Spring 2006
HIS 5450, section 1109.
SLAVERY
IN THE NEW WORLD:
COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES

This graduate seminar provides an overview of the development of black slavery in the Americas from its African and European antecedents down through its eradication in the nineteenth century.  The course is intended to give newcomers to the subject an introduction to the main debates concerning New World slavery and to allow others to broaden and deepen their knowledge.  Approximately equal attention will be given to the Caribbean, and to mainland North and South America, and a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective will be encouraged.  Anthropological, psychological, cliometric, Marxian, postmodern, and other approaches to slave studies are examined, to assess competing materialist and idealist viewpoints.  Some contemporary texts will be also studied, to which students can apply different approaches.  The aim is to seek out the common characteristics of the institution of slavery, while exploring the different contexts in which it functioned and the range of experience it encompassed.

 Enslaved Africans made up the great majority of transatlantic migrants (and the overwhelming majority of female migrants) who came to the Americas from Columbus’s time to the early nineteenth century.  Large areas of Africa were reorganized around the supply of this labor force.  Slavery flourished in colonies from Canada to Argentina and formed the foundation of society in most tropical and subtropical lowland regions. The wealth generated by slave labor tied together four continents in new networks of global trade that involved not just slaveowners and traders but farmers, manufacturers, and shipbuilders from New England to India.  Historians study slave societies, because they represent an extreme form of power relations, because of the multicultural complexity they created, and because they played an important role in the making of the modern world.

1) Attendance is compulsory.  Weekly participation in discussion of the required readings accounts for 30% of your final grade.  A medical certificate is needed to excuse absence. For discussion to work well, you must come to class well prepared.  Take good notes on your reading.
2) Two book reports.  Each student is to present oral and written reports on two books assigned to him/her, one in each half of the semester.  The oral presentation should last about 10 minutes and provide for the class's benefit an exposition of the work's contents; treat it as an opportunity to hone skills needed in a conference setting.  The written report (3-4 pages) should be in the style of an academic book review and, where possible, place the work in the context of the week's readings.  It may be helpful to consult the book review sections of journals like New West Indian Guide and Hispanic American Historical Review for questions of approach and for reviews of the works concerned, but be explicit where you are citing others’ opinions.  Each report accounts for 15% of final grade.
3) Term paper, 12-15 pages, exclusive of notes and bibliography (40% of final grade).  Due Wednesday. week 16.  This may take the form of a bibliographical survey or research paper using primary sources; it can deal with any aspect of New World slavery.  Since it is unfair to give some students more time than others, and being able to write to a deadline is an important skill to acquire, late-submitted papers will be penalized.

The required reading consists of one general text, Herbert Klein, African Slavery in Latin America, (available from Goering’s bookshop) and a set of photocopied extracts. Single copies of each week’s extracts will be placed in a box in the graduate student mail room in Flint Hall; most of the works will also be available from the Science Library course reserve.  Students are requested to rapidly make their own copies and quickly return the extracts.  This has proved a relatively cheap and expeditious way to organize a seminar, but it depends on participants being good citizens.  Students will be expected to come to class with a good grasp of the main arguments and information contained in the readings.  Preparing as for an exam helps you learn and makes the seminar flow more easily.
“Assigned readings” are the books from which you will choose two on which to write your reports.  These will be assigned in weeks 1 and 7
When researching a topic or compiling a bibliography for term papers, these reference works are a good place to start: Seymour Drescher, Stanley Engerman, Robert Paquette, Slavery; Joseph Miller, Paul Finkelman, Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery; J. Miller, Slavery and Slaving in World History; S. Drescher, S. Engerman, A Historical Guide to World Slavery.

OTHER

Students area expected to familiarize themselves with the University’s honesty policy regarding plagiarism and use of copyrighted materials (click).  Those requesting classroom accommodation due to a disability must register with the Dean of Students Office and should see me at the beginning of semester.

Required readings will be put in the graduate mail room in Flint for students to copy on a weekly basis.
Assigned readings should be available in the library.

