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Slavery and Emancipation

  • Module code: PO5007
  • Year: 2018/9
  • Level: 5
  • Credits: 30
  • Pre-requisites: Successful completion of level 4 Politics or equivalent
  • Co-requisites: None

Summary

This module will introduce you to the controversies and debates over slavery and other forms of violence committed against groups of people in the modern world and their responses seeking emancipation. Beginning in the fifteenth century with the first European enslavement of Africans, it looks at the rebellions and other forms of day to day resistance, the relations between slavery and Britain's industrialisation, the subsequent development of US slavery, the struggles for emancipation and the movements of African Americans into the twentieth century. These cases will be revisited from the perspective of gender, and compared to other forms of structural oppression of colonised peoples and workers.

The module will consider the challenges in identifying the standpoint of the oppressed and study examples of how 'subaltern' oppressed groups enter politics.  There are case studies of different historical and contemporary movements for emancipation, exploring some of their key debates and the challenges of constructing unity whilst respecting diversity.

The module as a whole will encourage the critical analysis and assessment of the various interpretations that have been put forward and facilitate the development of your research skills, ability to work together and communicate your ideas.

Aims

  • To introduce students to the controversies and debates over the issue of slavery and extreme violence in the making of the modern world and to critically analyse and assess the various interpretations that have been put forward;
  • To make students aware of the social, economic, political, gendered and cultural aspects of violence and oppression up to the present day
  • To enable students to analyse and evaluate emancipatory movements in the 20th and 21st centuries, such as civil rights, which have sought to overcome this legacy
  • To engage students with theories of difference in oppression, and evaluate the challenges of unity and diversity in emancipation.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module students will be able to:

  • evaluate the debates, both among contemporaries and by historians, over the issue of slavery and extreme violence in the making of the modern world
  • analyse racism and slavery from a variety of social, economic, political, gendered and cultural perspectives
  • explore the longer-term consequences for victim groups and their descendants up to the present
  • identify differential experiences of gender, class and national oppression in shaping social and political engagement
  • critically evaluate debates on diversity and unity in emancipatory movements
  • research relevant topics using secondary sources and limited primary sources, and convey their analysis and findings

Curriculum content

Weeks 1-6  Atlantic Slavery Debates

  • Capture and Crossing
  • Plantation and Revolt
  • British industrialisation and slavery
  • Ending Britain's Atlantic Slave Trade
  • The Political Economy of US Cotton Slavery
  • Abolitionism and the US Civil War

Weeks 7-13 Experience of the Oppressed

  • African American Survival and Resistance
  • Enslaved Women
  • The Mill
  • Colonial Labour
  • Indentured Labour
  • Emancipation, Reconstruction, Segregation

Weeks 14-23 From Emancipation to Liberation

  • Jim Crow, Talented tenth or Back to Africa?
  • Movements for self-determination: national liberation against colonialism in Africa
  • Civil Rights
  • Black Power
  • Women of Colour: Intersectionality
  • Racism in Britain to the 1980s
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Reparations, is Britain Still Racist?
  • Concept of Freedom: Contemporary debates.

Teaching and learning strategy

The teaching and learning strategy is based on an integrated lecture and seminar programme, and the use by students of Canvas, especially its reading lists organised by weekly topic.

Every week lecture workshops will be in interactive and will provide different learning spaces within the two hour envelope.  Each topic will be planned around a cycle of introduction, consolidation, further elaboration, development or debate, then review.

An introductory phase will provide an overview of the relevant material, mapping out the terrain and identifying key issues and problems. The introductions will be supported by small group exercises, which will provide students with an opportunity to o consolidate your understanding of the lectures and to clarify issues, raise questions and engage in a critical dialogue with your tutor and peers.

Theoretical interpretations of slavery and of the different cases studied are contested. Students will be encouraged to engage in debates with each other, to consider different arguments, and to learn how to respond to criticism from sometimes diametrically opposed perspectives. In order to do so, students will need to synthesise information from a variety of sources, some in print form, some electronic, some audio-visual. Much of this will be directed but you will also be invited to search for material and report critically on what you have found.

Students will be encouraged to draw on literature, film and other cultural representations of the experience of oppressed groups.

Every third week seminars will be skills developing workshops. Students will be encouraged to bring to each seminar the notes you have taken on what they have read or watched or listened to. This will help students to prepare for your assignments.

Students are strongly encouraged to plan the use of office hours when your lecturers are available to meet with you either one to one, or in small group tutorials as preferred. Students should book a tutorial session every third week and bring your formative work (eg. a reading note, critical bibliography, essay plan) for discussion and immediate feedback.

