Digital Commons Network^™

The Lost Cause Of Unionism: How Greenville Became A Failed Stronghold Of Unionism In Antebellum South Carolina, Candace Rae Boatwright

All Theses

Greenville County, South Carolina was created in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War. The boundaries that define Greenville follow the natural topography of its mountains and rivers, but also permanently mark its relationship with the historic location of the Cherokee Nation as well as distinguishing it from North Carolina. Through the Regulation Movement and the Revolutionary War, the politics of the backcountry of South Carolina were molded by the men who occupied and laid claim to the land. The primary driver of political decisions was the protection and expansion of personal and community economics.

In this paper I argue that …

A Subtle Discrimination: Segregation And The Selective Service Act Of 1917-1918 In Abbeville County, South Carolina, Harris M. Bailey Jr.

All Theses

The focus of this study examines how the South Carolina Abbeville County Draft Board (ACDB) implemented the provisions of the Selective Service Act of 1917 and its ancillary legislation to register and select men for induction into military service for World War I. The primary question is whether the ACDB, with no clear directions from the United States War Department, interpret and apply the Act’s provisions in a discriminatory manner against African Americans. This study will show that the Abbeville County Draft Board manipulated the provisions of the Selective Service Act to discriminate against both African American and Euro-American registrants. …

South Carolina Press Opinions Toward The Spanish-American War And Territorial Annexation Of 1898, Maria Cinquemani

All Theses

Historians have contested the origins and aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898 for over a century. Whether in pursuit of political, economic, or humanitarian goals, the nation entered the war with Spain enthusiastically and emerged victorious, with several new annexed territories in its possession. One of the most important factors to the success of the war was the overwhelming public support, driven largely by the popular press and the famous 'yellow journalists' of the time. Despite being a brief war, historians have praised it as the event that united the North and South following the tensions of the Civil …

Potential Conflict: The Confluence Of Race And Economics During The Administration Of Ernest 'Fritz' Hollings, 1959-1963, Phillip Mullinnix

All Theses

This work is about the administration of South Carolina Governor Ernest 'Fritz' Hollings, who served as the state's chief executive from 1959-1963. It specifically deals with his plans for industrial and economic development and how the civil rights movement and integration impacted those plans. The thesis of this work is that the Hollings administration devised a peaceful solution to racial integration that left the state's industrial and economic development pursuits unharmed and untarnished. This work deals with the persistence of poverty and lack of development that plagued the state following the Civil War and the importance and need for development …

At Their Own Deliberate Speed: The Desegregation Of The Public Schools In Beaufort County, South Carolina, Anne Kelsey

All Theses

This project studies public school desegregation in Beaufort County, South Carolina, from 1954-1973. Beaufort County is a community that historians have overlooked in the narrative of southern school desegregation. Just like other southern communities, Beaufort County's school desegregation story must be studied from multiple angles and across time. By focusing on a rural county on the coast of South Carolina, this project asks how school desegregation occurred in areas outside of the `visible South.' Within this narrative, this project approaches Beaufort County's school desegregation from two historiographical angles--one top-down and the other bottom-up. The first explores how federal mandates and …

'Champions Of Contending Armies': The Ancient Rivalry Between Massachusetts And South Carolina, 1829-1856, William Merrell

All Theses

The focus of this work is the 'ancient rivalry' between Massachusetts and South Carolina, as it played out in the antebellum era. Although little attention has been devoted exclusively to the study of this rivalry, it exercised a considerable degree of influence over the nation on its path to civil war. Most notably, this rivalry directly impacted the emergence of an American national identity between 1830 and 1860. The self-perpetuating rivalry between South Carolina and Massachusetts helped define the parameters of American identity, and ensured the eventual exclusion of South Carolina from such an identity. Filtered through three specific episodes, …

Radical Politics In Revolutionary Times: The South Carolina Secession Convention And Executive Council Of 1862, Eric Lager

All Theses

This thesis examines the political culture and behavior in South Carolina during the secession crisis and first two years of the Civil War. Historians have analyzed antebellum politics in South Carolina but few recent attempts have been made to trace those issues to the larger narrative of state politics during the Civil War. I argue that serious political divisions existed in the Palmetto State during the sectional crisis over the proper method and procedure of secession. Once secession became a reality South Carolina politicians attempted to bury these differences for the sake of unity, but ultimately the pressures of war …

Je Suis Huger: Shaping Identity In South Carolina, 1685-1885, Jason Hollis

All Theses

In 1685, a large group of Huguenots, or French Calvinist Protestants, migrated to South Carolina seeking economic opportunity and religious toleration. By the outbreak of the Civil War, the descendants of these French immigrants had transformed into bastions of Southern identity and society. But how had this transformation taken place?

This study attempts to answer that question. It aims to trace the journey of Huguenot assimilation from French Protestant refugees to British Colonists, from Colonists into Americans, and finally from Americans into Southerners. Focusing on the experiences of a single lineage, the Huger family, it hopes to add to existing …

From The Social Margins To The Center: Lebanese Families Who Arrived In South Carolina Before 1950, Elizabeth Whitaker

All Theses

The Lebanese families who arrived in South Carolina found themselves in a different environment than most had anticipated. Those who had spent time elsewhere in the U.S. found predominantly rural and predominantly Protestant South Carolina to be almost as alien as they or their parents had found the United States due partly to the religious differences and partly to the cultural differences between the Northeast, where most of them had lived for at least a few years after arriving in the United States, and the Southeast. Most of these new arrivals eventually found success and some degree of acceptance, but …