Meets: Fridays 10-12:40 in VMMC 115 (room remains locked when class is not in session)
Professor: Sue Peabody, History
Office: VMMC 102X (Honors)
Phone: (360) 546-9647
E-mail: peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu
Office Hours: VMMC 102X: Tuesdays 11:00-12:00, Wednesdays 11:00-12:00 and by appointment
Department Number (inclement weather, closings, information, etc.): (360) 546-9441
What is slavery? What is freedom? These two terms, so crucial to modern ideologies, were the lived experiences of Africans, Europeans, Native Americans and their descendents. This course will look at how slaves and free people created the legal structures that defined, challenged and policed the boundaries between freedom and slavery from the late seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries in Europe, the Caribbean, Brazil and the United States. Students will have a direct hand in creating a textbook of original documents for use in college courses throughout the United States and beyond.
Cooper, Frederick, Thomas Holt, and Rebecca Scott, Beyond Slavery: Explorations in Race, Labor and Citizenship. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. 0807848549. $15.95
Equiano,
Olaudah. The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano…. 0393974944 $9.50
Peabody,
Sue. “There Are No Slaves in France”: The Political Culture of Race and
Slavery in the Ancien Regime. 0195158660. $18.95
Tannenbaum,
Frank. Slave and Citizen. 080700913X $15.00
Cougprint coursepack
20 % Individual Participation: Attendance, required Discussion Questions, Participation in class discussions
40% Group Projects: Bibliography, Quality of Presentations, Collaboration (effort and outcome)
40% Final Paper
Graded
Work will be held in Dr.
Peabody’s office until September 30, 2003, after which it will be destroyed.
Students may either drop by (when Dr. Peabody is in) to pick up papers, etc.,
after June 1 or leave a large self-addressed, stamped envelope in her mailbox
and she will mail it directly to you.
Discussion
Questions
Why did Equiano write his autobiography? (Sue Peabody)
Blackboard Information
·
Use an internet browser to access: http://blackboard.vancouver.wsu.edu. (Note: you must type “http://”
first!) Bookmark this page for ready reference.
·
Enter your user name = your last name, all lower case
·
Enter your password = your first name, all lower case.
(Change this to a more secure password once you have entered the site. WSUV
does not recommend entering personal data as there is no guarantee the
information is completely secure, despite password protection.)
·
Use “Communication” è “Discussion
Board” to post Discussion Question assignments
·
Use “Groups” to share files with the whole class or other
members of your workgroup.
Group Projects
A significant portion of class time
will be devoted to “Workshops” in which designated groups of students will
research and prepare presentations on particular slave cases together. Students
will also be able to collaborate via the internet from home by posting and
updating documents on the public drive. Groups will present their research in
class on 4/11 and 4/18. Groups may divide up the research and presentations in
whatever manner makes the most sense to the participants.
Each student will write his or her own unique 10-12 page double-spaced paper on one aspect of the case that they researched in their group. Your focus should be to explain what someone needs to know in order to understand the case. For example, choose one (or more) of these:
While you will be sharing your research together, your final paper should be your own work. In rare (preapproved) instances, I might be willing to consider collaboration on this final paper as well.
Extra credit will be given to students who locate printed copies of certain documents, specified in the Book Proposal.
Extra credit is also available for images that could be used to illustrate the book. Illustrations can include photographs, editorial cartoons, maps, portraits, engravings etc. Glossy prints are the easiest to reproduce, but the press can also use digital images. Be sure to research who holds the rights to the images you propose.
Attend one or more designated lectures/films
outside of class time and write a one-paragraph summary of what you learned
from the talk.
q Awele Makeba, “Rage is not a 1-Day Thing” Tuesday, January
14, 2003, 6pm, Student Services Building Lecture Hall
q See the film(s):
·
“Sankofa,” Saturday February
8, 2:00 p.m., at Portland Community College Cascade Campus, Terrell Hall, Room
122
·
“Middle Passage,” Friday,
February 14, 7:30 p.m., at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd.,
Portland
q Carl Mack, on Slavery Reparations, Tuesday, February 18 (Time and Place TBA)
Catterall, Helen. Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro. 5 vols. Buffalo, N.Y.: W.S. Hein, 1998. WSUV Reference KF4545.S5 J83 1998.
Drescher, Seymour and Stanley L. Engerman, eds. A
Historical Guide to World Slavery. New York: Oxford University press, 1998.
WSUV Reference HT861|b.H59 1998)
Higginbotham, Jr., A. Leon. In the Matter of
Color: Race & the American Legal Process, The Colonial Period. New
York: Oxford, 1978. WSUV, Reserve: KF4757 .H53
Slavery and Abolition. WSUV Journals, by
alphabetical order
Watson, Alan. Slave
Law in the Americas. Athens: University of Georgia, 1989. Reserve:
KDZ546 .W38 1989
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 home or office) 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).
