Postgraduate Course: The Demise of the Slave-Holding American South, 1846-1877 (PGHC11283)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | 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. |
| Course description |
Not entered
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
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.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof David Silkenat
Tel: (0131 6)50 4614
Email: David.Silkenat@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: Lindsay.Scott@ed.ac.uk |
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