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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
"Ruin And Desolation Scarcely Paralleled" : An Examination Of The Virginia Flood Of 1870’S Aftermath And Relief Efforts, Paula Fielding Green
"Ruin And Desolation Scarcely Paralleled" : An Examination Of The Virginia Flood Of 1870’S Aftermath And Relief Efforts, Paula Fielding Green
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
During the autumn of 1870, a massive flood engulfed parts of Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland. The turbid waters claimed over 100 lives and left communities and residents along the James, Shenandoah, Potomac, Rappahannock, Anna, Rivanna, Maury, Middle, South, Staunton, Rockfish, Tye, and Pamunkey Rivers in varying states of distress. At least one quarter of Virginia was affected by the storm and subsequent flooding, making it significant to multiple areas of the State through the loss of life, property, and infrastructure.
This thesis examines the flooding event in detail through both a written thesis and website component. The written thesis …
Demon Rum In The City Of Churches: A Spirited Fight For Alcohol Reform In Danville, Virginia, 1883-1933, Evelyn Dawn Riley
Demon Rum In The City Of Churches: A Spirited Fight For Alcohol Reform In Danville, Virginia, 1883-1933, Evelyn Dawn Riley
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
Utilizing previous research of American alcohol reform movements, and specifically studies of alcohol in Virginia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this thesis explores the multi-faceted story of Danville, Virginia and its alcohol reform from 1883-1933. Contained within these dates are critical events and stories chronicling the complex history of conflict, and occasional cooperation, regarding alcohol in a southern town. The goal of the thesis, comprised of two parts--a context paper and an accompanying digital exhibit--was to explore how Danville’s community structure and public discourse affected the way alcohol reform was experienced and discussed in the city. Findings indicated that …
Retaliation With Restraint: Destruction Of Private Property In The 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Jeannie Cummings Harding
Retaliation With Restraint: Destruction Of Private Property In The 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Jeannie Cummings Harding
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
The Second Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1864 created new challenges for commanders, soldiers, and civilians on both sides. Pressure on General Grant and President Lincoln to end the war quickly precipitated an increase in the use and severity of hard war policies in the South. Meanwhile, Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early worked against his foe, implementing hard war in southern Pennsylvania in a desperate attempt to maintain his supply base in the Shenandoah Valley. Soldiers and civilians found themselves caught in the middle of an increasing cycle of destruction that they seemed to find equally demoralizing. Three towns suffered significant …
"The American Canaan": Eighteenth Century Trans-Appalachian Migration, Lauren C. James
"The American Canaan": Eighteenth Century Trans-Appalachian Migration, Lauren C. James
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
This thesis examines the events that produced a uniquely Tennessean identity before the 1796 statehood through a careful examination of the late colonial, Revolutionary, and Early Republic periods in the Appalachian backcountry. It argues that land, as a tangible embodiment of the republican notion of liberty, was the chief motivation for the actions of these backcountry settlers in the latter half of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It first addresses specific circumstances concerning the motivation for the migration of hundreds, even thousands, of individuals across the Appalachian Mountains into Cherokee lands from four distinct originating colonies: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, …
“Endangering The Stability Of Slavery”: Black Freedom In The Upper South, 1820-1850, Ashley K. Schmidt
“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 …
Preservation Of The Old Dominion: The Role Of National Security Concerns In The Virginia Ratification Debates, Joseph Harrington
Preservation Of The Old Dominion: The Role Of National Security Concerns In The Virginia Ratification Debates, Joseph Harrington
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
This thesis will display the ways in which national security concerns played into the debate over whether Virginia should ratify the United States Constitution. The vast majority of primary sources used in this thesis come from speeches delivered by the representatives from throughout Virginia (which at this time included present-day West Virginia and Kentucky) in the Virginia Ratifying Convention. The three major areas which this thesis explores are the threat of war with other states, the threat of war with foreign nations, and the threat of slave insurrections. The chapter on threat of war with other states examines the possibility …
The Advent Of Universal Public Education In Virginia And Its Valley: Reconstruction Through The Progressive Era, 1865-1920, Paul N. Belmont Iii
The Advent Of Universal Public Education In Virginia And Its Valley: Reconstruction Through The Progressive Era, 1865-1920, Paul N. Belmont Iii
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
Prior to 1870 there was no such thing as a public school in the state of Virginia, nor in most of the United States. History regards Reconstruction as a lost moment in time which failed to realize its potential to secure the full promises of freedom. The historiography rightly focuses on this ugly legacy of Reconstruction in a racially segregated south. Virginia’s Redeemer Democrats had rested political control from Radical Republicans by the ratification of the state’s 1870 Constitution. Virginia’s 1902 Constitution is rightly remembered for effectively disenfranchising blacks and poor whites. Yet, the promise of education was introduced to …
The River And The Factory: Momentum And Shifting Dynamics Between The Shenandoah River And Avtex Fibers, 1939-1989, Christina Wulf
The River And The Factory: Momentum And Shifting Dynamics Between The Shenandoah River And Avtex Fibers, 1939-1989, Christina Wulf
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
From 1940-1989, a huge rayon factory—at one time the largest in the world—operated on the banks of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River in the Town of Front Royal, Virginia. Three different companies owned the facility: American Viscose Corporation (AVC) built it in 1939 and ran it until 1963 when the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC Corp.) conglomerate purchased AVC. In 1976, an FMC executive bought the rayon plant in Front Royal in a leveraged buyout, renaming the facility Avtex Fibers, Inc. From early on, the plant had serious problems with waste materials—including many toxic substances—produced when manufacturing rayon. During …