American History I

Response sheet 6, for class, Thursday

1. Let’s fill two columns with the stark binary oppositions used in the documents by Shephard, Mather, and Noyes later in the seventeenth century.  Be sure to identify which side was deemed superior, and which inferior.

men versus women ... and what else?....



2.  What kinds of people seem to be falling in-between these binary oppositions?  Why, according to the authors, were such people making different cultural choices than what they were supposed to?  In other words, what were the motivations attributed to people who, for instance, danced in mixed company?  (How do you think such people would have described their own motivations?  In the same way?)



3.  In the Reis reading, what cultural associations did Puritans make concerning the presence of angels?  Positive or negative?  How are typical cultural associations about angels different in the modern day?  Positive or negative?  How do you explain that difference?



4.  How are your parents’ expectations about your college experience similar to or different from Thomas Shephard’s for his 14-year-old son entering college?