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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Changing The Landscape: Creating A Memorial To The Enslaved At William & Mary, Jody L. Allen
Changing The Landscape: Creating A Memorial To The Enslaved At William & Mary, Jody L. Allen
Arts & Sciences Articles
Excerpt from publication: "In the 1930s, William & Mary (W&M) constructed a four-foot brick wall around the oldest section of the campus. Many people in Williamsburg’s Black community saw this wall as a reminder that they were not welcome on campus unless they “were pushing a broom.” On May 26, 2021, a portion of this wall was knocked down to make way for the memorial to the enslaved..."
The “Shoe Holly” And The “Dressing Trees” On Richmond Road, Terry L. Meyers
The “Shoe Holly” And The “Dressing Trees” On Richmond Road, Terry L. Meyers
Arts & Sciences Articles
Excerpt from the article: "A site connecting the W&M campus and local Black history should be recorded--the “Shoe Holly” on Richmond Road, just off the corner of Bryan Hall..."
W&M’S Kkk Flagpole: Found?, Terry L. Meyers
W&M’S Kkk Flagpole: Found?, Terry L. Meyers
Arts & Sciences Articles
Excerpt from the article: "Ever since 2008, when I wrote a piece for the Gazette about Williamsburg’s almost century old encounter with the KKK, I’ve been on a hunt for a flagpole. In 1926, 5000 Klansmen flocked to town to see W&M dedicate the Klan’s gift to the College—a huge American flag and a 70 foot flagpole to fly it. I wanted to know what became of that pole..."
The “Peculiar Institution” In And Near Williamsburg, Terry L. Meyers
The “Peculiar Institution” In And Near Williamsburg, Terry L. Meyers
Arts & Sciences Articles
Excerpt from the article: "Slavery in Williamsburg and nearby—what was it like? Depends on who you ask..."
Scenes From Williamsburg’S 19th Century, Terry L. Meyers
Scenes From Williamsburg’S 19th Century, Terry L. Meyers
Arts & Sciences Articles
Excerpt from the article: "When the capital of Virginia shifted from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780, Williamsburg’s history shifted too, but did not end—three little known accounts of the town offer glimpses of life into the nineteenth century..."
The Journey Of Unlearning: A Close Reading Of Civil War Pedagogy In Alabama And Virginia, Michaela Hill
The Journey Of Unlearning: A Close Reading Of Civil War Pedagogy In Alabama And Virginia, Michaela Hill
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis is a close reading of Civil War pedagogy in Alabama and Virginia with special attention given to Black history during the Civil War era. Through an examination of Civil War history, it is evident that slavery was the main cause of the War. The development of the Lost Cause narrative, a reaction to Blacks gaining Civil Rights that aimed to prove the Confederate war effort was honorable, is still promoted in southern schools. Alabama and Virginia both provide state standards, outlines of the minimum required knowledge to be obtained on a given subject by the end of the …
From Necessity To Novelty: Historic Trades In Colonial Williamsburg, Cecelia Rose Eure
From Necessity To Novelty: Historic Trades In Colonial Williamsburg, Cecelia Rose Eure
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum in Virginia that hosts a large program interpreting and preserving eighteenth-century craft methods. Using ethnographic research methods, this paper evaluates the value of the historic trades program as a means of preserving otherwise lost skills, producing knowledge, and engaging the public in history. I argue that historic trades interpretation connects with audiences more than traditional exhibits, particularly highlighting specialized interpretation, on-the-job discoveries, representation of identity groups, and the ability to utilize online video platforms. Additionally, I address the divide between modern consumption and production, and how visitors can find historic trades that were …
Divided We Stand: An Investigation Of America’S Dual Psyche And The Fbi’S War On Anti-Americanism, Laura Mills
Divided We Stand: An Investigation Of America’S Dual Psyche And The Fbi’S War On Anti-Americanism, Laura Mills
Undergraduate Honors Theses
In periods after war, the U.S. has a tendency to feel insecure amidst a changing world order. Reassuring narratives of American exceptionalism often emerge, as well as reactive vilification of the un-American “Other.” This thesis explores the split in American identity that occurs in times of heightened national insecurity, a division that awards labels of Americanism or deviant anti-Americanism to the broader citizenry. To explore the tie between security and identity, a case study approach is taken with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the FBI. From its establishment in 1908, the FBI carefully built itself under the expectation that …
Disappearing Smoke: Why Black Pitmasters Are Being Left Behind By Commercialization Within North Carolina Whole Hog Barbecue, Charlotte Lucas
Disappearing Smoke: Why Black Pitmasters Are Being Left Behind By Commercialization Within North Carolina Whole Hog Barbecue, Charlotte Lucas
Undergraduate Honors Theses
In North Carolina, there is only one Eastern whole hog establishment left that is owned by black pitmasters. As a result of historical context, black pitmasters have been left behind by the recent trend of commercialization within North Carolina whole hog barbecue. This exclusion can be explained by examining the history of whole hog barbecue, the struggles black entrepreneurs face in the restaurant industry, and the role that the media has played in ignoring black pitmasters. Historical background dives into the history of the whole hog from the plantation era to the Civil Rights movement and beyond in North Carolina …
"But A Contraband Is A Free Man:" Civil War Literature And The Figure Of The "Contraband", Mary A. Kardos
"But A Contraband Is A Free Man:" Civil War Literature And The Figure Of The "Contraband", Mary A. Kardos
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis explores Civil War popular literature related to "contraband" individuals by Black and white authors. In May 1861, those who escaped from enslavement to Union territory were deemed "contrabands of war," a label placing them between freedom and property. This purgatorial category delayed freedom and depicts formerly enslaved persons as both intellectual and literal property of white America. Across various poems, essays, speeches, novels, illustrated envelopes, and sketches, Civil War authors debated the function of the “contrabands” within the American social order. Consequently, this thesis explores the patterns through which the uniquely transitory nature of the “contraband" allowed the …
Cultivation Through Excavation: Performing Community And Partnership In The Historic First Baptist Church Project, Eleanor S. Renshaw
Cultivation Through Excavation: Performing Community And Partnership In The Historic First Baptist Church Project, Eleanor S. Renshaw
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis explores the relationships and partnerships developing around the First Baptist Church -- Nassau Street Archaeology Project in Colonial Williamsburg. Exploring the defining of "descendant community" and the contributions of tourists through the lens of Erving Goffman's stages and participant frameworks, this project looks at the past, present, and future of this project.
