Comm 190
Seminar in Scholarly and Creative Inquiry
Discourses of Slavery
Spring 2006
Instructor: James Jasinski
404D Jones Hall
879-3463 (office direct line)
761-1591 (home; no calls after 8pm)
e-mail address:
Office hours: M, W 1-4pm and by appointment
Overview of Course:
While the institution of American slavery existed as a corporeal, material phenomenon, it nevertheless was initially implemented via judicial rulings and legislative enactments, was sustained and challenged through the rhetorical hermeneutics of Biblical and constitutional exegesis, was promoted as a “positive good” and attacked as an unmitigated evil, was represented in fictional and dramatic productions, was repeatedly contested and defended in the legal sphere and in various deliberative forums, and remains an integral part of our cultural memory. In this seminar students will examine these various discourses of slavery, developing an understanding of the discursive resources through which our nation’s peculiar institution has been defended, attacked, and remembered.
Course Objectives:
The University has adopted the following learning objectives for all Scholarly and Creative Inquiry (SCI) seminars.
The purpose of this core area is to introduce students to the processes of scholarly and creative inquiry through direct participation in that inquiry. Students in a SCI seminar gain a degree of mastery that comes with deep exposure to a focused seminar topic. They increase their ability to frame and explore questions, to support claims, and to respond to others’ questions and differing opinions. Finally, students develop and demonstrate their intellectual independence by engaging in substantive written work on the topic in papers or projects.
Given these common objectives for this core category, upon completing this course students should be able to:
1. identify the principal goals and major analytic procedures which constitute humanistic modes of inquiry (historical, interpretive, critical, etc.);
2. display a degree of mastery over multiple “discourses of slavery”;
3. demonstrate increased ability to engage in basic analytic and scholarly activities (frame questions, support claims, etc.); and
4. demonstrate their ability to employ various approaches to historical-critical inquiry in substantive written work. Students will be expected to demonstrate (and will be evaluated in part on) their grasp of the conventions constituting academic or scholarly writing (including but not limited to grammar and syntax, rules of punctuation, paragraph coherence, etc.)
Required Reading
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ed. Ann Douglas (New York: Penguin Books, 1986)
David Walker, David Walker’s Appeal, ed. Peter Hinks (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).
Reading packet available at bookstore.
Some course readings will be available through the University’s Blackboard web site. To access the Blackboard readings, go to blackboard.ups.edu and look for course (course ID is: DiscourseSlaveryspring2006). You should enroll yourself in the course (access code: chicagocubs). Blackboard readings are indicated on schedule below.
All readings should be completed by the date assigned on the schedule below. Doing so will prepare you for quizzes. To facilitate discussion of the readings, I strongly recommend that you bring them to class (print copies of blackboard readings and bring those copies to class).
Recommended Reading
Andrea A. Lunsford, The Everyday Writer, third edition (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005).
Course Policies
1. Students must comply with University policies regarding academic honesty. It is your responsibility to review Logger on-line so that you avoid violating University academic honesty policies, especially those relating to plagiarism.
2. Turn off your cell phones before class.
3. Please visit appropriate restrooms before class begins.
4. Please do not sit in class with sweatshirt hoods over your head. It is rude.
Course Requirements
Quick Summary
1. A research project with two discrete components (each component will be evaluated separately.
A. Part A: A literature review paper due on Tu 3/21 worth 15points or roughly 15% of your final grade.
B. Part B: A final seminar paper (a piece of original scholarship which examines some aspect of the “discourses” of slavery) due on Tu 5/9 at noon worth 25 points or roughly 25% of your final grade.
2. Six short analysis papers (each app. 3-4 pp). Due dates and topics are noted in schedule below. Each short analysis paper will be worth 10 points. Your top four scores will determine roughly 40% of your final grade.
