Colonial America

New England

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, October 11

coming up

• Argumentation paper Oct 27
• History honors society
• UA Puerto Rico relief: http://www.albany.edu/relief/
• Student Care Services at (518) 442-5501
• http://www.albany.edu/ualbanycares/

coming up

• Friday: Atlantic World & early 18th century connections
• Monday: Lepore

today's class

• fantastic sources & where to find them
• New England is weird!
• cultural background
• war & violence 1634-1676

what is a scholarly source?

• based on primary sources
• cites support for all sources and claims
• peer reviewed - verified by other experts
• specific info & big questions
• google scholar :(

how do you know?

• author's credentials
• provides citations
• who's the publisher?
• who's the audience?
• why is the information presented?

how does history work?

(and who cares?)

• history is a social construct!
• scholars disagree about why & how
• reviews tell you what another scholar thinks
• Taylor & Dr. Kane disagree re: Iroquois
• need to know what happened to evaluate why & how it happened

New England exceptionalism

• American exceptionalism
• family-based immigration, lower mortality rate
• politically & religiously motivated rather than economically
• poverty inhibits spread of slavery, economy dependent on West Indies
• religious rather than economic basis for racialization

Protestant work ethic

• Max Weber, 1904
• fear of unemployment & masterless men
• worldly success a sign of God's favor & predestination
• rejection of deeds as cause of salvation (too Catholic) - instead deeds as evidence of salvation
• civic moral purity prerequisite to Second Coming

family structure & government

• coverture - wife becomes legally part of the husband
• "little commonwealth" - husband head of government
• women as "deputy husbands"
• companionate marriage, bundling & premarital sex

Pequot War - 1634-1638

• Pequots v. Wampanoag + Narragansett + Mohegans + English
• principle currency wampum - colonies dependant on Native allies for food and money
• grave robbing and cash shortage
• English pirate John Stone stole and murdered for wampum
• who has jurisdiction?

Pequot War - 1634-1638

Praying towns

• modeled on Spanish missions
• civility necessary for conversion
• confinement to towns frees up land - precursor to reservations
• "not for the love of God but the love of the place"

King Phillip's War/Metacom's War - 1676

• why did English & Wampanoag seek out alliance?
• why did the English & Wampanoag relationship change over time?

King Phillip's War/Metacom's War - 1676

• Murder of John Sassamon
• three Wampanoag put on trial for death
• Native residents of Natick evacuated to Deer Island
• lessons of Pequot War - total war
• God's favor - for Indians?
• importance of Iroquois allies

the big picture

• inter-colonial conflict requires reliance on Native allies
• economic reliance on plantation slavery in all colonies
• religious & moral overtone to Indian war
• suspicion of all Native people