Owing to the legacy of slavery, African Americans have faced significant obstacles to obtaining the fundamental rights of freedom and citizenship. The consistent struggle among African Americans to gain their human rights live at the heart of the American experiment in democracy.

In the 24 compelling lectures of African American History: From the African Coast to the Civil War, take a penetrating look at the experience of African Americans in the colonial and antebellum eras, where you’ll:

Study the brutality and inhumanity of slave trading and learn how slavery took root in colonial American society.
Learn how enslaved African Americans endured and created meaningful lives and take stock of the horrific cruelty that undergirded the slavery system.
Witness how enslaved African Americans worked against the system of enslavement, bringing “freedom suits” in courts, mounting armed rebellions, developing a “liberation theology,” and more.
Examine the aftermath of emancipation in the North; learn how burgeoning African American communities were stymied by restriction of economic opportunity, denial of voting rights, and rampant violence.
Follow the abolition movements that grew in the antebellum era and study the work of African American abolitionists David Walker, Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and others.
Learn about the role of the Union’s Black soldiers in turning the tide of the Civil War, assess the draft-related mob violence against Black people in New York City; and examine the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation.

In this multilayered course, witness the measure of a people of unbreakable spirit, and of the deepest human dimensions of American democracy.