Browsing by Author "Ekirch, A. Roger"
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- Aristocrats, Republicans, and Cannibals: American Reactions to French Women in ViolenceStoltz, Taylor (Virginia Tech, 2015-05-28)This thesis discusses the reactions of American newspapers and elite individuals to French women in violence as perpetrators and victims during the French Revolution. Canvassing the years between 1789 and 1799, it includes papers, especially politically aligned ones, from across the states of America and attempts to assess the prescriptive nature of various reports. In includes case studies of common/working-class women, aristocratic revolutionaries (Charlotte Corday and Madame Roland), and Queen Marie Antoinette. Using newspapers with and without political affiliations, to either the Federalist or Democratic-Republican Party, it argues that the dividing ideological lines between these factions were not as steadfast and rigid as previously believed during this period. Though papers and individuals did adhere to party lines, their opinions toward women in violence were affected by other factors, such as their ideologies about violence. Building on historiographies of colonial and revolutionary American attitudes toward women in violence, gender ideology in the early Republic, and political parties in the 1790s, it seeks to illuminate American views toward women in violence during the years of the early Republic.
- Belle Isle: prison in the James, 1862-1865Robinson, Daniel W. (Virginia Tech, 1980)This thesis is a socio-military history of the development and use of Belle Isle Military Prison; possibly the most notorious of all Civil War prisons. The prison compound stood on a seventy-five acre island in the James River, approximately one-half mile west of wartime Richmond. The island's use as a prison lasted intermittently from July 18, 1862 to February, 1865. During this period the Confederate authorities confined to Belle Isle over 20,000 Federal prisoners of war. The Confederate authorities were unprepared from the very outset of the Civil War to deal with such a large number of prisoners. Due to lack of planning and foresight, the Confederate authorities improvised in a piecemeal fashion and with "stop-gap" measures a prisoner-of-war system. Confederate prisons came into existence merely to relieve the overcrowding at other prison sites. Belle Isle was such a stop-gap measure. The island prison was used only after the other Richmond prisons were congested. The Federal prisoners at Belle Isle suffered from a number of diseases and illnesses, including pneumonia, pellagra, scurvy and dysentery. Possibly more devastating to the prisoners constitution were the psychological effects of prison confinement. So dismal were the conditions on the island that it became known by many prisoners as the "most infamous bit of land in the national geography."
- The Civil War DietBrennan, Matthew Philip (Virginia Tech, 2005-05-20)The soldier's diet in the Civil War has been known as poor, and a number of illnesses and disorders have been associated with it. However, a nutritional analysis placed within the context of mid-nineteenth century American nutrition has been lacking. Such an approach makes clear the connection between illness and diet during the war for the average soldier and defines the importance of nutrition's role in the war. It also provides a bridge from the American diet to the soldier diet, outlining correlations between the two and examining the influence of physicians, chemists, and health reformers on the Civil War diet.
- The Classics and the Broader Public in Philadelphia, 1783-1788: Avenues for EngagementDowrey, Alexandra E. (Virginia Tech, 2014-06-02)In early Philadelphia, 1783-1788, the classics formed a pervasive presence on the city's cultural, political, and physical landscape. As the American nation commenced its republican experiment, references to the classics in Philadelphia especially emerged as a vehicle and vocabulary employed by statesmen for fashioning a people, political culture, and national identity. According to political theories of republicanism, statesmen in Philadelphia had a vested interest in cultivating the virtue of their citizens. As symbols and lessons in patriotism and virtue, classical antiquity was incorporated into civic iconography and national foundation narratives and projected to the broader public. This thesis examines the classical presence in Philadelphia, 1783-1788. It specifically analyses the public presentation and dissemination of the classics in three cultural avenues beyond the walls of the academy, newspapers, spectacles, and orations, in order to evaluate the barriers and opportunities for engagement with the classics by the broader Philadelphia public. I argue that although the gates to a traditional higher education were shut to many of the Philadelphia public, cultural avenues existed that allowed the classics to disseminate to the wider populace. The broader public was invited to engage with the classics when it served a political purpose and lessons in patriotism and virtue were being transmitted. However, this inclusion was often controlled, mediated, and implemented on the terms of the elite. Further, the classics still served as markers of status, and the two contradictory functions held by the classics placed the wider Philadelphia public on the threshold of inclusion and exclusion.
