Daina Ramey Berry

In 1846, Archibald McMillin a North Carolina planter wrote to his wife during one of his many sojourns in the domestic slave trade. He informed her that he “could not sell in Darlington or Sumpter, [South Carolina,]” but that he was going to spend the day” in Charleston looking at sales at auction.”  Perhaps Charleston would prove a better market then the other cities, but if not, he would probably go further into the Deep South. Like the invention of the cotton gin was to the expansion of slavery into western territories, the domestic slave trade represented “the lifeblood of the southern slave system” according to historian Steven Deyle.  More than one million African Americans entered the domestic market and found themselves in coffles traveling by foot to various markets or were placed on boats and taken down the Mississippi River. Some traveled by ship along the Atlantic seaboard to port cities with large markets such as Savannah. 

This course will explore the inner-workings of the domestic slave trade from the perspectives of slaveholders, speculators, and the enslaved.  Students will have the opportunity to analyze maps, letters, diaries, newspaper advertisements, and legislation relating to the domestic slave trade. 

Texts:

Johnson, Walter. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market. New York:

 Harvard University Press, 2001.

Johnson, Walter, ed. The Chattel Principle: Internal Slave Trades in the Americas. New

 Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

Shermerhorn, Calvin. Money Over Mastery Family Over Freedom: Slavery in the

 Antebellum Upper South. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.

Tadman, Michael. Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South.  Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

Recommended Readings:

Bancroft, Frederic. Slave Trading in the Old South. 1931. Reprint, Columbia: University of

South Carolina Press, 1996.

Campbell, Stanley W. The Slave Catchers. Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press,

 1970.

Catterall, Helen Tunncliff, ed. Judicial Cases Concern American Slavery and the Negro, 5

vols.  Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1926-37.

Deyle, Steven. Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2005.

Gudmestad, Robert. A Troublesome Commerce: The Transformation of the Interstate Slave

Trade. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.

Hadden, Sally. Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas. New York:

 Harvard University Press, 2001.

Martin, Jonathan. Divided Mastery: Slave Hiring in the American South. New York:

Harvard University Press, 2004.

Rothman, Adam. Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South.

 New York: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Electronic readings will be distributed or placed on Blackboard

Grading:

Attendance and Participation 10%

Response Papers 10%

Mapping and Historical Marker Project 10%

Primary Document Analysis 10%

Oral Presentation 20%

Research Proposal and Bibliography 5%

Rough Draft of Final Paper 10%

Final Paper 25%

In a New York Times Magazine article, Toni Morrison eloquently described the dilemmas of black female identity in a now oft quoted phrase: “…she had nothing to fall back on; not maleness, not whiteness, not ladyhood, not anything.  And out of the profound desolation of her reality she may well have invented herself.”  By examining the ways in which black women in the United States sought to “invent” themselves as historical agents despite economic, social, and political challenges, Morrison’s statement will, in many ways, form the basis of our intellectual journey.  To that end, the course will use primary sources, historical monographs, and essays to provide a chronological and thematic overview of the experiences of black women in America from their African roots to the circumstances they face in the present era.  This seminar class will be discussion driven and will address the following topics: the evolution of African American women’s history as field of inquiry; African American women historians; the trans-Atlantic slave trade; enslavement in the United States; abolition and freedom; racial uplift; urban migration; labor and culture; the modern civil rights movement; organized black feminism; hip-hop culture; AIDS and the Black Women's Health study.  Additionally, the course will draw upon readings written by and about African American women with a particularly emphasis on their approach to gender and race historiography.

Texts:

Wilma King and Linda Read, eds. African American Women (forthcoming, Blackwell Publishers)

Assata Shakur, Assata

Tiffany Gill, Beauty Shop Politics

Daina Ramey Berry, Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe

V.P. Franklin and Bettye Collier-Thomas, Sisters in the Struggle

Willie Lee Rose, A Documentary History of Slavery in North America

Carroll Parrott Blue, The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing.

Deborah Gray White,ed.  Telling Histories:  Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower.

