The Making of the African Diaspora:
Resistance to Slavery, Maroons, and Abolitionism in the Americas
Spring 2007
History 482
Wed. 5:30-8:10
Instructor: Dr. Omar Ali
Office: 119-K Linthicum Hall
Hours: Wed. 1:30-3:30 (or by appointment)
Telephone: 410-704-2914
E-mail: oali@towson.edu
Overview: This is an upper-level course that will explore the making of the African Diaspora, principally in the western hemisphere, beginning in the early sixteenth century and continuing through the late nineteenth century. The focus will be on the ways in which men and women of African descent helped to make the British, French, Spanish, and Portuguese Atlantic worlds through their labor as slaves, as well as their roles as merchants, artists, soldiers, religious leaders, and as subjects and later citizens of the new republics of the Americas. The course will begin with an examination of African cultures in the centuries leading up European colonization of the New World and the advent of the Atlantic slave trade. The spread of Islam and Christianity in Africa proper and the growth of empires in East and West Africa will be discussed as an integral part of understanding the traditions and practices which Africans brought with them to the New World. We will also briefly look at the development of the African Diaspora in the Middle East and South Asia in order to more fully contextualize the western development of the diaspora. The role of free and enslaved black men and women in the resistance to slavery and the establishment of free black communities in the nineteenth century will be much of the focus of the course. By exploring the African Diaspora as a whole, the course seeks to provide students with a broad perspective of African Americans and their creation of the modern world. (Note: Prior coursework in African, African-American, and/or Latin American studies will be helpful.)
Course Objectives: Based on class lectures, analysis of primary sources, secondary source readings, weekly discussion, and the viewing of documentaries and films, students will gain a critical understanding of the social and political history of Africans and their descendents in the Americas beginning in the early sixteenth century and continuing through the late nineteenth century.
Grading: Course grades will be based on active participation in class (15%), a midterm examination, comprising a short essay question, fill-in the blank questions, and multiple choice questions (35%) and a final research paper (50%) due at the end of the semester (12 pages in length, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, footnoted, with a complete bibliography).
Weekly Schedule and Readings:
Week 1 – Introduction and Overview
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Introduction.
Genovese. From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro-American Slave Revolts in the Making of the Modern
World, Chapters 1 and 2.
Price, ed. Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas; Introduction.
Harris, “Expanding the Scope of African Diaspora Studies: The Middle East and India, a Research Agenda,” Radical History Review, 157-168.
Week 2 – Africa
Harris. Africans and their History, Chapters 2-4.
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 1.
Walvin. Atlas of Slavery, Chapters 17-20.
Appiah y Gates, eds. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, “Transatlantic Slave Trade,” pp. 908-917; “Trans-Saharan and Red Sea Slave Trade,” pp. 917-919.
Week 3 – Expanding the Diaspora
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 2.
Wade. Race and Ethnicity in Latin America, “Blacks and Indians in Latin America,” Chapter 2.
Diouf. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, Chapter 5.
Week 4 – Haiti
Dubois y Garrigus. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804, A Brief History with Documents, Introduction and “The Haitian Revolution and the United States,” pp. 159-166.
Price, ed. Maroon Societies; Part 2, “The French Caribbean”; Gabriel Debien, “Marronage in the French Caribbean,” Capitulo 7; Yvan Debbasch, “Le Maniel: Further Notes,” Chapter 9.
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 3.
Appiah y Gates, eds. Africana, “Haiti,” pp. 373-376; “Toussaint L’Ouverture,” pp. 906-908.
Week 5 – United States of America
Linebaugh y Rediker. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, Introduction and Chapter 7.
Stewart. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery, Preface and Chapter 3.
Price, ed. Maroon Societies; Herbert Aptheker, “Maroons Within the Present Limits of the United States,” Chapter 10.
Berlin, et. al. Slaves No More: Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War, pp. 189-190.
Week 6 – MIDTERM EXAMINATION
Week 7 – SPRING BREAK
Week 8 – Mexico
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 4.
Vincent, “The Blacks Who Freed Mexico,” pp. 257-76.
