JCU Logo
JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "HS-RS 321 H"
COURSE NAME: "Pirates, Runaways, Witches and Rebels: The Underside of the Colonial Atlantic World- HONORS (This course carries 4 semester hours of credits. A minimum CUM GPA of 3.5 is required)"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall 2024
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Gene Ogle
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: TTH 10:00-11:15 AM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES: Prerequisites: One previous history course. Co-requisites: EN 110; Recommended: Junior Standing
OFFICE HOURS: TTh 11:30-12:30 or by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
History Research Seminar: 300-level history courses designated by the prefix HS-RS indicate courses being offered as Research Seminars. These courses are writing-intensive and help to train students to carry out original research by guiding them through the preparation of a significant research paper. History majors are encouraged to take these before their senior year, and especially before the semester in which they prepare their thesis.
Today, we often celebrate pirates, runaway slaves, witches, and frontiersmen as adventurous spirits, rebels against oppression, and pioneers of a more egalitarian world. In their own time, they were condemned as blood-thirsty, unnatural, and in some cases, literally demonic. Both views have validity, neither captures how they experienced their lives, nor their historical significance. In this course, we will attempt to come to a better understanding of their lives and significance by exploring the basic features of their daily lives and mental universes, the political, social, and gendered norms against which they rebelled, and the varied roles they played in the development of the early modern Atlantic World. We will also grapple with the difficulties historians face in reconstructing the lives of people who left few written records themselves, but about whom much was written. To this end, we will examine a variety of methods that scholars have employed to better understand these people and their world.

Satisfies "Early Modern History" core course requirement for History majors.
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:

WE WILL DETERMINE THE ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS/STRUCTURE OF THE HONORS VARIANT OF THE COURSE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SECOND WEEK OF CLASSES.  THESE WILL INVOLVE EITHER A LONGER, MORE IN-DEPTH RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT OR ADDITIONAL COURSE READINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.

SEE THE SYLLABUS FOR THE REGULAR SECTION OF HS RS 321 FOR REQUIRED BOOKS.

This course will primarily be run as a seminar in which we discuss the assigned readings and your research projects.  As such, your active participation in our discussions is absolutely necessary for the course to work well.

A Note on How We Should Approach this Semester

Most generally, I am committed to the principle that my aims as an undergraduate history instructor should be to push (and to help) you to develop the skills, capacities, and modes of interpretation and understanding that will allow you to engage critically with the human past, the traces it has left, the ever-renewing knowledge we have of it, and its meanings for our present.  My role is that of a ‘coach,’ not a performer playing a show or a talking head telling you what’s what (although sometimes I will suggest my understandings of that too).  With this approach, you will without doubt learn more and develop abilities that are useful in academic and other settings more fully than if I simply lectured and asked you to repeat that material on exams, and you will likely find what we do more interesting too. However, for this approach to work, we all need to commit ourselves to meeting the following expectations:

1.  Do the course reading (and especially the discussion reading) on a timely basis. You absolutely must complete it before the class in which we are discussing it and (if relevant) the deadline for making a related forum post (if you can finish it even earlier and thus have a bit more time to think about it, that’s even better).  At times this course will involve a significant amount of out-of-class reading.  I know that this may be a challenge for some of you, but we collectively need an ample amount of solid material to work with to make our discussions meaningful.  Also, do know that with practice you will develop your abilities to deal with larger amounts of reading in limited time frames.  If you wish, we can talk more about how to do the reading and the kinds of things you should be looking for in doing it in class.

2.  When you are present, be present.  We should make the most of the 2 ½ hours we meet each week to engage with the course materials and learn together.  During that time, we should all be focused on that effort and not other things such as checking social media, catching up on e-mail, studying for other courses or whatever else may distract us from the matters at hand.  Doing otherwise is disrespectful to the other members of the class, including me.  As such, if you really, really need to be doing something else, just don’t come to class.

3.  Maintain a respectful, professional tone in your responses and posts, but don’t be afraid to experiment with ideas and interpretations out of fear that they may be controversial (just work on clearly expressing your reasoning).  On this note, I think our discussions will function best if we all work on the assumption that each of us is openly and forthrightly attempting to grapple with the complexities and ambiguities of our shared human past and its relationship to our present (and as such that the things we say and write are never intended to harm or to insult).  Engaging with that past often forces us to look at the many horrid and ugly things that humans have done to and thought about (and continue to do to and think about) one another, which can be a difficult and painful experience.  Frank and open discussion is the best way both to seek to understand that past and to forge civil and tolerant ways of interacting and living with it and one another in the present.

4.  Give credit where credit is due and be sure that all work you hand in is your own.  Not only does plagiarism or any other form of cheating defeat the whole purpose of going to university to learn and to improve one’s abilities, it undermines the basic trust any community needs to learn and work together.

