Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2023, History

Between 1820 and 1860, dozens of new denominational colleges opened throughout the United States. Nowhere was this growth as dramatic as in the Old Northwest in general and in Ohio specifically. Through the mid-twentieth century, most historians saw these colleges as steps backward in the development of higher education in the United States, with faculty overly focused on theological minutiae. These denominational colleges served as the dismal backdrop against which educational reformers launched research universities, where academic inquiry was unimpeded by religious dogmatism. Since the late 1960s, however, historians have generally stressed the positive aspects of these colleges, praising them for anticipating later developments in higher education. Still, many of these newer histories neglected other aspects of antebellum colleges, such as their many non-classical programs. The college's preparatory departments and ancillary courses provided interested students with at least some level of higher education beyond the common school. These programs helped expand the reach of these institutions far beyond the relative handful of students who graduated from their collegiate programs. Other histories also convey a limited view of campus life. While literary societies were certainly popular, students also played sports and games, staged picnics, went on nature excursions, and socialized with young townswomen. Some also cheated on exams, played pranks, tormented tutors, stole food, drank alcohol, and smoked tobacco. Contrary to both the traditional view that students attended these schools almost solely to become ministers and the revisionist view that many students left campus for modern careers in business and science, young men evidently flocked to antebellum Ohio's denominational colleges in hopes of pursuing careers in one of the four traditional learned professions. Indeed, the vast majority of students who graduated from these schools became clergy (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Daniel A. Cohen (Advisor); Timothy Beal (Committee Member); John Grabowski (Committee Member); David Hammack (Committee Member) Subjects: American History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, EDU Policy and Leadership

This study assesses the historical and educational implications of a ‘griotic' methodology that was employed by free African Americans in the antebellum North. This griotic methodology involved a textual production of history by and for African Americans that was derived from a West African oral/performance basis of history. The study therefore examines how a distinctive approach of history production developed among free African Americans from the late 1700s through the 1830s as they appropriated, engaged and/or countered prevailing European American discourses. Most important to the study is how these early intellectuals sought to vindicate, historicize and liberate themselves through re-presenting the idea of ‘Africa' as the metaphorical source and destiny of their race. Educational implications of this griotic methodology are subsequently highlighted in the study as it is applied as pedagogy in a post-secondary classroom to empower African African students. In order to establish an endogenous prism through which to examine this distinctive African American methodology, this study integrates a number of qualitative and historiographical components: an intellectual autobiography of the author who is an African American male educator; oral histories of African and African American history professors; and assessments of recent African American scholarship that focus on early African identity politics in the Americas. From these analyses, the author delineates and employs a ‘griotic' framework that involves a dialogue between the present and past, to chart how a West African oral/performance basis of history ascended into the textual productions of Olaudah Equiano, John Marrant, Peter Williams Jr., William Hamilton, Jacob Oson, David Walker and Maria Stewart. The historical usage of this ‘griotic' methodology is then emphasized within these works as a liberatory praxis by which early free Africans empowered their identity politics. While this African American appr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Antoinette Errante Ph.D. (Advisor); Leslie Alexander Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ousman Kobo Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African History; African Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Education; Education History; Education Philosophy; Education Policy; Ethnic Studies; History; Multicultural Education

Artium Baccalaureus (AB), Ohio University, 2023, History

This thesis studies the history of runaway slaves in Louisiana during the antebellum period. It discusses manumission practices and the history of self-liberation through flight from the beginning of slavery in Louisiana to the end of the American Civil War. It explores the repurposing of material objects and skills by runaway slaves based on an analysis of runaway slave advertisements from Louisiana. All of the runaway slave advertisements studied were published between 1825 and 1865, falling between the creation of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825 and the end of the American Civil War.

Committee: Mariana Dantas (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; Black History; Black Studies; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, History

This project, the first dissertation on foodways during the U.S.-Mexico War, reconstructs Anglo-American soldiers' experiences with Mexican comestibles. By employing food history's theoretical framework, this dissertation will argue that Anglo-American soldiers' experiences with Mexican foodways reflected cultural norms within their own society. In particular, these exchanges illustrated antebellum U.S. cultural perceptions of animal life, ethnicity, gender, race, and the senses. At the same time, their observations varied on a personal level. Some troops readily embraced Mexican foodways, comparing these exotic foods to familiar Anglo-American victuals. Others, viewing Mexico's cookery as foreign and uncivilized, disliked the country's provender or regarded it with indifference, consuming Mexican foods solely out of desperation. Still others gradually developed an appreciation for Mexican foodways, finding edibles that satisfied their Anglo-American taste preferences. This dissertation will arrive at three conclusions. First, it will show that American soldiers' experiences with Mexican foodways could impact their pre-existing cultural mores. Second, it will demonstrate that American soldiers, in their food-related exchanges with Mexicans, developed new ideas about the country's people. Specifically, it will determine that American soldiers who showed openness to Mexican foodways tended to exhibit more favorable attitudes towards Mexicans. Finally, this dissertation will conclude that American soldiers' perceptions of Mexico's foodways improved over time, coinciding with a more enlightened opinion of the Mexican people.

