OBERLIN COLLEGE
Gary Kornblith
Rice 306; x58526
[email protected]
History 263
Spring 2006
Office hours: Tues., 3:00-4:30 p.m.
The American Civil War and Reconstruction
For the official, up-to-date version of this syllabus, go to
http://www.oberlin.edu/history/GJK/H263S06/.
Less than a century after fighting for independence from Great Britain and establishing a federal
republic, Americans turned their firearms on each other in the bloodiest war in the nation's history.
At the end of hostilities, over six hundred thousand soldiers lay dead while approximately four
million former slaves enjoyed legal freedom for the first time. Thereafter Americans struggled to
reorganize their society and redefine their polity in response to the changes wrought by the Civil
War's violence and to the conflicts that endured in peace.
This course focuses on three interrelated subjects: the causes of the Civil War; the dynamics of the
war and emancipation; and the outcomes of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Beyond coverage of
this subject matter, the course is designed to promote three major "student learning objectives":
A grasp of important issues, trends, and controversies in recent scholarship on the Civil War
and Reconstruction.
An understanding of how historians develop interpretations based on research in primary
sources and the application of analytic models.
A capacity to make independent judgments after careful consideration of available evidence,
alternative scholarly interpretations, and an honest reexamination of one's preconceptions
and biases.
Throughout the semester, students are expected to draw their own conclusions about the meaning
and significance of events that continue to provoke popular passions and intellectual argument
more than a century after they occurred.
Format: The class meets regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:20 p.m. and on
Fridays from 2:30 to 4:15 p.m. The format of class sessions varies as indicated on the schedule
below. Attendance at discussion sessions is mandatory, and students are also required to post on
Blackboard before each discussion session.
Evaluation: Students will be graded on the basis of two position papers (2-3 pp.), a research paper
(8-10 pp.), an oral presentation of research findings (10-12 minutes), and class participation,
including Blackboard postings. The standard formula for determining final grades will be 15% for
each position paper, 40% for the research paper, 5% for the oral presentation, and 25% for class
participation. The instructor reserves the right to exercise some discretion in assigning final grades.
Honor Code: All course work is governed by Oberlin's Honor Code. If you have a question about
how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment, you should ask the professor in advance of
the due date.
Purchases: The following books are available for purchase at the Oberlin Bookstore.
William W. Freehling, The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1994)
Eugene D. Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society
of the Slave South, 2nd ed. (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988)
Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the
Civil War, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)
Edward L. Ayers, In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2003)
Steven Hahn, A Nation under Our Feet : Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from
Slavery to the Great Migration (Cambridge: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press, 2003)
Coming of the Civil War
Mon., Feb. 6
Introduction
Wed., Feb. 8
Lecture: Slavery in the Early Republic
Fri., Feb. 10
Discussion: The Founders on Slavery
Thomas Jefferson
Primary sources
Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography (1821),
excerpt [on WWW]
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of
Virginia (1787):
Query 14: "Laws" [on WWW]
Query 18: "Manners" [on WWW]
James Madison, The Debates in the Federal
Convention of 1787, excerpt [on WWW]
William W. Freehling, "The Founding Fathers and
Slavery," American Historical Review 77 (Feb.
1972): 81-93 [in JSTOR]
Freehling,The Reintegration of American History,
12-33 [Note: This is a revised version of
Freehling's 1972 essay; the two versions should
be read and compared.]
Mon., Feb. 13
Lecture: The "Two Civilizations" Debate
Wed., Feb. 15
Lecture: Emergence of Immediate Abolitionism
Fri., Feb. 17
Discussion: The Political Economy of the Old South
Genovese, The Political Economy of Slavery,
3-39, 85-105, 124-179, 243-274
Robert William Fogel, Without Consent or
Contract, 64-113 [on reserve and on ERes]
Oak Alley Plantation
Mon., Feb. 20
Lecture: Sectionalism and the Second Party System
Wed., Feb. 22
Lecture: Political Crisis of the 1850s
First position paper due
Fri., Feb. 24
Discussion: The Republican Party's Appeal
Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, 1-102,
261-317
William E. Gienapp, "The Republican Party and
the Slave Power," in Robert H. Abzug and
Stephen E. Maizlish, eds., New Perspectives on
Race and Slavery in America : Essays in Honor of
Kenneth M. Stampp (Lexington: University Press
of Kentucky, 1986), 51-78 [on reserve and on
ERes]
Republican Campaign Poster 1856
Mon., Feb. 27
Lecture: A House Dividing
Wed., Mar. 1
Discussion: The Emergence of Abraham Lincoln
Eulogy on Henry Clay (1852) [on WWW]
House Divided Speech (1858) [on WWW]
First Lincoln-Douglas Debate (1858) [on WWW]
Cooper Union Address (1860) [on WWW]
Abraham Lincoln
Thur., Mar. 2
Special lecture by William W. Freehling: "Did
Personality Defects Help Cause the Civil War?
