| African-American History I (512:378) | ||
T-TH, 1:10-2:30, Campbell
Hall, Room A2
Professor
Mia Bay
Office: Van Dyck Hall 223A,
tel. 732-932-7092; email mbay@rci.rutgers.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays
11:30-12:30 and by appointment
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Course Description
This course is a survey of
African-American history from its beginnings through emancipation and
Reconstruction. We will study and analyze the African origins of black
Americans, the middle passage, the development of plantation slavery, and the
many historical changes that shaped African-American life and culture
thereafter—from the Revolution to the Civil War. Topics will include the
impact of the Revolution on African-American life; the emancipation of slavery
in the post-Revolutionary North and the development of a free black community
there; antebellum slavery slave culture, and slave resistance; the black
abolitionist movement; and African-American freedom struggles during the Civil
War and Reconstruction.
Course Requirements
Readings
The weekly readings required
in this course average 100 to 200 pages. Students are expected to do all the reading, and be prepared to discuss readings in class (please bring your
readings to class).
Reading Assignments
To facilitate discussion,
one-page (200-word) comments on the reading are due on designated “DISCUSSION”
days. Informal written assignments, your comments can be hand written or
typed and should summarize and discuss the assigned discussion reading.
(Occasionally, I may give you a more specific discussion assignment.) There are
ten discussion days; and you must submit written responses to the readings on
seven of those days (ie. you are allowed to miss three). Your comments will
be graded with a check (if completed and focused on the readings), a check plus
(if particularly well done) or a check minus (if barely
passable). An extraordinarily good record on the comments (many
check-pluses) will raise your course grade by half a grade (from "B"
to "B+," for example). Barely passable comments (many check-minuses)
will lower your grade by ONE FULL GRADE (from "B" to "C,"
for example.) Turning in less than eight comments will lower your final grade
by up to TWO FULL GRADES (from "B" to "D," for
example.) Late comments will not be accepted (except in the case of
excused absences).
Papers and Exams
In addition to the reading
assignments, course participants must complete two papers, a midterm exam and a
final exam. Both the papers and the exams will be based on the course
readings. Students are free to consult outside readings in preparing papers,
providing they are cited in full. Please note that plagiarism is a
violation of University Policy and subject to disciplinary proceedings. Papers
submitted late will be marked down one letter grade; no assignment will be
accepted more than one week past the due date.
Attendance
Attendance is
mandatory. Roll will be called at the beginning of class, please note
that you must sign if you arrive after roll is called. Beginning
the second week you are expected to attend the entire class. More than three
unexcused (medical, family emergency) absences will lower your grade one letter
grade. Six unexcused absences will result in failure. Arriving in class
more than five minutes after class begins will count as half an absence.
Signing in and leaving early (without notifying the instructor) is a triple
absence. If you cannot get to this class on time due to a schedule
conflict, do not enroll in this class.
Course Grade
The course grade will be
divided as follows: the first paper will count for 20% of the final grade; the
second and third papers will comprise 25% participation
and attendance will make up the remaining 30%. Additionally, your grade will be
determined by your performance on the reading assignments, as described
above. Students must complete all course work in order to pass the
course.
Readings
Books
We will use six books in this
course, which can be purchased Rutgers University Bookstore. Please buy the
books promptly: the bookstore
returns the books in the middle of the semester, so if you do not get the books
before then, you may have difficulty purchasing them.
1)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Classic Slave Narratives (Signet Classics Paperback: 2002) 2
2) Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. "Myne Owne Ground": Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. Oxford 2004).
3) Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market (Harvard University Press: March 1, 2001) 4)Gary B. Nash The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution. Harvard, 2006.
5)
Robin Kelley and Earl Lewis, To Make Our World Anew: A History of African
Americans, vol. 1 (Oxford: 2000)
6)
William Dillon Piersen, Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American
Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England
(University of Massachusetts Press, 1988)
7)
Wilbert L. Jenkins, Climbing Up to Glory: A Short History of African
Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction, 79-159
Other Readings
The other readings listed on
the syllabus are available on either at the online links provided on the syllabus. The URLs are also listed, in case you
have a problem with the links.
PLEASE NOTE that in order to
view and print many of these readings, you will have to be either on campus or
logged into the Rutgers University Library Catalog, which owns these publications.
You can log on at the
Libraries home page http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/.
Please print out all course readings early in the semester, and bring your
printed copies of readings scheduled for each DISCUSSION class with you to when
you come to class. Let me know if any of the URLs present technical
difficulties—problems accessing or printing the readings for a given
class will not be accepted as excuse for coming to class unprepared once the semester
is underway.
If you have poor access to
the online readings, and would prefer buy them in the form of photocopied
course packet, please let me know and I will have a packet prepared for
you.
