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(Re)Connecting the Black Atlantic: Comparing Afro-Brazilian and African-American History until the 19th Century

Instructor: Luciana da Cruz Brito

Course Description:

This course explores , abolition, and freedom in Brazil and the United States from the 16th to the 19th century. While approximately 400,000 Africans were transported to North America during this time, more than 4 million were brought to Brazil, the largest Latin American country. From such numbers, in both countries, in the United States somewhat organically through reproduction and in Brazil through importation, emerged the foundation of massive slave societies. Slavery in the U.S. relied on a highly racialized society, one that formally institutionalized a racial code; was less formalized, but no less racial. Such differences had important implications for the eradication of slavery in the two countries. Brazilian and American leaders at first strove for a compensated emancipatory process; however, slave owners, the military, and the slaves themselves all played vital roles in emancipation. The African populations in both societies bore a deep social and cultural influence in the region that is broadly conceived of as the Black Atlantic. This course uses the academic work of Brazilians, Americans and scholars of other nationalities who have produced an extensive bibliography about slavery and abolition in both countries, as well as the experiences of other black Atlantic societies.

Assignments:

1- For each class, all students must submit a 1-2 page paper comparing the readings of the week. 25% 2- In each week, one student must assume the role of facilitator by providing questions and initiating/conducting the discussion. 25% 3- Visual Media Paper: Movies, music, photography, and art produced in the black Diaspora, specifically by Afro-Brazilians and African-American artists should be the theme of a two- page paper. Materials are available online and in the digital collections of Trinity Library. 10% (deadline: March, 25th) 4- Final Paper: A paper of 10-15 pages in length covering one of the topics discussed during the course. Related topics may be considered. 40% (deadline: May, 11th)

COURSE POLICIES

Laptop and cell phones: Before each class begins, please turn off your computer and cell phone. There should be no computer use during class time unless otherwise specified.

Participation: Participation is a fundamental part of the class. Debating and contributing with original ideas is important for intellectual thinking. It is extremely important to read the required texts at least a week ahead of class.

Intellectual integrity: Please check the Trinity College Student Handbook to know more about the college policies about plagiarism and proper citation.

Required Reading

David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (Oxford University Press, 2006). George Reid Andrews, Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000 (Oxford University Press, 2004). Gerald Horne, The Deepest South: The United States, Brazil and the African Slave Trade (NYU Press, 2007). 2

Laird W. Bergard, The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba and the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Thomas C. Holt, Children of Fire: A History of African-Americans (Hill and Wang, 2010).

Week 1- Patterns of the Slave Trade in Brazil and the U.S.:

David Eltis and David Richardson, “A New Assessment of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (chapter 1) in, Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database, 2008, pp. 1-60. (During this class, Eltis and Richardson ‘s maps of slave-trade routes will be analyzed).

Herbert S. Klein, Stanley L. Engerman, Robin Haines and Ralph Shlomowitz. “ Transoceanic Mortality: The Slave Trade in Comparative Perspective ” in, The William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1, New Perspectives on the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Jan., 2001), pp. 93-118 .

Documentary, Blacks in Latin America: The Slave-Trade in Brazil and the U.S. 8min.

Websites: http://abolition.nypl.org/home/ (attention to maps and images) http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/index.faces (see introductory maps) Unesco project: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/dialogue/the-slave- route/transatlantic-slave-trade/

Week 2- Patterns of Slavery in Brazil and the U.S

Laird W. Bergard, “The Diversity of Slavery in the Americas to 1790” (chapter 2) and “Slave Populations”(chapter 4) in, The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba and the United States, 2007, pp. 33-63; 96-131.

Philip D. Morgan, "The Cultural Implications of the : African Regional Origins, American Destinations and New World Developments" in, Slavery & Abolition, 18 (April 1997), pp. 122-145.

Photo Exhibit on Brazilian slavery: http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/11/12/244563532/photos-reveal-harsh-detail-of-brazils- history-with-slavery Deborah Willis: Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery (photo book) / http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/31/us/gallery/emancipation/index.html http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Slaveryand

Week 3- Building Diaspora: Afro Brazilians and African-Americans in the Black Atlantic

Thomas C. Holt, “Slavery and Freedom in the Atlantic World: Reflections on the Diaspora Framework” in, Crossing Boundaries: Comparative History of Black People in Diaspora, 1999, pp. 33-44.

