AFS 211 The Black Experience

In this course students learn about the experiences of the early generations of Africans who arrived to mainland North America as indentured servants, contract workers, captives, and slaves. The focus of the course is on the African beginnings of black people in America, how black identity evolved from disparate and diverse origins, and how people built a new culture from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. The African American community evolved early in the history of the mainland British American colonies. Their presence was essential to the development of American culture, thus the study of this community offers an important window through which to understand the United States, as well as broader issues of the African Diaspora. The course employs a strong interdisciplinary perspective. In addition to class readings, students will also be required to participate in a special research project in the manuscript division of the Skillman Library in assigned groups. [GM1, GM2]