Week Eleven: Assignment Descriptions and Committee Discussions Now Active

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Break.  With this week, we enter the last weeks of the class, and we again step back in time and we move south to the colonialization of Virginia.  This week, you'll be reading excepts from a diary of a Virginia Planter/Founder of Richmond (1709-1712), a description of Virginia (1649), a letter home from Virginia from an indentured servant (1623), and a ballad from a felon transported to the Virginia colony.

You will be writing a short essay in which you compare the life described by the early colonists to that described by the planter in 1711, and in your committee discussion, you'll be exploring the reasons you might become a planter on a new world.  Finally, you will begin prewriting and taking notes for an essay in which you detail what you have learned in this semester's work in Early American literature.

In this week's reading, I think you'll be surprised at finding the Falls of Richmond the edge of the known, British world and amazed as you read one of the first published descriptions of plans for a British expedition to the South and West of the falls.  Hopefully, over the course of the week, you'll gain some insight into the minds of those who colonized Virginia from Britain and the kind of colony you might expect to find along the James River 40, 65, and 100 years into Virginia's settlement by the British.

In all your reading and thinking, remember that while the British thought of this as a Virgin Land and a wild frontier, this land was already long settled, farmed, and inhabited by those who would be displaced by the British.

As always, write with comments.

Steve    

Possible Extra-Credit Over Thanksgiving.

Below are some extra-credit opportunities you can consider reviewing for extra-credit in Early American Literature.  Remember, to qualify for extra-credit.  You should review the opportunity in your blog, explaining what you learned, connecting what you learned to the time period and literature we are studying, and include pictures of you participating in the opportunity (where appropriate).

1.  Over the remaining weeks of the semester, we will be studying the early colonial period and concentrating much of our reading on British Colonialism in Virginia.  Now is a good time to plan a visit to Henrico, Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, one of the James River plantations, etc.

2. The Smithsonian's American History Museum has an exhibit open on the move west.  In the lobby, there's one of the few surviving Conestoga Wagons--the preferred method of transportation moving west and moving cargo in the Early Republic during westward expansion.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2012/11/going-west-the-american-history-museums-conestoga-wagon-is-a-must-see/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+smithsonianmag%2FAroundTheMall+%28Around+The+Mall+%7C+Smithsonian.com%29

While at the American History Museum, you might go to the presidential exhibit and view the lap desk on which Jefferson composed the draft of the Declaration or go next door to the US Archives to view several of the founding documents in person.  If you go up the hill, to the Jefferson building of the Library of Congress, then you can see what remains of Jefferson's library, that is, the library Jefferson sold to Congress after their library was burned in the War of 1812 and which was the seed of today's Library of Congress. While on the floor for this exhibit, you might walk across to see the first map (1507) which calls the New World "America."

3.  If you would like to stay closer to Richmond, consider taking in the movie, Lincoln, which opens this weekend and taking a tour of Shocoe Bottom.  While there, see where Madison argued the General Assembly to ratify Jefferson's Statue for Religious Freedom, see an early draft of the Declaration (in the Statehouse Jefferson designed), sit in a replica of Henry "Box" Brown's box (on the Canal Walk/Slave Trail under I-95), walk the Slave Trail, and visit the Poe Museum.  All this is within a few blocks of one another, and each can earn you two points extra-credit, that is, with pictures and a review posted to your blog.

4. For those who want to stay in Richmond and don't mind a short drive, consider visit to a slave cemetery and Lumpkin's Jail, St. John's church on Church Hill, Tocahoe Plantation (where Jefferson went to school), the Confederate Whitehorse, etc.

The point is to connect what you are learning via the literature to your daily life and the landscape surrounding you.  In the process, you'll pick up some good Thanksgiving conversation and stories about Richmond and Virginia to share.  You might even be able to turn one of these visits into a family outing 

Regardless, have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Break.

Steve 

PS Legal Stuff:  As always, participating in an extra-credit opportunity is your choice and is not a requirement for successful completion of the course.  The college, VCCS, me, etc. cannot and will not take responsibility for anything which happens to you as a result of taking an extra-credit trip.  These trips are designed to help you supplement your learning in the Early American class and to provide connections which might help the learning stick. I hope they might also make early American literature more fun and demonstrate how the subject remains a part of our daily lives--especially in Richmond and Virginia.

How Saving $2.75 a Day Can Change Your Life, or a Modern Version of Franklin's "A Way to Wealth."

In writing and publishing Poor Richard's Almanac and "The Way to Wealth," Franking introduced the American "common man" to refining the virtues of industry, frugality  and saving.  Yesterday, a modern example of the same rhetoric crossed my inbox.  Follow the link to find a discussion of just how much you pay to borrow $1000, and how rich you can become by saving only $2.75 a day over time.

http://lifehacker.com/5960927/how-saving-275-a-day-can-change-your-life

It's good advice, but--as Farther Abraham says in "The Way to Wealth," I wonder how many will follow the advice.  In any event, it is advice that will greatly profit you and a path to wealth which is within the capability of many college students.

