United States History Commons^™

"For Their Effectual Exclusion": Oregon, Racial Exclusion, And Citizenship In The Mid-Nineteenth Century, Riley M. Littleton

Honors Theses

In light of Oregon’s admission to the Union as the only state to receive congressional approval with a racial exclusion clause in its constitution, this project seeks to examine the constitutional and cultural thought that ultimately led to the stamp of approval on the thirty-third state. In the past, Missouri had attempted a similar maneuver, seeking to bar free Black Americans from entry; Congress had not allowed it, believing that the provision violated the U.S. Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause. This project investigates what changed congressional opinion between Missouri and Oregon’s respective times.

In researching contemporary literature to understand local …

Black Swans And Safety Nets: Food Aid, Dispersal, And Eugenics In Corbin Hollow, Glenn Davis Stone, Richard K. Robinson

Southern Anthropologist

No abstract provided.

Finding Aid For The Mississippi Politics Collection (Mum00316)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Artificially created collection on individual Mississippi politicians and the state’s politics in general.

Finding Aid For The Leslie H. Southwick Campaign Memorabilia Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The Leslie H. Southwick Campaign Memorabilia Collection focuses on presidential and Mississippi political campaigns dating from 1856-2017, although the bulk of content is from 1960-2004.  Formats include pamphlets and other campaign literature, bumper stickers, textiles, posters, campaign buttons, and other candidate and political party souvenirs.

Finding Aid For The Ralph C. Kennedy Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The Ralph C. Kennedy collection contains presidential campaign and inauguration memorabilia acquired during the course of Kennedy’s career in the U.S. Secret Service.

Finding Aid Of The James Z. George Autograph Album Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The James Z. George Autograph Album contains signatures of members of the U.S. House of Representatives circa 1886 and a collection of signatures of delegates at the Mississippi Constitutional Convention of 1890.

James Stone & Sons Ledgers Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Two ledgers which document the financial transactions in the Oxford, Mississippi law firm James Stone and Sons between June 1939 and August 1954.  The attorney Phil Stone was a friend of the young William Faulkner, sharing an intense interest in literature as well as serving as Faulkner’s attorney in later years.

Finding Aid For The Sam Lumpkin Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Papers, photographs, and scrapbooks of Sam Lumpkin of Tupelo, Mississippi.  He served as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1932 to 1942 and as Speaker of the House from 1940-1942.  Lumpkin was Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1948 to 1952.  During the 1952 presidential election, he led the faction of Democrats who supported Republican presidential nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Finding Aid For The Deavours Family Collection

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The Deavours Family Collection contains genealogical information about the Deavours and related families.  It also holds material related to Stone Deavours, a lawyer, who served as University of Mississippi Law School Dean from 1930 to 1932.  The collection also includes two nineteenth-century ledgers regarding Garlandsville, Mississippi and the journal of an unidentified Alabama dating from 1860 to 1874.

Differing Judicial Perspectives: A Look Into The Evolution And Constitutionality Of The United States' Administrative State, Buchanan Albert Cook

Honors Theses

Over time the United States’ administrative state has evolved into something that is quite unrecognizable from its inception in the early years of the nation. This essay will provide an account of the founding of the United States Constitution while recognizing the intent and design of the framers of the Constitution. In juxtapositioning this account with the current state of administrative agencies, questions over the constitutionality of such agencies will be posed. To answer these questions, an overview of the history of administrative agencies in the United States will be given alongside accompanying and significant Supreme Court Cases. This overview …

Fictional And Historical Narratives Of African American Soldiers Of Wwii, Abigail Rae Stewart

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the experiences of African American soldiers during World War II through the dual lenses of oral histories and fictionalized accounts, arguing that both are essential to fully understanding their multifaceted journeys at home and abroad. Oral histories provide direct, personal narratives from veterans themselves, capturing their voices, emotions, and reflections on the discrimination, camaraderie, and resilience that defined their wartime and postwar lives. These firsthand accounts offer invaluable insights into the structural realities of systemic racism within the military and society, as well as the personal sacrifices these soldiers made in the name of a country that …

Finding Aid For The Jan Ruehling Polio Era Collection (Mum00813)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Correspondence, newspaper clippings, and records related to the life and work of Jan Ruehling, as well as the 20th century polio epidemic of the United States of America.

