History 78000—Africa and the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Fall 2007
3 credits

Professor Martin Atangana
Tuesday, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Room 3308
E-mail: atangana@york.cuny.edu

This course will examine the challenges confronting Africa during the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade (15th-19th century). Topics will include but are not limited to Africa from early times to the fifteenth century, states and societies, the coming of the Europeans, the Atlantic Slave Trade and its effects, Africans abroad, the abolition of the slave trade and its impact.

Classes will be devoted to the discussion of these topics. The topics will be presented by students each week. The presentations will be submitted under the form of research papers one week after the presentation is made. At the first class lists of suggested topics and readings will be distributed, and we shall plan individual assignments. Papers are to be about 12 pages in length, typed, double spaced, with notes and bibliography. During the semester students will also read works pertaining to that week's topic, submit a book report of about 2 pages, and be prepared to discuss the topics in class.

Classes will be held in Room 3308. My office is in Room 5104. The telephone number of the Ph.D. Program in History at the Graduate Center is (212) 817-1523. My office hour is Tuesday 5:30-6:30. My e-mail address is atangana@york.cuny.edu


COURSE SCHEDULE

Aug. 28. Introduction

Sep. 4. Africa from early times to the fifteenth century
DAVIDSON, B., West Africa Before the Colonial Era (New York: Longman, 1998) chaps 1-11.
HARRIS, J., Africans and their History (New York: Meridian Book, 1998) chaps 1-3.

Sep. 11. Commerce and culture in Africa before the fifteenth century
THORNTON, J.K., Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) Part 1.
DAVIDSON, B., West Africa Before the Colonial Era (New York: Longman, 1998) chap 9.

Sep. 18. No classes (Classes Follow Friday Schedule)

Sep. 25. The coming of the Europeans
PARRY, J.H., The Age of Reconnaissance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).
DAVIDSON, B., West Africa Before the Colonial Era (New York: Longman, 1998) chap 12.

Oct. 2. The origins and growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade
NORTHRUP, D. (ed), The Atlantic Slave Trade. Second Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002).
SOLOW, B., Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
DAVIDSON, B., West Africa Before the Colonial Era (New York: Longman, 1998) chap 13.

Oct. 9. African narratives from the Era of the Slave Trade
CURTIN, P., Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967).
EQUIANO, O., The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. Edited by Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin Books, 1995).

Oct. 16. The effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade
LAW, R., The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550-1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
INIKORI, J.E., The Atlantic Slave Trade. Effects Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992).

Oct. 23. Africans abroad
HARRIS, J., Africans and their History (New York: Meridian Book, 1998) chap 4.
NORTHRUP, D., Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), chap 1.
THORNTON, J.K., Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) Part 2.

Oct. 30. African states and societies in the era of Atlantic slave trade
OGOT, B., (ed), General History of Africa, vol.5. Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (UNESCO, 1999).
MANNING, P., Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Traders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Nov. 6. African states and societies in the era of Atlantic slave trade
BARRY, B., Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
McCASKIE, T.C., State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante (Cambridge: 1995).

Nov. 13. The abolition of the slave trade
ANSTEY, R., The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition, 1760-1810 (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1975).
MIERS, S. and ROBERTS, R. (eds), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988).

Nov. 20. No Classes (Classes follow Thursday schedule)

Nov. 27. The impact of the abolition of the slave trade
LAW, R., The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550-1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
ELTIS, D. and WALVIN, J. (eds) The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Origins and Effects in Europe, Africa, and the Americas (1981).

Dec. 4. Repatriation: Liberia and Sierra Leone
Fyfe, C., A History of Sierra Leone (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962).
SHICK, T., Behold the Promised Land: A History of African American Settler Society in Nineteenth Century Liberia (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1980).

Dec. 11. Conclusion
Second Paper Due

READINGS

ANSTEY, R., The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition, 1760-1810 (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1975).
BARRY, B., Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
CURTIN, P., Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967).
DAVIDSON, B., West Africa Before the Colonial Era (New York: Longman, 1998).
ELTIS, D. and WALVIN, J. (eds) The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Origins and Effects in Europe, Africa, and the Americas (1981).
EQUIANO, O., The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings. Edited by Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin Books, 1995).
FYFE, C., A History of Sierra Leone (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962).
HARRIS, J., Africans and their History (New York: Meridian Book, 1998).
INIKORI, J.E., The Atlantic Slave Trade. Effects Economies, Societies, and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992).
LAW, R., The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550-1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).
MANNING, P., Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Traders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
McCASKIE, T.C., State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante (Cambridge: 1995).
MIERS, S. and ROBERTS, R. (eds), The End of Slavery in Africa (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988).
NORTHRUP, D., Africa's Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).
____ (ed), The Atlantic Slave Trade. Second Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002).
OGOT, B., (ed), General History of Africa, vol.5. Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (UNESCO, 1999).
PARRY, J.H., The Age of Reconnaissance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).
SHICK, T., Behold the Promised Land: A History of African American Settler Society in Nineteenth Century Liberia (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1980).
SOLOW, B., Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
THORNTON, J.K., Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