Committee: Joan Cashin (Committee Chair); John Brooke (Committee Member); Randolph Roth (Committee Member); Leslie Lockett (Other) Subjects: History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2022, History

My graduate thesis project is a museum exhibit on display through the end of May 2022 at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Ohio which explores the ways in which the newspaper industry in Cincinnati fostered a toxic environment for racial relations in the antebellum era. Editors not only stoked racial tensions to encourage the riots that occurred in 1829, 1836, and 1841, they also shaped the narratives of the riots in their columns to blame the victims and exonerate the perpetrators. What follows is a brief history of the riots, the historiographical research pertaining to the exhibit, and an exploration of the methodological questions I faced when constructing the exhibit.

Committee: Lindsay Schakenbach Regele (Advisor); Helen Sheumaker (Committee Member); Erik Jensen (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Modern History; Museum Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, History

In September of 1858, a mob of Staten Islanders burned down a quarantine station in order to protect their own health and safety. Though Richmond County citizens destroyed over thirty acres of New York State property in the two-day riot, legal authorities determined that a crime had not been committed. It was an act of "salutary violence." This seemingly paradoxical event shaped the course of health system development in the nation's premier city. Scholars have overlooked the riot's significance or characterized it as an outburst of xenophobic violence. This dissertation argues that the riot was not spontaneous or reactionary. It did not follow a major outbreak of epidemic disease, and it occurred when immigration was at an all-time low. It presents layered contexts to recast the riot as the climax of a longstanding movement that crystalized in the wake of administrative changes at the institution. The polarized political climate of antebellum New York deepened existing tensions, as the quarantine controversy split along party lines. Understanding how momentum for the quarantine relocation movement was gathered through state legislation, sustained through regional support, and ultimately cemented when Staten Islanders became unified by the threat of quarantine expansion, presents a better causal framework for the riot than shallow arguments of fear and xenophobia alone. In the event's aftermath, communities united to resist State conscription to host the "dangerous" institution and lobbied for their own protection. The riot and quarantine relocation movement raised questions about the nature of public health that we still grapple with today: What public does public health protect? This dissertation demonstrates that community level activism, violent protest, and even the will of the mob, shaped the trajectory of public health in the United States.

Committee: Jonathan Sadowsky (Committee Co-Chair); John Broich (Committee Co-Chair); Erin Lamb (Committee Member); Peter Shulman (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Health; Medical Ethics; Public Health

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2021, History

This thesis is case study of Miami University and its connections to slavery between its founding in 1809 and 1861. As the second college founded in Ohio, Miami University was one of the first institutions of higher education on the early national frontier and was founded more than fifty years before the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. This thesis asserts that Miami University was involved with slavery on both an ideological and financial level. The link between Miami and slavery is explored through the economic, social, and political histories of the early frontier. Case studies of students and administrators exemplify the multifaceted nature of slavery's entanglements at Miami and show how the university contributed to and profited from enslavement through tuitions, endowments, and educational curriculum. This research reveals the complexities of slavery in early Ohio and evaluates the extent of Miami's financial dependence on it.

Committee: Steven Conn, PhD (Advisor); Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, PhD (Committee Member); Helen Sheumaker, PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; American History; Economic History; Education History; History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Theatre

