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HI305S: SLAVERY AND EMPIRE IN THE BRITISH WORLD (2021-2022)

Last modified: 31 May 2022 13:05


Course Overview

From the late sixteenth century until the early nineteenth century, Britain was the most prolific slave-trader in the Atlantic World. British colonies in the Americas were among the most brutal slave societies in world history. And yet, Britain was also the first major European state voluntarily to abolish its slave trade, and the first to resolve to emancipate its slaves. This course explores this tension between an empire of slavery and an empire of freedom.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 3
Session First Sub Session Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Richard Anderson

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Either Programme Level 3 or Programme Level 4
  • Any Undergraduate Programme (Studied)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

  • HI355S Slavery and Empire in the British World (Studied)

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

Using primary and secondary sources, this course explores the interconnected histories of slavery, empire, and capitalism in the history of Britain and the British Atlantic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the course you will participate in active historical debates about the legacies of capitalism, slavery and the slave trade in Britain and the Atlantic. The first half of the course asks how and why slave labour became fundamental to the territorial and economic expansion of the British empire. The second half of the course asks why Britain – if slavery had been so fundamental to the British empire – abolished its slave trade in 1807, and abolished slavery in its colonies in 1833. We will place particular emphasis on the role of Scottish participation in both Atlantic slavery and British abolitionism.

Assessment will be a primary source analysis, essay proposal, and essay.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 31 August 2023 for 1st half-session courses and 22 December 2023 for 2nd half-session courses.

Summative Assessments

Project Plan, Summary or Abstract, Annotated Bibliography

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 15
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

Feedback will be in the form of email notification of marks with comments; general remarks on class and on MyAberdeen; and via one, individual face-to-face meeting with each student with feedback on the essay (and more generally). 

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualEvaluateBe able to analyse primary source texts, situating them in terms of context, genre and argument.
FactualAnalyseUnderstand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas.

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 30
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback

Feedback will be in the form of email notification of marks with comments; general remarks on class and on MyAberdeen; and via one, individual face-to-face meeting with each student with feedback on the essay (and more generally). 

Word Count 1200
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualEvaluateBe able to analyse primary source texts, situating them in terms of context, genre and argument.
FactualAnalyseUnderstand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas.

Tutorial/Seminar Participation

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 10
Assessment Weeks 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

Feedback will be in the form of email notification of marks with comments; general remarks on class and on MyAberdeen. 

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualEvaluateEvaluate key debates in the historiography on British abolitionism.
FactualAnalyseUnderstand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas.
ReflectionEvaluate Evaluate the legal, economic and social legacies of British slave ownership in Britain and the Caribbean.

Essay

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 45
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

Look up Week Numbers

Feedback

Feedback will be in the form of email notification of marks with comments; general remarks on class and on MyAberdeen; and via one, individual face-to-face meeting with each student with feedback on the essay (and more generally). 

Word Count 3000
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualEvaluateEvaluate key debates in the historiography on British abolitionism.
ConceptualEvaluateBe able to analyse primary source texts, situating them in terms of context, genre and argument.
FactualAnalyseUnderstand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas.
ReflectionEvaluate Evaluate the legal, economic and social legacies of British slave ownership in Britain and the Caribbean.

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ReflectionEvaluate Evaluate the legal, economic and social legacies of British slave ownership in Britain and the Caribbean.
FactualAnalyseUnderstand the historical development of the British slave trade and the plantation economy of the British Americas.
ConceptualEvaluateBe able to analyse primary source texts, situating them in terms of context, genre and argument.
ConceptualEvaluateEvaluate key debates in the historiography on British abolitionism.

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