Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Philanthropy And The New England Emigrant Aid Company, 1854-1900, Courtney Elizabeth Buchkoski
Philanthropy And The New England Emigrant Aid Company, 1854-1900, Courtney Elizabeth Buchkoski
Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
This project examines the New England Emigrant Aid Company colonization of Kansas in 1854 as a solution to the growing debate over popular sovereignty and slave labor. It uses the Company as a lens to reinterpret the intellectual history of philanthropy, tracing its roots from Puritan ideas of charity to the capitalistic giving of the nineteenth century.
It argues that the Company’s vision was simultaneously capitalistic and moralistic, for it served both as an imposition of “proper” society upon the West and South, but also had the potential to benefit the donors financially and politically. Using a settler colonial framework, …
"Free Homes For Free Men": A Political History Of The Homestead Act, 1774-1863, Benjamin T. Arrington
"Free Homes For Free Men": A Political History Of The Homestead Act, 1774-1863, Benjamin T. Arrington
Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Focusing on national politics and America's long road to civil war, this dissertation presents a history of the "free land" idea that culminated with the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. Using primary sources such as the published papers of notable political figures and records of congressional debates, this work presents the full political history of homesteading from before the Revolutionary War to its ultimate approval during the Civil War.
Politicians debated how best to use and distribute public lands for decades before the Civil War. While many took inspiration from Thomas Jefferson and called for the government to …