History Commons^™

He Rode Alone: Francis Scott Key As An Advocate For Freedom, Jonathan A. Richie

Masters Theses

Recently Francis Scott Key and the Star Spangled Banner have come under increasing historical scrutiny. Claims and allegations of racism and hidden meanings behind the poem have abounded and even led to statues being torn down across the nation. But what is the truth? In reality Francis Scott Key's record on race and slavery is dramatically more complex than the critics would suggest. Indeed, Key spent nearly 40 years of his life advocating in court for the freedom of slaves in Washington DC.

Acknowledging Our Past: Race, Landscape And History, Alea Harris, Kaycia Best, Dieran Mcgowan, Destiny Shippy, Vera Oberg, Bryson Coleman, Luke Meagher, Rhiannon Leebrick Ph.D., Phillip Stone

Student Scholarship

This book is the product of nearly a year's worth of student research on Wofford College's history, undertaken as part of a grant by the Council of Independent Colleges in the Humanities Research for the Public Good initiative. The research was supervised and directed by Dr. Rhiannon Leebrick.

"Guiding Research Questions:

How did Wofford College and its early stakeholders support and participate in slavery?

How is the legacy of slavery present in the landscape of our campus (buildings, statues, names, etc.)?

How can we better understand Wofford as an institution during the time of Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era? …

John C. Campbell Folk School - Brasstown, North Carolina (Fa 1377), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 1377. Research materials for a history of the John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, North Carolina, compiled by Dr. James M. Gifford.

Our Monuments, Our History, Temma F. Berg

English Faculty Publications

Beginning with Toni Morrison's concept of "rememory" and the recent completion of the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers on the University of Virginia campus, this essay explores the current monuments controversy by focusing on four Viennese monuments which have much to tell us about how new memorials might contextualize and reframe history. The first Viennese monument, a celebration of a series of fifteenth-century pogroms, was built into the wall of a house opposite the Judenplatz, a square in the center of what was once a thriving Jewish community. Four hundred years later, from 1998 to 2008, three additional memorials were built …

Krekel & Kribben– Diverging Views On The Future Of Slavery, Steve Ehmann

The Confluence (2009-2020)

Steve Ehlmann explores the evolving views of two German politicians on slavery as the Civil War approached.

A Name Change May Be A Start, But It Is Not Enough, Leah D. Williams

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

Since the broadcast killing of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers on May 25, all levels of government, and institutions of every kind, have scrambled with breakneck speed to confront their own ties to America’s most deeply entrenched demons: White supremacy and systematic racism. Washington and Lee has certainly not been exempt from this reckoning. A majority of its faculty and student body have already passed resolutions calling for the removal of Robert E. Lee’s name from the university. As a direct descendent of those enslaved by the school, I commend these resolutions; yet, I strongly offer that a …

Safekeeping: Slavery, Capitalism, And The Carceral State In Washington, D.C., 1830-1863, Brandon Wilson

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By the 1830s, incarceration emerged as a two-pronged solution for racial control and economic expansion. Local and federal government built jails around the District of Columbia to detain "rowdy negro boys," men, and women, as a means to stymie their rapid movement and fuel a burgeoning domestic slave trade. People were jailed, fined, and often sold to the Deep South, providing a wellspring of capital for enslavers, justified through the lens of criminality. For the crime of petty theft, missing free papers, or in at least one case "using foul language," black people of the Washington region could find themselves …

Aunt Adeline, Ex-Slave Interview

Slave narratives supplemental materials

Interview of ex-slave "Aunt Adeline", by Zillah Cross Peel with the Work Projects Administration, about Aunt Adeline's life as a slave.

Bob Benford, Ex-Slave Interview

Slave narratives supplemental materials

Interview of ex-slave Bob Benford, by Bernice Bowden with the Work Projects Administration, about Benford's life as a slave.

Joseph Samuel Badgett, Ex-Slave Interview

Slave narratives supplemental materials

Interview of ex-slave Joseph Samuel Badgett, by Samuel S. Taylor with the Work Projects Administration, about Badgett's life as a slave.

William Brown, Ex-Slave Interview

Slave narratives supplemental materials

Interview of ex-slave William Brown, by Samuel S. Taylor with the Work Projects Administration, about Brown's life as a slave.

