History Commons^™

Enlightenment Science And Nano-Science: Creating Order Out Of Magic, Elizabeth Ramsey Frey

Honors Theses

People today live in a world dominated by technology. All of the conveniences and technologies people enjoy and utilize today, however, would not exist without the foundation of empirical science laid during the Enlightenment. This thesis looks at the Enlightenment both as a philosophical movement and as the setting of the Scientific Revolution. The leaders of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution began the tradition of utilizing reason in research, founded empirical science, and developed the scientific method. This thesis traces the development of science during the Enlightenment and seeks to prove that Enlightenment science set the stage for the science …

Maintaining Intact Our Homogeneousness: Race, Citizenship, & Reconstructing Cherokee, Rachel Purvis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The history of the Cherokee Nation from 1866 to 1907 provides a new framework for the story of Reconstruction that expands the periodization and geographical scope of the effects of the postwar period on both mainstream America and those regulated to its margins. Although the historical narrative marks the end of Reconstruction with the political compromise of 1877, the process continued in the Cherokee Nation until Oklahoma statehood was achieved in 1907. The Cherokee Nation serves as a window of analysis that demonstrates how the process of Reconstruction was a national phenomenon. The experience of the Cherokee people and their …

Perfect Harmony: The Myth Of Tupelo's Industrial Tranquility, Wendy D. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite a vast amount of research on Southern labor in the 1930s, historians paid little attention to Northeast Mississippi. This predominantly rural area, though, boasted some of the largest garment factories of the period. Local businessmen established a cotton mill and three clothing manufacturing companies in Tupelo, the seat of Lee County. Town boosters boasted of harmonious relations between workers and management at each of the industrial facilities. In the spring of 1937, however, the cotton mill hands undertook a sit-down strike. Five days later, the women in the Tupelo Garment Company tried to initiate a strike. Both efforts failed. …

Nothing Less Than An Activist: Marge Baroni, Catholicism, And The Natchez, Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Eva Elizabeth Walton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a religious and social history of the life of Natchez, Mississippi Catholic activist Marjorie R. Baroni (1924-1986). The study examines Baroni's Catholic faith-driven activism as a counter-narrative to the dominant Protestant narratives of religious motivations in the greater civil rights movement. In analyzing Baroni's story as a lived theological drama, I offer Baroni as a vessel for studying often overlooked Catholic influences in the movement: (1) The activist Catholic faith promoted by Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement (2) The effects of the more inclusive decrees of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) on the Catholic Church …

There Is No Dishonor In Desertion: Army Racial Intolerance And African-American Soldiers' Desertion, Steve Wallace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thesis focuses on a study concerning the desertion of African-American soldiers from the United States Army. The data were collected from the period covering the War of Independence to the mid-1960s of the Cold War. The study proposes that there are limits to which these soldiers cannot bear the burden of combat and the simultaneous fight against institutionalized racism. Some men endured their circumstances in spite of pervasive intolerance, but others simply could not make sense of the inconsistencies of their government's requirement for them to fight yet deny them basic human rights. The men believed they had the …

Deeds, Not Words: African American Officers Of World War I In The Battle For Racial Equality, Adam Patrick Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relatively untold story of the black officers of the Seventeenth Provisional Training Regiment, the first class of African Americans to receive officer training. In particular, this research examines the creation of the segregated Army officer training camp, these men's training and wartime experiences during World War I, and their post-war contributions fighting discrimination and injustice. These officers returned to America disillusioned with the nation's progress towards civil rights. Their leadership roles in the military translated into leadership roles in the post-war civil rights movement. Through their efforts, foundations for the modern Civil Rights movement were created. …

