Draft January 13, 2016
English E-189:
The Civil War from Nat Turner to Birth of a Nation
Spring 2016,
John Stauffer, Professor of English and African and African American Studies
Barker Center 267
[email protected]; 617-642-7108; Office Hours: T 2-3 & by appt.
Robert Mann, Teaching Fellow
[email protected]; 917-599-7380; Office Hours: by appt.
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)
Louis Masur, The Civil War: A Concise History (Oxford)
Drew Faust, This Republic of Suffering (Knopf)
David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory (Harvard)
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (Norton)
Coursepack (readings marked *): pick up at The Coop.
2
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
Course Requirements:
Weekly readings; viewing of two weekly lectures posted on the course website
Submission of weekly discussion questions (25%)
- Each Saturday, beginning February 6, students must email Bob by 9am
EST with one or two discussion questions based on the week’s readings and
lectures.
- Note: Students may miss one weekly discussion question 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 Wednesday at 9pm EST to post a
1-2 paragraph response in the discussion forums.
- Note: Students may miss one weekly discussion forum post with no penalty.
Proposal for final research project due Friday, April 8 at 5pm EST (10%)
Research project due Friday, May 6 at 5pm EST (40%)
Final projects 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 5 or more primary and secondary sources.
Course Schedule:
Part One: The Coming of the Civil War
Week One (Jan 25, 27): 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)
Week Two (Feb 1, 3): The Coming Crisis, 1
Monday: Slave Revolts
Wednesday: The 1850s, Part 1
3
Readings: (115pp)
*The Confessions of Nat Turner (15pp)
Begin Reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin (100pp)
Week Three (Feb 8, 10): The Coming Crisis, 2
Monday: The 1850s, Part 2
Wednesday: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1
Readings: (200pp)
Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Week Four (Feb 17): “The Book That Started This Great War,”
Monday: President’s Day (No Class)
Wednesday: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 2
Readings: (100pp)
Finish Uncle Tom’s Cabin (pp.300-408)
Week Five (Feb 22, 24): Classic Literature and the Sectional Crisis
Monday: Whitman’s Utopia
Wednesday: Melville’s Dystopia
Readings: (70pp)
*Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855): “I Sing the Body Electric”;
“A Boston Ballad”; “There Was a Child Went Forth” (13pp)
Herman Melville, Benito Cereno (57pp)
Part II: The Civil War
Week Six (Feb 29, March 2): Secession and Union War (1860-61)
Monday: The Road to Secession
Wednesday: Douglass and Lincoln on a Union War; the Rise of Copperheads
4
Readings: (100pp)
Louis Masur, The Civil War, chs. 1-3 (50pp)
Abraham Lincoln, “House Divided”; “Cooper Union”; “Inaugural Address,”
in Great Speeches (30pp)
*Frederick Douglass, “The Inaugural Address”; “The President and His
Speeches” (10)
*John Brown, “Speech to the Court at His Trial, Nov. 2, 1859 (1p);
“Note to Jailor” (1 p)
*“Henry David Thoreau, “A Plea for Captain John Brown” (10 pp)
Friday March 4, 9:00 – 12:00:
Optional Walking Tour of Civil War Boston, led by Professor Stauffer
and National Park Service Ranger Ryan McNabb.
Meet at St. Gaudens’ Memorial on Boston Common at 9:00 am.
Week Seven (Mar 7, 9): Singing and Fighting for Freedom
Midterm Exam in Sections
Monday: Singing and Fighting for Freedom
Wednesday: An Experiment in Freedom: The Sea Islands (Guest Lecture by Robert
Mann)
Readings: (80 pp)
*Pierce, “The Freedmen at Port Royal” (19 pp)
*Grimke, selections from Journals (10 pp)
*Botume, selections from First Days (10 pp)
*Robert G. Mann, “The ‘Contact’ of Living Souls” (20pp)
*Songs: (3pp)
Anon., “Say Brothers, Will You Meet Us”
Anon., “John Brown’s Body,” 1861
Julia Ward Howe, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” (1862)
Anon., “Dixie,” (1861)
Week Eight (Mar 14, 16): Spring Break
5
Week Nine (Mar 21, 23): Living-Room War, Abolition War
Monday: Civil War as Living Room War
Wednesday: Lincoln and Douglass on an Abolition War
Readings (77pp):
Louis Masur, The Civil War, chs. 4-6, epilogue (50pp)
Frederick Douglass, “A Day for Poetry and Song”; “The Slaveholders’ Rebellion”
(20pp)
Abraham Lincoln, “Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation”; “Final
Emancipation Proclamation,” “Gettysburg Address”; “Second Inaugural,”
in Great Speeches (7pp)
Part III: Reconstruction and Redemption
Week Ten (March 28, 30): The Essence of War, Reconstruction War
Monday: The Work of Death (Guest Lecture by President Drew Faust)
Wednesday: Presidential Reconstruction
Readings (100 pages):
Drew Faust, This Republic of Suffering, chs. 1, 2, 5, epilogue
Week Eleven (April 4, 6): Reconstruction
Project proposal due on April 8 in lecture.
Monday: The Summer of 1865
Wednesday: Congressional Reconstruction
Readings (80 pp):
*Foner and Walker, selections from Proceedings (20 pp)
*Reid, selections from After the War (20 pp)
*Andrews, selections from The South Since the War (20 pp)
*Dennett, selections from The South as it Is (20 pp)
Week Twelve (April 11, 13): Blacks in Office, Remembering the
War, 1
Monday: Reconstruction’s End
Wednesday: Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, 1
6
Readings (105pp):
Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (105 pp)
Week Thirteen (April 18, 20): 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 25, 27): 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 6 at 5:00 p.m.