The Public Broadcasting System offers three interesting videotapes as part of its American Adventure Series. Diversification of the Colonies looks at rice culture in South Carolina, the circumstances of life in cosmopolitan Philadelphia, slaves, and a number of other aspects and facets of a diversifying America. The Colonial Experience deals with hardship in the wilderness, conflict with the Indians, and the British crown's administrative policies in North America. A New Society treats economic, intellectual, and political change in the colonies and the development of new governmental forms.

Films for the Humanities has two half-hour videotapes worth noting here. The Inventory depicts the lifestyle of a typical lower-middle-class family in the mid-eighteenth century, deals with their struggle for survival, and indicates what the family had in the way of possessions. Chesapeake Planter provides a tour through the world of 1777: small farms, fewer roads, and an authentic re-creation of a Chesapeake farm of the period.
Document Set 4-1

The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Human Degradation for Economic Advantage

1. A Child's Memory of Abduction in Africa, 1735
2. Olaudah Equiano Recalls the Horrors of the Middle Passage, 1756
3. A Reformed Slave Trader Denounces the Traffic, 1788
4. A British Defense of the Slave Trade on Economic Grounds, 1745
5. Images of the Slave Trade and Slave OwnershipBecause of its profound influence on the economic, social, and cultural development of the United States and the entire New World, the slave trade merits serious attention. It is especially important that modern students become acquainted with the broad cultural implications of the enslavement of Africans and the removal of perhaps 10 million persons to the Americas. This unit will enable instructors to emphasize the culture shock that resulted from the abduction of millions of West Africans and their forced removal to an uncertain future in the New World.Instructors may wish to provide an introductory lecture on prevailing eighteenth-century transatlantic trade patterns, of which commerce in slaves was a part. This background material should also touch on the richness and complexity of the African cultures that existed prior to large-scale European involvement in the slave trade from the sixteenth century on. The documents should offer a logical opening into a discussion of the traffic's dramatic impact on West African family organization and cultural stability. Students could be challenged to extract from the sources evidence of the political, military, and social organization of West Africa, as well as the disruptions that attended contact with Europeans.Among the questions to be dealt with are the volume of the slave trade and prevailing mortality rates. Instructors may wish to consult both Philip Curtin's landmark study and Paul E. Lovejoy's corrective essay (see "Recommended Readings") for a balanced view of this problem. Discussion of the issue is likely to lead students back to source materials, especially accounts of the horrors of the middle passage, which cannot be fully communicated through statistical analysis.This examination of the dramatic social and cultural impact of enslavement and the traffic in human cargo might be used to promote student inquiry into the long-term influence of these events on slave culture in the United States. Both Ira Berlin's seminal article and Winthrop Jordan's larger work will be helpful in developing a full understanding of these questions. Jordan will be equally valuable in guiding students through a discussion of the relationship among enslavement, the slave trade, prejudice, and racism (see "Recommended Readings"). Instructors may wish to highlight the survival of African cultural practices in America and the reasons for their presence or absence. This discussion could be initiated by a reference to the related textbook focus question.By its very nature, the source material is certain to produce a strong reaction among students, who will seek explanations for such brutal practices. This subject is well suited to discussion of the importance of historical context in understanding human behavior. Without excusing abhorrent conduct, instructors may promote informed discussion of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century economic realities that encouraged engagement in the slave trade. Simultaneously, it should be possible to introduce the intellectual origins of racism as students grope for some justification to account for a gross violation of human rights.Students are also likely to recognize the apparent contradiction between Christian moral values and the practices of slave traders who were nominally Christian. Discussion of this paradox might center on the objections raised in John Newton's memoir, which will eventually lead to an examination of the role played by the churches in the fight against the slave trade. A good starting point might be an analysis of Newton's words and an inquiry into his motives. By scrutinizing the author's background, perhaps as part of an independent research assignment, students will gain an appreciation of the personal objectives that often lie behind the utterances or writings of a historical witness.Thus, an important aspect of this unit will be the effort to help students become critical evaluators of historical evidence. Instructors may guide them toward a skeptical approach to the documents, whether they are the memoirs of reformed reprobates or the retrospective narratives of freed slaves. By learning to ask hard questions of the evidence, students will become better historians and clearer thinkers.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 4-1


Richard Bean. The British Transatlantic Slave Trade (1975).

Ira Berlin. "Time, Space, and the Evolution of Afro-American Society in British Mainland North America." American Historical Review 85 (1980): 44-78.

Philip Curtin. Transatlantic Slave Trade (1969).

Winthrop Jordan. White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (1968).

Herbert Klein. The Middle Passage: Comparative Studies in the African Slave Trade (1975).

Robin Law. The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550-1750: The Impact of the Slave Trade on an African Society (1991).

Paul E. Lovejoy. "The Volume of the Atlantic Slave Trade: A Synthesis." Journal of African History 23 (1982): 473-501.

James Rawley. The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History (1981).

Edward Reynolds. Stand the Storm: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (1985).

John Thornton. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680 (1992).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 4-1


Dark Passages (videotape--60 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.

Origins (videotape--52 min.). Films for the Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, N.J. 08543-2053.

Roots, Episodes 1, 2, 3 (film, videotape--48 min. each). Indiana University Audio Visual Center, Bloomington, Ind. 47405.

Shackles of Memory (videotape--52 min.). Filmmaker's Library, 124 E. 40th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016.

Terrible Transformation. Africans in America Series. PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.
Document Set 4-2

Religious Enthusiasm and Revolution

1. The Reverend George Whitefield in South Carolina, 1740
2. The Reverend Charles Woodmason in the South Carolina backcountry, 1768
3. Sarah Osborn's Conversion, 1741This document set focuses on the Great Awakening, noting particularly its social and political influence. Its impact on American religious history has long been recognized; and the movement's connection with the Revolution, which has received recent scholarly attention, constitutes a topic that can generate student interest and awaken historical consciousness.The documents may be mined for evidence of the relationship between the Awakening and the Revolution, but they do not fully reveal other, more subtle aspects of the question. After students have dealt in class with the analytical problems raised by the source materials, instructors could present a follow-up lecture detailing the thesis that the Awakening sharpened social conflict and contributed to the coming of the Revolution. Students might then be asked to explore through discussion the disruptive impact of the revivals on communities. Stout's article, "Religion, Communications, and the Ideological Origins of the American Revolution," is particularly useful for identifying and exploring these important links (see "Recommended Readings").Since the chapter's emphasis is on the Awakening's results and influence, instructors might assign research projects on its origins and development in order to provide a balanced analytical exercise. A background lecture could identify several developmental phases of the movement: the religious declension (1660-1720), early (1720-1735), middle (1735-1745), and later (1745-1775) stages of the Awakening. Student groups might be assigned to research and report in class on the Half-Way Covenant or career of Solomon Stoddard for the declension; the career of Theodore Frelinghuysen or Jonathan Edwards for the early stage of the Awakening; the work of George Whitefield, Gilbert and John Tennent, or James Davenport for the middle stage; and the lives of John Leland, John and Charles Wesley, or Devereux Jarratt for the last stage. Discussion of student reports could provide useful comparisons and contrasts, as well as insight on the interpretation of the Awakening's religious and social impact.Finally, students might be encouraged to explore links between the Awakening and future religious, political, and social developments. This examination could focus on the components of a revolutionary mind-set and their relationship to the concepts of personal religion and equality before God. Further, the topic of evangelical religion may be connected with not only the Second Great Awakening (see Chapter 10) but also the modern fundamentalist movement (see Chapter 32). By exploring the roots of revival religion, it will be possible to emphasize the concept of cyclical movements in American social history as well as the important insight that as a people, we are today what we have been before.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 4-2


Patricia Bonomi. Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society and Politics in Colonial America (1986).

Cedric Cowing. The Great Awakening and the American Revolution: Colonial Thought in the Eighteenth Century (1971).

Edwin Scott Gaustad. The Great Awakening in New England (1957).

Alan Heimert. Religion and the American Mind: From the Great Awakening to the Revolution (1966).

David S. Lovejoy. Religious Enthusiasm in the New World (1985).

David Taft Morgan. The Great Awakening in the Carolinas and Georgia, 1740-1775 (1968).

Harry S. Stout. The Divine Dramatists: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism (1991).

------. "Religion, Communications, and the Ideological Origins of the American Revolution." William and Mary Quarterly 34 (1977): 519-541.

John E. Van de Wetering. What I Must Do to Be Saved? The Great Awakening in Colonial America (1976).

