Colonial Gotham: The History of New York City, 1609 – 1783

This course is not a “pre-history” of the modern metropolis, but rather a stand-alone story of Gotham’s growth from a tiny Dutch trading post in the midst of hundreds of Native villages into a key port of the first British Empire. Even when its skyline was made of wooden masts and steeples, New York City was a diverse and dangerous place. Major topics in this course will include frontier wars, slave conspiracies, and local politics. We'll look at relationships between Lenape, Dutch, African, British, Jewish, German, French, and many other peoples who made New York their home. 

All along, we will try to balance local and global perspectives, and blend social, cultural, political, and economic analyses. The course will also consider this colonial town’s place in American national memory, critically approaching the myths that surround this long-lost island town. We will close at the dramatic moment when the city became a battlefield of the inter-imperial civil war we know as the American Revolution.

Tue, 6/23-7/7   | 4:00 - 5:00 PM ET | 3 Sessions