João José Reis, “African Nations and Cultural Practices in 19th Century Salvador, Bahia. (Paper) Yale University: American Counterpoint: New Approaches to Slavery and Abolition in Brazil (Seminar) 2010, pp. 1-24. http://www.yale.edu/glc/brazil/papers/reis-paper.pdf

Peter Wood, “Gullah Speech: The Roots of Black English” in, Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina From 1670 Through the Stono Rebellion, 1996. Chapter VI, pp. 167-191.

Movie: The …Episode: Creative Resistance: Culture in Black Atlantic.

Week 4- African Reminiscences, American creations and Religiosity in the Americas

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Sidney Mintz and Richard Price, “The beginnings of African-American Culture” in, James Wood (ed.) Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and interpretations. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 4 edition (November 7, 2013), pp. 23-26. Lisa Earl Castillo and Luis Nicolau Parés, “Marcelina da Silva: A Nineteenth Century Candomblé Priestess in Bahia” in: Slavery and Abolition, vol. 31, n.1, March 2010, pp. 1-27.

Michael Gomez, “Turning Down to Pot: Christianity and the African-Based Community” (Chapter 9) in, Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South, 1998, pp. 244-290.

Movie: 12 years a Slave: Funeral Scene (Roll Jordan Roll)

Movie 2: Orixas- Interview with Pierre Verger (part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szvx3XpeFp0

Week 5- Family and Social Life: Striving to Keep the Ties

Deborah Gray White, “Men, women, and families” in, Aren’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, 1999, pp.142-160.

Robert Slenes, “Black homes, white homilies: perceptions of the slave family and of slave women in 19th Century Brazil” in, David Barry Gaspar and Darlene Clark Hine (eds.) More than chattel: Black women and slavery in the Americas, 1996, pp. 126-146.

Wilma King, “Suffer with them till death: slave women and their children in 19th Century America” in, David Barry Gaspar and Darlene Clark Hine (eds.) More than chattel: Black women and slavery in the Americas, 1996, pp. 147-168.

Maria Helena P. T. Machado, “Between Two Beneditos: Slave Wet-Nurses Amid Slavery Decline”, 2013, pp. 1-22. (available online).

Movie: Beloved (the killing of babies scene)

Week 6- Black Women and Resistance to Patriarchy and Slavery

Sandra L. Graham, “Caetana Says No: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society (New Approaches to the Americas), 2002, (The First Story) pp. 1-72.

Deborah Gray White, “From slavery to freedom” (chapter 6) in, Aren’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, 1999, pp. 161-190.

Movie: Quanto Vale ou é por quilo? 2005 (Is it Worthy?) The fugitive slave scene (1.09.43 to 1.12.48 sec) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUhyGhynIRk

Week 7- Revolts and Resistance

João José Reis, “ in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising in Bahia” in, Laurent Dubois; Julius S. Scott. (Ed.) Origins of the Black Atlantic, 2010, pp. 214-235.

David Brion Davis, “Some Nineteenth- Century Slave Conspiracies and Revolts” in, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World, 2006, pp. 205-230.

Walter C. Rucker, “ I was ordained for some great purpose” in, The river flows on: Black Resistance, Culture, and Identity Formation in Early America, LSU: 2008, pp. 180-198.

Week 8- Degrees of Color, Miscegenation and Slavery

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Hebe Matos, “Black Troops and Hierarchies of Color in the Portuguese Atlantic World: The Case of Henrique Dias and His Black Regiment” in, Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol.45, n.01, 2008, pp. 6-29.

Gary B. Nash, “The Hidden History of Mestizo America” (chapter 1) and Josephine B. Bradley and Kent A. Leslie “White Pain Pollen: An Elite Biracial Daughter’s Quandary “(chapter 10) in, Sex, Love and Race: Crossing Boundaries in the North American History, Martha Hodes (Ed.) 1999, pp. 10-32; 213- 234.

Movie: Who is Black in America? by Soledad O’brien Website: 1drop.com (The one drop project) Black and Latino (short documentary)

Week 9- Free Black people in Slave Societies

João José Reis, “From Slavery to Wealthy African : The Story of Manoel Joaquim Ricardo” in, Lisa A. Lindsay and John W. Sweet, Biography and the Black Atlantic, 2014, pp. 131-148.

Michael P Johnson and James L. Roark, “April’s Story”(chapter I) and “Freedom Bound” (chapter 2) in, Black Masters: A free Family of Color in the Old South, 1984, pp. 1-64.

Movie, “Quanto Vale ou é por Quilo?”(Is It Worthy?) Scene: Maria Antônia buys Lucrécia’s Freedom, 0.19,20 min -0.26.55 min http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUhyGhynIRk

Week 10- and Black Protagonists

Eduardo Silva, “Black Abolitionists in the Quilombo of Leblon, Rio de Janeiro: Symbols, Organizers, and Revolutionaries” in, Beyond Slavery: The Multilayered Legacy of Africans in Latin America and the Caribbean, Darién J. Davis (Ed.), 2007, pp. 109-122.