Price, ed. Maroon Societies, David M. Davidson, “Negro Slave Control and Resistance in Colonial Mexico, 1519-1650,” Chapter 6.
Appiah y Gates, eds. Africana, “Mexico,” pp. 628-630.
Week 9 – Cuba and Jamaica
Ferrer. Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898, Chapter 4.
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 5.
Price, ed. Maroon Societies; Francisco Perez de la Riva, “Cuban Palenques,” Chapter 2 ; Orlando Patterson, “Slavery and Slave Revolts: A Sociohistorical Analysis of the First Maroon War, 1665-1740,” Chapter 15.
Appiah y Gates, eds. Africana, “Cuba,” pp. 163-164, “Jamaica,” pp. 464-470.
Week 10 – Colombia
Aline Helg. Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770-1835, Chapter 5.
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 6.
Price, ed. Maroon Societies; Aquiles Escalante, “Palenques in Colombia,” Chapter 5.
Week 11 – Peru and Ecuador
Blanchard. Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru, Introduction and Chapters 1-5, 7, 9.
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 7.
Appiah y Gates, eds., Africana, “Peru,” pp. 751-753; “Ecuador,” pp. 218-220; “Esmeraldas,” p. 244.
Week 12 – Brazil
Gomez. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, Chapter 8.
Price, ed. Maroon Societies; R. K. Kent, “Palmares: An African State in Brazil,” Chapter 11; Stuart B. Schwartz, “The Mocambo: Slave Resistance in Colonial Bahia,” Chapter 13.
Scott, et al. The Abolition of Slavery and the Aftermath of Emancipation in Brazil, Seymour Drescher, “Brazilian Abolition in Comparative Perspective,” pp. 23-54.
Appiah y Gates, eds. Africana, “Brazil,” pp. 93-94; “Uruguay,” pp. 948-955.
Week 13 – Post-Emancipation
Wade. Race and Ethnicity in Latin America, “Black and Indian Social Movements,” Chapter 6.
Scott, et al. The Abolition of Slavery and the Aftermath of Emancipation in Brazil, Rebecca Scott, “Exploring the Meaning of Freedom: Postemancipation Societies in Comparative Perspective,” pp. 1-21.
Blanchard. Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru, Chapter 10.
Foner. Nothing but Freedom: Emancipation and its Legacy, Chapter 1 and 2.
Ali, ed., “Independent Black Politics,” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, Introducción y Omar H. Ali, “Independent Black Voices from the Late Nineteenth Century.”
Week 14 – Final Papers Due
Bibliography:
Ali, Omar H., ed., “Independent Black Politics,” Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring 2005)
Appiah, Kwame Anthony, and Henry Louis Gates, eds. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African Ameican Experience (Philadelphia, PA: Running Press, 2003)
Berlin, Ira, Barbara J. Fields, et. al. Slaves No More: Three Essays on Emancipation and the Civil War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992)
Blanchard, Peter. Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1992)
Diouf, Sylviane A. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (New York: New York University Press, 1998)
Dubois, Laurent, and John D. Garrigus. Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804, A Brief History with Documents (Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006)
Ferrer, Ada. Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1999)
Foner, Eric. Nothing but Freedom: Emancipation and its Legacy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1983)
Gomez, Michael A. Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Harris, Joseph E. Africans and their History (New York: Penguin Group, 1998)
Harris, Joseph E., “Expanding the Scope of African Diaspora Studies: The Middle East and India, a Research Agenda,” Radical History Review, Issue 87 (Fall 2003): 157-168.
Helg, Aline. Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770-1835 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004)
Linebaugh, Peter, and Marcus Rediker. The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2000)
Price, Richard, ed. Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996)
Scott, Rebecca, et al. The Abolition of Slavery and the Aftermath of Emancipation in Brazil (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1988)
Stewart, James Brewer. Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery (New York: Hill and Wang, 1997)
Vincent, Ted, “The Blacks Who Freed Mexico,” The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 79, No. 3 (Summer 1994): 257-76.
Wade, Peter. Race and Ethnicity in Latin America (London: Pluto Press, 1997)
Walvin, James. Atlas of Slavery (Harlow, England: Pearson Education, 2006)