- Colonizing the Mind: The Library as a Site for Colonial American Identity FormationCook, Emily Katherine (Virginia Tech, 2009-04-02)The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin and his Junto, served as the impetus for society libraries across colonial America. While inspiring ubiquitous learning, the Library Company also reinforced the English language in linguistically diverse Philadelphia. Furthermore, the Company emblematically displayed ownership of a new land and developed an idealized concept of what it meant to be a Pennsylvanian society through their cabinet of curiosities—all while cultivating the organization's reputation within the colonial press. The Library Company, therefore, utilized language and material/visual culture to navigate individual and community identity in a decidedly unstructured atmosphere—the period shortly before the complete onset of American nationalism. The process of "becoming American," the development of an identity tied to a specific location that emphases class mobility and self creation while also differentiating itself from other societies, is enumerated through the study of these linguistic and cultural manipulations.
- The Devil in Virginia: Fear in Colonial Jamestown, 1607-1622Sparacio, Matthew John (Virginia Tech, 2010-03-16)This study examines the role of emotions – specifically fear – in the development and early stages of settlement at Jamestown. More so than any other factor, the Protestant belief system transplanted by the first settlers to Virginia helps explain the hardships the English encountered in the New World, as well as influencing English perceptions of self and other. Out of this transplanted Protestantism emerged a discourse of fear that revolved around the agency of the Devil in the temporal world. Reformed beliefs of the Devil identified domestic English Catholics and English imperial rivals from Iberia as agents of the diabolical. These fears travelled to Virginia, where the English quickly ʻsatanizedʼ another group, the Virginia Algonquians, based upon misperceptions of native religious and cultural practices. I argue that English belief in the diabolic nature of the Native Americans played a significant role during the “starving time” winter of 1609-1610. In addition to the acknowledged agency of the Devil, Reformed belief recognized the existence of providential actions based upon continued adherence to the Englishʼs nationally perceived covenant with the Almighty. Efforts to maintain Godʼs favor resulted in a reformation of manners jump-started by Sir Thomas Daleʼs Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, and English tribulations in Virginia – such as Opechancanoughʼs 1622 attack upon the settlement – served as concrete evidence of Godʼs displeasure to English observers. A religiously infused discourse of fear shaped the first two decades of the Jamestown settlement.
- Elizabeth Drinker's RevolutionHulett, Elizabeth McLenigan (Virginia Tech, 1996-04-05)A central concern in the field of women's history has been what effect, if any, did the American Revolution have on the lives of women. One way to further our knowledge of women in the eighteenth century is to study individual women. Elizabeth Drinker is an ideal individual to study in this regard because of the diary she wrote from 1758-1807. The first chapter concentrates on the entries she wrote before the American Revolution, the second, on the years during the war, and the third, on the years immediately following the war. Chapter one portrays a wealthy Quaker women leading a privileged life whose main concern was the health and happiness of her family. She has little contact with matters outside of her immediate concern. The second chapter finds Elizabeth surrounded by tumult that the American Revolution brought to her home in Philadelphia. She did her best to be as little affected by the war as possible, but was forced to act as head of her household after her husband, Henry, was imprisoned by the American government. She became a political being when she lobbied Congress for her husband's release. The third chapter finds Henry safely home and Elizabeth happily returned to her former position as homemaker. The American Revolution had no lasting effect on Elizabeth's life because of her status as a Quaker. She already had the education and high status that Quaker women enjoyed, and which most other women had to wait until after the war to receive.
