Professor Jeff Fortin
HIST 595
M, W, F: 1:10-2:00, HSSC Rm. 201
jeff.fortin@unh.edu
fortin.jeffrey@comcast.net
Spring Semester 2007
Office Hours: M, W 2-3pm & by appt.
Contact: ph. 2-4599
THE BLACK ATLANTIC WORLD
Course Objectives:
What is the Black Atlantic? How does it differ from the Atlantic World, if at all? Is the Black
Atlantic different than African America? If so, what is the nature of relationship between the Black
Atlantic and African America? These and other questions will be explored throughout the semester in an
attempt to examine a historical place and to connect this place and its peoples with various events and
processes. In short, we will put together geographical regions and their histories in order to examine the
evolutionary development of the Black Atlantic.
The formation of the Atlantic World – composed of Africa, Europe and the Americas – represents
one of the most important developments in early modern and modern history. The resulting exchange of
peoples, ideas, cultures, materials, goods, bullets and germs connected diverse regions of the world in a
way similar to the opening of the Silk Roads between Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The struggle for
power in the Atlantic illustrates the seismic shift in attention from the Mediterranean World of the Middle
Ages westward toward Atlantic Africa and the Americas. Often seen as an early example of European
imperial expansion, the Atlantic also served as the greatest path of migration – both forced and voluntary –
ever witnessed. Migration, movement and cultural exchange are main themes we will examine in this
course as we explore how the Black Atlantic was created on the backs of millions of peoples of African
descent. In exploring the role of peoples of African descent in the making of the Atlantic World, we will
see the transformations African culture and society experienced, the intercultural exchange between
European and African culture and society, and the manner in which persons of African descent continue to
shape the political, social, economic and cultural spheres of those continents connected by the Atlantic
Ocean.
Required Reading:
Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, (1993)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks, (1996)
John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800,
(1992)
W. Jeffrey Bolster, Black Jacks: African American Seaman in the Age of Sail, (1998)
Michael Gomez, Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora, (2005)
William A. Shack, Harlem in Montmartre: A Paris Jazz Story Between the Great Wars,
(2001)
David Northrup, The Atlantic Slave Trade. (2002)
Pleas note that an * next the assignment indicates the reading is on reserve at Dimond Library
Course Requirements:
There are two long-term goals for this course: to improve your writing skills and to improve your
critical thinking skills. Each assignment on the syllabus is intended to contribute to your reaching these
two goals. This course will consist of some lecture and much discussion, which means you will be asked to
participate in class each and every day. Come prepared!
Please refer to the grading standards sheet that I will hand out in class and post on Blackboard.
The sheet explains the general definitions of what makes an A, B, C, D, and F. You should view this sheet
as the key to your success. Indeed, the grading sheet not only clarifies why you receive each grade you do,
but it also provides a clear outline on how to get an A!
2
Assignment:
Attendance/Class Participation
In-Class Essays
Bibliography
Research Paper
Final Take Home Essay-Based Exam
Percentage of Final Grade:
20%
20%
10%
30%
20%
****You are allowed three unexcused absences, for each additional unexcused absence your FINAL
GRADE will be deducted one full letter grade. For example, if you miss 3 + 1 classes, an “A-“ becomes a
“B-”. Excused absences include, but are not limited to: death or illness in the family, personal illness,
personal trauma, and participation in University Sanctioned sporting events.
Academic Honesty and Classroom Citizenship:
Academic honesty is critical to the functioning of any university. Please read the section dealing
with academic honesty in the Student Handbook. My tolerance for academic dishonesty is extremely low.
For example, if you have copied another student’s work, or plagiarized written material, or passed in work
that simply is not your own, you will receive a 0 (zero) for the assignment. A second offense means your
immediate failure in the course. A word of advice: if you think its plagiarism, then chances are it is
plagiarism. To avoid any charges of academic dishonesty, please do not hesitate to ask me if you unsure
whether or not your work is appropriately cited.
Finally, positive classroom citizenship consists of non-disruptive behavior while class is in
session. Just as you should be trying to earn a high class participation grade for participating in class
discussions, you should also be aware that minor disruptive behavior earns you lower grades in class
participation. For example, disruptive behavior during lectures or discussions includes, but is not limited to
the following: a ringing mobile, chatting about last night’s party, or whining about your smelly roommate’s
incredible ability to go days without a shower. Such behavior, as well as more serious offenses, will give
you a grade of D for the day, or cause me to ask you to leave the class and eventually subtract from your
class participation grade (which is 30% of your final grade). Continued disruptive behavior ensures that
you fail the class.
Why is classroom citizenship and academic honesty so important? This class will be much more
exciting for you, and me, if we engage in active and meaningful discussions about the Black Atlantic.
Every student in this room has made some sacrifice to be here – especially financial – so why not make the
most of your time here?
Weekly Schedule:
Please be sure to read each assignment by its due date (the day it is given in the syllabus). Our discussions
are dependent upon you staying current with the reading. Because history cannot be contained to neat and
nifty “modules” we may periodically fall behind the syllabus due to lively in-class discussions. When this
happens, you should maintain the reading schedule as it appears on the syllabus because we will be back on
track shortly.
Week 1
January 17: Introduction
What is the Black Atlantic? Why a Black Atlantic World?