Week 1.  Overview.

What is slavery?  Its evolution in the Old World and the New.

Required reading: Klein ch 1.
Assign readings for weeks 2-8.

Week 2.Why slavery? Why Africa?

Is it surprising that at the dawn of the modern era this archaic institution,
long vanished from most of Europe, enjoyed such an extraordinary expansion
in the Americas?  Why did it become more prominent in some areas than others?
How do the cases of the Iberian and North European powers differ?
Required reading: Klein, 21-52; Benítez-Rojo, The Repeating Island, 85-111; Williams, Capitalism & Slavery, 3-29; D. Galenson, White Servitude in Colonial America, 117-177; David Eltis, “Europeans and the Rise and Fall of African Slavery in the Americas” American Historical Review (Dec. 1993): 1399-1423 [use JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/search].

Assigned reading: Robin Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery; From the Baroque to the Modern (part1) (1997); William Phillips, Slavery From Roman Times (1985) (slavery’s evolution to the 17thC); R. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves (1972) (the sugar revolution in the British Caribbean); T.H. Breene, S. Innes, “Myne Owne Ground”: Race & Freedom on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, 1640-1676 (1980)

Week 3.  Africa, the Slave Trade and the Transition to Slavery.
         How many Africans were transported to the Americas?
         Who controlled the Atlantic slave trade? In what ways did it
         change during its 400 year history? What would enslaved Africans
         have found familiar and unfamiliar in the New World?
 

Required reading: Philip Curtin, Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census, 3-13; Eltis and Richardson, “The Numbers Game,” 1-13 (1997); Klein, Middle Passage, 228-251; Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, 103-112; John Thornton, Africa & Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 98-109, 152-162; Craton & Walvin Documents, 23-42, 47-49; Philip Morgan, “Cultural Implications of the Atlantic Slave Trade,” Slavery & Abolition 18 (1997): 122-145.

Assigned reading: P. Manning, Slavery & African Life (impact on Africa); J. Postma, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600-1815 (1990); R. Harms, Voyage of The Diligent (2002).

Week 4. Work Regimes; Plantation Life.

What sort of work was performed by which sort of slaves?
On what principles was slave society organized?
Did labor determine the quality of slave life?

 
Required reading: Klein 53-88; "Status, Ethnicity, Occupational Structure" (CLICK); Higman, Slave Populations, 161-179; Eugene Genovese, “Life in the Big House” from Roll, Jordan, Roll, 327-365; Mary Karasch, “Porters & Property” from Slave Life in Rio de Janeiro, 185-213; Philip Morgan, “Work & Culture: the Task System,” 194-223; Geggus, "Sugar and Coffee Cultivation," from Ira Berlin, Cultivation & Culture, 73-95.

Assigned reading: Betty Wood, Women’s Work, Men’s Work: The Informal Slave Economies of Low Country Georgia (1995); Daniel Littlefield, Rice & Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina (1981); Judith Carney, Black Rice (2001);  Alex van Stipriaan, Surinams Contrast.

Week 5.  Treatment, Material Conditions and the Law.

What were the most important determinants of the quality of slave
life?  What types of evidence shed light on this question?  Did
slavery differ according to the nationality of the master class?

Required reading: Genovese, "The Treatment of Slaves in Different Countries," 202-210; Genovese, "Materialism and Idealism," in In Red & Black, 23-52; Genovese, Roll Jordan Roll, 3-7; Elsa Goveia, "Slave Laws of the West Indies," Revista de Ciencias Sociales (1960), 75-105; Fogel & Engerman, Time on the Cross, 144-157; Stanley Stein, Vassouras, a Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1890 (1970), 161-195.

Assigned reading: Gwendolyn Hall, Social Control in Slave Plantation Societies, (Cuba & Saint Domingue); Roderick McDonald, The Economy and Material Culture of Slaves (1993) (Louisiana & Jamaica); Alan Watson, Slave Law in the Americas (1989).

Week 6.  The Demography of Slave Societies.

