1. The Frontier
THE FRONTIER: 1607-2011
In this unit you will learn how Native American, African, and European cultures came together in what we now know as the United States. The place where these cultures clashed, the frontier, moved west over the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries as successive waves of Europeans occupied Indian land. Each culture and settlement altered the environment and you will assess and evaluate that involvement.
We will define the frontier in two ways: as both a place/environment and an idea that helped form the American identity. Then we will look at historian Frederick Jackson Turner’s thesis that the frontier was one of the determining factors in establishing the American character. Turner argued that
The frontier is productive of individualism. . .To the frontier the American intellect owes its striking characteristics. That coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom–these are the traits of the frontier, or traits called out elsewhere because of the existence of the frontier.
While you read you should test his hypothesis.
Listed below are assignments for September 1 through September 25. Assignments are homework on the day listed. You will complete several graded assignments: an essay on the Wampanoag, (100 points), a topographical map, several blogs, and two tests (140 points each). Remember that you begin this unit with a grade for your Biography Journal (100 points) and your letter about the historical museum (40 points).
Please keep up with your reading.
Text = Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People (4th edition, 2004 and 5th edition 2008) (check the web site at http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072900423/student_view0/index.html
Text = Alan Brinkley, The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People (3rd edition 2000; 4th edition, 2003) (check the web site at www.mhhe.com/socscience/history/usa/link/linktop.htm
Page numbers for Brinkley appear as, 4th edition 1st and 5th edition 2nd.
Kezirian = American History: Major Controversies Reviewed has the articles for the blogs.
WEEK 1
9/1 Hand in Biography Journals from summer reading; discuss, hand in letters on historical museums
Outline of class and website Read Alan Brinkley’s article “Historians and their Publics.”
As you read, prepare for a Harkness Discussion. According to Brinkley, what is the public role of Historians?
9/2
1. Harkness Discussion
Brinkley discussion – history and memory
2. APPARTS
IDs Identifications: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and historical significance in relationship to the thesis of the chapter
Find an important historical family photograph or document (with parental permission). Use APPARTS to analyze your document in relationship to the question: How is my family significant to US History?
3. Text C. 1 “The Meeting of Cultures,” 1-16,; 1, 18-25;
Use IDs – one card with thesis statement, then 8 IDs – you choose, if you know them, you know the section
discussion
C1 “The Meeting of Cultures,” 16-25 8 IDS
Click on Follow up for Summer assignment, read the two articles and write 2 paragraphs as defined in the assignment.
WEEK 2
9/6
Harkness discussion on biographies
Discuss Biographies
Read paragraphs in groups. Begin to define what freedom and heroism are. phies C2 “Transplantations and Borderlands,”32-46; 36-46; Use IDs;
C2 “The English Transplantations,” or “Transplantations and Borderlands,” 27-31; 26-35; Use IDs
9/7
Family documents – How is my family related to US History? Prepare for a Harkness discussion on Charles Mann “Native Intelligence,” Smithsonian Magazine, December 2005, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/squanto.html?c=y&page=7
How could Native Indians be smarter than English settlers and yet not survive?
9/8
How did the New England and Chesapeake colonies develop differently? City on a Hill C2 “Transplantations and Borderlands,” 46-57; 46-57; Use IDs
9/9 Harkness Discussion Why do the Wampanoags negotiate in 1621 and fight in 1675? C 3 “Society and Culture in Provincial America,” 58-68, 60-71;.
