COURSE DESCRIPTION

From a trickle in the early 15th century to a flood 400 years later, the transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in human history. In all, more than 12 million African men, women, and children were kidnapped, enslaved and made to board European ships destined for the New World.

This three-part course explores the rise of the transatlantic slave trade—but from an unfamiliar perspective. After a stage-setting first lecture examining the career of the first English slave trader, John Hawkins, and the rise of the Royal African Company in the decades after his death, lectures two and three turn this history upside down, focusing in upon the varieties of resistance to the transatlantic slave trade mounted by Africans in Africa (lecture two) and on the great ocean-going slave ships that served as floating prisons (lecture three).

COURSE CONTENT

Session 1: The Rise of Slave Trading in the British Empire

Beginning with the three voyages of John Hawkins in the 1560s, this lecture tracks the rise of the British Slave Trade. Relying on royal patronage, British traders would ultimately ship more enslaved Africans to the New World than any other European nation before 1807.

Session 2: Fighting the Slave Trade in Africa

This lecture examines varieties of resistance to the Transatlantic Slave Trade within Africa, before any African captives ever boarded the great prison hulks that would carry them across the Atlantic. It argues that local resistance could be pre-emptive, defensive, or offensive, and defines and illustrates each term.

Session 3: Fighting Slavery on the Middle Passage

This lecture explores what it looks like for Africans to fight slavery on the Middle Passage. We go beyond statistics to examine all sorts of acts of resistance, from individual acts like refusing to eat to violent shipboard revolts that pitted slaves against sailors.

LECTURER

Dr Richard Bell is a Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He holds a BA from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from Harvard University. He is the author of the new book Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home which is shortlisted for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize. He has won more than a dozen teaching awards, including the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest honour for teaching faculty in the Maryland state system. He has held major research fellowships at Yale, Cambridge, and the Library of Congress and is the recipient of the National Endowment of the Humanities Public Scholar award. Rick is also a Trustee of the Maryland Historical Society and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. 

COURSE STRUCTURE

3 x 1.5 hour sessions. Each session includes an interactive lecture and time for group discussion.