Rituals Of Resistance: The Life, Lynching, And Legacy Of L.Q. Ivy, Hannah Maureen Mcmahan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Jim Crow South was a land saturated in religiosity. Emerging from the defeat of the Civil War and the utter oppression of slavery, southerners used religion to make sense of their painful world. This was a time marked by extreme religious conviction that gave way to racial violence. In this study, I will examine the southern lynching culture in the context of southern religion. Specifically I will explore the life, lynching, and legacy of L.Q. Ivy, a young man who was lynched in 1925 in Etta, Mississippi. Ironically in Ivy's case, as well as cases all across the nation, …

Memory Database, John Neff

Research Files of Dr. John Neff

This data set was a work-in-progress compiled by Dr. John Neff and posted in various versions to the website of the Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi. It contains separate tabs for: Memorial Day, Reunions, National Cemetery Development, Cemeteries, Monuments, Bibliography, and Lexicon.

Additional documents for each of these topics are listed separately.

Minds In Place: Thornwell, Palmer, Dabney, And Breckinridge In Fast Day Sermons: Or, The Pulpit On The State Of The Country (1861), Xaris A. Martínez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a contextual description and analysis of four southern fast day sermons delivered in the winter of 1860-61 by the following Presbyterian ministers: James Henley Thornwell (South Carolina), Benjamin Morgan Palmer (Louisiana), Robert Lewis Dabney (Virginia), and Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (Kentucky). The introduction provides a short history of the practice of communal fasting, a brief review of serscholarship, and a description of the book, Fast Day Sermons (1861), in which these four sermons were published. Each chapter centers on a different sermon, providing information on the venue in which the serwas delivered, a biographical sketch of the specific …

Games That Will Pay: College Football And The Emergence Of The Modern South, Matthew Bailey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

It is often said the college football in the South is a religion. While it may be hyperbole to equate college football with religion, a visit to a southern campus on game day affirms that football is an important aspect of southern society. How did this happen? In other words, how did college football in the South become big-time? This dissertation seeks to answer that question. Focusing on the advent of football on campuses in the early 1890s until the construction of large capacity campus stadiums in the 1930s and 1940s, I argue that although football initially burst onto campuses …

Midwives Of Mississippi, Lane Noel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Across the United States as late as 1910, midwives delivered half of all babies. Their practice was primarily among women of white European descent and African American women of the South. The practice of midwifery was commonplace in Mississippi. Together, black midwives and white nurses would help to implement a new public healthcare structure in Mississippi during the 1920s. Records of the Mississippi State Board of Health together with letters from midwives and public health nurses' reports put midwives at the heart of the story of public health reform. Already held in high esteem by their own communities, midwives came …

Good Neighbors: Agents Of Change In The New Rural South, 1900 To 1940, Thomas Wayne Copeland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work paints an intimate portrait of rural people who lived in the hill counties of northeast Mississippi and southwest Arkansas between 1900 and 1940. Howard County, Arkansas and Union County, Mississippi serve as the representative counties for each hill-country region. Howard County is located in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, and Union County is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. This study identifies who in the rural communities was most responsible for bringing positive changes to their communities, questions what motivated their efforts, and evaluates their successes and failures. To this end, the work first examines …

Sir Dudley North: Merchant Politics In The First Age Of Party, Jamie Suzanne Farmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an examination of Sir Dudley North's political career and the relationship between his political and economic philosophies and his political actions. In 1682, Dudley North entered the national political sphere in the controversial shrieval election of the City of London. A Tory, North's entry into politics coincided with the Crown's attempt to regain control over the City and the nation. During his time as Sheriff of London, North ensured that a staunch Tory was "elected" Lord Mayor and he also selected the panel of jurors that would serve during the Rye House conspiracy trials. After North's stint …

An Environmental History Of The New Deal In Mississippi And Florida, Robert Edward Krause

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Keywords: New Deal, Environmental History, United States South, Mississippi, Florida, Gulf Coast, TVA, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, landscape, lumber industry, CCC, WPA, state parks. The 1930s represented a time of distinct and encompassing change in the United States South. In assessing the impact of New Deal agencies and public works, this dissertation examines three distinct southern areas-northeast Mississippi, the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and the Florida Panhandle-highlighting the dynamic and fluid character of federal projects and their impact on landscapes human and natural. In the hilly Tennessee River valley of northeast Mississippi, the federally-funded incorporation of the Tennessee Valley Authority led to …

