History Commons^™

The Role Of Plant Foods Among Native Americans In Seventeenth-Century Virginia An Historical And Botanical Study, Timothy W. Cameron

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Seventeenth-century Powhatan Indians practiced a subsistence economy utilizing plant resources from both the forest and wetland areas of Virginia to maintain adequate nutrition levels throughout the year. They chose not to depend heavily upon maize agriculture, but instead combined marine and animal resources with wild plants according to the seasonal round. Cultigens such as squash, beans, and maize provided dietary sources for only six months of the year; foraged plant foods made up the difference. Primary plant resources included nuts such as acorns, chestnuts, and hickory and the emergent tubers known as tuckahoe. Secondary plant foods, such as starchy seeds, …

The Chimney Fireplace In Colonial Virginia, Catherine Howe Grosfils

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The study of an architectural feature, the chimney fireplace, suggests changing social patterns in late colonial Virginia society. An examination of fireplace equipment in 175 room-by-room inventories, together with evidence from surviving buildings and documentary sources, reveals changes in chimney fireplaces which in turn signal deep-seated changes within this colonial society. To place the Virginia chimney within its broader context, a brief history of the chimney fireplace precedes the study of changing construction materials, fuel and fireplace equipment, and heated and unheated rooms. The social significance of the chimney fireplace, a status symbol in colonial Virginia, is discussed with relation …

The Oneida Community: Its Apologists And Its Critics, Nancy C. Morris

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This thesis examines the historical literature regarding the Oneida Community (1848-81) from the society's conceptual beginnings in the 1830s to the present time. After an overview of the antebellum communitarian movement in the United States, a detailed description of the Oneida Community, one of America's most prominent nineteenth-century utopian experiments, is presented.

Chapters III, IV, and V survey the body of literature pertinent to the Oneida Community and its founder and spiritual leader, John Humphrey Noyes, over the last 145 years. The writings of the Oneida apologists, a majority of whom were Oneida Community family members and their descendants, are …