About the Book
Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY series introduces readers to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in American history. The collection of essays and documents in MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN COLONIAL HISTORY introduces readers to American colonial history and, in this third edition, presents a radically new vision of the subject in accordance with developments in the way the subject is currently taught. Most importantly, this new edition takes a more continental and thematic approach. Each chapter contains an introduction, headnotes, and suggestions for further reading.
Table of Contents:
1. AMERICA AND EUROPE. Essays. 1. Karen Ordahl Kupperman, American, African and European polities compared. 2. Juliana Barr, The Colonial Sunbelt: St. Augustine to Santa Fe. 2. INDIANS' RESPONSE TO EUROPEAN PRESENCE. Documents. 1. Maushop Leaves New England: An Indian legend About Colonization, 1787. 2. In the Beginning: Tewa creation story, oral tradition from pre-contact times. 3. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca acts as a curer and shaman across the American Southwest, 1527-36. 4. Manhattan's natives express wonder at the first arrival of Europeans, printed in 1818. 5. Canadian natives recount their traditions of the first sight of men dressed in iron, 1633. 6. Chickahomy Indians become "King James his Men," Sir Thomas Dale to D. M., June 18, 1614. 7. Powhatan empire strikes back at expanding Virginia colony, 1622. 8. Pueblo Indians see the apparition of the Lady in Blue and Fray Alonso de Benavides identifies her as the Spanish nun Sor Maria de Agreda. 9. Mohegan Indians petition the king in their dispute with the colonial government of Connecticut; The "Major Part" of the Mohegans protests Connecticut's recognition of Ben Uncas as sachem, 1738; Ben Uncas asks for recognition of his status as sachem, 1739. 10. Choctaw leaders come to negotiations accompanied by women to indicate their peaceful intentions. Essays. 1. Natalie Zemon Davis, Iroquois Women, European Women. 2. Jenny Hale Pulsipher, New England Indians Adopt a Political Relationship to the English Government. 3. FIRST COLONIES. Documents. 1. Coronado Explores the Southwest, 1540-1542. 2. Pedro Menendez de Aviles visits the Calusa King Carlos after the foundation of St. Augustine. 3. Menendez encounters Spaniards who had lived as captives among the Indians and finds that female captives sometimes chose to stay with their native families. 4. Don Juan de Onate describes the founding of New Mexico. 5. Fray Alonso de Benavides Reports New Mexico Indians Eager for Conversion, 1634. 6. Captain John Smith analyzes the human scene, both English and Indian, from Jamestown, 1624. 7. Virginia Company acknowledges that the colony will never be successful without women and family life. 8. Certificates attesting to the good preparation of prospective wives for Virginia planters. 9. Pocahontas and John Smith meet in London where she accuses him of cowardice and lying. 10. John Rolfe reports large amounts of tobacco planted in Virginia, 1616. 11. Richard Frethorne begs his parents for support, 1623. Essays. 1. J.H. Elliott, Imperial competition in the early Atlantic. 2. James Horn, Tobacco and the Peopling of Virginia. 4. THE 1630s: THE FIRST GREAT WAVE OF ENGLISH COLONIZATION. Documents. 1. Pilgrim Leaders create the Mayflower Compact and describe the first Thanksgiving, 1620, 1621. 2. The Reverend Thomas Hooker warns of England's impending punishment by God, 1631. 3. Governor John Winthrop gives a Model of Christian Charity, 1630. 4. Colonist John Pond writes to his mother and father for help, 1631. 5. John Winthrop laments the growth of competitive economic practices in New England in the case of Robert Keayne, 1639. 6. Maryland enacts religious toleration for all Christians, 1649. 7. A blank servant indenture form, 1635. 8. Robert Cole provides for education and property for his daughters and sons in his Will. 9. George Alsop argues that servants in Maryland have a good deal, 1666. Essays. 1. Virginia DeJohn Anderson, Religion, the Common Thread of Motivation. 2. Lois Green Carr and Lorena S. Walsh, The Experience of White Women in the Chesapeake. 5. 1675: TURNING POINTS. Documents. 1. John Easton tries to avert the war by hearing King Philip's grievances, 1675. 2. Cotton Mather describes the Indians of Massachusetts and John Eliot's mission to them, 1702. 3. Mary Rowlandson interprets her captivity during King Philip's War, 1676. 5. George Alsop argues that servants in Maryland have a good deal, 1666. 