| Hist 340 |
MICHAEL R. H. SWANSON Ph. D
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| Critical Periods: Colonial America |
OFFICE: Feinstein College 111
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| ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY |
Hours: M, T, Th, F 9:00-10:00
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| CAS 123 |
Or By Appointment
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| M W F 12:00 - 12:55 |
PHONE: (254)-3230
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| Spring, 2001 |
E-mail: mrhs@alpha.rwu.edu
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For Monday, April 2
READ, in Hawke
| Chapter 12, Wonders of the Invisible World |
pp. 157-167
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| Some scholars have talked about the Colonial era as proto-scientific, meaning that the patterns of thinking then set the groundwork for the scientific revolution. How can this relate to "signs, superstitions, and wonders?" Through the search for "causes". Colonists believed nothing happened randomly. So "signs" can be seen as an attempt to make sense of the physical and social universes. We'll discuss this and look also at the witchcraft phenomenon in this class period. |
WEB MATERIALS
Not all the supernatural occurrences were considered demonic, for a discussion of Angels in Colonial America visit the Trouble with Angels by Elizabeth Reis at http://www.common-place.org/vol-01/no-03/reis/For an analysis of Samuel Sewall's part in the Witchcraft Trials and his subsequent apology, visit Confessions of a Harvard-Trained Witch Hunter at http://www.visi.com/~contra_m/cm/features2/cm99_gg_sewall.html
For Wednesday, April 4
Guest Speaker Day. As part of the process by which we are recruiting a new history professor we have invited Mr. John Mackey to campus this Wednesday. Mr. Mackey is completing his doctorate at Boston College, and has taught at Harvard, Suffolk University, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His areas of specialty are Modern Britain/British Empire, European Intellectual and Cultural History, Modern Ireland, and Modern China. I'm happy to have the chance to introduce him to you and vice versa. Following his presentation, please let me know your reactions, and I'll convey them to the Search Committee
For Friday, April 6,
READ, in Reich:
| Chapter 14, "Colonial Commerce" |
pp. 155-165
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| Chapter 15, "Colonial Industry" |
pp. 166-176
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| For most of the early colonial period most colonial Americans participated primarily in a barter economy centered around exchange of crafts and farm materials in formal and informal town markets. Yet as time progressed a more formal commerce developed and, simultaneously, an underground economy including criminal activities like smuggling and piracy. We'll explore a bit of this in this class period. | |
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All Europe was pre-industrial during most of the colonial era, which means that the modern factory as we know it had not been invented. That doesn't mean that there weren't industrial processes in use, including manufacturing of iron and what we might call naval stores (turpentine, rope, sails, and the ships themselves). We'll take a glance at some of the industries developing in the Colonial era, and at the way the Crown and Parliament tried to regulate industries as part of a colonial system called Mercantilism |
WEB MATERIALS
One question which industrialism raised was the degree to which the colonies could produce value added products out of raw materials. A petition to allow semi-manufacturing of Iron can be found at "Reasons for making bar, as well as Pig or Sow-Iron in his Majesty's Plantation," http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1726-1750/ironact/bar.htmSee also, Reason against a general Prohibition of The Iron Manufacture in his Majesty's Plantations (ca.1750) at http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1726-1750/ironact/prohi.htm
For an account of the Iron Works at Saugus, Massachusetts and the process by which it was reconstructed from archaeological remains, visit the National Park Service website at http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/30saugus/30saugus.htm