ALIE, J., A New History of Sierra Leone (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990).
ARKELL A. J., History of the Sudan from the Earliest Times to 1821 (London and New York: 1961).
AUSTEN, R., African Economic History (London: James Currey, 1987).
BLAKE, J., West Africa: Quest for God and Gold, 1454-1578 (London, 1977).
CURTIN, P., The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
____ Economic changes in Pre-Colonial Africa: Senegambia in the Era of the Slave
Trade (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975).
____ The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969).
DAVIDSON, B., Africa in History (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).
____ Lost Cities and Old Africa (Boston: 1970).
____ Black Mother (New York: 1968).
DEBRUNNER, H., Presence and Prestige: Africans in Europe: A History of Africans in Europe before 1918 (Basel: BaslerAfrika bibliographien, 1979).
DEVISSE, J., The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol 2., From the Early Christian Era to the Age of Discovery, part 2, Africans in the Christian Ordinance of the World (New York: William Morrow, 1979).
DIOP, C.A., Precolonial Black Africa (New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1987).
ELTIS, D., The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
FRANKLIN, J.H., and MOSS, A.A., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994).
GANN, L. and DUIGNAN, P., Africa and the World. An Introduction to the History of Sub-Saharan Africa from Antiquity to 1840 (University Press of America, 1999).
GEMERY, H.A., and HOGENDORN, J.S. (eds), The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade (New York: 1979).
HOPKINS, A., An Economic History of West Africa (New York: Colombia University Press, 1973).
INIKORI, J.E. (ed.), Forced Migration: The Impact of the Export Slave Trade on African Societies (London: 1982).
JAMES, C.L.R., The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and San Domingo Revolution (New York: 1963).
LEWIS, M., Central Africa in the Caribbean: Transcending Space, Transforming Culture (Kingston, Jamaica: University of The West Indies Press), 2002).
LOVEJOY, P., Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
KLEIN, H., The Atlantic Slave Trade (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
KLEIN, M., Slavery and Colonial Rule in West Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
MANNIX, D.P., and COWLEY, M., Black Cargoes; A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1518-1865 (New York: 1962).
MIERS, S., Britain and the Ending and the Ending of the Slave Trade (New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1975).
MIERS, S. and KOPYTOFF, I. (eds), Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977).
MIERS, S. and RICHARD, R. (eds), The end of Slavery in Africa (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988).
PANZER, S., The Popes and Slavery (New York: Alba House, 1996).
PETERSON, J., Province of Freedom: A History of Sierra Leone (Evanston III: 1969).
ROBERTSON, C.C., Women in Slavery in Africa, (Madison: 1983).
RODNEY W., West Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade (Nairobi: 1967).
____ A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).
SANCHO, I., Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African. Edited by Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin Books, 1998).
SWEET, J., Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship, and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441-1770 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003).
WHEATLEY, P., Complete Writings. Edited by Vincent Carretta (New York: Penguin Books, 2001).
WILLIAMS, E., Capitalism and Slavery, (Chapel Hill: 1944. Reprint, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994).

TOPICS

1. Africa from early times to the fifteenth century
1.1 Pre-colonial African History: Myth or reality?
1.2 Africa in World History.
1.3 Methods for constructing pre-colonial African history.

2. Commerce and culture in Africa before the fifteenth century
2.1 Were European goods crucial to Africans before the fifteenth century?
2.2 African culture before the fifteenth century: dynamic development or downfall?
2.3 The role of trade and Europeans in pre-colonial African development.

3. The coming of the Europeans
3.1 The contact between Africans and Europeans: African and European interests
3.2 Who benefited from the coming of Europeans, the Africans or the Europeans?
3.3 Are the Europeans responsible for introducing slavery into African societies?

4. The origins and growth of the Atlantic Slave Trade
4.1 Was the Atlantic Slave Trade unavoidable? Why did the trade occurred and why did it continue for four centuries?
4.2 The Papacy and the Atlantic Slave Trade.
4.3 Islam and the African Slavery and Trade.

5. African narratives from the Era of the Slave Trade
5.1 African narratives from the Era of the Slave Trade: Historiographic importance.
5.2 Slave narratives: presentation of specific cases.

6. The effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade
6.1 How important was the impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on Africa?
6.2 The Atlantic Slave Trade and the development of non African societies.
6.3 Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade in a specific African region/state.

7. Africans abroad
7.1 Africans abroad: Who were they? Where were they?
7.2 Africans abroad: the African impact on a specific country/area of the Americas.
7.3 Africans abroad: the case of a specific region.

8. African states and societies in the era of Atlantic slave trade
8.1 Firearms in West Africa during the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
8.2 Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade.

9. African states and societies in the era of Atlantic slave trade
9.1 Alladah/Ouidah/Benin/Oyo during the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
9.2 Kinship and slavery in West Africa.

10. The abolition of the slave trade
10.1 Was the Atlantic Slave Trade bound to disappear?
10.2 The end of the slave trade: the actors.
10.3 The abolition of the slave trade and slavery: a historiographical analysis.

11. The impact of the abolition of the slave trade
11.1 African Reaction to the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
11.2 The effects of the abolition in Africa

12. Repatriation: Sierra Leone and Liberia
12.1 The founding of Sierra Leone.
12.2 The Founding of Liberia.
12.3 The founding of Sierra Leone and Liberia: philanthropy or self-interest?