Early nineteenth-century mixed-Black Americans were made complicit in the propaganda of both pro-slavery and abolitionist messaging, at times upheld as model minorities for their contributions to the Southern slave-owning plantation economy, while other times depicted in heart-breaking abolitionist narratives about the evils of slavery, and the often-deadly identity crises these “tragic” people were subjected to. The reality of mixed-Black existence was far less dramatic than the lives of the characters in texts such as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), or Dion Boucicaut's The Octoroon (1859); what was revealed to contemporary white audiences was a desire to sympathize with the Other who occupied the closest proximity to whiteness. Thus, the trope of the “tragic mulatto/a” became a vehicle for propagandizing the moral “goodness” of white society and its positive, Christian, “civilizing” influence on the Black and/or indigenous Other. This Practice-as-Research dissertation examines the manner in which miscegenation between Black and white Americans has been feared, fetishized, and resurrected in popular historical narratives over the past two centuries. Living between races, conceived out of wedlock and often as a result of sexual assault, the “tragic mulatta” is often depicted as a pitiable creature, beautiful, yet doomed by her sundry origins. Unable to claim full membership in neither racial group, she lacked both the honored status offered to white wives and mothers in traditional society, and any form of social protection against sexual exploitation. This project contains four chapters which detail the people, places, and creative work that informed my Practice-as-Research play, Blood, Earth, Water.

Committee: Jennifer Schlueter Dr. (Committee Chair); Beth Kattelman Dr. (Committee Member); Nadine George-Graves Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; American History; American Literature; Black History; Black Studies; Gender Studies; History; Museum Studies; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater History; Theater Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2019, History

This dissertation is a cultural history of the American reaction to the Upper Canadian Rebellion and the Patriot War. This project is based on an analysis of newspaper articles published by William Lyon Mackenzie and his contemporaries, diplomatic cables between Washington D.C. and London, letters, and accounts of celebrations, toasts, and public meetings which occurred between 1837 and 1842. I argue Americans and Upper Canadians in the Great Lakes region made up a culture area. By re-engaging in a battle with the British, Upper Canadians, and their American supporters sought redemption. Reacting to geographic isolation from major metropolitan areas and a looming psychic crisis motivated many of these individuals to act. And, even though the rebellion and Patriot War were ultimately unsuccessful, the threat of a rekindled conflict with Britain crept into North America while thoughts of the revolutionary Spirit of `76 invigorated the masses and served as a litmus test for maintaining peaceful international relations between the U.S. and Britain, a preface to Manifest Destiny, and a testament to the power of the nineteenth-century culture industry.

Committee: Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch PhD (Committee Chair); Kim Nielsen PhD (Committee Member); Roberto Padilla PhD (Committee Member); Rebecca Mancuso PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Canadian History

PHD, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

This dissertation plumbs reactions to Lincoln beyond a strictly political lens, contending that a consumer imaginary facilitated the traction Lincoln's western manhood gained in the urban northeast in 1848, 1860, and 1861. Borrowing from Charles Taylor's theory of the social imaginary, a consumer imaginary highlights the pursuit of novelty in collective practices and values. The perceived divide between the bucolic West and urban East, divided by the Allegheny Mountains in popular mid-nineteenth century discourse, informed ideas of manhood. Urban northeasterners, characterized by an urbane mentality along the northern Atlantic seaboard, reveled in Lincoln's personification of western life. Popular urban entertainment, notably P.T. Barnum's exhibits, and advances in print culture predisposed audiences to view Lincoln's western manhood as striking for its association with feral virility. In these urban milieus, a consumer imaginary served as the mind's eye, a filter through which Lincoln's western manhood was animated and consumed. This dissertation is divided into five chapters with an epilogue. Chapters one and two explore how audiences perceived Lincoln's western manhood as amusing during his speaking tours of New England and New York City in 1848 and 1860. Lincoln's appearance and manner of speech verified him as an authentic stump speaker—complete with eccentric body motion, jokes, and yarns. Chapter three concerns how Lincoln was portrayal by urban northeast media. Chapter four probes how spectacles and talisman associated with Lincoln fed a burgeoning appetite for the novelty of his western manhood. The final chapter centers on the perception of Lincoln's western association as a celebrity in 1861. Consumer capitalism, flourishing cities, the proliferation of inexpensive print likenesses, and the onset of celebrity culture all set the foundation for a consumer imaginary that grew increasingly intense as the century unfolded.

Committee: Kevin Adams Ph.D. (Advisor); Elaine Frantz Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lesley Gordon Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sara Hume Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; History; Mass Media

BS, Kent State University, 2008, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

During the uneasy years predating the American Civil War, self-proclaimed prophets and messengers of God traveled the frontier proclaiming their interpretations of truth as revealed through Protestant Christianity. As they attempted to convert the nation, they conceived American utopias which, constructed within a sacred history of Christianity, played an important role in redefining the religion in North America. As part of the process of establishing these utopias, individuals interested in the conversion of society utilized and revised the “New Haven” theology of Yale College, from which would emerge a reconstructed concept of “sanctification” in Oberlin, Ohio. These individuals would use this theology to form the basis for their attempts to reform society, applying religious meaning to social action. In Lorain County, Ohio, we can observe these changes in religious thought and practice as numerous “religious virtuosi” carried out social action which they considered to be bound to a sacred history. In tandem with social action would come ecclesiastical conflict, tearing the New England Plan of Union asunder. This thesis is interested in how reformers' attempts to create heaven on earth would result in conflict highlighted by a series of events which would ultimately change the religious landscape of the county as it contributed to and reflected the changing face of religion in America.