Grading:

Class Engagement     10% 

 Posting Responses to the Week’s Readings    10%

Cultural Critique    20%

Outline of Research Paper with Annotated Bibliography    25%

Final Research Paper and Presentation    35%

In 1846, Archibald McMillin a North Carolina planter wrote to his wife during one of his many sojourns in the domestic slave trade. He informed her that he “could not sell in Darlington or Sumpter, [South Carolina,]” but that he was going to spend the day” in Charleston looking at sales at auction.”  Perhaps Charleston would prove a better market then the other cities, but if not, he would probably go further into the Deep South. Like the invention of the cotton gin was to the expansion of slavery into western territories, the domestic slave trade represented “the lifeblood of the southern slave system” according to historian Steven Deyle.  More than one million African Americans entered the domestic market and found themselves in coffles traveling by foot to various markets or were placed on boats and taken down the Mississippi River. Some traveled by ship along the Atlantic seaboard to port cities with large markets such as Savannah. 

This course will explore the inner-workings of the domestic slave trade from the perspectives of slaveholders, speculators, and the enslaved.  Students will have the opportunity to analyze maps, letters, diaries, newspaper advertisements, and legislation relating to the domestic slave trade. 

Grading Scale:

Attendance and Participation 10%

Response Papers 10%

Mapping and Historical Marker Project 10%

Primary Document Analysis 10%

Oral Presentation 20%

Research Proposal and Bibliography 5%

Rough Draft of Final Paper 10%

Final Paper 25%

Required Readings:

Johnson, Walter. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market. New York:

 Harvard University Press, 2001.

Johnson, Walter, ed. The Chattel Principle: Internal Slave Trades in the Americas. New

 Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.

Obadele-Starks, Ernest.  Freebooters and Smugglers: The Foreign Slave Trade in the United       States After 1808. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2007.

Shermerhorn, Calvin. Money Over Mastery Family Over Freedom: Slavery in the

 Antebellum Upper South. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.

Tadman, Michael. Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South.           Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

Recommended Readings:

Bancroft, Frederic. Slave Trading in the Old South. 1931. Reprint, Columbia: University of

South Carolina Press, 1996.

Campbell, Stanley W. The Slave Catchers. Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press,

 1970.

Catterall, Helen Tunncliff, ed. Judicial Cases Concern American Slavery and the Negro, 5

vols.  Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1926-37.

Deyle, Steven. Carry Me Back: The Domestic Slave Trade in American Life. New York:

Oxford University Press, 2005.

Gudmestad, Robert. A Troublesome Commerce: The Transformation of the Interstate Slave

Trade. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003.

Hadden, Sally. Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas. New York:

 Harvard University Press, 2001.

Martin, Jonathan. Divided Mastery: Slave Hiring in the American South. New York:

Harvard University Press, 2004.

Rothman, Adam. Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South.

 New York: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Electronic readings will be distributed, placed on Blackboard

Course Description:

This is a graduate research course for doctoral students interested in learning how to conduct archival research. Employing a thematic approach to historical studies, students will examinesources related to gender and the economics of slavery housed at the Dolph Briscoe Center forAmerican History. The Natchez Trace Collection serves as the core holdings researched in thiscourse. With more than 450 linear feet of primary resources, this collection contains slaveholding records, personal papers, photographs, maps, newspapers, broadsides, diaries and other political,business and legal records related to slavery in the Gulf South states of Alabama, Louisiana,Mississippi, and Texas. Students will learn how to locate, transcribe, analyze, and interpret a varietyof records culminating with an oral presentation and research paper based on primary documents atthe end of the semester.

