History Commons^™

Adventus: The Great Coming Of 1862, John M. Rudy

Interpreting the Civil War: Connecting the Civil War to the American Public

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a weekend in Harpers Ferry helping to interpret that amazing place for the National Historical Park's annual Christmas 1864 event. One of the greatest joys of my desk job in interpretive training is getting back out into a parkscape to test out new ideas and practices. This time it gave me the chance to experiment out in the field, wearing the olde-timey clothes of the 1860s and discussing how hammers, anvils and black labor won the war through the U.S. Quartermasters Depot at Harpers Ferry. The event is amazingly fun and infinitely powerful …

Weeks, George Henry, 1839-1914 (Sc 798), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 798. Letters, 18 and 24 May 1863, of George Henry Weeks, a Union soldier from the 103rd Ohio Regiment, to his mother and sisters while camped near Somerset, Kentucky and the Cumberland River. Weeks includes details on duty, guerrilla activities, a slave’s plight, and his chaplain.

Mcreynolds, John Vernon (Sc 533), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 533. Excerpts from McReynolds family history written by Benjamin McReynolds, Methodist minister and school teacher, Butler County, Kentucky. Also, additions to the history by John Vernon McReynolds, Lewisburg, Logan County, Kentucky.

Barrow, David, 1753-1819 (Sc 517), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text of diary (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 517. Photocopy of a typescript diary kept by David Barrow, a pioneer Baptist minister, during his trip to Kentucky and the Northwest Territory of Ohio. He visited family members, often preached at religious gatherings, and observed peace negotiations between the United States and various Indian tribes at Fort Greenville. Beginning in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, he traveled through Pennsylvania, Kentucky, the Northwest Territory, Eastern Tennessee, and North Carolina, before returning to his home in Virginia.

Johnson, Sylvanus, 1779-1856 (Sc 34), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) . for Manuscripts Small Collection 34. Letter written by Sy Johnson, Mount Pinia, Edmonson County, Kentucky, to John H. White, Warren County, Kentucky concerning the hiring of slaves.

Whitaker, Francis J., 1916-1994 (Mss 406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 406. Correspondence, research notes and manuscript articles of Frances J. “Thomas” Whitaker, a Benedictine monk who lived and worked at St. Maur’s Priory, formerly the South Union Shaker Village in Logan County, Kentucky, from 1954-1988. He amassed a large collection of photocopied research material on the South Union community as well as other Shaker villages and museums in the United States. Also includes his research on various Catholic topics.

Hines, John, 1771-1853 (Sc 17), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 17. Receipt stating that John Hines’ account has been paid in full, 1814; deed for land in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky; which Hines bought from Thomas Anderson, 1826; and undated statement signed by James Patterson attesting to Hines’ ownership of a slave.

Slavery - Tennessee (Sc 704), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 704. Photostats of slave narratives which relate a folk history of slavery in Tennessee from interviews with former slaves. The records were prepared by the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938. Originals (typed) are in the Library of Congress.

Hardy, Nathaniel (Sc 473), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 473. Typed copies of letters written by Nathaniel Hardy of Louisville to his sister, Caroline Weston of Massachusetts, which relate family news and personal views about slavery, temperance and steamboat travel. Also, letter written by Caroline Sherrill to J.E. Hardy pertaining to these early letters and containing some family history written by a descendant in 1938.

Rowan Family Papers (Mss 418), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 418. Correspondence and papers of Kentucky lawyer and politician John Rowan, Sr., and relatives in the Rowan, Lytle, Steele, Boone and Buchanan families. Several letters have been typescripted and can be viewed here (click on "Additional Files" below).

Slavery - Emancipation (Sc 455), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 455. Emancipation agreement made between Thomas McClean and the trustees of the United Society of Shakers, South Union, Kentucky, regarding the manumission of a black family (Joseph, Chloe, and George).

A Plea For Freedom: Enslaved Independence Through Petitions For Freedom In Washington D.C. Between 1810 And 1830, Trevor J. Shalon

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Between 1810 and 1830, over 190 petitions for freedom by African Americans went through the District Court of Washington D.C. The free African American community which had emerged following the American Revolution had been restricted in the beginning of the nineteenth century and the rights granted to free and enslaved African Americans were retracted. The methods by which enslaved African Americans had used to obtain their freedom were eliminated and more innovative methods would needed in order to continue the expansion of the free community.

As the nineteenth century progressed, as other methods were eliminated, the number of petitions issued …

Robertson, Ewing M., 1811-1878 (Sc 549), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 549. Letter, 7 April 1848, from Ewing M. Robertson, Mexico, to his father, John M. Robertson, Woodburn, Warren County, Kentucky. He advises his father how he wants the money spent that he is sending home; also, how to divide his money if he should not return.

Stubblefield, Richard C., 1763-1847 (Sc 558), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 558. Typescripts of letters, 8 October 1828, and 9 October 1837, from Richard Stubblefield, Rockingham County, North Carolina, to his son, Robert C. Stubblefield, Hartsville, Sumner County, Tennessee (1828), and Calloway County, Kentucky (1837). He relates news concerning his family, crop prices, and religious activity. Also, a letter 24 August 1954 from Lawrence S. Thompson, Lexington, to Mrs. Mary Moore, Bowling Green, related to the Stubblefield letters.

