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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.
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