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Browsing by Author "Thorp, Daniel B."

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Alexander Black and His World, 1857-1935: Part I: 1857-1877
Watkins, Sharon B. (Smithfield Preston Foundation, 2017)
The author relates Black's early life through his Civil War childhood and college years. She also examines the familial and community influences that shaped his life, leading to his significant contributions as an adult.
Alexander Black and His World, 1857-1935: Part II: Alexander Black and the Bank of Blacksburg, 1877-1935
Watkins, Sharon B. (Smithfield Preston Foundation, 2018)
This article completes the examination of Alex Black's life by focusing primarily on how Black founded the Bank of Blacksburg, his leadership as president of the bank, and its operations and advancements during its years under Black's guidance.
Brief Note: Possible Scottish Baptism Records of James Patton's Children
Mays, Ryan S. (Smithfield Preston Foundation, 2017)
A look at birth records from registry books in Dumfries, Scotland, likely to be those of Patton's Children.
Catawba Sanatorium: Its Founding and Early History
Hemmingson, Grace (Smithfield Preston Foundation, 2017)
This article covers conditions leading to the establishment of the tuberculosis sanatorium by the Commonwealth of Virginia, its early operations, different medical personnel, and factors affecting its successes—and failures.
The civil-military conflict in British West Florida, 1763-1783
Smith, Gregory A. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1983)
After the Seven Year's War, the British government decided to keep a large military force in North America. To coordinate these forces, the Crown decided to continue the office of Commander in Chief. The Commander in Chief had broad authority over the military in the American colonies. This authority, however, conflicted sharply with similar prerogatives granted to royal governors. With neither side willing to surrender any of their power or authority, a series of battles broke out over the supremacy of the army in almost every colony where royal troops were stationed. West Florida, a British colony established after the Seven Years War from captured French and Spanish Territory, provides an excellent example of how the civil-military conflicts could cripple royal government in a colony. Many historians have failed to assess adequately the impact these disputes had on colonial government in America. The purpose of this thesis is to show that the civil-military disputes disrupted colonial governments, and was one of the forces that led to the breakdown of British rule in North America during the 1760’s and 1770’s.
Commodore Perry's 1853 Japanese Expedition: How Whaling Influenced the Event that Revolutionized Japan
Burcin, Terry (Virginia Tech, 2005-05-05)
In July 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry illegally entered Tokyo Bay with a fleet of four American warships and challenged Japan's isolationist position towards the United States. This radical diplomatic effort concluded with a return voyage a year later and ended Japan's self-imposed isolation from the Western world. Historians, in an attempt to explain the motivations behind Perry's voyage, cite an American commercial desire for Chinese trade as the main reason behind the Japanese Expedition's dispatch. This historical perspective ignores the important economic and political influence the whaling industry played in spurring American politicians to confront Japanese isolationism. It is incorrect to assert that whaling, and not America's desire to gain access to China, was the main reason behind the 1853 Japanese Expedition. This paper's objective is to understand how whaling influenced Perry's mission. It should be read as a supplement to current historical scholarship concerning America's decision to send a naval force into Japanese waters.
Consuming Trade in Mid-Eighteenth Century Albany
Evenson, Sara Christine (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-29)
An analysis of mid-eighteenth century trading centers reveals a distinct pattern different from that of earlier seventeenth century trading communities. Consumable items comprised the majority of internal and external commerce for many of these trading port cities. Albany, New York, a hinterland trading center, mirrored these changes and can act as a case study for many of the global transitions of the eighteenth century. Taken within the broader framework and understanding of the consumer revolution, it becomes clear that Albanian culture and society became crystallized around its food items and their trade, much as the coastal communities commonly studied. Due to the emphasis placed on it by Albanians, food and its trade became the culturally, socially, and economically homogenizing factor that began shaping the modern city as it transitioned from its seventeenth century roots. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Albanians had become active consumers and experienced traders in a global marketplace and had experienced marked cultural hybridization as seen via its food trade and consumption.
Danville's Civil War prisons, 1863-1865
Byrne, Karen Lynn (Virginia Tech, 1993-05-27)
During the Civil War, six abandoned tobacco factories in Danville, Virginia, served as one of the Confederacy's major prison compounds. From late 1863 to 1865, the Danville Prisons held over 7,000 captured Federals. The compound was used as both a permanent place of confinement and a transitory depot. The earliest captives found the prisons ill-prepared. Inadequate food, heat, and medical facilities contributed to miserable living conditions. During the spring and summer of 1864, the prisoners enjoyed some sense of normalcy inside the compound. By autumn, conditions had deteriorated. Prisoners suffered from extreme deprivation during the finals months of the war. Throughout Danville's operation, the captives suffered from disease. Chronic diarrhea, smallpox, pneumonia, and variola were the deadliest illnesses. While conditions inside the prisons were often harsh, Confederate authorities in charge of the compound provided for the captives to the best of their ability. Often the citizens of Danville experienced the same living conditions as the prisoners. Hunger, exposure, illness, and depression affected civilians and prisoners alike. tried to alleviate suffering When possible, Danvillians inside the compound. The experiences of captured Federals in the Danville Prisons reveal not a deliberate Confederate plot to abuse prisoners, but rather suffering brought on by shortsightedness and the exhaustion of supplies in the Southern states.
