Office Hours: Tuesdays, 1-2 pm and by appt. (I am generally in my office between 10 and 3 most days. Please don’t hesitate to call or email to reach me at any time.)

Course Description

Aside from kinship, slavery is perhaps the most pervasive social institutions in human history. Virtually every society has either enslaved others, been enslaved, or both, at some point in the past. And yet, perhaps because it is so widespread, the range of social relations that encompass slavery is also quite broad. It is therefore extremely useful to examine the institution of slavery comparatively – to understand what it meant in different societies at different times and places.

What is newer in human history is the abolition movement. During the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many people in Europe, America and Africa – not least of which were the slaves themselves – began to challenge the fundamental legitimacy of slavery and worked to undermine the legal, moral, and physical underpinnings of slavery, both within political organizations and through force. From the 1770s through the 1880s, anti-slavery movements abolished slavery within the Atlantic world, often in conjunction with movements for republican government and colonial independence.

Yet post-emancipation societies were hardly utopias. In fact, most Atlantic societies found new ways to legitimize the labor of the formerly enslaved and their descendents while erecting barriers to political participation in the new, independent republics. Slavery was universally abhorred – at least in rhetoric – but new forms of coercion, oppression, and inequality emerged in social and economic practices and legal codes.

This course will survey recent historiography on the history of slavery, abolition and emancipation in the Atlantic world, focusing on the period from 1400 through 1900. Students are encouraged to identify a theme of personal interest and to develop a historiographical study of that theme in the works by historians of the past half century.

Grades

20% Participation: Attendance, class discussions

40% Weekly critical responses

10% Preliminary Bibliography

30% Historiography Paper

On WHETS and Teaching

This course will be accessible to both the Vancouver and the Pullman campuses via WHETS, the televised conferencing system that links many campuses in Washington state. The course is aimed primarily at graduate students in history at the Pullman and Vancouver campuses although it may also be attended by graduate students in other programs (such as American Studies or Public Affairs) and undergraduates on either campus may enroll with permission from the instructor.

I have taught similar graduate readings courses over WHETS before that were very successful. Discussions were lively and, in the words of one student, “the scholarship I read on gender/race/class in colonial societies has really aided my thinking for thesis topics and continues to be valuable during my research….” My aim in the classroom is to assist students in designing research projects that will further their own research agendas and to provoke thoughtful, important, and informed discussions on this pervasive historical issue of slavery.

While the WHETS format is admittedly not as ideal as regular face-to-face contact with a mentor, this does not mean that meaningful mentorship is impossible. I am always accessible by telephone and e-mail and will visit the Pullman campus at least twice during the semester. Please take the initiative to be in contact with me – do not worry about bothering me! You will find that by being active in your education, you will reap tremendous rewards.

Required Books

All required books are on 2-hour reserve at the WSU Holland and Vancouver libraries.

John Thornton	Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800	Cambridge	1998	0-521-62724-9	$19.99
David Eltis, ed.	Coerced and Free Migrations: Global Perspectives.	Stanford	2002	0-8047-4454-8	$70.00
Engerman, Drescher, Paquette, eds.	Slavery	Oxford	2001	0192893025	$24.95
Laurent Dubois	Avengers of the New World	Harvard, Belknap	2004	0-674-01304-2	$29.95
Solow, Engerman	British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy of Eric Williams	Cambridge	2004	0-521-53320-1	$36.99
Cooper, Holt, Scott	Beyond Slavery: Explorations of Race, Labor and Citizenship in Post-Emancipation Societies	U. North Carolina	2000	0-8078-4854-9	$15.95

Select One (These books will be assigned in class.)

John Edwin Mason	Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa	U. Virginia	2003	0-8139-2179-1	$1950
Blanchard, Peter	Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru	Rowman& Littlefield	1992	0-8420-2429-8	$17.95
Rebecca Scott et al.	The Abolition of Slavery and the Aftermath of Emancipation in Brazil	Duke	1988	0-8223-0888-6	$21.95

Reading and Writing Assignments

Critical Responses

For each week’s reading assignments, you must post a 1-2 page (single-spaced) critical response to each book or set of articles/chapters on the Blackboard website by 11:00 am on the day of class. To access the class Blackboard website: See instructions on p. 5, below.

