Slavery and Abolition --Spring 2018

Questions Set B

Tuesday, Mar 6: American Revolution

1. What ideological tools did the Revolution supply for antislavery arguments?

*2. How and why did slavery become more entrenched after the Revolution?

3. Who was Lord Dunmore, and what did he do during the Revolution?

4. What affect did the Revolution have on the history of abolition?

*5. How did the Pennsylvania Assembly address the issue of race? [Peabody]

Thursday, Mar 8: French Revolution

6. Why was the Haitian Revolution important to blacks and whites outside Haiti?

*7 Where and why did slavery actually expand after the Haitian Revolution, and yet also contribute to movement to end slave trade?

8. When and why did the French government emancipate the slaves in their colonies?

*9. [using the linked document]: What is the careful legal line that the Assembly is drawing between freedom and slavery in their decrees of 1791, and why did they make this decision?

Tuesday, Mar 13: Haitian Uprising

10. What weaknesses and problems beset the slave revolt of in the north in 1791?

11. How did the goals of the slave revolt leaders and their followers conflict?

12. What circumstances led Sonthonax to emancipate the slaves in 1793?

*13. [Peabody] What did the slaves gain, and not gain under Sonthonax's decree?

*14. What qualities made Toussaint Louverture an effective revolutionary leader?

15. What were the primary barriers to the emergence of a stable post-slavery society in the late 1790s?

Thursday, Mar 15: Haitian Revolution

16. Why does Popkin say that Toussaint Louverture was more feared than loved by black Haitians?

*17. What are some of the unique features of Toussaint�s 1801 constitution in comparison with other revolutionary constitutions?

18. How was Dessalines different from Louverture?

*19. What are the top three reasons Napoleon failed to re-impose French power in Saint-Domingue?

20. How did Dessalines�s new regime stand in comparison with Toussaint�s and other revolutionary regimes elsewhere?

Tuesday, Mar 20: Consequences of Revolution

*21. Compare the strengths and weaknesses of Christophe and P�tion�s regimes.

22. Why did Boyer agree in 1825 to indemnity payments to France?

*23. What accounts for Haitian poverty today?

24. [Davis] Describe two examples of slave rebels and reformers taking inspiration from the Haitian Revolution.

25. [Both authors] To what extent did the ideals and example of the Haitian Revolution affect the history of Atlantic slavery?

Thursday, Mar 22: American South

26. How does Frederick Douglass�s story reflect Davis�s theme of bestialization at the core of slavery?

27. Who was William Ellison?

*28. Describe the essentials of Southern pro-slavery ideology as expressed by James Henry Hammond and George Fitzhugh.

29. How does Davis describe the basic motives of slaves in facing their lives of servitude?

*30 What was �Celia�s trial,� and what does it reveal about the experience of slavery in the South?

Tuesday, Mar 27: Abolitionism in Britain

31. Why was Britain, at first glance, an unlikely country to lead the abolitionist cause in late 18^th century?

32. How did the wars with France at first hinder and then help advance the cause of abolitionism in Britain?

*33. Summarize two main effects of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833.

*34. What are Eric Williams�s two main arguments about the relation of capitalism and slavery?

35. Davis favors Eltis�s explanation of British abolitionism. How does Eltis�s thesis differ from that of Drescher?

36 [in class on Somerset Case] How does Hargrave argue that slavery opposes nature and natural justice?

37. How does Lord Mansfield respond to the argument that there are no laws against slavery in England?