Colonial America to 1763

New Worlds for All

Dr. Kane

mkane2@albany.edu

Social Science 116 | MWF 12:35 - 1:30 PM

Office Hrs: M 10:20 - 11:20 & F 1:30 - 3:30

Social Science 60S

Wednesday August 30

Coming up

  • make sure you’re signed up for discussion lead/support
  • Academic Honesty on BB - Sept 11
  • attendance policy – 3 days
  • FERPA form
  • Study Abroad Fair LCC Sept 6 11-2
  • Job and Internship Fair SEFCU Arena Sept 13 12-5
  • Community Service Fair LCC Oct 11 10-2

Taylor, Intro; Kelso podcast

  • How does Taylor define early America?
  • Why did Taylor pick his end date(s)?
  • Who is the audience for this book and how do we know?
  • Why does Taylor reject American exceptionalism and teleology?
  • Why does Taylor argue that Native people and enslaved people are central?
  • What does "reading history backwards" mean?

Africa, Europe, and North America - 1450

  1. This group was mainly supported by large scale agriculture, with fields stretching miles around fortified towns. They practiced long distance trade in valuable commodities and worshipped a supreme divine being.
  2. This group was primarily non-urban and was organized according to a strict social hierarchy. Rulers claimed the right to rule by descent from mythical ancestors and favor from a supreme divine being, and competing groups often engaged in small scale violence vying for control of fertile lands.
  3. This group maintained and exported to their trade partners a complex system of banking, savings, and long term loans that form the basis of modern banking. They domesticated many plant species which would become the backbone of the plantation slave economy and lived in villages of extended family clans.

Early Modern vs. Modern

  • higher power and life after death
  • long distance connections
  • land ownership
  • social hierarchy, authority and jurisdiction
  • insider/outsider
  • degrees of unfreedom
  • globalization

what do we mean when we talk about race

  • phenotype
  • Christian/non-Christian
  • civilized/uncivilized
  • kin/foreigner
  • trade partner/hostile

Who's the first?

  • Virginia Dare - Roanoke 1587
  • Martín de Argüelles - St. Augustin 1566
  • "Ode" - Ajacan to NY 1550s?