African American History through the Civil War (Syllabus)

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AFAM:4195 (129:170) Prof. Sue Stanfield HIST:4295:001 (16A:187:001) 420 Jefferson Building 160 Schaeffer Hall Tuesday/Thursday 12:30-1:45 [email protected] 106 EPB 319-335-3626 (JB phone) Spring 2014 Office Hours: M 9:30-11:30 (SH) T-Th 10:00-11:00 (JB) and by appointment

African American History: 1619-1865 Course Description: This course is a survey of the major issues in African American history from the slave trade to emancipation, including the construction of race, Northern and Southern slavery, freedom movements, African American print culture, and Black leadership and political activism. We will examine the lives of slaves and free people of color, the cultural, political and economic climate of the time and the portrayal of African Americans in popular culture and memory through the reading of primary sources, fiction, and film as well as traditional secondary sources.

Course Goals

Students should be able to recognize change and continuity in history with an emphasis on the impact of race on US history through the Civil War. Students should be able to contextualize the past by interpreting the influences of gender, race, class, and region. Students should improve their ability to evaluate evidence using the tools of historical investigation. Students will gain experience and improve their skills in generalizing, explaining, and interpreting historical change. Students will learn how to make arguments based on the use and evaluation of primary sources. Required Texts: Available at the University Bookstore in the Old Capitol Mall. Both textbooks are also available on reserve in the main library for a limited check out period. Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, Waldo E. Martin. Freedom on my Mind: A History of African Americans with Documents. Volume One: To 1885. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2013. Octavia E. Butler. Kindred. Boston: Beacon Press, 2003 (originally 1979). Additional assigned readings will be available through the ICON site for this class.

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Assignments: In addition to class attendance, timely reading of course material, and thoughtful participation in class discussions (5% of your course grade), students will be responsible for five assignments as well as a midterm (25% of your course grade) and final exam (30% of your course grade). Your paper will involve finding a primary document (that is not published in a textbook or documentary reader) and provide an introduction to the document that explains the context and significant parties involved with the document. You will then provide the document and follow it with a list of at least 3 discussion questions (20% of your final grade). The final four assignments [each worth 5% of your final grade] are Primary Document checklists that should be completed on the day the primary document you are examining is discussed in class. You must complete at least one of the check lists before the midterm exam. All of these assignments are required, as is class attendance. Failure to complete any assignment will result in a failing grade for the course. See ICON for further details on the assignments. Attendance Policy: The class meetings for this course will build upon the weekly readings but will also introduce you to information and ideas that may not be discussed by the authors. In light of this you need to attend class on a regular basis. You should accumulate no more than three unexcused absences. Each unexcused absence thereafter will affect your Participation and Attendance percentage, which constitutes 5% of your total grade. If you need to miss class because of a religious observance or participation in an intercollegiate activity (for example, athletics, debate, marching band) you will be able to makeup work missed because of such absences (as per University policy). In these cases, please notify me of your need to miss class prior to the date of your absence whenever possible. For students currently participating in intercollegiate activities should provide documentation from the appropriate University official. Grading  A+  97-­‐100     B+  87-­‐89     C+  77-­‐79     D+  67-­‐69  A      93-­‐96     B      83-­‐86     C      73-­‐76     D      63-­‐66  A-­‐  90-­‐92     B-­‐  80-­‐82     C-­‐  70-­‐72     D-­‐    60-­‐62    F=  Below  60    A  Grade:    Demonstrates  outstanding  work.    B  Grade:    Attempts  critical  thinking  and  analysis  and  shows  solid  grasp  of  the  required  reading.    Students  who  achieve  B-­‐level  work  consistently  attend  class  and  demonstrate  preparedness.    C  Grade:    Demonstrates  a  basic  level  of  effort  and  competence  with  the  course  materials  but  also  might  have  gaps  in  critical  thinking,  comprehension  or  synthesis  of  the  material,  and  incomplete  command  of  the  basic  facts.    Irregular  attendance  often  results  in  C-­‐level  work.    D  Grade:    Does  not  meet  basic  standards  of  competency  in  the  course.    D-­‐level  work  shows  incomprehension  of  the  course  content  and  falls  short  of  expectations  for  college  level  coursework.      

