Freshman Seminar: The Atlantic Slave Trade

3 units

This course is an examination of the Atlantic slave trade (1445-1870), arguably the world's first sustained globalization process. It involved the dispersal of approximately 12 million enslaved Africans to the western hemisphere and Europe, thereby linking the historical destinies of Africa, Europe and the Americas. This course will not only detail the horrors of the Middle Passage but also demonstrate how the African presence transformed the Americas and became a central factor in our modern conceptions of race.