History 3547        

Mixed Raced Peoples Borderlands History:  Race and Gender on the US-Mexico and US-Canadian Borders

Course Description

This course will focus on both the US-Mexico and US-Canadian borders from a comparative historical viewpoint. While considering experiences on both borders, we will study the border through the lenses of race and gender,. Moreover, we will look at a few facets of racial and cultural mixture, with an emphasis on the interactions between French, Spanish, Creole, African, free, enslaved, Metis, Mestizo, and Native peoples in the southern and northern borderlands. Although groups such as Metis, Creole, and Mestizo are resultant of ethnogenesis, each group has highly variable histories.  Divided into four parts, the first section will cover concepts and theories, basic historiography of Borderlands, and race and gender.  We will survey history from the early 17^th to the mid19th centuires.  We will also consider the related themes of slavery, identity, and class.  We will seek to answer the following questions:  How have these different peoples negotiated the border landscape under the forces of colonization?  To what extent did these peoples affect the political, economic, and social structure under empire?  At points of contact, how did these mixed identities evolve?

Course Objectives:

• We will consider historical meaning and interpretation through the evaluation of both primary and secondary sources.
• We will exercise our ability to understand what is historically significant.
• We will think about and develop empathy for historical actors
• As we think about the concepts of continuity and change through the process of chronological thinking and narrative.
• We will think about the process of progress and the relationship to empathy and teleology.
• We will concentrate on the following important turning points
  • French, Spanish, British conquest and Early settlement
  • French and Indian War 1763
  • American Revolution 1776
  • The Frontier
  • The US-Canadian Border
  • Purchas of the Louisiana Territory 1803
  • War of 1812
  • Mexican Independence 1821
  • US-Mexican War 1848
  • Gadsden Purchase 1854
  • United States Civil War 1865

Outcomes

• By the end of the course the student will be able to:
• Actively read and extract important information from a text.
• Know the debates about the significant turning points.

Required readings

Books:

• Storey, William Kelleher. Writing History: A Guide for Students. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Bean, John C., Virginia A. Chappell, and Alice M. Gillam. Reading Rhetorically. New York: Pearson Education Canada, 2010.

Special Reader:           

The special reader will contain excerpts from various secondary and primary sources.

• Brown, Jennifer S. H. “Diverging Identities: The Presbyterian métis of St. Gabriel Street, Montreal.” In The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Metis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985.
• Brown, Jennifer S. H.. “The Metis: Genesis and Rebirth.” In Native people, native lands: Canadian Indians, Inuit and Métis, n.d. Barr, Juliana. “Beyond Their Control: Spaniards in Native Texas.” In Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain’s North American Frontiers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.
• Bitterli, Urs, and Ritchie Robertson. Cultures in Conflict: Encounters Between European and Non-European Cultures, 1492-1800. Stanford University Press, 1993.
• Peterson, Jacqueline, and Jennifer S. H. Brown. The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001.
  • Brown, Jennifer S. H. “Diverging Identities: The Presbyterian métis of St. Gabriel Street, Montreal.” In The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Metis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985.
  • Burton, H. Sophie, and F. Todd Smith. Colonial Natchitoches : a Creole community on the Louisiana-Texas frontier. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008.
  • Din, Gilbert C., and John E. Harkins. The New Orleans Cabildo : colonial Louisiana’s first city government, 1769-1803. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996.
  • DuVal, Kathleen. “Indian Intermarriage and Métissage in Colonial Louisiana.” The William and Mary Quarterly 65, no. 2. Third (April 2008): 267-304.
  • Fabregat, Claudio Esteva. Mestizaje in Ibero-America. University of Arizona Press, 1995.
  • Griffiths, Naomi Elizabeth Saundaus. From migrant to Acadian: a North American border people, 1604-1755. McGill-Queen’s Press – MQUP, 2005.
  • Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in colonial Louisiana : the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
  • Johnson, Jerah. “Colonial New Orleans: a Fragment of the Eighteenth-Centry French Ethos.” In Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
  • Kirk, Sylvia Van. Many tender ties: women in fur-trade society, 1670-1870. University of Oklahoma Press, 1983.
  • Lockhart, James. The Nahuas after the conquest: a social and cultural history of the Indians of central Mexico, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Stanford University Press, 1992.
  • Martínez, María Elena. Genealogical fictions: limpieza de sangre, religion, and gender in colonial Mexico. Stanford University Press, 2008.
  • Mora, Anthony P. Border dilemmas : racial and national uncertainties in New Mexico, 1848-1912. Durham N.C.: Duke University Press, 2011. http://www.library.arizona.edu/applications/couttspda/?isbn=0822347970
  • Murphy, Lucy Eldersveld. A Gathering of Rivers: Indians, Métis, and Mining in the Western Great Lakes, 1737-1832. U of Nebraska Press, 2004.
  • Tregle Jr., Joseph. “Creoles and Americans.” In Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
  • Vergès, Françoise. Monsters and revolutionaries: colonial family romance and métissage. Duke University Press, 1999

Assignments

Exams:

The students will have 3 exams consisting of 5 multiple choice questions and one essay question.  These exams will assess superficial knowledge or textbook knowledge.  Students will be given essay question prior to the exam to prepare.

