History Commons^™

“'They Was Things Past The Tellin’: A Reconsideration Of Sexuality And Memory In The Ex-Slave Narratives Of The Federal Writers’ Project", Lynn Cowles Wartberg

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In 1936, Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) employees began interviewing formerly enslaved men and women, allowing them to speak publicly of their experiences under slavery. Defying racism and the repressions of Jim Crow, ex-slaves discussed intimate details of their lives. Many researchers considered these interviews unreliable, but if viewed through the lens of gender and analyzed using recent scholarship on slavery and sexuality, FWP interviews offer new insights into the lives of enslaved men and women. Using a small number of ex-slave interviews, most of them drawn from Louisiana, this thesis demonstrates the value of these oral histories for understanding the …

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 …

Supporting Caste: The Origins Of Racism In Colonial Virginia, Patrick D. Anderson

Grand Valley Journal of History

In 17th century Virginia, lower class whites and blacks coordinated on multiple occasions to resist the power of the ruling class elites. By the late 19th century, white laborers viewed the newly freed slaves through racist precepts and the two groups clashed on a regular basis. The aim of this essay is to explain how the shift from racial solidarity to racial antagonism occurred. Racist ideology originated in the minds of the elites and they attempted to separate the restless lower class along racial lines, first, by legal reforms, second, by creating a separate class of enslaved blacks. Anti-black racism …

John Randolph Of Roanoke And The Politics Of Doom: Slavery, Sectionalism, And Self-Deception, 1773-1821, Aaron Scott Crawford

Doctoral Dissertations

In 1979, Robert Dawidoff wrote that it “was on the question of slavery that John Randolph contributed most decisively to American history.” Randolph’s stance on slavery has perplexed historians and biographers since his death in 1833. This dissertation examines the paradox of slavery in the life and career of John Randolph from the American Revolution until the Missouri Compromise. In an attempt to understand his public and private contradictions concerning slavery and the role of intense sectionalism in his politics, I have attempted to correlate his words with his actions. An examination of his letters reveal a man decidedly devoted …

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.

Mccartt-Jackson, Sarah (Fa 578), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 578. Paper by Sarah McCartt-Jackson titled “Narrative Compromise: African American Representation at Henry Clay’s Ashland Estate.” Paper provides analysis of the inclusion and accuracy of the history of slavery at Ashland, and slavery’s depiction in tour narratives, brochures, exhibit signage, advertisements, and websites. This project won the 2011Folklife Archives Award competition at Western Kentucky University.

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).

[Review Of The Book William Johnson’S Natchez: The Ante-Bellum Diary Of A Free Negro], Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] To raise this issue of Johnson's silences and social isolation is not to engage in historical pity. He made choices from the options available to him and suffered the consequences as they developed. But his history underscores the fact that slavery generated a corresponding social system that was unforgiving to the individual caught in its contradictory currents. As Michael P. Johnson and James L. Roark suggest in Black Masters, their sensitive study of another slave owner and ex-slave, William Ellison of South Carolina, a purely personal solution to such volatile social relations proved impossible. What bound William Johnson to …

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 …

[Review Of The Book The Trials Of Anthony Burns: Freedom And Slavery In Emerson's Boston], Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] The intellectual core of The Trials of Anthony Burns explores the connection between Ralph Waldo Emerson and the New England Transcendentalists and the abolitionist cause. Ideas effect social life, von Frank insists, and he examines that point in a rich analysis that weaves intellectual, religious, political, and cultural perspectives into a sophisticated and detailed narrative. Emersonians came to embrace abolitionist activity as a central component of their philosophical idealism, particularly during the i850s. In an interesting way, the Burns case called upon many of New England's social and cultural elites to rethink their understanding of the relationship between idea …

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.

Underground Railroad, Oklahoma State University - Main Campus

Ethnic History

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Oklahoma State University.

Slavery In The Constitution: The Ironic Shifts In Tension Over Three Pivotal Clauses, Joseph Privitera

Honors Theses

As scholarship has attempted to demonstrate in recent times, early United States history has unfortunately been stained with slavery. The founding document of the nation, the Constitution, is no exception. The three provisions which affected the institution most directly are the three-fifths, slave trade, and fugitive slave clauses. Of these sections, the latter proved to be by far the most controversial in the long-run. Although the other two received lengthy debates and caused great concern in 1787 during the General Convention and over the next few years as the states discussed ratification, they caused limited levels of strain on the …

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.