Why did the slave population of mainland North America early achieve
natural growth, when most slave communities never proved able
to reproduce themselves?  Were the most significant differences in
mortality, natality or fertility?  Assess the relative importance of
material, cultural, and epidemiological factors.

Required reading: “Population Growth in Slave Societies” (click); Klein ch.7; Fogel, Without Consent or Contract, 29-33, 123-153; Kenneth Kiple, "The Nutritional Link with Slave Infant and Child Mortality in Brazil," HAHR 69 (1989); Barry Higman, Slave Populations of the British Caribbean, 347-354, 374-8; Michael Tadman, “The Demographic Cost of Sugar,” American Historical Review (Dec.2000) [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/105.5/ah001534.html].

Assigned reading: Kenneth Kiple, The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History (1984); Robert Dirks, Black Saturnalia (1987); Meredith John, Plantation Slaves of Trinidad (1988).

Week 7.  Racism, Slavery, and Free People of Color.

Did the spread of slavery change attitudes to race?  What other factors
affected racial attitudes?  What factors determined the  distribution
and treatment of free non-whites in slaveowning America?

Required reading: Klein 217-242; excerpts from Winthrop Jordan, White Over Black; W. Jordan, "American Chiaroscuro," 189-201; Carl Degler, Neither Black Nor White, 101-106, 210-232; Geggus, Slavery, War & Revolution, 18-23; Seymour Drescher, “Ending of the Slave Trade and Evolution of European Scientific Racism,” Social Science History (1990).

Assigned reading: Jane Landers, ed. Against The Odds: Free Blacks in the Slave Societies of the Americas (1996); Christine Hünefeldt, Paying the Price of Freedom: Family and Labor Among Lima’s Slaves; Jerome Handler, Unappropriated People (Barbados); George Fredrickson, The Black image in the white mind; the debate on Afro-American character and destiny (1971).

Week 8. Culture.

Which aspects of slave culture can be attributed to African influences?
What factors determined the incidence of African retentions?
What is African about Afro-American music?

Required reading: Klein ch.8; Richard Burton, Afro-Creole, intro; Hoetink, "The Cultural Links," 26-38; Patterson, Sociology of Slavery, 249-253; Brathwaite, Creole Society in Jamaica, 212-239; Mintz & Price, Birth of Afro-American Society, 1-22, 81-84; Abrahams, After Africa, 1-10, 77-83; Thompson, Flash of the Spirit, 103-111, 142-145; Michael Gomez, “I Seen Folks Dissapeah,” in Exchanging Our Country Marks, 114-153; Frederick Douglass, Narrative ch.2 (pp.16-19);  recorded music.

Assigned reading: Richard Burton, Afro-Creole (1997); Mechal Sobel, The World They Made Together; Joseph Holloway, ed., Africanisms in Afro-American Culture;  Robert Dirks, Black Saturnalia (1987).

Week 9. Family and Gender Relations.

        Did males and females experience slavery differently?
        How did females and males relate to each other under slavery?
        Was slavery incompatible with family life?  Why have historians disagreed?

Required reading: Claire Robertson, “Africa into America?” from More Than Chattel, 3-40; Patterson, Sociology of Slavery, 159-170; Higman, "African and Creole Slave Family Patterns" in M. Crahan, Africa and the Caribbean, 41-62; R. Fogel, Without Consent Or Contract, 162-186; Douglas Hall, In Miserable Slavery, 50-90.

Assigned reading: Herbert Gutman, The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom (1976); Deborah Gray White, Aren’t I A Woman? (1985); Catherine Clinton, The Plantation Mistress (1982); Patricia Morton, ed., Discovering the women in slavery (1996).
 

Week 11. Religion.

         What roles did religion perform in African and Afro-American society?
         Compare the  implications of conversion to Catholicism, Protestantism, and Vodou.

Required reading: John Thornton, Africa & Africans in the Making of the Modern World, 235-271; Gilberto Freyre, Masters and the Slaves, 332-7; Geggus, “Haitian Voodoo in the 18th Century,” 21-50; Genovese, Roll, 161-183, 232-255; Patterson, Sociology of Slavery, 190-5, 207-215; Patterson, Social Death, 70-76.