Students should familiarize themselves with the Center’s website:

http://www.cah.utexas.edu/

In addition to drawing upon the resources in this large collection, members of the library staff will make guest presentations on topics related to the research process, archival preservation, and how to navigate various complementary collections on campus and at other institutions. Students areexpected to produce a research paper primarily based on the holdings in the Natchez TraceFor questions regarding this course please contact Dr. Berry at DRB@austin.utexas.eduSources: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at AustinIdentifier: NTC_0066 Title: Executor’s Sale of Negroes. Date: 1860/08/13 Source: Natchez Trace Collection, Broadside Collection Creator: McKay, John, executor and Identifier: di_07098 Title: Ex-slaves Delia and Jim Barclay, Hillister (Beaumont), District 3 Date: 1937/06/11Source: Works Progress Administration: Slave Storiescollection, yet some may wish to consult other repositories on campus including the BensonCollection at the Perry- Castañeda Library or archival material from the Harry Ransom Center iftheir approved paper topics fall beyond the Gulf South. The professor expects this course to drawupon students’ interested in US slavery as well as comparative slavery in the Americas -broadlydefined- and welcomes scholars in a variety of disciplines including but not limited to History,African and African Diaspora Studies, Anthropology, American Studies, and Art History, to name afew.

Grading Policy:

Research Proposal and Annotated bibliography 10%

Primary Document Transcription Exercise(s) 15%

Class Attendance and Participation 10%

Permissions Letter Assignment 5%

Oral Presentation 20%

Research Paper 40%

Required Readings:

Buchanan, Thomas. Black Life on the Mississippi: Slaves, Free Blacks, and The WesternSteamboat World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Dusinberre, William. Slavemaster President: The Double Career of James Polk. New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 2003.

Follett, Richard. The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana’s Cane World, 1820-1860. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.

Frankel, Noralee. Freedom’s Women: Black Women and Families in Civil War Era Mississippi. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

For questions regarding this course please contact Dr. Berry at DRB@austin.utexas.edu Sources: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin Identifier: NTC_0066 Title: Executor’s Sale of Negroes. Date: 1860/08/13 Source: Natchez Trace Collection, Broadside

In a New York Times Magazine article, Toni Morrison eloquently described the dilemmas of black female identity in a now oft quoted phrase: “…she had nothing to fall back on; not maleness, not whiteness, not ladyhood, not anything.  And out of the profound desolation of her reality she may well have invented herself.”  By examining the ways in which black women in the United States sought to “invent” themselves as historical agents despite economic, social, and political challenges, Morrison’s statement will, in many ways, form the basis of our intellectual journey. 

To that end, the course will use primary sources, historical monographs, and essays to provide a chronological and thematic overview of the experiences of black women in America from their African roots to the circumstances they face in the present era.  This seminar class will be discussion driven and will address the following topics: the evolution of African American women’s history as field of inquiry; African American women historians; the trans-Atlantic slave trade; enslavement in the United States; abolition and freedom; racial uplift; urban migration; labor and culture; the modern civil rights movement; organized black feminism; hip-hop culture; AIDS and the Black Women's Health study.  Additionally, the course will draw upon readings written by and about African American women with a particularly emphasis on their approach to gender and race historiography.

Potential Readings;

Wilma King and Linda Read, eds. African American Women (forthcoming, Blackwell Publishers)

Assata Shakur, Assata

Tiffany Gill, Beauty Shop Politics

Daina Ramey Berry, Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe

V.P. Franklin and Bettye Collier-Thomas, Sisters in the Struggle

Willie Lee Rose, A Documentary History of Slavery in North America

Carroll Parrott Blue, The Dawn at My Back: Memoir of a Black Texas Upbringing. 

Deborah Gray White,ed.  Telling Histories:  Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower.

Grading

Class Engagement 10%   

Posting Responses to the Week’s Readings 10% 

Cultural Critique 20%

Outline of Research Paper with Annotated Bibliography 25%

Final Research Paper and Presentation 35%

Course Description:

How did enslavement affect African American men, women and children? Did their experiences differ based on gender, age, location, or time period?  From the 1970s to the present, historians have been in conversation about they ways gender informs the experience of captivity.   Some approach the subject by identifying the roles enslaved people played in agricultural, nonagricultural, or industrial work settings. While others, focus on collective and individual forms of resistance to the institution.  Enslavement also affected interpersonal relationships despite the fact that African American captives spent most of their time at work. This upper division seminar will examine the gendered experience of chattel slavery in the United States. Through critical analysis, students will engage classic and contemporary texts, films, and songs that focus on slave labor, family, community, sexuality, and the economy. Students will also have the opportunity to analyze primary documents such as slave narratives, plantation records, court documents, and legislation that shaped the lives of bondmen and bondwomen in the United States. 