4. Nathaniel Bacon's Manifestos, 1676. 5. Thomas Mathews describes the outbreak of Bacon's Rebellion. 6. Virginia's leaders appeal to the Queen of Pamunkey for aid. 7. New Mexico's Indians Rebel Against Suppression of their Native Religion, 1680: Alonso Garcia to Fray Francisco de Ayeta; Fray Antonio de Sierra to Fray Francisco de Ayeta; Statement of One of the Rebellious Christian Indians; Statement of Pedro Garcia. 8. Pedro Naranjo describes Pope's vision and leadership, 1680. Essays. 1. Jill Lepore, John Sassamon Between Two Cultures. 2. April Lee Hatfield, Conflicting Interests in Expanding Virginia Lead to Bacon's Rebellion. 6. PLURALISM: RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC. Documents. 1. Jasper Dankaerts calls on the planter Maria van Rensselaer, 1680. 2. Sarah Kemble Knight encounters Dutch and English in New York, 1704. 3. Per Kalm's Travels Through New Jersey and New York, 1750. 4. William Penn offers a Prospectus for Merchants, 1683. 5. Francis Daniel Pastorius describes the Founding of Germantown, 1685. 6 Gabriel Thomas promises High Wages and Great Opportunities in Pennsylvania, 1698. 7. Gottlieb Mittelberger describes the system of recruiting German colonists, and the suffering they endured, 1754. 8. Huguenots in North Carolina write to their sponsor, Agnes van Wassenaer Obdam, describing their experiences, 1688. 9. Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg reports on Moravian Plans for the Settlement of Wachovia, 1752. 10. Dr. Alexander Hamilton encounters Scots-Irish colonists. Essays. 1. Rosalind J. Beiler, German-Speaking Immigrants in the British Atlantic World, 1680-1730. 2. Patrick Griffin, The People with No Name: Ulster's Migrants and Identity Formation in Eighteenth-Century Pennsylvania. 7. EXPANSION IN THE SOUTH: HOPES AND REALITIES. Documents. 1. Richard Ligon describes the beginnings of sugar cultivation and planters' adaptation to the climate in Barbados, 1654: The Sugar Revolution; English Adaptation in Barbados; Treatment of Slaves and Servants. 2. English official Edward Randolph reports to the Board of Trade on Economic Prospects and the Spanish Threat in South Carolina, 1699. 3. Thomas Nairne reassures prospective settlers about the environment and trade of South Carolina, 1710. 4. Indian Trader John Lawson's Journal of Carolina, 1710. 5. James Oglethorpe, "Persons Reduc'd to Poverty May be Happy in Georgia," 1732. 6. William Byrd Praises the Plan to prohibit slavery in Georgia, 1736. 7. Governor William Tryon Assesses the Prospects for Life in the North Carolina Backcountry, 1765. 8. J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur contrasts the culture of Charlestown and the situation of slaves, 1782. 9. Eliza Lucas Pinckney on the Perfection of Indigo, 1785. Essays. 1. Jack P. Greene, Barbados as a Colonial Model. 2. Alan Gallay, Jonathan Bryan's Plantation Empire in Georgia. 8. SLAVE LIFE AND CULTURE. Documents. 1. The Board of Trade Seeks Information on the Slave Trade, 1708. Replies: Rhode Island Governor William Cranston; Maryland Governor John Seymour; Edmund Jennings of Virginia. 2. Olaudah Equiano on the experience of Enslavement, 1750s. 3. The Reverend Hugh Jones describes Virginia slavery in 1724. 4. Johann Martin Bolzius describes the slaves' lives in Georgia, 1750s. 5. Supplies needed to set up plantation, including enslaved women and men, cattle, and equipment, along with the work the slaves will do. 6. Slave woman listed as part of school's endowment in Virginia. 7. Advertisement for sale of enslaved girl named Esther. Essays. 1. Ira Berlin, Time, Space, and the Evolution of Afro-American Society. 2. Jennifer L. Morgan, Enslaved women's labor. 9. RELIGIOUS AWAKENINGS. Documents. 1. Benjamin Franklin listens to his Friend George Whitefield, 1739. 2. Nathan Cole Describes the Crowds Going to Hear Whitefield at Middletown, 1740. 3. George Whitefield describes the mixed congregations he preached to. 4. Jonathan Edwards describes the awakening in his congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts. 5. Sarah Pierpont Edwards's own account of her religious experience. 6. Susannah Anthony's description of her religious conversion, ca. 1740s. 7. Gilbert Tennent Presents The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry, 1740. 8. Newspaper Account of the Expulsion of James Davenport, 1742. 9. John Marrant's narrative of his conversion. 10. Joseph Fish Reveals the Activities of Samuel Niles, Narragansett New Light Preacher, 1765. 11. The Reverend Charles Woodmason Views the Backcountry in the 1760s. Essays. 1. Frank Lambert, George Whitefield, the Grand Itinerant. 