Teaching American History, Year

I

Peopling North America

George S. Vascik

Miami University Hamilton

February 18, 2009

Teaching American History, Year

I

Benchmarks and Indicators

• Grade Five, History

– Settlement

• Describe the lasting effects of Spanish, French and English colonization in North America

Teaching American History, Year

I

Benchmarks and Indicators

• Grade Eight, History

– The First Global Age

• Reasons for colonization, including religion, desire for land and economic opportunity

Teaching American History, Year

I

Speech regions in the US

Where did these speech patterns come from?

Teaching American History, Year

I

The argument

• David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, Oxford University Press, 1989.

• The colonies were settled by four separate folk groups, each with their own folkways.

• The influence of those folkways are with us still today.

Teaching American History, Year

I

Different folkways

• Fischer identifies 24 folkways:– Speech– Building– Family/Marriage/Gender/Sex/Naming– Death/Age– Dress/Food/Work– Religion– Learning/Magic– Wealth/Rank/Order– Power/Freedom

Teaching American History, Year

I

The four cultural

areas

Borderlands

Quakers

Puritans

Cavaliers

Teaching American History, Year

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Puritanorigins

-Anti-Royalist

-Religious

-Educated

-Wealth = salvation

-John Winthrop, theAdams family

Teaching American History, Year

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Quaker origins

-Non-Conformers

-Anti-authority

-Commercial

-Most welcoming ofOther groups

-Penn, Franklin

Teaching American History, Year

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Cavalier origins

-Royalist

-Church of England

-Hierarchical

-Style and fashion valuedover education

-Fairfax, Washington, Jefferson

Teaching American History, Year

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Borderlands origin

-Anti-Royalist

-Lawless

-Men = warriors

-Women = workers

-Unique family patterns

-Calhoun, Polk, Jackson

Teaching American History, Year

I

Borderlands settlement

Teaching American History, Year

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Representative figures

Teaching American History, Year

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Housing types

Teaching American History, Year

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Summation

• Given these disparate folk ways, it will be very difficult for the colonies to unite.

• What was it about life in America that made these very different people feel more “American” and alike than “British” and dissimilar?

Teaching American History, Year

I

Benchmarks and Indicators

• Grade Five, History

– Settlement

• Describe the lasting effects of Spanish, French and English colonization in North America

Teaching American History, Year

I

Benchmarks and Indicators

• Grade Eight, History

– The First Global Age

• Reasons for colonization, including religion, desire for land and economic opportunity