United States in the World 34:
The Civil War from Nat Turner to Birth of a Nation
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k84477
Spring 2013
Lectures filmed Mondays and Wednesdays, 12:00-1:00, Harvard Hall 202
With
Amanda Claybaugh, Professor of English, Barker Center 271
[email protected]; 617-496-2235; Office Hours: M 2-4
John Stauffer, Professor of English, Barker Center 267
[email protected]; 617-642-7108; Office Hours: T 2-3 & by appt.
Tsione Wolde-Michael, Head Teaching Fellow
[email protected]; Office Hours by appointment
Course description:
This interdisciplinary course examines the American Civil War from Nat Turner’s slave
rebellion in 1831 to the legendary history film, Birth of a Nation (1915), which coincided with
the Jubilee of Appomattox. It changes our understanding of the conflict in three ways. First, by
showing that civil war lasted much longer than the four years from 1861-65: it began with
guerrilla war between masters and slaves, and between Northerners and Southerners in various
states and the U.S. Congress; it evolved into a military war after Fort Sumter; and it became a
terrorist war during and after Reconstruction. Second, by arguing that the Confederacy, in some
sense, won the war: although the Confederacy was destroyed and the Constitution amended, the
former slave owners nonetheless succeeded in creating a new order of black unfreedom. And
third, by putting the war in international context: the United States was far from the only nation
in the western hemisphere to grapple with slavery and abolition, although it was one of the very
few to do so through war.
Throughout the course we explore how the war transformed literature, art, politics,
history, and memory, while also revealing how these cultural forms shaped society and the war
itself. “Readings” range from fiction, film, letters, and speeches to poetry, pamphlets, prints and
photographs, songs, and history.
Required Texts (available at the Coop):
Herman Melville, Bartleby and Benito Cereno (Dover)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Norton Critical)
Abraham Lincoln, Great Speeches (Dover)
*Drew Faust, This Republic of Suffering (Knopf) – *Please note that this text is highly
recommended but optional for the course as only two chapters will be assigned.
David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Harvard)
2
Coursepack (readings marked *): either order online at
http://harvardcoopbooks.bncollege.com or pick up at The Coop.
Optional Text (available at the Coop): D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation, DVD
190 min (A2ZCDS) —film can also be accessed online or during film screening
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (Norton)
Louis Masur, The Civil War: A Concise History (Oxford)
Course Requirements:
Weekly readings; viewing of two weekly lectures posted on the course website
Submission of weekly discussion questions (25%)
-Each Friday, beginning Feb 8, students must post one or two discussion questions based
on the week’s readings and lectures by 10pm EST
Note: Students may miss one weekly discussion question posting with no penalty.
Participation in weekly online discussion forums (25%)
-Each week, discussion prompts will be posted on the course website by Saturday
evening. Students will have until Tuesday at 10pm EST to post a 1-2 paragraph response in the
discussion forums.
Note: Students may miss one weekly discussion forum post with no penalty.
Research project proposal due on April 8 (10%)
Final project due May 3 (40%) can take one of two forms:
1) Creative project (fiction, film, poetry, etc.), including a 3-4 page critical essay
in which you analyze your work within a formal and historical tradition); OR
2) 12-15 page essay, including 7 or more primary and secondary sources.
Course Schedule:
Part One: The Coming of the Civil War
Week One (Jan 28, 30): Introduction
Monday: Reconceptualizing the Civil War
Wednesday: Slavery and Abolition in International Context
Readings: (40pp)
*David Von Drehle, “The Civil War: 1861-2011” (10pp.)
