History Commons^™

Review: War Stories By Gabrielle Atwood Halko, R.C. Miessler

All Musselman Library Staff Works

War Stories, a digital project created by Gabrielle Atwood Halko of West Chester University, seeks to frame the narrative of World War II (WWII) through the stories of children, particularly children in internment or under occupation. Halko starts with the assumption that visitors to the website are unaware of these stories, and the site largely frames itself as an educational tool that aggregates primary and secondary sources related to children during WWII. [excerpt]

The Stolen Children: Their Stories: Aboriginal Child Removal Policy And Consequences, Peter U. Wildgruber

Student Publications

From 1910 to 1970, the Australian government embarked on a policy of Aboriginal child removal which sought to acculturate Aborigine children of mixed descent into white Australian society. The 1997 report, Bringing Them Home, records the individual testimonies of hundreds of victims of child removal and argues that prolonged familial separation caused irreparable damage to native Australian communities. Carmel Bird’s edited version of the report, The Stolen Children: Their Stories, was published in 1998 to disseminate the report's findings and advocate for legislative action. Her book includes the stories of seventeen individuals and responses to the original report …

Military Occupation, Sexual Violence, And The Struggle Over Masculinity In The Early Reconstruction South, Cameron T. Sauers

Student Publications

This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles of the postemancipation and early Reconstruction South were waged. At the start of the Civil War, Confederate discourse played upon the fears of sexual violence engulfing the South with the invasion of Union armies. The nightmare never came to Southern households; rape was infrequently reported. However, Southern women, especially if they were African American, were subjected to sexual violence, which likely increased as the war dragged on. Sexual violence includes, but is not limited to, rape. Destruction of clothing, invasion of domestic spaces, and …

The Contradictions Of Freedom: Depictions Of Freedwomen In Illustrated Newspapers, 1865-1867, Carolyn Hauk

Student Publications

Between 1865 and 1867, artists working for Northern illustrated newspapers travelled throughout the South to document its transition from slavery to a wage labor society. Perceiving themselves as the rightful reporters of Southern Reconstruction, these illustrators observed communities of newly freed African American men and women defining their vision of freedom. Northern artists often viewed the lives of African Americans through the cultural lens of free labor ideology in their efforts to provide documentary coverage of the South as objective observers. This paper will examine how illustrations of Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper reveal the contradictions between free …

Girl Talk: How Friendships Between Moravian And Native Women Sustained The Moravian Mission At Shamokin Pennsylvania, 1742–1749, Lindsay R. Richwine

Student Publications

From 1742 to 1755, Moravian missionaries attempted to establish a mission at the Indian town of Shamokin. While the Moravians failed to convert any native peoples, they succeeded where other missionaries failed by maintaining a continued presence. By using evidence from sources such as the Shamokin mission diary, this project asserts that it was the friendships forged between Native and Moravian women in the early years of the mission that integrated the Moravians into the community at Shamokin. Through an examination of the lives of the women present at Shamokin in this period, this project situates itself within existing research …

Neighborhood Change Within New Jersey: The Evolutionary History That Led To The New Newark, David Medina

Student Publications

As Newark lies 10 miles west of Manhattan, there is an increased encroachment from investors and gentrifies as surrounding cities such as Hoboken and Jersey City become too expensive and overcrowded. Known as the “Brick City”, Newark has history dating back to 1666. Leading up to World War II Newark was thriving, until an increase in suburban development and white flight that altered the race demographic. After years of racial stigma, the history of Newark is at risk as gentrification and neighborhood change looms over the city and its 282,862 residents, many of which are minorities.

