History Commons^™

Arnold Michael Shankman Papers - Accession 98, Arnold Michael Shankman

Manuscript Collection

The Arnold Shankman Papers consist mainly of photocopies of manuscript collections which Dr. Shankman used for his research and writing. Included are pamphlets, biographical sketches, correspondence and newspaper accounts. Most of the collection relates to the American Civil War, particularly in Illinois, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, but there is material relating to Jewish history, African-Americans and United States foreign relations.

Memory As Torchlight: Frederick Douglass And Public Memories Of The Haitian Revolution, James Lincoln

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The following explores how Frederick Douglass and others used public memories of the Haitian Revolution during the nineteenth century.

Family Ties: The Gibbs Family, Race, And Society In South Carolina: 1865-1945, Andre Thompson

Graduate Theses

The ancestors of the Gibbs family came to South Carolina as slaves from Barbados in the early 19th C., and four brothers, Anthony, Fortune, Moses and Wetus, born in South Carolina between 1832 and 1845, all grew up as slaves and became emancipated while they were still young men. This thesis will chronicle the lineage of these four brothers whose family serves as a microcosm of African American life in South Carolina and beyond. This includes an examination of the family from Reconstruction through the World War II period, and it will focus on issues such as emancipation, agriculture, landownership, …

What If Abraham Lincoln Had Lived?, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

The lead .41-calibre bullet with which John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln on the night of April 14, 1865, was the most lethal gunshot in American history. Only five days earlier, the main field army of the Southern Confederacy had surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and the four dreary years of civil war were yielding to a spring of national rebirth. But by then, the man to whom everyone looked for guidance in reconstructing the nation was dead. [excerpt]

Assessing Reconstruction: Did The South Undergo Revolutionary Change?, Lauren H. Sobotka

Student Publications

With the end of the Civil War, came a number of unanswered questions Reconstruction would attempt to answer for the South. While the South underwent economic, political and social changes for a short period, old traditions continued to persist resulting in racist sentiment.

"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 …

July 4, 1865: A Nation In Search Of Itself, Sorn A. Jessen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The eighty-ninth anniversary of the declaration of American independence from Britain, on July 4, 1865, caught the nation at a critical time in its history. The great national crisis of civil war was over, but the nation had not yet re-united. The thesis argues that in the aftermath of the Civil War, American nationalism could not be reconstituted on neither an ethnic nor a civic model. Rather, on the eighty-ninth anniversary of Independence, the course of American Nationalism fell out along lines decreed by historical memory. The narrative construction of the past in the present constituted the only common thread …

Freedmen With Firearms: White Terrorism And Black Disarmament During Reconstruction, David H. Schenk

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

The outcome of the Civil War brought freedom to over six million slaves of African descent. These Freedmen communities remained a critical source of labor for the agrarian based economy of the southern U.S. Conflicts erupted because former slaves sought to exercise their new freedoms against the restrictions placed on them by local authorities. New laws, mob actions and acts of organized white terrorism were used to subjugate free citizens and return them to their former stations of labor. Political activities and participation in the electoral process were violently discouraged. Vocal opponents of the new system were often targeted for …

"The Southern Heart Still Throbs": Caroline E. Janney And Partisan Memory‘S Grip On The Post-Civil War Nation, Heather L. Clancy '15

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

"Memory is not a passive act," writes Caroline E. Janney in the prologue of her 2013 book Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation. Rather, it is a deliberate process. Our nation‘s history has been shaped by countless hands in innumerable ways, and the story of our civil war is no exception. In Remembering the Civil War, Janney seeks to turn our eyes once again onto the players, large and small, who shaped what came to be the accepted narrative of the conflict, from its inception through the 1930s and even bleeding through the Civil …

Bacteria And Politics: The Application Of Science To The Yellow Fever Crisis In Reconstruction New Orleans, Polly M. Rolman-Smith

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of germ theory during the nineteenth century transformed Western medicine. By the 1870s, public health officials in the American South used germ theory to promote sanitation efforts to control public health crises, such as yellow fever epidemics. Before the discovery of mosquito transmission of yellow fever, physicians of the late nineteenth century believed the disease was spread by a highly contagious germ. Prominent medical practitioners of New Orleans, such as Confederate Army veteran Dr. Joseph Jones, used available scientific knowledge and investigation to attempt to control yellow fever during the Reconstruction period, a period rife with political and …

