First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-24)

Topic

Voices of the Enslaved

Instructors

Leslie M. Harris
847/491-3153
Harris Hall - Room 340

Meeting Info

Shepard Hall B25: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

The idea of the "slave narrative" usually brings to mind the published works of antebellum fugitive slaves like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, and more recently Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave. But enslaved and formerly enslaved people created testimonials to their experiences in a variety of ways, and not only for publication. This course will explore the range of ways enslaved and formerly enslaved people provided or enabled written accounts of their lives in the 19th and 20th centuries—letters, interviews, published accounts, etc. We will also examine how the mainstream historical profession viewed those accounts, moving from skepticism in the early twentieth century, to cautious acceptance today. Are slave testimonials any more difficult to work with than other historical sources? What have literary scholars taught historians about using slave testimony?

Learning Objectives

1. History: Learning and understanding some of the ways enslaved people understood their experience and expressed their knowledge of the system of slavery and their own human experience. 2. Historiography: Learning about the ways historians have dealt with historical sources produced by people of African descent, specifically enslaved and formerly enslaved people. 3. Historical analysis: Developing skills to analyze primary historical sources in order to understand how histories are written. How do historians know what they know?

Evaluation Method

Five one-page response papers; discussion in every class; one presentation based on readings; one presentation based on final project; One final paper, with staged assignments (from idea; bibliography; thesis statement; rough draft; final draft).

Class Notes

History Major Concentration(s): Americas
History Minor Concentration(s): United States, Economics and Labor

Class Attributes

WCAS Writing Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.