Atlantic Lives: A Comparative Approach To Early America, Timothy J. Shannon

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Atlantic Lives offers insight into the lived experiences of a range of actors in the early modern Atlantic World. Organized thematically, each chapter features primary source selections from a variety of non-traditional sources, including travel narratives from West Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The fully-revised and expanded second edition goes into even greater depth in exploring the diverse roles and experiences of women, Native Americans, and Africans, as well as the critical theme of emerging capitalism and New World slavery. New chapters also address captivity experiences, intercultural religious encounters, and interracial sexuality and marriage.With classroom-focused discussion questions and suggested …

Rewriting History: A Study Of How The History Of The Civil War Has Changed In Textbooks From 1876 To 2014, Skyler A. Campbell

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

History textbooks provide an interesting perspective into the views and attitudes of their respective time period. The way textbooks portray certain events and groups of people has a profound impact on the way children learn to view those groups and events. That impact then has the potential to trickle down to future generations, fabricating a historical narrative that sometimes avoids telling the whole truth, or uses selective wording to sway opinions on certain topics. This paper analyzes the changes seen in how the Civil War is written about in twelve textbooks dated from 1876 to 2014. Notable topics of discussion …

Condemning Colonization: Abraham Lincoln’S Rejected Proposal For A Central American Colony, Matthew Harris

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This article focuses on a proposal by Abraham Lincoln to settle freed African Americans in Central American countries. The backlash from several countries reveals that other countries besides the warring United States were also struggling with reconciling racial issues. This also reveals how interwoven racial issues were with political crises during the Civil War because it not only effected domestic policies but also international relations.

Reconstruction: A Concise History, Allen C. Guelzo

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

The era known as Reconstruction is one of the unhappiest times in American history. It succeeded in reuniting the nation politically after the Civil War but in little else. Conflict shifted from the battlefield to the Capitol as Congress warred with President Andrew Johnson over just what to do with the South. Johnson's plan of Presidential Reconstruction, which was sympathetic to the former Confederacy and allowed repressive measures such as the "black codes," would ultimately lead to his impeachment and the institution of Radical Reconstruction. While Reconstruction saw the ratification of the 14th and 15th Amendments, expanding the rights and …

Understanding Violence Against Foreigners In Cape Town: Conceptions Of Autochthony And Xenophobia In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Mary L. Casey

Student Publications

Examining the correlation between the history of colonialism and structures of Apartheid in South Africa and the current xenophobic violence experienced by Black African immigrants settling in Cape Town. This thesis explores theories of autochthony and belonging in the context of Cape Town, Black South African relationships and ownership of land, access to resources and opportunities for employment, and the continued disenfranchisement of Black South Africans in the wake of Apartheid. These components of the issue of xenophobia in Cape Town are factored into an analysis of how and why violence persists against immigrants in the city.

Gettysburg College Journal Of The Civil War Era 2018

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

No abstract provided.

Robert E. Lee And Slavery, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Robert E. Lee was the most successful Confederate military leader during the American Civil War (1861–1865). This also made him, by virtue of the Confederacy's defense of chattel slavery, the most successful defender of the enslavement of African Americans. Yet his own personal record on both slavery and race is mottled with contradictions and ambivalence, all which were in plain view during his long career. Born into two of Virginia's most prominent families, Lee spent his early years surrounded by enslaved African Americans, although that changed once he joined the Army. His wife, Mary Randolph Custis Lee, freed her own …

In Gettysburg, The Confederacy Won, Scott Hancock

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Almost every day, I ride my bicycle past some of the over 1,300 statues and monuments commemorating the Civil War in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where I live. They are everywhere. None of them are of black people.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought over three days in July of 1863, is often considered the turning point of a war fought over the fate of slavery in America. Black people ultimately were the reason why over 165,000 soldiers came to this Pennsylvania town in the first place. But on the battlefield, as far as the physical memorials, they disappear. (excerpt)

Lincoln's Words At Gettysburg Resonate After Charlottesville, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

Seven score and fourteen years ago, Abraham Lincoln eloquently reminded us of the idealism of our founding our fathers, who “brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. “

Lincoln also called upon all persons of good conscience, not simply to remember the sacrifice of those who died preserving these ideals on the battlefield at Gettysburg, but also to act upon those ideals, and to rise to the challenge “to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us….” (excerpt)

Historical Society Has Tools To Dig Deep, John M. Rudy

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

"On last Wednesday night, Lincoln's Birthday," the Star and Sentinel reported in 1908, "a colored lodge of Elks was instituted in Xavier Hall this place with 45 members." The Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World was originally formed as an African-American fraternal organization in the 1890s after a white elks lodge in Philadelphia denied local black men membership. By 1908, the organization was quickly working its way through Pennsylvania. And now Gettysburg had "Colored Elks," working as a social safety net for the black community of the Third Ward. They provided aid to the sick and the …

