Black Connecticut Revolutionaries: Making Freedom in Revolutionary-Era New England
AFAM 317
Fall 2025
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01
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What did the American Revolution mean to people of African descent, in Connecticut and throughout North America? More than you might think. Enslaved people seized upon the war to strike for freedom, some fighting with the colonists and others siding with the British in hopes of emancipation. Here in Connecticut, where several thousand people of African descent remained enslaved at the revolution's outbreak in 1775, hundreds fought for freedom by joining the Continental Army, escaping, or purchasing their freedom. In the aftermath, they forged New England's first free Black churches, antislavery movements, and communities, including the Beman Triangle here in Middletown. In this course, you will read a range of primary and secondary sources by and about Connecticut's earliest enslaved and free Black communities. As the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution this year, we will reflect on the meanings of freedom in a nation built on slavery, and the role of Black Americans as freedom and democracy's champions since the nation's founding. For your final project, you will use local archival and secondary sources to reconstruct and share the life stories of early enslaved and free Black Middletown residents, drawing on sources at the Middlesex County Historical Society, Wesleyan University's Special Collections & Archives, and digitized documents. The ability to read 18th-century handwriting is helpful but not required, but an interest in "doing history" through archival exploration and discovery is important. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AFAM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (African American Studies Minor)(African American Studies) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Major readings:
Adams, Catherine and Elizabeth H. Pleck, Love of Freedom: Black Women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England
May, Cedrick, ed., The Collected Works of Jupiter Hammon
Clark-Pujara, Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
Gates, Henry Louis, The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America¿s First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers
The Freedom Business, Including A Narrative of the Life & Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa. Poems by Marilyn Nelson. Art by Deborah Dancy.
Additional readings will be available electronically on Moodle
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Examinations and Assignments:
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Short reflection essays, midterm paper, and a primary source based final research project
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Nasta,Jesse Times: .M.W... 02:50PM-04:10PM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 12 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 12 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 0 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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