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In God's Hands: Faith Healing, Epilepsy, And The Question Of Human Rights, Marisa L. Pechillo

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis highlights the historical link between people with epilepsy (PWE) and demonic possession. The discussion traces origins of these views from antiquity to the contemporary era, foregrounding media and scholarship that emphasizes the negative perceptions of PWE developed through Christian teaching and imagery. It explores the question of whether the social isolation, abuse, and violence committed against PWE, through Christian faith healing practices such as exorcism, developed in relation to these stigmatizing views and whether these constitute a human rights violation in accordance with conventions put forth by the United Nations.

The Ponce De León Celebration: History And Mythmaking In St. Augustine, Florida, 1885-1930, Abbra Pyle

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Between 1885 and 1930 visitors and residents in St. Augustine, Florida were treated to a historical pageant, the Ponce de León Celebration. Presented over the course of several days in spring, the Celebration featured a historical pageant and other forms of entertainment. While there were repeated claims from event organizers of historical accuracy, the scenes presented during the pageant represent largely fictionalized views of early Florida, Native American, and African American history. Over the years, organizers carefully crafted St. Augustine’s founding myth through a process of glorification, misrepresentation, and erasure. Each chapter will examine one of the methods PDLC organizers …

Robert Searle And The Rise Of The English In The Caribbean, Brandon Wade Alford

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the career of Robert Searle, an English privateer, that conducted state-sponsored attacks against the Spanish and Dutch in the Caribbean from 1655 to 1671. Set within the Buccaneering Period of the Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1680), Robert Searle’s personal actions contributed to the rise of the English in the Caribbean to a position of dominance over Spain, which dominated the region from 1492 until the 1670s. Searle serves as a window into the contributions of thousands of nameless men who journeyed to the Caribbean as a member of Oliver Cromwell’s Western Design Fleet. These men failed in …

"Contra Haereticos Accingantur": The Union Of Crusading And Anti-Heresy Propaganda, Bryan E. Peterson

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study assesses the intersection of crusading and heresy repression in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The event that encapsulates this intersection was the Albigensian Crusade, a two-decades long conflict that befell the south of France, or Occitania. The papacy, aligned with northern lords and other willing Christians, took up arms to defend the Church from the Cathar heresy’s corrupting influence. This conflict marked a new development in Christian acts of violence. While the Church had crusaded against many different enemies—even branding some as heretics—before 1209, the Church had never called a crusade for the explicit purpose of …

"Who Will Teach The Poor Little Ones To Say Their Prayers?" Catholics, Protestant, And Black Education In Reconstruction Era St. Augustine, Florida., Justin Stuart

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1968, the doors of St. Benedict the Moor’s school in St. Augustine, Florida, closed after nearly seventy years of service to members of the city’s African American community. But St. Benedict’s school represented a long tradition of black Catholic education in St. Augustine. Under Spanish rule, a boy’s school existed that offered equal education to blacks and whites. Florida’s possession by the United States complicated matters as territorial and state laws ended black education in the city, and the Catholic Church chose to side with the South over the issue of slavery in the United States. With the town’s …

Britain's Green Fascists: Understanding The Relationship Between Fascism, Farming, And Ecological Concerns In Britain, 1919-1951, Alec J. Warren

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between fascism, fascist ideas, and environmental consciousness in Britain during the pre- and post-World War II decades. In examining this topic, two main questions arise. First, why did fascist intellectuals support environmentally conscious ideas, and how did they relate these positions to their political ideologies? Second, why were many environmentally conscious thinkers during this period attracted to fascism? This thesis will also address several related issues regarding fascism and environmental consciousness. These issues include what role environmental concerns played in the British Union of Fascist’s platforms and in fascism’s public appeal, and how that role …

San Antonio De Pocotalaca: An Eighteenth-Century Yamasee Indian Town In St. Augustine, Florida, 1716-1752, Amanda A. Hall

