United States History Commons^™

Black Joining The Ranks Of White: Black Slaveowning In 1800s South Carolina, Zachary M. Saddow

Graduate Theses

Exploring the lives and impact of the Black slaveholders in Antebellum South Carolina is a highly overlooked subject in a sensitive area. The idea of a Black slaveholder stands contrary to the widely held belief of slavery held by a majority in the United States. This realization is also startling as most slaveholders were White, with those in bondage being Black. These Black slaveholders actively took part in the system of slavery including the buying and selling of slaves, the production of cash crops, and even support for the eventual Confederacy. Although many began their life in chains, Black future …

The Roosevelt School: A Tiger's Place In The History Of Public-School Integration, Kenya L. Lane

Graduate Theses

South Carolina, like many southern states, spent fifteen years avoiding complete compliance with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling to desegregate schools. Despite the statewide attempts to keep schools segregated, some South Carolina school districts slowly made strides to integrate with little resistance. By the mid 1960s, the Clover School District, even with trepidation, began to integrate its schools. These efforts to give African American students equal access often came at a cost. The process of integration often involved diminishing the value and very presence of traditionally all-black public schools.

The Roosevelt School, Clover’s only all-black …

The Aids Virus And The Galvanization Of The Lgbtq Movement For Equality, Michael Ernest Wachowski

Graduate Theses

The LGBTQ community was greatly altered by the AIDS crisis and the organizations that were founded in the 1980s. AIDS would become associated with those of the gay community during the early years of the crisis. The government and leading health officials perpetuated the public’s ignorance about the relativity new disease leading to more misunderstandings and mishandlings of the HIV/AIDS crisis. The disease did not discriminate among people, however, and quickly spread throughout many of the communities in the U.S. Organizations with roots in the LGBTQ community established themselves during the 1980s to deal with not only the AIDS crisis, …

Collegiate Codebreakers: Winthrop, Women, And War, Marlana Mayton

Graduate Theses

During World War II, college-aged women from across the nation filled United States Army and Navy secretive cryptanalysis facilities to help win the war. For many women, colleges facilitated involvement in codebreaking. Through information gathered in oral histories, this thesis primarily explores war related programs at American colleges and the young women that became cryptanalysts. Academic institutions, like Winthrop College, became the nuclei for colligate codebreakers. They acted as early crypt education centers, through the offering of cryptology classes, functioned as recruitment centers, and operated as essential training hubs. While in school, young women were saturated by a climate of …

An Architect Of The New South: A Case Study Of William Lawrence Hill And Sharon, South Carolina, Paul Laffredo Iii

Graduate Theses

This is a case study of William Lawrence Hill and Sharon South Carolina. Mr. Hill was born in 1866 and grew up under the harshness of Reconstruction which taught Hill that above all else he did not want to become a southern farmer. At the age of ten, Hill was operating a mercantile, for the benefit of the Blairsville, South Carolina community. In 1898, Hill relocated about twenty miles away to the community called Sharon. Hill along with four other men incorporated the Sharon community into a town and served as a member of its first city council.

William L. …

From Riots To Sovereignty: United States Policy Makers Ideas, Perceptions, And Reactions To The Panamanian Struggle For Sovereignty, William Edward Humphrey

Graduate Theses

After the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 the Panamanian people had to live in an occupied country. The U.S. took control of a ten-mile stretch of land surrounding a canal of immense importance to world trade. The U.S. policy makers ignored the pleas, complaints, and demonstrations of the Panamanian people as they struggled for sovereignty in their country. This thesis will show, through the use of primary sources from the U.S. government that U.S. policy makers refused to see the importance of sovereignty to the Panamanian people until the 1964 Panamanian Flag Riots. After that episode, U.S. policy makers dramatically shifted …

"Did You Ever Hear Of A Man Having A Child?": An Examination Of The Risk And Benefits Of Being An African American Female Soldier During America's Civil War, Kirsten Chaney

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this paper is to explore the social, economic, and political benefits for African American females who cross-dressed to join both the Confederate and Union Armies during the American Civil War. The benefits gained by the African American women who disguised themselves as males improved their overall quality of life when compared to other African American women of their era. The improved quality of life for these disguised women was made available through the increased number of options granted to African American males in the social, economic, and political spheres that were denied to African American women. The …

Running From Behind: Nelson Rockefeller And The Liberal Republicans During The 1964 Republican Primaries, Christopher Eller

