Professor Joan Bryant

Email: jobryant@syr.edu

Office: 201 Sims Hall

Phone: 315.443.4399

African American History

through the 19th Century
Fall 2016: AAS/HST 332 ~ Mon. & Wed. 2:15-3:35 ~ SOM 003
Office Hours: Mon: 4-5; Tues. 10:15-noon Wed. noon-1 & 4-5, other days & times by appointment

DESCRIPTION: Participants in this course examine cultural, legal, economic, political, and social
phenomena that shaped the lives of people of African descent in North America. We explore issues that
fostered collective action and shared identities as well as factors that divided the population. Experiences
of slaves, enslavers, servants, free laborers, reformers, convicts, colonizers, soldiers, actors, fugitives,
politicians, artists, clerics, spouses, children, and parents guide our explorations into this diverse group.
We pay particular attention to how varied circumstances and viewpoints of Black people elucidate what it
meant to be American. Topics include the Atlantic slave trade; the evolution of enslavement; ties to
Africa; the nature of freedom; gender constructions; labor patterns; religious activity; reform endeavors;
cultural production; law enforcement; political activism; and war. In addition to investigating historical
developments, we engage interpretive and methodological factors that drive the practice of history.
REQUIREMENTS: I evaluate course work based on accuracy, comprehensiveness, conceptual and
stylistic clarity, and the degree to which you develop and substantiate arguments. The penalty for late
work is one letter grade per weekday. You must complete and submit all assigned papers, exams,
analyses, and projects in order to pass this course. The following factors determine course grades:
-- Participation: (15%) Class participation entails regular attendance and informed engagement in
discussions. Unannounced quizzes and American Forum presentations also contribute to participation
grades. (I will circulate the Forum sign-up sheet.) These assignments cannot be made up. Students who
are absent from more than three classes may have their final grades reduced by one-half of a letter grade.
-- Analytic Essay: (5 pages, 20%) I will assign the topic. Due via Blackboard: Friday, Oct. 28
-- Two exams: (20% each) Exam I: Wednesday, Sept. 28 Exam II: Wednesday, Nov. 16
-- Primary Source Analysis: (10%) Each student must submit a written analysis of one primary source
on the syllabus using the Guidelines for Analyzing Primary Sources. I will circulate a sign-up sheet.
-- Research Project: (15%) All students must research a primary source from the SU Special Collections
Research Center (SCRC) related to issues in the course time period. Everyone must give an oral
presentation and write a 5-7 page paper based on their research. I will provide guidelines. Presentations
are scheduled for Nov. 30, Dec. 5, and Dec. 7. Final papers are due via Blackboard on December 7.
Learning Objectives: The aim of this course is to strengthen students ability to do the following:
- Describe major historical developments that have shaped the experiences and identities of African Americans
-- Activities: lectures, reading, discussions, exams

- Evaluate the historical validity of arguments about people of African descent in North America
-- Activities: lectures, reading, discussions, essay, research project

- Analyze - explain and interpret - primary sources related to people of African descent in North America
-- Activities: lectures, discussions, primary source analysis, exams, essays, research project

- Formulate and substantiate historical arguments based on concrete evidence

-- Activities: essay, exams, research project

- Locate archival sources that illuminate historical experiences of people of African descent in North America
-- Activities: discussions, research project

AAS/HST 332

The Fine Print

1. If you have a disability documented at Syracuse Universitys Office of Disability Services (ODS) and need reasonable
accommodations in this course, give me a copy of your Accommodation Authorization immediately. I cannot make
accommodations without written ODS authorization. For ODS information, see http://disabilityservices.syr.edu, go to 804
University Avenue, Room 309, or call 315.443.4498. Typically, ODS does not grant accommodation requests retroactively.
2. All work for individual assignments must be solely your own. You must provide complete and accurate citations for all
ideas and words obtained from other people. Failure to cite material from other peoples work constitutes plagiarism.
Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are grounds for failing this course. I will report such acts as violations of
SUs Academic Integrity Policy. All students are responsible for understanding the policys standards and procedures.
Review it at http://academicintegrity.syr.edu/academic-integrity-policy/
3. Students will be excused from class for religious observances and allowed to make-up work that falls due during such
absences if they notify me of the observances by the end of Week 2 using the MySlice notification form. See the SU Religious
Observances policy: http://supolicies.syr.edu/emp_ben/religious_observance.htm.
4. In accordance with the provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), I may use academic work
you produce in this course for educational purposes. By completing assignments as a student enrolled in this course, you
grant permission for such use in this course this semester. In order to use your academic work for educational purposes
after this course has ended, I must obtain your written permission or render your work anonymous. If I want to make
ongoing use of your work for educational purposes, I will ask you to sign a consent form that authorizes me to use specific
material for such purposes and to identify you as its creator. If you do not authorize me to identify you, I will remove your
name from the work and indicate that its creator prefers to remain anonymous. Your decisions about my use of your work
for educational purposes will have no bearing on your grade. See the SU policy on using student work at
http://coursecatalog.syr.edu/content.php?catoid=3&navoid=270&hl=%22transfer+credit%22&returnto=search#Student_
Academic_Work (Student Academic Work)
5. You will earn a failing participation grade for any day that I observe you in class doing any of the following: texting,
emailing, sleeping, web surfing, wearing earphones, or engaging in activity I find disruptive or unrelated to the class session.
Two such failing grades will disqualify you from receiving an A for overall class participation.