David Brion Davis, “Abolitionism in America” in, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World, 2006, pp. 250-267.

Mia Bay, “The Redeemer Race and the Angry-Saxon”(chapter 2) in, The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925, 2000, pp.38-74.

Newspapers “Negro History Personalities: Brazilian Abolitionist” in Chicago Daily Defender. December 09, 1964. Frederick Douglass “Citizenship and the Spirit of Caste”, May 1858. In, John W. Blassingame. The Frederick Douglass Papers, series one, vol. 03. pp. 208-212.

Documentary: The Abolitionists – Frederick Douglass, part 2, chapter 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMd5G4RpFLk

Week 11- Abolition in Brazil and the U.S

Seymour Drescher, “Brazilian Abolition in a Comparative Perspective” in, The Abolition of Slavery and the Aftermath of Emancipation in Brazil (Rebecca Scott, George R. Andrews, Seymour Drescher et. al. Ed.), 1988, pp. 23-54.

Gerald Horne, “Deport U. S. Negroes to Brazil?” (chapter 9) and “confederates to Brazil” (chapter 10) in, The Deepest South: The United States, Brazil and the African Slave Trade, 2007, pp. 172-221.

Week 12- Race in post-Emancipation Societies

George Reid Andrews, “A Transfusion of New Blood, Whitening 1880-1930” (chapter 4) and “Browning and Blackening” (chapter 5) in, Afro-Latin America 1800-2000, 2004, pp. 117-151; 153-190. 5

Thomas Holt, “A New Birth of Freedom”(chapter 4) and “Ragtime”(chapter 5) in, Children of Fire: A History of African-Americans, 2010, pp. 133-183; 185-236.

“No race Distinctions There: In Brazil Negroes May Waltz with Pink-cheeked Beauties” in, Chicago Daily Defender, July 30, 1892.

Movies: Blacks in Latin America, episode: Brazil Other Sources: The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, episode: Racist Images in Jim Crow Era What is the difference between “preto”, “pardo” and “negro”? http://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2013/05/18/while-all-three-refer-to-persons-of-african-descent-what- is-the-difference-between-the-terms-preto-pardo-and-negro/

Week 13- From “Pó de arroz” (Rice Powder) to Black Giants: Race and Sports in Brazil and U.S.

José Sérgio Leite Lopes, “Class, Ethnicity, and Color in the Making Of Brazilian Football” in, Daedalus, vol.129, n. 02, Brazil: The Burden of the Past…2000, pp. 239-270.

John Hoberman, “The African-American Sports Fixation”(chapter 1) and “The New Multiracial World Order” (chapter 8) in, Darwin’s Athletes: How Sport Has Damaged Black America and reserved the Myth of Race, 1997, pp. 3-27; 115-133.

Other Sources: Race and Sports in Brazilian Media

Neymar Says “I’m not black”. http://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2013/02/21/neymars-blond-ambition- and-the-question-of--identity-and-marketability-of-black-public-figures/ http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/bananagate-brazilian-neymar-says-he-was-racially-abused-by- scotland-fans/

World Cup and Racial composition of Stadiums http://blackwomenofbrazil.co/2013/07/07/apartheid-looms-in-brazils-soccer-stadiums-as-critics- make-note-of-the-whiteness-of-fans-in-stadiums/

Week 14- Memories and struggles in the Black Atlantic

Paul Gilroy, “The Black Atlantic as a counterculture of Modernity” (Chapter 1) in, The Black Atlantic, 1993, pp. 1-40.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, part II, in, Between the world and me. Spiegel & Grau: New York, 2015. Pp. 72-132

Keisha Khan-Perry, “Violent policing and the disposing urban Landscapes” and “Picking up the pieces: everyday violence and community”, in Black women against the land grab: the fight for racial justice in Brazil. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013. pp. 87-138

Other Sources

Sujatha Fernandes and Jason Stanyek, “Hip Hop and Black Public Spheres in Cuba, Venezuela, and Brazil” in, Beyond Slavery: The Multilayered Legacy of Africans in Latin America and the Caribbean, Darién J. Davis (Ed.), 2007,pp. 223-248.

Marc D. Perry, “Hip Hop’s Diasporics Landcapes of Blackness” in, From Toussaint to Tupac: The Black International since the Age of Revolution (West; Martin and Wilkins - Eds.) 2009, pp. 233-258.