Meets: Thursdays, 6:00- 8:45 p.m.
Classroom: Vancouver: CLS 117
Pullman:
Instructor: Prof. Sue Peabody
Office: MMC 202D (360) 546-9647 (Pullman students can use any campus phone to dial x69647 for free)
e-mail: peabody@vancouver.wsu.edu
Office Hours: Mon/Wed, 1:30-2:00 and Thursdays, 4:15-5:00 and by appointment
Department Number (inclement weather, closings, information, etc.): (360) 546-9441
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Vancouver: The WHETS
Control Room: Classroom Bldg. 120; (360) 546-9033 WHETS Lead Operator: Chris Rhoads, (360) 546-9709 Pullman: The WHETS
Control Room: Murrow 54; Tel: (509) (33)5-5621 WHETS Lead Operator: Leslie Henriod (lhenriod@wsu.edu, 5-6534) |
Course Objectives: To introduce students to the history of slavery and abolition as a world-wide phenomenon and to make them aware of wider trends and debates in the historiographical literature.
Course Description: Slavery is one of the oldest and most widespread relationships in human history. Members of virtually every human group have been enslaved at one time or another. What is relatively new in world history is the notion that slavery is wrong and ought to be abolished. The transatlantic abolition movement of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was an unprecedented humanitarian effort to abolish an exploitive an violent system of social relations. However, emancipation did not accomplish all of the goals of the abolition movement. This class will survey slavery’s trajectory in world history with particular focus on reading primary documents that date from different historical periods to get a sense of what slavery was and has become today.
David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. Oxford, 2006. 0195140737. List: $30.00. Currently $19.80 through major on-line retailer.
Christopher Leslie Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2006). 0-8778-5698-3. $22.50.
Rebecca J. Scott, Degrees of Freedom:
Louisiana and Cuba after Slavery. Harvard, 2005. 0-674-01932-6. $29.95
Heuman, Gad and James Walvin, The Slavery Reader. Routledge, 2003.
Grades
20% Class participation (including Attendance, Oral Presentations)
10% Topic and Preliminary Bibliography
20% Historiographical Debate Summary
20% Historiographical Précis
30% Historiographical Paper
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 once 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 the greatest rewards.
In consultation with me, please select a topic that you will research this semester for a historiographical essay. For example, you might research such topics as: women in slavery, comparative conditions of slavery (by region or by setting, such as urban vs. rural), anti-slavery as a transnational phenomenon, post-emancipation conditions, slave law.
We will schedule a time to meet when I am on campus, (for Pullman students: Thursday, 9/7; Vancouver: Tuesday, 9/5). Please come to this meeting prepared with one or more ideas for your research project. I am available for additional conferences by telephone, teleconference, or in person during the remainder of the semester. Please do not hesitate to contact me to set one up.
Submit a preliminary bibliography on (approved) topic of your choice with at least 15 scholarly entries, 12 of which must not be listed on the class syllabus, including at least 5 articles and 6 books. Include, at the beginning, a brief paragraph describing the topic that you are researching, including what you hope or expect to find, along with any difficulties that you anticipate encountering. This will be the basis of your historiographical paper, below.
Some recommended sources to find these works are:
· Databases: American History and Life (for North American History) and Historical Abstracts (for non-US History). http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/ref/history.html
· Journal: Slavery and Abolition http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/0144039x.asp
· Listserve Archives or Discussion: H-Slavery http://www.h-net.org/~slavery/
In this short essay, be sure to address the following questions: What is the author’s thesis? What kinds of historical evidence does the argument rely upon (e.g. letters, court records, diaries, governmental reports) and how does this kind of evidence shape the historian’s conclusions? How does this work relate to others you have read this semester for this course? What do you see as the major strengths and weaknesses of this work? Do you see any important omissions, errors of fact or logic? The précis should read like a book review, that is: aimed at someone who has not read the work and in a fluid, essay format (i.e., not disconnected answers to a series of implied or specified questions).
This essay will develop the topic you have been researching with your bibliography. How have historians approached this topic over the past 40 years or more? What new approaches, sources, methodologies have they used and what conclusions have they reached? What are major areas of debate and disagreement? What do you feel are fruitful avenues for further research?
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:
Vancouver: Jessica Nelson, Student Services Office, 360-546-9567
Pullman: Disability Resource Center (DRC) in Administration Annex 206, 335-1566.
Assignments
Date |
Undergrad |
Graduate |
Conf. |
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8/24 |
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8/31 |
Inhuman Bondage, Prologue, Chap. 1-4 |
Inhuman Bondage, Prologue,
Chap. 1-4
Slavery Reader, Part 1: The Atlantic Slave Trade |
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9/7 |
Inhuman Bondage, chaps. 5-7 |
Inhuman Bondage, chaps. 5-7 Slavery Reader, Part 2: Origins and Development of Slavery in the Americas Prof. Peabody in Pullman |
1-on-1 outside class (+ Class) |
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9/14 |
Classic Slave Narratives, ix-xviii, 1-182 |
Slavery Reader, Part 3: Slaves at Work and Part 6: Slave Economy and Material Culture |
Tele |
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9/21 |
Bibliography |
Historiographical Debate Summary #1 |
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9/28 |
Inhuman Bondage, Chap. 9-10 |
Inhuman Bondage, Chap. 9-10
Slavery Reader, Part 4: Family, Gender and Community; Part 5: Slave Culture |
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10/5 |
Oral Presentations |
Slavery Reader, Part 8: Race and Social Structure Topic and Preliminary Bibliography |
Tele |
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10/12 |
Inhuman Bondage, Chaps. 8 & 11 |
Inhuman Bondage, Chaps. 8 & 11 Slavery Reader, Part 7: Slave Resistance |
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10/19 |
Slave Revolution in the Caribbean (entire book) |
Inhuman Bondage, Chaps. 12-15
Slavery Reader, Part 9: Africans in the Atlantic World Historiographical Debate Summary #2 |
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10/26 |
Inhuman Bondage, Chap. 12-15 |
Moral Capital, 1-206 |
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11/2 |
Classic Slave Narratives, 183-242 |
Moral Capital, 209-462 Historiographical Précis |
Tele |
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11/9 |
Degrees of Freedom, 1-153 |
Degrees of Freedom, 1-153
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11/16 |
Degrees of Freedom, 154-269 |
Degrees of Freedom, 154-269 Historiographical Précis |
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11/23 |
NO CLASS: Thanksgiving Vacation |
NO CLASS: Thanksgiving Vacation |
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11/30 |
Disposable People, entire book |
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Tele |
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12/7 |
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Tele |
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Exam Week: Papers Due, Wednesday |
Historiographical Paper Due Wednesday, 12/13 |
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