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Time Line Freedom on My Mind = fomm Document: These are primary sources and can be used for a document checklist. August Week One: When the Past meets the Present T 26 Introduction to the Course Read: Syllabus Th 28 The Deep roots of recent events: Ferguson, MO and Stanford, FL Read: Stephanie Jones-Rogers, “If Only Tryvon Had Freedom Papers,” History News Network, July 16, 2013 (on ICON) September Week Two: From Africa to America T 02 Read: fomm, 2-18 Document: “Letter to the Portuguese King Joao, 1526,” fomm 32 Document: “An Account of the Mortality of the Slaves Aboard the Ship James” 33-4. Th 04 Read: fomm 18-31 Document: Narrative of Equiano, fomm 38-40 Document: Petition of Belinda, fomm 41-2. View: In class, part of Slavery & the Making of America, The Downward Spiral. Week Three: African American Slavery in North America T 09 Read: fomm 56-75 Document: Codification of Slavery & Race (Virginia 1630-1680) fomm 84-5 Document: Act for Regulating Slaves in NJ (1713-14) fomm 86-7 Document: South Carolina Slave Code (1740) fomm 87-89 Handout: Assignment for Document Final Paper Th 11 Meet in Main Library Room 4037 Janalyn Moss will discuss primary sources available at the UI Library

Week Four: African Americans during the Early Colonial Era

T 16 Read: fomm75-83 Document: Report on the Stono Rebellion, 1739, fomm 81 Document: Distinguishing Slaves from Indentured Servants (1705), in Major Problems

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In African-American History: Volume I, Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Barkley Brown, Editors, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ICON Th 18 Read: Carol Berkin, “The Rhythms of Labor: African-American Women in Colonial Society,” in First Generations: Women in Colonial America (1997) New York: Hill & Wang. ICON Document: Interracial Sexual Relations, the Case of Elizabeth Key (1635-6)in Major Problems in African-American History: Volume I, Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Barkley Brown, editors, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. ICON Week Five: African Americans in the Age of Revolution T 23 Read: fomm 110-139 Document: George Whitefield, “A Public Letter to Slaveholders, 1740,” fomm 140-1 View (in class) Slavery and the Making of America: Liberty in the Air Th 25 Document: Phillis Wheatley (Poem & Letter) fomm 145-6 Document: Lemuel Haynes, “Liberty Further Extended, 1776” fomm147-8 Week 6: The Age of Revolution: In the Caribbean and the New Republic T 30 Read: “Revolution in the Colonies (from The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, Lynn Hunt et. al, editors Bedford/St. Martins, 2009), 613-615, ICON Read: “Introduction” in Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 1789-1804 (Bedford/St. Martins, 2006 34-40 ICON Document: Preliminary Declarations of the Haitian Constitution (1805) ICON October Th 02 Read: fomm 162-178 Document: Charles Ball Describes being sold to a Georgia trader, 1837 fomm 169. Week Seven: Slavery and Freedom in the New Republic T 07 Read: “The Hemings-Jefferson Treaty: Paris, 1789,” Annette Gordon-Reed, in Women’s America (Kerber, de Hart, and Dayton) Oxford University Press, 2011, 139-146. Document: Madison Hemings, Life among the Lowly, 1873, fomm 192-3 Th 09 Read: fomm 178-189 Document, Absalom Jones and Others, fomm 195-6 Document: Constitution of the African Benevolent Society of Newport, RI (1808) ICON Week Eight: Overview to Slavery in the 19th Century T 14 Read: Kindred p. 9-17 View: In Class Slavery and the Making of America: Seeds of Destruction Th 16 Midterm Exam Week Nine: Black Life in the Slave South T 21 Read: fomm pp. 210-227 Document: Thomas Pinckney, Reflections Occasioned… fomm 242 Document: Nat Turner’s Trial Record (1831) The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents. Edited by Kenneth S. Greenberg, Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1996. ICON

