Knowing Our History
Slavery is much in the news - in movies, TV docudramas, and museums. Slavery is much in our politics - presidential visits to old slave forts on the coast of West Africa, Congressional hearings, legislative apologies, and debates on reparations. Slavery is much on our campus - see the Diamondback story of February 7th 2008. Now slavery has come to the classroom.
A two semester seminar, Knowing Our History: African American Slavery and the University of Maryland has been offered for the academic year 2008-2009 to investigate the University's connections to slavery by placing it in the larger framework of Atlantic history as well as introducing students to historical research methodologies.
The overall purpose of the seminar, which has been divided into two courses, is to explore the University's relation to slavery in the broadest context. History 429 I, offered in the fall of 2008, will introduce the best scholarship on the institution of slavery from the standpoint of world history, and from the perspective of slavery's long development from antiquity to the present, emphasizing slavery's unique presence in mainland North America, then the United States, and finally Maryland. The second half of the seminar, to be offered in the spring of 2009, will allow students to conduct research and will focus attention on the development of slavery in Prince George's County, the area that became College Park, the Calvert family and neighboring planters who owned the land, and the black men and women, free and slave, who worked it during the late antebellum decades. The research carried out by the students during the spring will form part of a report that will be submitted to the University on the links between the University and slavery.
Twenty five students, from a variety of disciplines, and including seniors, juniors and sophomores, were admitted for enrollment after a competitive application process. Thinking broadly and writing well were the necessary prerequisites for admission, as was an interest in the relationship between history and public policy. Our students have made a year-long commitment and are ready for the demanding tasks ahead. Our work during the fall will be based on class discussions, weekly short essays on the reading assignments, and an original essay on some aspect of the history of slavery. The seminar will be team taught by Distinguished University Professor Ira Berlin and Herbert Brewer, a Lecturer in History.
A two semester seminar, Knowing Our History: African American Slavery and the University of Maryland has been offered for the academic year 2008-2009 to investigate the University's connections to slavery by placing it in the larger framework of Atlantic history as well as introducing students to historical research methodologies.
The overall purpose of the seminar, which has been divided into two courses, is to explore the University's relation to slavery in the broadest context. History 429 I, offered in the fall of 2008, will introduce the best scholarship on the institution of slavery from the standpoint of world history, and from the perspective of slavery's long development from antiquity to the present, emphasizing slavery's unique presence in mainland North America, then the United States, and finally Maryland. The second half of the seminar, to be offered in the spring of 2009, will allow students to conduct research and will focus attention on the development of slavery in Prince George's County, the area that became College Park, the Calvert family and neighboring planters who owned the land, and the black men and women, free and slave, who worked it during the late antebellum decades. The research carried out by the students during the spring will form part of a report that will be submitted to the University on the links between the University and slavery.
Twenty five students, from a variety of disciplines, and including seniors, juniors and sophomores, were admitted for enrollment after a competitive application process. Thinking broadly and writing well were the necessary prerequisites for admission, as was an interest in the relationship between history and public policy. Our students have made a year-long commitment and are ready for the demanding tasks ahead. Our work during the fall will be based on class discussions, weekly short essays on the reading assignments, and an original essay on some aspect of the history of slavery. The seminar will be team taught by Distinguished University Professor Ira Berlin and Herbert Brewer, a Lecturer in History.
