African-American History I

HIST 250, By Lucas Burke

Term: Fall 2022

HIST250-AfricanAmericanHistory-SampleSyllabus

The African background, development of slavery, abolitionism, the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The historical experiences of people of African descent within the United States have been characterized by trauma– in the forms of forced migration, enslavement, economic, political, and social inequality, and racial violence–as well as survival within, and struggle against, a society that is marked by persistent racism at the interpersonal, inter-group, and institutional level. This two-course sequence surveys African American experiences from their origins in pre-colonial West and Central Africa to the present. While the courses examine African Americans’ relationship to the dominant culture, they also explore the internal dynamics of African American communities, particularly gender and class relations.

HIST 250 surveys African American experiences from their origins in pre-colonial Africa prior to the slave trade to the emancipation from slavery in the mid-nineteenth century. Topics covered in this class include: the social structures and cultures of West and Central Africa; the Atlantic slave trade; the development of slavery and the origins of ‘race’ in the Americas; the formation of African American cultures; gender relations within the slave community; the experiences of free blacks; antebellum black political and social movements; and the role of slavery and expansion in the United States Civil War.

4 credits