No reading
January 19: The Meaning of Freedom
Gomez, Reversing Sail, Chapters 1-3, p.7-52
Begin Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali
Week 2
January 22: Exploring the Southern Atlantic: Origins of Atlantic Slavery
Niane, Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali
January 24: Transformation of Slavery in Africa
Northrup, The Atlantic Slave Trade, Part II, “The Slave Trade within Africa”
January 26: Culture and Migration in Africa
3
Northrup, The Atlantic Slave Trade, Part IV, “Effects in Africa”
Website: listen to Programme 15, “The Transatlantic Slave Trade”
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/index_section9.shtml
Week 3
January 29: Origins of North American Slavery
Begin, Thornton, Africa and Africans and the Making of the Atlantic World.
Chapters 1-4, p. 13-128.
Website: Click on “Slave Ships and the Atlantic Crossing” to view images
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/search.html
January 31: The American Paradox: Slavery & Freedom
Edmund S. Morgan, “Slavery and Freedom: the American Paradox” accessible
via J-Stor, an electronic database available at the library
Gomez, Reversing Sail, Chapters 4-5, p.59-108
February 2: Resistance & Slavery
Gomez, Reversing Sail, Chapter 6, p.109-158
Week 4
February 5: Slavery & Resistance
Thornton, African and Africans and the Making of the Atlantic World, Chapter 10,
272-303
February 7: Forming Identity in the African Diaspora
Craton, “Slave Revolts and the End of Slavery,” in The Atlantic Slave Trade
Website: Click on “Healing & Mortuary Practices” to view images
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/Slavery/search.html
February 9: Africans in the Americas: The Intersection of Two Identities
Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, Chapters 5-9
& 11, p.129-271 & 304-334
PAPER TOPIC DUE
Week 5
February 12: An African in the Atlantic World: Olaudah Equiano and the Construction of Individual
Identity
Northrup, The Atlantic Slave Trade, Part III, “An African’s Ordeal”
– or –
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or
Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself, in Potkay and Burr, Black
Atlantic Writers of the Eighteenth Century, p159-end.
For a digital copy:http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/equiano1/menu.html
February 14: Blacks in the Age of Revolution
Begin Bolster, Black Jacks: African Americans in the Age of Sail
February 16: Sailors, Seamen, and the Black Underclass
Finish Bolster, Black Jacks.
Website: Click on and Read All Eight Questions & Answeres
http://www.seacoastnh.com/blackhistory/jacks.html
Week 6
February 19: The Rise of Atlantic Abolitionism
*Gerzina, Black London: Life Before Emancipation, Chapters 4-6, p.90-204
4
February 21: Early Colonization Movements and the Birth of Transatlantic African Identity
Website: Read “History of Liberia: A Timeline”
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/libhtml/liberia.html
February 23: Black Atlantic States and Nations
*Price, ed. “Palmares: An African State in Brazil”
*Geggus & Dubois, Slave Revolution in the
Caribbean
Week 7
February 26: The Role of Religion in Black Atlantic Resistance and Identity
Begin Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
February 28: Cultural Transformations in the Midst of Abolition in the Atlantic World
Website: Begin with “Richard Allen” Section and continue to end
http://www.ipl.org/div/timeline/
March 2: The Post-Emancipation Black Atlantic
Finish, Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
Week 8
March 5: Souls of Black Folks
Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks
March 7: Souls of Black Folks continued…
Finish Du Bois
March 9: Paper Conferences @ Dimond Library
SPRING BREAK!!!!!!
Week 10
March 19: Black Nationalism and the Colonization of Africa
*Patton, “Black Diasporic Communities and the Return”
PAPER BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE
March 21: The Emergence of the “Dark” Continent: Imperialism in the Black Atlantic
*Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost, “Introduction,” “Meeting Mr. Kurtz,” and
“The Great Forgetting.”*
March 23: The Harlem Renaissance
Begin Shack, Harlem in Montmartre
Week 11
March 26: The Harlem Renaissance in Paris
Finish Shack, Harlem in Montmartre
Langston Hughes poems handout in-class
March 28: Self-Determination, Civil Rights, and the Making of a New Black Atlantic
*Thernstrom and Thernstrom, American in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible, chs 3-6.
Website: “World Commemorates the End of Slavery,” read & view maps
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3589646.stm
5
March 30: Dimond Library: Paper Conferences
Week 12
April 2: The Emerging Atlantic System of Underdevelopment
*Patterson, “The Emerging West Atlantic System: Migration, Culture, and Underdevelopment in
the United States and the Circum-Caribbean Region”
April 4: Inheritance: The Legacy of Underdevelopment in the Black Atlantic
*Thernstrom and Thernstrom, America in Black and White, chapters 7 & 9
April 6: Inheritance & Memory
*Rice, “From Ships on the Head to Stone-markers on the Shore: The Conservation of Black
Atlantic Memory”
Week 13
April 9: The Role of Memory in the Contemporary Black Atlantic
*Blight, “The Burden of African-American History: Memory, Justice, and a Usable Past” in
Major Problems in African-American History
April 11: African-American Lives (Henry Louis Gates, Jr. PBS Documentary)
April 13: African-American Lives
Week 14
April 16: African-American Lives
April 18: finish African-American Lives
April 20: Africa and American Culture
*Holloway, “What Africa Has Given America: African Continuities in the North American
Diaspora” in Africanisms in American Culture
Week 15
April 30: Africa and American Culture, Part Deux
*Robinson, “The African Heritage of White America” in Africanisms in American Culture
May 2: Final Research Paper Due
Please prepare a brief 3-5 minute presentation of your paper
May 4: In-Class Presentations
Week 16
May 7: Final Exam