History 243
Professor Bryan Rommel-Ruiz
210 Palmer
Email: BRUIZ@cc.colorado.edu
Office: X-6839
Home: (Before 9:00 pm): 573-6013
This course is designed to introduce students to black culture and society from the colonial period to the Civil War. Beginning with discussions about the African Diaspora in the colonial British American context, we will explore issues surrounding labor, religion, and resistance within the slave system. Moreover, we will look closely at the ways enslaved Africans developed cultural and social institutions in the dehumanizing environment of slavery. Although much of the class will examine slavery and black life in the southern American colonies, it will also look at the ways slavery developed in the northern colonies and how this affected the growth of black cultures in this region. From this perspective we will examine how black women and men cultivated diverse communities.
This course will also look at the ways the American Revolution affected black life in the new United States. Specifically, we will look at how it galvanized the antislavery movement and shaped the course of slavery in the antebellum era. Furthermore, we will explore the repercussions of independence for emancipated women and men and the ways it influenced their efforts to build independent black communities. In many respects we will see if it marked a turning point for African Americans as we trace trace their histories throughout the nineteenth century. Ultimately, we will ask if it inspired their ideas of freedom and if it shaped their response to the second revolution--the American Civil War.
All students are expected to have completed the assigned reading before class begins (except for Barkley Brown's article which I will hand out on the first day of class). The reading load for this class is heavy, approximately 160 pages a night (although less when the material requires careful reading). In order to get the most out of the reading, pace yourself. Don't try to read everything at one sitting.
Books
1. Albert Raboteau's Slave Religion: "The Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South
2. William Pierson's Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England
3. Eugene Genovese's From Rebellion to Revolution
4. Ira Berlin and Ronald Hoffman, eds. Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution
5.Gary Nash's Race and Revolution
6. Charles Joyner's Down By The Riverside
7. Deborah Gray White's Aren't I a Woman
Reader
1. Elsa Barkley Brown, "African American Women's Quilting
2. Ira Berlin, "Time, Space and the Evolution of Afro-American Society"
3. Darlene Clark Hine, "Lifting the Viel, Shattering the Silence"
4. Ira Berlin et. al., Selections from "Slaves No More."
5. James Macphearson's, "Who Freed the Slaves"
1. 2-3 page Book Review
2. 5-7page Comparitive Book Review
3. 5-7page Take Home Exam
Students will participate in a group project which integrates library and Internet resources. They will create an annotated bibliography about historical resources available for scholars interested in Early African American History. For more information about this project, See the Handout or refer to the Course Page (HTTP ADDRESS) on the Web.
Honor Code: All students are expected to adhere to The Colorado College's Honor Code. Specifically, students should be well aware of proper citations for other people's work in their papers. For questions about citations, please see me. The College fosters collegiality and believes in the mutual exchange of ideas, but the expressed efforts to copy another student's work will not be accepted.
Grading:
Paper#1: 10%
Paper#2: 30%
Group Project: 20%
Final: 40 %
Daily Schedule
October 28
Introduction.
Assigned Reading: Elsa Barkley Brown's "African American Women's Quilting."
October 29
The African Diaspora.
Assigned Reading: Albert Raboteau's Slave Religion, Chapters 1-3
October 30
Slave culture and society in the southen British American colonies.
Assigned Reading: Raboteau's Slave Religion, Chapters 4-6
October 31
Slavery and slave culture in New England.
Assigned Reading: Ira Berlin's "Time and Space in the Evolution of African-American Culture"; William Pierson's Black Yankees, Chapters 1-9
November 1
We will meet in the Barnes Computer Center to begin working on the Group Project. Caroline Tolbert, the Social Science liason for the Computer Center will tell us about the computer faciliitis and instruct us in how to use them for the Project.
First Paper Due.
November 4
Slave Resistance and Rebellion in Colonial America.
Assigned Reading: William Pierson's Black Yankees, Chapters 10 & 11;
Eugene Genovese's From Rebellion to Revolution
November 5th
Blacks and the American Revolution.
Assigned Reading: Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution
1. Gary Nash, "Forging Freedom"
2. Richard Dunn, "Black Society in the Chesapeake"
3. Philip Morgan, "Black Society in the Lowcountry"
4. Allan Kulikoff, "Uprooted Peoples"
November 6th
American Revolution Part II.
Assigned Reading: Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution
1. Norton, Gutman, Berlin "The Afro-American Family"
2. Albert Raboteau, "The Slave Church"
3. Franklin Knight, "The American Revolution and the Caribbean"
4. Benjamin Quarles, "The American Revolution as a Black Declaration of Independence."
November 7th
Emancipation and the Early Republic.
Assigned Reading: Duncan Macloud, "Toward Caste" in Slavery and Freedom;
Gary Nash, Race and Revolution
November 8th
Second Paper Due. Continue working on Group Project.
November 11th
Slave Culture and Society in the Antebellum South.
Assigned Reading: Charles Joyner, Down By The Riverside Chpts. 1-4
November 12
Slavery and Black Life in the Antebellum Period Part II
Assigned Reading: Charles Joyner, Down By The Riverside Chpts. 5-8
November 13th
African American Women and Slavery.
Assigned Reading: Deborah G. White, Arn't I a Woman, Chpts. 1-3
November 14
African American Women and Slavery Part II.
Assigned Reading: Deborah G. White, Arn't I a Woman;Chpts. 4-Epilogue; Darlene Clark Hine, "Lifting the Viel, Shattering the Silence; Review Elsa Barkley Brown, "African American Women's Quilting"
November 15
Continue working on Group Project. The computer center will be reserved for the class, but students can use this time for the library work as well.
November 18
Who Freed the Slaves? African Americans and the American Civil War.
Assigned Readings: Ira Berlin et. al. Selections from Slaves No More; James McPhearson, "Who Freed The Slaves?"
Group Project Due
Course Evaluations
November 19
No Class. Pass out Exam Questions and prepare for the Final
Novmber 20
Final Due