This week begins several weeks of intensive study about early American history for me. Yesterday, I attended the first of three classes in a course called “Documenting the Revolution.” Taught by Holly Mayer, a newly retired university history professor at Duquesne University, this course is a deep dive into textual analysis of several founding documents. The first class began with an overview of imperial tensions and the Declaration of Rights and Grievances of the Stamp Act Congress in 1765 before tracing escalating protests to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Here are links to the two documents she discussed yesterday:
https://archive.csac.history.wisc.edu/8_THE_DECLARATION_OF_RIGHTS_OF_THE_STAMP_ACT_CONGRESS.pdf
I didn’t know much about the first document – the Declaration of Rights from the 1765 Stamp Act Congress. The instructor’s deep knowledge of this document and her obvious experience in teaching about it were evident as she helped us explore the document and understand its nuances. I was a little more familiar with the Declaration of Independence, but she was able to place this text in context as well.
I was impressed not only with the instructor but also with the 30+ Osher members in this class. Their questions and remarks demonstrated that they were both informed and curious about the documents and their historical context. I already knew several people in the class — we history nerds tend to travel together.
This class met in the Campus Center on the William and Mary campus. This building housed the main dining room, the campus ballroom and auditorium, and major student organizations while I was a student at the college in the 1960s. During an orientation week “mixer” our freshman year, Tim and I danced together – to the Rolling Stones “Satisfaction” – for the first time in the Campus Center ballroom. Tim told me that he had been in a band in high school, and I believed him briefly. I married him anyway, four years later.
In the 1990s, a new building (the University Center aka Sadler Center) was built on the other side of the campus, and most of the functions housed in the Campus Center have been relocated to that building. The college plans to dismantle the Campus Center in the next few years – but in the meantime, Osher has access to several underutilized spaces to offer classes.
After the class ended, I took advantage of its proximity to Colonial Williamsburg and got in a three-mile walk before returning home.
On Wednesday, I am enrolled in another class that will meet in the same room in the Campus Center. This class is called “Constitutional Crises: The Chaotic Presidential Elections of 1800 and 1876.” This 3-session course is fully enrolled and has a waitlist; that’s not surprising, given the current focus on presidential elections and possibly chicanery surrounding them.
The instructor for this class, Michael Kerley, appears to be the polar opposite of Holly Mayer, the instructor in the first class I talked about. Mike was not a university professor, but rather he was a securities and insurance lawyer in Boston for 35 years before retiring to Williamsburg. Since retiring to Williamsburg a decade ago, however, he has indulged his passion for American history, teaching classes on the origins and structure of the Constitution for various lifelong learning programs, including not only the local Osher program but also the programs at the University of Richmond and Christopher Newport University. He is an excellent instructor (as proven by the waitlists for his courses, his groupies, and the rave reviews he receives) and his presentations are always meticulously researched, engaging, and informative.
I’m taking this class for two reasons: one, I always learn from Mike; and two, I’m developing a course focused on the last quarter of the 19th century, and the 1876 election was a pivotal event in that time period. I expect that Mike’s insights into that election will help me as I develop my class. This class is also in the afternoon, so I expect I’ll take another walk after this class as well.
Me, too. I'm now convinced my ancestors were Vikings. Now, if I could just prove it...
🙏😎