History 12

Instructions for writing the short essays


First essay:

  • John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity” (1630), reprinted in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society 3rd. series, vol. 7 (Boston, 1838):31-48.  From Hanover Historical Texts Project, http://history.hanover.edu/texts/winthmod.html (1996).

Note: Prior to the Puritans’ departure from England in 1630, John Winthrop was chosen governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His fellow passengers on board the Arabella were, along with Winthrop, the first contingent of that colony. But the Puritans were not setting up a “utopian” community, and they had no intention of establishing a “community of goods” (communal sharing of property). Winthrop was their governor, but he was neither their founder nor their absolute “leader.” He could not require them to follow different laws than the laws of England, nor could he alter the basic structures and functions of their community. But he could offer them a model (or a vision) of mutual relationships and responsibilities, based on what he saw as their shared goal to create a cohesive community that would be guided by their religious convictions as Puritans.

With respect to their faith, the Puritans were indeed Christians. But they viewed themselves as Puritans, and in their case, as non-separating Congregationalists, defined in relation to the Church of England (they had not separated from the national church, but they viewed their Congregations as “independent,” with the right to choose their own ministers and determine the proper membership of the congregation, and therefore as complete in and of themselves). So historically, you should try to view them as they viewed themselves, rather than generalize about them as “Christians.”

For this short essay (2-3 pages), you are not expected to have much background in the early history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but you do know something about the critiques and visions that produced utopian communal experiments.  You might think of your essay as an exploratory essay, in which you are still making inquiries about the 1630 sermon that Governor Winthrop gave to his people while still on board the Arabella.  In your reading, focus on the “modell” that Winthrop presented for the new society that the Puritans would be creating in the north American wilderness, considering his model historically (from the perspective of his era and culture rather than comparing it to a present-day perspective).

As you read, you might consider some of these questions as a way of helping you understand the model of community that Winthrop presented to his fellow passengers:

  • Did Winthrop base his vision of a better community on “utopia” or did he have a different model or precedent on which he based his model of community?  What did “utopia” mean or imply in 1630?
  • Were the Puritans, having “escaped” the corrupt world of England and Europe, intentionally establishing “separate” and “isolated” communities in the wilderness, or did they intend to maintain connection with the larger society?
  • To what extent was Winthrop’s model utopian? To what extent was it an attempt to preserve and safeguard the Puritans’ “Errand” in the wilderness? To what extent did it serve his interests and concerns as governor?
  • Does Pitzer’s concept of “developmental communalism” offer insight into this endeavor?
  • In the 17th century, was the North American continent the utopia—or the place where utopia might be planted?

For this first assignment, remember that this is a short essay:  choose one point of interest or insight about Winthrop's text that you uncovered as you read and considered his sermon. Even though your essay is exploratory, you should have an argument or thesis. Present your thesis and support your argument with quotations from Winthrop’s text, using footnote citation format. (See A Brief Guide to Footnote Citations in History.) As you are thinking about your essay, you can use the secondary sources that we have read thus far to help you ask questions about Winthrop’s sermon, but keep your focus squarely on the model or vision of community that Winthrop presented, how he presented it in 1630 to that particular audience aboard the Arabella, and why—what he hoped to achieve.


Second essay:

  • W. D. Howells, “A Shaker Village,” The Atlantic Monthly XXXVII (June 1876), 699-710, or in the Making of America Collection, Cornell University Library: LINK

In the first essay, you discussed and analyzed a primary source:  Winthrop’s model of Christian charity as the basis for a godly community. In the second short essay, you should discuss and analyze a nineteenth-century “secondary” source:  William Dean Howells’s 1876 observations and reflections about the Shaker Village at Shirley, Massachusetts.

While you should focus your attention on Howells's account, you can use what we have learned about the questions, concerns, and measures that Nordhoff, as a journalist and commentator, brought to his examinations of “communistic societies” in 1874 to help you consider Howells’s text. Based on the questions Howells raised and the aspects of the community that he explored, try to figure out his perspective. He was also a journalist, writing during the same era as Nordhoff. However, his visits to the Shaker village in Shirley grew out of rather different interests than Nordhoff’s. Furthermore, Howells’s sense of his relationship with his Atlantic Monthly readers, their expectations of him as an informed observer, and his goals in this free-standing account differed quite markedly from Nordhoff’'s study.