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**Optional Document: Preamble to David Walker’s Appeal. David Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles. Revised edition with an Introduction by Sean Wilentz, New York: Hill and Wang, 1995. ICON Th 23 Read: fomm pp. 227-241, Kindred, 18-51 Document: P.C. Weston, Management of a Southern Plantation (1857) fomm 243-4 Week Ten: Sexuality and Gender Roles in Antebellum America T 28 Read: “Lines of Color, Sex, and Service: Sexual Coercion in the Early Republic” Sharon Block, in Women’s America, Oxford, 2011, pp. 164-173” ICON Document: Excerpt from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, (From Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality, edited by Kathy Peiss, 2002) ICON Document: Sojourner Truth, Speech at Akron Women’s Rights Convention, 1851 in Women’s Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870. Kathryn Kish Sklar, Boston: Bedford/St. Martins’s, 2000. ICON Th 30 Read: Violence, Protest, and Identity: Black Manhood in Antebellum America, James Oliver Horton and Louis E. Horton, in A History of Gender in America, Sylvia Hoffert, 2003, pp. 102-112. ICON, Kindred, 52-107 Document: “Fugitive Slave Lewis Clarke Explains Why ‘A Slave Can’t Be a Man,’” in Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality, edited by Kathy Peiss, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. ICON November Week Eleven: The Northern Black Freedom Struggle and the coming of the Civil War T 04 Read: fomm 264-285 Document: Sarah Mapps Douglass (1832) fomm 298-99 Document: Elizabeth Jennings (1837) fomm 299 Th 06 Read: Jacqueline Bacon, “The History of Freedom’s Journal: A Study in Empowerment and Community,” The Journal of African American History, 88 (Winter 2003), 1-20, ICON, Kindred 108-188 Document: Newspaper Prospectus (Freedom’s Journal, The National Era, and The Mirror of Liberty) ICON Week Twelve: The Northern Black Freedom Struggle and the Coming of the Civil War T 11 Read: Shirley Yee, “Free Black Women in the Abolitionist Movement” (Major Problems in American Women’s History), or James Oliver Horton & Lois E. Horton, “The Integration of Abolition,” Chapter 7 of Black Bostonians: Family Life and Community Struggle in the Antebellum North, NY: Holmes & Meier, 1999. ICON Document: Anti-Slavery Petitions, ICON (Major Problems US Women’s History) Th13 Read: fomm 285-297 Document: Lucy Stanton, Slavery and Abolition as War (1850) 300-01 Document: Frederick Douglass What to the Slave is the Fourth of July, 306-8 Document: Henry Highland Garnet: An Address to the Slaves… 1843, 304-5 Week Thirteen Freedom, Slavery and the Law T 18 Read: Kindred, complete the novel Discuss: We will discuss the novel today, so bring your copy to class

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Th 20 Read: The Dred Scott Case, Slavery, and the Politics of the Law in Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents, Paul Finkelman, editor. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 1997. ICON Documents: “Passports to People of Color,” The North Star, September 7, 1849 and “Letter from William W. Brown,” The North Star, 14 December 1849. ICON DUE: Document Final Paper T 25 Thanksgiving Break! Th 27 Thanksgiving Break! December Week Fourteen: Freedom Rising-The Civil War T 02 Read: fomm, pp. 322-340 Document: James Henry Gooding, Are We Soldiers, or Are We Laborers? Fomm, 337-8 Document: Alfred M. Green, “Let Us Take up the Sword” fomm, 351-2 Th 04 Read: “Overrun with Free Negroes: Emancipation and Migration in the Upper Midwest,” Leslie Schwalm, ICON Document: Charlotte Forten, “A School for Contrabands,” fomm 331 Document: Elizabeth Keckley, “Contraband Relief Association, 1868” fomm 345 Week Fifteen: The Civil War T 09 Read: fomm, pp. 340-350 Document: Thomas Morris Chester, “Negro Self-Respect and Pride of Race,” fomm 353-4 Document: Emancipation Proclamation, ICON Document: 13, 14, 15th Amendments, ICON Th 11 Review Exam Week: December 15-19. Date, Time and Place TBA.

Administrative Home

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the administrative home of this course and governs matters

such as the add/drop deadlines, the second-grade-only option, and other related issues. Different

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colleges may have different policies. Questions may be addressed to 120 Schaeffer Hall, or see the

CLAS Academic Policies Handbook at http://clas.uiowa.edu/students/handbook.

Electronic Communication

University policy specifies that students are responsible for all official correspondences sent to their

University of Iowa e-mail address (@uiowa.edu). Faculty and students should use this account for

correspondences (Operations Manual, III.15.2, k.11).

Accommodations for Disabilities

A student seeking academic accommodations should first register with Student Disability Services and

then meet with the course instructor privately in the instructor's office to make particular arrangements.

See www.uiowa.edu/~sds/ for more information.

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All CLAS students or students taking classes offered by CLAS have, in essence, agreed to the College's

Code of Academic Honesty: "I pledge to do my own academic work and to excel to the best of my

abilities, upholding the IOWA Challenge. I promise not to lie about my academic work, to cheat, or to steal

the words or ideas of others; nor will I help fellow students to violate the Code of Academic Honesty." Any

student committing academic misconduct is reported to the College and placed on disciplinary probation

or may be suspended or expelled (CLAS Academic Policies Handbook).

CLAS Final Examination Policies

The final examination schedule for each class is announced by the Registrar generally by the fifth week of

classes. Final exams are offered only during the official final examination period. No exams of any kind are allowed during the last week of classes. All students should plan on being at the UI through the

final examination period. Once the Registrar has announced the date, time, and location of each final

exam, the complete schedule will be published on the Registrar's web site and will be shared with

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