The following schedule is subject to change according to the demands of the class. I will announce changes to it in class when the need presents itself.
| I. Exploration and Discovery: Weeks 1-2 | |
| September 7 | Christopher Columbus, from The Journal of the First Voyage to America | September 9 | Alvar Nuñez de Cabeza de Vaca, from The Relation |
| September 14 | Alvar Nuñez de Cabeza de Vaca, continued |
| II. Founding the English Colonies: Weeks: 2-4 | |
| September 16 | William Bradford, from Of Plymouth Plantation |
| September 21 | Mary Rowlandson, from A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson |
| September 23 | Rowlandson, continued. Anne Bradstreet, "Contemplations," "The Flesh and the Spirit," "In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old," "Upon the Burning of Our House July 10th, 1666," "To My Dear Children" |
| September 28 | Cotton Mather, from The Wonders of the Invisible World Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" |
| III. Revolution and Identity: Week 4-5 | |
| September 30 | Benjamin Franklin, from Poor Richard's Almanacks, from The Autobiography |
| October 5 | J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, from Letters from an American Farmer |
| October 7 | Philip Freneau, "On Observing a Large Red-streak Apple" Phillis Wheatley, "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for North America, &c." "On Being Brought from Africa to America," "To the University of Cambridge, in New England" |
| IV. Frontier Sensibilities: Weeks 6-8 | |
| October 12 | Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" |
| October 14 | James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers |
| October 19 | Cooper, continued |
| October 21 | Cooper, continued |
| October 26 | Cooper, continued |
| October 28 | --Mid-term Examination in class-- |
| V. An American Renaissance: Weeks 8-11 | |
| November 2 | Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature," "The American Scholar" "Self-Reliance" |
| November 4 | Emerson, "Self-Reliance" Henry David Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government" |
| November 9 | Thoreau, from Walden |
| November 11 | Frederick Douglass, from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave |
| November 16 | Douglass, continued |
| November 18 | Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown" |
| VI. Internal Division and the Specter of War: Weeks 12-14 | |
| November 23 | Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| November 25 | Thanksgiving Holiday |
| November 30 | Stowe, continued |
| December 2 | Stowe, continued (Bring drafts of paper assignment for peer review) |
| December 7 | Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" |
| December 9 | Melville, continued --Paper Assignment Due-- |
| December 14 | Whitman, "Song of Myself" |
| December 16 | Review |
| --Final Examination during Finals Week-- | |