Set 3: Asnwer all three.

1. DOCUMENT: Christopher Columbus, “Letter to Luis de Sant’ Angel” (1493)
In this letter to one of his leading supporters in the Spanish court, Christopher Columbus describes his reaction to the sights of the New World. He is describing the island of Hispaniola, present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. QUESTIONS: According to this letter, what were Columbus’ goals in the New World?  How did the Spanish perceive the Indians in this document?

2. DOCUMENT: Bartolomé de Las Casas, "Of the Island of Hispaniola" (1542)
Bartolomé de Las Casas (1474-1566) was a Spanish missionary and historian.  He was known as the "Apostle of the Indians" for his exposing the European conquerors' brutal treatment of native peoples. QUESTIONS: Does Las Casas’s description of native Americans seem more reliable than the account of early explorers such as Christopher Columbus?  Why or why not?

3.DOCUMENT: "William Bradford on Sickness among the Natives" (1633)
Scholars call the passing of ideas, plants, animals, and diseases between the “Old” and “New” worlds the “Columbian exchange.”  Most devastating for the “Old World” population were new deadly pathogens, to which few Indians were immune.  In this document, William Bradford, a Pilgrim leader of Plymouth Massachusetts, describes the horrific effects of smallpox on New England tribes.  QUESTIONS: Judging from this document, what was the impact of smallpox on the Native Americans? What does William Bradford make of this disease?  What do you think of the effects of these diseases?

Set 4: Answer three of the four.

1. Why did Richard Hakluyt argue that the English should establish colonies?  Did his hopes match later realities?

2. "Virginia, A Troubled Colony, 1622," p. 31-33; "The Experiences of an Indentured Servant, 1623," p. 33-35; John Winthrop [distant ancestor of John Kerry] "Wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, 1630," p. 35-37.  What were some of the fundamental challenges colonists faced in early 17th century North America?  How did they attempt to meet these challenges? 

3. Steven Mintz and Susan Kellog, “The Godly Family in Massachusetts,” p. 39-50.
Why were families so important to the New England Puritans?  How were women and children treated in early Massachusetts?  Did Puritan families always operate according to the laws set up by church and state?  Provide an example to support your argument.

4. Anne Bradstreet, “Two Poems,” p. 50-51.  The term “puritanical” usually describes someone who is rigid, cold, and fanatically religious.  Would you characterize Anne Bradstreet’s poetry as “puritanical”?  Why or why not?  Were Puritans "puritanical" with regard to how they raised their children? (“A Law for ‘the good education of children,’ 1642," p. 51-52; “Monitoring Style and Behavior in Puritan Massachusetts, 1675,” 52-53; “Good Manners for Colonial Children, 1772,” p. 53-55.

Set 5: Answer the following.
 

According to David Hall, why were 19 people hanged in Salem, Massachusetts?  What were the issues that provoked this violent episode?

Set 7: Answer all three questions.

1. Olandah Equiano (Gustavus Vasa), "Voyage from Africa, 1756" 72-73.  Equiano was captured at age 12 in Benin, West Africa, and taken to the West Indies.  His account of the horrendous voyage to the New World inspired abolitionists for generations. Why was Equiano so terrified while aboard the slave ship?  How did the new slaves cope?

2. Gottlieb Mittelberger, "An Immigrant's Journey, 1750." Gottlieb Mittelberger ventured from Germany to Pennsylvania in 1750 on a ship filled mostly with poor immigrants.  They were destined to become indentured servants upon arriving in Philadelphia.  Mittelberger was not one of these.  He taught school and was an organist for three years in the colonies before returning to Germany in 1754.  Do the experiences of the poor passengers aboard differ from the experiences of the newly enslaved Equiano describes?

3. Selection from Jacob Stroyer's My Life in the South. Describe the scene Stroyer observed.  How were the slaves sent to market treated?  What does this document tell us about slavery in North America?

Set 8: Answer all three.

1. How does the film we are watching, Black Robe, match what Father Ragueneau describes in this letter?  Does the movie seem to accurately depict the setting in New France?  Why or why not?