Graduate Theses

This thesis seeks to examine if the conservative victory in the 1964 Republican presidential primaries was inevitable. Based on archival research, primary source materials, and secondary source materials, it is concluded that conservative candidate Barry Goldwater faced numerous instances when his campaign could have been defeated by Republican challengers, campaign blunders, and internal party factions. This thesis focuses on liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller’s campaign with the intention of articulating the fracturing of the Republican Party in the early 1960s. Rockefeller’s quest for the nomination is emblematic of the changing nature of presidential politics in the post-World War II era leading …

The Bleachery Way: A Study Of The Rock Hill Printing And Finishing Company, 1960-2017, Alexander Keith Windham

Graduate Theses

The Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Company has been a staple in the development of the city of Rock Hill, South Carolina. The textile factory has not been extensively written on apart from newspaper articles and therefore the purpose of this thesis is to identify just how impactful the factory was on the development and people of Rock Hill. From 1929 to 1998 the plant was in full operation and employed countless citizens of the city. The Rock Hill Printing and Finishing Company has been neglected despite its lasting history in the city. The concepts of labor relations regarding race, …

"If God Is For Us Who Can Be Against Us?": Southerners, Abolitionists, Slavery, And The Quest For God's Approval In Pre-Civil War America, Carson Cope

Graduate Theses

In assessing antebellum, Southern attitudes towards slavery, no assessment is complete without examining Christianity’s influence on southerners. Nearly every document southerners put forward that supported slavery made a reference to a biblical sanction of slavery. In studying the Southern use of the Bible to sanction slavery, many historians such as Hector Avalos and Molly Oshatz have argued that southerners were within their rights to use the Bible to sanction slavery. At the same time, they have castigated abolitionist efforts to argue that the Bible did not sanction slavery. In assessing this debate, this thesis will argue in contrast to these …

Til Death Did Us Part, The Story Of The Health And Death Of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mary E. Edgecomb

Graduate Theses

The awe of celebrity, including presidents, creates the impression of beings who are larger than life, without the problems of the common man. Franklin D. Roosevelt, unbeknownst to many Americans, had significant health issues. These health issues predate his paralytic illness and worsened during his presidency. Efforts to maintain his image as the unconquerable president of the United Sates led to concealment of these problems and, in turn, negatively impacted his medical care. While most previous studies focused on individual health issues, this research will show a continuum of medical problems that not only impacted his presidency but also were …

Are We In The Clear? : A History Of Military Treatment Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder From The Civil War Until The Wars On Terror, Susanna O. Lee

Graduate Theses

Post-traumatic stress disorder is known as a common element of warfare. However, it has only gained significance during the last century. The Civil War was the first time that the military began to record soldiers who were diagnosed with “nostalgia.” With every conflict that followed, the name of the disorder changed. Along with changing the name, new treatments were implemented.

The goals of the paper are to show depictions of the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder beginning with the Civil War until the present Afghan/Iraqi conflicts and how it was dealt with by military organizations. This paper will also cover …

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, …

Shackling The Great Emancipator: How The Nineteenth Century Press In South Carolina Helped To Shape The American National Memory Of Abraham Lincoln’S Racial Beliefs And Policies, Elizabeth D. Oswald-Sease

Graduate Theses

Abraham Lincoln is perhaps the most popular president in American history to date. American collective memory centers on his legacy as the Great Emancipator, a man who was beyond his time in terms of social equality and paved the way for later advancements in civil rights for African Americans in the United States. This caricature of Lincoln is fundamentally inaccurate, however. Lincoln himself repeatedly stated his devotion to the restoration of the Union, which at its fundamental core was a political entity that only encapsulated white Americans. In fact, Lincoln’s eventual issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation was intended to be …

Volunteerism Develops Communities, Trains Leaders, And Guards Democracy: Odessa, Texas 1896-1948, Debra Noe Gibbs

Graduate Theses

Volunteers were an essential tool used to build our nation and communities. The creation and maintenance of communities across the United States relied heavily on the activities of volunteers and their organizations in order to meet the endless needs of both the citizens and the infrastructure. Furthermore, volunteer organizations provided an increase and stability in democracy and in building communities in a variety of ways. First, volunteer organizations filled needs that the government was not able to meet. Second, they were training grounds for developing the skills needed to manage communities. Volunteer associations, by providing avenues and developing skills, helped …