American Literature I (Colonial Period to the Civil War)

Course Description

AML2010 – American Literature I is a 3-credit lecture-discussion course that surveys representative writings from the American colonial period through the Civil War era, with most institutions setting the period boundary at approximately 1865 (some extend coverage to the late 19th century or "to 1900"). Students read and analyze poetry, fiction, autobiography, sermons, political tracts, slave narratives, and the foundational essayists and novelists of early American letters, situating each work within its historical, political, religious, and cultural context.

The course sits within the Florida Statewide Course Numbering System (SCNS) under English > Literature > American Literature and is offered at approximately 29 Florida public institutions. It is a companion to AML2020 – American Literature II (Civil War to the present), and the two courses together provide the standard American literary survey sequence used across the Florida College System and State University System.

AML2010 satisfies multiple Florida college requirements: it counts toward general education humanities, fulfills the Florida State Board of Education Rule 6A-10.030 ("Gordon Rule") writing requirement of 6,000 words, and articulates as a foundational course for English majors throughout the State University System. A grade of C or higher is required for the course to satisfy these requirements.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of AML2010, students will be able to:

• Read and interpret representative works of American literature from the colonial period through the Civil War.
• Identify and describe the defining characteristics, conventions, and themes of the major early-American literary periods: the colonial and Puritan era, the Enlightenment and Revolutionary era, the Romantic and Transcendentalist era, and the antebellum period.
• Analyze how American literary works engage with foundational questions and historical pressures — religious belief, the encounter with Indigenous peoples, the institution of slavery, the American Revolution, the democratic experiment, westward expansion, and the moral crisis leading to civil war.
• Apply literary terminology (genre, voice, tone, image, metaphor, symbol, narrative, point of view) accurately in analytical writing.
• Distinguish among major genres of the period — sermons and theological writing, captivity and slave narratives, political pamphlets, lyric poetry, the short story and the early American novel, the essay and lecture.
• Compose analytical essays with clear theses, well-developed arguments, textual evidence, MLA documentation, and standard academic English — totaling at least 6,000 words across the term.
• Engage with secondary criticism at an introductory level, integrating sources responsibly into written work.
• Participate in class discussion with informed, evidence-based contributions.

Optional Outcomes

Depending on instructor specialty and institutional emphasis, students may also:

• Engage in depth with African American writing from the period — Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, William Wells Brown, Sojourner Truth.
• Investigate women writers of the era — Anne Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson, Phillis Wheatley, Margaret Fuller, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson, the early sentimental novelists.
• Examine Native American oral traditions and early Indigenous writing.
• Apply specific literary-critical frameworks (formalism, historicism, feminist criticism, race-conscious criticism).
• Trace cross-period thematic threads: the American jeremiad, the self-made man, the frontier myth, the captivity narrative, the romance.
• Conduct independent literary research using library databases (MLA International Bibliography, JSTOR, Project MUSE).

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Encounter and Exploration (1492–1620): Columbus's letters, Bartolomé de las Casas, John Smith's accounts of Virginia, early Spanish and French writings about the New World.
• Colonial and Puritan Writing (1620–1700): William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," Anne Bradstreet's poetry, Mary Rowlandson's captivity narrative, Edward Taylor's poetry, the Salem witch trial documents.
• The Enlightenment and Revolutionary Era (1700–1800): Jonathan Edwards's sermons; Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and essays; Thomas Paine's Common Sense and The American Crisis; Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence; the Federalist Papers; Olaudah Equiano's narrative; Phillis Wheatley's poetry.
• The Early Republic and Romanticism (1800–1840): Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, William Cullen Bryant; the rise of the American magazine and short story.
• Transcendentalism (1830s–1850s): Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance," "The American Scholar," and "Nature"; Henry David Thoreau's Walden and "Civil Disobedience"; Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century.
• The American Renaissance (1850s): Nathaniel Hawthorne's tales and The Scarlet Letter; Herman Melville's "Bartleby" and selections from Moby-Dick; Edgar Allan Poe's tales and poems; Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass; Emily Dickinson's poetry.
• Slavery, Abolition, and the Crisis of Union (1830s–1865): Frederick Douglass's Narrative, Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln's speeches.
• Critical Reading and Writing: Close reading; thesis development; argumentative essay structure; integrating textual evidence; MLA citation; revision.

