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Academic Year 2003/2004
The New England Century: Sin, Superstition, and Society in Early America, 1630-1704
HIST 314 FA
This seminar offers an alternative portrait of early New England, from the settlement of Massachusetts Bay in 1629 to the Deerfield Massacre of 1704. The course will be concerned to explode popular myths about New
England's
first settlers as stern prudes dressed in black and white. Among the topics to be explored: art and architecture, captivity, crime, environmental history, family life, Indian-white relations, religion, sex, and
witchcraft.
There will be at least one film screening and two field trips - one to the Yale University Art Gallery and a second to the Mashantuckett Pequot Museum.
MAJOR READINGS
Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, SALEM POSSESSED: THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF WITCHCRAFT (1974)
William Cronon, CHANGES IN THE LAND: INDIANS, COLONISTS, AND THE ECOLOGY OF NEW ENGland (1983)
John Demos, THE
UNREDEEMED CAPTIVE: A FAMILY STORY FROM
EARLY AMERICA (1994) COMP., REMARKABLE PROVIDENCES: READINGS ON EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY (1991)
David D. Hall, WORLDS OF WONDER, DAYS OF JUDGMENT: POPULAR RELIGIOUS BELIEF IN EARLY NEW ENGLAnd (1989)
Charles E.
Hambrick-Stowe, THE PRACTICE OF PIETY:
PURITAN DEVOTIONAL DISCIPLINES IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY NEW ENGLAND 1982)
Jane Kamensky, GOVERNING THE TONGUE: THE POLITICS OF SPEECH IN EARLY NEW ENGLAND
Sumner Chilton Powell, PURITAN VILLAGE: THE FORMATION OF A
NEW ENGLAND TOWN (1963)
Laurel
Thatcher Ulrich, GOOD WIVES: IMAGE AND REALITY IN THE LOVES OF WOMEN IN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND, 1650-1750 (1980)
Daniel Vickers, FARMERS AND FISHERMAN: TWO CENTURIES OF WORK IN ESSEX COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, 1630-1850
(1994)
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Each student will write an ungraded, two- to three-page response paper each week and a final essay of twelve to fifteen pages. Topics for the longer paper should be drawn from the lively pages of the Essex County
(Mass.) Court Records, and may include
abortion, adultery, bestiality, drunkenness, guns, homicide, Indians, premartial sex, rape, and trespassing, among others.
COURSE FORMAT:
Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-19-2004
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459