Will Baltimore, Ex-Slave Interview

Slave narratives supplemental materials

Interview of ex-slave William Baltimore, by R.S. Taylor with the Work Projects Administration, about Baltimore's life as a slave.

Without Personhood: The Missing Point Of Slaves In Missouri's Emancipation-By-Residency Freedom Suit Jurisprudence, 1824-1837, Jacob Alfred Brandler

MSU Graduate Theses

From 1824 to 1837, the Supreme Court of Missouri developed a sophisticated caselaw establishing emancipation-by-residency—where a Missouri court could liberate an enslaved petitioner because of their residence in a free jurisdiction—as a basis of freedom suits. In 1852, however, the Court undermined the precedential value of those decisions and dismantled this basis when deciding Dred Scott’s case, Scott v. Emerson. Scholarship on Missouri’s freedom suits has highlighted how partisanship and the political atmosphere in Missouri as well as across the nation contributed to this outcome. This study adds to the historiography how the previous caselaw itself predisposed the result; …

Flexibly Fluid & Immutably Innate: Perception, Identity, And The Role Of Choice In Race, Emily Lamm

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

White Saviors, Brandon Hasbrouck

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

It is time for Washington and Lee University to drop both George Washington and Robert E. Lee from the University name. The predominantly White faculty at Washington and Lee recently announced that it will petition the Board of Trustees to remove Lee from the University name. This is the first time in Washington and Lee’s history that the faculty has drafted such a petition. It is worth exploring why the faculty has decided to make a collective statement on Lee now and why the faculty has not included a demand to drop Washington in their petition. The answer is simple—it …

Gee, John Bugg, 1801-1878 (Sc 3539), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3539. Contract, 1 January 1841, for the hire of “Emily” for twelve months, stipulating a payment of $9.00 to John B. Gee by John Carter and Herod Turner. The contract also stipulates the clothing to be provided to Emily during the summer and winter.

Slavery And Confederate Military Strategy And Policy, 1860–1865, David M. Campmier

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis places slavery at the center of all aspects of the Confederate war effort; from the beginning of the war until its end, the Rebel leadership in Richmond, in the army, and in the states prioritized protecting slavery.

Historians of the Civil War and the Confederacy agree that the war began when southern states declared secession to preserve the institution of slavery. When examining the war, scholars tend to not analyze slavery and its impact on Confederate military strategy, logistics, conscription, and military policy. This lack of study stands in stark contrast to how historians of the Union war …

Red Sea, White Tides, And Blue Horizons, John P. Devine

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Eric Hobsbawm, in his effort to explain the fundamental divide which produced the Second World War, convincingly argues that “the crucial lines in this civil war were not drawn between capitalism as such and communist social revolution, but between ideological families: on the one hand the descendants of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the great revolutions including, obviously the Russian revolution’, on the other hand, its opponents.” This thesis argues that the American Civil War was a “great revolution” that represented a crucial transformative point in the formation of these two waring factions. The struggle was especially influential on the theory …

Time Machine Research And Approach, Tarek Bouraque

Theses and Dissertations

Time Machine is a hybrid documentary that explores the logics of enslavement, colonialism, eurocentrism and their interconnectedness in our globalized world. Mustapha Azemmouri, born in 1502, undertakes a journey to the 21st century to recount his own story of enslavement and exploration, and reflects on a collective puzzle of 500 years of hidden history.

Fear And Rebellion In South Carolina: The 1739 Stono Rebellion And Colonial Slave Society, William Stanley

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The Stono Rebellion was a rebellion of enslaved people outside of Charleston, South Carolina, that occurred in early September 1739. Exploring the event and its surrounding context helps historians to understand how the rebellion was the result of political institution and exploitative social practices. This work is a history of colonial South Carolina through the rebellion, asking questions of what led to the rebellion, how the rebellion fit into the broader history of resistance, and what events compounded the rebellion in the historical record. Chapter one is a survey of the origins of South Carolina, and the development of its …

Reconciling With Slavery In The United States: An Evolving Narrative, Jamie Phlegar

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This project addresses two strands of inquiry that spring from this issue of evolving race relations in the U.S. First, I examine how Americans talk about the history of slavery in the U.S. What rhetorical strategies are employed when slavery is discussed and/or debated in public history contexts and beyond? Second, I examine talk about the future of race relations in the context of the legacy of slavery. Specifically, I am interested in exploring what rhetorical strategies are employed when discussing the potential for reparations in mainstream arenas.

