global historical studies ("GHS"): Freedom and movement in the TRANSATLANTIC world
WHAT WE STUDY:
What is freedom? How was freedom understood during the Age of Exploration? Did freedom have the same associations then as it does today? What do the transatlantic slave system and the rise of capitalism reveal about the shifting meanings of freedom? How have revolutionary movements and the struggles of displaced people enriched our understanding of freedom? How do contemporary free trade and migration further challenge conventional notions of what it means to be free? This course will address these questions by exploring the transcontinental and transoceanic movements of people, ideas, and capital across Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
In keeping with the liberal arts mission of Butler University, this course not only fostered habits of critical thinking, writing, and communication that are essential to being a free and independent citizen, but also encouraged us to become more globally informed and responsible individuals. The course helped to better comprehend past and present challenges and to search for just solutions to the inequities and tensions that continue to tear at the fabric of our global community.
GHS STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
What is freedom? How was freedom understood during the Age of Exploration? Did freedom have the same associations then as it does today? What do the transatlantic slave system and the rise of capitalism reveal about the shifting meanings of freedom? How have revolutionary movements and the struggles of displaced people enriched our understanding of freedom? How do contemporary free trade and migration further challenge conventional notions of what it means to be free? This course will address these questions by exploring the transcontinental and transoceanic movements of people, ideas, and capital across Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
In keeping with the liberal arts mission of Butler University, this course not only fostered habits of critical thinking, writing, and communication that are essential to being a free and independent citizen, but also encouraged us to become more globally informed and responsible individuals. The course helped to better comprehend past and present challenges and to search for just solutions to the inequities and tensions that continue to tear at the fabric of our global community.
GHS STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Students will practice employing a conceptual framework for global and historical studies which appreciates cultures as dynamic, heterogeneous, and constantly in conversation with one another.
- Students will approach the topic from a variety of sources and disciplines—including the arts, the humanities. and the social and natural sciences.
- Students will understand the benefits and challenges of living in a culturally diverse and increasingly globalized world.
- Students will continue development of skills of expository writing
About Our Project:
We seek to understand and illustrate the journeys and stories of indentured servants who traveled across the Atlantic from Europe to the Middle Colonies in Colonial America and arrived between 1600 to 1775, with a focus on demographics. Specifically, the statistics we included demonstrate relationships between class and gender. Our sources come from a range of backgrounds including topics on the Early American labor forces, studies on the transition from a British to American lifestyle, indentured servant migration patterns, and various first-hand accounts from colonial indentured servants. The combination of primary, scholarly, and statistical sources should lead us to answer our major research questions: Where did indentured servants typically come from and why? What did they leave behind in England and what did they find in their new lives in America? What were these immigrants looking for? This is where the demographics we found play in: What do the differences between class and gender look like for where indentured servants are coming from and looking for? We looked specifically at migration patterns, lifestyle, and census information from both England and the Colonies to supplement the initial research. This provided a wider view of the lives of indentured servants in the Colonies and how they compared to their previous lives in England.
This project is significant because it takes an in-depth approach at studying such an important piece of Colonial American history while turning the research into a format that is accessible by all. Our research questions are just broad enough that we are not limited by the resources that are available to us, but because we added the component of analyzing statistics, it provides a new kind of complexity. Economic class and gender truly controlled a person’s livelihood and opportunities during this era. By looking at both of these factors side by side, we are hoping to draw attention to possibly a new way to look at the who, when, and why of indentured servitude.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Allie Hopkins- Sophomore from Sheridan, IN studying Human Communication and Organizational Leadership, as well as English. Intends to pursue law school upon graduation from Butler University in 2020.
Meg Caesar- Sophomore from Cincinnati, OH studying Communication Sciences and Disorders. Intends to pursue graduate school as a speech pathologist upon graduation from Butler University in 2020.
Nick Cooney- Sophomore from Carol Stream, IL studying Accounting and Finance. Intends to obtain CPA license upon graduation from Butler University in 2020.
Zoe Law- Sophomore from Zionsville, IN studying Anthropology. Intends to pursue graduate school upon graduation from Butler University in 2020.
Eileen Hogan- Junior from Chicago, IL studying History. Intends to pursue graduate school upon graduation from Butler University in 2019.
Background Image: Faded World Map. (n.d.). Retrieved from Print a Wallpaper: http://www.printawallpaper.com/detail/maps/faded-world-map
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