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“'They Was Things Past The Tellin’: A Reconsideration Of Sexuality And Memory In The Ex-Slave Narratives Of The Federal Writers’ Project", Lynn Cowles Wartberg Dec 2012

“'They Was Things Past The Tellin’: A Reconsideration Of Sexuality And Memory In The Ex-Slave Narratives Of The Federal Writers’ Project", Lynn Cowles Wartberg

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In 1936, Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) employees began interviewing formerly enslaved men and women, allowing them to speak publicly of their experiences under slavery. Defying racism and the repressions of Jim Crow, ex-slaves discussed intimate details of their lives. Many researchers considered these interviews unreliable, but if viewed through the lens of gender and analyzed using recent scholarship on slavery and sexuality, FWP interviews offer new insights into the lives of enslaved men and women. Using a small number of ex-slave interviews, most of them drawn from Louisiana, this thesis demonstrates the value of these oral histories for understanding the …


John Randolph Of Roanoke And The Politics Of Doom: Slavery, Sectionalism, And Self-Deception, 1773-1821, Aaron Scott Crawford Dec 2012

John Randolph Of Roanoke And The Politics Of Doom: Slavery, Sectionalism, And Self-Deception, 1773-1821, Aaron Scott Crawford

Doctoral Dissertations

In 1979, Robert Dawidoff wrote that it “was on the question of slavery that John Randolph contributed most decisively to American history.” Randolph’s stance on slavery has perplexed historians and biographers since his death in 1833. This dissertation examines the paradox of slavery in the life and career of John Randolph from the American Revolution until the Missouri Compromise. In an attempt to understand his public and private contradictions concerning slavery and the role of intense sectionalism in his politics, I have attempted to correlate his words with his actions. An examination of his letters reveal a man decidedly devoted …


Slavery In The Constitution: The Ironic Shifts In Tension Over Three Pivotal Clauses, Joseph Privitera Jun 2012

Slavery In The Constitution: The Ironic Shifts In Tension Over Three Pivotal Clauses, Joseph Privitera

Honors Theses

As scholarship has attempted to demonstrate in recent times, early United States history has unfortunately been stained with slavery. The founding document of the nation, the Constitution, is no exception. The three provisions which affected the institution most directly are the three-fifths, slave trade, and fugitive slave clauses. Of these sections, the latter proved to be by far the most controversial in the long-run. Although the other two received lengthy debates and caused great concern in 1787 during the General Convention and over the next few years as the states discussed ratification, they caused limited levels of strain on the …


“Double-Crossed, So To Speak": Black Female Resistance To Gendered Oppression In The South, Amolie Egloff May 2012

“Double-Crossed, So To Speak": Black Female Resistance To Gendered Oppression In The South, Amolie Egloff

Honors Theses

Despite the vast amount of research focused on slavery and the American South, studies focusing solely on the black female’s experience during this time period are a fairly recent development. In the existing literature, these women have been painted a helpless victim caught in the wrath of white men, black men, and even white women. This study presents the stories of black women courageously resisting oppression both while enslaved and just after emancipation from 1830 to 1890. The analysis of a handful of slave narratives taken by the Worker’s Progress Administration in the 1930s and 1940s established that because black …


“Endangering The Stability Of Slavery”: Black Freedom In The Upper South, 1820-1850, Ashley K. Schmidt May 2012

“Endangering The Stability Of Slavery”: Black Freedom In The Upper South, 1820-1850, Ashley K. Schmidt

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

In the Upper South, free blacks stood out as a living breathing contradiction to the institution of race-based slavery. State legislatures continuously debated and discussed the issue, and created a plethora of laws to restrict the freedoms given to African Americans. However, through a comparison of two piedmont locales, Bedford County, Virginia, and Washington County, Virginia, this thesis reveals the flexibility of execution of state laws on the ground. The work argues that state laws did not necessarily dictate black experiences in freedom. Instead, free black experience can be shown through the ways that whites enforced the laws, a process …


Slavery And Empire: The Development Of Slavery In The Natchez District, 1720-1820, Christian Pinnen May 2012

Slavery And Empire: The Development Of Slavery In The Natchez District, 1720-1820, Christian Pinnen

