SLAVERY: RACE, CLASS AND GENDER

Catalog description

This course centers on the relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, the enslaved half-sister of his wife, Martha Wayle Jefferson. By focusing on a particular relationship at a particular time in history, this upper level seminar offers a unique point of departure for the exploration of the beginnings of our nation, the history and legacy of slavery, and the ongoing negotiation of race, class and gender identity in our current society. The class will confront the issue of historical revision based on changing historical evidence and of how and by whom that history is disseminated. This course is intensely interdisciplinary, combining sociological inquiry with fiction as well as historical documents.