Digital Commons Network^™

Folklore Of The Shenandoah Valley, Heather Good

Honors Projects

The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia has a long and storied history, which has resulted in the development of a rich folklore unique to the area. Stories and traditions have been passed down through generations, often by family and community members but also through the few texts that have been written on the subject. As a writer and local of the area, this cultural tradition has played a significant role in helping me to discover my own voice through looking at the voices that came before me.

This project will fist focus on two significant periods in the history of the …

Through The Wilderness: Andrew Jackson's Military Road And The Settlement Of The Southern Frontier, Dustin Mitchell Wren

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Shortly after the War of 1812, the U.S government attempted to construct a new military road system connecting Nashville, Tennessee to strategic ports at New Orleans and Mobile. The road was intended to grant faster military responses to British, Spanish, and Indian threats within America’s southern frontier and to aid in the region’s settlement. The American government directed iconic General Andrew Jackson to spearhead the road’s construction, believing the construction would be rapid and the expenses minimal. However, the impenetrable thickets and inundating swamps of the Mississippi Territory proved untamable, while shifting geo-political dynamics mitigated the road’s necessity. Never used …

Coming To Terms With Legacies Of The Vietnam War, Paul Morrow, Shelley Inglis, University Of Dayton. Human Rights Center

Reports and Promotional Materials

This report is the result of a symposium convened by the University of Dayton Human Rights Center in October 2020. For their contributions to that symposium we thank the following speakers: Allison Varzally, Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, Yen Le Espiritu, Tom Grace, David Cortright, Cynthia Enloe, David Kieran, Patrick Hagopian, Scott Laderman, Andrew Bacevich, Chuck Searcy, Dang Quang Toan, Colleen Murphy, Katherine Gallagher, John Goines III, Ben Schrader, Susan Hammond, Bich-Ngoc Turner, and Tim Rieser. Heather Bowser, Đạt Duthịnh, Garett Reppenhagen, and Mike Boehm enriched the symposium by discussing experiences of advocacy around war legacies; we are particularly thankful for the chance …

We, Too, Have Deeds Of Heroism To Tell Our Children: The Role Of The United Daughters Of The Confederacy In The Perpetuation Of The Confederate Lost Cause In Fayetteville, Arkansas, Madison Whipple

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

The conversation surrounding Confederate memorialization has become increasingly relevant, especially as it relates to public monuments. One of the groups that perpetuated Confederate memorialization was the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In the early twentieth century, this organization was prolific in not only memorializing the Old South, but also in seeking to vindicate the Confederacy. While this topic has been discussed and analyzed by scholars on the national level, and even regionally, the conversation skips over Fayetteville. Fayetteville’s history is considered more progressive due to the presence of the University, but there is little coverage of Fayetteville’s memorialization of the …

Failoure On All Fronts: The United States Army In The First Year Of The War Of 1812, Gary H. Nobbs Jr.

History Theses

The United States declared war on the United Kingdom in the hopes of defending the nation's national honor. However, the United States Army was unprepared to go wage war. The army's supply system, militia system, and field commanders failed and led to a disastrous first year of conflict.

More Than A Museum: Museums' Past, Current, And Future Involvement With Racial Issues, Madeline B. Friedler

Museum Studies Theses

The year 2020 has been universally acknowledged as an extraordinary point in activist history. The Black Lives Matter organization has spearheaded a new wave of activism comparable to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 70s. By evaluating how cultural learning centers such as museums have presented racial history in the past, an effective plan can be made on how museums should interpret this present-day history. Museums should not only recognize #BlackLivesMatter as an important part of history in an academic sense, but they should also actively promote positive racial change in the communities they serve. Research shows that …

“Did Emmett Till Die In Vain? Organized Labor Says No!”: The United Packinghouse Workers And Civil Rights Unionism In The Mid-1950s, Matthew Nichter