Dissertations

“Slavery and Empire: The Development of Slavery in the Natchez District, 1720- 1820,” examines how slaves and colonists weathered the economic and political upheavals that rocked the Lower Mississippi Valley. The study focuses on the fitful— and often futile—efforts of the French, the English, the Spanish, and the Americans to establish plantation agriculture in Natchez and its environs, a district that emerged as the heart of the “Cotton Kingdom” in the decades following the American Revolution. Before American planters established their hegemony over Natchez, the town was a struggling outpost that changed hands three times over the course of the …


The Politics Of Slavery And Secession In Antebellum Florida, 1845-1861, Michael Paul Mcconville Jan 2012

The Politics Of Slavery And Secession In Antebellum Florida, 1845-1861, Michael Paul Mcconville

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The political history of antebellum Florida has long been overlooked in southern historiography. Florida was a state for just sixteen years before secession set it apart from the rest of the Union, but Florida’s road to secession was as unique as any of its southern counterparts. From the territorial days in the early nineteenth century, Florida’s political culture centered on the development and protection of slavery throughout the state. The bank wars in the pre-statehood and early statehood periods reflected differing views on how best to support the spread of the plantation economy, and the sectional strife of the 1850s …


Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden Jan 2012

Vox Populi-Vox Belli: A Historical Study Of Southern Ante Bellum Public Attitudes And Motivations Toward Secession, Julian Boyden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines why the south seceded in 1860 as opposed to any other time in the 19th century and what changed the mentalité of the people in the period 1857-1860. The underlying issue in southern politics and the issue of secession was clearly slavery and slavery rested on the economics of cotton. Yet slavery and cotton do not explain why the South seceded in 1860 and not at other times in the preceding seventy years. 1807 saw the outlawing of the international slave trade and 1819 saw Congress pass the Slave Trade Act interdicting the ships involved. In 1828 …


The Identity Of A Plantation Structure: The Preliminary Analysis Of An Early Structure At Mont Repose Plantation, St. Luke's Parish, Jasper County, South Carolina, Heather R. Amaral Jan 2012

The Identity Of A Plantation Structure: The Preliminary Analysis Of An Early Structure At Mont Repose Plantation, St. Luke's Parish, Jasper County, South Carolina, Heather R. Amaral

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the 2000 Archeology Field School, Georgia Southern University began an investigation of a nineteenth century plantation structure near Ridgeland, South Carolina. The plantation, Mont Repose, is an example of an inland rice plantation operated in this region during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The structure was initially believed to be a kitchen for this plantation but more recent fieldwork has suggested that this designation may need to be re-examined. Recent excavations have yielded specific artifacts suggesting that the structure may have sheltered a variety of daily functions in addition to specific kitchen activities. Preliminary Mean Ceramic Dating suggests a …


Anti-Slavery And Church Schism Among Protestants In Antebellum Central Kentucky, Lance Justin Hale Jan 2012

Anti-Slavery And Church Schism Among Protestants In Antebellum Central Kentucky, Lance Justin Hale

Online Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of the effects of anti-slavery and church schism among Protestant Christians in the Bluegrass region of antebellum Kentucky. A variety of secondary and primary sources are utilized, including books and journal articles from current scholarship, journals kept by historical actors, books, letters, and articles, written during or some years after the time under consideration, as well as publications of churches and denominations. Throughout the antebellum years, churches and denominations in the United States fractured over disagreements on slavery and theology. Pastors, such as James Pendleton and Peter Cartwright, endeavored to keep Christianity vibrant and relevant …


Shades Of Grey: Slaveholding Free Women Of Color In Antebellum New Orleans, 1800-1840, Anne Ulentin Jan 2012

Shades Of Grey: Slaveholding Free Women Of Color In Antebellum New Orleans, 1800-1840, Anne Ulentin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the economic opportunities that free women of color could derive from slaveholding, their motivations, and their impact on New Orleans’ antebellum society and economy. Another aim is to find out the role and impact of free women of color from Saint Domingue (later Haiti), whose arrival in New Orleans doubled the number of free women of color in the city. Finally, the analysis of relationships between free women of color and their slaves and with the diverse population of New Orleans plays an important part in this study. Notarial deeds (sales and purchases of slaves, mortgages of …