READING: The required books listed below are available for purchase at the SU Bookstore. Readings
followed by (B) are on Blackboard. An asterisk (*) after a reading designates a primary source.
-- Robin D. G. Kelley and Earl Lewis, eds. To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans to
1880, Volume I, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005
-- Shane White, Stories of Freedom in Black New York, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002
-- William Grimes, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (1855) NY: Oxford U. Press, 2008.
Electronic edition available at http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/grimes55/grimes55.html *
-- Harriet Wilson, Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, [1859] Mineola, NY: Dover Pub.
2005. For electronic edition, see Uncle Toms Cabin & American Culture, Institute for Advanced
Technology in the Humanities, UVA, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/africam/ournighp.html *

SCHEDULE OF TOPICS & ASSIGNMENTS (Complete each reading by the date it appears on the schedule.)
Week 1: Aug. 29-31
How does African American history begin?
8/29: Previews: Sources of African American History
8/31: Colin Palmer, The First Passage: 1502-1619, in To Make Our World Anew, Chapter 1
- James Barbot Jr. A Supplement to the Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea, in
Awnsham and John Churchill, Collection of Voyages and Travels, London, 1732 (B) *
- Alexander Falconbridge, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (London, 1788) (B) *
Week 2: Sept. 5-7
Captivity
9/5: NO CLASS - Labor Day
9/7: Elizabeth Donnan, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade, Washington, D.C.:
Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1930. Vol. IV, pp. 9, 10-13, 53-54. Vol. II, pp. 555-557 (B) *
- Thomas Bluett, Some Memoirs of the Life of Job, son of Solomon, the High Priest of Boonda in Africa,
(1734) Electronic Edition, North American Slave Narratives. Documenting the American South,
U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1999, http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/bluett/bluett.html *
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AAS/HST 332

Week 3: Sept. 12-14

Ambiguities of Bondage & Freedom
9/12: Peter Wood, Strange New Land: 1619-1776, in To Make Our World Anew, Chapter 2
- Case of Elizabeth Key, 1655-1656 (B) *
- New Netherlands Petition, 1661, in A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States,
Vol. I, ed. Herbert Aptheker, NY: Citadel Press, 1990, pp. 1-2 (B) *
9/14: Stono Rebellion (1739) documents (B) *
- Indenture Apprenticing Javin Toby, January 9, 1747, in The Boisterous Sea of Liberty: A
Documentary History of America from Discovery through the Civil War, ed. David Davis and
Steven Mintz, NY: Oxford University Press, p. 111 (B) *
- Arthur, The Life and Dying Speech of Arthur, a Negro Man; who was executed in Worcester, October
20th 1768. For rape committed on the body of one Deborah Metcalfe. Boston: Kneeland and
Adams, (1768) Electronic Edition. North American Slave Narratives, 2001.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/arthur/arthur.html *

Week 4: Sept. 19-21

Independence & the Persistence of Servitude
9/19: Daniel Littlefield, Revolutionary Citizens: 1776-1804, in To Make Our World Anew, Chapter 3
- Ruth Bogin, Liberty Further Extended: A 1776 Antislavery Manuscript by Lemuel Haynes, William
and Mary Quarterly 40 (Jan 1983): 85-105 (B) *
9/21: Deborah White, Let My People Go: 1804-1860, in To Make Our World Anew, Ch. 4, pp. 169-198
Week 5: Sept. 26-28
9/26: SCRC Orientation, Bird Library, Spector Room, 6th Floor
9/28: *** EXAM I *** EXAM I *** EXAM I ***
* Banned Books Week 2016 ~ Black & Banned Community Read-Out, 9.28.16 - EXTRA CREDIT *

Week 6: Oct. 3-5

The Color of American Liberty
10/3: Deborah White, Let My People Go: 1804-1860, pp. 199-226
- Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, (1784-1787) ed. David Waldstreicher, Boston:
Bedford/ St. Martins Press, 2002, Query XIV, especially pp. 175-181 (B) *
- Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident
about Sixty Years in the United States of America. Related by Himself (1798) Electronic Edition.
North American Slave Narratives, 2000. http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/venture/venture.html *
10/5: Shane White, Stories of Freedom in Black New York, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2002,
Introduction, Chapters 1 - 2
Week 7: Oct. 10-12
Performing Freedom
10/10: Shane White, Stories of Freedom in Black New York, Chapters 3 - 4, Epilogue
10/12: Augustine, On Dress, Colored American, August 12, 1837 (B) *
- AGNES, On Dress, Colored American, August 26, 1837 (B) *
- [William Whipper,] Our Elevation, National Reformer, December 1839, pp. 180-181 (B) *
- Loren Schweninger and John Rapier, The Dilemma of a Free Negro in the Antebellum South, Journal
of Negro History 62 (July 1977): 283-288 (B) *
Week 8: Oct. 17-19
The Chattel Principle & the Price of Liberty
10/17: American Forum I: What Country Have I?
- Read Forum I Documents (B) *
10/19: Maria Perkins Writes of the Sale of her Child, in A Documentary History of Slavery in North
America, Willie Lee Rose, ed. NY: Oxford University Press, 1976, p. 151 (B) *
- William Grimes, Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (1855) NY: Oxford U. Press, 2008
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AAS/HST 332

