Summary of Year I History Content: A Call to Freedom, 1492-1775
- Consider the European Age of Exploration and Columbus' search for the Indies and examine the first European encounter with Native Americans.
- Examine the failure of the Jamestown colony, and the introduction of slavery.
- Discuss arrival of the pilgrims and founding of Plymouth Plantation. Content also includes a discussion about hard times endured by the pilgrims, the first Thanksgiving, contacts with Native Americans, and the arrival of the Puritans.
- Explore the origins of American democracy in New England. Other topics addressed in this historical period include a discussion of colonial legislatures (the Virginia House of Burgesses, Williamsburg, VA) and the prevalence of a slave economy.
- Discuss the Proclamation of 1763 and the "fencing in" of the colonies and consider America's position in the British Empire after that date.
- Discuss opposition to the Stamp Act, the events surrounding the Boston Tea Party, and the call to freedom that issues from events in Lexington and Concord.
Featured documents: The Mayflower Compact, Anne Hutchinson's letter, and the proclamation of the Stamp Act Congress.
Reading for this year's summer institute will include Envisioning America: English Plans for the Colonization of North America, 1580-1640, edited by Peter C. Mancall; The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America, edited by Colin G. Calloway; How Did American Slavery Begin? edited by Edward Countryman.