Faculty Publications

Emmett Till’s mangled face is seared into our collective memory, a tragic epitome of the brutal violence that upheld white supremacy in the Jim Crow South. But Till's murder was more than just a tragedy: it also inspired an outpouring of determined protest, in which labor unions played a prominent role. The United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA) campaigned energetically on behalf of Emmett Till, from the stockyards of Chicago to the sugar refineries of Louisiana. Packinghouse workers petitioned, marched, and rallied to demand justice; the UPWA organized the first mass meeting addressed by Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley; and an …

The United States And Portuguese Angola: Space, Race, And The Cold War In Africa, Alex J. Marino

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an international history of the role of the United States in the process of decolonization in Angola, a former colony of Portugal. I argue that the United States embraced Portugal, Angola, and neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo as irreplaceable Cold War allies. Decolonization in Africa challenged America’s relationship with all three countries, as competing forces within the American public called for Washington to adopt an anti-colonial, anti- racist ideology, while others demanded their government to support white supremacy at home and abroad. Decolonization in Angola, a protracted liberation struggle that started in 1961 and lasted until 1974, …

Mapping Renewal: How An Unexpected Interdisciplinary Collaboration Transformed A Digital Humanities Project, Elise Tanner, Geoffrey Joseph

Digital Initiatives Symposium

Funded by a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Foundations Grant, the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture’s “Mapping Renewal” pilot project focused on creating access to and providing spatial context to archival materials related to racial segregation and urban renewal in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, from 1954-1989. An unplanned interdisciplinary collaboration with the UA Little Rock Arkansas Economic Development Institute (AEDI) has proven to be an invaluable partnership. One team member from each department will demonstrate the Mapping Renewal website and discuss how the collaborative process has changed and shaped …

Actions Above Words: A Biography Of Vice Admiral Clifton “Ziggy” Sprague, John Kirwan

Undergraduate Theses

Among the many larger than life and fascinating figures of the Second World War, one who is seldom spoken of is the late Vice Admiral Clifton A.F. "Ziggy" Sprague. A quiet man from New England, Admiral Sprague was an accomplished pilot, administrator, and commander. From service during the First World War to assisting in the testing of nuclear devices following the end of the Second World War, Sprague was a force behind the scenes. He was devoted to his profession and refused to play the political game those above him did, preferring that his actions speak greater volumes than any …

Military Operations On The St. Johns, September-October, 1862 (Part Ii) The Federals Capture St. Johns Bluff, Edwin C. Bearss

Florida Historical Quarterly

All of Brigadier General John M. Brannan’s Union soldiers and their arms, horses, and rations had reached shore by 9 p.m., October 1, 1862. Among the first units to land were sixty troopers of the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry. The horsemen spent the afternoon and early evening reconnoitering.

Memoir Of A West Pointer In Saint Augustine: 1824-1826, Cecil D. Eby, Jr.

Florida Historical Quarterly

In May, 1824, Second Lieutenant Alfred Beckley of the Fourth Artillery, United States Army, reported for duty at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida, where he remained until April, 1826. He was green and untried - a twenty-two year old West Pointer who had graduated ninth in the Class of 1823- and except for his aversion to “French brandy” and “Old Sledge,” he was perhaps a typical example of the officer-gentleman that was the backbone of the peacetime army of that time. Born in Washington City in 1802, Beckley could recall as guests in his home such dignitaries as Joel Barlow, …

Military Operations On The St. Johns, September-October 1862 (Part I), Edwin C. Bearss

Florida Historical Quarterly

As the months passed the Union blockade of the Southern coast increased in effectiveness. To make matters worse for the Confederacy, Union amphibious commands were put ashore at a number of points, vital ports and strategic forts were seized, and the number of points at which blockade runners could land their valuable cargos were constantly reduced. On the east coast of Florida, Fernandina, Fort Clinch, Jacksonville, and St. Augustine had been occupied by the Federals in March, 1862. The following month, Jacksonville was evacuated by the Unionists.

