Course Outline for History 62
The African-American Experience in U.S. History Through the Civil War

Effective: Fall 2022
SLO Rev: 10/05/2021
Catalog Description:

HIS 62 - The African-American Experience in U.S. History Through the Civil War

3.00 Units

(See also ES 62 )
This course presents a survey of the history of the United States from the perspective of African Americans. It presents that perspective in the contexts of the experiences of Native peoples, European Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos/Latinas before 1865. A critical and comparative analysis of the impacts of race, racialization, white supremacy, gender, class, colonialism, imperialism, war, social inequity, and migration on African Americans. Special emphasis will be placed on labor, citizenship, community, social and political resistance, solidarity, and the intersection of race, gender, and class. Early African history, the trade in African slaves, and exploration of the political, economic, demographic and social influences shaping African American life and culture prior to 1865 will be examined. The U.S. government and the Constitution, the California government and Constitution, and other constitutional models for comparison and contrast will also be covered. (May not receive credit if HIS 20, ES 20, or ES 62 has been completed successfully.)
2205.00 - History
Letter Grade Only
Type Units Inside of Class Hours Outside of Class Hours Total Student Learning Hours
Lecture 3.00 54.00 108.00 162.00
Total 3.00 54.00 108.00 162.00
Measurable Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed in any one or more of the following: Native American Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Latina and Latino American Studies.
  2. critically analyze the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, tribal citizenship, sovereignty, language, and/or age in Native American, African American, Asian American, and/or Latina and Latino American communities.
  3. critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and/or Latina and Latino Americans are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics as, for example, in immigration, reparations, settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, language policies.
  4. identify the origins of African-American history as a field of academic investigation and study;
  5. identify and analyze historic anti-racist struggles engaged in by African Americans and their connection to present-day social, economic, political and cultural policies and practices;
  6. explain the nature and impact of different European peoples’ early relationship to West African societies;
  7. trace the founding of the American colonies and their different relationships to African slavery;
  8. compare the complex relationship between Native Americans, Euro-Americans and African-Americans during the colonial period;
  9. analyze the evolving role race and racism plays in the institutionalization of slavery;
  10. explain the significance of the American Revolution and African-American participation in it;
  11. analyze the origins of the U.S. political system and the United States Constitution including the anti-racist efforts of African-Americans to gain freedom and political equality;
  12. discuss the political philosophies of the framers of the Constitution;
  13. analyze the Constitutional debate concerning slavery and the role that African-Americans should play in the nation;
  14. discuss the implication of the dislocation of Native Americans, the rise of cotton and the expansion of slavery in the South;
  15. describe the distinctive development of Northern states and free African-American communities in them;
  16. explain the abolitionist movement and its evolution from moral activism to political activism;
  17. discuss how citizenship (with its concomitant rights and obligations) comes to be defined and how African-Americans and their allies, at both state and federal levels, struggle to expand that definition through protest and changes in state and federal Constitutions.
  18. explain territorial expansion, its impact on Native American, Asian Americans, and Mexican and Mexican American populations and, in particular the issue of California statehood and the state’s constitution, and the controversy of slavery;
  19. trace the political dissension between the North and the South and the Constitutional crisis which results in secession and the beginning of the Civil War;
  20. describe the war, African-American participation in it and the efforts by slaves to seize their freedom;
  21. compare and analyze both presidential and congressional Reconstruction and the political, economic, and social consequences of their missions.
Course Content:
  1. Introduction to study of African-American history as a field of study and its evolution.
  2. The establishment of trade relations with European nations and its impact upon West African slavery.
  3. The establishment of the international Atlantic Slave Trade and the development of chattel slavery.
  4. The establishment of the British colonies of North America, their interaction with, the resistance received from, and impact on Native American communities.
  5. The particular formation of slavery within each distinctive region (Chesapeake, Carolina, and Georgia low country, and the northern colonies).
  6. The rise of race and racism in the context of increasing colonial conflict with Native American populations and increasing dependence on African slavery.
  7. The simultaneous institutionalization of slavery, race and racism in law, labor practice, social status, culture and rights.
  8. The multiple forms of resistance to slavery, including day-to-day cultural practices and slave rebellions
  9. The formation of the nation from the Revolution to the Constitution and the participation and role of African-Americans in the battle for and construction of American freedom.
  10. The origins of the U.S. political system and the United States Constitution, including the efforts of African-Americans to gain freedom and political equality.
  11. The political philosophies of the framers of the Constitution.
  12. The Constitutional debate concerning slavery and the role that African-Americans should play in the nation
  13. The defining of citizenship and its intersectionality with race
  14. Western expansion as a colonial project and its impact upon Native Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans and African-Americans.
  15. The formation of moral reform efforts, including abolitionism, as both racist and anti-racist movements and their impact upon regional tensions.
  16. The emergence of free African-American communities and their efforts to establish equality and rights through a variety of efforts.
  17. The establishment of free territories and States (in particular, California and the construction of the state’s constitution) and their role in the political struggle over the extension of slavery.
  18. The growing regional differences that lead to the Civil War and African-American participation in that war.
  19. African Americans efforts to shape freedom after slavery and their connection to present-day anti-racist efforts.
Methods of Instruction:
  1. Audio-visual aids
  2. Lecture/Discussion
  3. Class and group discussions
  4. Online Assignments
  5. Written assignments
  6. Distance Education
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
  1. Post at least one question you have about the reading on the online course site blog for this week. Try to answer at least two of your classmates' questions on the blog.
  2. Write a short review of the segment of the film, "Africans in America," shown in class. Include answers to the following questions in your 2 page review: How do elements of African culture survive slavery? How does the formation of slave community aid this survival and resistance?
  3. Utilizing the slave narrative segments read for class, compare and contrast the experience of African American slave women and slave men. How are their experiences the same? How do they differ? How do all narratives undermine mainstream assumptions about people of African descent?
  4. Read the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and section in the text that deals with the American Revolution. Analyze the relationship of the ideals put forth in the Declaration and the Constitution and judge if, or in what ways, African Americans are included in the ideals and ideas put forth by the framers.
  1. Papers
  2. Exams/Tests
  3. Class Participation
  4. Attendance
  5. Final Examination
Upon the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. Analyze the causes and consequences of political, economic and social change.
  2. Synthesize factual information and historical evidence from a variety of sources and identify the connections between them.
  3. Demonstrate a body of knowledge about and critical understanding of historical eras, their key events and ideas, and the process of change over time.
  4. Compare and contrast the struggles and contributions of African Americans in the formation of the United States and California, with other major groups like European Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Chicanx/Latinx.
Textbooks (Typical):
  1. Horne, Gerald (2016). The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America NYU Press.
  2. Waldstreicher, David (2010). Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification Hill and Wang.
  3. White, Deborah Gray (2021). Freedom on My Mind: A History of African Americans with Documents (3rd edition, Vol). Bedford St Martins.
  4. Carson, Clayborne (2019). The Struggle for Freedom: A History of African Americans (3rd, Vol. 1). Pearson.
  5. Brown, L (2014). African American Voices: A Documentary Reader, 1619-1877 (1st). .
  6. Lerner, G (1992). Black Women in White America: A Documentary History (Reprint). Vintage.
Abbreviated Class Schedule Description:
A survey of the social, political, economic, and cultural history of the African American experience within the context of U.S. history from Early African History to the end of the Civil War. (May not receive credit if ES 62 has been completed successfully.) (May not receive credit if HIS 20, ES 20, or ES 62 has been completed successfully.)
Discipline:
African American Studies*, or History*