Student Leaning Objectives

The primary student learning objectives for this class, according to the class outline filed with the college's Curriculum Committee, include the need to:

1. Assess the history of America and the United States from the Colonial period through Reconstruction;

2. Analyze the cultural, social, and political diversity embodied in the American experience from the sixteenth century through 1877; and

3. Examine the origins of the United States Constitution and the milestone events associated with that document from the ratification process through the Civil War and Reconstruction, including the implementation of federalism and the Bill of Rights.

Student Learning Outcomes

The primary student learning outcomes that a student is expected to know by the end of the semester, according to the class outline filed with the college's Curriculum Committee, include the ability to:

1. Analyze the diversity, complexity, and contributions to world history of Pre-Columbian North America Indians;

2. Assess the European expansionist ethos in the "Age of Discovery;"

3. Evaluate the historical impact of early contact between American Indian, African, and European peoples in the 15th and 16th centuries;

4. Assess early Spanish, French, and British colonial efforts in North America;

5. Trace the evolution of English colonization in the Chesapeake and New England;

6. Judge the importance of New England's King Philip's War and Virginia's Bacon's Rebellion, and consider the course of American Indian and British Colonial relations;

7. Assess the role of women and children in colonial America;

8. Examine the significance of the Glorious Revolution;

9. Explain the importance of the Restoration Colonies;

10. Compare and contrast German and Scots-Irish immigration;

11. Analyze the religious and philosophical currents present in mid-eighteenth century colonial America;

12. Evaluate the importance of the French and Indian War;

13. Explain the causes of the American Revolution;

14. Contrast the arguments surrounding the ratification of the Constitution;

15. Compare and contrast the North and the South during the Early National period;

16. Assess the importance of the War of 1812;

17. Evaluate the rise of political parties and the advent of Jacksonian democracy;

18. Analyze the significance of antebellum reform movements, especially focusing on abolitionism and women's suffrage;

19. Compare and explain the development of African American culture among both slaves and free blacks;

20. Evaluate the circumstances leading to the outbreak of the Mexican War;

21. Critique the rise of nativism and the importance of immigrants and major ethnic groups to urban development;

22. Compare and contrast the positions of the pro-slavery and free soil/free labor factions in American society;

23. Evaluate the political, cultural, economic, and regional differences that led to disunion and the Civil War;

24. Appraise the major factors that led to union victory in the Civil War;

25. Evaluate the political, racial, and societal issues facing the nation during Reconstruction; and

26. Appraise the cultural and institutional successes and failures of Reconstruction.