3. Four lecture summary papers. As we’ll discuss in class, five distinguished scholars are presenting lectures on campus this spring on the course topic “The Discourses of Slavery.” You need to attend four of the lectures and prepare short (app. 2pp) summary papers. See assignment handout for lecture schedule and summary paper due dates. Each summary paper worth 2 ½ points; score of lecture summary papers will determine roughly 10% of your final grade.
4. Six (perhaps seven) unannounced quizzes on assigned readings. Each quiz will be worth two points. Your top five quiz scores will determine roughly 10% of your final grade
The separate assignment handout contains detailed descriptions of course requirements.
Tentative Course Schedule
1/17 (Tu) Introduction to course
1/19 (Th) Slavery comes to North America; discuss course assignments.
Unit One: Critiquing/Defending Slavery
1/24 (Tu) Quaker origins of abolitionism. Read: Reading Packet (RP) #1-4.
1/26 (Th) David Walker Attacks Slavery. Read: Excerpts from Jefferson (RP #5) and Walker’s Appeal (Editor’s Introduction, Preamble, and Article I)
1/31 (Tu) Walker’s Appeal and the Emergence of the African-American Jeremiad. Read: Appeal Articles II-IV; handout on “jeremiad”
Short analysis paper #1 due
2/2 (Th) William Lloyd Garrison’s Early Critique of Slavery. Read: RP #6 and 6a
2/7 (Tu) Henry Highland Garnet Exhorts the 1843 National Convention of Negro Citizens. Read: RP #7
2/9 (Th) Frederick Douglass on the Meaning of the Fourth of July for America’s Slaves. Read: RP #8
2/14 (Tu) Women, Abolitionism, and Race. Read: RP #9-10.
Short analysis paper #2 due
2/16 (Th) Defending Slavery. Read: RP #11 and 11a
Unit Two: Fictionalizing Slavery
2/21 (Tu) Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Read: UTC, pp. 41-225 (Chs. 1-13)
2/23 (Th) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (con’t). Read: UTC, pp. 226-411 (Chs. 14-25)
2/28 (Tu) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (con’t). Read: UTC, pp. 412-629 (Chs. 26-45)
3/2 (Th) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (concluded).
Short analysis paper #3 due
Unit Three: Interpreting Slavery
3/7 (Tu) Slavery and the Bible. Read: RP #12-15
3/9 (Th) African-Americans Interpret the Bible. Read: Raboteau book chapter (on Blackboard)
3/14 (Tu) Spring Break
3/16 (Th) Spring Break
3/21 (Tu) Slavery and the Constitution. Read: RP #16-17
Literature Review paper due
3/23 (Th) The Amistad Case. Read: See handout for reading assignment for this class period.
3/28 (Tu) Prigg v. Pennsylvania and the Issue of Fugitive Slaves. Read: Finkelman essay (on Blackboard)
3/30 (Th) Dred Scott. Read: RP #18 and 18a
Short analysis paper #4 due
Unit Four: Debating Slavery in Congress
4/4 (Tu) Abolitionist Petitions and the “Gag Rule” Debate. Read: RP #19 and 19a; handout
4/6 (Th) Recovering Fugitive Slaves. Read: RP #20
4/11 (Tu) Slavery in the Territories (part one): Oregon (Oregon?). Read: RP #21
4/13 (Th) Slavery in the Territories (part two): The Mexican Cession and the “Compromise” of 1850. Read: RP #22
4/18 (Tu) Slavery in the Territories (part three): The Kansas-Nebraska Act. Read: RP # 23, 23a, and 23b
Short analysis paper #5 due
4/20 (Th) The Aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in Illinois: Abraham Lincoln.
Read: RP #24
Unit Five: Remembering Slavery
4/25 (Tu) Slavery and the Mass Media. Read: TBA
4/27 (Th) Slavery and History Textbooks. Read: TBA
5/2 (Tu) Memory and Policy Debate: The Case of Slavery Reparations.
Short analysis paper #6 due
Final seminar paper due during scheduled exam period (Tuesday 5/9 at noon).
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