Slavery and Emancipation in the American South

Slavery and Emancipation are essential fields of study for anyone interested in nineteenth-century America. Slavery shaped the economy, society, and politics of the American South from the time the first Africans landed in Virginia in 1619 to the American Civil War, during which Lincoln issued the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. As a result of its pervasive influence in many different realms, American slavery is a particularly complex topic which has attracted the attention of a number of talented scholars from the beginning of the century to the present. Today, the historiography of slavery is a particularly exciting area at the forefront of historical studies. The historian of slavery has the benefit of having at his/her disposal a very large amount of primary sources (archival documents, published memoirs, autobiographies or letters, pamphlets and essays, etc.). At the same time, he/she has to be able to place this large body of data within the context of an equally large body of interpretations that different historians of slavery have provided at different times often taking opposite sides over particularly contentious issues.

This seminar course aims to provide the student with the indispensable background which they need in order to be able to select, use, and interpret the vast range of primary sources related to American slavery and place it in the context of current historiographical debates. Confronting different topics related to slavery, students will familiarize with the different types of primary sources, discussing their viability and usefulness, and will become acquainted with the names of the most important scholars in the field, whose works they will be required to read and present. Both exercises will form the basis of the students? independent studies ? studies which will generate long essays on particular aspects of slavery. Major topics covered in t he course include Colonial Slavery, Slavery and the American Revolution, Planters? Resistance, the Abolitionist Movement, the Politics of Slavery, Civil War and Emancipation.

Introductory Reading: Rick Halpern & Enric Dal Lago, eds., Slavery and Emancipation (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2002) [textbook]; Peter Kolchin, American Slavery, 1619-1877 (New York: Hill &
Wang, 2003); Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A History of African American Slaves
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Harvard, 2003); Mark M. Smith, Debating Slavery: Economy and
Society in t he Antebellum American South (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).