| September 4 | Introduction |
| Part I: Arrivals in the New World |
| September 6 | Christopher Columbus, from The Journal of the First Voyage to America |
| September 11 | Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, from The Relation |
| September 13 | Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, continued |
| September 18 | John Smith, from A Description of New England
William Bradford, from Of Plymouth Plantation |
| September 20 | Thomas Morton, from New English Canaan
Mary Rowlandson, from A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson |
| September 25 | Rowlandson, continued
Anne Bradstreet, "Contemplations," "The Flesh and the Spirit" |
| Part II: Enlightenment and Revolution |
| September 27 | Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" |
| BRING WORKING DRAFT OF PASSAGE ANALYSIS TO CLASS FOR PEER-EDITING. |
| October 2 | J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, from Letters from an American Farmer |
| October 4 | Crèvecœur, continued |
| TURN IN FINAL DRAFT OF PASSAGE ANALYSIS. |
| October 9 | Benjamin Franklin, "Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America"
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" |
| October 11 | Philip Freneau, "On Observing a Large Red-streak Apple"
Joel Barlow, "The Hasty Pudding" |
| October 16 | MID-TERM EXAMINATION |
| October 18 | No class |
| Part III: An American Renaissance |
| October 23 | Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Nature" |
| October 25 | Emerson, "Self-Reliance"
Henry David Thoreau, "Resistance to Civil Government" |
| October 30 | Thoreau, from Walden |
| Part IV: Debating Slavery |
| November 1 | George Fitzhugh, from "Southern Thought"
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave |
| November 6 | Douglass, continued |
| November 8 | Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, pp. 1-91 |
| November 13 | Stowe, pp. 91-184 |
| November 15 | Stowe, pp. 184-270 |
| November 20 | Stowe, pp. 271-356 |
| November 22 | Thanksgiving Holiday |
| November 27 | Stowe, pp. 356-end |
| Part V: Prosaic Lives, Poetic Voices |
| November 29 | Hawthorne, "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" |
| December 4 | Edgar Allan Poe, "The Purloined Letter," "The Raven" |
| BRING WORKING DRAFT OF RESEARCH PAPER TO CLASS FOR PEER-EDITING. |
| December 6 | Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" |
| December 11 | Walt Whitman, "Song of Myself" |
| TURN IN FINAL DRAFT OF RESEARCH PAPER. |
| December 13 | Emily Dickinson, "Poems" |
| December 18 | FINAL EXAM FROM 2 TO 3:55PM |