Multicultural America
Fall 2004

English Composition
mcgray2@mail.uh.edu

Syllabus

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow (1836)
 

Class 1: August 28 – When Worlds Collide

• Get prompt for Multimedia Project 1 – fugitive slave ads

Assignments:

• Read two accounts of the story of Hannah Dustan’s captivity and think about how they differ:
   
  • Cotton Mather ‘s account, “A Notable Exploit: Dux Fæmina Facti” from Magnalia Christa Americana, the Ecclesiastical History of New England (1702)

    The Story of Hannah Dustan – Mather’s version  Scroll down the page to the account given by Mather
     

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story from American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge (1836)

        The Dustan Family Story-- Hawthorne's version

        Illustration from Hawthorne's narrative

• Read two accounts of the story of Mary Martin, executed for murdering her child, and think about how they differ.
  
  
  • Cotton Mather's account from Magnalia Christi Americana
  
  
  • John Winthrop's account from The Journal of John Winthrop (1630 – 1649)   

• Work on fugitive slave ad content for Multimedia Project 1
   

Labor Day: September 6 

 

Class 2: September 11 – The Legacy of Colonial America – Puritanism & Slavery

• Come to class with content for runaway ads project
   
• Work on MM project 1
   
• Get prompt for Essay 1

Class 3: September 18 - Revolutionary America – Gender and Race

• The poetry of  Phillis Wheatley – Read the "Preface," "A Copy of a Letter sent by the Author's Master," "To the Publick," "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty," and "On Being Brought to America." (1773)
   
• Read the Advertisement/Dedication and Letter IX from Letters from an American Farmer (1782), J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur
   
• Read Abigail Adams letters  to her husband and his replies (1776)

Class 4: September 25 – The New Nation - Post Colonial Culture

•  MM project 1 due
   
• ”Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving (1820)
   
• Get prompt for MM project 2  

Class 5: October 2 - Modernizing America

• Work on MM project 2

Class 6: October 9 - History Test – Texas Revolution in History and Memory

• Read one of George Catlin's Letters and Notes (1844)
   
• Read one of the Native American myths from one of the following sites: American Indians and the Natural World; Iroquois Creation Myth; or  Native American Bedtime-Story Collection
   
• Work on Essay 1 – Bring the draft of your introduction to class

Class 7: October 16 – American Expansion and the Far West

• Meet at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston for the George Catlin Exhibit
  
   

Class 8: October 23 – The Slave South

• Essay 1 due

• In-class peer review and check of tech requirements for web projects
   

Class 9: October 30 – Immigration, Reform and the Modernizing North 

• MM project 2 due

• Get prompt for MM project 3

• Get prompt for essay 2

• In-class research and presentations on women's rights issues

Class 10: November 6 – The Civil War

• Discuss common problems on Essay 1

Class 11: November 13 – Reconstruction

• Structural strategies for Essay 2
• In class work on finding primary sources

Class 12: November 20 – The Emergence of a New Industrial Order

• MM project 3 due
• Presentations of Project 3

Thanksgiving:  November 24-28
 

Class 13: December 4 – Last class day – History Test

• Presentations of Project 3

 December 8 – Essay 2 due

Reproduction of The Oxbow:

Cole, Thomas (1801-1848). View from Mount Holyoke, Northhampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm - The Oxbow. 1836. Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1908 (08.228). Online image. 2002-2004. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 23 August 2004.
<www.metmuseum.org>