Black Environmentalism before Emancipation

Undergraduate / Graduate

What is "environmentalism," and to whom? In 1610, European genocide of indigenous peoples in the so-called "New World" caused "The Orbis Spike:" a dip in global atmospheric CO2 levels captured in arctic ice. Since then, earth's geology and climate have continued to be shaped by European-led genocide and the invention of plantation slavery in the Americas. It might seem odd, then, to turn to the pre-emancipation period for representations of "Black Environmentalism" -what is environmentalism to the enslaved? This course answers that question by introducing students to the work of writers and artists who articulate Black relationships to land, environment, and ecology from the late 18th century to the dawn of the American civil war. Navigating the pre-emancipation and pre-abolition periods in the U.S and Britain will allow us to consider what we can learn from these mostly enslaved authors and thinkers about navigating environmental devastation in the contemporary era. We will read the primary works of Phillis Wheatley, Mary Prince, Olaudah Equiano, and J.P Ball among others while thinking alongside such scholars as Christina Sharpe, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and Miles Parks Grier.