Document: A Letter from Janie Preston Boulware Lamb
(Smithfield Preston Foundation, 2018)
This brief note provides information on Lamb's ideas for Smithfield and touches on some of her relatives.
The Eighteenth North Carolina Infantry Regiment, C.S.A.
Dozier, Graham Town (Virginia Tech, 1992-04-27)
In the spring of 1861, eager young men gathered in small towns in five southeastern North Carolina counties and enlisted in ten local companies. After spending the summer in a Wilmington training camp, these companies were combined to form the 18th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. The regiment served for a short time in South Carolina before joining the war in Virginia as a member of Gen. Lawrence Branch's brigade. The 18th North Carolina first saw combat in May, 1862, at the Battle of Hanover Court House. A month later, the unit fought in the Seven Days' Battles as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. The 18th North Carolina took an active role in the victorious campaigns of the autumn. In May, 1863, it had the misfortune to be the "friendly" unit that wounded Gen. Stonewall Jackson in the woods near Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg, the 18th North Carolina assaulted the Union center with the rest of the ill-fated soldiers in Pickett’s Charge. The regiment struggled with the army against Grant in the long campaign that culminated in the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House in April. 1865. This is the history of the 18th North Carolina from its creation to its surrender.
Elizabeth Drinker's Revolution
Hulett, 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.
Everything in My Power: Harry S. Truman and the Fight Against Racial Discrimination
Pierro, Joseph (Virginia Tech, 2004-04-30)
Any attempt to tell the story of federal involvement in the dismantling of America's formalized systems of racial discrimination that positions the judiciary as the first branch of government to engage in this effort, identifies the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision as the beginning of the civil rights movement, or fails to recognize the centrality of President Harry S. Truman in the narrative of racial equality is in error. Driven by an ever-increasing recognition of the injustices of racial discrimination, Truman offered a comprehensive civil rights program to Congress on 2 February 1948. When his legislative proposals were rejected, he employed a unilateral policy of action despite grave political risk, and freed subsequent presidential nominees of the Democratic party from its southern segregationist bloc by winning re-election despite the States' Rights challenge of Strom Thurmond. The remainder of his administration witnessed a multi-faceted attack on prejudice involving vetoes, executive orders, public pronouncements, changes in enforcement policies, and amicus briefs submitted by his Department of Justice. The southern Democrat responsible for actualizing the promises of America's ideals of freedom for its black citizens is Harry Truman, not Lyndon Johnson. The shift in white American opinion necessary for the passage of the civil rights acts of the 1960s was generated by the cumulative effects of actions taken between 1945 and 1953.
The failure of early Bermuda, 1612-1630
Goetz, Robert (Virginia Tech, 1989-04-05)
Bermuda, settled in l6l2, was the second successful English colony founded in the New World. The islands appeared to provide investors in England with an excellent opportunity to make a profit, but the colony failed to generate the anticipated profits because the investors failed to allow sufficient incentive for the colonists to produce high quality cash crops. Little research has been conducted on the early history of Bermuda, and the little that has been done has focused on political events within the colony and colonizing company. This work uses letters, petitions, contemporary accounts, and other colonial and company documents to examine the interaction between the colonists in Bermuda and the investors in England and to determine the impact of this interaction on the failure of the colony.
'Fierce Winds and a Blank Whiteness': The Culture of Dakota Winter, 1870-1915
Fischer, Daniel (Virginia Tech, 2011-07-25)
This thesis argues that accommodation to winter was an important — though not the only — response of early Dakotans to the annual challenges and hazards of winter. It examines first the challenges of winter, then what Dakotans did to protect themselves from and even profit from the season, then the ways that Dakotans spoke in positive ways about their winters or, using winter, themselves.
