African-Amer Hist I

Catalog description

This course examines chronologically and topically the development of African-Americans from Africa, emphasizing the West African kingdoms, through the Civil War Era. West African culture and social life will be discussed in order to show how that culture was exploited by Europeans in the development of the slave trade. Students will spend several weeks studying the development of the institution of slavery and how slaves psychologically adapted to that lifestyle. The course also emphasizes the development of free Black communities in America during this period and the motivations for and efforts of African and non-African Americans to end slavery. The course concludes with a discussion of the reality and myth of Black participation in the Civil War and Reconstruction.