In 1775, thirteen of Britain’s twenty-six American colonies began an unlikely revolt against the most powerful army in the world. By 1898, the United States had brushed aside European rivals and assumed continental dimensions, announcing itself as an economic, political, and military rival to the great imperial powers of Europe. This course examines the development of the United States from the American Revolution to the Spanish-American war, but challenges simple narratives of triumph or exceptionalism by focusing on the limitations placed on the diverse population of the United States and the very human costs of expansion. Indeed, for a nation “conceived in liberty”, the simple premise that “all men are created equal” proved rather more problematic in practice. How can we explain the effective exile of non-whites from the promises of the Declaration of Independence? Did white Americans view black people and Native Americans as inherently inferior, perhaps even sub-human? Did expansion into the space of the frontier place impossible strains on the political, cultural, and social unity of the new nation? And what impact did race, class, and gender have upon both the politics of the period and the understandings and projections of power in the United States and abroad?

This course explores issues associated with race, space, and power in the United States from the 1770s to the 1890s. Topics include: the American Revolution; race and slavery in the early Republic; America’s unstable position in an “Age of Revolutions”; politics and class divisions; the various plans of the U.S. government for ‘civilizing’ or ‘removing’ Native Americans and free blacks; the influence of racial prejudice on the Mexican-American War and the Civil War; the violence of Reconstruction; western expansion and the rise of the United States as an imperial power.

On successful completion of the module a student will be able to:

Intellectual skills:

• Critically address the history of American expansion on the continent and abroad, examining how this was shaped by and reflected racial, political, and ideological positions.
• Demonstrate an understanding of nineteenth-century debates about race, class, and gender, and identify key historiographical and methodological issues associated with these.
• Acknowledge and explain the varied responses of marginalised groups to aggression and exploitation in the United States and abroad.
• Use evidence and examples to compare the relative merits of historical interpretations on American history in the nineteenth century.

Discipline Specific (including practical) Skills:

• Use and critique a wide range of primary and secondary source material on North American history, engaging in historiographical and methodological debate over the use of this material.
• Apply these skills to the construction and presentation of coherent and articulate work (whether written or oral).
• Compare and contrast source material and place it within a strong historical framework.
• Express their ideas and opinions confidently and clearly in a collaborative learning environment.

Transferable skills:

• Communicate ideas and arguments effectively and accurately, whether in speech or in writing, both individually and in group work.
• Formulate and justify their own arguments and conclusions about a range of issues, making use of evidence and examples to support their views.
• Demonstrate an ability to modify as well as to defend their position.
• Engage with online material and organise their research on virtual learning environments.
• Independently organise study methods and workload.

How the module will be delivered

This course will be taught over two semesters, and a range of teaching methods will be used, comprising a mixture of lectures and seminars.

There will be 20 x 1 hour lectures weekly and 10 x 1 hour seminars fortnightly. The lectures will provide an introductory framework for the topics listed, identifying key issues and offering suggestions for historical, methodological, or historiographical reflection. The seminars will take the form of a guided discussion, allowing for intensive analysis of the topics covered in the reading or issues associated with the lecture. These may include focusing on a particular historical episode or event, examining primary sources, or student led presentations.

Skills that will be practised and developed

While studying this module, students will communicate ideas and arguments in a variety of forms, including oral presentations, group work, and in written form. They will develop critical reading and writing skills as they engage with historical literature, placing this in a historiographical and methodological framework and coming to their own conclusion as to the validity of evidence and material on topics studied. They will, as a consequence, engage with theoretical arguments and apply this in their own work. During seminars students will analyse primary materials, collaborate with their peers to present ideas and arguments, offer presentations, and engage in plenary class discussions.

Assessed coursework - to be agreed with module tutor

Spring term

1. Jacksonian America
2. Arrivals and departures – immigration and colonization
   1. Seminar – Expansion and expulsion
3. Manifest Destiny and the Frontier
4. Slavery, expansion, and empire
   1. Seminar - Texas and the Mexican-American War
5. The 1850s: compromise, conflict, and collapse
6. The Civil War
   1. Seminar – “The fiery trial”: race, abolition, and the Civil War.
7. The ending of the War
8. Reconstruction and Redemption
   1. Seminar - Violence in the postbellum South
9. Indian Wars and the closing of the frontier
10. Expansion abroad – Cuba and the Philippines
    1. Seminar - An imperial power

Introductory and general reading:

• Gordon S. Wood, An Empire of Liberty: a History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. New York; Oxford, 2007.
• Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. New York; Oxford, 2007.
• Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom. New York, 1998.
• Ira Berlin, The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations. London, 2010.
• David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. New York; Oxford 2006.
• Stuart Banner, How the Indians Lost Their Land: Law and Power on the Frontier. Cambridge, Mass., 2005.
• Adam Rothman, Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South. Cambridge, Mass., 2005.
• Lars Schoultz, Beneath the United States: A History of U.S. Policy Toward Latin America. Cambridge, Mass., 1998.
• Steven Hahn, A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles In the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration. Cambridge, Mass., 2003.
• Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution. New York, 1988.

Preliminary primary sources:

• Joseph Galloway, Historical and Political Reflections on the Rise and Progress of the American Rebellion. London, 1780. 112-132
• Thomas Paine, Common Sense. Philadelphia, 1776. 17-34.
• Joseph Galloway, Plan of Union. Philadelphia, 1774.
• Letters from Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Galloway, February 1775.

• The Address and Reasons of Dissent of the Minority of the Convention of Philadelphia to Their Constituents 
• ‘Pennsylvania Packet, December 18, 1787’, in David Wootton, ed., The Essential Federalist and anti-Federalist Papers. Indianapolis, 2003. 3-24.

• David Rice, Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy. Philadelphia, 1792.

• Matthew Carey, Short Account of Algiers. Philadelphia, 1794. 10-18, 40-46
• Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798
• James Madison justifies war with the British, June 1, 1812.
• Tecumseh speaks out against American policy in the Old Northwest, August 20, 1810, in Sean Patrick Adams, ed., The Early American Republic: A Documentary Reader. London, 2009. 43-44.

• James Sullivan, The Path to Riches: An Inquiry into the Origin and Use of Money. Boston, 1792. skim.
• ‘John C. Calhoun Promotes Federal Internal Improvements, February 4, 1817’, in Sean Patrick Adams, ed., The Early American Republic: A Documentary Reader. London, 2009. 67-70.

• Images of Andrew Jackson provided by tutor.

• Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853. Buffalo; London, 1853.
• Advertisement for Slave Sale. Georgia, 1860. Transcript provided by tutor.

• George Bourne, Picture of Slavery in the United States of America. Boston, 1838.
• Thomas L. McKenney to Jeremiah Evarts, May 1st , 1829, in Documents and Proceedings Relating to the Formation and Progress of a Board in the City of New York for the Emigration, Preservation, and Improvement, of the Aborigines of America. New York, 1829, 11-19.
• Andrew Jackson, ‘Indian Removal Act’, 1830.

• American Colonization Society Appeals to Congress, 1820. Provided by tutor.

• William E. Channing, A Letter to the Hon. Henry Clay. Boston, 1837, esp. 23-47.
• ‘The Texas Question’, Democratic Review (New York), April 1844. 423-430; and ‘The Reannexation of Texas’, Democratic Review, July 1844. 11-16. Provided by tutor.
• ‘President Polk’s War Message to Congress, May 11, 1846’, in Sean Patrick Adams, ed., The Early American Republic: A Documentary Reader. London, 2009. 195-199.