The modern notion of freedom, predicated on universality yet denied to most of the world population, was shaped in Western Europe during a period of conquest and colonization. What concepts, theories, and ideologies made this possible? In this course we focus on the figures of the “barbarian” and the “savage” in the European imaginary during the colonization of the globe. As we track these figures, we come to appreciate the roles they played as necessary “others” in the self-interpretation of Europeans as free beings. Our close study of these figures will provide a more precise portrait of the other (dark) side of modernity, necessary for its constitution, though usually hidden behind the narrative of continuous progress towards universal freedom. Our readings and assignments enable us to better understand the intertwining of race and power constituting the modern concept of freedom. We will read passages from Bartolome de las Casas, Gines de Sepulveda, Francisco de Vitoria, Hobbes, Montesquieu, Kant, Condorcet, Ottobah Cugoano, Hegel, J.S. Mill, W.E.B. DuBois, and Frantz Fanon, among others. Assignments include 250-word responses to the readings for each class, two 5-page reports on two selected texts, and a final 10-page paper.