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Virginia Commonwealth University

Theses and Dissertations

2009

Slavery

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Like Nixon To China: The Exhibition Of Slavery In The Valentine Museum And The Museum Of The Confederacy, Meghan Theresa Naile Dec 2009

Like Nixon To China: The Exhibition Of Slavery In The Valentine Museum And The Museum Of The Confederacy, Meghan Theresa Naile

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes two successful exhibitions on American slavery in the South: In Bondage and Freedom: Antebellum Black Life in Richmond, Virginia, 1790-1860 by the Valentine Museum and Before Freedom Came: African American Life in the Antebellum South by the Museum of the Confederacy. It puts the exhibitions in the context of the social history movement, and explains the difficulties exhibiting a sensitive topic. It examines the creation of the exhibitions, the controversies because of the subject, both real and potential, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction.


Unlawful Assembly And The Fredericksburg Mayor's Court Order Books, 1821-1834, Sarah K. Blunkosky May 2009

Unlawful Assembly And The Fredericksburg Mayor's Court Order Books, 1821-1834, Sarah K. Blunkosky

Theses and Dissertations

Unlawful assembly accounts extracted from the Fredericksburg Mayor’s Court Order Books from 1821-1834, reveal rare glimpses of unsupervised, alleged illegal interactions between free and enslaved individuals, many of whom do not appear in other records. Authorities enforced laws banning free blacks and persons of mixed race from interacting with enslaved persons and whites at unlawful assemblies to keep peace in the town, to prevent sexual relationships between white women and free and enslaved black men, and to prevent alliance building between individuals. The complex connections necessary to arrange unlawful assemblies threatened the town’s safety with insurrection if these individuals developed …