Finally, the article is a point of proof that self-help and the notion of the individual using reason and self-discipline to improve their life did not end with the Enlightenment and the Romantics.  The tradition remains a daily aspect of American culture, and it had its roots in the Founder's generation and--especially--Franklin.

Steve

It is the Great Turkey, Charlie Brown, or the Myths and Facts Surrounding a Pilgrim 1621 "Thanksgiving" Feast

Many of the traditions which have built up around the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving are myths, but there is some truth buried in there.  Follow the conversation and link below to read what are taken to be the only reports of a harvest feast in 1621.

What we are pretty sure of was that the harvest of 1621 produced hope and food for the coming winter.  We have one surviving report of Massasoit--the Wampanoag shaman showing up with a group of Indians and killing some venison to share with the Pilgrams. We are very sure this three day get-together and feasting did not happen on 25 November 1621.  Still, 1621 would be the first time the Pilgrams took in a harvest and felt prepared for winter, and their having enough food (largely Indian Corn and seafood) was largely a result of the help of Indians, like Squanto and Massasoit, who introduced NDN corn, lessons on how to grow NDN crops, and how to harvest the local plenty.

Follow the link below for some of the facts about the history of Thanksgiving: 

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/thanksgiving.php

Steve

Seeing Stephen Spielberg's _Lincoln_ as Early Ame. Extra-Credit.

This week, on 16 November, a new production of the life of Lincoln will open nationwide. It's put together by executive producer, Stephen Spielberg, and the movie was shot this past year in Virginia.  Since you've read Lincoln for our Early American class ("The Gettysburg Address," etc.), and--in particular--you read some of the Enlightenment and Romantic literature surrounding the Abolition of slavery in the United States, I thought I would offer two points extra-credit to those who go to see the film and used it as an opportunity to learn more about the literature and about Antebellum America and Civil War America.

As always, to earn the extra-credit, there should be a photo of you helping to "prove" you went to see the movie, maybe standing in line or getting popcorn.  Also, to earn extra credit, write a short review of the film and how it helped you learn about the Early American time period, the literature we have read, or Lincoln as an author.  Post the image and your review to your blog.

Steve

Week Nine Assignment Descriptions, Reading, and Committee Discussion Threads Are Active.

In today's America, we tend to talk about "the founders" as if they were a single group, ones who shared similar beliefs, similar lifestyles, and a similar vision for America.  As you read last week, politically there were stunningly different visions for America and the United States.  Some Federalist, like Hamilton, didn't want something as foundational as our Bill of Rights to be added to our Constitution.

This week, you will continue reading literature which reveals how fundamentally different various founders and colonies were in their religious beliefs.  You'll find that many (most) of the radical founders--like Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Monroe, etc.--were Deist, and they worked to create a unified society which could accommodate wildly differentiated religious and political belief systems.

This week, you'll have the chance to review the major belief systems in circulation in the late British Colonial period and some of the literature written about religion (and it's place in society) by several of the more influential founders.  You'll also have a chance to find out that anytime someone speaks of "the founders," you should be wary.  Just as there is no one way to be American today, there was no one way to be a member of the founding generation.  Beliefs differed.  What was shared was--in general--an optimism that people could build better lives, that is, if they were left free to do so.  Also shared was the value of bringing together people to benefit from everyone's wisdom

Enjoy, and--as always--contact me with any concerns and questions.

Steve

The Forum is Back Up: Sunday, 6:00 PM, 11 November

After being down for maintenance by Tal.ki for a few hours today, the Committee Forum is back up and running.

Steve

The Committee Forums seem to be down for maintenance.

This morning (Sunday, 11 November) Margaret wrote to let me know the committee forums were offline.

I assume the company who hosts the forum--Tal.ki--has taken some weekend time to do maintenance on their servers, and I am monitoring the situation.  I am hopeful this is very temporary, as the forums were up as of yesterday morning.  If they don't come back up soon, I have a fall back host to put in place.

In the meantime, if you were planning on working on the forum on Sunday, 11 November, please draft initial responses to the forum, so you'll be ready when the forums come back online.

Steve  

Week Eight Assignment Descriptions and Discussions Are Now Active

Week Eight. Looking Back and Looking Forward. The Literature of the Late Colonial and Early Republic.

Overview:

This week, we enter both the final quarter of Early American Literature and the final month of the course.  

We are looking at the literature surrounding the founding of the United States of America, and--this week--we’ll begin to discuss the literature surrounding the British Colonies.  The reading you began two weeks ago, that is, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography laid the groundwork for understanding the literature of the founders and much about the later British colonial period.

