will consist of one fifty-minute
lecture and one fifty-minute tutorial each fortnight of the autumn
and spring terms. Emphasis
will be placed on reading primary and secondary sources in dialogue
with one another, and students will present short papers at some seminars
as bases for discussion. Formative
feedback will be given on oral presentations and written assignments.
The knowledge and understanding gained from the course will
be assessed in a final examination.
Contacting
me
My office is located in Room N.2.8
of the Arts Faculty Building, and my office hours are posted on the
door. You can also contact
me by phone at 275-7073, by e-mail at natalie.a.zacek@man.ac.uk,
or by leaving a notice in my pigeonhole in the American Studies office.
Assessment
As AM 3361: One essay of 3000 words (50%
of overall mark) and one two-hour written examination (50%)
As HI 3140: One essay of 2500 words (33%
of overall mark) and one three-hour written examination (67%).
Course Plan
Date/Week Topic
AUTUMN
TERM
Week
1 (25 Sept) Organisational meeting/introduction
to course
Week
2 (2 Oct)
Europe before Columbus: the idea of the Other
Week 3 (9 Oct) The conquest of Paradise:
the Columbian voyages
Reading: to be assigned
Week 4 (16 Oct) The devastation of Paradise
Reading: B. de Las Casas,
The Devastation of the Indies
Week 5 (23 Oct) The Mexican dream
Reading: Tzvetan Todorov,
The Conquest of America
Week 6 (30 Oct) READING WEEK (no meeting)
Week 7 (6 Nov) Film: Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Week 8 (13 Nov) The Mexican nightmare
Reading: Bernal Diaz, The Conquest of New Spain
Week 9 (20 Nov) Lecture: Set fair for Roanoke: the settlement
of Virginia
Week 10 (27 Nov) Tutorial: John Smith (photocopy)
Week 11 (4 Dec) Lecture: Puritans among the Indians
Week 12 (11 Dec) Tutorial: John Eliot and others (photocopy)
SPRING TERM
Week 1 (29 Jan) Tutorial: Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God
Week 2 (5 Feb) NO
MEETING
Week 3 (12 Feb) Tutorial: A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison
Week 4 (19 Feb) Lecture: Black Robes: The Jesuits in New
France
Week 5 (26 Feb) Tutorial: Jesuit Relations
Week 6 (5 Mar) Lecture: Africans in the European imagination
Reading: Gretchen Gerzina, Black
England; Kim Hall, Things
of Darkness
Week 7 (12 Mar) Tutorial: Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative
Week 8 (19 Mar) Tutorial: S. W. Mintz and R. Price, The
Birth of African-American Culture
Weeks 9-11 EASTER HOLIDAYS (no meetings)
Week 12 (16 Apr) Tutorial: Harriet Jacobs, Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl
Week 13 (23 Apr) Tutorial: G. M. Hall, Africans
in Colonial Louisiana; W. Faulkner, "Red Leaves"
Week 14 (30 Apr) Lecture: White over black?
Reading: Edmund S. Morgan, American
Slavery, American Freedom
Week 15 (7 May) Conclusions
PLEASE
NOTE: On LECTURE weeks, all students will meet in Room A214
from 12PM to 1PM. On TUTORIAL weeks, there will be TWO tutorials, one in S.2.8 on
Mondays from 2PM to 3PM and the other in Room A214 on Tuesdays from
11AM to 12PM.
Books
on reserve
The
following books are on reserve for this class, and will be useful
in preparing your essays and revising for the exam.
ANDERSON,
Karen, Chain Her by One Foot
AXTELL,
James, After Columbus
AXTELL, James, Beyond 1492
AXTELL, James, The European and the Indian
AXTELL, James, The Invasion Within
BOUCHER,
Philip, Cannibal Encounters
BREEN, Timothy, and Stephen Innes, Myne Owne Ground
BROWN, Kathleen M.,
Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs
CERVANTES, Fernando, The Devil in the New World
CLENDINNEN, Inga, Aztecs
CRONON, William, Changes in the Land
DEMOS, John, The Unredeemed Captive
DOWD, Gregory Evans, A Spirited Resistance
DUNN, Richard S., Sugar and Slaves
FREYRE, Gilberto, The Masters and the Slaves
GASPAR, David Barry, Bondmen and Rebels
GOMEZ, Michael, Exchanging Their Country Marks
GRUZINSKI, Serge, The Conquest of Mexico
HALL, Gwendolyn Midlo, Africans in Colonial Louisiana
HANDLER, Jerome, The Unappropriated People
HULME, Peter, Colonial Encounters
HURSTON, Zora Neale, Mules and Men
HURSTON, Zora Neale, Tell My Horse
MERRELL, James, The Indians' New World
MINTZ, Sidney W., and Richard Price, The Birth of
African-American Culture
MORGAN, Philip D., Slave Counterpoint
MULLIN, Michael, Africa in America
NASH, Gary, Forging Freedom
PAGDEN, Anthony, The Fall of Natural Man
SALISBURY, Neal, Manitou and Providence
SOBEL, Mechal, The World They Made Together
SWEET, David, and Gary Nash, Struggle and Survival in Colonial
America
WALLACE, Anthony, The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca
WHITE, Richard, The Middle Ground
WOOD, Peter, Black Majority
|