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Reviews of Evolution of a Federalist, William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812). By George C. Rogers, Jr. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1962. xiv, 439 pp. Preface, charts, bibliography, index. $8.00.); Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty. By Dumas Malone. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1962. xxx, 545 pp. $7.50.); Ante-Bellum Southern Literary Critics. By Edd Winfield Parks. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1962. 259 pp. $7.50.); The African Colonization Movement, 1816-1865. By P. J. Staudenraus. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961. ix, 323 pp. Appendix, bibliography, index. $6.00.); McClellan, Sherman and Grant. By T. Harry Williams. (New Brunswick: …

Politics And Property During The Transfer Of Florida From Spanish To English Rule, 1763-1764, Robert L. Gold

Florida Historical Quarterly

England acquired legal and sovereign control of Spanish Florida on February 10, 1763. After more than a century of imperialistic adventures, which had assumed the form of invasions and guerrilla penetrations from her colonies to the north, Great Britain wrested Florida from Spain’s grip at the Paris peace conferences following the French and Indian War. Because the British had successfully assaulted Havana in the summer of 1762, the Spanish negotiators reluctantly bartered Florida away in order to retrieve their great treasure terminal of the Indies. Less than four months of diplomacy were required to arrange the end of almost two …

The Editor's Corner, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

We continue here the reminiscences by the late Jane D. Brush of Michigan, widow of Alanson P. Brush, a pioneer of the automobile industry.

Book Reviews, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Reviews of Richard Keith Call: Southern Unionist. By Herbert J. Doherty, Jr. (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1961. vii, 195 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. $5.50.); Nuevas fuentes para la historia de Puerto Rico. By Aurelio Tio. (San German: Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, 1961. 653 pp. Notes, maps, bibliography, charts, appendix, index.); The Pied Piper of Peru. By Henry Hanson. (Jacksonville: Florida Public Health Association, 1961. $2.00 cloth; $1.50 paper.); Glimpses of the Panhandle. By Harold W. Bell. (Chicago: Adams Press, 1961. 227 pp. Maps, bibliography. $3.50); The Secession Conventions of the South. By Ralph A. Wooster. (Princeton, N. J., …

Memoir Of A West Pointer In Florida: 1825, Cecil D. Eby, Jr.

Florida Historical Quarterly

In the early summer of 1825 the group of Seminoles relegated to the Big Swamp area of central Florida by the treaty of Moultrie Creek, signed two years before, were subjected to a drought so severe that nearly their whole crop was destroyed. Forced to subsist upon game, the Indians obtained permission from Major Gad Humphreys, their agent at the post that later became known as Fort King, to send hunting parties beyond the boundaries of their reservation to the north. While the incursion of Indian hunters into territories belonging legally to white settlers was absolutely necessary for the survival …

The Story Of Captain John C. Casey, Fred W. Wallace

Florida Historical Quarterly

One link in the chain of off-shore islands extending from Anclote Key southward along Florida’s Gulf coast is Casey Key in Sarasota County. This little Key has more than its share of natural beauty and charm yet remains one of the least known islands. Although little is heard of Casey Key, except locally, for which the residents who value privacy are grateful, even more obscure is the origin of the name. One historian has written, “When and how Casey’s Pass was named no one knows. According to waterfront legend an Irishman named Casey settled there for a number of years …

Memorial: Julien Chandler Yonge, Rembert W. Patrick

Florida Historical Quarterly

In the fall of 1892 a thirteen-year-old boy requested and received a copy of Campbell’s Historical Sketches of Colonial Florida. Beginning with Panfilo de Narvaez’s discovery of Pensacola Bay, the 284-page book traced the explorations of Hernando de Soto, described the ill-fated attempt of Tristan de Luna to found a colony at Pensacola, and detailed the eventual permanent settlement there. The author emphasized the British Period of Colonial Florida, overweighted the importance of Pensacola, and ended his narrative with the American occupation of the province.

