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Course: History 7883: Studies in African American History: Africans, Native Americans, White Indentured Servants and Slavery (3) Credit Hours
Professor: Dr. Arwin D. Smallwood
Office: 121 Mitchell Hall, Phone: 678-3869, asmallwd@memphis.edu

Course Description
This explores the history and relationship between Native Americans, African Americans, and Poor Whites in North America from the colonial period to the end of slavery. It will examine the impact of early mixing between the three groups in European colonial settlements, and on Plantations, in Maroon communities (communities of runaway slaves) and remnant Native groups who lived in the swamps and mountains of the Northeastern and Southeastern Woodlands. The course will pay special attention to the Six Nations (Mohawks, Oneida, Onondagas, Cayugas , Seneca, Tuscarora and the Native Americans aligned with them) and their position on slavery. And the Five Civilized Tribes (Cherokee, Creeks, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminoles also the Yamassee, Catawba and their allies) and their position on slavery. This Course will also examine the relationship between these Native Americans, Blacks, and poor whites and the origins of a number of mixed race peoples in the eastern United States including but not limited to: Lumbees, Melungeons, Jackson Whites, Creoles, Bras Ankles, Jukes, etc. Special emphasis will be placed on question of creolization and the intersection of various groups (Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans)/ It will also examine the evolution of slave law, to deal with this mixing as early as the 1500s in Latin America and the Caribbean and the 1600s in North America.

Course Objective
Our major tasks include:
1. Understanding the evolution of relations between Native Americans, Blacks and Whites in America from the colonial period to the end of slavery.
2. Exploring creolization as an element of the African-American experience within the contexts of colonial and antebellum slaver and post slavery America.
3. Formulating a comprehensive narrative for the periods that consider the impact of Blacks on Native Americans and poor whites in the americas during the colonial and antebellum periods.

Course Format
Our class discussions will center around three questions: What is the author’s argument? How does the author make this argument? Does the author make this argument effectively? To participate successfully in this endeavor, besides reading the assigned monograph of the week, you should arrive in class with written notes that help you identify, dissect, and evaluate the author’s argument. Courteous, professional codes of conduct should prevail in class. You will also write weekly book reviews of each monograph (See below for further information about writing assignments).

Required books:
Abel, Annie Heloise. The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist; an Omitted Chapter in the Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy
Evans, William McKee. To Die Game
Forbes, Jack D. Africans and Native Americans
Gallay, Allan. Indian Slave Trade
Hauptman, Laurence. The Iroquois in the Civil War
Hauptman, Laurence. Between Two Fires
Jordan, Don and Michael Walsh. White Cargo
Kennedy, Brent. Melungeons

Nixon, Guy. Slavery in the West
Price, Richard. Maroon Societies (with new preface)
Perdue, Theda. Slavery & Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540-1866
Saunt, Claudio. Black, White, and Indian
Snyder, Christina. Slavery in Indian Country
Usner Daniel H. Indians, Settlers & Slaves in a Frontier Exchange Economy
Voelz, Peter. Slave and Soldier
Watson, Alan. Slave Law in the Americas


Required Articles:
 

Arwin D. Smallwood, “A History of Native American and African Relations for 1502 to 1900,” Negro History Bulletin (April-September 1999).

William S. Willis, “Divide and Rule: Red, White and Black in the Southeast,” Journal of Negro History 48 (July 1963).

Sanford Winston, “Indian Slavery in the North Carolina Region,” Journal of Negro History 19 (October 1934).

Jerome S. Handler, “The Amerindian Slave Population of Barbados in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries,” in Caribbean Studies 8 (1969).

Kenneth W. Porter, “Relations between Negroes and Indians within the Present Limits of the United States,” Journal of Negro History 17 (July 1932).

Kathryn E. Holland Braund, “The Creek Indians, Blacks and Slavery,” The Journal of Southern History 57 (November 1991).

James W. Covington, “Some Observations Concerning the Florida-Carolina Indian Slave Trade,” Florida Anthropologist 20 (1967).

Ariela J. Gross, “Of Portuguese Origin: Litigating Identity and Citizenship among the ‘Little Races’ in Nineteenth-Century America,” Law and History Review Fall 2007, Vol. 25, No. 3.

