HIST 574: Slavery in the New World

Slavery in the New World

This course will encourage a broad perspective of slavery by examining some of the defining features of the institution across the Americas. It will focus on the rapid expansion of slavery that accompanied European colonization of the Americas from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. It will contrast and compare various systems of European slavery and how they changed over time. The course will also situate slavery in the Americas in broader global contexts by comparing the institution of slavery in the Americas with other systems of bondage and dependency around the world. We will consider definitions, explanations, justifications, and critiques of slavery that have been used by past and present theorists. We will also attempt to uncover the lived experience of the enslaved. Were there core or constituent elements or experiences in slavery that were common throughout the Americas? Because there was never a simple relationship between an enslaved person’s legal or social status and their daily experiences, we will examine the nature of slavery across the lifespan of the enslaved and in a wide variety of working and living environments.