Searching for the African American Experience

US History – African Americans in the Early Republic, 1800-48

In this course, Professor Julie Winch (University of Massachusetts, Boston) explains the continuities and changes in the experience of African Americans from 1800 to 1848. In the first two modules, we look at the methods we use to search for the African American experience and also at the sources we have available to do this. After this, we have a look at what life looked like for African Americans in 1800. From there, we juxtapose the stories of two men - Gabriel Prosser and James Forten - to show the variety of experience different African Americans had in the Early Republic. The next three module, sees us take a chronological look at the experiences of African Americans from: (i) 1800-15; (ii) 1815-30; and (iii) 1830-48.

Searching for the African American Experience

In this module, we take a look at the methods of searching for the African American experience in early America. We will explore the following areas: (i) the variety of the African American experience; and (ii) popular perceptions of the African American experience and how true these are.