Slavery in the Americas

Catalog description

Slavery in South America, the Caribbean, and North America from 16th century European colonization through the 19th century abolition movement. HIST 547 Slavery in the Americas (3) This course provides a broad exploration of slavery in the Americas from the beginning of European colonization to abolition. From the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, Spanish, Portuguese, British, and French colonists in the Americas created the largest slave societies the world has ever known. Slaves in the New World produced tropical commodities such as sugar, tobacco, cotton, and coffee that, in turn, contributed to the foundation of capitalist and consumer societies in the Atlantic world. The staple crops produced by slaves were among the first goods to transform elite luxuries into common necessities. The Age of Revolution was a watershed in the history of slavery in the Americas, transforming the terms of struggle between slaves and slaveholders, of debate about slavery, of the ideology of slavery. While the Age of Revolution catalyzed a century-long process of abolition, it also began a new period in the expansion of slavery. Slaveholders developed new policies, practices, and doctrines to reconcile slavery and liberalism. The adoption of modern technology and industrial techniques of production resulted in dramatic increases in the productivity and exploitation of slaves, as well as the wealth and power of slaveholders. The simultaneous growth of slavery and antislavery heightened political divisions over slavery and made its destruction a protracted struggle marked by slave rebellion and civil war as well as landmark acts of state. This course investigates the origins of slavery, race, and abolitionism; transformations in plantation production, the culture of Africans in the Americas, and the ideologies of slavery; and the relationships among slavery, liberalism, capitalism, and modernity. Students will apply a range of concepts from the human sciences, such as creolization, ideology, and human geography, to major problems in the history of slavery.