Course syllabus for fall 2024:

Welcome video for the course:

 

SESSION 1:  INTRODUCTION, RECONSTRUCTION

PowerPoint File Used in Class:  RECON

 

SESSION 2:  NORTH, SOUTH, AND WEST

Preparatory Reading:  Online Text, Chapter 16 and Chapter 17.  (Note:  The syllabus contains study notes that should be consulted while reading the textbook chapters.)

Primary Documents:

CARL SCHURZ REPORT (1865):  Link. This item and the report by Charles Nordhoff from 1875 were both written by Republicans.  The key difference between these two documents is when they were written.  Many Republicans who favored a strong role for the federal government in controlling the politics of the South in 1865 had changed their views by 1875.  This change worked to the great misfortune of African Americans and civil rights.

CHARLES NORDHOFF REPORT (1875):  nordhoff

FORMER SLAVES IN SEARCH OF SEPARATED FAMILY MEMBERS:  NPR report, February 22, 2017.  The NPR story refers to this website.

RICHARD HENRY PRATT, “KILL THE INDIAN AND SAVE THE MAN” (1892)  Link.   Some parts of American Indian policy in the late nineteenth century were genuinely guided, if misguided, by good intentions, as exemplified by this 1892 speech by Richard Henry Platt, director of the Carlisle School.

ZITKALA-SA, “THE SCHOOL DAYS OF AN INDIAN GIRL” (1900)  Link.  The experience of one of the Indian children in the boarding schools.

INTERIOR SECRETARY DEB HAALAND’S INVESTIGATION (2022)  NPR report, October 17, 2022.  In 2022, President Biden’s secretary of the interior Deb Haaland launched an investigation of abuse in the Indian boarding schools of the twentieth century.  More details can be found by searching online.

PowerPoint Files Used in Class:  RECON, West