Attendance is required.
In this course we will survey the history of the United States from the first contacts among Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in North America through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Lectures and the textbook will provide a broad picture of that history and specific analyses of significant events and people. We will also read and discuss two scholarly essays on topics relating to colonial settlement and the Civil War, and we will read the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Harriet Jacobs. Based on lectures, readings, and discussions, we will construct an understanding of the nation's history and the experiences of its people before 1877. Class meetings will include lecture and some discussion.