Topics
1. Ancient Africa, Europe, and America Essay Question:
This course began with an exploration of African, Native American, and European cultures. Why is it important for courses in U.S. history to begin here? How does studying the histories of these three parts of the world help you to understand their later contributions to American history?
Considerations:
- origins of humans in Africa
- the rich cultures of Africa and early North America
- religious, political, and economic changes in early modem Europe - the long-term impact of the Columbian Exchange
2. Colonization in Early America Essay Question:
Although ultimately part of a common colonial system, early English settlements in the Chesapeake region were significantly different from those of Puritan New England. What features distinguished settlements in these two regions during the seventeenth century, what did they have in common, and what was the nature of the
I relationship between them?
Considerations:
1-environmental characteristics, motivations for settlement, and economic differences I-social patterns and changes in population
1-the character of village life and religious beliefs
-relationships with Native Americans
-the beginnings of slavery
3. Eighteenth-Century Colonial Society
Essay Question:
Much more than a religious revival, the Great Awakening influenced patterns of thought and behavior among many different groups in colonial America, often in unintended ways. Discuss the social and political effects of the Great Awakening, including its impact in urban New England, in the rural South, and among both white and black populations.
Considerations:
-the growth of thoughts and behaviors that threatened established authority
-the ability of the Great Awakening to cross regional, racial, and class divisions
-the different ways in which the religious revival was experienced by different groups -the relationship of the Great Awakening to the Enlightenment