Digital Commons Network^™

Glimpses Of Marshall In The Military, Kevin C. Walsh

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Perspectives On The Northampton Communion Controversy Iv: Experience Mayhew’S Dissertation On Edwards’S Humble Inquiry, Douglas L. Winiarski

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

This fourth installment in a series exploring newly discovered manuscripts relating to the “Qualifications Controversy” that drove Edwards from his Northampton pastorate presents an unpublished oppositional dissertation by Experience Mayhew, a prominent eighteenth-century Indian missionary from Martha’s Vineyard. Next to Solomon Stoddard, Mayhew was Edwards’s most important theological target during the conflict. Where Edwards pressed toward precision in defining the qualifications for admission to the Lord’s Supper, Mayhew remained convinced that the standards for membership in New England’s Congregational churches should encompass a broad range of knowledge and experience. His rejoinder to Edwards’s Humble Inquiry provides a rare opportunity to …

In The Midst Of Life We Are In Death : Suicide Coverage In The South During The Civil War Era, India Miller

Honors Theses

The Civil War cast a shadow of despair over the divided nation as it left an estimated 620,000 men—roughly 2% of the population—dead on American soil, killed by American hands. Death and the Civil War are two subjects that are synonymous with one another; it is impossible to write on the war without commenting on its immense number of casualties. That said, relatively little is known about suicides behind the front lines.

The Power Elite, Nicole Sackley

History Faculty Publications

Over the past decade, scholars have begun to write the international history of the foundations. Influenced by the transnational turn in U.S. history as well as growing interdisciplinary interest in the role of non-state actors on the world stage, scholars such as Sunil Amrith, Volker Berghahn, Mary Brown Bullock, Anne-Emmanuelle Birn, Matthew Connelly, David Ekbladh, David Engerman, and John Krige have treated U.S. foundations as important international players. Some of these scholars have focused on foundations’ efforts in particular regions or nations. Others have shown how Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford helped to construct new global problems (underdevelopment, hunger, population control) …

Regulating Death And Building Empire : American Doctors And The Construction Of The Panama Canal, 1904-1914, Sarah Rhoads

Honors Theses

In May 1904, American engineers, doctors, nurses, and laborers arrived in Panama to begin work on one of the most expensive, challenging, and rewarding technological achievements of the twentieth century- the Panama Canal. At the time, the majority of Americans saw Panama as a wild tropical jungle, with dangerous diseases and a hostile climate. One of the most prevalent diseases in tropical regions, yellow fever, also known as yellow jack, was known to pose an enormous challenge to the success of the canal construction- the first mountain blocking Panama from successful U.S. intervention (see image above). In the popular U.S. …

Networks Of Resistance : Black Virginians Remember Civil War Loyalties, Amanda Kleintop

Honors Theses

On June 22, 1877, William Charity explained his neighborhood’s Civil War loyalties to special commissioner Isaac Baldwin of the Southern Claims Commission (SCC): “The colored people were mostly all for the union.” Charity, a free black Virginian, recognized that “mostly” did not mean all. He went on to suggest: “some of them were blind.” As a self-identified Unionist, Charity had difficulty envisioning a black man who was not loyal to the Union cause and emancipation during the Civil War. Current debates, however, have seized on those black Virginians Charity called “blind,” taking the “mostly” Unionist majority for granted. Like Charity, …

[Introduction To] America's War: Talking About The Civil War And Emancipation On Their 150th Anniversaries, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Edited by Edward L. Ayers, America’s War is an anthology of Civil War writing originally published between 1852 and 2008. Co-published by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, America’s War was created in support of a national reading and discussion program for libraries called “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War.”

