MODULE SPECIFICATION
Code: UPHPKY-30-3 Title: Britain, the Atlantic Slave Trade and its Legacy Version: 4
Level: 3 UWE credit rating: 30 ECTS credit rating: 15
Module type: Standard
Owning Faculty: Social Sciences and Humanities Field: History
Faculty Committee approval: QSC, Chair’s Action Date: 16th July 2009
Approved for Delivery by:
(indicate name of affiliated institution if module will only be delivered by them)
Valid from: September 2009 Discontinued from:
Contributes towards: Awards up to BA(Hons)
Pre-requisites: UHH074C2 - The Theory and Practice of History
Co-requisites: UHH090C3 - Dissertation in History
Entry requirements:
(if the module is offered as CPD or stand alone, indicate the entry requirements)
Excluded combinations: None
Learning outcomes:
On successful completion of this module students should be able to demonstrate:
• knowledge of the political and economic factors, which precipitated, sustained and ultimately undermined British involvement in the Atlantic slave trade;
• the ability to relate the social and cultural aspects of the history of slavery and abolition to their specific economic and political contexts;
• the ability to identify and analyse a wide range of relevant primary sources critically, particularly to identify their ideological interest;
• competency in locating, reading and digesting a full range of secondary sources, including those in academic journals;
• a familiarity with the historiographical debates and controversies surrounding the subject of Britain’s involvement in slavery and abolition in this period;
• the ability to discern with confidence the different approaches and evidence bases employed by historians;
• an understanding of some of the issues considered, especially with regard to trade monopolies; chattel slavery; indentured labour; ethnocentrism and the impact of the evangelical, dissenting and enlightenment traditions on ideas of race;
• a range of key transferable study skills.
All of the above are assessed through all components and elements of assessment.
Syllabus outline:
• Slavery, free labour and history.
• The establishment of the Atlantic economy: British colonialism and mercantilism.
• The business of slavery.
• Relations with Africans in the early modern era.
• The establishment of slave regimes in the British Caribbean and North America.
• Slave resistance.
• Gentility and servility: the status of Blacks in Britain and the Caribbean.
• Winds of change: the secular and religious roots of abolition.
• Emancipation and its opponents.
Teaching and learning methods:
The module will be delivered through a series of seminars and lectures. Also through looking at various videos and websites.
Indicative Reading List:
Beckles, Hy McD. White Servitude and Black Slavery in Barbados, (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1989)
Blackburn, R The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern 1492-1800 (Verso, 1997)
Canny, N (ed.) The Origins of Empire (Oxford History of the British Empire), (Oxford University Press, 1998).
Davis, D B, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture,(Oxford University Press, 1966)
Drescher, S, Capitalism and Antislavery : British Mobilization I Copmparative Perspective, , (Macmillan, 1986)
Dunn, R S., Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter class in the the English West Indies 1624-1713, (Jonathan Cape, London, 1972).
Eltis, D, ‘The British Contribution to the Transatlantic Slave Trade,,’ Economic History Review, vol. 32, (1979), pp. 211-227.
Equiano, O, The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings, V. Carretta, (ed)., (Penguin,1995).
Fulford, T and Kitson, P Romanticism and Colonialism: writing and empire, 1780-1830, (Cambridge
(eds.), Universtiy Press, 1998)
Marshall, P.J. , The Eighteenth Century: vol. 2 of The Oxford History of the British Empire,(Oxford University Press, 1998)
Midgley, C, Women Against Slavery: the British Campaigns 1780-1870, (Routledge, 1992)
Solow, B L. and British capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: The Legacy of Eric Williams,
Engerman, S,(eds), (Cambridge University Press, 1987).
Thomas, Hugh, The Slave Trade: the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440-1870, (Macmillan, 1997)
Walvin, J, Black Ivory: a History of British Slavery (Fontana, 1992).
Assessment
Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only) A: 50% B: 50%
ATTEMPT 1
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Exam (3 hours) 50%
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Essay (2500 words) 25%
2. Seminar Presentation + paper (500 words) 15%
3. Book Review (1000 words) 10%
Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes is not required)
Component A
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Exam (3 hours) 50%
Component B
Description of each element Element weighting
1. Essay (2500 words) 30%
2. Book review (1000 words) 10%
3. Book review (1000 words) 10%
SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT: Attendance at taught classes is required.
Specification confirmed by …………………………………………………Date ……………………………
(Associate Dean/Programme Director)