University of California Davis African History Discussion Questions
- How did European traders and/or American colonists racialize Africans and transform them into human property? To answer this question, you may draw upon material from the lectures on September 30, October 5, and October 7. You must reference three different assigned texts, which can be any combination of readings and primary sources.
- How did people—white and black, enslaved and free—attempt to shape (i.e., expand and/or narrow) the meaning of freedom in the era of the American Revolution? To answer this question, you may draw upon material from the lectures on October 12, 14, and 19. You must reference three different assigned texts, which can be any combination of readings and primary sources. You do not have to address each group mentioned in this prompt. For example, you could focus on how black people attempted to expand the meaning of freedom, how white and black people together attempted to expand the meaning of freedom, contrast the ways that white people attempted to narrow the meaning of freedom with the ways that black people attempted to expand it, etc.
