This course focuses on the history of ideas of ‘freedom’ and ‘slavery’ in a global context from antiquity to the present day. Moving broadly from antiquity to the present day, it looks at the emergence of the major intellectual traditions on the subject in Greece and Rome, ancient China, the Islamic and Middle Eastern world, medieval Europe, the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. It culminates by focusing on the twentieth and twenty-first century, addressing the conflict between individualist and collectivist ideologies such as capitalism, fascism, and communism and thinking about human trafficking and modern-day slavery. The course will not only educate students in the history of freedom and slavery, but will help them understand important policy issues facing Hong Kong and China in the future.

1.(Jan 10) Introduction

Reading: Isaiah Berlin, Two Concepts of Liberty pp. 3-10 only [negative & positive liberty]; 

“The Unspeakable Truth” https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/08/the-unspeakable-truth-about-slavery-in-mauritania 

2.(Jan 17) Ancient Greece

Pericles, Funeral Oration at http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/education/thucydides.html

Aristotle, Politics 1.2-7, 12-13.https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D1

Manumission Inscriptions of Female Slaves at Delphi: http://www.attalus.org/docs/other/inscr_24.html

3. (Jan 24) Roman Republic

Livy, Bk 1.preface & 17, Bk 2 1-15

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/19725/19725-h/19725-h.htm

Sources on Roman slavery https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/slavery-romrep1.asp

4. (Jan 31) Roman Empire & Christianity

Tacitus, Annals opening http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Tacitus/Annals/1A*.html

St Augustine, De civitate Dei, XIX, 1, 14-18 http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120119.htm

5. (Feb 7) Christian Middle Ages

Jean Froissart, Chronicle, 2.73-78 (pp. 652-668) [pdf]

J.H. Robinson (trans.), Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European history (Philadelphia, 1897), 3.5 (‘English Manorial Documents’) [pdf]

Medieval Sourcebook, documents on ‘The Slave Trade’ and ‘The Church and Slavery’ https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/sbook1u.asp 

6.(Feb 14) Holiday – Happy Lunar New Year!  

7. (Feb 21) Middle East & Islam

Sahih al-Bukhari 49 (on the manumission of slaves) https://sunnah.com/bukhari/49

Richard Hakluyt, ‘The Worthy Enterprise of John Fox, in Delivering 266 Christians out of the Hands of the Turks,’ in Daniel J. Vitkus (ed.), Piracy, Slavery, and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early Modern England (New York, 2001), 55-70 [pdf]

8. (Feb 28) Slavery & Liberty in Early Modern East Asia China

Slave deed from Tang China http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/china/slave_deed.pdf 

Nelson, Thomas. “Slavery in Medieval Japan.” Monumenta nipponica 59.4 (2004): 463–492. Print. [online via library catalogue]

“Slavery in Ming China,” in Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery Throughout History. Springer International Publishing, 2023. https://julac-cuhk.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/852JULAC_CUHK/1dl2t2q/alma991040412868403407 ;

9. (Mar 6) No Class – Reading Week!

10. (Mar 13) Renaissance Republicanism and Imperialism

Reading: Leonardo Bruni, Laudatio Florentinae Urbis https://www.york.ac.uk/teaching/history/pjpg/bruni.pdf 

Machiavelli, Discourses (extracts) 

https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/machiavelli-disc2-2.asp https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/machiavelli-disc1-9.asp

11. (Mar 20) The Transatlantic Slave Trade

John Bardot on Slavery http://www.vgskole.net/prosjekt/slavrute/1.htm 

Equiano on the Middle Passage http://www.vgskole.net/prosjekt/slavrute/6.htm 

Look at: https://www.slavevoyages.org/ 

12. (Mar 27) The Enlightenment, Liberalism & Abolitionism

Mill, On Liberty (Chs 1-2) https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/mill/liberty.pdf 

Douglass, What to A Slave is the Fourth of July? http://masshumanities.org/files/programs/douglass/speech_abridged_med.pdf 