The selections in America’s War include works of historical fiction and interpretation, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biographies, and short stories. Together, these readings provide a glimpse of the vast sweep and profound breadth of Americans’ war among and against themselves, adding …

Judicious Modification, Gary L. Mcdowell

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

As Thomas Jefferson neared the end of his long life ("with one foot in the grave and the other uplifted to follow it", as he put it), he had occasion to reflect on that extraordinary generation of which he so proudly had been a part. He was convinced that the "host of worthies" that comprised his "generation of 1776" had secured to all mankind in all future times the philosophical grounds for "the blessings and security of self-government", and thereby "the rights of man". Yet his pride in the accomplishments of his own generation was tempered by the nagging fear …

[Introduction To] America On The Eve Of The Civil War, Edward L. Ayers, Carolyn R. Martin

Bookshelf

The scholarship and public history the sixteen historians had created over their careers made this plan seem at least feasible. Their collective body of work embraces everything from politics to literature, from industrial slavery to African American art, from women's reform efforts to racial ideologies, from military history to the history of memory. Some of them worked at museums and libraries while others taught at universities and colleges across the nations. They belonged to no particular school of interpretation, and quite a few had never met one another.

The historians, whatever their backgrounds, shared a sense of responsibility for opening …

The Politics Of Sectional Servitude : The Construction Of American Abolitionist Discourse In Black And White, 1837-1847, Christopher M. Florio

Honors Theses

I argue that American political discourse surrounding abolition and slavery, sectional politics and violent insurrection, coalesced in the 1840s. The merger of such ostensibly disconnected streams of thought began with the perception of a new political need, as abolitionists came to believe that southern plantation elites had constructed a hegemonic proslavery order. Their interpretation of northern consent to southern domination impelled a proliferation of abolitionist possibilities, possibilities that were intended to sever the connection between national politics and the peculiar institution. Initially disseminated by freed blacks but subsequently appropriated by northern whites, these possibilities crossed the color line and challenged …

On The Record : The Visibility Of Race, Class, Gender, And Age In Richmond, Virginia's Newspaper Coverage Of 1960'S Sitdown Movement, Jill Eisenberg

Honors Theses

This research project is an analysis of the representation of race, class, gender, and age in local newspapers during the early 1960 civil rights' sitdown movement in Richmond, Virginia. Political figures and heads of media were predominantly older, elite, white- and male-oriented and -dominated. Through studying both white Richmond and African American Richmond newspapers, this thesis explores how these interlocking and interdependent systems of oppression and privilege affected the portrayal of groups and individuals in the media. Gender, race, class, and age cannot be studied in isolation from one another when analyzing the Civil Rights Movement and newspapers as primary …

Dead Reckoning (Book Review), Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Long before she became the first female president of Harvard University in July 2007, Drew Gilpin Faust showed herself to be an inventive, energetic, and restless historian. Her first book, in 1977, focused on a subject many people had doubted was a subject, "the intellectual in the Old South." Five years later, she produced what is still the fullest — and most disturbing — portrayal of a white Southern planter, a man who sought complete mastery over the white women in his charge as well as over the enslaved people he claimed as property.

Soon after that, in a series …

The Burning And Reconstruction Of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania 1864-1870, Gordon Boyer Lawrence

Master's Theses

Although many studies of Chambersburg's devastation during the American Civil War have been researched, all have focused on the military actions taken by both sides during the conflict. This thesis instead attempts to explore some of the effects of military actions upon the permanent civilian population.

The Introduction develops a sense of the events which transpired in the town on the fateful day of July 30, 1864, provides an overview of potential research subjects, and details sources available to complete successfully the research parameters outlined. The early development of the community is explored in Chapter 1. This data is necessary …

[Introduction To] Crucible Of The Civil War: Virginia From Secession To Commemoration, Edward L. Ayers, Gary W. Gallagher, Andrew J. Torget

Bookshelf

Crucible of the Civil War offers an illuminating portrait of the state’s wartime economic, political, and social institutions. Weighing in on contentious issues within established scholarship while also breaking ground in areas long neglected by scholars, the contributors examine such concerns as the war’s effect on slavery in the state, the wartime intersection of race and religion, and the development of Confederate social networks. They also shed light on topics long disputed by historians, such as Virginia’s decision to secede from the Union, the development of Confederate nationalism, and how Virginians chose to remember the war after its close.

The Virginia War Department During The American Revolution, Thomas Gregory Tune

Master's Theses

This thesis will provide a comprehensive analysis of the Virginia War Office during the American Revolution. A study of the War Office must start with its origin and, therefore, with the legislation that created it. This thesis will explore the reasons for the creation of the War Office and its legislative evolution into one of the most powerful agencies in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It will also discuss the War Office's legislative demise near the end of the war as the Virginia General Assembly began to shrink the government in cost-saving measures.

The second part of this thesis will examine …

[Introduction To] What Caused The Civil War? Reflections On The South And Southern History, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

The Southern past has proven to be fertile ground for great works of history. Peculiarities of tragic proportions—a system of slavery flourishing in a land of freedom, secession and Civil War tearing at a federal Union, deep poverty persisting in a nation of fast-paced development—have fed the imaginations of some of our most accomplished historians.

Foremost in their ranks today is Edward L. Ayers, author of the award-winning and ongoing study of the Civil War in the heart of America, the Valley of the Shadow Project. In wide-ranging essays on the Civil War, the New South, and the twentieth-century South, …

[Introduction To] In The Presence Of Mine Enemies: Civil War In The Heart Of America, 1859-1863, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Winner of the Bancroft Prize: Through a gripping narrative based on massive new research, a leading historian reshapes our understanding of the Civil War.

Our standard Civil War histories tell a reassuring story of the triumph, in an inevitable conflict, of the dynamic, free-labor North over the traditional, slave-based South, vindicating the freedom principles built into the nation's foundations.

But at the time, on the borderlands of Pennsylvania and Virginia, no one expected war, and no one knew how it would turn out. The one certainty was that any war between the states would be fought in their fields and …

The Effect Of Slavery On Southern Farmland Values In The Antebellum And Postbellum Era, Brandon Devlin

Honors Theses

In the past 30 years, the legacy of African-American slavery has experienced a transformation in historical perspective. Morality aside, several historians have suggested that the accepted views regarding slavery need revision, particularly in an economic sense. Utilizing cliometrics, census records, diaries, and first-hand accounts of slavery in the South, economic historians such as Robert Fogel and Stanley Engennan have made a compelling case for the viability and profitability of slavery by exposing the nuances of the system that historical generalities often ignore. Of course, words like "viable" and ''profitable" do not necessarily mean "virtuous"or even "preferable", but it does imply …

The Gray Ghost's Sanctuary: Civilians In Mosby's Confederacy During The Civil War, James J. Cain

Honors Theses

This work examines why civilians in Mosby's Confederacy supported the 43^d Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. The tactics used by Mosby placed civilians at considerable risk with Union authorities, for his men did not live in a separate camp but stayed either in hideaways in the mountains or, more commonly, with families they knew in the area. The nature of the guerrilla warfare practiced by Mosby's men, which involved late night gatherings, lightning strikes on the enemy's weakest points, and then dispersal into the countryside until the next raid, frustrated the Federal commanders who fought against them. These commanders, however, …

[Introduction To] Valley Of The Shadow: Two Communities In The American Civil War, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Two communities in America's Great Valley--Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and Augusta County, Virginia--separated by only a few hundred miles, share much in their politics and ways of life. Yet they emerge on opposing sides of a war in which they zealously send their sons to fight and die. Here we see a Civil War that is not the inevitable conflict of rival societies, but a human drama, immediate, particular, engrossing.

Rethinking Slavery And Freedom (Book Reviews), Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Review essay of the following books:

Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America by Ira Berlin.

Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War edited by Ira Berlin, Joseph P. Reidy, Leslie S. Rowland.

Confederate Matrons : Women Who Served In Virginia Civil War Hospitals, A. Elise Allison

Honors Theses

In September 1862, the Confederate Congress authorized hospitals to employ white women as chief matrons, assistant matrons, and ward matrons. This paper examines the lives and experiences of matrons who worked in Confederate hospitals in Virginia. It concludes that only ''exceptional" women with the stamina to endure physical and mental hardships were able to defy conventional ideas about their proper role and contribute to the care of Confederate sick and wounded as matrons.

