ENGL 5040 Seminar: Abolitionist Boston
This course explores Boston as a nerve center of the abolitionist movement. Together, well read the powerful writings of William and Ellen Craft, Frederick Douglass, William Cooper Nell, and materials from the library of Robert and Catherine Morris, tracing the ideas and networks that made the city a refuge and a battleground. With figures like Harriet Tubman and John Brown moving through its streets, Boston became a site of defiance against federal laws protecting slavery. Students will study these texts and walk in their authors' footsteps, examining how local legal structures enabled fugitives from slavery to find allies--and how the city mobilized to resist injustice. Fulfills Seminar and (pre-1900 or Race, Blackness, and Language)
Course overview
- Department
- English
- School
- MCAS
- Credits
- 3
- Level
- Undergraduate
Requirements fulfilled
- English: Earlier literatures in English: eighteenth- or nineteenth-century literature, 1700-1900 (one course, 3 credits) (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
- English: Earlier literatures in English: medieval or early-modern literature, before 1700 (one course, 3 credits) (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
- English: Major electives (five courses, 15 credits) from department offerings (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
- English: Race, Blackness, and Language requirement (one course) (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)
- English: Seminar (one course): a departmental seminar, ordinarily a grad/undergrad seminar numbered ENGL5000-6999; creative writing workshops do not count (Current University Catalog; students should confirm their catalog year)