Let’s take a moment and reflect on What You Have Learned from Reading Franklin about the Late Colonial and Early Republic periods:

1.  The British colonies brought together in the United States were very different places.  They had different currencies, different assumptions about how religion should be practiced, and even different ideas about what bread should be produced as a staple.

Remember Franklin entering Philadelphia?  He found himself unable to buy the bread he was used to buying in Boston; he ends up asking for a penny’s worth of bread, and he finds that his money will go much further in Pennsylvania--which has more extensive grain production--than it had in Boston.  He ends up with three large loaves of bread and has to give two away--all because things as common as types of bread and money worked differently in Philadelphia than in Boston.  Today, we can drive between Boston and Philadelphia in six hours, but for Franklin and other colonials moving from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to the Colony of Pennsylvania took up to a week and it meant to adjusting to a very different culture.  

2.  The second lesson you can pick up from Franklin is that the colonies needed each other, and they needed some means of coming together and supporting one another.  You might remember that Franklin was responsible for producing the first plan for bringing the colonies together for common defense.  In the process, he published one of the first political cartoons in the British Colonies.  Chances are, you remember this cartoon.

Often, we associate the cartoon, “Join or Die,” with the American Revolution, but Franklin produced it twenty years prior to the Revolution.  He published the cartoon in 1757 in response to an earlier war--The French and Indian War.  The American Revolution wouldn’t begin until the early 1770s.

During the French and Indian War, each colony has its own military.  The point of the cartoon was to remind everyone from the individual colonies that, despite all our differences, we needed each other.  Individually, a superpower--like France--combined with a coalition of Native Nations might easily defeat any one colony fighting alone.  

In fact, the only way that the combination of the French and Indians were finally defeated was when Britain sent troops over to defend the British colonies, who refused--at the time--to adopt Franklin’s plan to come together for mutual defense.  From Early AMerican History, you might remember that George Washington’s first major job was in the French and Indian War.  He led a group of Virginia militia, and the Virginians were soundly defeated.  Trying to stand alone, the Colony of Virginia was not strong enough to fight an European superpower.  

Of course, those living in England resented their taxes being raised to protect far away colonies in America, and those from England lobbied Parliament to tax the colonies for defense.  Eventually, this taxation of the British American Colonies without allowing the colonists representation in Parliament became another stepping stone toward the British Colonies declaring independence and imagining their self as a nation.  

The late colonial period and early Republic were a time of change.  In less than twenty years, France would become the America’s major European allie and the superpower who helped defend the emerging United States, and Britain, who had once defended the disunited colonies against the French, would became the enemy.

3.  The social mobility demonstrated by Franklin was possible and usual only in late colonial America.  You might have noticed that Franklin began his Autobiography by saying his people (his ancestors) were all dyers, that is, craftsmen who produced dye and dyed fabric.  In England and on the Continent, a young man usually entered into the family trade.  In America, things were different, and Franklin goes from being a craftsman--a printer--to being wealthy, to being an inventor, to being a statesman.  

The key insight here is that in late colonial America there was constant demand for workers.  The economy was constantly expanding, so almost any individual could gain relative wealth, that is, if he or she had industry, a certain degree of luck, and was willing to save and work.  Here, you might hear echos of Franklin’s essay, “The Way to Wealth” and from the Autobiography.  Quite literally, Franklin used writing for others and writing about himself to share a new vision of the life of the individual--what we speak about as the American Dream, and this vision was radically different from that practiced for centuries in Europe.  These changes would make many very nervous, and they would look to the stability offered by religion to help them deal with the stress of social change the new world represented.   Others, like Franklin, embraced changes wholeheartedly, and argued even more radical changes were needed to almost every aspect of life, including religion.  Hence, Franklin will argue that the individual could use reason to form a plan to cultivate their own virtue, just as they could cultivate other paths to wealth and happiness.  

This mix of people worried about the pace of change with some wanting to speed it up and others wanting to slow it down was volatile.  Once it was accepted that it was allright for people to read, converse and think for their self, a new tradition began.  People shared reason and followed reasonable “Common Sense.”  Each needed to be convinced that radical social change was good idea, and the literature of late colonial period is one of arguments from visions of how to restore the social order of the mother country to proposing ever greater change based on reason.

Week Eight Assignments will be posted on Wednesday, 7 November.,

As you've found out in reading the Bill of Rights, it's a privilege to vote and participate in the formation of one's government,  but it's a time consuming process.  I am just getting in from my polling place, and I will be a day late posting the Week Eight assignments.