Remembering The Civil War In Indian Territory: Conflict, Commemoration, And The Birth Of A State, 1861-1965, Sarah Elliott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project argues that the Civil War was the mechanism by which Indian Territory transformed into the white-dominated U.S. state of Oklahoma, both in population and identity. Factions of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Nations in Indian Territory allied with the Confederacy at the outset of the war. During Reconstruction, the federal government used these alliances to justify harsh treaty terms that dissolved tribal sovereignty and dispossessed these nations of much of their land. Initially, the federal government resettled other forcibly removed Indigenous peoples on this confiscated land, but the late nineteenth century, the Dawes Allotment Act and …

Reconstruction Retold: Perspectives From 20th Century Us Secondary History Textbooks, Lyric Church

Honors Theses

Since the creation of the American public school system, the use of the textbook has been vital to history education. It has been the primary tool used by educators to teach children about the past to help them understand the present and shape the future. To this day, in the modern technological age, they are, still, used in classrooms across the country. This thesis investigates the effects of changing societal thought on United States history textbooks used in the secondary classroom, using the Reconstruction Era as the area of study. Analyzing multiple textbooks from each decade of the twentieth century, …

The Claude Neal Lynching: Race, Memory, And A Southern County's Violent History, Travis Patterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the historical memory of the Claude Neal lynching, which occurred in Jackson County, Florida in October of 1934. The Neal lynching was a particularly gruesome public spectacle. After executing Neal at a local farm, vigilantes transported his body to the county courthouse and displayed it for hundreds of white onlookers. After 1934, civil rights activists, journalists, government officials, community leaders, and ordinary residents kept the memory of Claude Neal alive in public discourse. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, individuals invoked the Claude Neal lynching to draw attention to contemporary manifestations of racial violence and inequities in …

“The Product Of That Finer Mould”: The Role Of Chinese Porcelain In The Making Of Early American Images Of China, Emily Meryn Hospodor

Honors Theses

This thesis asserts that Chinese material culture, specifically porcelain, was instrumental in the development of American perceptions of China in the colonial period through the late 19th century. The first chapter examines how the quality, durability, and uniqueness of Chinese export porcelain led Europeans, and by extension American colonists, to view China as an advanced and abundant civilization populated with ingenious craftsmen. The second chapter addresses the emergence of negative views of China among American traders and scholars after the establishment of direct contact with China during the Old China Trade (1784-1844). In contrast, the third chapter demonstrates that Americans …

The End Of The Prisoner Exchange System In The Civil War: A Case Study Into The Effects On The Daily Conditions Of Prisoners In Confederate And Union Prisons, Rachel Stoner

Honors Theses

The Dix-Hill Cartel was a system of prisoner exchange established during the Civil War. Only a year after it was created, the exchange system was shut down due to Confederate refusal to acknowledge black soldiers as prisoners of war rather than slave labor. This paper is an exploration of the effects the shut down of this system had on both Confederate and Northern prisons. In order to accomplish this, I analyzed the diaries of six prisoners who were held in the Confederate prison of Andersonville in Georgia and the Union prison of Elmira in New York.

I examine the daily …

The Colbert-Walker Site (22le1048): History And Archaeology Of A Chickasaw Home, Council House, And Travelers’ Stand, Raymond Taylor Doherty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In late 1813, at a time of increasing violence on the Southern frontier, Chickasaw leader George Colbert (Tootemastubee) left his home and ferry on the Natchez Trace to move back to relative safety in the heart of the Chickasaw Nation. He returned to the place that had once been his father’s plantation and made what he described as a “shelter from the weather.” He later hired skilled craftsmen to build a large and finely carpentered new home on the site. The Colbert-Walker site (22Le1048), near present-day Tupelo, Mississippi, has long been said to be the location of this structure, which …

Preservation And Public History In Mound Bayou, Mississippi, Walker Bray

Honors Theses

This paper is an exploration of the history of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, an all Black community in the Mississippi Delta formed by freedmen in the wake of Reconstruction. This paper also discusses the ways in which Mound Bayou citizens are working to preserve their history and make it known to a wider audience. In particular, this work discusses the recently opened Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History and related efforts to restore and preserve historic structures in Mound Bayou. In addition, this work also seeks to explore ways in which the University of Mississippi can effectively supplement …

Mercy Otis Warren’S Marcia(S) And Cornelia(S): A Case Study In Women’S Internalization Of Classicism In Early America, Brittany Ellis

Honors Theses

The connection between people in early America and classicism is a field of study that has been heavily documented, although it has remained a very male-focused field with little research done about how women in early America formed a relationship with antiquity. This thesis reveals that elite white women had a deep emotional and intellectual attachment with mothers and matrons from ancient Greece and Rome as a basis for expressing political thoughts and identity; classicism formed a common language that many women could relate to each other before, during, and after the American Revolution. This assessment is achieved through a …

Finding Aid For The Tyrone K. Yates/John F. Kennedy Collection (Mum01774)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

The Tyrone K. Yates/John F. Kennedy Collection consists largely of John F. Kennedy campaign material and memorabilia, as well as publications by and about the thirty-fifth president of the United States. It also includes a number of items related to other presidents and campaigns.

