First-Year Writing Seminar: Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom

Catalog description

One entry point into the experience of the enslaved is how they were forced or chose to dress and adorn themselves. Fashion was one of the few arenas in which slaves could possibly exert a modicum of control. This course will explore the politics of fashion among people of African descent during slavery and the period immediately following emancipation. Geographical breadth is crucial to examining the African Diaspora in its full complexity; therefore, course material will cover the United States, Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa. We will examine in particular the relationship between consumptive patterns among enslaved people (and their descendants) and the development of capitalism in the Atlantic World.