Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Questionable Use Of Electors To Correct Voter Imbalances During The Early Presidential Elections, Marvin L. Simner

History Publications

During the drafting of the United States Constitution a major dilemma arose over how best to ensure that the smaller states (Delaware, Georgia, New Hampshire) had an equal voice with the larger states (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia) when the time arrived to elect a chief executive officer for the country as a whole. The dilemma involved an issue that emerged when it became clear that, if left unresolved, the larger states could easily dominate the process though their use of electoral votes. Although a procedure had been proposed that would have properly addressed this issue, it was rejected in favor of …

The Purpose Of The Electoral College: A Seemingly Endless Controversy, Marvin L. Simner

History Publications

Use of the Electoral College as the sole means for determining the outcome of a presidential election in the United States has come under repeated attack in recent years. The purpose of this article is to review the nature of the attack, the reason for the College as discussed by the Framers of the Constitution, its questionable early significance, and finally, a current proposal for altering its importance that appears to be gaining momentum.

A Misguided Attempt To Populate Upper Canada With Loyalists After The American Revolution, Marvin L. Simner

History Publications

Following the American Revolution, and to achieve a more appropriate governing climate, the British Parliament issued the Constitutional Act of 1791 which created, out of a single province, “two separate Canadas, each having a representative government with an elected assembly of its own.” The French-speaking sector became known as Lower Canada while the English-speaking sector was called Upper Canada. [1] What became immediately apparent with this division of the province was the highly disproportionate population in the two distinct sectors, and the potential danger this posed for the security of the province as a whole. In Lower Canada, today known …

Unraveling The Beginning Phase And Final Phase In The Emergence Of The French Alliance, Marvin L. Simner

History Publications

It is widely acknowledged that the military alliance between the United States and France, established in 1778, was largely responsible not only for a number of American victories over the British, but also for the end of the Revolutionary War. While much has been written about this topic as well as the events that occurred between 1777 and 1778 which led to the alliance, far less is known about the factors that took place in 1775/1776 that contributed to the initial need for the alliance as well as the factors that surrounded the culmination, signing, and the final acceptance of …

Why Did The Signers Of The Declaration Of Independence Engage In This Treasonous Act?, Marvin L. Simner

History Publications

The penalty for committing an act of treason against the Crown in 1775, as read by British judges sentencing Irish rebels, was as follows:

You are to be drawn on hurdles to the place of execution, where you are to be hanged by the neck, but not until you are dead; for, while you are still living your bodies are to be taken down, your bowels torn out and burned before your faces, your heads then cut off, and your bodies divided each into four quarters, and your heads and quarters to be then at the King’s disposal; and may …

"A New Era In Building": African American Educational Activism In Goochland County, Virginia, 1911-32, Brian J. Daugherity, Alyce Miller

History Publications

An examination of African American educational activism in the early twentieth century in Goochland County, Virginia, including the Rosenwald school building program.

Sympathetic Physics: The Keely Motor And The Laws Of Thermodynamics In Nineteenth-Century Culture, Robert Macdougall

History Publications

In Philadelphia in the 1870s, John Worrell Keely announced the invention of a fantastic new motor that could, he promised, drive locomotives, power factories, and even defy gravity without fuel or heat. The Keely Motor became the most notorious perpetual motion scheme of the nineteenth century, attracting believers and investors for nearly thirty years. This article explores the “work” the motor performed for Keely, his supporters, and his critics—not physical work, but financial, cultural, and psychological. To investors, the Keely Motor represented a dream of riches without effort. To Keely’s critics, the motor offered an opportunity to defend the legitimacy …

Program Of Action: The Rev. L. Francis Griffin And The Struggle For Racial Equality In Farmville, 1963, Brian E. Lee, Brian J. Daugherity

History Publications

An historical portrait of the Reverend L. Francis Griffin's leadership in the Civil Rights Movement. In the summer of 1963 demand for equality and for an end to racial segregation brought a series of protests to Farmville, Virginia, the county seat of Prince Edward County. The protests were organized and led by the Rev. L. Francis Griffin, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Farmville. They called their summer of protests a “Program of Action.”

Fair Employment, Voting Rights, And Racial Violence (Including Introduction), Timothy N. Thurber

History Publications

Introduction and chapter one from the book, Republicans and Race: The GOP’s Frayed Relationship with African Americans, 1945–1974.