Finding Aid For The Sam Lumpkin Collection (Mum00141)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Papers, photographs, and scrapbooks of Sam Lumpkin of Tupelo, Mississippi. He served as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1932 to 1942 and as Speaker of the House from 1940-1942. Lumpkin was Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi from 1948 to 1952. During the 1952 presidential election, he led the faction of Democrats who supported Republican presidential nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Finding Aid For The Jamie L. Whitten Collection (Mum00732)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Jamie L. Whitten represented his Mississippi district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1941 to 1995 and chaired the powerful Committee on Appropriations from 1979 through 1992.

The Congress Of Industrial Organizations: Operation Dixie And A Legacy Of Worker Activism, Trevor G. Porter

Honors Theses

Trevor George Porter: The Congress of Industrial Organizations: Operation Dixie and a Legacy of Worker Activism (Under the Direction of Dr. Jarod Roll)

The passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 overhauled United States labor law, and it shifted the balance of power in favor of organized labor. Seizing upon this monumental moment in history, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was founded with a mandate to “organize the unorganized”. The labor federation made its primary focus the mass production workers of America, many of whom had not previously been afforded the opportunity to join a union. This …

The Iran Hostage Crisis: A Media Narrative, Catherine Claire Hausman

Honors Theses

The Iran Hostage Crisis, from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, was a defining moment in American foreign policy and US – Iranian relations. The news media – local and national newspapers and television – was saturated with coverage of the situation in Tehran and the subsequent US reaction. Americans watched the news over the 444 days, feeling sympathy and forging a collective national bond with the hostages; the international conflict was deeply personal for many Americans. The media played a central role in the establishment of the narrative of the hostage crisis, developing specific roles and personas of …

The Legend Of Neptune: A Portrait Of Enslavement And Emancipation In 18th-Century Worcester County, Massachusetts, Brigitte Lewis

Honors Theses

“The Legend of Neptune” tracks the life of a man named Neptune, who was enslaved at my childhood home in Still River, MA 01467 for fifteen years during 1742-1757. The general topic of this undergraduate thesis is slavery in seventeenth and eighteenth-century central Massachusetts; the main topic is uncovering the voice, history, and stories of an identified enslaved and then free Black man named Neptune. The project uses a vast array of primary sources to construct a narrative that centers Neptune’s life and experiences, supported by secondary historical research. This project also tells a counternarrative to the official history of …

Finding Aid For The Juanita Brown Collection (Mum00048)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Collection contains extensive Civil War correspondence, most notably the letters of J.H. Buford to his sisters.

History Of Northern Mississippi, David Sansing

Studies in English

No abstract provided.

Country Fun: A Cultural History Of Opryland Usa, Nashville, And The Suburban South, William C. Nieman

Honors Theses

This thesis centers around the history of Opryland USA, a theme park and “musical showplace” that existed from 1972 to 1997 in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee. Using a variety of primary sources including park ephemera, newspaper articles, and songs, I show how, over its twenty-five years, Opryland became a country music theme park after initially presenting a seemingly diverse picture of American popular music. I reveal that, despite local businessowners’ and musicians’ reluctance to embrace Opryland at first, the park was accepted by many Nashvillians to the point where it is now nostalgically mourned. Then, putting those primary materials …

Ulster, Georgia, And The Civil War: Stories Of Variation, William Loveless

Honors Theses

Ulster, Georgia, and The Civil War: Stories of Variation explores the lives of 13 men from Northern Ireland who immigrated to the American South and fought for the Confederacy. The author pursues the stories of each man’s life in order to have a more thorough understanding of what life looked like for Irish/Ulster immigrants in the South during the 19^th century. By looking at the lives of the men in Ulster, their first experiences in the United States, their experiences in the Civil War, and their lives following the war, the author identifies more variation than consistent trends.