Last modified: 05 Oct 2023 08:46
From the late sixteenth century until the early nineteenth century, Britain was the most prolific slave-trader in the Atlantic World. British colonies in the Americas were among the most brutal slave societies in world history. And yet, Britain was also the first major European state voluntarily to abolish its slave trade, and the first to resolve to emancipate its slaves. This course explores this tension between an empire of slavery and an empire of freedom.
| Study Type | Undergraduate | Level | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Term | First Term | Credit Points | 30 credits (15 ECTS credits) |
| Campus | Aberdeen | Sustained Study | No |
| Co-ordinators |
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Using primary and secondary sources, this course explores the interconnected histories of slavery, empire, and capitalism in the history of Britain and the British Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the course you will participate in active historical debates about the legacies of capitalism, slavery and the slave trade in Britain and the Atlantic. The first half of the course asks how and why slave labour became fundamental to the territorial and economic expansion of the British empire. The second half of the course asks why Britain – if slavery had been so fundamental to the British empire – abolished its slave trade in 1807, and abolished slavery in its colonies in 1833. We will place particular emphasis on the role of Scottish participation in both Atlantic slavery and British abolitionism.
Assessment will be a primary source analysis, essay proposal, and essay.
Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 | Feedback Weeks | ||
| Feedback |
Feedback will be in the form of email notification of marks with comments; general remarks on class and on MyAberdeen. |
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| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Evaluate key debates in the historiography on British abolitionism. |
| Factual | Analyse | Understand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas. |
| Reflection | Evaluate | Evaluate the legal, economic and social legacies of British slave ownership in Britain and the Caribbean. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 60 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Feedback will be in the form of email notification of marks with comments; general remarks on class and on MyAberdeen; and via one, individual face-to-face meeting with each student with feedback on the essay (and more generally). |
Word Count | 3000 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Evaluate key debates in the historiography on British abolitionism. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Be able to analyse primary source texts, situating them in terms of context, genre and argument. |
| Factual | Analyse | Understand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas. |
| Reflection | Evaluate | Evaluate the legal, economic and social legacies of British slave ownership in Britain and the Caribbean. |
| Assessment Type | Summative | Weighting | 30 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment Weeks | Feedback Weeks | |||
| Feedback |
Primary source analysis. Feedback will be in the form of email notification of marks with comments; general remarks on class and on MyAberdeen; and via one, individual face-to-face meeting with each student with feedback on the essay (and more generally). |
Word Count | 1200 | |
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Be able to analyse primary source texts, situating them in terms of context, genre and argument. |
| Factual | Analyse | Understand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas. |
There are no assessments for this course.
| Knowledge Level | Thinking Skill | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Evaluate key debates in the historiography on British abolitionism. |
| Conceptual | Evaluate | Be able to analyse primary source texts, situating them in terms of context, genre and argument. |
| Factual | Analyse | Understand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas. |
| Reflection | Evaluate | Evaluate the legal, economic and social legacies of British slave ownership in Britain and the Caribbean. |
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