Schedule

Note: given the financial insecurity of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have tried to keep your costs for course materials to a minimum. With some exceptions, most of the assigned articles, videos, podcasts, etc. are available for free online and there are no required books or textbooks to purchase.

The Present

M., 8/17: Introductions

W., 8/19: The Civil War & Reconstruction in 2020

• Join the Slack workspace for this course using the emailed link, download the Slack app to either your computer or mobile device, set up your profile, and post one message to the #introductions channel.
• Bruce Westrate, “Another Confederate Soldier Falls” National Review (July 17, 2020). [PDF]
• Keisha Blain, “Destroying Confederate monuments isn’t ‘erasing’ history. It’s learning from it.” Washington Post (June 19, 2020). [PDF]
• Caroline Randall Williams, “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument”, New York Times (June 26, 2020). [PDF]
  • Warning: This reading focuses on sexual violence (please skip if needed).
• Explore this 3D model of the Robert E. Lee monument in Richmond, Virginia, made by Terry Kilby. Write down five pieces of graffiti that you find interesting and, if needed, look up what they are referring to.

Slavery and US History

M., 8/24: Slavery’s Origins

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Abby Mullen, “How to Listen to a Podcast for Class”
• Use the strategies from Abby Mullen’s post and listen to: Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, “The Sentence” Uncivil (December 13, 2017).
• P. Gabrielle Foreman, et al. “Writing about Slavery/Teaching About Slavery: This Might Help” community-sourced document.

W., 8/26: King Cotton | Podcasting Workshop

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Listen to ONE of the following podcast episodes:
  • HIST 4212: Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie, “When Cotton Became King” The History of American Slavery podcast (August 24, 2015).
  • HIST 5212: Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, “The Assets” Uncivil podcast (December 20, 2017).
• As you listen to the podcast, take notes on both the content and the structure of the podcast. Use the running time (minutes/seconds) to note things like introductions, music, advertisements, interviews, transitions, etc. Take notes, too, on things like speaking clarity, sound quality, speaking style, etc. What works in this podcast? How would you improve it?
• Download and install Audacity and the LAME .mp3 encoder [update: only Linux computers need to install the LAME .mp3 encoder] on laptop and have it ready for class.
• HIST 5212:
  • Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, “Introduction” in Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, eds. Slavery’s Capitalism: A New History of American Economic Development (2015), 1-27.

M., 8/31: Half Slave, Half Free

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Watch the film: 12 Years a Slave (2013), available to rent/buy on Amazon, Microsoft Store, Google Play, Youtube, iTunes.
  • Warning: 12 Years a Slave is one of the most visceral and realistic depictions of slavery in a major motion picture, and contains graphic scenes of murder, rape, and torture. If you do not wish to watch this content, please email me and we will come up with an alternative reading that still allows you to engage with these topics (ex. the film Harriet (PG-13), selected episodes from Underground, etc.).
• HIST 5212::
  • “Introduction: Mistresses of the Market” from Stephanie Jones-Rogers, They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South (2019), ix-xx.
• Presentation: Lindy

W., 9/2: Sectional Conflict and Western Expansion

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel - include reflections on the process of recording.
• Erica Armstrong Dunbar, She Came to Slay (2019): Introduction (p. xiii-xiv), Part I (p. 3-39), Part II (p. 40-79).
• Listen to the second half (starting at 14:15 min) of Nick Quah’s interview with Catherine Saint Louis: “What Does a Podcast Editor Do?”, Servant of Pod (August 5, 2020).
• Record a 30-second introduction to yourself using Audacity that includes at least one piece of music or sound effect (this can be as silly or as serious as you like), export it as a .MP3 file, and upload it to the #podcasts Slack channel prior to the start of class. The point of this assignment is to practice the mechanics of recording, editing, and exporting audio.
• Presentation: Parker

M., 9/7: No Class, Official Holiday

• Work on Podcast #1 over the long weekend!

W., 9/9: Abolitionism and the 1850s | Introduction to Reacting to the Past

• Class is postponed today. Professor Blevins is participating in the Scholar Strike for Racial Justice, a mass action of higher education professionals protesting racist policing, state violence against communities of color, mass incarceration and other manifestations of racism. Instead of class, I will be holding an open forum for students to discuss these issues on our regular Zoom call. Please see this video and my class-wide email for more information.

