FYS 11 Emancipation: Black Freedom in the Making
Building on traditions of resistance established under chattel slavery, freedpeople struggled to make freedom a reality along many dimensions, including bodily sovereignty, land, labor, intimate relations, family integrity, education, legal rights, and citizenship. In this class, we will immerse ourselves in primary historical documents—including letters, military reports, petitions, and newspapers—seeking to understand how African Americans pursued their visions of freedom from wartime through Reconstruction. Open only to first-year frosh.