Hist 410/510: Slavery and Emancipation in the Atlantic World
Fall 2008; Tuesday/Thursday 12noon–1:20pm; 111 Lillis
History 410: CRN 12525 (Official Class Schedule Entry for undergrads)
Between 1519 and 1867, some 11 million captive Africans were sent across the Atlantic ocean to the New World—North America, South America, and the Caribbean. The year 2008 marks the bicentennial of the abolition of the British and American transatlantic slave trades, the first major step in ending the trade, and an appropriate moment to look back at an institution that helped shape the modern world.
This class will examine the many forms of black chattel slavery in the Americas and the systems built around that slavery. Our focus will be on the people, with heavy use of primary sources, as we attempt to recover the experience of plantation slavery, domestic slavery, being bought and sold, and grand and small resistances to slavery. We will also study the broad outline of the economic and imperial systems founded upon the transatlantic slave trade. Enslaved Africans and their descendants produced sugar, cotton, cocoa, tobacco, and other profitable luxury goods. The buying and selling of these plantation products drove colonization of the Americas, transformed both Europe and Africa, and planted the seed of modern financial systems in a first age of globalization. The effect of the transatlantic slave trade was not only political and economic, however—slavery also contributed to a complex of social and philosophical ideas that simultaneously fueled the development of both racism and democracy.
We will also investigate emancipation, a long and evolving process that lasted from 1767 to 1888. Some enslaved people emancipated themselves, most notably in the Haitian Revolution, the only successful slave revolt in modern history, which will receive special attention. Slaves in British territories benefited from Christian movements against slavery and a growing fear of violent slave resistance. Those in Latin America and the United States gained their freedom through war, although in different ways.
The course will be a mix of lecture and discussion and all students will be expected to contribute to discussion. Probable major assignments: two medium-length essays, plus small focused writing assignments, and possibly a take-home exam or a third essay. Among other texts, we will use The Diligent, by Robert Harms.
Graduate students interested in History 510 are encouraged to email me before term begins to work out a modified syllabus suited to their needs and interests, with additional reading and writing over History 410. Use the CRN 12541. (Official Class Schedule Entry)
Are You Trying to Fulfill a Requirement with this Course?
History Department: This course meets the pre-1800 history requirement. It does NOT meet any of the history department's regional requirements, as it is not wholly devoted to any single region.
Multicultural Requirement: While the material in this course may seem to fit the International Cultures portion of the Multicultural Requirement, the Registrar does not recognize HIST 410 as an IC code, and therefore this class does NOT meet the Multicultural Requirement.
African Studies, Latin American Studies, Ethnic Studies: The Atlantic World system stemmed from the slave trade from West Africa and shaped the development of all the Americas, including Latin America. The study of the transatlantic slave trade is central to the history of the African Diaspora. Thus, while this course does not exclusively concentrate on Africa, or on Latin America, or on race and ethnicity, it does introduce you to an important framework for the study of those arenas. African Studies and Latin American Studies both accept this course as a "Relevant but Less than 50% content" course (you can only use 8 credits of such courses toward the minor/major). Ethnic Studies will also accept it as an approved course offered in a different department (they have only one tier of courses). Alert! many programs will not let you use a single course toward two minors or majors at once.