Course Objectives:

The primary objective for this course is to help students learn about the gendered nature of enslavement in the United States.  In addition, students will participate in the practice of history by reviewing a book, analyzing primary documents, providing an oral presentation, and producing a research paper based on primary and secondary sources.

Grading Scale & Deadlines:

Attendance and Participation    20%    

Primary Document Analysis      20%    

Book Review                             15%    

Presentation                            15%    

Final Paper                              30%    

Readings:

Kawame Anthony Appiah, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (New York: The Modern Library, 2000).

John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972, 1979).

Jennifer Morgan, Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

Willie Lee Rose, ed.  A Documentary History of Slavery in North America (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1999). 

Deborah Gray White, Ar’n’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1985, 1999).

Electronic readings will be distributed, placed on Blackboard, or available via JSTOR

When the first Africans arrived in North America, their status was not clear.  Some arrived as part of expeditions searching to “discover” the New World, while others arrived with Europeans as “servants.” By the late 17th century, the majority of Africans who came to this region were enslaved “for their natural life.” Rather than focus on the origins of the peculiar institution, this class examines slavery at its maturity, during the 19th century.  The Antebellum years represented a time when enslaved families and communities were well established, when labor in various settings was highly regimented, and when resistance movements reinforced strict legislation. This is the backdrop of which students will learn about chattel slavery in the United States.  Some of the specific topics covered include community development, cultural expression, family formation, human commodification, labor systems, regional variation, religious practices, and resistance movements among the enslaved.  

Texts 

Berry, Daina Ramey. Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe: Gender and Slavery in Antebellum Georgia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Dunaway, Wilma. Slavery in the American Mountain South. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Kaye, Anthony. Joining Places: Slave Neighborhoods in the Old South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.

King, Wilma. Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth Century America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.

Melish, Joanne Pope. Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780-1860. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998.

Raboteau, Albert. Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South. New York Oxford University Press, 2004 (revised edition).

Coursepack with additional readings.

Grading 

Primary Document Analysis 20%

Group Presentation 20%

Papers 30%

Final 30%

This course partially fulfills the legislative requirement for American history. 

350R

Course Description:

How did enslavement affect African American men, women and children? Did their experiences differ based on gender, age, location, or time period?  From the 1970s to the present, historians have been in conversation about they ways gender informs the experience of captivity.   Some approach the subject by identifying the roles enslaved people played in agricultural, nonagricultural, or industrial work settings. While others, focus on collective and individual forms of resistance to the institution.  Enslavement also affected interpersonal relationships despite the fact that African American captives spent most of their time at work. This upper division seminar will examine the gendered experience of chattel slavery in the United States. Through critical analysis, students will engage classic and contemporary texts, films, and songs that focus on slave labor, family, community, sexuality, and the economy. Students will also have the opportunity to analyze primary documents such as slave narratives, plantation records, court documents, and legislation that shaped the lives of bondmen and bondwomen in the United States. 

Course Objectives:

The primary objective for this course is to help students learn about the gendered nature of enslavement in the United States.  In addition, students will participate in the practice of history by reviewing a book, analyzing primary documents, providing an oral presentation, and producing a research paper based on primary and secondary sources.

Grading Scale & Deadlines:

Attendance and Participation    20%    

Primary Document Analysis      20%    

Book Review                                         15%    

Presentation                                          15%    

Final Paper                                           30%    

Readings:

Kawame Anthony Appiah, Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (New York: The Modern Library, 2000).

John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972, 1979).

Jennifer Morgan, Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

Willie Lee Rose, ed.  A Documentary History of Slavery in North America (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1999).

Deborah Gray White, Ar’n’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1985, 1999).

