Just thought I'd share this with you all, and wish me luck....I'm going to need it. :/
I. African Slavery: various definitions and components
A) pecunium, persona, outsider status (natal alienation), religion (Islam), sexuality
and slavery (birthrate), role of the markets, role of violence, slave mode of
production (institutionalization of slavery)
B) methods of slave acquisition: warfare, judicial sanction, market place, famine
II. The impetus to African enslavement (E. Williams, W. Jordan and D. Davis)
E. Williams: historical trajectory of enslaved populations in New World, primacy of
economics, redemptioneers, indentured labor
W. Jordan: slavery/racism, impact of religion, heathenism, color symbolism,
D. B. Davis: color symbolism, practicality and locality, Constantinople, Brazil, Sao
Tome and Principe, St. Maurice, Sklavus, servus, Mediterranean slavery, Africans
and disease environment in the New World
III. Roman and Islamic slavery
slave utility (Familia Caesaris, concubinage, military slavery, latifundia, crafts,
domestic) slave acquisition, Slave society, religion, peculium
IV. Paul Lovejoy's Transformations in African Slavery
Islam and enslavement, Importance of the Sudan (Sahel), political impacts
(fragmentation, rise of states), Kongo, Dahomey, Oyo, Aro, Ashanti, wars for
political purposes, Merchant slavery, Aristocratic slavery,expansion of African
slavery
V. Walter Rodney's History of the Upper Guinea Coast
impact of class, Manes, Lancados, Afro-Portuguese, economic impact of slave
trade, African agency
VI. Patrick Manning
wars for political or economic purposes, price of slaves on West African Coast
VII. Two Princes
Bight of Biafra, house system, ekpe, predominant methods of slave acquisition,
Eurafricans, African agency
VIII. John Hawkins, Mungo Park, Manikongo Afonso
wars for economic or political purposes, impact of the slave trade.
Essay Questions:
1. With reference to the specific readings, during the era of the slave trade were
wars fought for political purposes, with enslavement as a byproduct, or were wars
fought with expressed economic intent, with enslavement as the goal?
2. Compare and contrast the arguments of Eric Williams, David Brion Davis, and
Winthrop Jordan regarding the European choice of Africans as a slave source.
Ultimately, which factors were the most important stimulants to African
enslavement? Cultural?
Economic? Pragmatic and local or all?
3. With specific references to the readings by Rodney, manning, Lovejoy ETC.
Discuss the demographic, economic, political and social impacts of the trans-
Atlantic slave trade upon Africa. What,in your opinion, was the ultimate impact of
the slave trade upon
Africa? Was it positive? Negative? Neither?
4. What is African “agency?” With a multitude of specific examples, discuss the
role of African agency during the trans Atlantic slave trade era. Your answer
should examine the nature of European and African participation (who control the
markets, role of Africans, role of compradors, ETC.) plus the role of external factors in precipitating the slave trade and African resistance to the slave trade.