2. What problems do the Jesuits, and Ragueneau in particular, face in the New World?  How do they meet these challenges?  

3. How would you describe Ragueneau’s relationship with the Huron Indians? 

Set 9: Answer all three.

Pauline Maier, "Boston and New York in the Eighteenth Century," p. 96-106 (CP)
1. Descibe some of the features Boston and New York shared in the 18th century.  What were some of the cultural, social, political, and economic differences between the two port cities?

"Benjamin Franklin's Union Fire Company," p. 106-7; and "Philadelphia," p. 107-8.
2. Judging from these two documents, how did Philadelphia compare to Boston and New York in the 18th century?  What sort of picture do we have of the Quaker city based on the second piece?

"The Scourge of Yellow Fever, Philadelphia, 1793," p. 109-11.
3. In Matthew Carey's account, why did the yellow fever epidemic descend on Philadelphia?  How did public officials deal with the crisis?

1. What are “folkways”?  How does David Hackett Fischer argue that we can better understand American history by looking at British folkways?

2. How did religion influence what Fischer calls the “deathways” of Puritan New England? 

3. What does Fischer mean by “gastronomic Puritanism”?  What does this tell us about early New Englanders?

Answer one of the questions below and read this writing guide for further details.  Make sure to indicate on your paper which question (1 or 2) you answer.

1. Judging from the introduction and conclusion of Gordon Wood’s biography, what are some of the enduring myths concerning Benjamin Franklin? Why do some celebrate and other’s scorn this founding father?

2. What does Gordon Wood mean by the "Americanization" of Benjamin Franklin?

Set 11: Answer any three of the following.

1. T. H. Breen writes that “common goods once spoke to power” (xii)  Explain what this statement means.

2. What was the colonial “empire of goods” and the “consumer revolution”?  How do these help explain the Revolutionary era?

3. How did Americans in the 1770s bridge their many differences to fight in a common cause?

4. Why is Breen critical of the ideological interpretation of the American Revolution? (8-10)

5. What was the “hospitable consumer”?

Set 12: Answer three of the five below.

1. Describe the events that John Dickson wrote about in April 1775.  What questions did these events bring to Dickson’s mind?

2. How does Peter Oliver’s account contrast with that of Dickson?  What explains this marked difference?  How did Oliver depict leading American patriots?

3. According to the letter to the Virginia Gazette, why was Lord Dumore filled with “malice and treachery”? (81)  In the correspondent’s opinion, why did Dunmore issue his proclamation? In what sense might this document complicate a traditional view of the American Revolution? 

4. Describe how British authorities treated Jabez Fitch.  What is Fitch’s opinion of Hessian troops?

5. Why did the Whig in the final document think it necessary to deal harshly with Tories? Was banishment the best course?

Set 13: Answer both questions.

1. “Remember the Ladies: Abigail and John Adams Exchange Views, 1776”
In March, 1776, Abigail Adams asked her husband, John, to make sure the new nation’s laws would protect wives against the “natural tyranny” of their spouses. Why did Abigail plead this case? How does John Adams, who would become the second president of the United States, respond to her request?

2. “Travails of a Loyalist Wife and Mother, 1777"
This is a letter by Catherine Van Cortlandt, one of the 80,000 Tories, or those loyal to Britain, who would flee to safety. At the time Catherine Cortlandt wrote this letter to her husband, she and her children were trying to reach the Tory stronghold of New York. The Cortlandts, like many other families, did not support the cause of Revolution, and allied themselves with Britain. Many Patriots despised the British and their American allies for abridging colonists’ rights and levying what they considered to be unfair taxes on Americans. After reading this letter, do you think it is appropriate to describe the Cortlandts as traitors

Set 14: Answer all four.

1. Why is it so difficult for historians to understand Thomas Jefferson?  Why did his contemporaries, like historians, find so much about him to be contradictory and incongruous?

2. Was Jefferson in any sense like his older contemporary, Benjamin Franklin? 

3. How did Jefferson compare Americans with the French?  What did that comparison mean to him?

4. Why did Jefferson oppose political parties, at least in principle, and challenge the Bank of the United States?