HIST139

Description

Some 12.8 million enslaved Africans were sold into bondage across the Atlantic between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries through the Atlantic slave trade. This course explores the complex web of connections that linked the various lives and fates of Africans, Europeans, and continental Americans via this trade. However, before examining the Atlantic slave trade, we will explore the origins of "slavery" and other forms of human servitude and exploitation in precolonial Africa and how such institutions aided in or inhibited the development of the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trades, which far predated the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing on multiple primary sources, life histories, secondary texts, artwork, and slave trade datasets, we will examine how and why the institution of slavery in Africa changed over time and why it was different from place to place. Significantly, we will consider how categories like race, gender, class, and religion (particularly Christianity and Islam) mattered in the enslavement of Africans. We will also consider the agency of Africans in the making and unmaking of the slave trades, as well as the impacts of the trades on the African continent. This course embraces a philosophy that empowers students to assume ownership of their learning. Each class session is organized around participatory activities and classroom discussions that enhance our understanding of the assigned readings. Brutality, dehumanization, and violence were animating features of transatlantic slavery. The course covers material that may be triggering for some students. As such, our class sessions will include impromptu breaks and opportunities for reflection so that students can process big feelings. The written assignments and instructor feedback will sharpen your analytical writing and critical thinking.