History 512: 378 Weekly Schedule
Week 1: Introduction
September
2: Introduction
September 4: Africa, Europe and Rise of the Atlantic
Slave Trade
Kelley and Lewis, To Make
Our World Anew, 3-52;
Week 2: From Africa to America
September 12: The Triangle
Trade
September 14: The Middle Passage:
DISCUSSION #1
Readings: Oloudah Equiano,
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah Equiano, in Classic Slave
Narratives, 1-81
James Barbot, Jr., "A
Supplement to the Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea,"
(London, 1732) http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=36
Alexander Falconbridge, An
Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (London, 1788) http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=38
Alexander Falconbridge
describes the treatment of newly arrived slaves in the West Indies (1788)
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=41
Week 3: The Origins
of American Slavery
September 16: Idle Indians
and Lazy Englishmen
September 18: Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. "Myne Owne Ground"DISCUSSION # 2
Readings: Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. "Myne Owne Ground,"
Week 4: The
Plantation World takes Shape
September 23: The
Plantation World: Production, Control and Resistance
September 25: Film:
Slavery and the Making of America, Episode 1:
Kelley and Lewis, To Make Our World Anew, 53-102; An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes and Other Slaves (1740) http://www.answers.com/topic/south-carolina-slave-code; Black Yankees, 1-64
Week 5: Slavery in
the North
September 30 : “Godly Society:”
Slavery among the Puritans and Quakers (Piersen, Smith)
October 2: Black Yankees: A
Somewhat Different Slavery?
**** 1st Paper due – October 2, 1:10PM
****
Reading: William Pierson, Black
Yankees, 65-160
Week 6: The
Revolutionary Era
October 7: The
African-American Experience during the Revolution
October 9: American Slavery, American Freedom DISCUSSION #3 (Nash)
Reading:
Week 7: Slavery in
the New Nation
October 14:
October 16: The Limits to Emancipation (Johnson, Freehling, Jefferson) DISCUSSION #4
Reading: Walter Johnson, Soul
by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, 1-44; Readings: Kelley and Lewis, To Make Our World
Anew, 103-198
William W. Freehling, The Founding Fathers and Slavery, The American Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 1. (Feb., 1972), pp. 81-93.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8762%28197202%2977%3A1%3C81%3ATFFAS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-C
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on
the State of Virginia 1781-1782, Query
14 "Laws" The administration of justice and description of the
laws? http://wyllie.lib.virginia.edu:8086/perl/toccer-new?id=JefVirg.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=14&division=div1
Week 8: Many
Thousands Gone
October 21: The Expansion of Slavery in the South
October 23: : The Domestic Slave Trade: (Johnson) DISCUSSION #5
Reading: Walter Johnson, Soul
by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market, 4-220
Week 9: Life in the Slave
South
October 28: Slave Culture and Community
October 30: Gender Relations
in the Plantation Household: DISCUSSION #6(Brent,)
Reading: Linda Brent,
“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” in Classic Slave Narratives,
341-515
Week 10: The Black
Freedom Struggle I
November 4: The Free Black
Community (Walker, Douglass)
November 6: Abolitionism and
Slave Resistance: DISCUSSION #7
Reading: David Walker,
“Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World,” Articles I and II http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blwalkerarticleI.htm; http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blwalkerarticleII.htm
Maria W. Stewart, An Address Delivered before The Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of America (1832) http://afroamhistory.about.com/library/blmaria_stewart_intelligencesociety.htm
Frederick
Douglass, “Autobiography of an American Slave,” Classic Slave
Narratives, 243-332
11: The Black Freedom
Struggle II
November 11: Impending
Crisis: The Nation and the Politics of Slavery in the 1850s:
November 13: Pro and
Antislavery Voices (Fitzhugh, Sumner, De Bow, Horton)
Reading: Kelly and Lewis, To Make Our World Anew, 169-226; George
Fitzhugh, Negro Slavery, Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free
Society; http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1057.htm
Week 12: The Civil
War
November 18: Film: The Black Military Experience- Film: Glory
November 20: ***Thanksgiving Break***
Reading: Wilbert L. Jenkins, Climbing
Up to Glory; 1-78; Kelley and Lewis, To
Make Our World Anew, 227-243; Robert
Gould Shaw, “The Raid on Darien, Georgia,” http://www.geocities.com/1stdragoon/files/rgs_darien.html
Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
Army Life in a Black Regiment, Chapter 2, Camp Diary. http://historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=28&cid=2
Week 13:
Emancipation
Reading, Wilbert L. Jenkins, Climbing Up to Glory, 79-159; Kelley and Lewis, To Make Our World Anew 243-280.
Week 14: Reconstruction
December 5: “A Hard Fight For We:” Emancipation
December 7: Slavery and the Making of America 4
Reading, Wilbert L. Jenkins, Climbing
Up to Glory: A Short History of African Americans during the Civil War and
Reconstruction, 161-231
Leslie Schwalm," Sweet
Dreams of Freedom": Freedwomen's Reconstruction of Life and Labor in
Lowcountry South Carolina,” Journal of Women's History 9:1 (Spring 1997), 9-30. http://search.epnet.com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=9706251991
Week 15: The
Legacy of Reconstruction
December 12: The End of
Reconstruction: DISCUSSION #10 (Jenkins, Du Bois, Schwalm)
Reading: W. E. Burghardt Du
Bois, “Reconstruction and its Benefits,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 15, No. 4. (Jul., 1910), pp. 781-799. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8762%28191007%2915%3A4%3C781%3ARAIB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T
“Everything Points to a
Democratic Victory this Fall” (1874)
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