(Also available online at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/
article/0,9171,2063869,00.html)
Blight, Race and Reunion (1-30)
3
Week Two (Feb 4, 6): The Coming Crisis, 1
Monday: Slave Revolts
Wednesday: The 1850s, Part 1
Readings: (58pp)
*The Confessions of Nat Turner (15pp)
Begin Reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Introduction and Chapter 1 (53pp)
Week Three (Feb 11, 13): The Coming Crisis, 2
Monday: The 1850s, Part 2
Wednesday: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1
Readings: (64pp)
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Chapters 4, 8, 17)
Week Four (Feb 20): “The Book That Started This Great War,”
Monday: President’s Day (No Class)
Wednesday: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 2
Readings: (46pp)
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin Chapters 25, 38, 40, 41, 45)
Week Five (Feb 25, 27): Classic Literature and the Sectional Crisis
Monday: Whitman’s Utopia
Wednesday: Melville’s Dystopia
Readings: (57pp)
Herman Melville, Benito Cereno (57pp)
Optional: *Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855): “I Sing the Body Electric”;
“A Boston Ballad”; “There Was a Child Went Forth” (13pp)
Part II: The Civil War
Week Six (March 4, 6): Douglass and Lincoln, On Secession and
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Union War
Monday: Douglass and Lincoln and the Road to Secession
Wednesday: Douglass and Lincoln, On a Union War
Readings: (74pp)
*Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the 4th of July”; “The Doom of the
Black Power”; “The Inaugural Address”; “The President and His
Speeches” (30pp);
*John Parker’s Narrative, in Douglass’ Monthly (5pp)
Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided”; “Cooper Union”; “Inaugural Address,”
in Great Speeches (35pp)
*John Brown, “Speech to the Court at His Trial, Nov. 2, 1859 (2pp);
“Note to Jailor” (2 pp)
Optional:
*Louis Masur, The Civil War, chs. 1-3 (50pp)
*“Henry David Thoreau, “A Plea for Captain John Brown” (10 pp)
*Songs: (3pp)
Anon., “John Brown’s Body,” 1861
Julia Ward Howe, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” (1862)
Anon., “Dixie,” (1861)
Friday March 8, 9:00 – 12:00:
Attendance Optional (please RSVP in advance to professors if you plan to attend):
Walking Tour of Civil War Boston, led by Professors Stauffer and
Claybaugh and National Park Service Ranger Ryan McNabb.
Meet at St. Gaudens’ Memorial on Boston Common at 9:00 am.
Week Seven (Mar 11, 13): Fighting for Freedom
Monday: Fighting
Wednesday: An Experiment in Freedom: The Sea Islands
Readings: (68 pp)
*Pierce, “The Freedmen at Port Royal” (19 pp)
*Grimke, selections from Journals (49 pp)
Optional:
*Towne, selections from Letters and Diary (37 pp)
*Botume, selections from First Days (28 pp)
5
Week Eight (Mar 18, 20): Spring Break
Week Nine (Mar 25, 27): Living-Room War, Abolition War
Monday: Civil War as Living Room War
Wednesday: Lincoln and Douglass, On Abolition War
Readings (50pp):
*Frederick Douglass, “A Day for Poetry and Song”; “The Slaveholders’
Rebellion”; “Men of Color to Arms” (20pp)
Abraham Lincoln, “Message to Congress, Dec 1862”; “Final Emancipation
Proclamation,” “Gettysburg Address”; “Second Inaugural”; “Last Public
Address,” in Great Speeches (30pp)
Optional:
Louis Masur, The Civil War, chs. 4-6, epilogue (50pp)
Part III: Reconstruction and Redemption
Week Ten (April 1, 3): The Nature of War, Reconstruction War
Monday: The Work of Death (Guest Lecture by President Drew Faust)
Wednesday: Presidential Reconstruction
Readings (35-65 pages):
Drew Faust, This Republic of Suffering, chs. 1 and 5
AND/OR
Drew Faust, The Civil War Soldier and the Art of Dying (article available on
JSTOR)
Week Eleven (April 8, 10): Reconstruction
Project proposal due on April 8
Monday: The Summer of 1865
Wednesday: Congressional Reconstruction
Readings (43 pp):
*Foner and Walker, selections from Proceedings (18 pp)
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*Reid, selections from After the War (25 pp)
Optional:
*Andrews, selections from The South Since the War (61 pp)
*Dennett, selections from The South as it Is (35 pp)
Week Twelve (April 15, 17): Blacks in Office, Remembering the
War, 1
Monday: Reconstruction’s End
Wednesday: Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, 1
Readings (41pp):
*De Forest, “The Colored Member” (9 pp)
*Pike, selections from The Prostrate State (15 pp)
*Lynch, selections from Facts of Reconstruction (17 pp)
Optional:
Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (105 pp)
Week Thirteen (April 22, 24): Remembering the War, 2
Monday: The Red Badge of Courage, 2
Wednesday, Birth of a Nation, 1
Readings: (60pp)
D.W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation, DVD (1915)
Blight, Race and Reunion (338-97)
Week Fourteen (April 29, May1): Causes Lost and Won
Monday: Birth of a Nation, 2
Wednesday: Conclusion
Readings: (23pp)
*U.B. Phillips, American Negro Slavery excerpts (10pp); “The Central Theme of
Southern History” (13pp)
Projects due on May 3