African American History I:  From the Slave Trade to Black Reconstruction
African Americans shaped their own histories in slavery and freedom. This course is a survey of the first era of African American history from the trans-atlantic slave trade through the end of the Civil War. The course follows Africans’ forced journeys from communities in West and Central Africa, traces Black experiences during slavery, and follows African Americans’ fights for civil rights and freedom. In the process, it necessarily poses a series of big questions about the relationship between slavery and democracy, and the meaning of freedom in the United States. The course engages a range of critical subjects in African American history: African communities and the Middle Passage ; the emergence of slavery in North America; African Americans and the American Revolution; African American life and resistance under slavery; the abolitionist movement; and African Americans in the Civil War. It ends with a look forward to the revolutionary potential of Reconstruction. Students will come away from this course with knowledge of important trends, concepts and interpretations related to African American history. What might the histories of anti-Blackness, resistance, and emancipation have to teach us about our current moment? How might these histories help us understand the national protests and new calls for abolition?