TOPICS: BECOMING FREE in Spring 2020 (LW2091A)

“Becoming Free” will explore the lives of former slaves and former convicts from a law and history perspective. We consider the problem of liberation in the Americas, Africa, the Indian Ocean, and Asia from the eighteenth century to the present. With respect to former slaves, we will learn the mechanisms by which ex-slaves attained freedom, including flight, self-purchase, manumission, military service, insurrection, and general emancipation. With respect to convicts, we will examine how prisoners obtained (and continue to obtain) freedom, including the expiry of criminal sentence lengths, amnesty, pardon, prisoner exchange, ransom, and victory in wartime. This is a collaboration between Professor Spieler, a historian of slavery in the European and Atlantic context, and Professor Kuo, a legal thinker on punishment and race in the contemporary American context.