How do we break the “chain of silence” in teaching slavery and the slave trade?

What psychological impact does studying slavery have on children?

How can this impact be influenced by teaching African and African diaspora history?

This volume reflects on what we teach and the way we teach in breaking the silence on the subject of slavery and its consequences.

“The Chattel enslavement of Africans on a global scale, the most extensive crime against humanity perpetrated in modernity, has many enduring legacies. Foremost among these is the persistent challenge of speaking, teaching, and learning about it. The sound of silence is everywhere; most disturbingly, in the classrooms of schools and academies the world over. Once again, we are indebted to Professor Paul Lovejoy, a warrior for reason and advocate for academic engagement in the search for solutions. He has joined forces with Benjamin Bowser and together they have provided us with a text, unique in its understanding and passionate in its pursuit of bringing the latest information and knowledge of how best to place the world of slavery at the fingertips of the teacher, student, and researcher. It's a powerfully enabling tool with which all parties to the exchange of teaching and learning will feel their empowerment. No longer will there be acceptance and tolerance of the mantra that the task is too daunting.”

—Sir Hilary Beckles, Ph.D. Principal and Professor, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados

“The past two decades have witnessed a veritable revolution in our understanding of the nature and function of the slave trade from Africa to the Americas, starting with the most accurate count of the human beings enslaved between 1501 and 1866, collected in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.  And a multi-national, multi-linguistic ‘Black Atlantic’ reconceptualization of African enslavement and displacement has led to the detailed revelation of astonishing connections and cross-currents of both masters and slaves throughout the Atlantic and Caribbean worlds.  This volume tackles the necessary question of how we go about translating this mass of new data to our students. Benjamin Bowser, Paul Lovejoy, the Harriet Tubman Institute, and the UNESCO ‘Slave Route’ Project are to be commended for tackling this important next step, head on, and in such a rich variety of ways.”

—Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director, W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African American Research, Harvard University

“Lovejoy and Bowser have made a major contribution in bringing together a focused collection of essays that incorporate the teaching of African history and the history of slavery.  These are important components of any serious education on human rights, intercultural dialogue, peace and democratic citizenship.  The importance of this education is evidenced daily in our supposedly ‘post-race’ societies where vicious and indirect ways have been found to continue the oppression of people of color.  This book is an important contribution to advancing the struggle against racism.”

—Louis Kushnick, OBE Professor Emeritus, University of Manchester

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Paul E. Lovejoy FRSC is Distinguished Research Professor and Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University.

Benjamin P. Bowser is Professor Emeritus, Department of Sociology and Social Services, California State University East Bay.

CATEGORY

History/AFRICA