Archived Version

The Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study has been formulated as a dynamic online publication in order to provide the most up to date information possible. Master versions of the Degree Regulations and Programmes of Study incorporating all changes to date are archived twice a year on 1 September and within the first three University working days prior to the start of Semester 2 in January. Please note that some of the data recorded about this course has been amended since the last master version was archived. That version should be consulted to determine the changes made.

view archived version

The Demise of the Slave-Holding American South, 1846-1877 (P02687)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 11 ? Acronym : HCA-P-PGResSkil

This course explores the history and historiography of the American South, 1846-1877. During these years the South was transformed by Union victory in the Civil War and the emancipation of four million slaves. A confident and powerful slaveholding regime collapsed and southerners both white and black faced the challenge of rebuilding their society, politics and economy on a post-slavery basis. We will analyse historiographical debates on slavery and slaveholding; historians’ explanations of southern secession and the Confederacy’s defeat; re-evaluations of the roles played by diverse social groups (slaves, women, planters, nonslaveholding whites); changing interpretations of the reconstruction era; and recent scholarly interest in the historical memory of the Civil War-era South.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

Postgraduate (School of History and Classics), (School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Schedule E)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : Postgraduate

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 1 hour(s) 50 minutes per week for 11 weeks

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should have demonstrated in presentations, seminar discussions, and essays:

• an advanced understanding of the major events and historical trends that affected the American South between 1846 and 1877.

• awareness of the major historiographical debates involving the Civil War-era American South and its system of slavery, including the ability to assess historians’ positions in these debates and to formulate original interventions therein.

• the ability to evaluate critically primary sources, secondary sources and the seminar contributions of their colleagues.

• the use of these critical skills to advance clear, well-reasoned and independent arguments in both written and oral forms.

Where relevant, students should also have begun to devise a plan of research for the MSc dissertation that takes into account and critically responds to appropriate historiographical contexts.