Electronic readings will be distributed, placed on Blackboard, or available via JSTOR

Course Description:

This graduate seminar examines gender and slavery in the United States. Although the United States serves as the focal site, some of the recommended readings will include slavery in the Caribbean. The primary objective is to read a variety of texts that address the ways women and men experienced slavery.  Such texts include biographies, narratives, edited collections, articles, and monographs. Students will explore how gender affected family relationships, labor requirements, resistance patterns, and access to freedom.

Grading Structure:

Book Review:             10%

Oral Presentation:     20%

Participation:             30%

Paper:                         40%

Readings:

Berry, Daina Ramey. Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe: Gender and Slavery in

 Antebellum Georgia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Blight, David. A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their

Own Narratives of Emancipation. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007.

Camp, Stephanie M.H. Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance

 in the Plantation South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Glymph, Thavolia. Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation

Household. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Greenburg, Kenneth, ed. Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory. Oxford

and New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

King, Wilma. The Essence of Liberty: Free Black Women in the Slave Era. Columbia:

University of Missouri Press, 2006.

Morgan, Jennifer L. Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World

Slavery. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Pargas, Damian. The Quarters and the Fields: Slave Families in the Non-Cotton South.

Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2010.

Washington, Margaret. Sojourner Truth’s America. Urbana: University of Illinois

Press, 2009.

Additional readings will be available via Blackboard.

HISTORY: 350R
Domestic Slave Trade
AFR 374D
Fall 2010
The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Daina Ramey Berry
Office: Garrison Hall Room 3.224
Office Hours: Thursdays 1:00-3:00pm or by appointment
Office Phone: 512-475-4310 (direct) or 512.471.3261 (dept.)
Class: Monday 9:00am-12:00pm
Location: GAR 1.122 Unique: HIS 39315    AFR 35335

Teaching Assistant: Amber Abbas
Office Hours: Mondays 3:00-5:00 pm by appointment (please email to schedule meeting)
Email: amberhabbas@yahoo.com

Course Description:
In 1846, Archibald McMillin a North Carolina planter wrote to his wife during one of his many sojourns in the domestic slave trade. He informed her that he “could not sell in Darlington or Sumpter, [South Carolina,]” but that he was going to spend the day” in Charleston looking at sales at auction.” Perhaps Charleston would prove a better market then the other cities, but if not, he would probably go further into the Deep South. Like the invention of the cotton gin was to the expansion of slavery into western territories, the domestic slave trade represented “the lifeblood of the southern slave system” according to historian Steven Deyle. More than one million African Americans entered the domestic market and found themselves in coffles traveling by foot to various markets or were placed on boats and taken down the Mississippi River. Some traveled by ship along the Atlantic seaboard to port cities with large markets such as Savannah.

This course will explore the inner-workings of the domestic slave trade from the perspectives of slaveholders, speculators, and the enslaved. Students will have the opportunity to analyze maps, letters, diaries, newspaper advertisements, and legislation relating to the domestic slave trade.

Course Objectives: The primary course objective centers around students developing a keen understanding of the interstate slave trade in the United States. In-class primary document exercises are used to expose students to a variety of historical sources related to the traffic in human beings during the late 18th and the long 19th century. As a writing intensive course, each student will produce a 10-12-page research paper based on primary and secondary documents. To facilitate and support the research, the class will attend a library workshop at the Center for American History to familiarize them with resources in the Natchez-Trace Collection.

This course contains sensitive content and students should respect the emotions and opinions of their colleagues during class discussions.

Grading Scale:
Attendance and Participation 10%
Response Papers 10%
Mapping and Historical Marker Project 10%
Primary Document Analysis 10%
Oral Presentation 20%
Research Proposal and Bibliography 5%
Rough Draft of Final Paper 10%
Final Paper 25%

Final Grades:
A    94-100 A-    90-93 B+    87-89 B    83-86 B-    80-82 C+    77-79 C    73-76 C-    70-72 D+    67-69 D    63-66 D-    60-62 F    Below 60 points

LATE ASSIGNMENTS ARE NOT ACCEPTED.