Committee: David Odell-Scott PhD (Advisor); Guy E. Wells PhD (Advisor); Leonne Hudson PhD (Committee Member); Leslie Heaphy PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Religious History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2017, History

Historians of nineteenth-century temperance reform are quick to elevate Neal Dow and the 1851 Maine Law as the example of antebellum prohibition efforts. While Maine's first-in-the-nation ban on the manufacturing and selling of liquors was unique, it was anything but prohibitive. The law, complete with exceptions and limited consequences, operated more like a tax on those engaged in the practice and that was only if prosecutors and judges did not nullify the law themselves. As a result, characterizations of the Maine Law as prohibitory and Dow as the father of prohibition in Maine deserve critique. Through an examination of newspapers, judicial records, petitions, and the legislative record, one finds that the temperance reform narrative in Maine is much more complex. Mainers of dispersed geographic, socio-economic, political, and religious backgrounds grappled with what, if any, role the state should play in pursuing moral improvement. This work decenters the prohibition narrative away from Dow and focuses on the multifaceted causes of and reasons for the Maine Law's rise and failure. As a consequence, the statewide temperance effort, including the conflicting views within it on “the drink,” receives deserved attention.

Committee: Steven Conn (Advisor); Lindsay Schakenbach Regele (Committee Member); Andrew Offenburger (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2017, History

During the antebellum era, black activists organized themselves into insurgent networks, with the goal of achieving political and racial equality for all black inhabitants of the United States. The Negro Convention Movement, herein referred to as the Black Convention Movement, functioned on state and national levels, as the chief black insurgent network. As radical black rights groups continue to rise in the contemporary era, it is necessary to mine the historical origins that influence these bodies, and provide contexts for understanding their social critiques. This dissertation centers on the agency of the participants, and reveals a black insurgent network seeking its own narrative of liberation through tactics and rhetorical weapons. This study follows in the footing of Dr. Howard Holman Bell, who produced bodies of work detailing the antebellum Negro conventions published in the 1950s and 1960s. Additionally, this work inserts itself into the historiography of black radicals, protest movements, and racial debates of antebellum America, arguing for a successful interpretation of black insurgent action. Class, race, gender, religion, and politics, all combine within this study as potent framing devices. Together, the elements within this effort, illustrates the Black Convention Movement as the era's premier activist organization that inadvertently pushed the American nation toward civil war, and the destruction of institutionalized slavery.

Committee: Walter Hixson Ph.D. (Advisor); Elizabeth Mancke Ph.D. (Committee Member); Zachery Williams Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kevin Kern Ph.D. (Committee Member); Daniel Coffey Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; American History; Black History; Black Studies; Gender; History; Journalism; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Religion

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, English

“'I Would Prevent You from Further Violence': Women, Pirates, and the Problem of Violence in the Antebellum American Imagination" analyzes how antebellum American pirate stories used the figure of the pirate to explore the problem of violence and the role women play in opposing violent men. This project joins ongoing conversations about women in the nineteenth century in which scholars, such as Nina Baym, Mary Kelley, and Mary Ryan, have made key contributions by recovering a domestic model of nineteenth-century womanhood. As my work demonstrates, antebellum Americans were similarly invested in a more adventurous, and sometimes violent, model of womanhood that was built upon the figure of the gentleman pirate and placed in opposition to violent men. I argue that it is important to think about the pirate story and the figure of the pirate, not only in the context in which it has come to be known—escapist fantasies written for boys and young men—but as a place where authors reinforced, modified, and established different models of gender roles. Frequently within the mid-nineteenth-century American pirate story, authors answered the question of who is allowed to be violent by demonstrating that women had the capacity for violence and constructing scenarios illustrating that women were often the only ones in a position to forcibly oppose violent men. The pirate story uniquely blends different narrative conventions: adventure stories that are often believed to appeal to male audiences and domestic scenarios that are usually understood to resonate with female readers. Although historical and fictional pirates of other eras and geographical locations have been examined, little scholarship has focused on piracy in the antebellum American imagination, even though the figure of the pirate continued to proliferate, especially in popular fiction, throughout the nineteenth century. My project addresses this gap not only by demonstrating the importance of pirates in nineteenth (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sara Crosby (Advisor); Andrea Williams (Committee Member); Susan Williams (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Literature; American Studies; British and Irish Literature; Gender; Literature; Womens Studies

