Week 7 · Readings & resources

Week 7 — Readings & Resources

U.S. History to 1877 Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 7 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 118–143 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text. One group states plainly what the new republic did to Native nations and to the people Washington enslaved; take it at your own pace.

Pick-one quick path (18–22 min total)

① Hamilton's program and the bank debate

Chapter 7, Section “Weigh Hamilton's financial program: debts and a bank” · Session 1, Segment 1, “Debts and a bank” · Remember: the bank debate was about how to read the Constitution, strict construction against loose construction, not only about money.

Congress Establishes the First Bank of the United States — National Park Service — the park service's account of how the bank bill moved through the Senate and the House in Congress Hall and reached Washington's desk. Read it for what the bank was meant to do for the government, for the split between the bill's northern supporters and its mostly southern opponents in the House, and for how Jefferson's and the Attorney General's objections reached Washington before he signed. Its closing sentence about the present day is the page's own view; the course reads the debate of 1791. (reading, 8–12 min)
First Bank of the United States - The Debate Between Federalists and Jeffersonians — Late Modern History — a short narrated explainer on how Hamilton proposed the bank, how it was to be funded, and why Jefferson and Madison called it unconstitutional. Listen for the strict reading of the Constitution the chapter names, though the video never uses the term, and notice that it gives only the opponents' constitutional case, not Hamilton's reply about implied powers. The video also runs ahead to the bank's end and to a later bank, which belong to later weeks, and its figures for the bank's stock are the video's, not the course's. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

② Washington's warning and the crisis with France

Chapter 7, Section “Read the Farewell Address: a published warning” · Session 1, Segment 4, “A letter, not a speech” · Remember: the Farewell Address was a public letter printed in newspapers, and its alliance advice is not the phrase entangling alliances.

George Washington's Farewell Address — George Washington's Mount Vernon — an encyclopedia entry from the museum at Washington's home. Read the sections on the address's origins, on political parties, and on diplomacy: it calls the address a public letter, says Madison drafted an earlier version that Hamilton rewrote, and dates the first newspaper printing to 1796. Use it for the sourcing step while completing the Week-7 module overview. Its closing paragraphs on later traditions go beyond this week. (reading, 8–12 min)
Great Speeches: George Washington's Farewell Address — LearnOutLoud — a narrator reads the whole address aloud, with no commentary after the opening. The opening line calls it a speech Washington delivered; the record says it was a public letter printed in newspapers, so treat that line as a slip to catch. Listen for the passage on the spirit of party and the passage on permanent alliances, then check the wording against the pinned fragments. (video, 36 min) (captions: automatic)
The XYZ Affair — The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered — a short history of how French demands for a loan and a bribe led to the Quasi-War and to the Alien and Sedition Acts. It is clear on the sequence; correct two slips as you watch. It says the protesting states were willing to secede, which goes beyond the resolutions' own text, and it runs ahead to the Civil War, which a later week takes up. (video, 7 min) (captions: creator)
Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) — National Archives — the National Archives' introduction to the four laws, followed by transcripts of three of them. Read the introduction for why a Federalist-controlled Congress passed them, whom they targeted, and who was prosecuted; the transcripts below are optional. (reading, 6–10 min)

③ Who the founding papers leave out

Chapter 7, Section “Steer a neutral course: foreign policy and the Ohio country” · Session 1, Segment 3, “A treaty of cession” · Remember: the Treaty of Greenville records Native nations' cession of land after a war, and the Farewell Address says nothing about slavery.

The Treaty of Greenville 1795 — Avalon Project — the treaty's full text. Read the opening paragraph for the twelve nations it names, in its own spellings, and Article 3 for the boundary line and the cession of land east and south of it. Then set it beside the Northwest Ordinance's promise of good faith toward Native nations. (reading, 5–8 min)
The Forgotten War They Don’t Teach You About — PBS Origins — an episode on the Native alliance that defeated two United States armies in the Ohio country before the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville, with Native speakers explaining the alliance in their own terms. Watch for how it ties the war to the government's debts and to land sales, an interpretation worth weighing. Its figures for armies, debts, and acres are the video's, not the course's. (video, 15 min) (captions: creator)
Ona Judge: A Woman Who Escaped Slavery & the Washingtons — George Washington's Mount Vernon — a Mount Vernon staff member tells how Ona Judge, enslaved as Martha Washington's maid, escaped from the President's House in Philadelphia in 1796 and refused every attempt to return her. This builds on Week 4's work with weighing who the Revolution included and who it left out. The video and the National Park Service give dates a day apart for her escape; the course keys neither, which is a corroboration lesson in itself. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)
George Washington's Enslaved Chef: Hercules — George Washington's Mount Vernon — the story of Hercules, the enslaved cook Washington brought to Philadelphia, who escaped from Mount Vernon in 1797 while his children remained enslaved. Watch it beside the Farewell Address: the address speaks of liberty, and this video shows who in Washington's own household did not have it. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Farewell Address — Founders Online — the full text of the week's workshop document as Founders Online keeps it: find the dateline under the title, the sentence on the spirit of party, and the sentence on permanent alliances, then read the editors' source note below the text on the first newspaper printing. Skip the numbered notes on Washington's drafts unless you want more sourcing. (reading, 20–30 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com