The critical response should include:

q full bibliographical citation for the book or article(s)

q summary of the main thesis or argument

q your assessment of the piece’s strengths, weaknesses or interesting points

q comparison(s) to other works that you have read for this class this semester.

I have built in one “free pass” -- that is, you may skip ONE critical response assignment during the semester without penalty. Please let me know by email when you are using this free pass. After you have used your free pass, missing assignments are marked “0”. A “0” is considerably worse than an “F” (generally, 55 points) on an assignment since the average of a “0” and an A+ (100) is still a failing grade (50). You are therefore encouraged to write something, even if it is inadequate, in order to keep your GPA in order. Late assignments are marked down one full letter grade.

Preliminary Bibliography

Your preliminary bibliography is a kind of “wish list” of the works you plan to survey for your historiographical paper and should include at least twenty items (books, articles, dissertations your historiographical paper topic. The preliminary bibliography is broad; it may include items that you ultimately discard for irrelevance or other reasons.

Good places to search for bibliographical items:

q America History and Life database (North American topics only)

q Historical Abstracts database (Latin America, Africa, and the rest of the world, excepting US [and Canadian?] history)

q Dissertation Abstracts

q Griffin / Summit

q Slavery and Abolition (British journal) – abstracted in Historical Abstracts; Holland Library carries 1983-1992; WSU Vancouver library carries 1996-present

q Discussion Logs from the H-Slavery network: www.h-net.msu.edu/~slavery/ (or you may post a query there, although it is recommended that you do some preliminary research first)

Historiographical Paper

This twenty-page (double-spaced) paper will survey the historiographical trends on your topic over the past fifty years, with particular emphasis on recent historical research. The paper should address a minimum of 6 articles and 4 books/dissertations. What have been the preoccupations of earlier generations of historians and how have these changed over time? What are the fundamental core perspectives that influence the modern academic discourse on the history of slavery, abolition and/or emancipation? What seem to be the most promising avenues for future research?

Class Policies

Attendance is required at all class meetings. If you cannot attend a class due to illness or other personal emergency, you may obtain an Excused Absence by notifying the instructor prior to the class session. Leaving a message by voice mail (at my office) or email is sufficient to obtain an Excused Absence. Please note that whether or not an absence is excused, you are responsible for learning what happened in class and mastering that material (e.g. obtaining notes from a reliable classmate).

If the professor is late for class, please begin the discussion without me. If I do not arrive within 30 minutes, class is canceled for the week.

Plagiarism and Cheating are serious offenses. They may result in a grade reduction and/or other strong penalties. You are plagiarizing or cheating if you:

* present someone else's words or ideas as your own, in writing or in speaking

* present ideas without citing the source

* paraphrase without crediting the source

* use direct quotes with no quotation marks

* use direct quotes without footnotes or other textual citation of the sourcepresent work in a group project that is not your own or the work of the group

* submit the same paper for credit in more than one course without discussing this option with the instructors involved

* submit material written by someone else as your own (this includes purchasing a term or research paper)

* submit a paper or assignment for which you have received so much help that it is no longer your own work

* do not do an equal part of the work on a group project

* copy someone else’s exam or graded homework

* refer to a text, class notes, or other materials during an exam without being authorized to do so

* puposefully allow another student to copy your work or submit work you have written as his/her own

* collaborate with others on a take-home exam, or spend more time than that specified by the instructor on a take-home exam.

Reasonable Accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability. Please notify the instructor during the first week of class of any accommodations needed for the course. Late notification may cause the requested accommodations must be approved through Wayne Brown, in the Student Services Office, 546-9567.

Assignments

Posting your Critical Responses on Blackboard

· Use an internet browser to access: www.blackboard.wsu.edu. Bookmark this page for ready reference.