Week 9: Oct. 24-26

Workers in Slavery & Freedom
10/24: Rose Describes being Forced to Live with Rufus, in A Documentary History of Slavery in North
America, pp. 434-437 (B) *
- Harriet Wilson, Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, Chapters 1-5 *
10/26: Harriet Wilson, Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, Chapters 6-12, Appendix *
~~~ Analytic Essay Due: Friday, October 28 @ 5 p.m. ~~~

Week 10: Oct. 31-Nov. 2

Art & the Science of Protest
10/31: Joseph Ketner, The Emergence of the African-American Artist: Robert F. Duncanson, 1821-1872,
Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, Chapter 1 (B)
- Cazenovia Fugitive Slave Law Convention, August 21-22, 1850, in Proceedings of the Black State
Conventions, 1840-1865, vol. I, ed. Philip Foner and George Walker, pp. 43-53 (B) *
- James McCune Smith, On the Fourteenth Query of Thomas Jeffersons Notes on Virginia AngloAfrican Magazine I (August 1859): 225-238 (B) *
- The Jerry Rescue and its Aftermath, That laboratory of abolitionism, libel, and treason: Syracuse and
the Underground Railroad, Exhibition, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University.
http://library.syr.edu/find/scrc/programs/exhibits/sites/undergroundrr/case3.php

11/2: American Forum II: The Anti-Slavery Fair

- Read Forum II Documents (B) *
Week 11: Nov. 7-9
The New Era of Freedom
11/7: Noralee Frankel, Breaking the Chains: 1860-1880, in To Make Our World Anew, pp. 227-243
- Emancipation Proclamation (B) *
11/9: Noralee Frankel, Breaking the Chains: 1860-1880, pp. 243-280
- Thirteenth Amendment (B) *
Week 12: Nov. 14-16
The Strange Career of Freedom
11/14: Senator Hiram Revels Address to the U.S. Senate, Congressional Globe, February 8, 1871, 41st
Congress, 3rd Session (1059-1060) (B) *
- Congressman Richard Cains Address to the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressional Record,
January 24, 1874, 43rd Congress, 1st Session (901-903) (B) *
11/16: *** EXAM II *** EXAM II *** EXAM II***
Week 13: Nov. 21-23

No Class Thanksgiving Break

Week 14: Nov. 28 - 30

The Politics of Citizenship
11/28: American Forum III: Mapping Black Progress
- Read Forum III Documents (B) *
11/30: ~ Student Research Presentations ~
Week 15: Dec. 5-7
Conclusions
12/5: ~ Student Research Presentations ~
12/7: ~ Student Research Presentations ~
~ Keywords: What is African American history?
~ Research Projects Due
Matching Letter Grades to Percentage Grades
A
AB+

92-100
90-91
88-89

B
BC+

82-87
80-81
78-79

C
CD

72-77
70-71
62-69

DF

60-61
59 & below
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AAS/HST 332

Guidelines for Analyzing Primary Sources

African American History through the 19th Century
Fall 2016
J. Bryant

Primary sources are raw materials historians use to explain and interpret the past. Such sources include
written and non-textual materials produced during the period under investigation by people who
participated in or observed an event. Diaries, letters, art, speeches, autobiographies, oral histories,
photographs, maps, wills, census data, and music are common examples of primary sources.

INSTRUCTIONS: Type comprehensive single-spaced responses to all of the queries below. Feel free to
explore additional questions about the source after you have addressed these issues. Although you are not
required to present your analysis formally, you must be prepared to share your ideas and discussion
questions with the class. You must submit your discussion questions on the date your document is
scheduled for discussion. The full analysis of the source is due in class one week after the discussion
date. You cannot make up this assignment if you are late or absent when we discuss your source.
QUERIES
1. What is the title of the source? In what historical context did it originate? Who produced it? Did it
originate from a participant in a given event or from an observer?

2. What was the original purpose of the document? What is its central idea or argument? How does the
document relate to the historical context in which it originated? What aspects of the context does it
illuminate?

3. Who was its intended audience? How do you think the intended audience shaped the source?

4. Describe the biases in the source. (Do not say that there are no biases.)

5. If this item were your only African American history source, what conclusions would you draw about
the experiences of people of African descent in mainland North America? Explain facets of the source
that reflect broader phenomena in the field and aspects that appear to be exceptional.

6. Explain how the source compares to a related primary source used in this course. Describe specific
similarities and differences.

7. Formulate two discussion questions about issues that the document addresses in its historical context.
Explain your responses to your questions. You will receive no credit for questions that offer not
response, ignore the documents context, seek factual information, or ask your audience to offer its
opinion or explain what it would do in a situation.
5