History 371 - SEM: 19TH CENT U.S.-SLAVERY

Topics course.: Despite the degradation, violence and despair of enslavement in the US, African American men and women built families, traditions and a legacy of resistance. Using the WPA interviews—the New Deal Federal Writers Project of the 1930s—this course looks at the historical memory of former slaves. It examines the WPA interviews as historical sources by studying scholarship that relies heavily on them, explores the debates that challenge their validity and acknowledges that these interviews remain the richest source of African American oral history regarding slavery. Students write an original research paper using the WPA interviews as their central source.

Instructor Permission. Limited to juniors, seniors.