The American School Discipline Debate And The Persistence Of Corporal Punishment In Southern Public Schools, David M. Hargrove

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation examines the history of American school discipline and corporal punishment in southern public schools. Pedagogical literature, court reports, and popular fiction show that school discipline was a controversial topic throughout American history. The conflict over corporal punishment in schools led to a 1976 Supreme Court decision, Ingraham v. Wright, affirming the power of educators to use corporal punishment. When the school discipline debate peaked late in the twentieth century, most American schools no longer used corporal punishment but southern educators continued to paddle students, especially African American school children. By the twenty-first century, southern city schools adopted non-violent …

John Cotton's Middle Way, Gary Albert Rowland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historians are divided concerning the ecclesiological thought of seventeenth-century minister John Cotton. Some argue that he supported a church structure based on suppression of lay rights in favor of the clergy, strengthening of synods above the authority of congregations, and increasingly narrow church membership requirements. By contrast, others arrive at virtually opposite conclusions. This thesis evaluates Cotton's correspondence and pamphlets through the lense of moderation to trace the evolution of Cotton's thought on these ecclesiological issues during his ministry in England and Massachusetts. Moderation is discussed in terms of compromise and the abatement of severity in the context of ecclesiastical …

Can't You See The Sun's Settin' Down On Our Town?: Decline, Space, And Community In Frisco City, Alabama, Mary Amelia Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the physical and social decline of Frisco City, a small town in southwest Alabama, and its residents' associations with changing spaces and communities in the downtown area and the Frisco City school. It includes a rephotography project hosted on a website and a short documentary film that demonstrate the changes in the downtown physical environment and residents' ties to its spaces. The group of residents interviefor the study seemed to view the declining downtown area and school as signifiers of their declining community; the economic, social, and physical changes in the town's later history seemed to be …

A Strange Union: Science And Politics In The Loyalty Of Cadwallader Colden, Katherine Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: Cadwallader Colden remains one of the least-studied Crown officials. His reasons for remaining loyal to the Crown have not been investigated, nor has the interaction between his scientific interests and his politics. This thesis explores the relationship between Colden's loyalty and his science, primarily through study of Colden's published papers and letters, as well as the letters and papers of various other colonial officials and amateur scientists. Ultimately this thesis concludes that Colden formed his closest friendships with other amateur scientists, and that these relationships significantly affected his politics.

Beyond The Sunset : Race And Ethnicity In Cullman County, Alabama, Miles Laseter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Southern Studies master's thesis explores the racial and ethnic environment of Cullman County, Alabama from a number of perspectives. Critical readings of archived newspapers as well as local histories provide the foundation for this study. Oral history interviews and census data also figure prominently. The research aimed mainly at illuminating the elusive history of race relations in Cullman, an overwhelmingly white county. Much of the thesis focuses on Cullman's history of racial exclusiveness. Secondary sources, primarily works by historians and sociologists, contextualize Cullman's racial past and present. The county emerges from this study as an unusual if not truly …

Glory Stands Beside Our Grief: The Maryland United Daughters Of The Confederacy And The Assertion Of Their Identity, Amanda Mae Myers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project analyzes the position of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Maryland Division as a Lost Cause organization in a border state, and argues how the women sought respect from the national UDC chapter and divisions of former Confederate states. Women of the Maryland UDC believed strongly in their wartime support for the Confederacy and their identity as southerners; yet, they struggled for an equal voice within a national association predicated on the values of the Lost Cause and having been from a state that had not seceded. Southern sympathizing discourse among Maryland UDC women had to be reaffirmed …

England’S Exodus: Jewish Readmission And English Identity, Patricia M. O'Sullivan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis concerns the published writings of the men and women who engaged in the seventeenth-century debate over the readmission of the Jews to England. Historians who have studied this topic, among them David Katz, Cecil Roth, Lucian Wolfe, H.S.Q. Henriques, Peter Toon, and Mordecai Wilensky, have been at a loss to explain why those who ardently argued for Jewish readmission suddenly withdrew their support when Oliver Cromwell called a council to discuss the terms under which readmission would occur. I hope to contribute to this discussion by considering the one issue on which all of the pamphleteers could agree: …

“Daddy, Tell Me Another Story:” The Drive-By Truckers, Southern History, And Popular Culture, Ellie Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work describes the connections that the Drive-By Truckers make between Southern history, popular culture, and their vision of Southern identity through an examination of lyrics from six of their albums.

Congress, Religion, And The Cold War Consensus From 1952-1956, Alexandra Clark Layfield

Honors Theses

The Congress of the 1950s unanimously passed seven different pieces of legislations related to religious faith from 1952 to 1956. The fact that these congressional actions passed with little or no dissent and the fact that the congressmen supporting the legislation offered similar rationales (e.g. the Cold War) told much about the early fifties. The fifties were a decade stereotyped as conservative and conformist during which citizens held family and religion above all else. I conducted research over about a twelve month span which overlapped with the eight month period in which I was writing the body of the thesis. …

"So Strangely Misrepresented”: Rethinking John Bell Hood And The Fight For Civil War Memory, Brian Craig Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the role of memory in the American Civil War. More importantly, it discusses the relationship between history and memory and the role that historians play in carving out that relationship. It looks at how historians and the collective memory shaped the reputation of John Bell Hood, a Confederate Civil War officer, who experienced both the glory of victory and the agony of failure. I have reexamined Hood through historiography, a wide base of memories found in newspapers, memoirs and the writings of the Southern Historical Society, as well as archival materials from across Tennessee, Georgia and Pennsylvania. …

Echoes Of The Lost Cause : Civil War Reverberations In Mississippi From 1865 To 2001, Sally Leigh Mcwhite

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Scholars of the Lost Cause have tended to end their examinations of the Confederate commemorative movement before the 1920s. Citing a variety of indicators that range from veterans' mortality rates to national reconciliation, these historians have assumed that the Lost Cause became increasingly irrelevant in southern society. Yet, veterans organizations and their auxiliaries put a great deal of energy into constructing an historical interpretation that would vindicate their actions to future generations. This dissertation therefore extends the examination of the Lost Cause movement throughout the twentieth century. Limiting the geographical scope of the research to a state study of Mississippi …

Endless Challenges: A History Of Student Housing At The University Of Mississippi, Clayton Anderson James

Honors Theses

The history of student housing at the University of Mississippi is one of endless challenges. Ranging from periodic room shortages to declining institutional concern for the needs of student housing, these challenges have shaped the lives of students who live on campus through today. Though these challenges have varied in source and nature over the years, they still confront administrators, faculty, staff, and most of all students, many of whom address these issues on a daily basis. In the earliest years of the University, student housing was an important part of the campus, and it was recognized as such by …

Behind The Barbed Wire: German Prisoners Of War In Mississippi, 1943-1946, Edward L. Maier Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No Abstract

Best Evidence : A Social History Of The County Court Of Lafayette County, 1865-1870, Debbielee Landi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study of American legal institutions and practices provides valuable information regarding American society. This analysis focuses on the County Court of Lafayette County, Mississippi from its creation in 1865 until its dissolution in 1870. In order to assess the role of this court during Reconstruction, the types of cases and participants for the five-year period were analyzed.

The County Court system was established by the Mississippi state legislature in 1865 to manage the anticipated surge of criminal activity caused by the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves. This research discovered that although there was a considerable amount of …

Interview With Susie Marshall, 29 October 1991, Lisa K. Speer

Publications

No abstract provided.

Struggling For Justice: Church Women United, Oxford, Mississippi 1962-1991, Lisa K. Speer

Publications

circa 1991