Right To Serve, Right To Lead: Lives And Legacies Of The Usct, Matthew D. Laroche, Hannah M. Christensen, Alexandria J. Andrioli, Jennifer A. Simone, Savannah G. Rose, Jonathan G. Danchik, Laurel J. Wilson, Jonathan E. Tracey, Danielle E. Jones, Ryan D. Bilger, Savannah A. Labbe

Civil War Institute Student Research

This is a catalog for an exhibit that follows the evolution of African-American participation in the Civil War, from slaves, to contrabands, to soldiers of the United States Colored Troops (USCT), as well as the lives of black veterans beyond the war, and their ultimate military and social legacy. Using a variety of period items, it creates a narrative that stretches from the Antebellum Period to the current day. In doing so, the exhibit shows how black sacrifice on the battlefield redefined the war's purpose throughout the divided nation, how Jim Crowe suppressed the memory of black participation after Reconstruction, …

From Crusaders To Flunkies: American Newspaper Coverage Of Black First World War Soldiers From 1915 And 1930., Matthew D. Laroche

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This article concerns itself with the U.S. newspaper coverage given to black soldiers (primarily African-American) in the lead up to the U.S. entry into the First World War, through the war, and into the 1930's. In so doing, it chronicles the divisions that appeared within the black community in America as black Americans debated whether or not to serve a country that did not respect their liberties at home, the portrayal of black soldiers in U.S. newspapers, and the post-war betrayal that saw the rise of a popular silence on the rights of black veterans, and a forced return to …

Helpers In A "Heathen" Land?: An Examination Of Missionary Perceptions Of The Cherokees, Andrew C. Nosti

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This analysis examines writings left behind by missionaries living among the Cherokees in the early nineteenth century to tease out the missionary perceptions of their Indigenous neighbors. This approach includes a heavy emphasis on decoding the white lexicon employed to discuss Native Americans to elucidate the broader cultural/racial intellectualism of the time. The utilization of this approach deconstructs a conventional “friend or foe” binary viewpoint of the missionaries, conversely constructing a greater complexity within the interracial and intercultural dynamics of the Early Republic, thereby providing a more layered and broader understanding of early America and, by extension, America overall.

Teachers’ Nascent Praxes Of Care: Potentially Decolonizing Approaches To School Violence In Trinidad, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Zero tolerance, punitive and more negative peace-oriented approaches dominate school violence interventions, despite research indicating that comprehensive approaches are more sustainable. In this article, I use data from a longitudinal case study at a Trinidadian secondary school to focus on the role of teachers and their impact on school violence; I show that institutional constraints are not fully deterministic, as teachers sometimes deploy their agency to efficacious ends. In combining Noddings’ postulations on care and Freire’s notions of praxis as a symbiosis of reflection and action, I explicate the nascent praxes of care of six teachers at this school, as …

A People’S Journey, A Nation’S Past: The National Museum Of African American History And Culture, Danielle E. Jones

The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History

On September 24, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture was opened to the public after almost two decades of planning and more than a century of fighting for a memorial for African Americans. Starting in 1915, when a group of United States Colored Troops sought a memorial for their fallen soldiers, African Americans have worked to have their history remembered on a national scale. A congressional commission for a museum dedicated to African Americans was signed in 1929 by Calvin Coolidge, but the stock market crash in October prevented the museum from being built. The memorial …

Friends Of Musselman Library Newsletter Fall 2016, Musselman Library

Friends of Musselman Library Newsletter

From the Dean (Robin Wagner)

Library Exhibits

GettDigital: Sports Reels

Research Reflections: The Gettysburg Superstar (Devin McKinney)

Remembering 9/12

Will Power: 400 Years After the Bard

Treasure Island (Robin Wagner)

Margin of Error

A Call to Activism in the Summer of '65 (Richard Hutch '67)

Digital Scholarship: The New Frontier (Julia Wall '19, Lauren White '18, Keira Koch '19)

Scrapbooks and Photo Albums: Snapshots of History (Clara A. Baker '30)