MA, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

On December 2, 1859, the date of John Brown's execution for treason, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison delivered a eulogy in Boston for the antislavery vigilante. To his audience that night, Garrison lauded Brown for embodying the revolutionary spirit of the founding generation. While not likening Brown to Christ as some abolitionists had, Garrison did portray Brown as a martyr whom God would reward with “the victor's crown.” That Garrison would praise Brown is unsurprising from our vantage-point today. We expect that one radical abolitionist would have endorsed another, but this assumption is unwarranted. In fact, Garrison's eulogy for Brown marks a departure from his position of twenty years: the pacifism of “Christian nonresistance,” which absolutely forbade violence. The Garrisonian abolitionists were initially as pacifistic as their leader, but during the 1850s, they redefined Christian nonresistance to be compatible with condoning antislavery violence. In a decade of intense sectionalism and increasing violence around the issue of slavery, the Garrisonians embraced resistance. While the causes of this change in Garrisonian attitudes toward violence are admittedly complex, this thesis argues that the change was facilitated by an earlier change in their religious beliefs, specifically their substitution of a secular natural law ethic for a traditional religious source of authority. Focusing on the Garrisonians during the late 1840s and throughout the 1850s, the argument falls into three parts, each corresponding to a chapter. Chapter one, “Turning the Other Cheek,” shows that the Garrisonian commitment to nonresistance was inextricably religious in origin, taking for granted the moral authority of the Bible and of Jesus of Nazareth. Chapter two, “Taking Uncle Tom's Bible,” relates how the Garrisonians came to reject the religious assumptions underpinning their belief in Christian nonresistance. Finally, chapter three, “Racing towards Harper's Ferry,” demons (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elizabeth Smith-Pryor PhD (Advisor); Kevin Adams PhD (Committee Member); Leonne Hudson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Religious History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Arts and Sciences: History

This dissertation examines the evolving American landscape from the Early Republic to Reconstruction through the lens of one man's life. During James Dinsmore's lifetime, Americans experienced rapid change in all aspects of their lives. Industrialization created new opportunities just as the extension of democracy gave increasing numbers of white men decision-making powers within their government. As Americans like Dinsmore moved west to the frontier, they often confronted new conditions: economic, social, environmental, political, and cultural. How they, and he, chose to accommodate themselves to these new realities is fundamentally a story about creating cultural economies. Further, this dissertation analyzes Dinsmore's migrations. Raised in New Hampshire, he moved to Natchez in the Mississippi Territory, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and Boone County, Kentucky. In choosing these locations he confronted new conditions that he either adapted to or he risked isolation. His early life in New England encouraged him to be proud of its imagined free heritage; nevertheless, he accepted plantation slavery in the Southwest and created a mixed labor force in the border region. These economic realities were accompanied by social and cultural influences that were not always compatible with Dinsmore's own convictions, leaving him in an uncomfortable position. Dinsmore's adaptations to the regions he successively inhabited and his subsequent discomfort, offer a unique perspective on how those regions were changing. Educated at Dartmouth College to appreciate the economic contributions of all sections of the nation, the transformation of that region into a more competitive, urban, and industrial society influenced his decision to move south. Natchez and Terrebonne Parish represented the transformation of the Old Southwest from a frontier to a plantation-based, hierarchical cultural and social economy based on the labor of large numbers of slaves. Boone County, Kentucky, with a m (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Phillips Ph.D. (Committee Chair); James C. Klotter PhD. (Committee Member); Wayne Durrill Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mark Lause Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, History