Optional Topics

• Native American Voices: Oral traditions and creation stories; early Indigenous-authored texts (William Apess, Black Hawk).
• The Sentimental and Domestic Novel: Susanna Rowson, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, the popular antebellum novel.
• Reform Writing: Temperance, women's rights (Seneca Falls Declaration), prison reform, abolition.
• Regional Literatures: The American South before the Civil War; the developing West.
• Major Author Study: A unit devoted to a single canonical author (Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, or Douglass).
• Coverage Through 1900: Some institutions extend the survey through the late 19th century, including Mark Twain's early work, realism's beginnings, and post-Civil-War literature.

Resources & Tools

• Most-adopted textbook: The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volumes A and B (W. W. Norton) — the dominant textbook across Florida institutions.
• Alternatives: The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Volumes A and B (Cengage) — known for broader inclusion of women writers and writers of color; The Bedford Anthology of American Literature; OpenStax-aligned open-access course packs (used at Indian River State College and increasingly elsewhere as zero-textbook-cost options).
• Style and writing references: The MLA Handbook (current edition); The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms; A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker.
• Library and research tools: MLA International Bibliography, JSTOR, Project MUSE, the Oxford English Dictionary online, Documenting the American South, Early American Imprints — all available through Florida college library subscriptions.
• Open digital resources: Project Gutenberg (full-text public-domain works); the Walt Whitman Archive; the Dickinson Electronic Archives; Documenting the American South (UNC); the Library of Congress digital collections; the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture digital resources.
• Writing support: Institution writing centers (typically free, walk-in or appointment); Purdue OWL for MLA documentation guidance.

Career Pathways

While AML2010 is a single survey course rather than a vocational program, its analytical, writing, and interpretive skills support these career pathways relevant to Florida's economy:

• K–12 English Teacher — pathway through Florida English Education BS degrees with subsequent state certification.
• Editor and Writer — Florida's publishing, journalism, communications, and corporate-content sectors.
• Lawyer — humanities preparation for law school; reading-and-writing-intensive courses build core legal-analysis skills.
• Librarian / Information Professional — pathway through MLIS programs (FSU, USF, UF).
• Communications and Public Relations Specialist — broad demand across Florida industries.
• Museum and Public-History Professional — Florida has significant museum and historic-site employers (Mission San Luis, Castillo de San Marcos, the Kingsley Plantation, the Oldest House).
• Higher Education and Research — pathway through MA and PhD programs in English and American Studies.

Special Information

The Gordon Rule and Writing Requirements

AML2010 is designated under Florida State Board of Education Rule 6A-10.030 as a course requiring 6,000 words of writing for credit toward the writing requirement. This typically means 4–6 substantive analytical essays totaling 6,000+ polished words, plus shorter response writing. A grade of C or higher is required for the course to count toward Gordon Rule satisfaction; a C-minus is not sufficient.

Articulation and Transfer

AML2010 articulates to all Florida SUS institutions and satisfies a 3-credit humanities general education requirement and the writing component of the AA degree. It is required or strongly recommended for the English major at most SUS English departments. AML2010 also commonly counts toward American Studies, History, and Education (English Language Arts) majors.

Period Boundary Variation

Florida institutions divide American literature differently between AML2010 and AML2020. The most common split is at the Civil War (~1865), but several institutions extend AML2010 to "the late nineteenth century" or "to 1900," meaning Mark Twain, the early realists, and post-Civil-War writers may appear in AML2010 at one institution and AML2020 at another. Students transferring between institutions should consult course descriptions to avoid duplicating coverage.

Prerequisites

The standard prerequisite is ENC1101 (Composition I) with a minimum grade of C or test-score equivalent. Some institutions also recommend (but do not require) ENC1102. AML2010 has no other prerequisite, and is open to non-majors as a humanities elective.

Course Format and Workload

AML2010 is typically a lecture-discussion course meeting three hours per week. Expect substantial assigned reading (100–200 pages per week is common, though primary texts vary widely in length and difficulty), 4–6 analytical essays, possibly midterm and final exams, and active class participation. The reading load is sustained and historically dense — keeping current is essential.

Course Code Variations

Florida institutions title this course variously: "American Literature I," "Early American Literature," "Survey of American Literature: Colonial Period to the Civil War," "American Literature: Colonial to 1900," and "American Literature to 1865" all refer to the same SCNS course. The period coverage (colonial through Civil War or late 19th century) is consistent in spirit but the specific endpoint varies.