Alexander Stephens, James Henry Hammond, and
the Triumph of Southern Disunion"
8 p.m., Wilder 101
Fri., Mar. 3
Discussion: Dynamics of Secession
Freehling,The Reintegration of American History,
176-219
"Alexander H. Stephen's Unionist Speech,
Wednesday Evening, November 14," in William
W. Freehling and Craig M. Simpson, eds.,
Secession Debated: Georgia's Showdown in 1860
(New York: Oxford University, 1992), 51-79 [on
reserve and on ERes]
James Henry Hammond, Secret and Sacred : The
Diaries of James Henry Hammond, ed. Carol
Bleser (New York: Oxford University Press,
1988), 264-279 [on reserve and on ERes]
Civil War and Emancipation
Mon., Mar. 6
The Outbreak of War
Wed., Mar. 8
Discussion: Middle America Goes to War
First Battle of Bull Run
Ayers, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, xviixxiii, 1-187
Documents on The Valley of the Shadow website
John H. Cochran to His Mother, October 8,
1860
Alex Rives to Alexander H. H. Stuart,
November 20, 1860
J. D. Imboden to John McCue, December 3,
1860
First Battle of Bull Run
John H. Cochran to His Mother, December
11, 1860
Alexander K. McClure to Edward
McPherson, December 14, 1860
Samuel G. Lane to Edward McPherson,
December 14, 1860
John H. Cochran to His Mother, December
21, 1860
Alexander H. H. Stuart to Frances Peyton
Stuart, January 1861
Casper Branner to Father, January 10, 1861
Casper Branner to Father, February 9, 1861
George W. Imboden to John McCue,
February 12, 1861
J. D. Imboden to John McCue, February 24,
1861
John H. Cochran to His Mother, March 3,
1861
James B. McCutchan [?] to Martha, April
17, 1861
James M. Schreckhise to G. T. Tifer, April
20, 1861
Mary A. Smiley to Thomas M. Smiley, April
26, 1861
Mary A. Smiley to Thomas M. Smiley, May
7, 1861
John B. Baldwin to George M. Cochran,
May 12, 1861
Alex Rives to Alexander H. H. Stuart, May
13, 1861
Alex Cressler to Henry Bitner, May 17, 1861
Clinton Hatcher to Mary Anna Sibert, May
18, 1861
Alex Cressler to Henry A. Bitner, May 21,
1861
Mary A. Smiley to Thomas M. Smiley, May
23, 1861
Clinton Hatcher to Mary Anna Sibert, May
29, 1861
Mary A. Smiley to Thomas M. Smiley, May
30, 1861
Fri., Mar. 10
Video: The Civil War, episode 2
Mon., Mar. 13
Lecture: The Transformation of Northern War Aims
Wed., Mar. 15
Lecture: Primary Sources for Research Projects
(meet in Mudd 443)
Fri., Mar. 17
Video: The Civil War, episode 3
Second position paper due
Mon., Mar. 20
Video: The Civil War, episode 5
Wed., Mar. 22
Video: The Civil War, episode 5 (cont.)
Fri., Mar. 24
No class
Sat., Mar. 25
Prospectus due by noon (post on Blackboard)
Spring Break
Mon., Apr. 3
Lecture: Home Fronts, North and South
Wed., Apr. 5
Discussion: The Black Struggle for Liberation
Hahn, Nation under Our Feet, 1-115
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Army Life in a
Black Regiment, chaps. 1, 2, and 12 [on reserve
and on WWW]
Sgt. Major John H. Wilson of the
54th Massachusetts Infantry
Fri., April 7
Reconstruction
Video: Glory
Mon., Apr. 10
Lecture: Wartime Origins of Reconstruction
Wed., Apr. 12
Discussion: Dynamics of Confederate Defeat
Drew Gilpin Faust, "Alters of Sacrifice:
Confederate Women and the Narratives of War,"
Journal of American History 76 (March 1990):
1200-1228 [in JSTOR]
Stephen V. Ash, "Poor Whites in the Occupied
South, 1861-1865," Journal of Southern
History 57 (Feb. 1991): 39-62 [in JSTOR]
Freehling, Reintegration of American History,
220-252
Charleston, South Carolina, early 1865
Fri., Apr. 14
No class
Students are encouraged to work on their research
projects during this class period
Mon., Apr. 17
Lecture: The Radicalization of Reconstuction
Wed., Apr. 19
Discussion: Black Reconstruction
John C. Rodrigue, "Labor Militancy and Black
Grassroots Political Mobilization in the Louisiana
Sugar Region, 1865-1868," Journal of Southern
History 67 (Feb. 2001): 115-142 [on ERes]
Hahn, Nation under Our Feet,116-264
Voting under Reconstruction
Fri., Apr. 21
Video: Long Shadows
Post progress reports by noon.
Mon., Apr. 24
Lecture: The Retreat from Reconstruction
Wed., Apr. 26
Discussion: Assessing the Civil War and
Reconstruction
Abraham Lincoln, "Second Inaugural Address"
(1865)
Hahn, Nation under Our Feet, 265-313 [note
reduction in pages from printed syllabus]
C. Vann Woodward, "The Price of Freedom," in
David G. Sansing, ed., What Was Freedom's
Price? (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press,
1978), 93-113 [on reserve and on ERes]
Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished
Revolution, 1863-1877 (New York: Harper & Row,
1988), 602-612 [on reserve and on ERes]
Fri., Apr. 28
Video: Birth of a Nation
Mon., May 1
Tour of Oberlin's Civil War Monuments
Assemble at front entrance of King at 2:30 pm.
Wed., May 3
Student Presentations
Seth Binder, Devin Myers, Tom Page, John Zaldonis
Fri., May 5
Student Presentations
Ben Bor, Joshua Curtis, Joshua Kingsley, Cyrus
O’Brien, Melisa Olmos
Mon., May 8
Student Presentations
David Banker, Gabe Harkov, Joel Heller, Indra Raj
Wed., May 10
Student Presentations
Evan Paul, Victoria Morris, Alex Shephard, Drew
Zambelli
Fri., May 12
Student Presentations
Rebecca Green, Diana Gurfein, Calvin Kyrkostas, Jake
Watters, Mallary Willatt
Research paper due according to Dean's
interpretation of college rules. Note: Paper will be
accepted by instructor without penalty through May
16.
Tue., May 16
Last date research paper can be accepted by
instructor without official "incomplete."