Ariela J. Gross, “The Caucasian Cloak: Mexican Americans and the Politics of Whiteness in the Twentieth-Century Southwest,” The Georgetown Law Journal Vol. 95, No. 2, January 2007.

Edward T. Price, “A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States,” Association of American Geographers annals 43 (June 1953).

Allen W. Trelease, “Indian-White Contacts in Eastern North America: the Dutch in New Netherlands.” Ethnohistory, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring 1962): 137-146.

*All of the books should be available in the university bookstore. Students should search for articles using JSTOR.

Grading
The grading scale basically follows the departmental standards for graduate students, with a focus upon those getting or considering getting their doctorate:

A: Outstanding, excellent work: approaches the quality and demonstrates the potential for professional quality work.
A-: Very good work. High quality performance, but falls short of excellence.
B+: Good Work. Solid effort shows potential for higher achievement.
B: Needs improvement: Reflects serious effort, but raises doubts about the potential for achieving professional quality, so students should consult with professors about how to improve their work, especially if they are in the Ph.D. program or would like to be.
B-: Marginal. A few positive qualities, but plagued by serious problems that must be immediately addressed.
C+ and below: unacceptable.

I will not write grades on every review, but I will provide feedback and we will have individual discussions throughout the semester about your progress and performance. Grades are based upon the quality of your written work and your participation in class discussions.

Writing Assignments

Weekly Reviews
You will write professional-quality reviews of the books. Reviews should answer the same three questions that we will address in class discussions. The reviews should not have a title page; only the bibliographic information should appear at the top of the page. Reviews of a single book should be 500-600 words. Reviews of two books should be 800-1000 words. The reviews are always due the week after we have discussed the book. I have provided a list of guidelines below, paraphrased from Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing About History that are helpful for producing quality reviews:

1. Always give the author’s purpose in writing the book. This idea is often best addressed in the preface or introduction, which you should always read super-extra-carefully.
2. Summarize the author’s evidence. Look through the notes section.
3. Focus on the book, not its author. Avoid such clichés as deeming the author “well-qualified.”
4. The review should not entirely focus on style issues. Avoid prolonged comments on the style of the book. However, one can note whether a book is well-written or incoherent, and one can even quote a sentence to illustrate an author’s style.
5. Show, don’t tell. Avoid such generalizations as, “The book is very interesting,” or “The book is very boring.” A good review will illustrate your opinions without using such banalities.
6. Be courteous. Passionate attacks reflect poorly upon the reviewer. Professional scholarship demands a level of detachment and comportment.
7. Quote judiciously. The author’s prose may spice up your review, and it may deliver an idea more sharply than you can through paraphrasing. But it is your job to analyze the book, and you shirk that duty if you include too many long quotations.
8. Do not feel compelled to say negative things about the book. One should note important inaccuracies, disagreements over interpretations, problems with the evidence, major stylistic issues, and so on. But avoid petty complaints about an insignificant detail or an isolated typographical error.
9. Accept the book on its own terms. You may wish that the author wrote a different book, but you must review whether the author has succeeded in accomplishing his or her goal.
10. Place the book in historical context. How does this book contribute to our understanding of African American history?

Once during the semester, you will be asked to distribute copies of your review to the class, and you will read it out loud, so that the class can revisit the themes you highlight and assess your review. For examples of professional reviews, consult any major journal such as Journal of American History. Remember that one can competently review a book based upon a careful reading, a familiarity with the historical and historiographical issues, and a cogent presentation of ideas.

Final Paper
Also, at the end of the semester, you will be expected to write a thematic bibliographic essay (15-20 pages) on a particular theme covered by the core and supplemental readings on the weekly schedule. Along with the readings listed each student should conduct an OCLC search for all Books, articles, Theses, Dissertations, and primary materials related to their chosen topic, This bibliographic essay should have a unifying argument expressed through a thesis statement.

Schedule
Week 1 Introduction to Course
Introductions to the literature on the mixings of Blacks, Native Americans, and Whites in early history.

Arwin D. Smallwood, “A History of Native American and African Relations for 1502 to 1900,” Negro History Bulletin (April-September 1999).

William S. Willis, “Divide and Rule: Red, White and Black in the Southeast,” Journal of Negro History 48 (July 1963).

Sanford Winston, “Indian Slavery in the North Carolina Region,” Journal of Negro History 19 (October 1934).

Jerome S. Handler, “The Amerindian Slave Population of Barbados in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries,” in Caribbean Studies 8 (1969).

Kenneth W. Porter, “Relations between Negroes and Indians within the Present Limits of the United States,” Journal of Negro History 17 (July 1932).

Week 2 Cultural Blendings in the Americas: Africans, Native Americans, and Europeans

Forbes, Jack D. Africans and Native Americans
Supplementary: Joseph E. Harris, Africans and Their History
Roland A. Oliver, The Dawn of African History 2nd ed.


Week 3 African Slavery in the Caribbean and Latin America
Core Reading:

    Price, Richard. Maroon Societies (with new preface)
    Voelz, Peter. Slave and Soldier

Supplementary:

    Fred Donner, The Early Islamic Conquests
    Bernard Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe
    Bernard Lewis, Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry
    Vincent Bakpetu Thompson, The Making of the African Diaspora in the Americas, 1441- 1900 African Slavery in the Americas


Week 4 Slave Resistance in the Caribbean and Latin America
Core Reading:

    Jordan, Don and Michael Walsh. White Cargo

    Allen W. Trelease, “Indian-White Contacts in Eastern North America: the Dutch in New Netherlands.” Ethnohistory, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Spring 1962): 137-146.

Supplementary:

    Robert B. Toplin, Slavery and Race Relations in Latin America
    Peter M. Voelz, Slave and Soldier: The Military Impact of Blacks in the Colonial Americas
    Barbara Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 1650-1838
    Eugene D. Genovese, From Rebellion to Revolution: Afro-American Slave Revolts in the Making of the Modern World
    Darlene Clark Hine and David Barry Gaspar, eds., More Than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas
    Gary Y. Okihiro, ed., In Resistance: Studies in African, Caribbean and Afro-American History
    Richard Price, Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas

Week 5 Africans, Native Americans, Europeans and the Creolization of the Caribbean, Latin America and North America 1502 to 1680
Core Readings:

    Gallay, Allan. Indian Slave Trade

    Watson, Alan. Slave Law in the Americas

    Kathryn E. Holland Braund, “The Creek Indians, Blacks and Slavery,” The Journal of Southern History 57 (November 1991).

    James W. Covington, “Some Observations Concerning the Florida-Carolina Indian Slave Trade,” Florida Anthropologist 20 (1967).

Supplementary:

    Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade; A Census
    Philip D. Curtin, The Tropical Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade
    Daniel Mannix, Black Cargos: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1518-1865
    Robin Law, The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550-1750: The Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on an African Society

Week 6 Sugar and Rum: Colonial Slavery in the British Caribbean
Core Readings:

    Snyder, Christina. Slavery in Indian Country

Supplementary:

    Kim Dramer, Native Americans and Black Americans
    Laurence Foster, Negro-Indian Relationships in the Southeast
    Jack D. Forbes, Black Africans and Native Americans: Color, Race and Caste in the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples
    Jack D. Forbes, Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples

Week 7 The Rise of the Tobacco Culture of the Upper South: Colonial Slavery in the Chesapeake
Core Readings:

    Usner Daniel H. Indians, Settlers & Slaves in a Frontier Exchange Economy
    Hauptman, Laurence. Between Two Fires

Supplementary:

    Richard S. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713
    Mechal Sobel, The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth Century Virginia
    David W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene, eds., Neither Slave nor Free; The Freedman of African Descent in the Slave Societies of the New World
    Clifford Lindsey Alderman, Rum, Slaves and Molasses: The Story of New England’sTriangular Trade
    John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community

Week 8 The Rise of Rice and Indigo Culture of the Lower South: Colonial Slavery in the Carolinas
Core Readings:

    Nixon, Guy. Slavery in the West

Supplementary:

    David W. Cohen and Jack P. Greene, eds., Neither Slave nor Free; The Freedman of African Descent in the Slave Societies of the New World
    Charles L. Blockson, The Underground Railroad
    Herbert Aptheker, American Negro Slave Revolts, 6th ed.
    Mary S. Locke, Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808)

Week 9 The Role of Native Americans and Africans in the rise of English Colonial Slavery
Core Readings:

    Perdue, Theda. Slavery & Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540-1866

Supplementary:

    Wilson, Ellen Gibson, The Loyal Blacks
    James Walker W. S. G., The Black Loyalist: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870.
    Ira Berlin, and Ronald Hoffman, eds. Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution.

