United States History Commons^™

Ledgers Of The W.T. Carter And Brother Lumber Company: An Archival Processing Project, Christopher Cameron Cotton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The W.T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company began in 1898 and operated until 1968 when it was sold to the U.S. Plywood Corporation. The Polk County, Texas company harvested longleaf pine during a crucial period of development for the Texas economy. The lumber industry was the state’s first large scale commercial enterprise not dependent on farming and provided a model for future extractive industries in the state. The W.T. Carter and Brother Lumber Company town of Camden, Texas exemplifies rural implementations of the company town system in the Texas lumber industry. This public history thesis provides a brief history of …

A Unique Type Of Loneliness: Infertility In Nineteenth-Century America, Abigail Butler

Theses and Dissertations from 2020

Many diaries and letters written by nineteenth-century Americans display the aching for parenthood and pain of loss due to miscarriage. Though some women felt joy or relief when they recognized they had miscarried or were not pregnant, infertility negatively affected the everyday lives of many men and women in the nineteenth century. Infertility not only disturbed their personal beliefs of family and their role in society, but could cause marital discord, feeling outcast from society, and could lead to other health problems. Women in slavery faced even more serious consequences that included being sold away from their family and/or receiving …

Arkansas Aprons: Food Power And Women In Arkansas, 1857 To 1891, Robyn Shahan Spears

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Arkansas foodways in the late nineteenth century were defined by times of plenty and scarcity, need and connection, traditions and innovations. These components created a unique culture in which women through food exchange, were able to improve their standard of living. The years of plenty established in the antebellum era lay in stark contrast to the scarcity during the Civil War. What followed during the Progressive Era are fascinating histories of women employing their agency to empower and improve not only their lives but also future generations. I argue that these women utilized their agency to engage in “food power,” …

Racial Integration, White Appropriation, And School Choice: The Demise Of The Colored Schools Of Late Nineteenth Century Brooklyn, Judith R. Kafka, Cici Matheny

Publications and Research

This study examines school desegregation in late-nineteenth-century Brooklyn from a spatial perspective, analyzing enrollment data and policy debates within the context of the shifting racial and geographic contours of the city. We argue that “choice” on the part of black families only partially explains the demise of designated-black schools during this period. White interests also played a role in the closing of these institutions, as white families and developers sought, and ultimately acquired, control over formerly black spaces. This study contributes to a growing body of research on school desegregation in northern U.S. cities by exploring the perceived benefits of …

"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 …

The Corruption Of Promise: The Insane Asylum In Mississippi, 1848-1910, Whitney E. Barringer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ideology of insane asylum reform, which emphasized the Enlightenment language of human rights and the humane treatment of the mentally ill, reached American shores in the early-mid-nineteenth century. When asylum reform began to disseminate throughout the United States, forward-thinking Mississippians latched onto the idea of the reformed asylum as a humane way to treat mentally ill Mississippians and to bolster the humanitarian image of a Southern slave society to its Northern critics. When the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum opened in 1855, its superintendents were optimistic about the power of the state to meet mental healthcare needs. While Mississippi slave …

Discriminating Tastes: How Advertisements Taught Consumerism And Race To Gilded Age Youths, Jaclyn Schultz

Theses and Dissertations

Commercial and social trends of the Gilded Age combined to give a unique and novel power to colorful advertising trade cards that were collected, exchanged, and preserved in scrapbooks by middle-class children living in the Northeast. These children were members of one of the earliest generations to grow up with mandatory co-educational schooling and to be part of a distinctive youth culture created through peer interactions. After 1876, advertising trade cards became ubiquitous and were a significant component of that peer culture. The cards were also innovative in that they were the first example of colored images to be made …

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 …

‘‘Ticketed Through’’ The Commodification Of Travel In The Nineteenth Century, Will Mackintosh

History and American Studies

This article discusses the commodification of travel in United States during the 19th Century and the impact created by the rise of canals, steamboats, and commercial railroads.

Redeeming The Time: Protestant Missionaries And The Social And Cultural Development Of Territorial Nebraska, Robert Voss

Robert J. Voss

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May of 1854 formally opened a new region of the United States to settlers. Hundreds came with news of the creation of Nebraska Territory, but not in comparable numbers to the major western migrations that would follow after the Civil War. Instead, the initial small waves of Nebraska settlers would cling to the Missouri River and its settlements establishing communities on the eastern edges in the newly opened territory. These first settlers set the foundations for culture and society in Nebraska. From 1854 until 1860, pioneers claimed lands near the Missouri, with few …

"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 …

Redeeming The Time: Protestant Missionaries And The Social And Cultural Development Of Territorial Nebraska, Robert J. Voss

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May of 1854 formally opened a new region of the United States to settlers. Hundreds came with news of the creation of Nebraska Territory, but not in comparable numbers to the major western migrations that would follow after the Civil War. Instead, the initial small waves of Nebraska settlers would cling to the Missouri River and its settlements establishing communities on the eastern edges in the newly opened territory. These first settlers set the foundations for culture and society in Nebraska.

From 1854 until 1860, pioneers claimed lands near the Missouri, with few …