Words teaches students to explore the meaning and
significance of texts via close reading and
analysis, and to express that analysis orally and
in writing. Specific content and topics will vary
with instructors.
"People, Paleography & the Past: Analyzing the Slavery Archive"
The sources we use to study the history of slavery in North America exist in multiple forms and archives. Written and unwritten narratives, diaries, newspapers, legal codes, trial transcripts, ledgers, material culture, visual art, music–all found in archives, libraries, museums, family papers, and memories. How do we discover and recover these materials? How do we analyze them to understand their origins, their purpose, and their significance? How do we interpret them to answer questions about the institution of slavery, the experience of slavery, and the end of slavery? Do the voices of the enslaved speak in these records? How do we use the slavery archive to work through the silences and fathom the realities of their lives? What are the stakes of this kind of research?
In this course, we will address these questions by exploring major themes in the history of slavery and annotating the world’s largest document collection on this topic, Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive (SAAS). This database contains over five million pages of archival material from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries written in multiple languages, including Spanish, English, and French. With a combination of collaborative research, discussion, and writing, students will develop skills in paleography (deciphering handwritten historical manuscripts) and historical analysis to examine the archive’s role in the study of enslaved peoples and the people who enslaved them.
significance of texts via close reading and
analysis, and to express that analysis orally and
in writing. Specific content and topics will vary
with instructors.
"People, Paleography & the Past: Analyzing the Slavery Archive"
The sources we use to study the history of slavery in North America exist in multiple forms and archives. Written and unwritten narratives, diaries, newspapers, legal codes, trial transcripts, ledgers, material culture, visual art, music–all found in archives, libraries, museums, family papers, and memories. How do we discover and recover these materials? How do we analyze them to understand their origins, their purpose, and their significance? How do we interpret them to answer questions about the institution of slavery, the experience of slavery, and the end of slavery? Do the voices of the enslaved speak in these records? How do we use the slavery archive to work through the silences and fathom the realities of their lives? What are the stakes of this kind of research?
In this course, we will address these questions by exploring major themes in the history of slavery and annotating the world’s largest document collection on this topic, Slavery & Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive (SAAS). This database contains over five million pages of archival material from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries written in multiple languages, including Spanish, English, and French. With a combination of collaborative research, discussion, and writing, students will develop skills in paleography (deciphering handwritten historical manuscripts) and historical analysis to examine the archive’s role in the study of enslaved peoples and the people who enslaved them.
- Teacher: Nancy Gallman