Week 10 The Evolution of English Slave law in North America
Core Readings:

    Abel, Annie Heloise. The American Indian as Slaveholder and Secessionist; an Omitted Chapter in the Diplomatic History of the Southern Confederacy

Supplementary:

    Julie P. Baker, Black Slavery Among the American Indians
    Loren Schweninger, Black Property Owners in the South, 1790-1915
    John Hebron Moore, The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest: Mississippi, 1770-1860
    Harold D. Woodman, King Cotton and His Retainers: Financing and Marketing the Cotton Crop of the South, 1800-1925
    Phillip S. Foner, History of Black Americans from the Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom to the Eve of the Compromise of 1850

Week 11 Slavery and the American Revolution
Core Reading:

    Hauptman, Laurence. The Iroquois in the Civil War

Supplementary:

    Don E. Fehrenbacher, Slavery, Law and Politics: The Dred Scott Case in Historical Perspective
    Frederic Bancroft, Slave Trading in the Old South

Week 12 The “Peculiar Institution:” The Institutionalization of Slavery and the Africanization of the American South
Core Readings:

    Evans, William McKee. To Die Game

Supplementary:

    Tom W. Shick, Behold the Promised Land: A History of Afro-American Settler Society in Nineteenth-Century Liberia
    P.J. Staudenraus, The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865
    John Lofton, Denmark Vesey’s Revolt: The Slave Plot That Lit a Fuse to Fort Sumter
    Robert S. Starobin, ed., Denmark Vesey: The Slave Conspiracy of 1822
    Herbert Aptheker, Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion
    Kenneth S. Greenberg, ed., The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents
    Henry Irving Tragle, The Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831: A Compilation of Source Material, Including the Full Text of The Confessions of Nat Turner
    Rosalie Schwartz, Across the Rio to Freedom: U.S. Negroes in Mexico
    Benjamin Quarles, Allies for Freedom: Blacks and John Brown
    Jeffrey S. Rossbach, Ambivalent Conspirators: John Brown, The Secret Six, and a Theory of Slave Violence

Week 13 Slave Resistance: Revolts, Work Stoppages and Running Away
Core Reading:

    Kennedy, Brent. Melungeons

Supplementary:

    William E. Dodd, The Cotton Kingdom” A Chronicle of the Old
    Benjamin Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro
    Louis S. Gerteis, From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy Toward Southern Blacks, 1861-1865
    Ervin L. Jordan, Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia
    Robert F. Durden, The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation
    John Hope Franklin, The Emancipation Proclamation
    Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., Black Southerners in Gray: Essays on Afro-Americans in Confederate Armies
    Ira Berlin, Joseph P. Reidy and Leslie Rowland, eds., The Black Military Experience

Week 14 The “Cotton Kingdom” and the Domestic Slave Trade
Core Readings:

    Saunt, Claudio. Black, White, and Indian

    Ariela J. Gross, “Of Portuguese Origin: Litigating Identity and Citizenship among the ‘Little Races’ in Nineteenth-Century America,” Law and History Review Fall 2007, Vol. 25, No. 3.

    Ariela J. Gross, “The Caucasian Cloak: Mexican Americans and the Politics of Whiteness in the Twentieth-Century Southwest,” The Georgetown Law Journal Vol. 95, No. 2, January 2007.

    Edward T. Price, “A Geographic Analysis of White-Negro-Indian Racial Mixtures in Eastern United States,” Association of American Geographers annals 43 (June 1953).

Supplementary:

    Thomas C. Holt, Black Over White
    Barbara Fields, Slavery and Freedom on the Middle Ground
    Leon Litwack, Been in the Storm So Long
    W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction
    Peter Kolchin, First Freedom

    Brewton, Berry. Almost White

    Edward T. Price. "Mixed-Blood Populations of Eastern United States as to Origins, Localizations, and Persistence," Ph.D. Diss., University of California Berkeley, 1950.

Week 15 The rise of the Antislavery movement and Colonization

Bibliographic Essay Due