13. (Apr 3) Slavery’s Long Shadow

Plessy v Ferguson (1896) [pdf]

Ney dos Santos Oliveira, ‘Favelas and Ghettos: Race and Class in Rio de Janeiro and New York City,’ Latin American Perspectives (1996) 23.4: 71-89 [pdf]

Mui-Tsai in Hong Kong: Report of the Committee Appointed by His Excellency the Governor Sir William Peel, K.C.M.G., K.B.E. [pdf]

14. (Apr 10) Individualism vs. Collectivism in the 20th Century

Lenin, Our Programme (1899) https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1899lenin-program.asp

Lenin, State and Revolution (1918) https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/lenin-staterev.asp 

1936 Constitution of the USSR, Ch 1 http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons01.html 

Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, part 1.2 “Creative Powers of a Free Civilization.”

Milton Friedmann, “The Relationship between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom” https://www.pauldeng.com/teaching/development/Friedman%20the%20relation%20between%20economic%20freedom%20and%20political%20freedom.pdf 

15. (Apr 17) Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking

Global Slavery Index 2018 Executive Summary https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/executive-summary/

Brian O’Keefe, ‘Bitter Sweets,’ Fortune (March 2016) https://fortune.com/longform/big-chocolate-child-labor/

Tobias Jones and Ayo Awokoya, ‘Are Your Tinned Tomatoes Picked by Slave Labour?’ The Guardian (June 2019) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/20/tomatoes-italy-mafia-migrant-labour-modern-slavery 

20% 4*1-page response papers (5% each)

For 4 of the 13 weeks of readings, please produce a 1-page argument-driven mini essay (no more than 400 words), answering the question: “What is the most important take-away from the reading, and why?”  Send to Professor by email before Friday 5pm after the related lecture. Veriguide Receipts must also be submitted but these can be sent at the end of the term. The grade will be taken on the first 4 response papers submitted, although you are welcome to submit more.  

20% Participation in Tutorial

Active and enthusiastic participation in the tutorial on the basis of the reading (5% per tutorial). 

20% attendance and participation in lecture

• Each student is requiredto attend the weekly lecture and the tutorials, as well as participate in class exercises, etc. (5%). 
• Students must also ask at least two questionsover the course of the semester (you must announce your name before you ask the question) with half the grade given for asking the questions (5%), then the other half given for the quality/relevance of the questions (5%) (=10%). 
• Students must also attend at least 3 World History Seminars via Zoom (send screen shot to TA as proof). Schedule will be announced in due course (5%).  

40% Final Essay

• (35%) Write an argument-focusedresearch essay on the topic of slavery and freedom in one particular place and time in history (2500 words minimum, 3000 words maximum, plus references; MLA style). Due: April 26 at 5pm.  
• (5%) 1-page proposal for essay emailed to Professor by March 29 at 5pm.

N.B. This is a no-ChatGPT class!  Use of LLMs is not permitted for any assignment.  

請注意大學有關學術著作誠信的政策和規則，及適用於犯規事例的紀律指引和程序。詳情可瀏覽網址：https://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/。

學生遞交作業時，必須連同已簽署的聲明一併提交，表示他們知道有關政策、規則、指引及程序。

• 如屬小組習作，則所有組員均須簽署聲明；所有組員（不論有否簽署聲明及不論有否直接或間接撰寫有問題的內容）均須負上集體責任及受到懲處。
• 如作業以電腦製作、內容以文字為主，並經由大學「維誠」系統 (VeriGuide) 提交者，學生將作業的電子檔案上載到系統後，便會獲得收據，收據上已列明有關聲明。

未有夾附簽署妥當的聲明的作業，老師將不予批閱。

學生只須提交作業的最終版本。

學生將作業或作業的一部份用於超過一個用途（例如：同時符合兩科的要求）而沒有作出聲明會被視為未有聲明重覆使用作業。學生重覆使用其著作的措辭或某一、二句句子很常見，並可以接受，惟重覆使用全部內容則構成問題。在任何情況下，須先獲得相關老師同意方可提交作業。