AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY I

Transcription

1 AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY I Course Number: 21:512:233:01 Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:00-11:20am Hill Hall, Room 106 Fall 2015 Professor Lyra Monteiro lyra.monteiro@rutgers.edu Office Hours: Mondays, 11:30am-1:30pm, or by appointment Office: 317 Conklin Hall COURSE DESCRIPTION The early history of African Americans illuminates the centrality of issues of race in the early United States, when the foundations for our current society were laid. This course provides a survey of the experiences of people of African descent in the New World, particularly in the colonies that became the United States, between the first arrival of African slaves in the Americas, to the end of post-civil War Reconstruction. The system of racialized slavery that held Africans in bondage in the New World was a brutal, dehumanizing institution. Millions of men, women, and children were stolen from their communities to cultivate crops in the New World, where elaborate arguments against their full humanity were created to explain why they could be treated in that way. We will explore this history from several angles, focusing not only on the horrors of slavery, but also on the ways that enslaved peoples developed and maintained their cultures and communities. We will also learn the history of the thousands of black Americans who lived as free people in this period. Despite their legal status, the color of their skin marked them as members of a slave class, requiring them constantly to justify their humanity to the white majority. Slavery loomed large in the lives of free black Americans, whether they themselves had once been slaves, or had family members and friends who were still enslaved, and many of them were deeply involved in struggles for the abolition of slavery. At the same time, free black Americans built complex and rich political, cultural, and religious communities, and participated in broader political and cultural issues of the day, including the temperance and women s rights movements. Classes will alternate between sessions in which Professor Monteiro will give lectures that addresses the broader historical context of the readings, and sessions that will be devoted to class discussion of the readings, and small group work with historical documents and images that illustrate some of the histories discussed in our weekly readings.

2 REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING 10% Class Participation 5% Geography Quiz 30% Three Analysis Question Papers 45% Three Exams 10% Black Lives Matter paper POLICIES Academic Integrity All assignments submitted for this class must be your own original work, and information derived from other sources whether or not you quote it directly must be cited appropriately. All instances of plagiarism and cheating will be investigated fully, in accordance with the Rutgers Policy of Academic Integrity ( Accommodations If you require accommodations to meet course requirements, please inform me as early in the semester as possible. If you do not already have a Letter of Accommodation from Disability Services, please contact the Paul Robeson Campus Center Office of Student Life and Leadership to obtain one ( Assignment Submission All written work for this course must be submitted electronically through Blackboard AND in hardcopy, no later than the start of class on the day that the assignment is due. Late work will be penalized an automatic ½ letter grade reduction for each day (i.e., the maximum grade that can be earned on a paper that is turned in the day after it is due is an A, the following day an A-, etc.), unless a doctor s note or similar official excuse can be provided. Attendance Students are expected to make every effort to attend class regularly. For an absence to count as excused, students must do all of the following: 1. Submit acceptable written documentation of the reason for their absence. Excused absences are defined by the course catalog as: illness requiring medical attention, curricular or extracurricular activities approved by the faculty, personal obligations claimed by the student and recognized as valid, recognized religious holidays, and severe inclement weather causing dangerous traveling conditions.

3 2. Within a week of your return to class, meet with Professor Monteiro (during office hours, or make an appointment) to review your notes on the readings for the day you missed class, and any questions you have about the PowerPoint. Each unexcused absence beyond three will reduce your FINAL GRADE in the course by 5%. Any student who misses eight or more sessions through any combination of excused and unexcused absences will not earn credit in this class. Such students should withdraw to avoid getting an F. Cell Phones Except in cases of emergency, cell phones must be turned completely off during class. Communication Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions related to the class. I strongly urge everyone to take advantage of my office hours or to make an appointment if you are unable to come then. I will respond to all s within 24 hours, so please plan ahead if you have a question related to a paper or exam. Laptops and Tablets Laptops and tablets are permitted in class for the purposes of accessing the readings and taking notes only. Using facebook/ /etc during class time is a distraction for yourself and other students, and will result in loss of computer privileges for the duration of that class. Lecture Slides PowerPoints for all lectures will be posted on Blackboard before each class, and are recommended to be used as study guides for exams. LECTURES AND READING ASSIGNMENTS All of the readings for this course are in the textbook: Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans, with Documents, Volume One: To 1885, by Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin, Jr. (Bedford St. Martin s, 2012). This book is available in hardcopy and as an ebook, and can be purchased at the campus bookstore, NJ Books, or amazon.com. Bring your textbook and notes with you to every class Wednesday, September 2 Introductions (no readings)

4 Unit I Monday, September 7 NO CLASS (MEMORIAL DAY) Tuesday, September 8 Introduction for Students, pgs. xxvii-xxxii Chapter 1, pgs (stop at The First Africans in the Americas ) Wednesday, September 11 Documents: The African Slave Captives, pgs Visual Sources: European Images of Africans in the Era of the Slave Trade, pgs Monday, September 14 Chapter 1, pgs Wednesday, September 16 Documents: Inside the Slave Trade, pgs Geography Quiz Monday, September 21 Chapter 2, pgs Wednesday, September 23 Documents: Making Slaves, pgs Visual Sources: African Labor in the Making of the Americas, pgs Monday, September 28 Chapter 2, pgs Wednesday, September 30 In-Class Exam Unit II Monday, October 5 Chapter 3, pgs Documents: The Great Awakening in the South, pgs Wednesday, October 7 Chapter 3, pgs Monday, October 12 Documents: African American Patriots, pgs

5 Visual Sources: Freedom s Fight, pgs Wednesday, October 14 Chapter 4, pgs Monday, October 19 Chapter 4, pgs Documents: Free Black Activism, pgs Wednesday, October 21 Documents: Slavery s Children, pgs Visual Sources: The Black Body in Early American Culture, pgs Monday, October 26 Chapter 5, pgs Wednesday, October 28 Documents: Slave Testimony, pgs Visuals Sources: Art of the Plantation, pgs Monday, November 2 Chapter 5, pgs Wednesday, November 4 In-Class Exam Unit III Monday, November 9 Chapter 6, pgs Wednesday, November 11 Documents: Elite Black Women Speak Out on Education, Citizenship, and Slavery, pgs Visual Sources: Minstrel Shows, pgs Monday, November 16 Chapter 6, pgs Documents: Former Slaves Speak Out on Slavery, Wednesday, November 18 Chapter 7, pgs Monday, November 23

6 Documents: Wartime Opportunities and Dilemmas, pgs Documents: Black Women at Work during the War, pgs Wednesday, November 26 NO CLASS (Friday schedule) Monday, November 30 Chapter 7, pgs Visual Sources: The Moment and Meaning of Emancipation, pgs Wednesday, December 2 Chapter 8, pgs Monday, December 7 Documents: Letters to the Freedmen s Bureau, , pgs Documents: Race, Sex, and the Vote, pgs Visual Sources: Portrayals of Reconstruction-Era African Americans, pgs Wednesday, December 9 Black Lives Matter Paper Due Final Exam: Monday, December 21, 11:45am-2:45pm