A War Correspondent's View Of St. Augustine And Fernandina: 1863, P. J. Staudenraus

Florida Historical Quarterly

Noah Brooks, born in Castine, Maine, in 1830, was an experienced newspaper man by the age of twenty-five. He worked for newspapers in Massachusetts, Illinois, and California before going to Washington, D. C., in December, 1862, as special correspondent for the Sacramento Daily Union. During the three years Brooks lived in the national capital he became a personal friend of President Lincoln whom he first met in Illinois in 1856. Before Lincoln died he asked Brooks to be his personal secretary. Brooks’s visit to Union Army stations along the coast of South Carolina and Florida in June, 1863, was one …

Florida Volunteers In The War With Spain, 1898, William Schellings

Florida Historical Quarterly

For many years the Spanish American War has been referred to as a “Splendid Little War.” John Hay first used the term to describe the war in a letter to his friend Theodore Roosevelt and Teddy, without doubt, fully agreed. Recently Professor Frank Freidel used the same words to title a book concerning that war. Perhaps many of the participants in the Second World War, or the Korean conflict, would also agree that the war with Spain was a comparatively splendid affair as wars go. Imagine a war in which there was no draft, and that was fought largely by …

The Editor's Corner, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

In this number we continue the reminiscences of Florida begun in our last issue by the late Jane D. Brush of Michigan, widow of Alanson P. Brush, a pioneer of the automobile industry.

News And Notes, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Notes about the Civil War Centennial Commission, local historical societies

The Treaty Of Moultrie Creek, 1823, John K. Mahon

Florida Historical Quarterly

A decade before the United States obtained possession of the whole of Florida the Indians had learned to fear Americans. Three times the men of the new nation to the north had invaded the peninsula; two of these invasions had brought ruin to the redmen. The first invasion-during the “Patriot War” of 1811-1813 - had initiated the disintegration of the towns and the agriculture of the Indians, east of the Suwannee River. The second - Andrew Jackson’s campaign in 1818 - had wreaked the same havoc upon those west of the Suwannee. The Florida Indians were never the same after …

The Celestial Railroad To Juno, Nathan D. Shappee

Florida Historical Quarterly

The topic of this paper is deeply and affectionately imbedded in the early history and folklore of northern Dade County and present day Palm Beach County. Until this present undertaking no attempt at a comprehensive article about the Celestial Railroad has been made. Stray references and short descriptions are found in a wide variety of places but the best of these are in unpublished reminiscences of old-timers and in contemporary newspapers which are not readily accessible to general readers.

William Augustus Bowles And The State Of Muskogee, Lyle N. Mcalister

Florida Historical Quarterly

As the eighteenth century approached its end, the decline of the imperial power of Spain was reflected and magnified in the borderland provinces of East and West Florida. In these outposts of empire the hand of authority was weak and resources for defense were almost non-existent. The military establishment consisted of understrength garrisons in the presidios at St. Augustine, San Marcos de Apalache, Mobile, and Pensacola, and the sparsity and dispersion of the population precluded reliance on troops raised locally. Moreover, the Viceroy of Mexico and the Captain General of Cuba, who were responsible for the defense of the northern …

The Editor's Corner, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Father Jerome of St. Leo’s Abbey, St. Leo, Florida, sends us an interesting note relating the pro’s and con’s of the dispute centering about the identity of the first Catholic Bishop of Florida, and a document which he assures us provides “a definite silencing of the dispute.” The search for this documentary proof led Father Jerome to the Library of Congress, the Hispanic Society of America, and to the Franciscan archives in Washington - all without success.

The Cotton Mill Campaign In Florida, 1828-1863, Richard W. Griffin

Florida Historical Quarterly

The manufacturing impulse in the South appeared as early as 1790 when primitive cotton factories were established in Kentucky and South Carolina. In Virginia an association to promote manufactures was launched at Richmond in 1786. This early interest in development of cotton manufactories was not comparable, however, to that which set off the cotton growing craze after the invention of the cotton gin.

East Coast Florida Steamboating, 1831-1861, Edward A. Mueller

Florida Historical Quarterly

Transportation facilities have always played a substantial and significant role in the development and settlement of the United States. Likewise, in the early days of Florida’s development, water transportation played a most important part, sailing ships helping to bring in some of the first settlers and visitors. Because Florida is a peninsula for the most part and has water access on most of its boundaries as well as many waterways serving the interior, transportation by water has always loomed large. Sailing vessels, however, have their difficulties not the least of which is the lack of a regular schedule and the …