Tardiness is rude. It disturbs the teacher and your classmates. Furthermore, it can severely affect your work in the class. I usually make important announcements at the beginning of class (e.g. announce the location of an exam, change an assignment). If you miss these announcements, there is no guarantee that I will repeat the information later. On occasion, tardiness is unavoidable. If you find yourself arriving late to class, please take your seat with a minimum of commotion. Three late arrivals constitute an unexcused absence. (Note: if your work schedule necessitates regular late arrivals, please clear this with me in advance).
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.
Due dates: All written assignments are due in class the day of the assignment. Late assignments will be marked down one letter grade for each day that they are late. E.g. An assignment due September 3 that receives a "B" but is submitted on September 4 will receive a final grade of "C." Reading assignments are to be completed by the date given in the syllabus. Failure to read assigned material constitutes being unprepared for class and will negatively affect your class participate grade.
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.
|
Week |
Date |
|
|
1 |
1/17 |
|
|
2 |
1/24 DQ |
The Life of Olaudah Equiano, In this order: 179-180, 1-70, 351-361 |
|
3 |
1/31 DQ |
The Life of Olaudah Equiano, ix-xxxi, 71-178 |
|
4 |
2/7 DQ |
Tannenbaum, Frank. Slave and Citizen, v-xiv, 3-128 |
|
|
|
Film: “The Middle Passage” at the Hollywood Theatre – a Friday or Saturday night. |
|
5 |
2/14 |
Group Topics Due: For each group, turn in 2-3 pp. (single-spaced) listing:
Handout: Carl N. Degler, "Slavery in Brazil and the United States: An Essay in Comparative History" The American Historical Review 75:14 (April 1970): 1004-1028. Handout: Rankin, David C. “The Tannenbaum Thesis Reconsidered: Slavery and Race Relations in Antebellum Louisiana.” Southern Studies 1979 18(1): 5-31. |
|
6 |
2/21 |
Internet: Code Noir (1685): http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/codenoir.htm Peabody, Sue “There Are No Slaves in France,” Intro and chapters 1-5 Lewis & Clark Law Library Workshop
Meet on campus promptly at 9:55 am to carpool to Portland. Parking is very limited at the Lewis & Clark campus. |
|
7 |
2/28 DQ |
Peabody, Sue “There Are No Slaves in France,” Intro and chapters 6-Epilogue Handouts: French Documents |
|
8 |
3/7 DQ |
Coursepack:
William R. Cotter, “The Somerset Case and the Abolition of Slavery in
England” History [Great Britain] 79:255 (1994): 31-56 Coursepack: Howell, T.B. “The Case of James Sommersett, A Negro,” A Complete Collection of State Trials. Vol. 20 (1771-1777). London, 1814. Col. 1-82, 1369-1386. |
|
9 |
3/14 DQ |
Group: Preliminary Bibliography DueSelect a single case that your group will present to the class. Give full reference and include a paragraph stating the main elements of the case (based on Catterall or primary documents). The case you choose should be representative of key issues regarding free status (e.g. manumission or citizenship) and a logical choice for inclusion in the Bedford/St. Martin’s book.
Coursepack: Patterson, Orlando. “The Unholy Trinity: Freedom, Slavery and the American Constitution” Social Research 54:3 543-78. Coursepack: Eric Robert Papenfuse, “From Recompense to Revolution: Mahoney v. Ashton and the Transfiguration of Maryland Culture, 1791-1802” Slavery and Abolition 15:3 (December 1994): 38-62 |
|
|
3/21 |
Spring Break |
|
10 |
3/28 DQ |
Coursepack: Dorish Kadish, “Introduction, ” in Slavery in the Caribbean Francophone World: Distant Voices, Forgotten Acts, Forged Identities (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000), 1-15 Coursepack: Kimberly S. Hanger, “Greedy French Masters and Color-Conscious Legal-Minded Spaniards in Colonial Louisiana,” in Slavery in the Caribbean Francophone World: Distant Voices, Forgotten Acts, Forged Identities (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000), 106-121. Coursepack: Sheller, Mimi. “The Army of Sufferers: Peasant Democracy in the Early Republic of Haiti,” New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 74:1-2 (2000): 33-55. |
|
11 |
4/4 DQ |
Coursepack: Keila Grinberg, “Freedom Suits and Civil Law in Brazil and the United States” Slavery and Abolition 22:2 (December 2001): 66-82 |
|
12 |
4/11 |
Group presentations on U.S. cases |
|
13 |
4/18 |
Group presentations on U.S. cases Group
Materials Due in class:
|
|
14 |
4/25 DQ |
Frederick Cooper, Thomas Holt, and Rebecca Scott, Beyond Slavery: Explorations in Race, Labor and Citizenship (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000). 33-156 |
|
|
5/2 |
Class postponed to next week |
|
15 |
5/9 |
Final Papers Due in class (see p. 2 of syllabus, above) |