The Ideological Reconstruction Of Southern Elite White Women Before During And After Reconstruction, Lindsey Halse

Honors Theses

The purpose of my research is to reevaluate and extend the commonly understood time frame of Reconstruction by scholars to include Southern women’s ideological Reconstruction as well as provide a particular perspective on women during this era, which is underdeveloped in literature. Elite, white women during the Civil War began a journey towards independence and involvement in the public sphere. This evolution occurred approximately fifteen years behind similar actions taken by Northern women; this paper attempts to explain this lag. Additionally, my research asserts that Southern women were forced in a sense to become independent during the Civil War while …

South Carolina: From A State Of Rebellion To A State Of Change A Study Of Reconstruction In South Carolina From 1866-1872 Through A Partisan Press, Samantha Killeen

Honors Theses

The United States was not always as united as its name suggests. In the middle of the nineteenth century, as the country was in turmoil, the nation was divided between the North and the South, ultimately resulting in a four year Civil War. By 1865 the regions’ tensions around the strongly contrasting views of partisanship, the role of the Federal government, and race were fully exposed. Between 1865 and 1877, the nation embarked on a path of Reconstruction as a way to rebuild itself. This path had three different phases – Presidential Reconstruction, Radical Reconstruction, and Redemption. However, South Carolina, …

Jeff Davis, A Sour Apple Tree, And Treason: A Case Study Of Fear In The Post-Civil War Era, Brianna E. Kirk

Student Publications

The end of the Civil War raised many questions, one being how to piece back together the violently torn apart Union. With such an unprecedented war in American history, the exact course of how to do so was unknown. Would the country survive through Reconstruction, and how would sectional reconciliation be achieved? An even larger question was who to blame for the four long years of violence. In the minds of many northerners, that man was Jefferson Davis. Davis had not only led the secessionist movement, but was a traitor to the Union. By analyzing the calls for and against …

Milliken, Edna Beatrice (Myers) Moore, 1921-2005 - Collector (Sc 571), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 571. Typescript of original 1827 indictment for dueling of Samuel Houston in Simpson County, Kentucky; typescript of original letter, September 1865, from Henry Grider, Bristow, Warren County, Kentucky, to his niece, Katherine, Happy Camp, California, commenting on the Civil War and its effects. Original letter housed in Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort.

Ole’ Zip Coon Is A Mighty Learned Scholar: Blackface Minstrelsy As Reflection And Foundation Of American Popular Culture, Cory Rosenberg '12

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

The blackface minstrel show is often disregarded in both popular and professional discourse when American popular culture is being examined. Often dismissed as a unilateral, purely racist spectacle, this paper argues for a more nuanced understanding of blackface minstrelsy and its formative role in the creation of a trans-regional American culture. Through an exploration of the ways in which ethnic minorities, women, language, and histrionics were presented on the blackface minstrel stage, an understanding of the ways in which popular entertainments both reflect and create popular sentiment can be formed. As the dominant American cultural output of the 19th century, …

Bramlette, Thomas Elliott, 1817-1875 (Sc 720), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 720. Letter written by Thomas Elliott Bramlette, Louisville, Kentucky, to President Andrew Johnson, Washington, D.C., concerning recommendation that Bramlette had made for a state political appointment which he wants disregarded as he has learned that the man recommended “is a radical of the negro suffrage and impeachment school.”

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.

The Making Of An American Imperialist: Major Edward Austin Burke, Reconstruction New Orleans And The Road To Central America, Kathryn K. Conley

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The period of Reconstruction following the American Civil War, and its legacy, have been the subjects of long debate among historians. Scholars, though, have yet to fully explore important connections between American Reconstruction, the New South that followed, and the period of U.S. imperialism in Central America in the late nineteenth century. The storied career of Major Edward Austin Burke—a Kentucky-born Louisiana Democrat who went on to become a proponent of expansionism and imperialism in Honduras—illuminates the transnational implications of Reconstruction and its aftermath. Through careful examination of personal papers, news accounts, promotional materials, Congressional testimonies and other government records, …

The 1868 St. Landry Massacre: Reconstruction's Deadliest Episode Of Violence, Matthew Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

The St. Landry Massacre is representative of the pervasive violence and intimidation in the South during the 1868 presidential canvass and represented the deadliest incident of racial violence during the Reconstruction Era. Southern conservatives used large scale collective violence in 1868 as a method to gain political control and restore the antebellum racial hierarchy. From 1865-1868, these Southerners struggled against the federal government, carpetbaggers, and Southern black populations to gain this control, but had largely failed in their attempts. After the First Reconstruction Act of March, 1867 forced Southern governments to accept universal male suffrage, Southern conservatives utilized violence and …

