History Commons^™

"On Our Way For The Sunny South, Land Of Chivalry": Northern Imperial Attitudes In The Civil War South, Kaci Nash

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines the discourse of Northerners who traveled into the South during the Civil War. Northern soldiers, nurses, teachers, relief workers, and officers’ wives adopted an imperial framework in their encounter with the South. By the eve of the war, years of sectional turmoil had resulted in a perceived ontological separation between the North and the nation’s internal Other—the South. To Northerners, the region was comprised of untamed wilderness, an antiquated society, and an inferior culture. When over two million Northerners mobilized and entered the southern states, they broadly adopted imperial viewpoints and awakened to the cultural power they …

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 …

"So Stirring A Woman Was She": A Closer Look At Early Modern Representations Of Matilda, Lady Of The English, Megan L. Benson

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis attempts to recover the representations of Matilda, Lady of the English, who nearly became queen of England in 1141. In 1127 Matilda became the heir to her father, Henry I, following the death of her brother in 1120. She was unable to claim the throne immediately following her father’s death in 1135, which allowed her cousin Stephen of Blois to do so. With the help of her half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, she launched an unsuccessful war effort to claim her throne in 1139. Modern historians have flatly labeled her a failure due to the fact she was …

"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 …

Toxic Tourism: Promoting The Berkeley Pit And Industrial Heritage In Butte, Montana, Bridget R. Barry

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Butte, Montana’s Berkeley Pit and its deadly water are a part of the country’s largest Superfund site. In 1994 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Record of Decision designating Butte, along with the neighboring town and mining site of Anaconda (twenty-five miles northwest of Butte), and 120 miles of Montana’s Clark Fork River as a single Superfund complex. The vast mining operations undertaken in the area, including five hundred underground mines and four open pit mines, have resulted in hazardous concentrations of metals in groundwater, surface water, and soils.

Butte’s mines once extracted more tons of copper …

The Meeting Under The Elm Revisited: The Founding Of Lancaster, Nebraska Territory (1859-64): Community Emergence And Historic Memory, Paul Collister

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Valuable as old settlers' reminiscences and early local histories are, the researcher may still find surprising details concerning the development of a community. Research in documents closer to the times depicted may uncover realities that were not supposed to have existed, things that had dropped out of collective memory that were contrary to normal procedures or legal definitions. The founding of the village of Lancaster, the predecessor of Lincoln, Nebraska, in Lancaster County's Salt Basin may present such surprises. The traditional accounts of the founding of Lancaster/Lincoln sketch a rather strange beginning. Local settlers chose a townsite for a county …