Crossroads Lecture Series Inaugurated By David Abulafia

The inaugural lecture of the Crossroads Lecture Series was delivered on March 18, 2008, by Prof. David Abulafia (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University). Professor Abulafia, who has done extensive scholarly work on the economic, social, and political history of the Mediterranean lands in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, spoke on “The First Atlantic Slaves, 1350-1520: Conquest, Slavery, and the Opening of the Atlantic.”

This fascinating lecture was the first in a series of talks, free and open to the public, designed to address issues of cultural exchange in the medieval and early modern periods. The purpose of the Crossroads Lecture Series, sponsored by the newly-established Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) at UNC, is to foster new and innovative perspectives on medieval and early modern studies within a broad geographic and cultural scope, focusing in particular on relations between Byzantium, the Muslim world, and the Christian west.

Professor Abulafia’s extensive research into the interaction of the three religions in medieval Spain and Sicily, including the problem of Jewish (and Muslim) ’servitude,’.made him a particularly apt speaker to launch the series. One of his major interests is the opening of the eastern and western Atlantic in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, with particular emphasis on the encounter of Europeans with native peoples.

In his lecture on March 18, Professor Abulafia demonstrated how an Atlantic slave trade developed out of the much older Mediterranean slave trade; how it came to encompass first the Canary Islands and then West Africa; how it then became extended to the first areas of the New World to be visited by Europeans; and finally how a slave trade came to link Africa to the New World, as labor shortages in the first Spanish colonies created demand for the slaves sold by the Portuguese. The Crossroads Lecture Committee looks forward to hosting one or two lectures annually.

Event Sponsors: UNC College of Arts and Sciences, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS).