History 129: History of African
Americans
To 1876
Dr. Alonzo N. Smith
Course
Outline, Spring, 2006
Section One:
From Africans to African Americans
Overview:
History and Prehistory of the African Continent
Slavery in
Slavery in
Slavery in
Unit I:
A. Africa’s Past
1.
Prehistory
a.
before human beings: the hominids, 3 million-100,000 BCE
b. homo sapiens: sometime around 100k BCE
c. emergence of the
first human settlements, 50,000 – 3500 BCE
2. History
a.
Ancient History
i.
ii. Rome,
Coptic Christianity, 333 BCE – 500 AD
b. Medieval History, 700
AD- 1400 AD
i.
ii.
c. Modern History,
1400-present
i. The
Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1500-1860
ii Colonialism, 1860-1960
iii
Neocolonialism, 1960-present
3. Culture
a. Religion
i.
Christianity
ii. Islam
iii. Spirit
worship
a)spirits
of nature
b)ancestral
spirits
b. Social Life
i. The
African village as a tightly knit community
ii. the
extended family and the spirits
iii the
roles of women
iv. slavery
in traditional
Unit II: The
Transatlantic Slave Trade
And the
A. The Slave
Trade in Global Perspective
1. The
Largest Population Movement in World
History
2. Size of the Trade and Duration
3. Regions affected
B. The Expansion of
1.
Exploration and Trade
2. Resources
in the
a.
Gold and silver
b. Agricultural products
3. The Need for Labor
a.
The use of Indian and European labor
b. The use of African
labor
c. Racism as
a justification
4.
Racism in Modern History
a. A definition of
racism
b. Racism against black
people
c. Other forms of racism
Unit III: Africans in
A. Development of Slavery in
1.
2.
a.
b. The
c. The Low Country
B.
1. Slavery
throughout the 13 colonies
2.
Changes in slavery and race relations,
from the 1600s to the 1700s
C.
1. The
Ideals of the American Revolution
2.
African American hopes and the reality
3. The
Founding Fathers and Slavery
4. Blacks
in the Revolutionary War
5. The
Constitution of 1798
Unit IV: Black
People in the New Nation, 1783-1820
A. Revolutions in the
A Comparison
B. The
1.
2. State
and federal legislation
3. The
American Colonization Movement
Section Two:
African Americans Seek Freedom
From Slavery
Overview:
The New American Nation and African Americans
Northern white attitudes toward slavery and black
people
African American life in the antebellum North
The economics of slavery
Slavery and southern white people
African American life under slavery
Slavery as a growing national controversy
Unit V: Life in
the
A. The
Economics of slavery
a.
the South
b. the North
B. The Lives of White People in the Cotton
Kingdom
a.
social structure
b. the legal system
c. the culture of
southern white people
d. the militant South
C. The Lives of Black People in the South
a.
The Upper South
i. free
ii. slave
b. The
i.
“quasi-free” people
ii. growth and
spread of the slave population
iii. cotton, rice, tobacco, and sugar plantations
iv. organization of plantation slaves
v. social and religious life of the slaves
a)house,
yard and field slaves
b)drivers
and skilled workers
c)
families, treatment of women and children
d)day-to-day-life
c)the
black church
d)music,
language and folklore
e)material
culture
vi. The
African American culture of resistance
VI.
Free Black People in Antebellum
A.
The Demographics of Freedom
B.
Limited “Freedom” in the North
C.
Black Communities in the Urban North
D.
Black Institutions
E.
Free People in the Upper and
VII. Opposition
to Slavery, 1800-1833
A.
A Country in Turmoil
B.
Abolitionism begins
C.
Black Abolitionist Leaders
VIII.
Opposition to Slavery, 1833-1850
A.
A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence
B.
The Response of the Antislavery Movement
C.
Black Community
Institutions
D.
Abolitionist
Activities
E.
Black
Nationalism
IX. The
A. The Expansion of Slavery in the West
B. The
C. The
Compromise of 1850
D. The Path to Civil War, 1850-1860
a.
The Fugitive Slave Law (1850)
i. the law and the national controversy
ii. incidents of escaped slaves
b. Publication of Uncle
Tom’s Cabin (1852)
c. Kansas-Nebraska Act
(1854)
d. Assault on Charles
Sumner (1856)
e. Dred Scott v.
d.
e. John Brown’s raid
(1859)
f. Presidential Election
of 1860
g. Secession of
h. Formation of the
Confederate States of
i. Black people at the
heart of the North-South division
Section Three:
One Kind of Freedom
Overview:
The
Civil War was about African American people
Both the North and the South had mixed
motives in
fighting the Civil War
African Americans were crucial to the victory
of the
North
African Americans got free of slavery,
and won
temporary equal citizenship, but eventually got only
second-class citizenship
During this time they helped to make
political changes
That mostly benefited white southerners
They lost their citizenship mainly
through an agreement
between northern and southern whites,
and slavery was replaced by second-class citizenship
X: Civil War
and Reconstruction, 1860-1876
A.
The Civil War and the Liberation Struggle,
1860-1865
1. Early years of the
war, 1861-1862
a.
Northern white attitudes towards slavery and black people
b.
African American attitudes towards the war
i.
In the North
ii.
In the South
c.
The Confiscation Acts and the Preliminary Emancipation
Proclamation
2. Later years of the war, 1863-1865
a.
The Emancipation Proclamation
b.
Northern white attitudes towards African Americans
c.
African American support of the Union cause
d.
African Americans in the Confederacy
3.
The Civil War as History and Memory
a.
Historical interpretations
b.
Commemorative events, 1865-1915
B. The
Meaning of Freedom: Promise and Failure
1.
The Promise of Reconstruction, 1865-1868
a.
The assassination of
Andrew
Johnson
b. Ex-Confederates try to stage a comeback
c.
The Politics of Emancipation
i.
Freedmen’s Bureau
ii.
Reconstruction Act of 1867
iii.
Reconstruction governments
2.
The Failure of Reconstruction, 1868-1876
a.
White terrorism
b.
The North loses interest in Reconstruction
c.
Withdrawal of federal troops
d.
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
3.
The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction