Middlebury

BLST 0377

Commodities & Slavery Americas

Colonial Commodities & Slavery in the Americas
In this course, we will examine the development of extractive economies and the relationship between colonialism, consumption, and forced labor in colonial north and South America. Using a comparative approach, we will survey how commodities such as cacao, cotton, coffee, gold, silver, sugar, and tobacco shaped African and Native slavery across the continent. Our topics will include the development of price systems for enslaved people and goods in the world economy, the emergence of ideas regarding racial differences and their relationship with forced labor, how enslaved people resisted their enslavement, and the abolition of slavery across the Americas.
Students will examine primary sources such as financial records, slave narratives, historical price indexes, and scholarly monographs. Pre-1800. 3 hr sem.
Subject:
Black Studies
Department:
Program in Black Studies
Division:
Interdisciplinary
Requirements Fulfilled:
AMR CMP HIS SOC
Equivalent Courses:
HIST 0377 *

Sections in Fall 2019, School Abroad Italy (Florence)