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HIST 327 – U.S. Women’s History to 1870
Fall 2007
Jeffrey McClurken
Office:  Monroe 209F
E-mail:  jmcclurk@umw.edu
Office Phone:  x1475
Office Hours:  MWF, 9-10; TR, 1:30-2:30, or by appointment

Course Description
This course is a survey of the history of women in America from the pre-colonial period to 1870.  It examines the significant cultural, economic, and political developments that shaped the lives of American women, but places gender at the center of historical analysis.  The course also stresses the variety of women’s experiences, acknowledging the importance of race, ethnicity, and class in shaping female lives.  We will discuss women’s (political and social) organizations, daily lives, economic roles, and the various ways in which gender roles have been constructed and received.

Course Requirements
Students are expected to attend all lectures, read all assigned texts, participate in class, write two papers (double spaced with standard 1 inch margins, 12 point font), and take an essay-based midterm and final examination.  Papers are collected at the start of class on the day they are due.  Papers are considered late if turned in anytime after they have been collected.  Late papers will be penalized one full letter grade or, after 24 hours, not accepted.

Discussions
Students are expected to attend all weekly class discussions having read the material and having prepared 2-3 questions, comments, or topic suggestions for class debates.  The questions or comments should be posted on the appropriate week of the class wiki with your name at least two hours before class on discussion days (http://mcclurken.umwhistory.org/wiki/index.php?title=Reading_Questions/Comments).  They should be aimed at provoking class discussions on the reading, and should focus on the primary sources.  [Comments on the reading might include (but are not limited to) parallels, problems, factual questions, reminders of past readings, and relevant connections to ideas from other classes or from your own life.]  Weekly discussions will take place on Thursday unless otherwise indicated.  [Since these are intended to help prepare you for class discussion, late questions will not be accepted.]  Class participation includes completion of these questions and actively participating in class discussions.  

Final Grades
Final grades will be determined based on class participation (20%), performance on the first paper (2-3 pages long and worth 15%), on the second paper (7-10 pages and worth 25%) and on the midterm and final exams (20% each).  [Unsatisfactory mid-semester reports will be reported for anyone with a grade of D or below at that time.]

Required Texts
Mary Beth Norton and Ruth Alexander, Major Problems in American Women’s History, 4th ed.
Nancy Woloch, Early American Women: A Documentary History, 1600-1900.
Other readings posted at blackboard.umw.edu or available online at various scholarly websites.

Honor Code
I believe in the Honor Code as an essential, positive component of the Mary Washington experience.  You should know that if you cheat or plagiarize in this class, you will almost certainly fail, and I will take you to the Honor Council, so do not do it.  On the other hand, I also believe that having friends or family read and comment on your writing can be extremely helpful and falls within the bounds of the Honor Code (assuming the writing itself remains yours).  If you have questions about these issues, then you should talk to me sooner rather than later.  

Accommodations
If you receive services through the Office of Disability Services and require accommodations for this class, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss your approved accommodation needs.  Bring your accommodation letter with you to the appointment.  I will hold any information you share with me in the strictest confidence unless you give me permission to do otherwise.  If you need accommodations, (note taking assistance or extended time for tests), please consult with the Office of Disability Services (x1266) about the appropriate documentation of a disability. 
Paper Assignments – Remember, double space with standard 1-inch margins, 12-point font. Citations should be footnotes or endnotes done using the Chicago Manual of Style (15th Edition) or Turabian's newest Guide (7th Edition).  [See also http://www.umw.edu/cas/history/history_department_resourc/quotations_footnotes__endn/citation_guide.php for more details..]  I will look at drafts of papers up until one week before the papers are due (although, of course, I’ll answer questions about the papers after that deadline).  Your name should only be on your title page.

1st paper – DUE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS
Using any two documents from the links below (one from each century or one each from two different locations), compare the experiences of colonial women in different places or times in a 2-3 page paper.  How did gender roles and expectations affect them?  What other factors or characteristics shaped their lives?  How reliable are these sources?
http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/history/usa/americanwomen/sevencent.htm or http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/history/usa/americanwomen/eightcent.htm<br>
Email me which sources you’re using at least one week before the paper is due (September 13).

2nd paper – DUE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS
Find a collection of primary sources written by or about an American woman (or women) during the time span this class covers (on the web or elsewhere).  Get it approved by me by Thursday, October 18.  [Each person must have a different topic and none of them can be the same as the topics from the first paper.]  After your topic is approved, using both primary and secondary sources, write a 7-10 page paper analyzing her (or their) experiences and beliefs, contextualizing her (them) within the context of her (their) time and place.  [e.g., Do these women identify themselves as women?  What are the gender roles that they describe?  How do they seem to perceive those gender roles?  What other factors may have been involved in shaping what was in your sources?  How reliable are these sources?]