Innes, Harry, 1752-1816 (Sc 575), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 575. Letter to Willis Atwell Lee, Clerk of the General Court, Franklin County, Kentucky, from Harry Innes, of Franklin County and executor of the estate of Edmund Lyne, Bourbon County, Kentucky, certifying the amount of money spent by him for the maintenance of the young negroes liberated by Lyne.

Kirk, Arthur Dale, 1886-1944 (Sc 534), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) Manuscripts Small Collection 534. Photocopy of Arthur Dale Kirk's holographic manuscript entitled "Weaver & Elizabeth Barnes and Their Folks."

Muir, Jasper W., 1823-1907 - Relating To (Sc 537), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 537. Compilation of writings related to Jasper W. Muir, prominent attorney and banker of Bardstown, Kentucky. Includes a paper written by friend John Michael Cooney, and one by his grandson John Wakefield Muir. Also, an 1896 newspaper article about Muir.

Taylor, Judson Slade, 1838-1889 (Sc 525), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collecction 525. Photocopy of an incomplete typescript memoir entitled “The First Fifty Years of Judson Slade Taylor,” a Baptist minister born in Ohio County, Kentucky; and a letter, 20 August 1971, from J.B. Taylor, a relative, to Nell Childress, Auburn, Kentucky, related to the memoir.

Rollins, John W., 1800-1869 (Sc 413), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 413. Letter from John W. Rollins, Rumsey, Kentucky, to Doctor Sterman about hiring a Negro boy (slave) from him to teach the trades of wool carding, millwright, and machine work.

Kernes, Adam (Sc 388), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 388. Photocopy of a bill of sale of Adam Kernes, Russell County, Kentucky, to Bartholomew Helm, Russell County, for an enslaved African-American woman and her infant.

Harris, John (Sc 387), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 387. Bill of sale of John Harris, Union County, Kentucky, to heirs of James Huston, Union County, for a Negro woman and her children.

Hall, Slaughter J. (Sc 386), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 386. Bills of sale (2) for slaves purchased by Slaughter J. Hall, Warren County, Kentucky, from William R. Covington, Warren County, 1852, and from John P. Smith of Missouri, 1855.

Slaughter Family Papers (Sc 402), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 402. Will, 1798; slavery bill of sale, 1810; militia commission, 1820; letters concerning Slaughter estate settlement, 1835-1843 (9); Mexican War claim, 1849; letters of recommendations for judicial appointments, 1853-1879 (7); Civil War notes and letters, 1861-1864 (4); and miscellaneous items. Selected items have been typescripted.

Secular Damnation: Thomas Jefferson And The Imperative Of Race, Robert P. Forbes

Torrington Articles

Race, we are told, is a “social construction.” If this is so, Thomas Jefferson was its principal architect. Jefferson consciously framed his only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia, to check the rising status of Africans and to combat growing critiques of slavery from America’s European friends. Jefferson did this by importing the slaveholder’s sense of slaves as chattel into an Enlightenment world view, providing a metaphysical foundation for prejudice by transmuting the traditional Christian concept of the saved vs. the damned into material and aesthetic terms. Recasting in quasi-scientific language the ancient doctrine of the mark …

Strange Collection (Mss 42), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 42. Correspondence, 1864-1878 (8); journal, 1852-1883; scrapbooks (2); Manuscript: “House of Madison and McDowell in Kentucky,” 1888; family genealogical data; slave records; etc., of Agatha (Rochester) Strange, 1832-1896, a lifelong resident of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Warren County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 2529), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2529. Two slave bills of sale (1849, 1856) to Tobias S. Grider, and agreement (1861) of a family of emancipated African Americans to be enslaved by William Davenport.

Warren County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 2527), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2527. Warrant (1822) to sheriff to take custody of a free mulatto man found in Warren County; certificates (2) and appointment (1) relating to slave patrols in Warren County (1824-1825); and undated power of attorney authorizing apprehension of a fugitive slave from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Warren County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 2528), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2528. Summons to jury and witnesses and charge in the case of Lucy, an enslaved woman, accused of attempting to murder her owner’s wife with an axe in 1814.

Warren County, Kentucky - Court Records (Sc 2526), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files) below for Manuscripts Small Collection 2526. Bonds for emancipated slaves in Warren County, Kentucky. The bondsmen undertake to pay a penalty if the freed slave becomes a charge on the county. Names and descriptions of the enslaved persons appear in the bonds. Includes one deed of emancipation.

The Truth Shall Set You Free: The Bible, The Revolution, And The Debate Over Slavery In The American South, Kevin Simon

Masters Theses

Before the slavery debate pushed a divided American nation to the brink of civil war, the argument divided the family of God. By the time cannon fire erupted at Fort Sumter, Christians had already staked out positions based on sophisticated lines of argument they used to justify or condemn chattel slavery. The generation coming of age during the Civil War era witnessed a debate more intense and contentious than their ancestors had seen, but in terms of the arguments employed, it broke very little fresh ground. Contrary to the assumption that antebellum apologists in the South invented the defense of …