5.  Try not to be too nervous about grades.  We learn through practice, we all fall short of our aims sometimes, and we sometimes learn more from falling short than anything else.  I purposefully keep many assignments fairly open in terms of the types of topics and arguments you may develop to give you the freedom to present your ideas and sharpen your abilities, and such freedom always entails risks.  Know that I put mechanisms in place to weigh the improvement that you make over the course into the calculation of your final course grade.

6.  Keep lines of communication open.  Please know that the ways in which I structure classroom sessions and on-line discussion activities in this syllabus remain experimental and may change.  Please share your thoughts on them and feel free to suggest approaches, ways of organizing discussions (in-person or on-line), or other activities that you believe may help you and your classmates to better engage with the course material.  I cannot neglect my responsibility to set the rules for the game that is our course in ways that I believe best assure both academic rigor and fairness across the class, but you can be assured that I will value and carefully consider any suggestions you may make. More generally, if you have questions or concerns regarding any matters relating to the course, please do feel free to share them with me.

 
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

In successfully completing this course, you will further develop your abilities to:

  • Evaluate/analyze differing scholarly arguments/ interpretations of historical problems (including ethnohistorical approaches)
  • Understand how context and audience contribute to shape historical interpretation/perspective
  • Formulate a research question about a historical topic
  • Assemble and critically evaluate primary and secondary sources
  • Be aware of the importance of finding, using and producing reliable information
  • Respect academic integrity and ethical standards
  • Effectively communicate information and ideas orally and in writing in accurate, polished, and persuasive English
TEXTBOOK:
NONE
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
In Class ParticipationThis course will primarily be run as a seminar and workshop in which we discuss the assigned readings and your research. As such, your active participation in our discussions is absolutely necessary for the course to work well. The high percentage of your grade that is based on your participation reflects that fact. You should bring a question based on the readings that you believe we should discuss to each class. On occasion, additional brief in class or out of class reaction papers, on-line Moodle forum activities, and/or in-class presentations may be assigned as components of your participation grade. Please note that behaving in ways that create distractions for other members of the class (including the professor) will lower your participation grade. Such behavior includes, but is not limited to: messaging, checking social media, catching up on e-mail, watching on-line videos, reading non-class related materials, studying for other courses, shopping on-line, and generally any activity that detracts from your or any other classmate's full participation in what we are doing in the classroom.20%
Reaction Papers (3-4) (1 1/2 to 2 double-spaced pages/350-500 words each)In each of the reaction papers (approximately two double-spaced pages in length, and see the course schedule for due dates), you will develop a brief but coherent and well-supported argument regarding the readings for the day on which the paper is due. In these papers, you should not summarize the reading, but rather develop a main thought of your own building on those readings. Ways of developing such arguments include, but are not limited to: critiquing some part of the argument of a secondary source, testing some part of the argument of a secondary source through the analysis of a primary source, comparing and contrasting different readings, or developing a point made by one of the authors more fully and in doing so explaining more of what it may tell us about the subject under discussion. Your grade for these reaction papers will be determined by the strength and focus of your analysis, the persuasiveness of your argument (including quality of writing), and the originality of your thought.20%
Research Paper (including draft, revision, and presentation, c. 12 pages or c. 3000 words)For the research paper (c. 12 pages or c. 3000 words), you will explore a topic appropriate for the course chosen in consultation with me. Your paper should build on both primary and secondary sources, and in preparing it, I will guide you through the processes of preparing a first draft and revising that draft to produce a stronger final paper. You also will present this paper to the rest of the class for discussion. For these discussions, each of you will also review at least one of your colleagues’ papers, providing both a written review (for the author and for me) and an oral commentary during the discussion of her/his paper in class. The grade on this assignment will be determined by the strength of your analysis and research, the persuasiveness of your argument (including quality of writing), and the originality of your thought.35%
Final ExamThe final exam will be composed of two essay questions I will give you the week before the exam. You will answer one of those questions. You may make use of two double-sided pages of notes during the exam, provided that you submit them for my review before starting the exam. Your grade on the exam will depend upon the analytical strength and persuasiveness of your arguments, your capacity to discuss the material we cover in the course as a whole (including level of mastery of course readings), and the factual accuracy of your answers. Remember that what you are being tested on is your ability to develop and present a strong, well-supported argument building on the course materials, not simply provide a 'correct' answer to the question you choose.25%

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant, thorough, and insightful engagement with the course reading and other materials.
BThis is a highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised. There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluate theory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture and reference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of significant engagement with the course reading and other materials.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performance demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material. Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included. In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.