In 1805, a New Orleans newspaper advertisement formally defined a new social institution, the infamous Quadroon Ball, in which prostitution and placage – a system of concubinage – converged. These balls, limited to white men and light-skinned, free “Quadroon” women, became an interracial rendezvous that provided evening entertainment and the possibility of forming sexual liaisons in exchange for financial “sponsorship.” At these balls, money and other forms of payment were exchanged for the connubial placement of free women of color with wealthy white men. My dissertation entitled, `It's no disgrace to a colored girl to placer': Sexual Commodification and Negotiation Among Louisiana's “Quadroons,” 1805-1860” seeks to understand how free women of color used sex across the colorline as a tool of negotiation in various spaces, like the Quadroon Ballroom, in antebellum Louisiana. More specifically, utilizing contemporary travelers' journals, newspapers, poems, songs, letters, notarial and ecclesiastical records, court cases and other legal documents, my dissertation examines the sexual agency exerted by Louisiana's free women of color in four sites of contestation – the body, the ballroom, the courtroom and the sanctuary. Free women of color occupied a precarious position in antebellum Louisiana, often subjugated because of their race, gender and class; yet, this very positioning also afforded them a space in which to maneuver socially and economically. I contend that in these literal and figurative spaces, these women drew upon their sexuality to make strategic claims to their freedom advancing themselves socially and economically. This work pushes the boundaries of current scholarship engaging questions of sexual agency and trauma, race and identity, hegemonic myth and cultural reappropriation. In so doing, I build upon and push beyond historiographic discussions of the fetishizing and fanticizing gaze of white men and the overly simplistic dichotomous images (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Leslie Alexander (Advisor); Walter Rucker (Committee Member); Lucy Murphy (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; History; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2014, Economics

The free-banking era provides a unique time period to study bank market structure. Using data from historical maps and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Censuses of the United States, I build upon previous research to investigate the relationship between railroads and antebellum banks from 1854-60. I first use simple ordinary least squares models to estimate the equilibrium relationships between railroads and balance sheet composition. I then estimate an endogenous market structure model that relates railroads to unobserved bank profitability through the number of observed banks. I find that railroads increased bank lending but reduced bank leverage (as related to banknotes), suggesting that railroads caused banks to shift their business emphases. My results further indicate that railroads had a net negative effect on banking profitability. I conclude that reduced bank leverage, as opposed to increased banking activity through lending, increased antebellum bank stability.

Committee: Charles Moul Dr. (Advisor); William Even Dr. (Committee Member); Gregory Niemesh Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Banking; Economic History; Economics

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2014, History

Since the late 1980s, historians of American Civil War soldiers have struggled to understand the nature, character, and social order of the volunteer Union Army. Debates over individual motivations to enlist and serve, the success or failure of the institution to instill proper military discipline, and the peculiar requirements of leading volunteer citizen-soldiers have remained salient elements of Civil War soldier studies historiography. This thesis offers a new methodology for addressing these questions by examining the antebellum worldview of men from a single regiment -- the 55th Illinois Volunteer Infantry -- in order to create a lens through which to view their wartime behavior in uniform. This allows for an examination of how the antebellum voluntarist social order of Illinois towns continued to structure life in the ranks. Leaders who were aware of this cultural factor were often more successful in enlisting the support and cooperation of their subordinates than those who sought to breakdown their men and force them into the traditional mold of military subordination. Finally, the decision to enlist, cooperate, and remain in the volunteer force was governed by the same personal calculus of individual self-interest that governed men before entering into military service.

Committee: Brian Schoen (Advisor) Subjects: American History; History; Military History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2013, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

This study is about how the ideology of African inferiority was embedded into the culture of colonial America. The focus is on early Virginia law because it was initially used as the primary mechanism to begrudge the image of Africans in the American colonies. Virginia law synthesized and transported the ideology of African or black inferiority generated decades earlier in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, and England before race theory. Depraving the African image through law in colonial Virginia represents the continuousness of an ideology which began in the fifteenth century. While an abundance of research exists about the imposition of slave law as a primary apparatus of control over the African population, there are a dearth of studies about the relationship between ideology and law in the context of African subjugation. The central thesis of this study is that Virginia law promoted the ideology of African (black) inferiority and European (white) superiority into the cultural fabric of the colonies. According to Johan Galtung, when the dominant ideology is incorporated into the cultural sphere of a society it becomes a system of “cultural violence.” Winthrop Jordan’s seminal study, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812, has been invaluable for documenting attitudes and ideas in Europe and colonial America about their professed superiority over Africans. Yet, detailing European attitudes is a step toward establishing ideology as a stable structure of oppression. Connecting the ideology of African inferiority which undergirded Virginia law with the pre-colonial ideology propagated by Europeans is imperative to establish the continuity of these ideas as the basis of a system of “cultural violence.” Conceptualizing the propagation of European ideology as a system of “cultural violence” helps to modify classic approaches of studies about African resistance. Historians often study Afr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Vanessa Allen-brown Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kim N. Archung Ph.D. (Committee Member); Stephen Sunderland Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies