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Fall 2005 Seminar

"The Problem of Slavery and Visions of Freedom in Western Culture"

Dates: August 29 - December 9, 2005

Faculty

Description of the seminar

The experience of slavery and ideas of freedom have intersected throughout Western civilization, shaping its history and its literature. Student fellows in this seminar will use that intersection as a starting point for their own research in a wide variety of topics.

Human bondage played a central role in many of the most significant developments in the last thousand years of world history; slave labor provided the manpower that created the New World, accelerated state formation in Europe and Africa, laid the foundations for capitalism, and continues literally and metaphorically today. These “positive” developments were often offset by warfare, depopulation, colonization, and the spread of disease.

Within slaveholding societies, the institution of slavery shaped class and gender relations, and slavery became a medium through which race and ethnicity were defined and contested. Slavery also defined freedom, both by negative comparison and example and by creating the wealth and social stability that made it possible to extend political participation and the rights of citizenship to segments of the population that would otherwise have been denied them. During the Revolutionary War era in America, patriots often used slavery as a metaphor for describing their treatment by the British; these men had the experiences of actual slaves before them, which made them more sensitive to encroachments on their liberty. This type of ideological and political tug-of-war between slavery and freedom occurred everywhere that slavery existed.

Above, right: “The Slave’s Friend.” Courtesy of the Newberry Library.

Below,left: “Capitao do Matto” from Rugendas, Voyage Pittoresque Dans le Bresil. Courtesy of the Newberry Library.

In seminar reading and discussion, student fellows will explore the lives of slaves, masters and the societies in which they lived from antiquity to the present, focusing particularly on the Roman world and colonial and antebellum America (including the Native American experience), but also considering other periods and regions, including Greece, Africa, medieval Europe and the Caribbean. Slavery will be considered in both literary and historical context. Readings will include ancient literature, slave narratives, newspapers, photographs, plays and novels.

The heart of the seminar, however, is individual research on topics chosen by the student fellows. The ubiquity and tremendous impact of slavery on the human experience provide students with a virtually limitless range of topics for research, in fields including history, literature, music, law, politics, philosophy and religion.

The Newberry’s rich collections provide fertile ground for a variety of research interests. For example, the Ayer Collection on American Indians is a wonderful resource for the study of New World contacts between Native Americans and Europeans, and the Greenlee Collection in Brazilian and Portuguese history provides material for the historical analysis of the beginnings of slavery in the hemisphere. The Newberry’s large European collections could support research on Renaissance and Early Modern debates over slavery in Europe. The Library’s approximately 2,000 travel accounts provide a unique window onto Africa and the impact of slavery on the continent.

For students interested in literary representations of slavery, the Newberry’s extensive holdings in anti-slavery literature, Indian captivity narratives, Revolutionary-era poetry, sermons and Works Progress Administration slave narratives are perfect. For religious perspectives on slavery, the Library’s archives contain manuscript materials relating to the early Christian missions in North and South America, sermons, political tracts, church records and institutional histories.

This is just a sampling of the Library’s collections -- the range of topics is limited only by the students’ imaginations.