Course Schedule
Part I: Expectations and Historical Questions
August 30: Defining Marriage, Defining History
Introduction to electronic resources needed for course
reading:
- Schedule and other Information on the website.
- Enough info about the bibliographic software Zotero and Endnote to decide whether you want to use one of these tools to help you take notes.
assignment:
- Question Sheet about your expectations of marriage, if not filled out in class.
- Please up-date your OnCourse Profile to include your photo, email, major, and year. Comments that tell the class about your interests are also encouraged.
- Decide on the note-taking strategy that you are going to use.
September 6: Why study the history of marriage?
Please click the following link for detailed information about the Position Paper, Peer Review, and Discussion Leading Assignments.
Announcement from Sept. 2: Please check your IU email account for announcements about this class sent through OnCourse. If you are not receiving them, please let the instructor know by emailing marriage@indiana.edu.
reading:
- Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, a history: from obedience to intimacy, or how love conquered marriage. New York: Viking, 2005. Contents, Introduction pp. 1-12, notes pp. 315-316. [ER]
- Cott, Nancy F. Public Vows: A History of Marriage and the Nation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000. Contents, Introduction pp. 1-8, notes pp. 231-233.
- Shammas, Carole. A History of Household Government in America. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 2002. Contents, Preface (xiii-xiv), Chapter 2 (24-52), and Chapter 4 (83-107) and related notes: pp. 191, 196-203, 208-213.
- Postion Papers: These should be posted to, and can be read or downloaded in, the "Forums" section of the OnCourse website for this course. Detailed instructions for posting can be found there. Please click the following link for detailed information about the Position Paper, Peer Review, and Discussion Leading Assignments.
Writers:
Reviewers:
Emma Young Scott Lillard, Whitney Moore Lizzie Cowan Andrew McKean
Questions to Think About:
Schedule:
- After reviewing the course schedule, assignments and policies on line, what questions do you have about how we will proceed?
- What aspects of the course sound most interesting? Which ones make you uneasy?
Understanding the Reading:
For each of the assigned authors (Coontz, Cott and Shammas), please think about the following:
- Before you begin reading, look at the chapter headings and any brief introductory information you can find. In your own words, what would you say the book is about?
- What kind of books are these? Are they primary or secondary sources? Who is the intended audience for each?
- What time period do these books cover? When does the historian start her story? And when does it end? Within this time frame, what periods does she pick out as particularly important turning points? (You will be able to answer this question with greater precision of you scan the first and last pages of each of Shammas and Cott's chapters. Note any dates, terms or events you would like defined or clarified.)
- What is the "thesis statement" for the book?
- What are some of the questions the historian is trying to answer?
Questions to Write About:
- Why should we study the history of marriage? What reasons do the authors give? Which of these do you find most compelling and why?
- What do these historians think distinguishes marriage today from marriage in the past? Which of these changes over time seems most significant to you, and what do we need to study to understand how it occurred?
Part II: Patriarchy, Race and Revolution
September 13: Patriarchy, Social Order and Agency
reading:
- Reading Guide/Paper Questions
- Timeline
- Review Shammas, Chapters 2 and 4
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. "Deputy Husbands" and "Consort." Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750. 1st Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage Books, 1991. 35-50, 106 -125, notes 249-250, 256-260. [ER]
- Brown, Kathleen M. Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia. Chapel Hill: Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture by the University of North Carolina Press, 1996. 107-109, 116-136, notes 405-415. [ER]
- At least one of the following primary sources. Please see the discussion questions for suggestions about how to approach the material.
- William Byrd Diary, selections 1709-1712
- Richardson, Samuel. Pamela, or, virtue rewarded. In a series of familiar letters from a beautiful young damsel to her parents. In four volumes. The sixth edition, corrected. And embellish'd with copper plates, design'd and engrav'd by Mr. Hayman, and Mr. Gravelot. London: printed for S. Richardson; and sold by J. Osborn; and John Rivington, 1742. Volume II pp. 344-359 (for printing purposes, Document Image #s 368-383) [ECCO] The 1792 edition has a somewhat more readable font; for this edition go to Volume II, pages 312-325. NOTE: These links will take you to volume 1. You will need to select volume 2 and find the appropriate pages yourself by clicking on the eTable of Contents, and then a chapter heading. At the page level, you can jump directly to the chosen pages.
- Gouge, William. Of domesticall duties: Eight treatises. I. An exposition of that part of Scripture out of which domesticall duties are raised. ... By William Gouge. London: Printed by Iohn Haviland for William Bladen and are to be sold at the signe of the Bible neere the great north doore of Pauls, 1622. Prefatory letter and Table of Contents (Document Images 1-13) [EEBO].
