Slavery, its Legacies, and Contemporary Racial Issues in the United States ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

This course focuses on the systematic enslavement of Africans in colonial North America from the seventeenth century to emancipation. The course will explore ideas of race, racism, identity, and oppression in the United States as enduring effects of the institution of slavery. Students will examine ways in which nationalism, economics, and politics have been racialized to justify discrimination and exploitation of various groups across the U.S. In addition, the course will demonstrate how legacies of slavery persist in contemporary societies as forms of forced labor, abuses of power, coercion, or various ways of silencing, and human trafficking. Prerequisites: None. Corequisites: none.