Digital Commons Network^™

Captive To The American Woods: Sarah Wakefield And Cultural Mediation, Sophia Betsworth Hunt

Masters Theses

The life and narrative of Sarah Wakefield, an Anglo migrant who spent six weeks as a captive of the Santee Dakotas during the US-Dakota Conflict, show one woman's experience navigating the changing racial dynamics of the nineteenth-century Minnesota frontier. Using recent conceptualizations of “the frontier” as either a middle ground or woods, this thesis reconsiders Wakefield as a prisoner, not of Indians or her own conscience but of her region‟s ossifying racial divisions. Wakefield's initial attempts at intercultural communication, which included feeding starving Dakotas who knocked on her door, were consistent with Anglo notions about womanhood and Indian-white relations. But …

Emerging From The Shadow Of Death: The Relief Efforts And Consolidating Identity Of The Irish Middle Classes During The Great Famine, 1845-1851, Jessica K. Lumsden

Masters Theses

This project argued that the leadership of the Irish middle classes was essential in providing relief to the destitute during the Great Irish Potato Famine, 1845-1851. It further argued that middle class leadership in the Famine period translated into a greater class consciousness and subsequent political leadership. Records from the transactions of relief projects from the Society of Friends, pamphlets written by contemporary British and Irish men of the middle and upper classes, and workhouse records illuminated the role of the middle classes in relief efforts. This project joins that primary research to secondary scholarship on the growing political role …

Appointing Stability In An Age Of Crisis: Lord Charles Cornwallis And The British Imperial Revival, 1780-1801, Bradley S. Benefield

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the ideological impetus to the founding of the second British Empire. The loss of the thirteen North American colonies left the British Empire in a state of crisis. Yet, by the early nineteenth century, the British Empire was once again in a position of global dominance. Many historians have theorized over how Britain united to face and overcome this period of crisis. One historian, C.A. Bayly, has argued that British elites rallied behind a progressive conservative ideology, which became the prerequisite to the founding of the second British Empire. To test this …

Southern Normal?: An Exploration Of Integration In A Deep South Town: Brewton, Alabama, 1954-1971, Anna Catherine Mcdonald

Masters Theses

This study was conducted in order to identify possible reasons for the successful integration of Brewton, Alabama’s school system. Unlike many other towns in South Alabama, Brewton chose not to create a private school as an alternative to attending an integrated public facility. Known as “white flight” schools, these private institutions are still a viable factor in the education of Southern children. Although Brewton had the money and the resources to create such a school, it did not. This thesis seeks to understand why.

Two factors are central to approaching Brewton as a topic of research. One is Brewton’s wealthy …

Some Social And Economic Phases Of Reconstruction In East Tennessee, 1864-1869, James Bernard Campbell

Masters Theses

Preface: The Reconstruction period in Tennessee was dominated by the Unionists of the eastern part of the state. It is the purpose of this study to show the results of this domination as reflected in social and economic conditions, education, and the status of the Negro in the home region of the East Tennessee leaders.

The writer is greatly indebted to Professor Stanley J. Folmsbee for many helpful suggestions and criticisms in the preparation of this study and for the use of a chapter in his unpublished history of the University of Tennessee. The librarians of the McClung Collection, Lawson …

History Of Disciples Of Christ In Upper East Tennessee, H. C. Wagner

Masters Theses

Forward:

Any student of Tennessee history is aware of the fact that from the beginning the churches have played an important part in the development of the life of the state. The Disciples of Christ have been especially active in East Tennessee in the last 125 years, yet nothing has been written of their work. The purpose of this study has been to make a beginning on the research necessary for a full history of the Disciples of Christ in Tennessee. As such, it is largely a study in local church history, with a view to preserving the data and …