| Course Time/Place: | Monday and Wednesday 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM, 2110 TLF |
| Course Instructors: | Ira Berlin/Herbert Brewer |
| Offices: | Berlin - 2115 Taliaferro/Brewer - 2149 Taliaferro |
| Office Hours: | Mondays and Wednesdays or by appointment |
| Telephone: | Berlin (301) 405-4266/Brewer (301) 405-4302 |
| Email: | iberlin@umd.edu/herbert.brewer@yahoo.com |
Table of Contents
Course Description and Objectives
This is the first half of a two-semester course whose overall purpose is to explore and investigate the University of Maryland's connection to slavery by placing it in the broader context of Atlantic history as well as introduce students to historical research methodologies. The course 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 questions about the University's history are magnified by contemporary concern over slavery in American society more generally, as represented in popular culture by movies, TV docu-dramas, museum exhibits, historical recreations, as well as numerous books and newspaper and magazine articles, and in politics as represented by presidential visits to former slave forts on the coast of West Africa, legislative apologies, congressional hearings, and of course the vexed question of reparations.
In some respects, the relationship of the University's founding and the question of slavery is obvious. In 1854, Maryland was a slave state and slavery was suffused throughout its economy, politics and culture. The state's greatest source of wealth was slave-grown crops, its political and social leaders were slave-owners, and its ideals were shaped by the very existence of slavery. No aspect of Maryland life was untouched by slavery. From that perspective, it is not strange that the University's founders were slaveholders and the site of the campus was part of a slave plantation. Nor is it surprising that slavery has become ground zero for the question of race in American society and since race affects the life of university campuses, from questions of admissions to graduation rates, from classroom etiquette to matters of language and dress, it is appropriate that we address the specific relationships between slavery and this University. After all, we should know ourselves.
This course will also assist you to continue learning the skills of critical reading and writing, as well as the skill of thinking historically. These skills will be relevant to a wide range of intellectual activities you will undertake as you proceed in college and later in life.
Academic Integrity and Classroom Conduct
By enrolling in this course, each student assumes the responsibilities of an active participant in the University of Maryland's scholarly community in which everyone's academic work and behavior inside and outside the classroom is held to the highest standards of honesty.
Academic misconduct could result in disciplinary action that may include, but is not limited to, suspension or dismissal.
Course Readings
The following books are available for purchase in the bookstores. They are also on reserve in McKeldin:
- Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity (ISBN: 0-674-01624-6)
- Trevor Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World (ISBN: 0-8078-5525-1)
- Philip Curtin, The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex (ISBN: 0-521-62943-8)
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (ISBN: 0-312-25737-6)
- Barbara J. Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground: Maryland During the Nineteenth Century (ISBN: 0-300-04032-6)
- C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution (ISBN: 0-679-72467-2)
- Allan Kulikoff, Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1880. (ISBN: 0-8078-4224-9)
- Sidney Mintz and Richard Price, The Birth of African American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective (ISBN: 0-8070-0917-2)
- David Northrup, (ed.) The Atlantic Slave Trade, 2nd edition (ISBN: 0-618-11624-9)
- Frank Tannenbaum, Slave and Citizen (ISBN: 0-8070-0913-X)
Other assigned readings will be available on BlackBoard.
Course Requirements
Class meets twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. Regular attendance and participation in class discussions is required. Unexcused absence from class could mean a loss of grade. You will only be allowed two excused absences. You are responsible for obtaining any missed assignments or other class material or information. If you are absent due to illness or family emergency, please bring a written excuse from a physician or bring other appropriate and credible documentation. It is important to be on time. Enrollment in this course requires you to participate by completing the assigned reading before the class meets and thinking about how the reading relates to the topic. You will be required to write short one page reviews of assigned readings and a final essay. You are required to attend field trips. Signing up for Blackboard is a requirement as well.
Grading
Your final grade will be determined by:
- Five short reviews (30%) to be based on the assigned readings.
- An essay (40%) on any aspect of slavery in the United States or the larger Atlantic world. You will get detailed instructions later.
This essay will be due at the end of the term. - Class attendance and participation (30%)
Remember that you will lose half a grade each day any assignment is turned in late. Grades will be averaged but will also be weighted toward the final paper and class participation if a general improvement can be seen over the course of the semester.
