HIS 1402 - U.S. WOMEN’S HISTORY TO 1865

credits: 3.0
Crosslisted/Same As: WMS 1402
HIS-WMS 1402. An introductory survey course exploring how racial, class, and regional differences shaped the lives of different groups of American women from the early seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. We will compare the work and family roles of the following groups: Native-American and English women in colonial Massachusetts and Virginia; middle-class urban homemakers and factory women in antebellum New England; plantation mistresses and female slaves in the antebellum South; pioneer frontier women and their urban counterparts back East. Objectives: A) Introduce students to major issues and concerns in U.S. women’s history; B) Develop a student’s analytical skills through critical readings of assigned texts and written assignments. Method of Instruction: Lectures and class discussion, with emphasis on the latter. Method of Evaluation: Several essays based on assigned readings OR a ten-page research paper on a particular topic, two exams, and class discussions. Meets *WEP Distribution Requirements.