Indentured On The Western Front: The Chinese Labour Corps And The British Coolie Trade, Emily Sanders

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the recruitment, transport, and working conditions of the Chinese Labour Corps in World War I in comparison to the twentieth century British ‘coolie’ trade of Chinese indentured laborers on the basis of labor contracts, written testimonies, newspaper articles, books, photographs, and historical records. This thesis argues that the Chinese Labour Corps methods of recruiting, transport, and conditions of work were very similar to, if not the same as, the twentieth century British coolie trade. The Chinese Labour Corps can in many ways be said to be an extension of the preexisting British coolie trade, rather than an …

Shackles And Servitude: Jails And The Enslaved In Antebellum Savannah, Haley E. Osborne

Honors College Theses

My research centers around the use of jails in relation to the African American community in Savannah. I will describe the evolution of the publicly funded jail system and explain how it was used to sustain the institution of slavery.

The Unheard Stories Of Former San Antonio Slaves, David R. Harris

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020

While the end of slavery in America was a huge step to provide equality to all, the livelihood of former slaves after the Civil War took many different paths, some of those paths ended up in San Antonio, Texas.

The Life Of A Former Slave In Bexar County, Karina De Hoyos

Methods of Historical Research: Spring 2020

The Slave Narrative Collection from the WPA Federal Writers’ Project, housed at the Library of Congress, has over 2,300 first-person accounts and 500 black and white photographs of people who were born into slavery.Numerous historians have relied on these narratives to help them in their work to have a better understanding of slavery. Many people did not know how, or even where, to start their new lives, but they knew they needed to find a way to make a living, or ultimately seek work from their former masters. Despite numerous obstacles in their lives before and after the Civil War, …

“She’S Been Her Own Mistress...”: The Long History Of Charlotte Dupee V. Henry Clay, 1790-1830, William Kelly

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In February 1829, Charlotte Dupee, an enslaved woman, sued for her freedom in the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia. The defendant was her enslaver, United States Secretary of State Henry Clay. Situating her as the main historical actor, this research illustrates how Dupee’s life experiences as an enslaved woman directly informed the decisive timing of her freedom suit. By expanding Dupee’s story beyond 1829 to reconstruct her life from girlhood to manumission, we also gain a greater understanding of the nuanced and precarious nature of alternative pathways to freedom.

Reviewed Work(S): Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians, And The Weird In Flyover Country By Hollars, Susan Neville

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Righteousness, Reservation, Remembrance: Freedom-Loving Whites, Freedom-Seeking Blacks, And The Societies They Formed In Adams County, Brandon Roos

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

On the border between slave society and free society a collection of ideologies mixed. The residents of Adams County, even before its inception on January 22, 1800, lived in a state of division that swirled and crashed against the omnipresent slavery conundrum. The "New World Renaissance" swept through Adams County in the 1830s bringing schools, public works, businesses, and most culturally significant, new ideas. These ideas would prove to be the fount from which flowed the waters of reform. As the first settlers had made good use of the physical creeks and streams that dotted their pastoral landscape, so too …

Robert Smalls And The Steamship Planter: Turning The Tides For The Union Military In The Civil War, William K. Donaldson

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

This paper addresses the accomplishments of the slave Robert Smalls and his absconding with the valuable Confederate steamship, the Planter, from the Charleston, South Carolina harbor in the early morning hours of May 13th, 1862. Smalls went on to become a pilot and eventual captain of ships for the Union contributing substantially to the Civil War effort. After the war, Smalls became a Congressman. Through his contributions, Robert Smalls left an indelible mark on the history of the United States.

The Unspoken Demands Of Slavery: The Exploitation Of Female Slaves In The Memphis Slave Trade, Sarah W. Eiland

The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era

In the antebellum South, exploitation and mistreatment characterized the plight of the female slave. In Memphis, the story remained unchanged. The abusive and exploitative nature of the Memphis slave trade emerges through high prices for particular female slaves, the growth of the mulatto population, and the existence of mulatto children from certain prominent local figures. The survival of slavery depended upon the ability of the domestic slave population to sustain itself through the female slave population. This view of bondswomen as natural breeders and the accessibility of enslaved females in an urban setting, subjected them to sexual violence and exploitation. …