Marilyn J. Westerkamp. Triumph of the Laity: Scots-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening, 1625-1760 (1988).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 4-2


Colonial America: The Eighteenth Century (film--17 min.). McGraw-Hill Films, 674 Via de la Valle, P.O. Box 641, Del Mar, Calif. 92014.

Genesis of the Dream. Audiotape Program 3, Annenberg/CPB American History Series Part 1. Annenberg/CPB Project, 1111 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20036.
Document Set 4-3

Nature Observed: Changing Perceptions of The Landscape in The 17th and 18th Centuries

1. Francis Higginson Describes New England's Natural Endowments, 1630
2. Edward Williams Promotes Virginia's Resources, 1630, 1650
3. John Lederer Explores the Appalachian Mountains, 1670
4. Peter Kalm Indicts Wastefulness in American Land Use, 1750
5. William Bartram Recounts an Alligators' Feast, 1791
6. Thomas Jefferson's Impressions of Virginia's Natural Bridge, 1785Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there occurred a subtle change in colonial attitudes toward nature. Document Set 4-3 is intended to help students grasp the transition in colonial thought that took place as Enlightenment ideas gained currency. The documents are arranged so that students may easily trace the change and view the evidence in a comparative light.To launch discussion, it may be helpful for instructors to develop student awareness of the Enlightenment, whether by lecture or the use of socratic technique, basing the dialogue on textbook content. Students may be asked to explain scientific method and to relate the technique to the approach taken by eighteenth-century naturalists.This discussion is likely to result in student questions with regard to the naturalists' fidelity to empirical data, which is at the least a debatable issue. In this connection, instructors may wish to introduce the topic of ambivalence in the work of Bartram and Jefferson, which reflects a strong strain of romanticism. Students should be able to spot an element of emotion in Bartram's and Jefferson's responses to breathtaking natural phenomena. Instructors may need to assist students with a definition of romanticism, but discussion should follow as students identify the mixture of rationalism, mysticism, and wonderment present in the evidence.Discussion will benefit from an emphasis on comparison between the accounts of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century observers of raw nature. For example, the motivations and objectives behind the writings from both epochs may profitably be explored. Instructors might guide students toward investigation of the audiences for whom the respective written works were intended. In turn, students should come to recognize the relationship between the author's purposes and the literary product.Students might also be encouraged to probe the relationship between Higginson's and Williams's goals and the observations and criticisms of the eighteenth-century Swedish naturalist Peter Kalm. Instructors might underscore Kalm's solution to American land-use problems, which will bring the discussion back to the importance of Enlightenment rationalism. This discussion might easily be related to modern controversy over the appropriate use of natural resources, thus establishing past-present linkage.As they begin to explore the dual character of naturalists' reaction to natural phenomena, students may reflect on the continuing tension in our modern response to nature and the environment. Instructors might wish to stimulate this discussion with a question probing the students' own relationships with nature and attitudes toward environmental concerns. This line of questioning could focus on the issue of the interests and social functions to be served by nature, whether in Jefferson's time or our own. By identifying the ambivalence in the sources and linking it to modern debate over the preservation of the environment, students should be able to see the connection between the problems of their world and decisions made by men and women of earlier generations.

Recommended Readings for Document Set 4-3


S. Bedini. Thinkers and Tinkers: Early American Men of Science (1975).

Henry Steele Commager. The Empire of Reason: How Europe Imagined and America Realized the Enlightenment (1977).

John C. Greene. American Science in the Age of Jefferson (1984).

Brook Hindle. The Pursuit of Science in Revolutionary America, 1733-1789 (1956).

H. Leventhal. In the Shadow of Enlightenment (1976).

Henry May. The Enlightenment in America (1976).

Thomas P. Slaughter. The Natures of John and William Bartram (1996).

Raymond P. Stearns. Science in the British Colonies of America (1970).

Louis B. Wright. The Cultural Life of the American Colonies (1957).
Audiovisual Resources for Document Set 4-3


The Colonial Naturalist (videotape--55 min.). University of Illinois Film/Video Center, 1325 S. Oak Street, Champaign, Ill. 61820.

The Enlightenment (audiotape--30 min.). NPR Customer Service, P.O. Box 55417, Madison, Wis. 53705.

The Intellectual World of Our Founding Fathers (audiotape--50 min.). NPR Customer Service.

Thomas Jefferson (videotape--180 min.). PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, Va. 22314-1698.