As part of the ‘Special Topics in Law’ courses, ‘Slavery and the Law’ was taught by Prof. Adelle Blackett for the second time at the McGill Faculty of Law during the Winter 2024 semester. The course offered a survey of the law pertaining to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, considering contemporary legacies for the study of law and its relationship to contemporary forms of slavery including causes and consequences.
The historical significance of the over 300-year trans-Atlantic slave trade, which implicated Canada and Quebec, would in itself provide an ample justification for a course. However, the pedagogical reasons for teaching and working to mainstream this material are more fulsome. One key reason to address slavery and the law in the curriculum is to explore the foundational role that slavery played in the dominant legal traditions that have been inherited. A second key reason is to consider slavery’s legacy. Some argue that slavery’s legacy is seen in “contemporary forms of slavery” around the world. Others find slavery’s legacy in the ongoing subordination of people of African descent. A third key reason is that the study of slavery and the law offers a sobering opportunity to think about the multiple roles that law may play – enabling human subjugation, or fostering human freedom, sometimes simultaneously. The study of slavery and the law offers an unrelenting opportunity to think about law in relation to social justice.
Students in class were not passive recipients of the course material; they were actors who assumed a leading responsibility for participation throughout the term. They actively engaged in a range of activities designed to hone an ability to reflect critically on the assigned readings and other course materials.
During the course, the class had the pleasure to welcome three guest speakers: filmmaker Ric Esther Bienstock, M. nourbeSe Philip (author of Zong!) and Professor Michelle McKinley (University of Oregon Law School, author of Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600-1700).
Ric Esther Bienstock, is an acclaimed Emmy Award-winning Canadian filmmaker, and Officer of the Order of Canada, best known for her investigative documentaries. For the Slavery and the Law Course, she presented Episode 2 of her documentary series Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade featuring Samuel L. Jackson. Following the screening, Bienstock engaged in a comprehensive discussion with Professor Adelle Blackett and organizers Edward van Daalen and Mathilde Baril-Jannard of the Eating Popcorn Like a Lawyer seminar series, followed by an interactive question-and-answer session with the class.
From L to R: Mathilde Baril-Jannard, Professor Adelle Blackett, Ric Esther Bienstock and Dr. Edward van Daalen
Winner of the 2024 Windham-Campbell Prize, M. NourbeSe Philip is an acclaimed Canadian writer, novelist, essayist, poet, and lawyer. She was invited to discuss with the class her book Zong!, which was one of the assigned readings. Zong! is a book length poem composed entirely from the words of the infamous case report, Gregson v. Gilbert (1783). The captain of the slave ship Zong ordered that the enslaved be murdered by drowning before seeking insurance cover. Besided her guest lecture, NourbeSe gave a performance and public reading of her work of Zong! in the Maxwell Cohen Moot Court. This unique event, followed by a discussion with the audience, brought together people from different communities, students, and professors. Never has an event of such magnitude and emotion taken place within the walls of McGill Faculty of Law.
The recording of the performance is available here:
M. NourbeSe Philip surrounded by the Slavery and the Law class and invited guests
Prof. Michelle McKinley is the Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law and the director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society at the University of Oregon. She has widely published on international public law, slavery, and Latin American legal history. Prof. McKinley gave a guest lecture to the class on her award-winning book Fractional Freedoms: Slavery, Intimacy and Legal Mobilization in Colonial Lima, 1600-1700 (Cambridge University Press, 2016), which was one of the other assigned readings to the class. Through a meticulous archival analysis, the book examines enslaved women in colonial Lima who used ecclesiastical and civil courts to litigate their claims to liberty. In addition, the class watched and discussed an episode of CBC documentary series Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, focusing on Latin America.
From L to R: Mathilde Baril-Jannard, Dr. Edward van Daalen, Professor Michelle McKinley and Professor Adelle Blackett