-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
See above on participation.  To participate regularly, you have to be present regularly.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

Course Readings

The books should be available at the Almost Corner Bookshop (Via del Moro, 45) or directly from the publishers' websites in eBook form.  You also may be able to find copies of some of them through the STAND Book Fundraiser sale at the beginning of the semester.  All course readings provide the basis for our discussions. You must read and think about those assigned for a particular class period.  Otherwise, you will be unable to participate adequately and your participation grade will suffer. You should also bring this material to class on the days that we are discussing it.

Important Course Policies

All assignments should be handed in as hard copies in class and electronically through the Moodle portal for the assignment--I encourage you to double-check on the Moodle to be sure that work has been submitted after you believe you have done so.  If for some reason it is not working, send them to me as e-mail attachments. 

All late work will suffer a grade penalty. No late work will be accepted following the final examination.

Any documented case of academic dishonesty on any assignment will result in a failing grade for the assignment in question and may also result in a failing grade for the course as a whole, regardless of the assignment's weight in terms of the final course grade. Please remember that, as the University's policy states, "Plagiarism can be deliberate or negligent; students are responsible for ensuring that any work submitted with their name on it is properly referenced."  If you have questions about how to cite material properly, refer to the appropriate sections of the MLA Style Manual or Chicago Manual of Style--if you have questions as to whether particular pieces of material should be cited, ask me. Note that submitting work that you have previously submitted (or plan to submit) for credit in another course is also a form of academic dishonesty, unless you obtain explicit approval from both instructors to do so. For this course, no such double submission is allowed. Please note that your papers are to be submitted to turnitin.com to check their content for plagiarism.  I am setting up the turintin submission options so that you can see the similarity reports the service generates and resubmit your papers up until the due date.

The University’s Academic Integrity policies were recently updated to include “[t]he unauthorized use of generative AI” as one of the forms that academic dishonesty can take.  In light of this change, here are the policies for this course regarding generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT). The use of generative AI for the direct composition of course assignments (e.g., papers and exam essays) is not permitted.  Simply put, your papers and essays should not include text generated by Artificial Intelligence unless that text is placed in quotation marks and identified as such.  Any papers handed in that appear to contain unauthorized AI generated text (as detected by detection software or otherwise) will not receive a grade and cannot be used to fulfill course requirements.  As the detection software can produce 'false positives,' in such cases you will be allowed to write an additional reaction paper or revised draft to fulfill those requirements.  Depending on the specifics of the individual cases, a late penalty may be applied to additional papers handed in for these reasons.

Other uses of AI (e.g., as “idea generators,” bibliographic or source-finding assistants, proof-readers) are discouraged as they may limit the fuller development of the skills, capacities, and habits of mind that constitute some of the primary aims and benefits of university education, but do not necessarily fall into the category of “unauthorized use.”  If you do use generative AI in any of these or other manners, however, you must identify that you have done so explicitly in the paper or exam essay in question. 

Office Hours, Scheduling Appointments, E-mail Guidance, and So Forth

My drop-in office hours are on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m.  to 12:30 p.m..  I am also available by appointment--to set one up, simply e-mail me or ask me just after class.  My office is on the Frohring/ex-Tiber Roof.

Please know that I do not normally respond to e-mails during the weekend or after 6:30 p.m. (but feel free to write me whenever you wish--I'll respond as soon as I can the next week or the next day).  We all need to set aside time to work on other things, disconnect, recharge, and 'stay human.'  I encourage you to do the same in ways that work with your schedule and try to do what I can to provide you with as much flexibility as possible in structuring out-of-class activities.

 

Course Schedule (Please note that the following is subject to change--any updates will be made directly to the course Moodle page.)

Part 1:  Introductions

9/3.  Introductions:  What is "history from below"?  What is the Atlantic World?

9/5.  Introductions, Part 2 (Strauss, "The Dilemma of Popular History," 130-149; Beik, "The Dilemma of Popular History," 207-215; Strauss, "The Dilemma of Popular History: Reply," 215-219; Satiya, "The Forgotten Dream of History-From Below," 420-430)

Part 2: Settler Communities, Patriarchs, Goodwives, and Witches

9/10.  Witches and Witch Panics in Colonial New England (Moyer, Detestable and Wicked Arts, “Preface,” “Introduction,” and Ch. 1 (xi-xiv, 1-35); Primary Sources on "The Hartford Witch-hunt" from Hall, ed., Witch-hunting in Seventeenth Century New England, Ch. 9 (147-163)); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 1

 9/12.  What (and Who) was a “Witch” (Moyer, Ch. 2-3 (36-91); Primary Sources on "The Hartford Witch-hunt" from Hall, ed., Witch-hunting in Seventeenth Century New England, Ch. 9 (147-163)); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 1

 

9/17.  Gender, Religious Belief and Witchcraft (Moyer, Ch. 4 (92-115); Cotton Mather, "The Character of a Virtuous Woman," and Samuel Willard, "Two Sermons on Women and the Devil"); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 1