Assigned reading: Mechal Sobel, Trabelin’ On: The Slave Journey to an Afro-Baptist Faith (1979); Sylvia Frey, Betty Wood, Come Shouting to Zion (1998); Jon J. Sensbach, A Separate Canaan: The Making of an Afro-Moravian World in North Carolina, 1763-1840 (1998); Sylviane Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (1998).

Week 12. Accomodation and Conflict.

In what ways did slaves show resistance to their enslavement?
What factors promoted the stability of slave societies?
Was there a slave personality-type? How important was marronage (running away)?
Required reading: Klein ch.9; Elkins, "Slavery and Negro Personality," 203-219 (1959); Wyatt-Brown, “The Mask of Obedience,” American Historical Review (1988), 1228-52;  John Blassingame, Slave Testimony (1977), 532-543; "Runaway advertisements; slave satire" 136-8; Richard Price, Maroon Societies (1973), 1-30; Price, First Time (1983), 167-171; Stuart Schwartz, “Resistance and Accomodation in 18thC Brazil,” HAHR (1977).

Assigned reading: Richard Price, First Time: The Historical Vision of an Afro-American People (1983); Mavis Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica.

Week 13. Slave Rebellions.

        Under what circumstances did slaves typically rebel? Compare the
        different typologies of slave revolt that have been put forward.  Why did
        Saint Domingue (Haiti) experience the largest and sole successful slave uprising?
 

Required reading: John Thornton, “African Background to the Stono Rebellion” AHR (1991) in JSTOR; Genovese, From Rebellion to Revolution, xii-50; Craton, "Proto-Peasant Rebellions," 99-125; “Causation of Slave Rebellions,” ch.4 in Geggus, Haitian Revolutionary Studies [e-book in LUIS]; João Reis, Slave Rebellion in Brazil (1993), 40-69.

Assigned reading: Robert Paquette, Sugar is Made With Blood: The Conspiracy of La Escalera (1988); Douglas Egerton, Gabriel’s Rebellion; Michael Craton, Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies (1982). Emilia Viotti da Costa, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood (1994).

Week 14. The Economics of Slave Societies.

        If slavery was a backward institution, why has it so often been
        associated with periods of human progress? Why have writers so
        strongly disagreed about the profitability of slave labor?

      Required reading: David Eltis, "Europe and the Atlantic Slave Systems," 258-280 in The Rise of African Slavery; Barbara Solow, “Capitalism & Slavery,” 51-77; Selwyn Carrington, “The American Revolution and the British West Indies Economy,” 135-162 [both from Solow & Engerman, British Capitalism & Caribbean Slavery]; review of Carrington in J.Interdisciplinary History 34:3 (2004): 489-491; Robert Fogel, Without Consent or Contract, 60-89, 96-113; Laird Bergad, The Cuban Slave Market, 1-14, 143-154.

Assigned reading: Seymour Drescher, Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition (1978); Robin Blackburn, Making of New World Slavery (1997), part 2.
 

Week 15. The Abolition of Slavery.

        Why, for the first time in history, did public attitudes regarding the morality
        of slaveholding and its efficiency change dramatically in the later 18th century?
        Were these changes, or others, in the world economy, in the rebelliousness of
        slaves, in class relations in Europe, or in the fortunes of slaveowners, more
        important in bringing about the eradication of slavery?

Required reading: Klein 243-271; E. Williams, Capitalism and Slavery, 135-153; D.B. Davis, "What the Abolitionists Were Up Against," 39-83; S. Drescher, "Capitalism and the Decline of Slavery," 132-141; Robin Blackburn, Overthrow of Slavery, 519-549; Berlin et al., Remembering Slavery, 275-277.

Assigned reading: Rebecca Scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba (1985).
 

We will watch the movieLa Última Cena (The Last Supper, 110 mins.).

TERM PAPER DUE (Wed, week 16, Apr 26)

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