Breakdown of Teaching and Learning Hours

Definitive UNISTATS Category Indicative Description Hours
Scheduled learning and teaching Lecture Workshops 22 weeks x 2 hours Seminars 7 weeks x 1 hour 44 7
Guided independent study 249
Total (number of credits x 10) 300

Assessment strategy

The strategy is designed to stimulate students to explore different forms of knowledge about history and politics 'from below' as well as 'from above'. Students engage with both historical and political concepts, respectively applying them to research topics that they have a particular interest in. Assessments are led by two projects concentrating on the relevant theoretical debates, supplemented by one that emphasises empathetic writing of history.  

The first assessment is a debate essay, designed for students to outline the interpretations of different historians on the topic. All the topics are debates on different aspects of Atlantic slavery. We will first discuss the topic in a formative way in seminar, this is a direct help for students to identify the key authors and issues in the debate. This assessment tests students' ability to survey and evaluate the literature on their chosen debate.

The second assessment is a short paper to encourage students to explore the personal is political by articulating the experience of an oppressed group striving for emancipation. The formative work will encourage students to use literature and film to imagine or evoke a subjective experience.

The third assessment is a thesis essay, designed to develop your ability to argue a thesis using academic and other relevant sources. Students will discuss ideas and strategies for freedom and emancipation, drawing on at least two case study movements and reflecting on their forms of collective articulation and struggle for emancipation.   

Formative assessment

The seminars will enable students to practice the appropriate study and critical thinking skills geared to completing your assessments.

In the seminar, students will work individually and in small groups on questions and tasks that are designed to develop the writing skills of argument and critical analysis you need.

For your first, formative assessment, students will be required to produce individual reading notes which are then compiled to support an essay plan.  

At selected points in the year, students will introduce your investigation of specific case studies in seminars approaching the perspective of the actors involved.

Some seminars will be devoted to producing essay plans for the thesis essay, with feedback given by the tutor, to help students in preparing and evaluating your work. 

Summative assessment

First assessment: Debate essay on Atlantic slavery 1,500 words (40%) based on first 7 week unit

Second assessment: Short paper on Experience of the Oppressed 800 words (20%) based on next 6 week unit

Third assessment:  Thesis essay 1,700 words (40% based on next 8 week unit and synthesis across the module).

Mapping of Learning Outcomes to Assessment Strategy (Indicative)

Learning Outcome Assessment Strategy
evaluate the debates, both among contemporaries and by historians, over the issue of slavery and extreme violence in the making of the modern world Reading notes (formative) and debate essay (summative)
analyse racism and slavery from a variety of social, economic, political, gendered and cultural perspectives Seminar introductions (formative) debate essay and thesis essay (summative)
explore the longer-term consequences for victim groups and their descendants up to the present Seminar introductions (formative), short paper (summative)
identify differential experiences of gender, class and national oppression in shaping social and political engagement Seminar introductions (formative) short paper and thesis essay (summative)
critically evaluate debates on diversity and unity in emancipatory movements Seminar introductions (formative) thesis essay (summative)
research relevant topics using secondary sources and limited primary sources, and convey their analysis and findings Debate essay, short paper and thesis essay

Elements of Assessment

Description of Assessment Definitive UNISTATS Categories Percentage
Coursework Debate essay 40
Coursework Short paper 20
Coursework Thesis essay 40
Total (to equal 100%) 100%

Achieving a pass

It IS NOT a requirement that any major assessment category is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.

Bibliography core texts

Davis, Angela (2012) The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues City Lights Books

Williams, Eric (1994) Capitalism and Slavery The University of North Carolina Press

Bibliography recommended reading

Baptist, E. (2014) The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. Basic Books

Cafe,W. and Gavins, R. (2003).Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South. New Press.

Craton, M. (2009) Testing the chains : resistance to slavery in the British West Indies Cornell UP

Fanon, F. (1986) Black Skins, White Masks Pluto

hooks, b.(1987) Ain't I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism Pluto

Kumar, A (2013) Coolies of the Empire Cambridge UP

Lowery, Wesley (2017) They Can't Kill Us All: The Story of Black Lives Matter Penguin

Rodney, W (2012) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Black Classic Press

Sandoval, C. (2000) Methodology of the Oppressed University of Minnesota Press

Smith, M.(1998). Debating Slavery, Economy and Society in the Antebellum American South. Economic History Society.

Walvin, James (2013) Crossings : Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave Trade Reaktion Books

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