Freedom and Unfreedom in the Premodern World, 500Bce-1000Ce (Part 1)
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What did it mean to be free in the premodern world? What did it mean to be a serf or enslaved? How was freedom and unfreedom experienced differently based on gender, geography, religion and space? This two-semester course will explore the social history of slavery, freedom, and ‘unfreedom,’ that is, constraints placed on individuals and groups and the structuring role of such constraints. We will consider together an array of source materials spanning law codes, personal narratives, manumission cases, chronicles, histories, and hagiography, but also including a close examination of non-written sources. How did practices of slavery and unfreedom during the Greek and Roman periods come to shape an understanding of those categories in Europe and the Islamic world by ca. 1000CE? What role did trade and the movement of people play in this transition? Are slavery and empire intimately connected? An emphasis is also given to how scholars have written about slavery, manumission, and freedom in the past and how power, difference, and ideals of freedom have been theorized over time. This seminar meets once a week. Students should be prepared to discuss course materials and will be asked to keep a reading journal as well as notes from class discussion. This is the first of a two-semester sequence. Part I: the Ancient and Medieval Period (ca. 500BCE-1000CE); Part II (to be taught in the spring of 2026): the Medieval and Early Modern World (ca. 1000-1500CE)
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