In most cases, except where indicated below, we will be using Tuesdays to talk about and work on our research papers, and Thursdays to discuss assigned readings. However, please examine the schedule carefully so that you are aware of departures from this pattern. Also please note that there are two events outside our normal class meeting time that you are required to attend: a lecture on January 18 at Rice and a lecture at the Museum of Natural Science on March 6, for which transportation and tickets will be provided.
January 10
Course introduction and mini-lecture: “What Abolitionists Were Up Against”
January 12: The Causal Question
Davis Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 250–267, OWL-Space
January 17: The Causal Question, Cont.
Blog Comment Due
James L. Huston, “The Experiential Basis of the Northern Antislavery Impulse,” Journal of Southern History 56, no. 4 (November 1990), 609–640, link
Joseph Yannielli, “George Thompson among the Africans: Empathy, Authority, and Insanity in the Age of Abolition,” Journal of American History 96, no. 4 (2010), 979–1000, link
In addition to these two articles, you will be assigned one of the following three articles to read closely; you may skim the other two.
- James B. Stewart, “Heroes, Villains, Liberty, and License: The Abolitionist Vision of Wendell Phillips,” in Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists, ed. Lewis Perry and Michael Fellman (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979), 168–191, OWL-Space
- Mary Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition: The Struggle against Indian Removal in the 1830s,” Journal of American History 86, no. 1 (June 1999), 15–40, link
- Robert H. Abzug, “William Lloyd Garrison and the Birth of Abolitionism,” in Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 129–162, OWL-Space
January 18: Special Meeting
As part of this course you are required to attend a special event on January 18, 5 p.m., Humanities 117. James Brewer Stewart, an expert on past abolitionists, will be delivering a lecture on abolitionism now.
January 19
James Brewer Stewart will be visiting our class to discuss his lecture from the previous day and his paper, which will be available on OWL-Space.
January 24: Working with Primary Sources
Kathryn Kish Sklar, ed., Women’s Rights Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830–1870 (Bedford/St. Martin’s), p. 1–76, plus Documents 6–12 & 14–15, required text.
January 26: Working with Primary Sources
Blog Comment Due
Ronald G. Walters, “The Erotic South: Civilization and Sexuality in American Abolitionism,” American Quarterly 25, no. 2 (May 1973), 177–201, link
Carol Lasser, “Voyeuristic Abolitionism: Sex, Gender, and the Transformation of Antislavery Rhetoric,” Journal of the Early Republic 28, no. 1 (2008), 83–114, link
January 31: The Influence Question
Davis, Inhuman Bondage, pp. 268–296, OWL-Space
Begin reading James Oakes, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics (W. W. Norton & Company), required text.
February 2: The Influence Question, Cont.
Blog Comment Due. Finish Oakes, The Radical and the Republican, all pages.
February 7: Library Visit
February 9: Interracial Abolitionism
Blog Comment Due. Stanley Harrold, Subversives: Antislavery Community in Washington, D.C., 1828–1865 (Louisiana State University Press, 2003), all pages.
February 14
Further discussion of using primary sources. Please email me this week with a brief statement of your interests and ideas for the research project.
February 16: Interracial Abolitionism, cont.
Blog Comment Due. John Stauffer, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (Harvard University Press, 2004)
February 21: Two Topics Memo due by noon
February 23: Working with Primary Sources, cont.
Blog Comment Due. Finish Sean Wilentz, ed. David Walker’s Appeal (Hill and Wang, 1995), required text.
February 28-March 1: SPRING BREAK!
March 6: Historians at Work
James Oakes will be present in class, and you should also make plans to attend his lecture at the Museum of Natural Science at 6:30 p.m. Transportation will be provided.
March 8: To Be Announced
March 11
Proposals due by midnight on March 11. During this week we will schedule one-on-one meetings to discuss your progress on the paper. We will not be meeting as a group on Tuesday, March 13.
March 15
Blog Comment Due. Gale Kenny, Contentious Liberties: American Abolitionists in Post-Emancipation Jamaica, 1834–1866 (University of Georgia, 2010), required text.
March 20
Your Primary Source Memo is due on March 20. There will be no meeting on Thursday, March 22 because of the University recess.
March 27: Making an Outline
March 29: Outline Due by Noon
April 3
We will be working on drafting your 3–7 Page Memo and discussing the writing process in class.
April 5: 3–7 Page Memo Due by Noon
April 10
During this week we will schedule one-on-one meetings to discuss your progress on the paper. We will not be meeting as a group.