Reminder about your participation grade

Looking over the earlier blog posts, I've noticed that many of you have not been commenting regularly. Please recall that, according to the syllabus, you must comment upon each reading-related blog post in order to qualify for an A in participation. Participation is worth 20% of your final grade, so I urge you to take this provision seriously. Even if you have been vocal in class, I still expect you to fulfill this component of your participation grade.

Schedule for next week

There won't be a reading assignment for Monday, but please have chapters 5 & 6 of Bodies Politic read for Tuesday. We will be having a quiz on those two chapters at the beginning of class on Tuesday.

Remember that next Wednesday is your "reading day," so we won't have class.

The final exam will be from 10:30 AM until 1:15 PM on Thursday, 6/19.

Sweet, ch. 4

How did Native Americans feel about sexual unions or marriage with blacks?

Sweet, ch. 3

What impact did the Great Awakening have on slaves and their religious conversion?

Class cancelled, 6/9

My voice is still gone with the wind, so I will have to cancel class on Monday. We will have class on Tuesday, come hell or high water, so please make sure that you have Breen & Innes read (with discussion-worthy reading notes) by Tuesday morning.

Check for messages on 6/9

I just want to alert everyone to check the blog and/or your e-mail before class tomorrow. I have lost my voice and can't be certain if I will have it back tomorrow. I am hoping a day's rest will restore my throat, but I won't be able to say one way or the other until tomorrow morning. So please check your e-mail Monday morning before heading to class.

If you don't hear from me, then we are go for launch. I will have a message posted by 7:30 AM (the time I would need to leave the house if I can make it).

Sweet, chapter 2

Answer one of the following questions:

• How did slavery in the northern colonies differ from slavery in the Chesapeake and other southern colonies?
• How did New Englanders ethically come to terms with the practice of slavery?
• By what means did slaves try to secure their freedom in the North?
• What was the public image of African and African-American slaves in the New England mind?
  

Reverend Morgan Godwyn

Answer one of the following questions:

• What were Reverend Godwyn's chief arguments against the practice of slavery?
• What is Godwyn's view of the planter class?
• How does Godwyn's experience in both Barbados and Virginia shape his argument?

The first Africans in Virginia

What are the problems of evidence that face historians looking at the first generation of Africans in Virginia? How does Vaughan handle this problem?

The origins debate

In Vaughan's chapter, whose thesis about the origins of slavery and racism do you find most compelling and why?