Fateful Lightning: A New History Of The Civil War And Reconstruction, Allen C. Guelzo

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

The Civil War is the greatest trauma ever experienced by the American nation, a four-year paroxysm of violence that left in its wake more than 600,000 dead, more than 2 million refugees, and the destruction (in modern dollars) of more than $700 billion in property. The war also sparked some of the most heroic moments in American history and enshrined a galaxy of American heroes. Above all, it permanently ended the practice of slavery and proved, in an age of resurgent monarchies, that a liberal democracy could survive the most frightful of challenges.

In Fateful Lightning, two-time Lincoln Prize-winning …

Book Review, Christian G. Samito (Ed.). Changes In Law And Society During The Civil War And Reconstruction: A Legal History Documentary Reader. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2009. 352 Pages. $29.50 (Paper), Thomas Reed

Thomas J Reed

No abstract provided.

Prentis Papers (Mss 32), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and transcription of one 1865 letter (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 32. Letters to James Prentis, 1836-1869; family letters to Lucy Prentis, Petersburg, Virginia, 1838-1842; family letters to Margaret Prentis, 1867-1909; 26 letters and essays of James Prentis written to friends and newspaper editors expressing his views as a Union supporter, 1861-1867; and miscellaneous items.

Examining Entrenched Masculinities In The Republican Government Tradition, Jamie R. Abrams

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Richmond Iron: Tredegar's Role In Southern Industry During The Civil War And Reconstruction, Lisa Hilleary

History Theses & Dissertations

The American South contained few iron industries in the decades before the Civil War. Not until the Civil War did southern states produce significant quantities of vital industrial products, such as iron. Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia, was a rare exception. Under the ownership of Joseph R. Anderson, the company established a national reputation for quality products. Prior to the war, Tredegar did business with northerners and with the Federal government. During the war, Tredegar became one of the main weapons suppliers to the Confederate military. Since this iron company physically and economically survived the war, Anderson regained many …

Allen, C. W. (Sc 206), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 206. Photocopy of letter, 10 November 1868, written by C.W. and M.E. Allen, Big Coon, Alabama, to their cousin John W. Campbell. They comment on family matters as well as economic and political conditions in Alabama.

The Death Of Jefferson Davis, Kasey J. Dell

History Theses & Dissertations

Although there are numerous studies of Jefferson Davis and countless more of the Civil War and its consequences, little work has been done to study what the death of Jefferson Davis revealed in terms of the United States' reunification. A political nonperson in the nation's capital, Davis was never fully pardoned and did not receive full rights of citizenship in his lifetime, giving him a unique position in society. Moreover, as the former president of the Confederacy, he was a polarizing figure whose death elicited strong emotions.

The response to Davis's death, almost twenty-five years after the Civil War ended, …

Deupree Family Letters, 1865 (Sc 189), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 189. Letter, 30 May 1865, to James R. Deupree, Woodburn, Warren County, Kentucky from his sister-in-law, Sarah H. E. Deupree, Richmond, Virginia, and letter, 2 June 1865, to James R. Deupree from William L. Salmon, Henrico County, Virginia. They both relate to the death of James’s brother, Stephen, who was killed in an explosion while serving in the Confederate army. They also write of the effects of the war on everyday life in the Richmond area.

Payne Family Papers (Sc 136), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 136. Papers of the Payne family of Warren County, Kentucky, including letter from Civil War prison at Camp Douglas, Illinois; letter describing the death of Halley Payne; 1874 letter from a Glasgow teacher referring to unrest among African Americans; promissory note; remedies for piles and rheumatism; and a letter detailing with the prevention and treatment of cholera.

Slaton Family Papers, 1760-1976 (Mss 322), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 322. Chiefly personal correspondence, legal and business papers, and news clippings related to the Slaton family of Hopkins County, Kentucky. Includes Civil War-era letters as well as deeds, wills, tax receipts, and other miscellaneous nineteenth century documents.

From Reconstruction To Obama: Understanding Black Invisibility, Racism In Appalachia, And The Legal Community's Responsibility To Promote A Dialogue On Race At The Wvu College Of Law, Brandon M. Stump

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.