- Fear and Fortune: Robbery in London in the Late Eighteenth CenturyPaxton, William R. (Virginia Tech, 2013-06-17)Public representation of highwaymen and footpads in the press spawned a climate of fear in London. Descriptions of the violence that highwaymen and footpads employed in the course of their crimes generated this fear. Violence set them apart from other non- or less-violent thefts that occurred in much greater numbers in the capital, but received less coverage in the public discussion of crime at the time. Victims of robbery came from all different social classes and demographic groups, and this too contributed to the fear by creating an image of robbers who could attack anyone at any time. This ardent fear appeared to have overshadowed some of the new social and economic explanations of criminals' motives and emerging humanitarian approaches to crime prevention. The court records suggest that highwaymen and footpads were often young men who operated in organized gangs and used violence to create fear and ensure success in their attack -- and this paralleled the public perceptions. However, the trials show that women did in fact account for a small -- but noticeable -- percentage of robbers, and robbers also acted individually as well as in groups. The court proceedings also
- Germans on the Western Waters: Artisans, Material Culture, and Hybridity in Virginia's Backcountry, 1780-1830Slough, Spenser David (Virginia Tech, 2015-07-13)This study examines the socioeconomic lives of artisans of German descent who worked within Wythe County, Virginia from 1780 to 1830. It is particularly concerned with how a distinct German-American culture manifests over time as seen through these artisans' produced materials and structures. This thesis traces this manifestation through a careful examination of Wythe material culture, wills, probates, inventories, court records, account books, receipts, invoices, census records, personal correspondence, and personal property tax assessments. Scholars of early America and the southern backcountry have often narrated German cultural identity transformations along the lines of language and marriages. This work diverts from those tendencies, thereby complicating prior understanding of German-Americans settlement and development patterns in early America. Beginning in the 1780s entire German families, neighborhoods, and communities left their prior American homes and settled within a relatively unsettled area of southwest Virginia. These predominately second-generation German descendants brought with them to the backcountry a culturally-constructed material culture lexicon passed onto them by their ancestors. This thesis argues that artisans of Wythe County operated as major agents of economic and social development while also providing a hybridized cultural resource for their neighbors and surrounding Great Road communities. These German families and congregations, composed of farmers, hausfrauen (housekeepers), and craftsmen by trade, sought to maintain a familiar and distinct cultural landscape and ethos through the many wares and structures they produced. These German neighborhoods accommodated and diversified their trades to fit within a burgeoning early-American society while still aware of their predominately German community's cultural character and needs.
- The Hillsville tragedy: Appalachian stereotypes as examined through the Carroll County Courtroom Shootout of 1912Cheek, April C. (Virginia Tech, 1998-05-02)This thesis is a community study that centers on the Carroll County Courtroom Shootout of 1912. The shootout provides an opportunity to examine the dynamics of a small Appalachian community by looking at the years leading up to 1912. This study focuses on issues of causality, including a series of intense political feuds, land disputes, and general hostilities between certain members of the court administration and members of a particular family within the county. This thesis adds to revisionist histories on Appalachia and serves as a corrective to views of the region as monolithic, isolated, and impoverished. By placing the Hillsville Shootout in a historical framework for the first time, one can explain and deconstruct some of the myths surrounding the Carroll County tragedy and more generally Appalachia itself.
- A Jane of all Trades: Janet Taylor's Contributions to Victorian NavigationPutnam, Marlee Love (Virginia Tech, 2019-07-11)Janet Taylor made major contributions to Victorian navigational practices. She did so through creating business opportunities for herself as an educator, author, and inventor of nautical instruments.
- Legal Associations: Modern United States Indian Policies and their Seventeenth-Century AntecedentsWalters, Samuel P. (Virginia Tech, 2006-05-24)After establishing its first permanent colony in North America, the English government in the seventeenth-century began creating a legal context for their relationship with the Native Americans living in close proximity to the colonists. In a similar fashion, the United States government, immediately following independence from Great Britain, focused on developing policies to address its legal relationship with the Native American nations that resided within and on the borders of the United States. By examining the statutes, treaties, and court rulings regarding North American Indians used by both the United States and England, this thesis will highlight the close similarities that exist between modern federal policies and seventeenth-century English policies. Each chapter focuses on an important modern United States Indian policy and then presents corresponding evidence from seventeenth-century legal sources.
- Living With the Redcoats: Anglo-American Response to the Quartering Acts, 1756-1776Lee, Hyun Wu (Virginia Tech, 2008-04-29)The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and language of Anglo-American opposition to quartering from the start of the French and Indian War in 1756 to the Revolutionary War in 1776. This paper will also attempt to demonstrate the shifting focus of Anglo-American arguments against the quartering of troops over these two decades. Quartering of troops in private homes and defraying the cost of quartering were the prevalent concerns of Anglo-Americans during the French and Indian War. Then, the Quartering Act of 1765 significantly changed the perception of Anglo-Americans toward quartering of troops as a matter of illegal taxation. Lastly, the unfolding events in 1768 and onwards, in Boston, marked a turning point as the fear of a standing army in peace time redefined Anglo-American opposition to the quartering of redcoats. The significance of Anglo-American opposition to the Quartering Acts paled in comparison to other colonial grievances that stemmed from taxation issues, but it was important enough to finds its place in the Declaration of the Independence and in the Third Amendment of the federal constitution.
- Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian RegimentCarey, Charles W. (Virginia Tech, 1995-03-17)Most observers consider that Lord Dunmore was the driving force behind the creation of the Ethiopian Regiment. This paper demonstrates that the slaves themselves provided the necessary impetus for bringing about Dunmore's Proclamation of Emancipation, and that the governor simply responded to slaves’ willingness to take up arms in pursuit of liberty. This paper also considers the role played by nonslave actors in the exploits of the Regiment. These actors included the British Parliament; various British military and government officials; the Virginia Convention of 1775; the various Virginia military units, both regular and volunteer; and the white population of Virginia as a whole. However, primary emphasis is placed upon the efforts and actions of the Ethiopians themselves. The first chapter investigates the events which led up to Dunmore's Declaration of Emancipation, and clarifies the degree to which the servile uprisings in the preceding century influenced Dunmore's decision to free and arm Virginia's slaves. The second chapter details the Ethiopians' involvement in the military actions associated with the Battle of Great Bridge on December 9, 1775. The third chapter describes the Regiment's other engagements, including its defense of the Portsmouth enclave and the British sanctuary on Gwynn's Island, and the skirmishes at St. George's Island, Maryland, and Aquia Creek, Virginia. The fourth chapter evaluates the importance of the Ethiopian Regiment both as an instrument of Dunmore's policy and as a means for slaves to gain their freedom. An appendix includes the names of over two hundred confirmed or suspected Ethiopians.
- Night Matters—Why the Interdisciplinary Field of “Night Studies” Is NeededKyba, Christopher C.M.; Pritchard, Sara B.; Ekirch, A. Roger; Eldridge, Adam; Jechow, Andreas; Preiser, Christine; Kunz, Dieter; Henckel, Dietrich; Hölker, Franz; Barentine, John; Berge, Jørgen; Meier, Josiane; Gwiazdzinski, Luc; Spitschan, Manuel; Milan, Mirik; Bach, Susanne; Schroer, Sibylle; Straw, Will (MDPI, 2020-01-10)The night has historically been neglected in both disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. To some extent, this is not surprising, given the diurnal bias of human researchers and the difficulty of performing work at night. The night is, however, a critical element of biological, chemical, physical, and social systems on Earth. Moreover, research into social issues such as inequality, demographic changes, and the transition to a sustainable economy will be compromised if the night is not considered. Recent years, however, have seen a surge in research into the night. We argue that “night studies” is on the cusp of coming into its own as an interdisciplinary field, and that when it does, the field will consider questions that disciplinary researchers have not yet thought to ask.
- "Nothing to Fear from the Influence of Foreigners:" The Patriotism of Richmond's German-Americans during the Civil WarBright, Eric W. (Virginia Tech, 1999-04-15)Before and during the Civil War, Richmond's German-Americans were divided by their diverse politics, economic interests, cultures, and religions. Some exhibited Confederate sentiments and others Unionist. At the start of the war, scores of Richmond's German-born men volunteered for Confederate military service while others fled to the North. Those who remained found that they were not fully accepted as members of the Confederate citizenry. Political allegiances within the German-American community were not static. They changed during the course of the war, largely under the influence of nativism. Nativists put into practice a self-fulfilling prophecy that, by accusing the German-born of disloyalty, alienated them and discouraged their sympathies towards the Confederacy. In doing so, by constructing an image of a German antihero, the Confederacy built up its spirit of nationalism. Although German immigrants moved to cities, in the South and in the North, primarily in order to seek economic opportunities, the immigrants who came to Richmond were different from their ethnic counterparts of the North. As they assimilated and acculturated to the South, their values, behaviors, and loyalties became diverse. By the time of the Civil War, the German-American community of Richmond was quite divided. A common ethnicity failed to hold even those hundreds of German-Americans living in Richmond to one political ideology. Their story illustrates that ethnic divisions often do not coincide with political ones. Richmond's German-American community received, during the Civil War, a reputation for universal disloyalty. This myth continues today, though a complex analysis of the German-born does not support it.