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following the Yamasee War of 1715, many of the Yamasee Indians rekindled alliances with the Spanish and returned to La Florida. San Antonio de Pocotalaca (1716 to 1752) was one of three initial Yamasee Indian towns to relocate from South Carolina and settle on the fringes of St. Augustine. In South Carolina, Pocotalaca (referred to there as Pocotaligo) served as the primary upper town of six Yamasee towns and was the political center for conferences and council meetings between Yamasees, their Indian allies, and South Carolina officials. When Pocotalaca relocated to St. Augustine after the Yamasee War, the town …

Soldiers And Civil Rights: The Impact Of World War Ii On Jacksonville's African American Community, 1954-1960, Bryan Higham

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the role of returning African American veterans in the Civil Rights Movement in Jacksonville from 1945-1960. Black World War II veterans not only faced the typical challenges of returning to civilian life, but took up the fight for equality as well. While this work acknowledges existing arguments about black veterans in the Civil Rights Movement, it emphasizes and analyzes the importance of their military benefits and experience. The mechanizing revolution that occurred in the United States military in this era had a lasting impact on the soldiers fighting as well as communities back home, Jacksonville included. This …

Camp, Combat, And Campaign: North Carolina's Confederate Experience, Peter R. Thomas Jr.

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines a sample of North Carolina Confederates as they transitioned from citizen to soldier between 1861 and 1863 during the American Civil War, and it questions how levels of commitment and devotion emerged during this transformation. North Carolina Confederates not only faced physical and emotional challenges as they transitioned from citizen to soldier, but also encountered social obstacles due to the strict social order of the Old South. Orthodoxy maintains this social dissent hindered any form of solidarity among North Carolina Confederates. The question remains, though, why did so many North Carolinians remain committed to the Confederacy until …

The Struggle Against Bandits: The Cuban Revolution And Responses To Cia-Sponsored Counter-Revolutionary Activity, 1959-1963, Anthony Rossodivito M

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following the 1959 victory of the Cuban revolution, the United States government along with the CIA and their Cuban émigré allies immediately undertook a campaign of subversion and terrorism against the Cuban revolution. From 1959 until 1963 a clandestine war was waged between supporters of the revolution and the counter-revolutionary organizations backed by Washington. This project is a new synthesis of this little-known story. It is an attempt to shed light on a little known aspect of the conflict between the United States government and the Cuban revolution by bringing together never-before seen primary sources, and utilizing the two distinct …

From Chaos To Order: Balancing Cross-Cultural Communication In The Pre-Colonial And Colonial Southeast, Nicole Lynn Gallucci

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This Master’s Thesis examines the ways in which the culturally distinct groups who inhabited the pre-colonial and colonial Southeast approached cross-cultural communication. The extensive and violent entradas led by Spaniards into the Southeastern interior in the 1500s represent a watershed moment in North American history that deeply impacted the economic, social, and geopolitical landscapes of an already well-populated and politically sophisticated region. The subsequent establishment of St. Augustine in 1565 and the arrival of the British in the mid-seventeenth century are similarly seen as pivotal moments in the region’s history that forced many culturally and linguistically dissimilar groups to interact. …

Before King Came: The Foundations Of Civil Rights Movement Resistance And St. Augustine, Florida, 1900-1960, James G. Smith

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called St. Augustine, Florida, the most racist city in America. The resulting demonstrations and violence in the summer of 1964 only confirmed King’s characterization of the city. Yet, St. Augustine’s black history has its origins with the Spanish who founded the city in 1565. With little racial disturbance until the modern civil rights movement, why did St. Augustine erupt in the way it did?

With the beginnings of Jim Crow in Florida around the turn of the century in 1900, St. Augustine’s black community began to resist the growing marginalization of their community. …

Jacksonville's Greatest Generation: The Contribution Of African American Veterans To The Civil Rights Movement 1945-1960, Bryan Arch Wayne Higham

UNF Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research explores the role of returning African American veterans in the Civil Rights Movement in Jacksonville from 1945-1960. Black World War II veterans not only faced the typical challenges of returning to civilian life, but took up the fight for equality as well. While this work acknowledges existing arguments about black veterans in the Civil Rights Movement, it emphasizes and analyzes the importance of their military benefits and experience. African American soldiers received training in various fields like combat, supply, and intelligence. This training translated into useful skills in the postwar period. The experiences of black soldiers while overseas …

Women In Antebellum Alachua County, Florida, Herbert Joseph O'Shields

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role and status of women in Alachua County, Florida, from 1821 through 1860. The secondary literature suggests that women throughout America had virtually no public role to play in antebellum society except in limited circumstances in some mature urban, commercial settings. The study reviewed U.S. Census materials, slave ownership records, and land ownership records as a means to examine the family structures, the mobility and persistence of persons and households, and the economic status of women, particularly including woman headed households. The study also examined laws adopted by the Florida legislative …

God, Gold, Or Glory: Norman Piety And The First Crusade, Samuel Andrew Bartlett

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent trends in crusade historiography depict the Frankish participants of the First Crusade as acting out of piety, while their Norman counterparts remain as impious opportunists. This thesis challenges this prevailing point of view, arguing that the Norman crusaders met the same standard of piety as the Franks. To support my theory, I looked at four different facets on the question of Norman piety, dividing them up into chapters of my thesis. In the first chapter, there is a brief discussion of the current portrayal of the Normans in modem crusade historiography. In the next chapter, I established what piety …

The Rejection Of The Manege Tradition In Early Modern England: "Equestrian Elegance At Odds With English Sporting Tradition", Elizabeth Pope Simmons

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Renaissance creativity and obsession with classical traditions spawned a new form of horsemanship called the manege in sixteenth-century Europe. This study deals with England's rejection of the courtly horsemanship despite the dismal state of the nation's equestrian affairs. Tudor and Stuart monarchs utilized royal influence to attempt change - from legislative refmms to the horses - but no specific monarchical effort proved immediately effective. The significance of royal influence is seen in the continued importation of quality stock and in royal support for equestrian-related sports. Both enriched equine bloodlines and promoted the development of sporting tradition in England. While, with …

The 1960 Presidential Election In Florida: Did The Space Race And The National Prestige Issue Play An Important Role?, Randy Wade Babish

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The landmark launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, and the subsequent perception that the United States trailed the Soviet Union, not only in space but also in missiles, plagued the Eisenhower Administration for the rest of the decade. The Democratic Party strategy for the 1960 presidential election included using the space race, the alleged missile gap, and declining American prestige abroad to illustrate the need for new leadership in the White House. Senator John F. Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, effectively raised these issues throughout the general election to support his "New Frontier" program and won by the narrowest popular …

Brick Versus Earth: The Construction And Destruction Of Confederate Seacoast Forts Pulaski And Mcallister, Georgia, David P. Eldridge

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States government created America's third coastal defense system during the early-to-mid nineteenth century based upon the recommendations of the Board of Engineers of 1816. The engineers of 1816 believed the most economical means of protecting America was the construction of large, permanent forts along key areas of America's coast.

Union forces under Brigadier General Quincy Gillmore seized Fort Pulaski in April of 1862. Pulaski was one of the most formidable forts built under the third system. Gillmore required two months to install the weapons used against Pulaski; most of the time was spent installing smoothbore Columbiads, the standard …

The 1795 Rebellion In East Florida, Cormac A. O'Riordan

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 1795 rebellion in East Florida was a short lived affair, barely extending south of the St. Johns River, and resulting in the deaths of only three Spanish soldiers. Thirty-three of the sixty-seven people identified as rebels by the Spanish escaped across the St. Marys River into Georgia. The remainder were arrested and temporarily imprisoned in the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. Though harsh sentences were handed down by a Spanish court in 1798, none were ever carried out. Almost all of those implicated in the insurrection were Anglo settlers. Some had been in East Florida since the …

Lavilla, Florida, 1866-1887: Reconstruction Dreams And The Formation Of A Black Community, Patricia Drozd Kenney

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Several factors which influenced the formation of an urban black community following the Civil War are examined in this study. Prior to the war, LaVilla, a suburb of Jacksonville, Florida, was sparsely populated by wealthy white families. At war's end, freedmen seeking shelter and work took advantage of the inexpensive housing and proximity to employment LaVilla offered and, by 1870, became the majority population. The years 1866 through 1887 have been chosen for this study because they demarcate LaVilla's inception on the one hand and, on the other, its disappearance as an independent entity. Local, state, and federal records have …

Greater Jacksonville's Response To The Florida Land Boom Of The 1920s, Philip Warren Miller

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida land boom was an orgy of real estate speculation and development that swept the state during the period 1924 through 1926. The few books and articles that deal with that event rarely mention Jacksonville, although it was Florida's largest city and its chief commercial and transportation center. This could lead one to the conclusion that the North Florida city did not become caught up in the boom. Yet scattered throughout the Jacksonville area are the remains of a number of real estate projects that date from that period.

Therefore, this thesis examines the effects of the boom on …

Sallye B. Mathis And Mary L. Singleton: Black Pioneers On The Jacksonville, Florida, City Council, Barbara Hunter Walch

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1967 Sallye Brooks Mathis and Mary Littlejohn Singleton were elected the first blacks in sixty years, and the first women ever, to the city council of Jacksonville, Florida. These two women had been raised in Jacksonville in a black community which, in spite of racial discrimination and segregation since the Civil War, had demonstrated positive leadership and cooperative action as it developed its own organizations and maintained a thriving civic life. Jacksonville blacks participated in politics when allowed to do so and initiated several economic boycotts and court suits to resist racial segregation. Black women played an important part …

Nursing And Health Care In Jacksonville, Florida, 1900-1930, Linda Emerson Sabin

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the development of nursing as a vocation, in the early twentieth century, within the context of a growing southern city and an evolving health care system. Nursing advanced from a domestic service to a recognized vocation during this era. An extensive survey of historical and nursing literature revealed few studies which focus on nursing and health care in an urban context. Those studies identified gave only brief glimpses of nurses and focus on northern cities. This investigation aims to add a southern chapter to the history of nursing and health care in urban settings.

A community systems …

Immigrant Jacksonville: A Profile Of Immigrant Groups In Jacksonville, Florida, 1890-1920, Kathleen Ann Francis Cohen

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From 1890 to 1920, a small foreign immigrant community, diverse in its cultures and religions, put down roots in Jacksonville, Florida, and thrived. This paper concentrates on southern Italians, Russian and Romanian Jews, Syrian Christians, Greeks, and Chinese who left their countrymen in northern urban centers and settled in this city. It investigates the immigrants' old-world origins, their occupational skills, their settlement patterns, and their motivations for immigrating.

The total number of foreign-born white immigrants in Jacksonville was less than 4,000 for the period covered. The manuscript census schedules completed by the Census of Population for 1900 and 1910 provided …

Nuclear Armament/Disarmament As A Topic In Decision-Making Models In Secondary Social Studies Classrooms, Karen Holman Reeves

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to determine the current status of the nuclear armament/disarmament issue as a topic for the moral decision-making model in secondary social studies curriculums and to establish guidelines for its inclusion in future lessons. A review of the relevant literature provided the basis for a questionnaire mailed to four hundred, randomly selected social studies department chairpersons. Their attitudes regarding the legitimacy of the topic and methods employed in instructional lessons were addressed. Survey results were categorized according to respondents' incorporation of the topic into their curriculum and whether they taught in public or private institutions. A majority of …