Podcast #1 due Friday, September 11th by 11:59PM

Peer Review #1 due Sunday, September 13th by 11:59PM

Reacting to the Past: The Fate of John Brown, 1859

M., 9/14: Abolitionism and the 1850s | Introduction to Reacting to the Past

• Peer Review #1 must be completed by Sunday, September 13th by 11:59PM (sent over Slack DM to the podcast creators + Professor Blevins)
• Read The Fate of John Brown, 1859 Gamebook, Sections 1, 2, 3 (p. 1-20) - see class email for link to reading.

W., 9/16: Set-Up Session

• Read The Fate of John Brown, 1859 Gamebook, Sections 4, 5 and your Role Sheet. Pay particular attention to your goals, when you are required to give your speech, and any special objectives.
• Change your Slack profile to the name of your Role

M., 9/21: Session 1

• Read your assigned Core Texts for your role (see Role Sheet)
• Prepare Session 1 Speeches (see Role Sheet)

W., 9/23: Session 2

• Prepare Session 2 Speeches (see Role Sheet)

Written Reflection for John Brown, 1859 due Friday, September 25th by 11:59PM.

The War

M., 9/28: John Brown, 1859 Debrief | War Begins, 1860-1861

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Watch Ken Burns, The Civil War, Episode 1, segments 1-9 (min. 0:00-10:30) & segment 45 (1:31:00-1:35:00)
• The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) (selections)
• Republican Party Platform (1860)
• Mississippi Ordinance of Secession (1861) (selections)

W., 9/30: Why They Fought | 1861-1862

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Joanna Cohen, “‘You Have No Flag Out Yet?’ Commercial Connections and Patriotic Emotion in the Civil War North”, Journal of the Civil War Era, Volume 9, Number 3, September 2019, pp. 378-409.
• Your goal is to answer the question, “Why did Confederate soldiers fight in the Civil War?” using a single collection of digitized letters exchanged by the Virginian couple Henry and Mary Dedlick. Set a timer for 15 minutes and skim/read as many of their letters as possible while jotting down notes on any clues that might help you answer this question.

M., 10/5: Emancipation: Who Freed the Slaves? | 1862-1863

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• James McPherson, “Who Freed the Slaves?” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Vol. 139, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 1-10.
• Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, “The Raid” (October 4, 2017) from Uncivil podcast.
• “Harriet Tubman Leads an Army of Bad Bitches (ft. Octavia Spencer)” Drunk History (September 23, 2015).
• Presentation: Robin

W., 10/7: Home Fronts

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, “The Ring” (November 9, 2017) from Uncivil podcast.
• Stephanie McCurry, “The Confederacy Was an Antidemocratic, Centralized State”, The Atlantic (June 21, 2020).
• Come to class with two ideas for Podcast #2 and be ready to give a 30-second “elevator pitch” for each of them.

M., 10/12: Turning Points | The Summer of 1863

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Watch film Glory (1989). Available on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft.

W., 10/14: The Wider World of War | 1863-1864

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Layli Long Soldier reading of “38” (poem from her collection WHEREAS) [text of poem]
• Megan Kate Nelson, “Americans Need to Know the Hard Truth About Union Monuments in the West”, The Atlantic (July 10, 2020).
• Come to class with an outline of your podcast and at least two sources.
• HIST 5212:
  • Stacey Smith, “Beyond North and South: Putting the West in the Civil War and Reconstruction” Journal of the Civil War Era (December 2016).
• Presentation: Anna

Podcast #2 Due Sunday, 10/18, by 11:59PM

M., 10/19: Total War | 1864

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, “The Soldiers” (November 1, 2017) from Uncivil podcast.
• Dillon Carroll, “Civil War Soldiers’ Wet Dreams” Nursing Clio (November 1, 2017).
• Watch Ken Burns, The Civil War, Episode 7, Segment 1 (0:10-1:02) & Segment 6 (10:22-14:13)
• Presentation: TJ

Peer Review of Podcast #2 Due Wednesday, October 21st by 2:30PM (start of class)

W., 10/21: Endings | Peer Review Podcast

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Peer Review of Podcast #2
• “The History and Meaning of Juneteenth” interview with Daina Ramey Berry, The Daily podcast (June 19, 2020).

Reconstruction

M., 10/26: A Moment of Possibility

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Caroline E. Janney, “Free to Go Where We Liked: The Army of Northern Virginia after Appomattox” Journal of the Civil War Era (March 2019).
• Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “We Are All Bound Up Together,” speech delivered at the Eleventh National Women’s Rights Convention, May 1, 1866.
• HIST 5212:
  • Carole Emberton, “Unwriting the Freedom Narrative” The Journal of Southern History (May 2016).

W., 10/28: The Second American Revolution

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Watch Part 1, Hour 1 of Reconstruction: America After the Civil War, PBS (2019).

M., 11/2: Revolution and Counterrevolution

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Catherine A. Jones, “The Trials of Mary Booth and the Post–Civil War Incarceration of African American Children”, Journal of the Civil War Era (September 2020).
• Listen to:
  • 14th Amendment by Sarah Kay [transcript]
  • 15th Amendment by Aisha Burns [transcript]
  • 15th Amendment by Nnamdi Ogbonnaya [transcript]
• HIST 5212:
  • Kidada Williams, “Maintaining a Radical Vision of African Americans in the Age of Freedom” Journal of the Civil War Era (March 2017).
• Presentation: Caitlin

W., 11/4: Greater Reconstruction

• Read ONE of the following articles from Adam Arenson and Andrew Greybill, eds. Civil War Wests (assigned in class on Monday) and be prepared to “teach” it to your classmates:
  • Martha Sandweiss, “Still Picture, Moving Stories: Reconstruction Comes to Indian Country” (p. 158–178).
  • Joshua Paddison, “Race, Religion, and Naturalization: How the West Shaped Citizenship Debates in the Reconstruction Congress” (p. 181–201).
  • Virginia Scharff, Broadening the Battlefield: Conflict, Contingency, and the Mystery of Women’s Suffrage in Wyoming, 1869 (p. 202-223)
  • Fay Yarbrough, “’Dis Land Which Jines Dat of Ole Master’s’: The Meaning of Citizenship for the Choctaw Freedpeople” (p. 224-241).
• Graduate:
  • Elliott West, “Reconstructing Race” Western Historical Quarterly (Spring 2003).
  • Optional: Catherine Jones, “Women, Gender, and the Boundaries of Reconstruction,” The Journal of the Civil War Era (March 2018).

M., 11/9: The End of Reconstruction

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, “The Spin” (November 8, 2017) from Uncivil podcast.
• Mildred Lewis Rutherford, “Wrongs of History Righted” (November 13, 1914), p. 3-5, 14-17.
• Come to class with an “elevator pitch” for your final project.
• Presentation: Jeffrey

W., 11/11: Reunion and Memory

• Group A post questions to #discussions channel
• Caroline Janney, “Prologue” in Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation (p. 3-11)
• Watch documentary “Birth of a Movement” (2017) by Susan Gray and Bestor Cram (54 min.)

The Legacy of the Civil War and Reconstruction

M., 11/16: Jim Crow and “Second Reconstruction”

• Group B post questions to #discussions channel
• Vann R. Newkirk II, “The Great Land Theft” The Atlantic (September 2019).

W., 11/18: Reparations

• Groups A AND B post questions to #discussions channel
• Nikole Hannah-Jones, “What is Owed” New York Times Magazine (June 30, 2020).

M., 11/23: No Class, Thanksgiving Break

W., 11/25: No Class, Thanksgiving Break

M., 11/30: Project Presentations

• Prepare a “Work in Progress” of your final project to present in class. You should give a short verbal overview of the topic, demo its format (ex. play a 30-second audio or video clip that you’ve produced, share your screen to show a page from your website, etc.), and discuss challenges or anything you would like feedback on from your classmates.

W., 12/2: Wrap Up

• TBD

Final version of project due Sunday December 6th by 11:59PM.