Required Readings:
Johnson, Walter. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market. New York: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Johnson, Walter, ed. The Chattel Principle: Internal Slave Trades in the Americas. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Obadele-Starks, Ernest. Freebooters and Smugglers: The Foreign Slave Trade in the United States After 1808. Fayetteville, AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2007.
Martin, Jonathan. Divided Mastery: Slave Hiring in the American South. New York: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Tadman, Michael. Speculators and Slaves: Masters, Traders, and Slaves in the Old South. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

Policies and Procedures:

University of Texas Honor Code
The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.

Plagiarism
The University's Institutional Rules (Section 11-802(d)) define plagiarism as including, "but not limited to, the appropriation of, buying, receiving as a gift, or obtaining by any other means material that is attributable in whole or in part to another source . . . and presenting that material as one's own academic work offered for credit." In other words, “handing in someone else's work and taking credit for it as if it were your own.” Source: History Department statement on Academic Integrity: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/about/academic-integrity.php
For examples of plagiarism see the site above or the Student Judicial Services Website.

Documented Disability Statement
The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone) or http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd

Use of E-Mail for Official Correspondence to Students
E-mail is recognized as an official mode of university correspondence; therefore, you are responsible for reading your e-mail for university and course-related information and announcements. You are responsible to keep the university informed about changes to your e-mail address. You should check your e-mail regularly and frequently—the university recommends daily, but at minimum twice a week—to stay current with university-related communications, some of which may be time-critical. You can find UT Austin’s policies and instructions for updating your e-mail address at: http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.php

Email in recent years has often mistakenly become a substitute for office hours and students sometimes abuse email by the nature of their comments, requests, demands, and questions. This practice will not be tolerated. The professor is an advocate of contact with students through office hours and prefers to meet in person. Therefore, this course will utilize email to post discussion questions for upcoming class meetings, notification of schedule changes, announcements for lectures on campus, or any other miscellaneous issues that relate to the course. Please be courteous over email and try to save questions for class discussions so that all students can benefit from the response.

Religious Holy Days
By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL)
If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of Texas Police Department (UTPD).
Call 512-232-5050 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal

Emergency Evacuation Policy:
Occupants of buildings on The University of Texas at Austin campus are required to evacuate buildings when a fire alarm is activated. Alarm activation or announcement requires exiting and assembling outside. Familiarize yourself with all exit doors of each classroom and building you may occupy. Remember that the nearest exit door may not be the one you used when entering the building. Students requiring assistance in evacuation shall inform their instructor in writing during the first week of class. In the event of an evacuation, follow the instruction of faculty or class instructors. Do not re-enter a building unless given instructions by the following: Austin Fire Department, The University of Texas at Austin Police Department, or Fire Prevention Services office.

COURSE SCHEDULE:
The professor reserves the right to deviate or modify parts of this schedule. All changes will include advanced written notice.

Week 1—8/23/10    NO CLASS, University classes begin on 8/25/10

Week 2 – 8/30/10    Course Introduction
Readings: A. Rothman, Chpt.2 S. Deyle, Chpt.5 J. Martin, Introduction,

Week 3 – 9/6/10    NO CLASS – Labor Day
Readings: M. Tadman, Chpt. 6 E. Obadele-Starks, Introduction, Chapt. 1, J. Martin, Chpt.1 and Chpt.2,

Week 4 – 9/13/10    “Negro” Speculation, Hiring & The Law    RP#1 Due
Readings: E. Obadele-Starks, Chapt. 2, M. Tadman, Chpt.1 and Chpt.2
Presentation dates selected

Part II: Travel

Week 5 – 9/20/10    Our Nation’s Capitol & Upper South Trading Centers
Readings: M. Tadman, Chpt. 3 R. Gudmestd, Chpt 4 W. Johnson, Soul by Soul (begin reading)

Week 6 – 9/27/10    Lowcountry – Charleston, SC & Savannah, GA
Readings: M. Tadman, Chpt. 4, D. Berry, Chpt.4 W. Johnson, Soul by Soul (cont. reading)
PD Paper Due

