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The Arming of Slaves from the Ancient World to the American Civil War

November 16-18, 2000
Yale University and Omni Hotel, New Haven

Keynote Address, by Prof. David Brion Davis


Program

Thursday, November 16

3:30 - 5:00Registration

5:00 - 7:00Reception

8:15 - 9:00Keynote Address

  • David Brion Davis, Director, Gilder Lehrman Center and Professor of History, Yale University


Friday, November 17

8:00 - 9:00Continental breakfast and Registration

9:00 - 11:00Session 1: The Arming of Slaves in Classical and Islamic Societies

  • Thomas Wiedemann, Director, International Centre for the History of Slavery and Professor of History, Nottingham University
    "The Slave As Non-Citizen: The Classical and Late Antique Worlds"
  • Daniel Pipes, Editor, Middle East Quarterly
    "Slave Soldiers and Islam"

  • Comment: Donald Kagan, Yale University


12:00Independent Lunch

2:00 - 4:00Session 2: The Arming of Slaves in the Carribean

  • David Geggus, University of Florida
    "The Arming of Slaves in the Haitian Revolution"
  • Laurent Dubois, University of Michigan
    "Citizen-Soldiers: Emancipation and Military Service in the Revolutionary French Caribbean"

  • Comment: Jerome S. Handler, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities


4:00 Coffee Break

4:30 - 6:30Session 3: Slavery and Defense in Colonial Borderlands

  • Jennifer Baszile, Yale University
    "Armed Slaves and Colonial Crisis: Indian Wars in Colonial Southeastern North America"
  • Peter Voelz, Eastern Illinois University
    "Armed Slaves Below the Border"

  • Comment: Jane Landers, Vanderbilt University


7:00Dinner


Saturday, November 18

8:00 - 9:00Continental breakfast

9:00 - 11:00Session 4: Military Uses of Slaves in New World Revolutions

  • Robert Olwell, History Department, University of Texas
    "Portrait of the Slave Master as Revolutionary: White Liberty, Black Slavery, and Military Service in South Carolina, 1775 - 1783"
  • Philip Morgan, College of William and Mary and Co-Winner, 1999 Frederick Douglass Book Prize
    "The Arming of Slaves in the American Revolution"

  • Comment: Andrew O'Shaughnessy, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

11:00Lunch

1:00 - 3:00Session 5: The American Civil War

  • Leslie Rowland, Director, Freedmen and Southern Society Project, University of Maryland
    "The Recruitment and Service of Slaves in the Union Army"
  • Frank Deserino, University of London
    "The Notion of Black Loyalty Under Fire: An Analysis of Black Confederate Pensions"

  • Comment: Catherine Clinton, Baruch College


3:00Coffee Break

3:30Summation

  • David Brion Davis, Director, Gilder Lehrman Center and Professor of History, Yale University
7:00Pre-booked conference dinner at Caffé Adulis.