In Spring 2014, Dr. Herndon's HIST 4800 topic was "Early America and the Atlantic World, 1500-1800." On February 27, 2014, the students had a videoconference meeting with Dr. Billy G. Smith of Montana State University, author of one of their common readings, Ship of Death: A Voyage that Changed the Atlantic World (Yale, 2013). The students' paper topics ranged widely from the early 1500s to the late 1790s and covered such topics as first maps of the world, the transatlantic transfer of syphilis, and Spanish colonization of the Americas. Their papers are below.