Once again, this is a short essay. Pick one (or at most two) aspects that he addressed about the Shaker community and society in Shirley, Massachusetts. Using supporting evidence from his text, focus on what he wrote about the subject, how he presented it to his audience, and why. Try to determine how his description and assessment of those particular aspects of the Shaker community articulated his particular interests and concerns, and reflected his view of himself as a nineteenth-century observer and writer.


Third essay:

Documents (choose one of the following):

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages from the American Note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Vol. II (1868), [April 13-October 17, 1841], 1-49.  Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania Library, at Eldritch Press.  LINK  [Note: Scroll down until you find the link for Passages from the American Notebooks.  Focus on the entries from April 13-September 3, 1841].
  • Joel Myerson, “Memoranda and Documents: James Burrill Curtis and Brook Farm [1842-43],” New England Quarterly 51.3 (1978), 396-423.  JSTOR
  • Joel Myerson, ed., “Rebecca Codman Butterfield’s Reminiscences of Brook Farm [1843-47; written c. 1890s],” New England Quarterly 65.4 (1992), 603-630.  JSTOR
  • Ora Gannett Sedgwick, “A Girl of 16 at Brook Farm [1841-42],” Atlantic Monthly 85.509 (March, 1900), 395-404. Making of America:  Cornell University Library.  LINK

In contrast to the sermon about a “model of Christian charity” that Winthrop wrote, as governor, prior to the Puritans’ arrival at Massachusetts Bay, and to the article that Howells wrote about the Shaker Village at Shirley, Massachusetts, as an informed six-week neighbor and outsider, the individuals who wrote primary-document accounts about Brook Farm actually participated in these short-lived Transcendentalist utopian experiments. As participants (rather than as leaders or observers), these individuals wrote accounts that focused on the particulars of these communities. For the most part, their accounts were neither visionary nor disinterested (although both the contemporaneous and the retrospective accounts could be disenchanted!).

The texts include a contemporaneous journal (Hawthorne), letters home from a son to his father (Curtis), and two retrospective accounts (Butterfield, written c. 1890; Sedgwick, published 1900). Be careful not to assume that each genre followed “customary” conventions; instead, look for the ways that era (contemporaneous vs. retrospective), perceived audience, purpose, and perspective shaped the author’s account in that particular text. As you focus on one of these texts for your essay, you might consider the basis or reasons for that individual’s connection to the community (what they explained about why they participated, what they hoped to gain by living in the community, what—if any—reservations they had). You might also explore how that foundation shaped and influenced their rendition of their experience and of their assessment of the venture at Brook Farm.

Once again, this is a short essay. Write your essay about one of the four primary-document texts. Pick one (or at most two) aspects that the author addressed about the community, or about his/her experience in the community. Using supporting evidence from the text, focus on what the author wrote about the subject, how it was presented, and why. Once you have fully explored the focus that you have chosen, make sure that your particular analysis leads to a better understanding of the text as a whole.


Fourth essay:

Documents (choose one of the following):

Questions to consider:

  • When Joseph Smith wrote his “History” in 1838, did he address a particular or, if not a particular, then a primary audience? Who did he envision as his most important audience? What message did he want to impart to that audience, and for what purpose? Did he have a different message for a secondary audience?
  • How did his message and his goals shape his rendition of the events and occurrences which led to his position of leadership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?
  • Ann Eliza Young wrote an apostate account of her parents’ marriage which described how (some) wives experienced the practices of the Mormon priesthood, and, in particular, the practice of polygamy. (Later in her book, she also described her experience as Brigham Young’s nineteenth wife.)
  • What did she emphasize and reiterate in her account? What challenges to Mormon faith, practices, and leadership did she pose?

Instructions: for the final short (3-page) essay, write a critical analysis of Joseph Smith’s “History” or of one or both of the assigned chapters from Ann Eliza Young's memoir using the Guidelines for Writing a Critical Analysis of a Primary Document under the Resources on the History 12 homepage.

Once again, this is a short essay, so you will not be able to analyze either of these sources in their entirety.  Focus on a section, or on a particular aspect of Smith’s or Young’s account, using the perspective described in the Guidelines.  Make sure that you cultivate generosity!


  • Charles Schulz, Peanuts (9/25/1984; 8/20/1986):