Leadership And The War Between The States, Matt Cobb

Honors Theses

The concept of a Servant Leader is fascinating because it seems to be an oxymoron. How can one be a servant if they are to lead? This seems even stranger when placed in the context of military leaders. Robert Greenleaf argued that "The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead."' Individuals such as Jesus Christ, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. immediately seem to fit the definition for servant leaders. Each individual involved with the military serve their respective …

[Introduction To] The Oxford Book Of The American South: Testimony, Memory, And Fiction, Edward L. Ayers, Bradley C. Mittendorf

Bookshelf

Resonating with the testimony of slaves and slaveholders, the powerful and the powerless, women and men, black people and white, The Oxford Book of the American South combines the most telling fiction and nonfiction produced in the South from the late eighteenth century to the present. The first anthology to put short stories, novels, autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, and journalism together, this collection is a rich and varied record of life below the Mason Dixon line. We see the antebellum period both from the perspective of those who experienced it first-hand, such as Thomas Jefferson and Harriet Jacobs, as well as …

[Introduction To] All Over The Map: Rethinking American Regions, Edward L. Ayers, Patricia Nelson Limerick, Stephen Nissenbaum, Peter S. Onuf

Bookshelf

Even as Americans keep moving "all over the map" in the late twentieth century, they cherish memories of the places they come from. But where do these places—these regions—come from? What makes them so real? In this groundbreaking book a distinguished group of historians explores the concept of region in America, traces changes the idea has undergone in our national experience, and examines its meaning for Americans today.

Far from diminishing in importance, the authors conclude, regional differences continue to play a significant role in Americans' self-image. Regional identity, in fact, has always been fed by the very forces that …

Memory And The South, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Our sudden interest in memory has something to do with the democratization of history, with our interest in how literally every one saw themselves. It has something to do too with our loss of faith in the coherence and objectivity of professional history. Memory, unlike older conceptions of "national character" or "American culture," tends to divide as much as unify.

[Introduction To] The Promise Of The New South: Life After Reconstruction, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

At a public picnic in the South in the 1890s, a young man paid five cents for his first chance to hear the revolutionary Edison talking machine. He eagerly listened as the soundman placed the needle down, only to find that through the tubes he held to his ears came the chilling sounds of a lynching. In this story, with its blend of new technology and old hatreds, genteel picnics and mob violence, Edward Ayers captures the history of the South in the years between Reconstruction and the turn of the century.

Ranging from the Georgia coast to the Tennessee …

[Introduction To] The Edge Of The South: Life In Nineteenth-Century Virginia, Edward L. Ayers, John C. Willis

Bookshelf

The chapters in this volume explore diverse scenes of nineteenth-century Virginia: the big house and the slave quarters, small farms and battlefields, freed slaves in the country and freed slaves in the city, dark coal mines and brightly illuminated caverns, raucous political rallies and genteel meetings of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Each essay offers a new perspective on a past which refuses to fit familiar ways of thinking about the nation and the South.

The Role Of The Tobacco Trade In Turkish-American Relations, 1923-29., Robert Carey Goodman

Master's Theses

This study of the tobacco trade between Turkey and the United States provides new perspectives on two major themes in Turkish-American relations between 1923 and 1929: the effect of Turkish nationalism on American interests in Ataturk's Turkey, and the effort to restore Turkish- American diplomatic ties broken during World War I. The marked rise in American cigarette consumption after World War I made the tobacco trade a crucial link between Turkey and America because it required the importation of aromatic tobacco. During the Turkish Republic' s first decades, the value of American tobacco imports from Turkey exceeded the value of …

[Introduction To] Vengeance And Justice: Crime And Punishment In The 19th Century American South, Edward L. Ayers

Bookshelf

Exploring the major elements of southern crime and punishment at a time that saw the formation of the fundamental patterns of class and race, Edward L. Ayers studies the inner workings of the police, prison, and judicial systems, and the nature of crime.