9/19. The Dynamics of Suspicion and Accusation (Moyer, Ch. 5 (116-142); Primary Sources on the Case of Mary Parsons ("A Long-Running Feud") from Hall, ed., Witch-hunting in Seventeenth Century New England, Ch. 6 (99-114)); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 1

9/20. OFFICIAL UNIVERSITY MAKE-UP (FRIDAY)  TBA

9/24.  Understanding Confessors and the "Bewitched"? (Moyer, Ch. 6 (143-170); Reis, Excerpts from Damned Women; Primary Sources TBA); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 1; Paragraph Outlining Research Question and Topic and Preliminary Bibliography Due

9/26.  “How Do You Know She Is A Witch”—Trials and Legal Procedures (Moyer, Ch. 7 and “Conclusion,” (171-205); Primary Sources TBA); Last Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 1

 
Part 3:  Seaborne Empires, Sailors, Privateers, and Pirates

10/1.  Atlantic Empires, War, and the Making of the “Golden Age” of Piracy (Rediker, Villains of All Nations, Ch. 1-2 (1-37); TBA); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 2

10/3.  Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea:  Sailor's Lives and the Social Origins of Piracy (Rediker, Ch. 3 (38-59); TBA); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 2

 

10/8.   "Brethren of the Coast?":  Pirate Justice and Politics (Rediker, Ch. 4-5 (60-102); Snelgrave, "Captain Snelgrave's Captivity, 1719;" Johnson, "Articles of Bartholomew Robert's Crew/Pirate Articles"); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 2

10/10.  "Brethren of the Coast?" Part 2:  Gender and Sexuality Beneath the Jolly Roger (Rediker, Ch. 6 (103-126); Appleby, "The Victims of Pirate Violence," in Women and English Piracy, 169-188; Johnson, "The Life of Mary Read" and "The Life of Anne Bonny" 106-118); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 2

10/15. "Brethren of the Coast?" Part 3:  Pirates, Black Sailors, and the Slave Trade (Review Rediker, 52-56; Bialeuschewski, "Black People Under the Black Flag;" Bolster, "The Emergence of Black Sailors in Plantation America," 7-16; Recommended: Bolster, "The Emergence of Black Sailors," 16-43); Possible Due Date Reaction Paper 2

10/17.  "A First War on Terror?":  The End of an Era (Rediker, Ch. 7-8 (127-169); Johnson, "The Life of Captain Teach," 42-56; Johnson, "A short ABSTRACT of the Statute and Civil Law, in Relation to Piracy," 337-340); Last Possible Due Date for Reaction Paper 2    

 

Part 4:  Plantations, Runaways, and Maroon Societies

10/22.  Oral History, Anthropology and the Jamaican Maroons (Required:  Bilby, 1-65 (Chs. 1-2); Recommended:  Bilby, xi-xix);; Possible Due Date for Reaction Paper 3

10/24.  Out of Africa and Out of Slavery (Bilby, 69-128 (Chs. 3-4)); Possible Due Date for Reaction Paper 3

 

10/29.  Survival (Bilby, 129-180 (Ch. 5); Edwards, "Observations on the...Maroon Negroes of the Island of Jamaica"); Possible Due Date for Reaction Paper 3

10/31.  Making War, Making Peace (Required:  Bilby, 181-213, 247-288 (first sections of Ch. 6, Chs. 7-8); Edwards, "Observations on the...Maroon Negroes of the Island of Jamaica;" Recommended:  Bilby, 213-246 (remainder of Ch. 6)); Possible Due Date for Reaction Paper 3

11/5.  The On-Going Struggle, Part I (Required:  Bilby, 341-378 (Ch. 10, first sections of Ch. 11); Recommended:  Bilby, 289-340 (Ch. 9)) Possible Due Date for Reaction Paper 3; Draft of Research Paper Due

11/7.  The On-Going Struggle, Pt. II (Bilby, 378-421 (Remaining Sections of Ch. 11, Ch.12, Epilogue)); Last Possible Due Date for Reaction Paper 3

 

Part 5:  Your Research

11/12.  Research Presentations and Discussions

11/14.  Research Presentations and Discussions 

 

11/19.  Research Presentations and Discussions 

11/21.  Research Presentations and Discussions 

 

11/26.  Research Presentations and Discussions 

 

Part 6:  Legacies

12/3.  Reverberations Today, Part I: Pirates, Historians, Films, and Video Games (Ritchie, "Living With Pirates," 411-418; Web Articles on the 'History' in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag)

12/5.  Reverberations Today, II: Early Modern Witches, Historians, and Wicca (Purkiss, "Modern Witches and their Past"); Final Draft of Research Paper Due

 

Final Exam Date TBA