Course+Readings

**Summer Institute**
Please see Summer Institute Syllabus for course readings. They are listed in advance of each day's session. = = Link for Monday, July 18 session []

= = Complete Modules Course Syllabus is here

__Readings for January 8 Module (MA Archives/Commonwealth Museum)__

 * //U.S. Constitution//**
 * http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html (articles I-VII)**


 * //Bill of Rights//**
 * http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html**


 * //MA Constitution//**
 * http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/Constitution (From Preamble up to articles of amendment)**


 * //Declaration of Independence//**
 * http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html**


 * Foner, Eric. //The Story of American Freedom// (Introduction)**

__**Readings for January 22 & 29: Using Technology in the History Classroom**__


If you do not already have one, please sign up for a free Google account in advance of the session: [|__https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount__]

__Readings for Thursday, February 3 (Westwood High School)__
Historical Thinking Skills Standards

James Otis: Against Writs of Assistance
 * http://www.nhinet.org/ccs/docs/writs.htm**

__Readings for Thursday, February 17 (Westwood High School)__
From Book:** Ann and Henry Hulton’s letters from //Henry Hulton and the American Revolution: An Outsiders View// //Prologue: pgs 13-21;// Ann Hulton letters, 220-223; 226-227; 242; 246-249; 250-251; 255-259; 262-265; 269-272; 274-275; 283-287; 293-294; 296-298; 304-306; 316-318; Henry Hulton letter, 320-322; Ann Hulton 339-340; 344-345

//Skim only:// Pages 107-202 (Henry Hulton’s account of American Revolution)

 article

[|Deb Cunningham's piece on historical empathy]

__Readings for Thursday, March 3 (Westwood High School)__
1. Chapters from Bill Fowler: Mutiny in the Armed Forces and the Newburgh Conspiracy

2. Background on Continental Army from //George Washington's War//

3. As we reference the idea of Human Rights, please read the [|Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)]

__Readings for Thursday, March 17 (Westwood High School)__
Our essential question was: "Why did Samuel Adams react so strongly to Shays's Rebellion"? We will consider the ideas of dissent vs. loyalty in the wake of the Revolution and how for many people the promises of the Revolution were not fulfilled. We will be examining many primary documents and talking about how to use them with students in our pedagogy discussion.
 * //What are we covering?://** We will be looking at the larger picture of Shays's Rebellion (1787) in Massachusetts.

For **background reading**, this is a quick article from the Visions of America textbook that gives a brief overview.

This is a site created in Springfield that has many interesting documents and essays on Shays's Rebelliion: This is the main site: [|Shays's Rebellion Website] Here are a few selected essays that are short and helpful:

=
Essay on Debt in MA []=====

=
Views on the encounter []=====

=
Views of everyday people []=====

Also, this is the text from the Commonwealth Museum/MA State Archives section on Shays's Rebellion

1. Samuel Adams and Shays's Rebellion
 * Readings from Bob Allison:**

2. Documents Relating to Shays's Rebellion

__Readings for Saturday, March 26 (Massachusetts Historical Society)__
[|__Directions to MA Historical Society__]


 * //What are we covering?://** With Barbara Berenson, Senior Attorney of the Supreme Judicial Court of MA and the education staff at the Massachusetts Historical Society, we will be looking at how the language of rights was used by those who sought to end slavery in Massachusetts both before and after the MA Constitution.

1) Pages 29-45 in //The Story of American Freedom (Foner).// **(this is a book you have)**
 * For a solid overview:**

2) The SJC archives has a concise look at the various cases brought before the courts by MA slaves: []

The role of free blacks and slaves in the American Revolution and their petitions to end slavery. 3) Excerpt from //The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770-1800 (Kaplan)//

Our Questions:
What are the primary purposes of government? What happens when these purposes clash?

Where do our leaders, both today and in the founding era, get their ideas about government? How do these views and beliefs shape our understanding of the Constitution? Our expectations of our government? Of one another as citizens?

__**For discussion in class:**__
1) James Wilson speech, October 6, 1787 []

**Some background:**
The Pennsylvania State Legislature was in session when the new Constitution was proposed, so the ratification campaign proceeded immediately, and a large public meeting held October 6, 1787, in the State House (Independence Hall) yard to nominate delegates to the next Pennsylvania Legislature became a forum for debate on ratification. Wilson, who had been a delegate to the Federal Convention, was asked to speak to the gathering to explain the proposed Constitution and answer some of the criticisms that had been made of it. His speech was printed in the //Pennsylvania Packet// on October 10, 1787, and it was soon reprinted throughout the states, receiving more coverage than the more detailed arguments made in The Federalist.

2) Brutus, October 18, 1787 []

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The series of anti-federalist writing which most nearly paralleled and confronted The Federalist was a series of sixteen essays published in the //New York Journal// from October, 1787, through April, 1788. The essays were widely reprinted and commented on throughout the American states. The author is thought by most scholars to have been Robert Yates, a New York judge, delegate to the Federal Convention, and political ally of anti-federalist New York Governor George Clinton. All of the essays were addressed to "the Citizens of the State of New York".=====

=
In making their arguments, the Anti-Federalists often relied on the rhetoric of the Revolutionary War era, which stressed the virtues of local rule and associated centralized power with a monarch. Therefore, the Anti-Federalists frequently claimed that the Constitution represented a step away from the democratic goals of the American Revolution. In essence they believed that the elitist creators of the constitution sought only to further their own powers and goals. Many feared that this government would only succeed in creating a large socioeconomic gap between classes. While the central and most frequently used word in this document is once again ‘government,’ the words that surround it change the meaning and point directly toward the meaning of the Antifederalist debate.=====

=
Words like ‘free,’ ‘governments,’ ‘states,’ ‘object,’ ‘community,’ ‘people,’ ‘power,’ and ‘men,’ show that the Antifederalist interests were not in a nation as a united front but in the interests of the community and the local state government and the people who controlled it.=====

__Readings for Thursday, April 14 (Westwood High School)__
Was the Sedition Act constitutional?
 * Our Question: **

1) **For background on the Alien and Sedition Acts and to give context to the two documents below.** 

2)

__Readings for Thursday, April 28 (Westwood High School)__
**Instructor: Bill Fowler**

**Our Questions:** Was the embargo act of 1807 a good alternative to war? Why did New Englanders see the embargo as a major intrusion into their lives and livelihoods?

**1) A quick background reading:**

[]
Primary Documents:
 * 2) A selection of political cartoons responding to the embargo**


 * A song about the embargo:**

__**Readings for Thursday, May 12 (Westwood High School)**__

 * Instructors: Colleen Worrell & Bob Allison**

**Focus: Missouri and the Right to Own Slaves**
1) **Background Reading: The Era of Good Feelings (Conquering Space and The Growth of Political Factionalism and Sectionalism chapters are particularly relevant)** @http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/subtitles.cfm?TitleID=81

2) **"From Covenant of Peace, A Simile of Sorrow": James Madison's American Allegory by Robert Allison**

3) [] Historian Ira Berlin discusses teaching slavery.


 * Optional Reading:**

Jefferson's "Firebell in the Night" letter to John Holmes []