HIST 615: Problems in American History

HIST 615-009: Antebellum African American Women’s History
(Fall 2012)

04:30 PM to 07:10 PM T

Johnson Center 240A

Section Information for Fall 2012

This course examines the history of African American women in antebellum America by exploring the general experiences of slave women and nominally free women, as well as the lives of noted women who were involved in the public arena as orators, writers, preachers, abolitionists and women's rights activists. Black women lived and labored under oppressive political, economic and social systems that cast doubt on their humanity and stripped them of any of the virtues of white women under the cult of domesticity. Free black women in the North labored as domestics, were denied decent education, and met with daily insults in public. Elite Northern black women, while not suffering from economic deprivation, nonetheless found the burden of slavery at their door. The captive women of the South faced a brutal slave system that expropriated their labor, separated families, and blamed them for their sexual victimization. Black women were often gendered male in relation to productive labor but gendered female in the realm of sexual exploitation and in their economic role of reproducing through birth an enslaved people. Within the context of the national political debates and compromises that took place on the issue of slavery and the status of free blacks, the course examines how these women confronted the contradictions and boundaries that arose from living in a limited democracy that supported slavery, white male dominance, and class hierarchies. Among the topics covered are women's work and family life, experience of separation, vulnerability to sexual abuse, mother-daughter bonds, and resistance and abolition, and institution building. This course fulfills the “Origins to 1861” requirement in US History.

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Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 1-6

Readings and discussion of bibliographies, interpretations, and research trends in topics selected by instructor. Notes: May be repeated for credit when topic is different. May be repeated within the term.
Specialized Designation: Green Leaf Related Course, Topic Varies
Registration Restrictions:

Enrollment limited to students with a class of Advanced to Candidacy, Graduate, Junior Plus, Non-Degree or Senior Plus.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate, Non-Degree or Undergraduate level students.

Students in a Non-Degree Undergraduate degree may not enroll.

Schedule Type: Lec/Sem #1, Lec/Sem #2, Lec/Sem #3, Lec/Sem #4, Lec/Sem #5, Lec/Sem #6, Lec/Sem #7, Lec/Sem #8, Lec/Sem #9, Lecture, Sem/Lec #10, Sem/Lec #11, Sem/Lec #12, Sem/Lec #13, Sem/Lec #14, Sem/Lec #15, Sem/Lec #16, Sem/Lec #17, Sem/Lec #18
Grading:
This course is graded on the Graduate Regular scale.

The University Catalog is the authoritative source for information on courses. The Schedule of Classes is the authoritative source for information on classes scheduled for this semester. See the Schedule for the most up-to-date information and see Patriot web to register for classes.