HIS453H1

Slavery in North America

Slavery has existed in many human societies. Beginning in the sixteenth century, European empires pioneered a novel system of racialized chattel slavery that ensnared unknown numbers of Indigenous people and spurred the transportation of millions of African captives to various plantation zones in the Americas. This course examines the history of slavery in North America, Canada, and the United States (c. 1500-1865). Topics include Indigenous and Atlantic slaveries; slavery and the rise of British, French, and Spanish colonialism in North America; racial formation; the Atlantic and domestic slave trades; gender and reproduction; enslaved people’s politics and social worlds; and the gradual abolition of slavery in the United States and Canada (1780-1865).