- Slave Codes from Colonial Virginia extracted by the Jamestown Project. Easy to Print Version
- Postion Papers
Writers:
Reviewers:
Rachele Whitlow Lauren Reddington, Kathryn Jenkins Michael Harris Lauren Reddington, Scott Lillard Whitney Moore Scott Lillard, Kathryn Jenkins
September 18: Marriage and the American Revolution
Reading:
- Reading Guide/Paper Questions
- Primary Sources:
Personal Letters:
Letters in Fiction:
- Hannah Webster Foster and Cathy N. Davidson. The Coquette. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Especially Introduction and Letters V, XII, XXIII, XXVI, XXVIII-XXX, XXXII-XXXVII, XL-XLIII, LIII-LV, and LXV-LXXIV.
Newspaper desertion notices and responses:
- John & Eunice Davis, New Hampshire Gazette, August 29, 1760; July 30, August 6, 1762.
- George Livingston, Virginia Gazette (Rind), April 6, 1769.
- Samuel Smith, Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon), October 3, 1767 and December 13, 1770.
- Anne Slaughter, Virginia Gazette (Rind), December 9, 1773.
- Samuel Huggins, Pennsylvania Gazette, 1784-1797
Newspaper commentary on Marriage:
- "The GOOD WIFE. & The GOOD HUSBAND," Virginia Gazette (Purdie), January 21, 1773.
- Timothy Foresight, "Mr. Crier…," The Independent Chronicle, Boston, June 15, 1786.
- "Essential rights and duties which belong to women," Weekly Museum, New York, March 16 1793.
Marriage Law:
- Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England. Oxford: printed at the Clarendon Press, 1765. Volume I, chapter XV (421-433). [ECCO]
- Dewey, Frank L. "Thomas Jefferson's Notes on Divorce." William and Mary Quarterly XXXIX, no. 1 (1982): 212-223 [JSTOR]. (This is a transcription of notes Thomas Jefferson, as a young lawyer, made while preparing to argue a 1772 divorce case. Skim the introduction and read the notes to get a sense of the kinds of sources that might appear in legal arguments.)
- Postion Papers
Writers:
Reviewers:
Mandy Gallimore Lizzie Cowan Kathryn Jenkins Andrew McKean Lisa Sarnowski
September 27: Historians on Marriage and the American Revolution
Reading:
- Reading Guide/Paper Questions
- Shammas. Household Government. Chapter 3
- Cott. Public Vows. Chapter 1
- Lewis, Jan. 1987. The Republican Wife: Virtue and Seduction in the Early Republic. William and Mary Quarterly XXXIX (1): 689-721. [JSTOR]
- Linda K. Kerber. "'No Political Relation to the State': Conflicting Obligations in the Revolutionary Era." "No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies": Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. New York: Hill and Wang, 1998. 3-46, notes 311-325. [ER]
- Postion Papers
Writers:
Reviewers:
Jonathan Williams Alex Gettelfinger Scott Lillard Tali Schussler Shauna Pauszek Rachele Whitlow
October 4: Marriage and Nineteenth Century U.S. History
Primary Source Evalution Due.
Please post to OnCourse before class, and bring a paper copy.reading:
- Discussion Questions
- Cott. Public Vows. Chapters 2-5
October 11: Divorce and Marriage Reform
reading
- Reading Guide/Paper Questions
- Position Papers
- Greeley, Horace. Recollections of a busy life. A new ed. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1971. 571-618. [ER]
- Basch, Norma. "Prologue," "When Women Go to Court." Framing American Divorce: From the Revolutionary Generation to the Victorians. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1999. 1-11, 97-120, notes 193-195, 212-218 [ER]
- Hartog, Hendrik. "Introduction." Man and Wife in America: A History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000. 1-5, notes 317-319. [ER]
And one of the following:
- Hartog, Hendrik. "Lawyering, Husband's Rights, and "the Unwritten Law" in Nineteenth-Century America." Journal of American History 84, no. 1 (1997): 67-96. [JSTOR]
- Lystra, Karen. "Husbands and Wives" and selections from "Not for God Only." Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Chapter 7 (192-226), 8 (227-237, 258) notes 308-319, 322 [ER]
Writers:
Reviewers:
Susan Peltz Michael Harris Tali Schussler Daniela Madiol Alex Gettelfinger Meredith Huffman
October 18: Why Monogamy?
- Discussion/Paper Questions
- Position Papers
- Review Cott, Public Vows, Chapter 5.
- Gordon, Sarah Barringer. The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Introduction pp. 1-6, Chapter 1 pp. 19-30, and Chapters pp. 85-116. [ER]
- Ulrich, Laurel. Rachel's death : how memory challenges history, Leonard J. Arrington Mormon history lecture series ; no. 9. Logan, Utah: Special Collections and Archives Utah State University : Distributed by Utah State University Press, 2003. [ER]
- Woman's Exponent, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 1 and May 15, 1879, especially pages 235-235, the report on "Miss Anthony's Speech" on 236-237, and page 243-245.
- Stenhouse, T. B. H. "Tell it all": the story of a life's experience in Mormonism. An autobiography. Hartford,: A.D. Worthington, 1875: Publisher's Note, Contents (xiv-xxx), and Chapter XXXIII. (459-475). [ER] The complete book can be found on the Making of American Project website.
