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2015/16 Undergraduate Module Catalogue
HIST3725 Heathens and Slaves: Evangelicalism, Race and Empire, 1765-1785
20 creditsClass Size: 42
Module manager: Dr Andrea Major
Email: a.major@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2015/16
This module is approved as a discovery module
Module summary
This module explores the impact of evangelicalism on British ideas about race and empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In particular it looks at the emergence of colonial philanthropy, especially abolitionism and the missionary movement, and the impact these had on attitudes both toward the ‘subject races’ of empire and towards Britain’s own role and responsibilities as an imperial power. Focussing on Britain, India and the West Indies, it highlights the ideological and political interaction between these sites, as well as the impact that these debates had on racial thinking, legacies of which can still be seen today.Objectives
The objectives of this module are:1. To explore the relationship between evangelicalism and empire in India and the West Indies the late C18 and C19.
2. To examine the evangelical attitudes to race, religion and the non-white/non-Christian subjects of the empire.
3. To assess the nature, extent and limitations of colonial philanthropy, the so-called ‘civilising mission’, abolitionism and missionary enterprise within the wider discourse of Britain’s imperial responsibilities.
4. To critically analyse a range of primary sources, both written and visual, relating to these issues.
5. To formulate sophisticated and nuanced arguments in relation to these issues, in written and verbal form.
6. To further develop generic, transferable and subject specific skills.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this module, students will demonstrate:
1. A solid understanding of the context of emerging evangelicalism and its impact on colonial social reform movements (especially abolitionism and missionary enterprise).
2. A nuanced appreciation of the variations of racial thinking and their development across the period.
3. A close critical familiarity with key primary texts relating to these issues.
4. A sophisticated knowledge of the relevant historiography, including the most recent developments in the field.
Skills outcomes
-in-depth study and interpretation of primary sources
-thorough understanding of historiographical debate
-development and substantiation of own arguments
-historical comparison
Syllabus
The first half of the module (6 weeks) will be taught through weekly 2 hour interactive lectures involving the whole cohort (up to 32 students), for which student preparation and participation will be expected. These will provide a firm background to the period, and to the module’s themes, issues and historiography:
1. Introduction: Empire and the two ‘Indies’
2. ‘Friends of the Negro’: slavery, abolitionism and the West Indies
3. ‘Satan’s Wretched Slaves’: Missions to the ‘heathens’ in India
4. Cultures of colonial philanthropy: Missionaries, Abolitionists and Society in Britain
5. After abolition: other slaveries, other racisms
6. Conclusion: ‘The potential equality of man’? Changing attitudes to the ‘other’ from Enlightenment to Evolution.
The remainder of the course (5 weeks) will be taught through weekly two hour seminars (taken in smaller groups of up to 16). These will be student led, based around presentations, and will involve closer study and critical reading of key primary texts relevant to the themes outlined above. These might include William Wilberforce’s speech to Parliament on the opening of India to missionary enterprise; Charles Grant ‘Observations of the State of the Asiatic subjects of Great Britain’; Elizabeth Heyrick ‘Immediate not Gradual Abolition’; Peckham Ladies Association ‘Reasons to Use East India Sugar’; Correspondence between James Cropper (abolitionist and East India trader) and John Gladstone (West Indian Planter) Thomas Carlyle, ‘Occasional discourse on the Negro question’ among others. We will also be making extensive use of visual sources, including cartoons by Gilray, Rowlandson, Cruikshank, and abolitionist, missionary and pseudo-scientific imagery.
Teaching methods
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
| Lecture | 6 | 2.00 | 12.00 |
| Seminar | 5 | 2.00 | 10.00 |
| Private study hours | 178.00 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 22.00 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200.00 | ||
Private study
Preparatory reading for lectures and seminars.VLE postings
Preparing presentations
Essay
Exam revision
Opportunities for Formative Feedback
Preparation for and participation in interactive lectures and unassessed VLE postings, assessed presentations, essays and exam.Methods of assessment
Coursework
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
| Essay | 2000 words due by 12.00pm Monday of teaching week 9 | 30.00 |
| Oral Presentation | Powerpoint or similar weeks 7-11 | 10.00 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 40.00 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Exams
| Exam type | Exam duration | % of formal assessment |
| Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc) | 2 hr | 60.00 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Exams) | 60.00 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Reading list
The reading list is available from the Library websiteLast updated: 23/02/2016
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