I did, however, want to get you started with one of the reading assignments for the week, namely, Tom Jefferson's First Inaugural Address.  As with so much early American Literature, it has a lot to teach us about how the United States is supposed to work, and this short speech speaks to how we put divisive campaigns behind us and get back to the business of building a free society together.  In particular, pay attention to the following passage.  A link to the whole speech follows the passage:

"During the contest of opinion through which we have passed the animation of discussions and of exertions has sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions

." [Highlight is mine.]

Jefferson presented this speech after one of the most divisive campaigns in US history.  

It was the election that would result in Adams and Jefferson not speaking for a decade and in the elected VP--Burr--fighting a dual with Alexander Hamilton, the leader of the opposition. Adams, against whom both Burr and Jefferson ran, refused to attend Jefferson's inaugural; but, remember, Adam's had been Jefferson's mentor.  It was Adam's who nominated Jefferson to the Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence. 1800, much more so that the election of 2012, was divisive, and the lesson Jefferson reminded everyone of during his inaugural remains essential to the health of the nation today.  After voting, it's the job of each citizen to "unite with one heart and one mind."  He reminds us that those with differing opinions differ.  This is one of the prices to be paid for a free society and free speech, but--ultimately--we return to harmony and the business of running the republic.  

Here's the link to the rest of the speech:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YczcGZV7JxanZ9sJV6p4MNKui-8Pydk-2UvzZkigzQA/edit

Steve

Ben Franklin, Satire, Wit, and Daylight Savings

This weekend, we fall back an hour as Daylight Savings ends.  Ben Franklin often gets blamed for Daylight Savings, here's the real story.

Poor Ben gets credited with many inventions, and Daylight Savings is only one of them.  He did discuss the savings in candles which could be had by getting up early, but it was in a satire of himself published in his last year as America's Minister to France.  Being Ben, the Satire was both personal aggrandizement -he was a shameless self promoter--and a savvy political move.

Franklin was better known in Europe than any other inventor or America of the age, and he played his fame to the hilt.  Franklin presented Europe with a host of contradictions  ones which became associated with "the American character."  One aspect of the persona he adopted was the Franklin of Paris salon society, who played chess until the wee hours of the morning while discussing philosophy. This Franklin was said to have invented bi-focals so as to keep an eye on the girls across the room and the one next to him without having to change glasses.  Another aspect of the persona Franklin adopted was the character of "Poor Richard," the publisher of almanacs and espouser of the virtues of frugality and industry.  This was the Franklin who dressed in a coon skin cap and dark, plain clothing. (This dress had the effect of making him stand out from the brightly colored, baroque clothing of the Paris Court and salon society.)

In 1784, in a letter published in a Paris newspaper, Franklin wrote a satire in which he suggested the public project of regulating when the population of Paris went to bed and arose.  In the letter,  Franklin satirized himself in both aspects of his European persona, and it's a good example of how Franklin used his fame and humor to gain the public eye and to promote good.  Here's an excerpt from the letter:

"An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the shutters."

"I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o'clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward, too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result."

In the letter, Franklin goes on to calculate the savings in candle wax to be had if all of Paris were to get up with the sun and go to bed earlier.  Reading the letter, I can't help but think of George Burns as Franklin delivering it.  

Most don't understand Franklin's humor and just how fine a writer he was, and I have to tell you, humor if fun to teach.

The moral: you can't blame Franklin for Daylight Savings.  Blame bad readers of satire, who took his modest proposal more seriously than he intended.

Here's a link to Franklin's piece, which was published in a newspaper in Paris:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S42UD3eCKjrQfTwaJQQmaZOamYPY7q-KtI030Z-tyKA/edit 

Steve

A Deal on Tickets to the Poe Museum

Tiffany, from the New York Committee of Correspondence, wrote last night.  She noticed a LivingSocial deal on tickets to the Poe Museum (link below).  The Poe Museum is of the possibilities for an extra-credit field trip. Among other things, it has a model of the city of Richmond during Poe's day. It's also a good choice for a crisp, fall day just after Halloween.  Below find the details Tiffany shared.  (BTW, her efforts to help all our learning gained her some extra-credit.) This weekend, you might also find me down on the Bottom, taking a canal cruise, walking the slave trail, or going up the hill from the Poe Museum to visit St. John's Church (where Patrick Henry gave the "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death" speech).  Each of these activities can earn you extra-credit.  Just take pictures of you there, and write a review post to the blog, where you connect what you did to what you've read and learned in class and through the reading.

From Tiffany:  "The Poe Museum is offering two Kids' tickets at $5 and two Adult tickets $6. I think it's a great deal if someone was thinking about doing extra credit and wanting to take their children with them. Here is the link to the deal:

http://www.livingsocial.com/cities/77-richmond/deals/476644-two-kids-5-or-two-adult-6-museum-tickets.

1914 East Main Street

Richmond, VA 23223

(804) 648-5523

poemuseum.org‎