79-162 New World Slavery
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
This course is a part of a twocourse series in which students will learn the history of the enslavement of people from the African continent and their descendants in the Old World Africa and the Islamic World and the New World the US, the Caribbean, and Latin America. When most Americans think about slavery in the New World, they envision enslaved people laboring on cotton plantations in the US South. This course is designed to broaden and complicate that single story. It will examine the enslavement of Africans and people of African descent in the New World, investigating labor organization on rice, sugar, cotton, tobacco, and indigo plantations, as well as gender, class, and age specifically the experiences of enslaved children. It will also investigate the diversity of ways that enslaved people resisted bondage, seized, and fought for their freedom. Wherever possible, students will read primary sources in which enslaved and formerly enslaved people tell their own stories of their own lives. They will learn to critically read and analyze primary sources written by enslavers, slave traders, abolitionists, etc. and secondary sources. We will also view and discuss different representations of enslaved societies in popular media, including recent films about enslavement and enslaved people. This course may be used to fulfill the African and African American Studies minor.
Prerequisites: none listed
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