The Newberry Seminar in Early American History and Culture Co-sponsored by the History Departments of DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the University of Chicago Seminars are held on Wednesdays from 5:30–7:00 PM at the Newberry Library, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago Papers are pre-circulated. For a copy e-mail scholl[at]newberry.org. 2009-2010

Emma Willard, A Series of Maps to Willard's History of the United States, or Republic of America. Designed for Schools and Private Libraries (New York : White, Gallaher & White, 1828). Case folio G1201.S1 W5 1828

September 16, 2009— Revolt: More Family Troubles in the House Divided
Julia Stern, Northwestern University
In her Civil War narrative, Mary Chesnut reconstructs the final exchange between her cousin Betsy Witherspoon, a woman in her mid seventies, and the house slaves who are about to strangle her.  “She asked them what she had ever done that they should want to kill her?” The old woman’s question about “what she had ever done” to warrant being murdered by her “people” spoke to only one side of the double vision that enabled the white master class to hold nearly four million African Americans in bondage for more than two hundred years. Mrs. Witherspoon had treated the blacks under her authority better than had most of her neighbors.  But better than most did not change the fundamental truth that she had held them in bondage for the duration of their lives. In this chapter, I explore the Witherspoon murder as a limit case for insurrection. The incident put the white community on notice that no slaveholder, however “benevolent,”could be guaranteed immunity from the potential revenge of those held in bondage.   

October 21, 2009— "Mine-Host of Ma-re Mount" and his "Land of Milk and Honey": A Reappraisal of Thomas Morton and his World
Charlotte Carrington, University of Cambridge 
Thomas Morton established the Ma-re Mount settlement, near modern-day Quincy, Massachusetts, in the 1620s. Morton, an Anglican gentleman and lawyer, freed the servants at the plantation in order to trade and plant as equals. The Mortonites erected a maypole and embraced Old English traditions, which vexed the Pilgrims and Puritans. Morton, who was banished from New England more than once, is primarily remembered as a marginal licentious anti-type to his Puritan opponents. This article places Morton at the centre of the narrative, and examines the true nature of his dissent. It addresses Morton's disregarded side of the story, his English background and his actual actions and interactions. It argues that Morton's New World identity was formed upon the soundless of the common law and worldly entrepreneurial concerns. Morton used this praxis to pen his protest against the discrimination of the authorities, and to promote a new vision for New England.    

November 18, 2009— Lying Together: The Imperial Implications of Cross-Cultural Untruths
Joshua Piker, University of Oklahoma
* This seminar is co-sponsored by the D'Arcy McNickle Center Seminar in American Indian Studies

Indians and Europeans regularly lied to each other.  Our familiarity with that fact has, however, obscured a subset of lies that is worth examining in more detail: those told on both sides of the frontier.  This paper focuses on the cross-cultural lies told about Acorn Whistler, a Creek executed in 1752.  The process by which Creeks and imperial officials came to tell the same lies offers a unique window onto the quotidian meaning of both Indian and imperial power.  The paper argues that lies told in Coweta and Charleston can have an impact in London and may affect how we understand Lexington and Concord. 

January 20, 2010— Politics and the American Revolution in the 2008 Presidential Campaign
Andrew Schocket, Bowling Green State University

February 17, 2010— An Exhortation Among Friends: The Problem of Slavery in Early Quaker Pennsylvania
Michael Goode, University of Illinois at Chicago

March 17, 2010— The Spectacle of Maps in America, 1750 - 1840
Martin Brückner, University of Delaware

April 21, 2010—  The Politics of Slaves: Mobility, Messages, and Power in the Antebellum South
Susan O'Donovan, University of Memphis

We will pre-circulate papers to those planning to attend. If you cannot attend and want to read a paper, please contact the author directly. E-mail scholl[at]newberry.org,or call (312) 255-3524 to receive a copy of the paper. Papers are available for request two weeks prior to the seminar date. Please include your e-mail address in all correspondence.

The seminar format assumes that all participants have read the essays in advance, and that all those requesting the paper will attend the seminar. Please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend. We encourage faculty members to call the seminar to the attention of graduate students.

2008-2009

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