Optional primary sources on polygamy:
- Cumming, Elizabeth Wells Randall, 1811-1867, Letter from Elizabeth Wells Cumming to Anne Elizabeth Cumming Smith, September 24, 1858, in The Genteel Gentile: Letters of Elizabeth Cumming, 1857-1858. Canning, Ray R. and Beeton, Beverly. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Library, Tanner Trust Fund, 1977, pp. 101. (Click on the link above and type in your IU username and password. This will bring up a page with a list of all of her letters and choose the one dated September 24, 1858 near the bottom of the list.)
- "The Republicans and the Mormons," Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, published as Columbus Daily Enquirer; Date: 01-07-1866; Volume: VIII; Issue: 6; Page: [1]
Optional (recommended for those interested in writing on marriage, race & civilization):
- Shammas, Household Government, Chapter 1 (1-23), Chapter 5 (108-144) and related notes pp. 213-219.
- Palmer, B. M. (Benjamin Morgan), 1818-1902. The family in its civil and churchly aspects: an essay in two parts. Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1876. Chapters 1-3, 6-8.
- Postion Papers
Writers:
Reviewers:
Meredith Huffman Mandy Gallimore Lisa Sarnowski Emma Young
Part III: Inventing Modern Marriage
October 25: Inventing Modern Marriage
Research Paper Proposal and Bibliography Due
Please post to OnCourse before class, and bring a paper copy.
reading:
- Discussion Questions
- Cott. Public Vows. Chapters 6-8
- Henry Bruekner, The Marriage of Pocahontas, 1855, oil on canvas, 50 x 70in. New York State Office of General Services, New York State Executive Mansion, Albany, New York.
November 1: Marriage Across the Color Line
reading:
- Reading Guide/Paper Questions
- Position Papers
- Renee Romano. Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Postwar America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003. Please read the Prologue, Chapters 1, 4,5,6, and the Epilogue in their entirety. Read at least the introductory and concluding sections of chapters 2,3,7, and 8. You are encouraged to try to read the whole book.
- Postion Papers
Writers:
Reviewers:
Jonathan Williams Daniela Madiol Susan Peltz Shauna Pauszek
November 8: History and the Gay Marriage Debate
reading:
- Reading Guide and Paper Questions
- Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health. Historians Brief (Amicus Brief #6), Defendant's Brief (Table of Contents and Historical Sections, found on page images 1-5, 48-54, and 77-85; numbered in document as i-iv and 17-23, and 40-47), and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Decision in the case. Detailed instructions about where to find the reading and what to focus on can be found in the discussion questions. You are encouraged to explore the GLAD website for additional information about the case.
At least one of the following:
- Articles by Peggy Pascoe, Estelle Freedman and Mark Gallagher from History News Network Forum on Gay Marriage
- Vatican Statement “Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons.”
- Stanton, Glenn T., and Bill Maier. Marriage on trial: the case against same-sex marriage and parenting. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004. Contents (8-9), 11-17, 90-92, 128-130, 167-171. [ER]
- Russell Shorto, “What’s Their Real Problem with Gay Marriage? (It’s the Gay Part)” New York Times Magazine. June 19, 2005 [Lexis-Nexis]
For up-to-date information on legal activities relevant to gay marriage, see the Human Rights Campaign web page on Marriage Recognition.
Position Papers:
- Meredith Huffman
- Susan Peltz
- Kathryn Jenkins
- Daniela Madiol
- Tali Schussler
- Mandy Gallimore
- Whitney Moore
- Lisa Sarnowski
- Rachele Whitlow
November 15: Writing Week - No Class
November 20: Research Paper Drafts Due, via OnCourse.
November 22: Happy Thanksgiving - No Class
November 29: Defining Marriage for the 21st Century
reading:
- Discussion/Paper Questions
- Cott. Public Vows. Chapter 9.
- Coontz, Stephanie. Marriage, a history: from obedience to intimacy, or how love conquered marriage. New York: Viking, 2005. pages 258-301, notes 394-411. [ER]
- And at least one of the following:
- Shammas. Household Government. Chapter 7
- Hartog, Hendrik, “What Gay Marriage Teaches Us about the History of Marriage.”
- Fineman, Martha "Why Marriage?" in Shanley, Mary Lyndon, et al. Just marriage, Oxford UK ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004 [ER]
- Walters, Suzanna Danuta, "Take my Domestic Partner, Please: Gays and Marriage in the Era of the Visible," in Bernstein, Mary, and Renate Reimann. Queer families, queer politics : challenging culture and the state, New York: Columbia University Press, 2001: 338-357. [ER]
- Optional - a quick read from this week's paper: Stephanie Coontz, "Taking Marriage Private," New York Times, November 26, 2007
Position Papers:
- Jonathan Williams
- Michael Harris
- Scott Lillard
- Alex Gettelfinger
- Liam Sexton
- Emma Young
- Lizzie Cowan
- Andrew McKean
- Shauna Pauszek