Week 7 – 10/4/10    Brisco Center for American History Library Workshop
Readings: W. Johnson, Soul by Soul (cont. reading)

Week 8 – 10/11/10    Deep South Trading Centers in Alabama, Mississippi & Texas Proposal and Bibliography Due
Readings: W. Johnson, Soul by Soul (cont. reading) E. Obadele-Starks, Chpt. 3, Chpt. 5, & Conclusion

Week 9 – 10/18/10    Southern Capital of Trade New Orleans
Readings: W. Johnson, Soul by Soul (Finish reading & come prepared to discuss)

Part III: Testimony

Week 10 – 10/25/10    The Market in Human Flesh – The Enslaved Respond
Readings: Terri Snyder, “Slavery Suicide . . .” (Available on Blackboard)

Week 11 – 11/1/10    Resistance    RP #2 Due
Film: Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property
Readings Baptist, Chpt.8, P. Troutman, Chpt.9

Week 12 – 11/8/10    “No More Auction Block For Me” – Family Separation
                                                                                         Rough Draft Due
Readings: M. Tadman, Chpts. 5-8,

Week 13 – 11/15/10    Library Work Day

Week 14 – 11/22/10 Class Presentations

Week 15 – 11/29/10    Class Presentations

This course contains a Writing, Cultural Diversity and Independent Inquiry flag.

HISTORY: 365G

Antebellum Slavery

AFR 374D & WGS 340

Fall 2010

The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Daina Ramey Berry

Office:  Garrison Hall Room 3.224

Office Hours: Thursdays 1:00-3:00pm or by appointment

Office Phone: 512-475-4310 (direct) or 512.471.3261 (dept.)

Class: Tuesdays & Thursdays 3:30pm-5:00pm

Location: GAR 0.120

Unique:  HIS 39470                  AFR 35320 WGS 47085

Course Description:

When the first Africans arrived in North America, their status was not clear.  Some arrived as part of expeditions searching to “discover” the New World, while others arrived with Europeans as “servants.” By the late 17^th century, the majority of Africans who came to this region were enslaved “for their natural life.” Rather than focus on the origins of the peculiar institution, this class examines slavery at its maturity, during the 19^th century.  The Antebellum years represented a time when enslaved families and communities were well established, when labor in various settings was highly regimented, and when resistance movements reinforced strict legislation. This is the backdrop of which students will learn about chattel slavery in the United States.  Some of the specific topics covered include community development, cultural expression, family formation, human commodification, labor systems, regional variation, religious practices, and resistance movements among the enslaved. This course contains sensitive content and students should respect the emotions and opinions of their colleagues during class discussions. 

Course Objectives:

This is an independent inquiry course in which students will be expected to work inside and outside of class on group and individual projects.  Using on-campus resources at the Briscoe Center for American History and the Perry-Castañeda Library, students will be exposed to a variety of primary and secondary historical records.  They will learn how to research special collections and how to use original material in their presentations and papers. Students should complete this course with a solid understanding of slave life in America and a sensitivity to the ways bondpeople experienced captivity during the last four decades of this “peculiar institution.”

Grading Policy:

Attendance 20%

Class Discussion 15%

Oral Presentation 20%

Response Papers 20%

Final 25%

Texts:

Berry, Daina Ramey. Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe: Gender and Slavery in

                  Antebellum Georgia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2007.

Dunaway, Wilma. Slavery in the American Mountain South. Cambridge: Cambridge

 University Press, 2003.

Kaye, Anthony. Joining Places: Slave Neighborhoods in the Old South. Chapel Hill: University                                    of North Carolina Press, 2009.

King, Wilma. Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth Century America. Bloomington:                   Indiana University Press, 1996.

Melish, Joanne Pope. Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England,                   1780-1860. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998.

Raboteau, Albert. Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South. New                   York Oxford University Press, 2004 (revised edition).

Policies and Procedures:

University of Texas Honor Code

The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.