The Rails That Bind: America's Freedom Trains As Reflections Of Efforts To Form Cultural Consensus And Indicators Of The Weakness Of Cold War Memory, Daniel Speer
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This paper assesses why two projects with the same name, concept and intent of forming cultural consensus, the Freedom Trains, took such different forms between the postwar "consensus" (1947-1963) and detente (1963-1979) phases of the Cold War. It argues that organizers Attorney General Tom C. Clark (1947), Ross Rowland (1975), and their corporate backers articulated histories based on perceived common values of limited rights (1947), cultural pluralism (1975) and consumption (both) that attempted unity, but resulted in silences. The reception to each train, and the organizers' responses to those reactions, showed the limitations of a unifying consensus, but varied between …
The Bodies Politic: Sex, History, And The Promise Of A Black Queer America, Jonathan Newby
The Bodies Politic: Sex, History, And The Promise Of A Black Queer America, Jonathan Newby
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This essay examines and critiques the ways in which Black, Queer, and Black Queer people's culture, politics, and lived experiences are experienced in the United States, historically and in the present day. The Bodies Politics calls for American history and culture to be reoriented to acknowledge and center the contributions of Black Queer people to the nation.
Paradoxical Toleration: Southern Antisemitism In The Nineteenth Century, Jason Blau
Paradoxical Toleration: Southern Antisemitism In The Nineteenth Century, Jason Blau
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis explores antisemitism in the nineteenth century South. It seeks to demonstrate the relative paucity of religious prejudice directed towards Jews by white southern gentiles until the late nineteenth century, despite the virulence of anti-black racism in white southern society at the time. This “paradox,” contrary to modern assumptions that disparate prejudices run together as has been documented by social psychologists, attracts attention. Historically, scholars made similar claims without much substantiation. Other researchers, such as Leonard Dinnerstein in “A Note on Southern Attitudes toward Jews,” challenged the possibility of southern Jewish acceptance relative to northern mores, pointing out an …
“A Sea Of White Faces”: How Courtroom Portraits Undermine Justice In Virginia, Lauren Miller
“A Sea Of White Faces”: How Courtroom Portraits Undermine Justice In Virginia, Lauren Miller
Undergraduate Honors Theses
The presence of Confederate symbols and other reminders of white institutional power in courtrooms introduces a risk that impermissible factors such as implicit bias, conscious prejudice, and sympathy for white supremacy will harm litigants’ rights. I compiled data for 210 of 328 courts (64%) in the Commonwealth and found that there are more than 617 portraits on display in Virginia courtrooms. At least 357 portraits depict white men, six depict Black men, fifteen depict white women, and twenty-eight depict people who served in the Confederacy, either in the government or the Confederate States Army (CSA). At least fourteen different courts …
They Are United As Me Now: Chloe Whittle In Norfolk During The Secession Crisis, Brooke Hemingway
They Are United As Me Now: Chloe Whittle In Norfolk During The Secession Crisis, Brooke Hemingway
Undergraduate Research Awards
"On the late evening of Monday, April 15th, 1861, seventeen year-old Chloe Whittle sat down to transcribe a thrilling tale of the weekend in Norfolk into her diary. She wrote the wrong date at the top of her page, perhaps intending to mark the importance of April 12th, 1861 for posterity. She took care to write that she was in “Norfolk, VA United States”, as a prediction that soon she would not reside in the United States, but in the Confederate States of America. As a secessionist, Chloe said “this is the last day I will even be able to …
Machines On The Farm: Capitalism And Technology In Midwestern Agriculture, 1845-1900, James Jonathan Rick
Machines On The Farm: Capitalism And Technology In Midwestern Agriculture, 1845-1900, James Jonathan Rick
Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects
Farming people in the Midwestern United States and in Ontario began using new machines throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. These included machines related to the production of grain crops—including threshers, reapers, and drills—as well as machines related to the production of the farm household— such as sewing and washing machines. In their use, maintenance, and alteration of machines within the natural and social contexts of their farms, rural people produced new technological systems of industrial agriculture. They also struggled with machine manufacturers and their agents for control of those systems—both as individuals and through farmer’s organizations. This …