From the author's introduction "I offer a fresh look at the relationship between African Americans and the GOP. This book explores how Republicans at the federal level approached racial policy and politics between 1945 and 1974. Though the struggle for black equality existed before then and continues today, these three decades constitute a distinct era in that battle. African Americans and their allies grew more assertive in challenging the status quo. Some focused on direct action protests, while others primarily lobbied the …

Preface, Introduction, And Chronology: Gabriel's Conspiracy, Philip J. Schwarz

History Publications

Preface and Introduction to Gabriel's Conspiracy: A Documentary History by Philip J. Schwarz. Includes a six page Chronology (1776-1800) of the documented events of Gabriel Prosser's life, with emphasis on the slave rebellion of 1800.

From the Introduction, "Documents concerning the important 1800 plot of enslaved Virginians to rebel against slavery have appeared in such publications as the Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Michael Mullin's American Negro Slavery: A Documentary History, and as part of a Library of Virginia exhibit in 2000. But there has never been a publication devoted solely to the many documents associated with the events of …

"Keep On Keeping On": African Americans And The Implementation Of Brown V. Board Of Education In Virginia, Brian J. Daugherity

History Publications

This chapter examines African American efforts to implement the Brown decision in Virginia. While considering how government officials, segregationist organizations, and white supporters influenced the implementation process, this study focuses on how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and its supporters in Virginia sought to bring about school desegregation in the state. Blending African American, southern, legal, and civil rights history, the story sheds new light on the school desegregation process and the early years of the civil rights movement in Virginia.

Recovering A "Lost" Story Using Oral History: The United States Supreme Court's Historic Green V. New Kent County, Virginia, Decision, Jody L. Allen, Brian J. Daugherity

History Publications

In 1965, New Kent County, located just east of Richmond, Virginia, became the setting for the one of the most important school desegregation cases since Brown v. Board of Education. Ten years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared "separate but equal" unconstitutional, both public schools in New Kent, the George W. Watkins School for blacks and the New Kent School for whites, remained segregated. In 1965, however, local blacks and the Virginia State NAACP initiated a legal challenge to segregated schools, hoping to initiate desegregation where the process had yet to begin and to accelerate the process in areas …

Introduction: Migrants Against Slavery, Philip J. Schwarz

History Publications

From the introduction, "The stories in this book show that complete avoidance of slavery was impossible because of the power of Virginian slaveholders and because of the residues of slavery in the Midwest and elsewhere in the North. Because of these factors, people who left Virginia to avoid slavery developed diverse tactics and followed markedly different routes."

Introduction includes historical data tables: Virginia-born African-Americans in northern cities, 1850 and 1860; Free Virginia-born people living in states outside Virginia, 1850 and 1860; Ratio of free expatriates to their native eastern states' free population, 1850 and 1860; Distribution of expatriates from South …

"A Sense Of Their Own Power": Self-Determination In Recent Writings On Black Virginians, Philip J. Schwarz

History Publications

Discusses historical visibility of African American Virginians from 1619 to the present in relation to the concept of self-determination and power.

The Shape Of The Shackles (Including Preface And Introduction), Philip J. Schwarz

History Publications

Analyzes the history of enslaved African Americans' relationship with the criminal courts of Virginia during a 160 year period.

Emancipators, Protectors, And Anomalies: Free Black Slaveowners In Virginia, Philip J. Schwarz

History Publications

Free black ownership of slaves, which did exist in Virginia, shows that opportunity of a kind was open to some free people of color, but as the slave society of Virginia grew older and larger, it was an increasingly limited opportunity. When ownership of bondspeople by free people of color is placed into the context of the white supremacist and pro slavery laws and society of Virginia, however, it stands out as all the more remarkable as well as anomalous.

Includes photographs of the excavated the site of Archibald Batte's store in Bermuda Hundred, by Daniel Mouer, VCU Archaeology Department.

Coming Of Age In The Progressive South, John T. Kneebone

History Publications

Chapter one of Southern Liberal Journalists and the Issue of Race, 1920-1944, a history of southern racial liberalism between World War I and World War II by examining the works of five leading southern journalists.

Gabriel's Challenge: Slaves And Crime In Late Eighteenth-Century Virginia, Philip J. Schwarz

History Publications

Historical analysis of a 1799 altercation and subsequent trial involving Gabriel Prosser, who a year later would lead a large slave insurrection. Schwarz notes, "the 1799 incident is primarily important for revealing the power of slave resistance to specific aspects of their bondage." Includes data from U.S. Census records 1790-1800 and Brunswick County Personal Property Taxes, 1799.