Preparation for Midterm Exam
20 October 2006
You will have
50 minutes to complete the exam. Bring a
watch.
You may use
one 3x5 index card with prepared notes (yes, both sides).
Blue books
will be provided.
You must
finish the exam. Bring a watch; be aware
of the time. Part I should take 30
minutes (10 minutes per question) and Part II should take 20 minutes.
Part
I: Discussion of Documents (20 point each / 40 points)
You will be given a list of 3 pairs of documents from
which you will choose 2 pairs. For each
pair of documents you must discuss how they (1) relates to one another, and (2)
how the two documents together relate to an important theme of American history
that we have discussed in class.
Example: how do the following two
documents relate to each other and to a larger theme of the course?
The Reverend John Higginson, “New-England’s
“Legal
Constraints on Indentured Servants and Slaves.” (1660-1680)
Documents from The Power of Words that we have covered
in class include:
Chapter 1
Christopher
Columbus, “Letter to the Sovereigns” (1493)
“Images of
Conquest”
Bartolome de las Casas, “A Short Account of
the Destruction of the
Gabriel Sagard, “The Long Journey to the Country of the Hurons” (1632)
Chapter 2
Richard Hakluyt, “The 1586 Voyages” (1586)
John Higginson, “New-England’s
Pond, “Letter to
His Parents” (1631)
Chapter 3
John Winthrop,
“A Modell of Christian Charity” (1630)
“The Lawes and Liberties of
“The Oath of a
Freeman” (1634)
John Winthrop,
“Little Speech” (1645)
Chapter 4
Captain John
Smith, “The Generall Historie
of
William Strachey (ed), “Lawes Divine, Morall, and Martiall, etc” (1621)
John Hammond,
“Leah and Rachell, or the Two Fruitfull
Sisters of
“Legal
Constraints on Indentured Servants and Slaves” (1660-80)
“A Mutiny of the
Servants” (1661)
Chapter 5
William Eddis, “Letters from
“Provincial
Accounts of the War for Empire” (1755-8)
Alexander
Hamilton, “Itinerarium: Being a Narrative of Journey”
(1744)
Benjamin
Franklin, “A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among
the British Plantations in
Gilbert Tennent, “The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry” (1741)
Charles Woodmason, “People’s Brains are Turn’d
and Bewilder’d” (1768/9)
Nathan Cole,
“Spiritual Travels” (1740)
Chapter 6
J. Hector St.
John Crévecoeur, “What Is an American?” (1782)
Benjamin
Franklin, “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of
Countries, &c.” (1751)
James Otis, “The
Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved” (1763)
“
“Images of
Rebellion”
“George Robert Twelves Hewes, “A Retrospect of
the
Petition of “A
Grate Number of Blackes of the Province” to Governor
Thomas Gage and the
Abigail and John
Adams “Rights of Women in an
“Peter Oliver, “Origin
and Progress of the American Rebellion (1781)
Thomas
Jefferson, “Original Rough Draught of the Declaration of
Chapter 7
Marquis de Chastelllux, “Travels in
Resolution of a
Articles of Confederation (1777)
Henry Knox,
Letter to George Washington (1786)
James Madison, Federalist Paper #10 (1787)
James Wilson, “Speech
to Convention of
James Winthrop, “To
the People” (1787)
Thomas
Jefferson, Notes on the State of
Part
II: Essays (30 points each / 60 points)
You will be asked to choose 2 out of a list of 3 of the
following questions. You should be able
to make reference to class discussions, documents, and readings in response to
these questions. You must make reference
to at least 3 different sources from the assigned materials.
1.
In
what way can our understanding of Native American cultures prior to the arrival
of European affect our understanding of the course of British colonial and
2.
What
made the British colonization of the
3.
What
caused the European colonization of the
4.
How
did the (1) initial colonization and (2) the development of economies,
societies, and governments in the Northern and Southern British colonies
contrast? To what extent were these differences
the result of local regional differences or differences in motivations for
colonization?
5.
What
factors help explain the development Racism and the institution of slavery in
the British colonies?
6.
In
what ways did both the economic and religious reasons for colonization create
the possibility for women to enjoy relative greater equality in the British
colonies? How that was potential
resisted?
7.
What
made the goals of the colonization of
8.
What
are the connections between the Great Awakening and politics?
9.
How
did people in the British colonies develop a sense of regional identities (on
the one hand) and a collective “national” identity (on the other)?
10. It is conventionally noted that
women in the British colonies enjoyed relative freedoms (during the so-called “golden
age”), yet the Revolution failed to bring equality with men. How and why?
How did the Revolution alter the role of women?
11. To what extent was the Revolution
a “total war,” and how did that affect the course of the war and the nature of
the independent
12. How did the Revolution affect the
realities of life for African-Americans and the debate about Slavery?
13. Why did the British Colonies
revolt? Consider social, political and
economic factors.
14. What was the relationship between
European colonists and the Native Population during the colonial period and the
Revolution?
15. In what ways was the British
colonial experience defined by events outside of the colonies from their
settlement to the Revolution?
16. How (and to what extent) did the
colonists develop an “American” identity that defined them as a whole (rather
than separate colonies).