OLLI0058 - The Atlantic Slave Trade and Its Legacy in the U.S.

Course Description

In the 1722 Battle of Cape Lopez off the coast of West Africa, a pirate fleet and the British navy faced off in a bloody battle that would decide the fate of the Atlantic Slave trade. Though the battle happened a full fifty-four years before the United States claimed its statehood in the Declaration of Independence, it shaped the type of nation the U.S. would become. The battle ended an era of competition with the Spanish, Dutch, and French, and ushered in British supremacy in the slave trade to America. As a result, the U.S. adopted the British system of chattel slavery, and became a true slave society: a society upon which all politics, religion, economy, labor, and social identities depended on the enslavement of Africans and their descendants. This courted generations of social ills that continue to ravage the nation and fuel our political and personal debates. This course will examine in detail a fascinating, swashbuckling story of Caribbean pirates, African princes and mercenaries, European slave traders, and the British navy, and places it into a uniquely American context. We'll end the class with an examination of the ramifications of this caustic legacy for all Americans. Video