Soldiers' Scrapbooks (Laura Bergin '17)

A Book of Dreams (Alexa Schreier)

Who Do You Think You Are? (Timothy Shannon)

From Professor-Student to Collaborators (Jesse Siegel '16)

The Mysterious Easel Monument …

Attacking Multiple Fronts: The Tuskegee Airmen As Pioneers Of Military Integration, Kaylyn L. Sawyer

Student Publications

Military service has long been associated with citizenship, and blacks have been part of every American war since the founding of this nation. Five thousand fought in the Revolutionary War, 180,000 fought in segregated units during the Civil War, and 380,000 enrolled in World War One. Although black participation increased with each major conflict, only 42,000 of the blacks in World War One belonged to combat units, a result of 20th century racial tensions that turned opinion against the use of black soldiers. Segregation persisted within the military establishment, including military aviation, through World War Two. Within a span of …

"We Are Americans, Too:" Interracial Relations In Detroit's Postwar Auto Industry, Andrew C. Nosti

Student Publications

This analysis looks at the interracial relations and conflicts within the postwar Detroit auto industry. In doing so, it examines the role the UAW, the government, the corporations, and the workers themselves played, and how race and/or gender contributed to interactive negotiations within the employment sector at the time.

One King To Rule Them All, Tyler J. Mann

Student Publications

He battled for superiority over his fellow musicians in the shady nightclubs of New Orleans, led his great Creole Jazz Band in the early 1920s, and stood tall in the face of racial prejudice. Joe “King” Oliver was the type of man to not just survive but thrive—like any true king would.

Similar Experiences, Unique Perspectives: How Japanese American Experiences Influenced Their Participation During World War Ii, Julia K. Deros

Student Publications

During World War II, Japanese Americans had to endure racist federal government policy in the form of relocation to internment camps around the country. Of the 120,000 people that were interned, a large number were citizens of the United States who protested that their 5th and 14th Amendment rights had been violated by their placement into the camps. The way Japanese Americans reacted to their experiences during the war differed depending on their experiences as Nisei or Kibei. These reactions materialized in different forms of participation in the war, usually involving the decision to serve in the military as a …

From The Ashes Of Glory: The Rise And Fall Of Jackson Ward, Jeffrey L. Lauck

Student Publications

This paper uses primary and secondary research to analyze the political, economic, and social factors that created Jackson Ward as a separate, alternative space for black Richmonders. In addition, this paper analyzes the key institutions that made up Jackson Ward as well as the reasons surrounding its decline following desegregation.

Civilize Them With Indian Boarding Schools, Kelsey C. Meisch

Student Publications

Indigenous communities continue to be pressured to conform to Anglo-American culture. Through the use of Indian boarding schools, Indigenous communities were interrupted in a myriad of detrimental ways related to their culture, especially in regard to intergenerational cultural continuance.

Ms-194: Richard Hutch '67 Papers, Melanie L. Fernandes

All Finding Aids

This collection consists primarily of materials produced by SCOPE for SCOPE participants, correspondence between Richard Hutch and various companions, and publications regarding civil rights. Though aspects of the collection extend beyond 1965, it focuses most heavily on Hutch’s SCOPE experience during the summer of 1965 and does not provide great detail on other civil rights organizations. The collection provides an overview of the role that SCOPE played in the larger Civil Rights Movement, as well as valuable insight to the individual experience of a participant in the Civil Rights Movement. While the collection includes materials from Hutch’s time at Gettysburg …

Black Praxis: The Trace Of Jamesian Pragmatism In Duboisian Scholar Activism, Jerome D. Clarke

Student Publications

Philosophy and activism formed a mutualist relationship in regards to 20th-century Black American politics. Emancipatory theories undergirded the civil disobedience and reformist action of the entire century. W.E.B. DuBois, renowned African-American academic at the forefront of American and Pan-Africanist liberation movements, is often divorced from his originary philosophical roots. As he became the first Black PhD graduate of Harvard University, his mentor was philosopher and psychologist William James. James is the forefather of American Pragmatism, a school of thought still alive and dynamic in this day. DuBoisian scholars tend however to stress the German Idealist influences on DuBois’s thought. Informed …