Use Subheadings
WEEK 3
9/12
Why do the Wampanoags negotiate in 1621 and fight in 1675? C 3 “Society and Culture in Provincial America,” 69-79, 71-82;; Use Subheadings;
9/13
blog
Why do the Wampanoags negotiate in 1621 and fight in 1675? C 3 “Society and Culture in Provincial America,” 79-88, 83-93;; Use Subheadings
9/14 Colonial America
Review for exam
9/15 EXAM #1
EXAM # 1: 12 Multiple Choice, 2 IDs and DBQ on Puritans
9/16
paper Why do the Wampanoags negotiate in 1621 and fight in 1675? 2-3 pages
WEEK 4
9/19
Turner and the Frontier
Thesis; map;
The Struggle for Continent and the New Imperialism (90-100), 94-106
USE IDS: Thesis, Albany Plan, Iroquois Confederacy, French and Indian War, Pontiac, Proclamation of 1763
blog;
September 20 French and Indian War – Second Frontier, Trail of Tears Third Frontier, Indian Removal
The Confederation and the Northwest and Indians and Western Lands, (139-142);147-150
USE IDs: Ordinances of 1784, 1785; Northwest Ordinance
Establishing National Sovereignty (158-160)169-172
IDS: Whiskey Rebellion, 1790s Indian relations, Jay’s Treaty
Read Kezirian #19: What is the Significance of the Frontier in American History?” Blog using the prompts provided http://blog.whps.org/twilson/the-frontier/what-is-the-significance-of-the-frontier-in-american-history/BLOG
9/21
The Way West, Hand out DBQ Doubling the National Domain, Expansion and War, The War of 1812 (183-198,)198-216
IDs: Louisiana Purchase; Lewis and Clark; Jefferson’s Assimilation Program, Tecumseh and the Prophet
Expanding the West (204-8), 222-6,
IDS: Reasons for Westward Expansion; Astor’s Fur Company; Eastern Images of the West
Indian Removal (215-6, 231-5)234-5,253-8
IDs: Worcester v. Georgia
Looking Westward, Expansion and War (331-42), 364-76
IDs: Manifest Destiny, Texas Independence, Oregon Trail, Mexican War
Debating the Past: The Frontier and the West, (444-5), 500-1
9/22 Chapter 16, The Conquest of the Far West, (428-41), 481- 496 use sticky notes9/23
9/23 Map Quiz
Topographical map quiz with 30 features: Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada, Appalachian Mts., Ozark Mts, Adirondack Mts., White Mts., Cascade Mts.; Great Plains, Great Basin, Mt. McKinley, Puget Sound, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico: Rivers including Mississippi, Ohio, Hudson, Columbia, Missouri, Rio Grande, St. Lawrence Seaway, Colorado, Snake; The Great Salt Lake, 5 Great Lake;s
Chapter 16, 441-454 The Romance of the West, The Dispersal of the Tribes, The Rise and Decline of the Frontier,
WEEK 5
9/26 We Shall Remain: Wounded Knee ; New Deal and the “Indian Problem”, (695-7) 785-6 Native Americans and the War, (733), 823, “The Rise of the Modern West,” (781) 878, Indian Militancy in1960s (848-50)951-4,
9/27 EXAM #2 IDS, MC and DBQ
APPARTS
AUTHOR
PLACE AND TIME
PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE
AUDIENCE
REASON TO WRITE
THE MAIN IDEA
SIGNIFICANCE IN RELATION TO THE QUESTION
IDENTIFICATIONS
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and Significance in relationship to the Frontier
T
E-mail Dr. Wilson at tracey_wilson@whps.org and traceymwilson@gmail.com . In this e-mail tell me your name, the period of the day you have AP US History, who your favorite American hero is, and your biggest hope for US History class this year. This is worth 10 points.
Charles Mann, “Why Billington Survived,” 31-62
BLOG #2 Read Kezirian #3″How Puritanical Were the Puritans?” Blog using the prompt provided http://blog.whps.org/twilson/category/frontier/
BLOG 2. A Counterpoint to British Colonization in America: Father Serra and the Spanish Impact on Alta California: Salvation or Exploitation? 9-14http://blog.whps.org/twilson/category/frontier/
LEVELS OF QUESTIONS
Level 1 – factual, can find the evidence in the text: What happened in Caen during World War II?
Level 2 – answers are from the text, but require analysis and interpretation; an inference: Is an oral interview with a pilot on the Enola Gay memory or history?
Level 3 – open-ended and goes beyond the text; provokes discussion on an abstract issue or idea, has many good answers: Do we have any historical events that we choose not to commemorate in the US? Why?
IDENTIFICATIONS
Who, What, When, Where, Why, and Significance in relationship to the Frontier
