HIS33090 African American and Native American Citizenship, 1780-1950

Academic Year 2024/2025

This module explores citizenship in the United States with a particular focus on Native Americans and African Americans. The American Revolution created representative governments and a rights-based constitutional order, but racial exclusions and settler colonialism often subverted these ideals. By the early 1800s, African Americans confronted restrictions on their ability to move, settle, testify in court, access public schools and transportation, and vote—not just in slaveholding states but in much of the North and new western states of the expanding U.S. republic. Black Americans battled their exclusion in the courts, via journalism, protest and politics, and by founding schools and civic organizations.
Indigenous Americans developed their own polities to maintain land and sovereignty in the face of forcible detribalization and violent displacement. In some states and territories, racial laws did not exclude Native Americans from U.S. citizenship. For Native Americans, then, citizenship questions were twofold: how to define citizenship within their nations, and whether gaining U.S./state citizenship was worth sacrificing self-governance, collective land rights, and Indigenous women’s political power. Indigenous communities answered these questions in different ways, moving in and out of U.S. citizenship long before the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.

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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this course you should have:
• an understanding of the history of citizenship United States, especially how racialized laws and practices excluded people of color, how Native American and African American faced distinct challenges and experiences of citizenship, and how individuals and communities fought, often successfully, to remove discriminatory restrictions on their rights and sovereignty
• an awareness of the historical and intellectual context in which the contest over American citizenship took place, and of current scholarly debates and questions
• developed skills in dealing with primary and secondary sources
• experience of working and learning with others
• developed your skills in written analysis

Indicative Module Content:

This module will address such concepts as:
• What U.S. citizenship meant, and how local and national government came to limit it by race in the aftermath of the Revolution
• How Black and Indigenous peoples asserted their civil rights and sovereignty, broadening citizenship for all Americans
• How the historical experiences and goals of Native Americans around citizenship aligned with—and diverged from—those of African Americans
• How citizenship advocacy and policy involved Indigenous and African American women

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

11
Seminar (or Webinar)

22
Specified Learning Activities

95
Autonomous Student Learning

95
Total

223
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module combines a one-hour lecture with a 2-hour seminar. Weekly lectures provide overviews of the topic, with focus on background to readings, and its relation to modern scholarship. Weekly seminars focus on small-group active and task-based learning by means of class debates, discussion in-class and out of class group research activities, and presentations. Autonomous learning is advanced through student-led debate, group and individual research labs, and discussion of set primary sources and student presentations. Student reflection is promoted by discussion posts. Advanced research, writing and citations skills are developed through an end-of-semester essay or comparable project. 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Participation in Learning Activities: Class participation and engagement. Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No

20

 No
Reflective Assignment: Students will post to weekly discussion boards in response to prompts. Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 12 Graded No

35

 No
Assignment(Including Essay): 3-4,000-word essay, 20- minute podcast, or equivalent project (to be discussed with Prof. Newell) Week 14 Graded No

45

 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, on an activity or draft prior to summative assessment
• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback on discussion boards is given to the class throughout the trimester. Feedback on Participation is given to the class throughout the trimester. Feedback on end-of-semester essays is given individually and to the class on drafts and essays plans before final submission, and in writing on Brightspace after submission and grading.