By the time you turn in the second paper, you also need to have emailed me a 200-250 word evaluation and summary of the primary source collection(s) used in writing your paper.  This brief piece should succinctly describe the kinds of sources in the collection, the topics covered, and its potential usefulness for college students and scholars.  [I will collect these for an annotated web page of helpful web-based and non-Internet sources on women’s history.]

Starting places on the Web to find primary source collections
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/  -- Library of Congress web site on American Women [See also http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awsearcham.html] 

http://www.umw.edu/library/research/by_subject/womens_studies.php -- UMW Library Guide

http://frank.mtsu.edu/~kmiddlet/history/women.html  -- Collection of links to online Women’s History resources

See also: 
Federal Resources for Education Excellence – A little confusing and some outside scope of the class, but there are good links to resources here.
http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/cfapps/free/displaysearch.cfm?searchword=women

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/Women-Writers.html  

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/writers.html

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/search.php --  History Matters – Search for women

http://www.h-net.org/~women/manuscripts/  -- H-Women list-serve -- online links to collections and catalogs. [Be sure that you have time to access it.]

http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/index.htm -- Some of these materials are available online.


OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT – If you wish, you may create a research-based web site or a series of annotated primary-source-based blog entries (instead of writing the second paper) using the primary source collection(s) you’ve found.  [You would still need to do the summary and evaluation of the primary sources.]  If you’re interested, talk to me as soon as possible.  You must commit to doing a web site by October 18, or I’ll assume you’re doing the written assignment.
Class Schedule and Reading Assignments
Week 1 – beginning Aug. 27
— Introduction and Defining Women’s History
	— Discussion of reading
—	Major Problems (MP), 1-23

Week 2 – beginning Sept. 3 
— Native American Women: Before Contact and Early Interactions
 	— Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 1-24; MP, 24-35; Primary source readings and Ann Marie Plane essay on Blackboard

Email choice of sources for 1st paper by class time on THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

Week 3 – beginning Sept. 10
— Women in Colonial North America, Part 1
	— Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 25-62; Katherine Kish Sklar, “To Use Her as His Wife,” on Blackboard class site

FIRST PAPER DUE THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS

Week 4 – beginning Sept. 17
— Women in Colonial North America, Part 2
 	— Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 98-117; MP, 52-59, 79-90, 97-103

Week 5 – beginning Sept. 24
— The American Revolution: A Revolution in Women’s Rights?
— Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 121-136; MP, 113-119; “Mary Jemison Views the Revolution” at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5826; and, on Blackboard, “Thomas Paine Admits Women Have Some Rights”; “An American Woman Asserts Women's Rights, 1780” 

Week 6 – beginning Oct. 1
— Women in the New Republic
— TUESDAY Discussion of reading
—	Readings from Eve Kornfield, Catherine Scholten on Blackboard
— NO CLASS ON THURSDAY 10/4 -- Study for the midterm


Week 7 – beginning Oct. 8
— MIDTERM EXAM –Tuesday, 10/9 – Bring blue books for test
— “A Midwife’s Tale”
	— Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 62-67; look over Martha Ballard’s whole diary at http://www.dohistory.org/diary/index.html 



Email name and location of primary sources for 2nd paper by class time on Thursday, October 18<br>
Week 8 – beginning Oct. 15
— FALL BREAK – NO CLASS TUESDAY (10/16)
— Women and the Law
— Discussion of reading
		  — Woloch, 70-90; Suzanne Lebsock on single women on Blackboard

Week 9 – beginning Oct. 22
— The Creation of Separate Spheres and the Cult of Domesticity
	— Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 139-184, 187-192, 195-208 

Week 10 – beginning Oct. 29
— Women and Slavery
— NO CLASS THURSDAY, November 1 -- Work on your papers
	— ONLINE Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 211-223, 226-229; MP, 175-179, 181-188

SECOND PAPER DUE THURSDAY, NOV. 8, AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS
[Don’t forget to email me the short summary of primary sources.
	
Week 11 – beginning Nov. 5
— The Experiences of Female Immigrants
	—Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 192-195, 287-293; MP, 232-243
—	Selections from Mary Anne Sadlier’s novel, Bessy Conway at http://people.umw.edu/~jmcclurk/sadlier_links.htm [Preface, Chapters 1, 5, 6, 9-11, 15, 17, 19, 20]

Week 12 – beginning Nov. 12
— Activism and Reform Movements: Temperance, Abolition, and Women’s Rights
	— Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 232-249; MP, 141-166, 188-194

Week 13 – beginning Nov. 19
— The Civil War: Female Gender Roles amid the Chaos
— HAVE A GOOD THANKSGIVING!
	—  NO READING THIS WEEK

Week 14 – beginning Nov. 26
— Dealing with the Impact of the Civil War and Its Aftermath
— Discussion of reading
— Woloch, 257-284; MP, 202-212 – [Read both selections from Mary Livermore.]

Week 15 – beginning Dec. 3
— The Failure of the 14th and 15th Amendments for Women’s Rights
	—  Discussion of reading
—	Woloch, 293-311, 357-374

Exam, Tuesday, December 11—8:30-11:00 a.m.