- Old Capital Prison, 1861-1865Strickland, John A. (Virginia Tech, 1982)The present study is a socio-political and military history of the development, use and demise of Old Capitol Prison. Built to serve the legislative arm of the Republic, Old Capitol stood at the corner of First and A Streets. From the time the federal government assumed control of the building in 1861, it served as a prison for several classes of persons before its ultimate demise in 1865. Federal officials were overwhelmingly unprepared for the task of prisoner control. At no point before the outbreak of hostilities had any official advocated the maintenance of a permanent military prison system. A severe lack of planning and foresight created a veritable void, casting vast numbers of prisoners into hastily assembled prisons. In the District of Columbia, the building called "the Old Capitol" provided a warehouse for such prisoners. Prisoners confined in Old Capitol were of several categories. Confederate prisoners-of-war found residence there. As Lincoln's armies occupied Confederate territories, civilians of "secesh" political leanings were taken into custody. Persons of Southern political leaning in the border states found their way into Old Capitol. They were joined later by persons of similar persuasion from states both north and west. Slaves and white refugees flowing out of the South were also placed in the custody of the federal guard. Northern military men accused of alleged crimes, disloyalty, dissertion, etc., were guests of their own system. Old Capitol served as host for a vast variety of guests. This study attempts to tell their story.
- On the Path to Slavery: Indentured Servitude in Barbados and Virginia during the Seventeenth CenturyGrady, Timothy Paul (Virginia Tech, 2000-04-18)This is an investigation and analysis of the institution of indentured servitude in the English colonies of Virginia and Barbados in the first half of the seventeenth century. It argues that the system of indentured servitude contributed to the development of property rights in individuals and thereby provided early examples of treating people as property that would ultimately lead to the rise of chattel slavery in both colonies. It investigates servitude in law, politics, and practice providing examples of the treatment, trade, and resistance of servants throughout this period. Included are chapters examining the trade in servants and a statistical breakdown of the servant population, a comparison of the practice of servitude in both colonies, and a description of the factors that led to the eventual transition to black slavery.
- "The Painful Task of Thinking Belongs To Me:" Rethinking Royal Navy Signal Reform during the American War of IndependenceOlex, Benjamin F. (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-08)This thesis examines the context and causes of signal reform in the British Royal Navy during the American War of Independence. It argues that changes in the ethos of the officer corps before and during the American War of Independence led to a complex period of signal reform. The original system was tied to the General Printed Sailing and Fighting Instructions, more often referred to as the Fighting Instructions. For around a century (ca. 1690 to ca. 1790), the Royal Navy utilized the Fighting Instructions as its main system of communication. During the American War for Independence, however, some sea officers began to question the system and devise new methods of signaling. This change was brought on by changes within the officer corps. Among the changes were trends of centralization and the influence of Enlightenment ideals. Both of these shifts helped to inspire the signal reformers, while also creating the environment to sustain signal reforms. This thesis examines the signal reforms of the three principal signal reformers of the war: Richard Howe, Richard Kempenfelt, and George Rodney.
- Scandalous Beginnings: Witch Trials to Witch CityGagnon, Heather Elizabeth (Virginia Tech, 1997-05-21)On June 10, 1692, Bridget Bishop was hung as a witch in the community of Salem Village of the Massachusetts colony. Bishop was the first of twenty that died, all of whom professed their innocence. By the end of the madness, more than two hundred persons stood accused of witchcraft. They attempted to prove their innocence or they falsely admitted guilt in order to save their own lives. Citizens did not discuss the episode for many years after the trials were ended. The whole episode was an embarrassing blemish on the history of the state, and there was little atonement for the unjust hangings of those who had proclaimed their innocence. Three hundred years later, Salem, Massachusetts is very different. The image of the witch on a broomstick has been commercialized, and the city has become known as the "Witch City." The city makes over $25 million a year in tourism and is one of the largest tourist attractions in all of New England. This change raises some very important questions, such as how did this change occur? Why did it occur? Is Salem unique? How did perceptions change over time, and why? This thesis attempts to answer these questions by examining a variety of sources. This thesis strives to explain how a tiny New England town that experienced the tragic phenomenon of the witch trials and hangings, evolved into the present-day Witch City.