This course examines the stories told by and about fugitive slaves in this country, exploring the ways in which these stories have been used in struggles over the basic terms of political identity and the boundaries of American governance. By reading such primary sources as slave narratives, fiction, newspaper stories, court decisions, and political tracts, we will explore how antebellum Americans-black and white-thought and fought about not only the status of individual slaves but the meaning of race and gender, freedom and subjection, property, law, sovereignty, constitutionalism, and citizenship. By reading recent scholarly and literary writing about slavery, particularly the fiction of contemporary African-American writers, we will investigate how and why the story of the escape from slavery is being reworked and what these revisions tell us about the problems and possibilities of American society. Requirements: three short essays and one longer final paper. Prerequisite: at least one prior course in theory, American politics, American history, or American literature; or permission of the instructor. Political Theory and American Politics Subfields