· Enter your user name = your Network ID (e.g. speabody)

· Enter your password = your 9-digit Student ID Number. (Change this to a more secure password once you have entered the site. WSU does not recommend entering personal data as there is no guarantee the information is completely secure, despite password protection.)

· Use “Discussion Board” to post your critical responses. Feel free to respond to others’ postings.

· If all else fails: Just send your assignment to Prof. Peabody as an attachment or in the body of your message: peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu.

Week	Date
1	1/11	Orientation
2	1/18	Subscribe to the H-Slavery Listserve: http://www.h-net.org/~slavery/ before class. David Brion Davis, “Looking at Slavery from Broader Perspectives” American Historical Review 105:2 (2000): 452-466. Available online. Use Griffin: http://griffin.wsu.edu/search/. Search (title): American Historical Review, select “History Cooperative.” Stanley Engerman, Seymour Drescher, & Robert Paquette, Slavery “Meaning,” 5-56 “The Origins and Methods of Enslavement,” 57-91 Note: Prof. Peabody will instruct the class from Pullman this week. Pullman students, please schedule an individual conference to discuss possible historiographical topics for either Tuesday 1/18 or Wednesday 1/19. Students are encouraged to attend her presentation at the HIST 599 Colloquium on Wednesday, 1/19, where she will discuss: “The Atlantic Circulation of a Slave Law Principle”
3	1/25	John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800, 1-125 Stanley Engerman, Seymour Drescher, & Robert Paquette, Slavery “The Slave Trade,” 149-224
4	2/1	John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800, 129-234 Stanley Engerman, Seymour Drescher, & Robert Paquette, Slavery “Slave Laws,” 92-148 “The Experience of Slavery,” 225-294 “Economics and Demography,” 371-419
5	2/8	John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800, 235-334 Stanley Engerman, Seymour Drescher, & Robert Paquette, Slavery, “Resistance,” 295-370
6	2/15	Stanley Engerman, Seymour Drescher, & Robert Paquette, Slavery, “Abolition and Emancipation,” 420-469
7	2/22	Use “Digital Drop Box” function in Blackboard to submit the Preliminary Bibliography. Use the Discussion Board to post your: Student Selection #1: Submit a critical response of 1 book/dissertation or three articles from your research bibliography. Be prepared to present this material orally to the class.
8	3/1	David Eltis, ed., Coerced and Free Migrations: Global Perspectives, selections.
9	3/8	Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World
	3/15	Spring Vacation
10	3/22	Student Selections #2: Submit a critical response of 2 books/dissertations or six articles from your research bibliography (or 1 book/dissertation and three articles). Be prepared to present this material to the class.
11	3/29	Solow & Engerman, British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy of Eric Williams, Everyone reads: Introduction, 1-24, plus selections: Part I: Slavery as an Economic Phenomenon, 25-50 Part II: Caribbean Slavery and the Industrial Revolution, 51-134 Part III: The Decline of the British West Indies, 135-190 Part IV: The Basis of Abolition and Emancipation, 191-282 Part V: Capitalism and Slavery in Historical Perspective, 283-345
12	4/5	Select One: John Edwin Mason, Social Death and Resurrection: Slavery and Emancipation in South Africa Blanchard, Peter, Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru Rebecca Scott et al., The Abolition of Slavery and the Aftermath of Emancipation in Brazil
13	4/12	Student Selections #3: Submit a critical response of 1 book/dissertation or three articles from your research bibliography. Be prepared to present this material to the class.
14	4/19	Cooper, Holt, Scott, Beyond Slavery: Explorations of Race, Labor and Citizenship in Post-Emancipation Societies
15	4/26	Use Digital Dropbox in Blackboard: Historiography Paper Due Oral Presentations in Class
Exam Week	5/3	No Exams

Slavery, Abolition, and Emancipation

Grades

On WHETS and Teaching

Required Books

Class Policies

Assignments

Posting your Critical Responses on Blackboard

Use “Digital Drop Box” function in Blackboard to submit the Preliminary Bibliography.

Spring Vacation

No Exams