Group discussions:           

The students will be placed in groups of my choice.  This is where we will learn how to “think historically.”   Using the special reader, students will read or re-read the primary sources such a letters, newspapers, speeches, and photographs and based on several questions I have proposed, given at the beginning of class.  Students will read assigned readings for that day we are doing group discussions.  While collectively the students will answer the questions, each student will have to answer a question on their own.   Students will receive participation points for being present and group responses.

Paper:

Final paper will be a historiographical essay.  Based on readings, discussions, and comprehension, I want students to position themselves within the scholarly debate.

Weekly Reading:

            Reading assignments from the special reader   are imperative that you actually read them.

Weekly Assessments:

Weekly assignments will assess your comprehension of ongoing debates about the specific turning points we will discuss in class.  These assessments will be in the form of one-minute paper.

Week 1

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Read a chapter from a People’s History of the United States & American Story textbooks that relate to one of the 10 turning points we will cover during the semester.	Reading Exercise We will discuss the differences and similarities in groups. Group work. Arrange our learning communities.
Thursday	Read David J. Weber, “The Spanish Borderlands of North America: A Historiography,” OAH Magazine of History 14, no. 4 (2000): 5–11. How to gut an essay. Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

 

Week 2

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Read Chapter 4 of Bean, John C., Virginia A. Chappell, and Alice M. Gillam. Reading Rhetorically. New York: Pearson Education Canada, 2010. How to read a book. Group work.
Thursday	Read David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992) How to gut a book. Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension

Week 3

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Read chapters 1-4.  Storey, William Kelleher. Writing History: A Guide for Students. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.	Discuss writing history. Group work.
Thursday	Read chapters 5-10.  Storey, William Kelleher. Writing History: A Guide for Students. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.	Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

Week 4 –Concepts and Theories

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Brown, Jennifer S. H. “Diverging Identities: The Presbyterian métis of St. Gabriel Street, Montreal.” In The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Metis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985. Group work.
Thursday	Read in special reader.  Brown, Jennifer S. H.. “The Metis: Genesis and Rebirth.” In Native people, native lands: Canadian Indians, Inuit and Métis, n.d. Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

Week 5—Concepts and Theories

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Dickason, Olive Patricia. Canada’s First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from Earliest Times. Civilization of the American Indian series v. 208. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.	Group work.
Thursday	Dickason, Olive Patricia. “From ‘One Nation’ in the Northeast to ‘New Nation’ in the Northwest: A Look at the Emergence of the Metis.” In The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Metis in North America. Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba Press, 1985 Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

Week 6—Metis

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Griffiths, Naomi Elizabeth Saundaus. From migrant to Acadian: a North American border people, 1604-1755. McGill-Queen’s Press – MQUP, 2005.	Group work.
Thursday	DuVal, Kathleen. “Indian Intermarriage and Métissage in Colonial Louisiana.” The William and Mary Quarterly 65, no. 2. Third (April 2008): 267-304.	Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

 

Week 7—Metis

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Brown, Jennifer S. H. “Diverging Identities: The Presbyterian métis of St. Gabriel Street, Montreal.” In The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Metis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985.	Group work.
Thursday	Françoise Vergès, Monsters and revolutionaries: colonial family romance and métissage (Duke University Press, 1999)	Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

Week 8—Metis

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Peterson, Jacqueline, and Jennifer S. H. Brown. The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001. Group work.
Thursday	Peterson, Jacqueline, and Jennifer S. H. Brown. The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001. Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 9—Metis  

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Peterson, Jacqueline, and Jennifer S. H. Brown. The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001.	Group work.
Thursday	Peterson, Jacqueline, and Jennifer S. H. Brown. The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001.	Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

 

Week 10—Creole

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Gilbert C. Din and John E. Harkins, The New Orleans Cabildo : colonial Louisiana’s first city government, 1769-1803 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996). Group work.
Thursday	Burton, H. Sophie, and F. Todd Smith. Colonial Natchitoches : a Creole community on the Louisiana-Texas frontier. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

Week 11—Creole

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Johnson, Jerah. “Colonial New Orleans: a Fragment of the Eighteenth-Centry French Ethos.” In Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992. Group work.
Thursday	Tregle Jr., Joseph. “Creoles and Americans.” In Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.	Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

Week 12—Creole

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in colonial Louisiana : the development of Afro-Creole culture in the eighteenth century. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992. Group work.
Thursday	Din, Gilbert C., and John E. Harkins. The New Orleans Cabildo : colonial Louisiana’s first city government, 1769-1803. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996 Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

 

Week 13—Mestizo

Date	Before Class	Due
Tuesday	Mora, Anthony P. Border Dilemmas: Racial and National Uncertainties in New Mexico, 1848–1912. Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, 2011.	Group work.
Thursday	Barr, Juliana. “Beyond Their Control: Spaniards in Native Texas.” In Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain’s North American Frontiers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005. Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 14—Mestizo

Date	In-Class	Due
Tuesday	Martínez, María Elena. Genealogical fictions: limpieza de sangre, religion, and gender in colonial Mexico. Stanford University Press, 2008. Group work.
Thursday	Lockhart, James. The Nahuas after the conquest: a social and cultural history of the Indians of central Mexico, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Stanford University Press, 1992. Group work. One-minute paper on comprehension.