Resilience & Removal: The ‘Native South’ in the Early Nineteenth Century - HIS00159I

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Module summary

In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, coercing thousands of Native Americans to leave their homes for what is now Oklahoma. To this day, ‘Indian Removal’ remains a significant moment in American collective memory, one that still has very real consequences on systemic inequality in the modern day. This module analyses the evolution of Indigenous societies in the south-east of North America, the so-called ‘Native South’, during the early republic period of the United States.

Beginning with settler conceptions of what an ‘Indian’ was to the formation of Indian Country, this thematic module focuses on Indigenous responses to the encroaching influence of the United States. The effect of ‘civilisation missions’ on Indigenous communities will be assessed, with a particular focus on how this reshaped many societies across the Native South. These missions will be considered in tandem with white rationale for Removal policies, tracking the ideological developments from George Washington to Andrew Jackson. This module moves beyond well-worn narratives of Indigenous tragedy and the ‘vanishing Indian’, focussing on the vibrant cultures that had emerged across the Native South. Resistance to removal efforts will also be considered, from the armed resistance of the Seminoles to the legal defences of the Cherokees. By understanding one of the most infamous events of American history, we will breakdown the long history of U.S. settler colonialism and how Indigenous peoples have organised to resist it.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2024-25

Module aims

The aims of this module are:

• To provide students with the opportunity to study particular historical topics in depth
• To develop students’ ability to examine a topic from a range of perspectives and to strengthen their ability to work critically and reflectively with secondary and primary material
   

Module learning outcomes

Students who complete this module successfully will: 

• Have acquired a deep knowledge of the specific topic studied
• Have developed their ability to use and synthesise a range of primary and secondary sources
• Be able to evaluate the arguments that historians have made about the topic studied
• Have developed their ability to study independently through seminar-based teaching
   

Module content

Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1. Students will then attend a 1-hour plenary/lecture and a 2-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW) during which there are no seminars. Students prepare for and participate in eight 1-hour plenaries/lectures and eight 2-hour seminars in all.

Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:

1. The Native American in the Settler Mind
2. Indian Polities: The Native South by 1800
3. Navigating Defeat: The War of 1812
4. The Civilisation Mission
5. Slavery in the Native South
6. Mandating Removal
7. Resisting Removal    
8. The Birth of Indian Country
    

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Additional assessment information

For formative assessment, students will complete a referenced 1200 to 1500-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This will be submitted in either the Week 5 or Week 9 RAW week (on the day of the weekly seminar).

For summative assessment, students will complete an Assessed Essay (2000 words, footnoted). This will comprise 100% of the overall module mark.

Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period. 
 

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.

Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.

For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.

Indicative reading

For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:

• Claudio Saunt, Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020). 
• Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent: The Epic Quest for North America, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020).
• Jane Dinwoodie, ‘Evading Indian Removal in the American South’, The Journal of American History, 108, no. 1 (2021): 17–41.