HI3020 Slavery in American History

Module Coordinator: Dr. Sylvie Kleinman
Duration: Michaelmas Term
Contact hours: 2 hours per week
Weighting: 5 ECTS
Assessment: 100% essay

Slavery was a central phenomenon shaping the development of American history. It is therefore no surprise that a large part of American historical literature has been devoted to studying the institution of slavery, its role in the causes of the Civil War, and its influence in creating the American black experience. Much of the pre-World War II historiography was concerned with charting the oppression of blacks, but afterwards historians realised that black life was more than the sum of white oppression. No longer obsessed with ‘an image drained of humanity’, new studies examined black history as black people experienced it – with their own institutions, communal values and legacy. This module examines how the problem of slavery was addressed by historians from the Reconstruction era until the present day.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

• Identify the main features of historical and popular writing about slavery
• Explain the different ways in which professional historians have approached the subject and why such differences have come about
• Analyze the principal debates between different schools of historical thought on slavery
• Explore the differences between key interpretations in the context of when they were written and why
• Reflect on the public nature and applications of history as shown through official and unofficial memory, the refusal or acceptance by the state for past events, the impact of social groups lobbying for recognition of the past in new ways
• Use film and fiction as a means of interpreting the past
• Supply an individual synthesis based on critical reading of the secondary literature and the historical or artistic works dealing with slavery in American history
• Write essays and make oral presentations defending such a synthesis