2. Catherine Brekus, Euroamerican Women's and Men's Experiences in the Great Awakening. 3. Frank Lambert, African-Americans' Experience of the Revivals. 10. CHANGING RELATIONSHIPS WITHIN THE EMPIRE. Documents. 1. James Blair tells the Bishop of London of the Ministers' Persecution in Virginia, 1704. 2. Several ministers in New Jersey attest to their suffering and ask for a bishop to protect them, 1714. 3. The Anglican Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts on Massachusetts Governor Dudley's treatment of Anglicans, 1713. 4. Governor Dudley presents his defense and counter-accusations, 1714. 5. Governor Bellomont of New York writes home of his money problems and the dishonest ways of the colonists he is forced to deal with, 1700. 6. Commissioner William Stephens describes his meeting with Coosaponakeesa. 7. Mary Musgrove Bosomworth's statement to Col. Alexander Heron and Heron's reply. 8. Statement of sovereignty by Georgia Indian leaders, 1747. Essays. 1. Alison M. Olson, Transatlantic interest groups and the colonial governors. 2. Julie Anne Sweet, Mary Musgrove maneuvers between empires. 11. NEW REALITIES IN THE BACKCOUNTRY. Documents. 1. Conrad Weiser describes Madame Montour, 1737. 2. Moravian Leader Count Zinzendorf records his impressions of Madame Montour and Andrew Montour, 1742. 3. Mary Jemison recounts her experience of capture and adoption as a Seneca, 1755. 4. Albany Plan of Union, 1754. 5. Sir William Johnson confers with Iroquois leaders, 1762. 6. Virginia Governor Spotswood describes plans for defense of the frontier and settling colonists' grievances, 1713, 1714, 1720. 7. Multiple versions of Teedyscung speaking to a treaty negotiations, July 28, 1756. 8. A Narrative of the Late Massacres, in Lancaster County, of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, by Persons Unknown. With Some Observations on the Same, 1764. 9. The Apology of the Paxton Volunteers addressed to the candid and impartial World. Essays. 1. James H. Merrell, Reading Andrew Montour. 2. Nicole Eustace, The Sentimental Paradox: Humanity and Violence on the Pennsylvania Frontier. 12. THE MARKET ECONOMY IN PORT CITIES. Documents. 1. A Connecticut farmer deals with the market. 2. Benjamin Franklin Advises Readers How to Get On in Philadelphia, c. 1730-c. 1750. 3. Letter from a Widow on The Abuses of the Road, and City-Watch December 14, 1752. 4. Club of widowed matrons meets to send their thanks for publishing letter. 5. Will of Margrieta van Varick, New York merchant, 1695. 6. A Brief Consideration of New-York, with respect to its natural Advantages: Its Superiority in several Instances, over some of the neighbouring Colonies, January 18, 1753. 7. Self-fashioning by servants and the enslaved to free themselves from servitude. Essays. 1. Serena R.Zabin, New York as a commercial center and women's roles in trade. 2. David Waldstreicher, Unfree workers take advantage of their economic experience to free themselves. 13. EMPIRES, EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN, COMPETE FOR CONTROL OF NORTH AMERICA. Documents. 1. Missionary David Brainerd describes his encounter with a Delaware prophet, 1745. 2. James Kenny dreams of new relationships on the frontier at the end of the French and Indian War. 3. Neolin's journey to the Master of Life, described in 1763. 4. Robert Navarre describes the suffering of beseiged Detroit. 5. Royal proclamation of 1763 prohibiting movement of settlers into the trans-Appalachian West. Essays. 1. Gregory E. Dowd, The Indians' Great Awakening and Pontiac's War. 2. Fred Anderson, The Consequences of Victory. 14. COLONIAL AMERICA AT MID-CENTURY. Documents. 1. Jean-Bernard Bossu advises newcomers on the way to health in Louisiana, 1762. 2. Dr. Alexander Hamilton Surveys the Variety of Pennsylvania, 1744. 3. Pelatiah Webster Describes the Uniqueness of Charleston, 1763. 4. Janet Schaw Visits Wilmington, North Carolina, 1774. 5. William Eddis praises the society of Annapolis, Maryland and speculates on the fate of American Indians, 1771. Essays. 1. T. H. Breen, Consumption, Anglicization, and the Formation of American Identity. 2. John M. Murrin, The Dilemma of American National Identity.
About the Author :
Karen Ordahl Kupperman is Silver Professor of History at New York University. She received her Ph.D. from Cambridge University and is the author of many award-winning books and articles, including the American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Award for her book PROVIDENCE ISLAND, 1630-1641: THE OTHER PURITAN COLONY(1993), and most recently, The American Historical Association Prize in Atlantic History.
