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The Atlantic World, 1492-1860
Prof. Aaron Fogleman
Northern Illinois University
Spring 2003
The “Atlantic World” was the world made by contacts between Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans. In this “readings” course we will explore the nature of the encounters between men and women in these three groups during the era that began with Columbus, who initiated the first permanent contact between Europeans (and through them Africans) and native peoples of the Americas. The era ends with independence of American colony-states and the end of the slave trade in the late 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. With these events the relationships among Europe, Africa, and the Americas changed fundamentally and permanently. Moreover, new global trade patterns, technological developments, and ultimately industrialization gave rise to different kinds of relationships and geographical, economic, demographic, political, and cultural configurations. For the most part we will not study the Atlantic world in its various geographic segments (i.e. Europe, Africa, North America, Latin America), but rather important themes in that world in a comparative and/or integrated way. This should help us better understand how certain critical historical developments occurred throughout this important region – developments that shaped the modern world to this very day. Thus the premise of the course is that we can better understand the encounters, exchanges, and clashes between North Americans, Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans in, for example, colonial North America if we study them in their Atlantic context. Additionally, this course will be designed to provide Africanists, North Americanists, Europeanists, and Latin Americanists with a broader context for understanding their respective regions, and it will help them conceptualize the relatively new notion of the “Atlantic World” in history.Required General Readings
Ramon A. Gutierrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846
Herbert Klein, The Atlantic Slave Trade
David Eltis, The Rise of Slavery in the Americas
Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World: Regulating Desire, Reforming Practice
Marcus Rediker and Peter Linebaugh, The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic
Nicholas Canny and Anthony Pagden (eds.), Colonial Identity in the Atlantic World, 1500-1800
Students will also be responsible for the following short readings, as well as readings on topics they select:David Armitage, “Three Concepts of Atlantic History,” in David Armitage and Michael J. Braddick (eds.), The British Atlantic World
Readings from Columbus’ diary and letters
David Northrup, Africans Discover Europe, 1650-1850, final chapter
W.J. Eccles, “The Fur Trade and Eighteenth-Century Imperialism,” William and Mary Quarterly (July 1983)
Aaron Fogleman, “Jesus Is Female: The Moravian Challenge in the German Communities of British North America,” William and Mary Quarterly (April 2003)
Aaron Fogleman, “A Transatlantic Tale of Marriage, Madness and Woe”
Grading:Class participation (40%) – your active participation in weekly discussions of readings, presentations, and critiques of the presentations by other students, as well as some short written assignments and discussion of them in class.
Final paper (60%) – Each of you will read a few of the major secondary works on a topic we have discussed in the course (subject to my approval) and submit a ca. 20 page paper on your topic no later than Friday, May 2 at 3:00pm. The paper should be typed (double-spaced) with footnotes and bibliography, and it should include the following:
- a theoretical discussion on the concept of the “Atlantic world”
- a critical discussion of a place and/or topic and the most important literature about it, i.e. the
major issues and arguments as they appear in the most important secondary works
- an assessment of what an “Atlantic World” perspective can or cannot reveal about your
place/topic, i.e. how it might add to our historical knowledge about it
- your opinion on an important issue(s) concerning your place/topic using the Atlantic
world perspective
Tentative Course Schedule:January 14 - Introduction - What is the Atlantic World and Why Should We Study It?
January 21 - Migrations, Encounters, Adaptations, IdentityAll read in Columbus’ diary or letters and bring in another “first contact” document. Also read in Canny/Pagden essays, numbers 2-7. Discuss the “Columbus Challenge.”
January 28 - Library Resources & The Atlantic Perspective on an Issue: Religion and SexualityUse of library resources with reference librarian Jim Milhorn. Meet in Founders, Room 294.
All read Wiesner-Hanks.
February 4 - The Atlantic World as a Theoretical ApproachDiscuss findings to date concerning this on individual topics.
All read essays in Canny and Pagden.
February 11- Africans in EuropeAll read Northrup, “Africans Discover Europe,” and submit bibliographies. Discuss. (Note: You will continue to work on this throughout the semester.) Readings on Africans in Europe to be distributed in class.
February 18 -The Atlantic Slave TradeAll read Herbert Klein.
February 25 - Slavery in the AmericasAll read Eltis.
March 4 - Spirituality, Gender, Culture Clash and ChangeAll read Gutierrez.
March 10-14 -Spring Break (oral reports on personal activities in the Atlantic world due upon return)
March 18 - Revolutionary Ideas and the Atlantic Maritime WorldAll read Rediker and Linebaugh.
March 25 - More Discussion of Theoretical ApproachesAll read Canny/Pagden afterword and bring in a theoretical Atlantic World piece on your topic for discussion.
April 1 - An Atlantic World MicrohistoryAll read Fogleman, “A Transatlantic Tale of Marriage, Madness, and Woe” & “Jesus Is Female”
April 8 - The North American Fur Trade and ImperialismAll read Eccles, “The Fur Trade and Eighteenth-Century Imperialism”
April 15 - PresentationsApril 22 - Presentations
April 29 - Presentations
May 2 - (Friday) Final Papers are due by 3:00pm.
© 2001 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Created November 2002.