The Floatplane Controversy: Proscription, Procedure, and Protection in Carroll County, Virginia, 1992
Wesdock, Ryan Joseph (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-19)
In March of 1992, Marion Goldwasser, a teacher at Carroll County High School in Virginia, came under fire for her use of the book, The Floatplane Notebooks, in her classroom. A local preacher and several parents objected to six pages which contained sexual content. Over the next three months, residents throughout Southwest Virginia entered into a debate over the merits of the book, and more broadly the purpose of education. This debate roughly divided into three camps with different perspectives not just on how to proceed, but on the very nature of the controversy itself. These camps were those who felt the controversy was primarily about the censoring of books, those who were primarily concerned with the proper procedure by which the book should be reviewed, and those who saw the book as a moral affront to religious, Christian values. These disputes remained intractable throughout the controversy reflecting underlying disagreements about the ethical role of state power, the public nature of public schools, and the connection between power and knowledge. By understanding these underlying intellectual causes for the intractability of censorship disputes, historians can engage other academics and the public on this important issue. Engagement can take multiple forms, including writing in handbooks designed to help educators deal with such controversies, writing amici curiae briefs on relevant First Amendment cases, and encouraging a broader and more lucid public discussion on censorship and free speech.
'For the Hills of Santa Fe': The Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841 and the Southwest Market Economy
Saionz, Matthew K. (Virginia Tech, 2011-05-03)
This thesis examines the ill-fated Texan Santa Fe Expedition of 1841 to analyze the state of a lucrative market network in the Southwest. Cut off from Santa Fe, the hub of the network, Texas struggled economically as an independent nation. Commercially isolated and dealing with near- worthless paper money, Texans hoped that trade with the people of Santa Fe would divert wealth into their nation. To justify the expedition, Anglo-Texans used the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny and turned the trek into a liberation mission. Moreover, Texans desired an overland route to Santa Fe to attract merchants to their otherwise inactive ports. Texans invested much into the expedition both economically and culturally; however, the Texan Santa Fe Expedition ended in utter failure and convinced many Texans that annexation to the United States was the wiser path to take.
Germans on the Western Waters: Artisans, Material Culture, and Hybridity in Virginia's Backcountry, 1780-1830
Slough, 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.
"It Is Useless to Conceal the Truth Any Longer": Desertion of Virginia Soldiers From the Confederate Army
Atkins, Jack Lawrence (Virginia Tech, 2007-05-29)
This study of Virginia desertion differs from other desertion studies in several respects. The statistical analysis of the patterns of desertion within the army is one of the most unique characteristics of this study. Several other scholars have attempted to track desertion across the Confederacy, but limited sources restricted their studies. By compiling data from compiled service records, this thesis attempts a comprehensive study of all Virginia's Confederate soldiers. The first chapter examines the patterns of desertion both across the state and in Virginia's infantry, cavalry, and artillery regiments. This chapter has three specific aims. First, calculates how many soldiers deserted from Virginia's Confederate units during the Civil War. Uncovering when these men left the army, and the parts the state from which they hailed, will lay the foundation for a careful evaluation of what caused desertion and its consequences for the army. The second chapter examines the causes of desertion among Virginia troops. No single reason was responsible for such desertion. Owing to the risks deserting carried, when a soldier left the army he did so for varied and intensely personal reasons. This chapter examines how conscription, concerns about home and family, morale and disaffection, and an ineffective policy for punishment, all combined to increase desertion from Virginia units. The conclusions look at the effects of desertion on the Confederate military's ability to wage an effective war against the Union and how desertion affected the civilians behind the lines. Obviously desertion drained the army of manpower it could not afford to loose. In what other ways did its effects manifest themselves? Central to this aspect of the thesis will be the opinions of Confederate military leaders. What impact did they believe desertion was having on the army? By answering these questions, we can begin to learn desertion's impact on the Confederacy.
'The land of my birth and the home of my heart': Enlistment Motivations for Confederate Soldiers in Montgomery County, Virginia, 1861-1862
Jones, Adam Matthew (Virginia Tech, 2014-07-01)
There is a gap in existing literature in regards to the role of community in understanding the motivations of Civil War soldiers. Current historiographical studies try to apply the same motivational factors to entire states, armies, or to all Union or Confederate soldiers in general. Some historians even attempt to show that regardless of Union or Confederate, soldiers' motivations were similar due to a shared American identity. This thesis explores a community in the mountain valleys of present-day Southwest Virginia, which stayed loyal to Richmond and the Confederacy. This case study of Montgomery County illustrates that enlistment motivations varied based on a mixture of internal and external factors distinctive to a soldier's community; therefore, there cannot be a representative sample of the Confederate Army that covers all the nuances that makes each community unique. Enlistment was both a personal decision and one influenced by the environment. Montgomery County soldiers were the product of their community that included external factors such as slavery, occupation, and class, and internal ideological themes such as honor, masculinity, and patriotism, that compelled them to enlist in the Confederate Army in the first year of the war, April 1861 through April 1862. These men enlisted to protect their status quo when it was convenient for them to leave their home and occupation, and if they had fewer family obligations.
"Learn your wives and daughters how to use the gun and pistol": The Secession Crisis in Montgomery County, Virginia
Thorp, Daniel B. (Smithfield Preston Foundation, 2013)
A description of the impact of pre-war issues on the county's citizens and slaves.

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