Plagiarism

The University's Institutional Rules (Section 11-802(d)) define plagiarism as including, "but not limited to, the appropriation of, buying, receiving as a gift, or obtaining by any other means material that is attributable in whole or in part to another source . . . and presenting that material as one's own academic work offered for credit."  In other words, “handing in someone else's work and taking credit for it as if it were your own.” Source: History Department statement on Academic Integrity: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/history/about/academic-integrity.php

For examples of plagiarism see the site above or the Student Judicial Services Website.

Documented Disability Statement

The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone) or http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd

Use of E-Mail for Official Correspondence to Students

E-mail is recognized as an official mode of university correspondence; therefore, you are responsible for reading your e-mail for university and course-related information and announcements. You are responsible to keep the university informed about changes to your e-mail address. You should check your e-mail regularly and frequently—the university recommends daily, but at minimum twice a week—to stay current with university-related communications, some of which may be time-critical. You can find UT Austin’s policies and instructions for updating your e-mail address at: http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.php

Email in recent years has often mistakenly become a substitute for office hours and students sometimes abuse email by the nature of their comments, requests, demands, and questions.  This practice will not be tolerated.  The professor is an advocate of contact with students through office hours and prefers to meet in person.  Therefore, this course will utilize email to post discussion questions for upcoming class meetings, notification of schedule changes, announcements for lectures on campus, or any other miscellaneous issues that relate to the course. Please be courteous over email and try to save questions for class discussions so that all students can benefit from the response.

Religious Holy Days

By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.

Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL)

If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of Texas Police Department (UTPD).

Call 512-232-5050 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal

COURSE SCHEDULE:

The professor reserves the right to deviate or modify parts of this schedule. All changes will include advanced written notice.

Week 1

8/26/10                   Course Introduction & Overview                                                      RP#1

Week 2

8/31/10                  Topic – Historiography of Slavery Studies

9/2/10                  Topic – Middle Passage & Arrival in the Americas

Week 3

9/7/10                  Film:  Middle Passage                                                                        RP#2

9/9/10                  Topic - Slave Community – Discussion of Kaye, Joining Places*

Week 4

9/14/10                  Briscoe Center for American History – Research Workshop

9/16/10                  Film: Slavery and the Making of America                                     RP#3

Week 5

9/21/10                   PCL – Library Workshop

9/23/10                    Slavery in the North – Discussion of Melish, Disowning Slavery*

Week 6

9/28/10                  Slave Auctions & Sales

9/30/10                  Primary Document Analysis                                                      OP Groups Assigned

Week 7

10/5/10                  Slavery in the Appalachian Mountains – Discussion of Dunaway*

10/7/10                  BCAH Library Work Session

Week 8

10/12/10                  From Sun-Up to Sun-Down: Work Regimes & Slavery

10/14/10                  Gender & Slave Labor – Discussion of Berry, Swing the Sickle*

Week 9

10/19/10                  Film: Sankofa

10/21/10                  Film: Sankofa                                                                                                            RP#4

Week 10

10/26/10                  Gender & Family – Courtship, Love & Marriage

10/28/10                  Enslaved Women in America: Creating a Useful Reference Volume

Week 11

11/2/10                   Enslaved Children – Discussion of King, Stolen Childhood*

11/4/10                   PCL Work Session – rooms reserved

Week 12

11/9/10                   Understanding Suicide During Slavery

11/11/10                   Documenting The History of Suicide & Slavery

Week 13

11/16/10                  Religion – Discussion of Raboteau, Slave Religion*

11/18/10                  Resistance                                                      Take-Home Final Exam Distributed

Week 14

11/23/10                  ORAL PRESENTATIONS

11/25/10                  No Class Thanksgiving

Week 15

11/30/10                  ORAL PRESENTATIONS

12/2/10                  ORAL PRESENTATIONS

FINAL EXAM DUE:

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8 no later than 12:00pm

 The History Department Main Office – GAR 1.104

*Please leave your final exam with the department staff person

Lectures, discussion, reading, and research on selected topics in the field of history.

May be repeated for credit when the topics vary.

Designed for History majors. 

History 350L and 350R may not both be counted unless the topics vary.

Course carries Writing flag.