HIS 3439 - Slavery and Race in the Early Modern Atlantic World, 1400-1800

Credits: 4

Between 1450 and 1850 more than twelve million men, women and children were forced to leave Africa to face slavery in Europe and the Americas. Employing a thematic and comparative approach, this course examines the emergence, development, and significance of plantation slavery in the Atlantic World between 1400 and 1800. It will focus on four interrelated questions: First, how can we explain the emergence and development of large-scale chattel slavery in the Americas? Second, what is the relationship between the emergence of chattel slavery and the evolution of racialized thinking in the Early Modern Atlantic period? Third, what did it mean to be enslaved, and what was similar and different about the experience of enslavement across time and space in the Atlantic World? Finally, how did African men, women and children and their descendants understand, respond and even resist their enslavement?
Fulfills: H and D in LS Core
Note: This course is usually not appropriate for freshmen.