Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, History

“The Inner Light of Radical Abolitionism” tracks the emergence of abolitionism in greater Rhode Island, focusing on Providence and the surrounding communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Three major lines of Rhode Island's anti-slavery activism during the early republic—Quaker anti-slavery sentiment, the abolitionist campaign of the Providence Abolition Society, and Rhode Island's free black community—came together to provide the basis for William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator and his New England Anti-Slavery Society. Quaker and free black communities in greater Rhode Island provided the initial support for Garrison's calls for immediate abolitionism. The work of abolitionist Quaker women from greater Rhode Island fused the question of women's rights with that of abolition and split the national abolitionist movement as a result. By the time the New England Yearly Meeting withdrew formal Quaker support for abolition in 1840, the movement bore the imprint of Quaker activism.

Committee: John Brooke (Advisor) Subjects: African American Studies; American History; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, History

My dissertation examines the coastal habitants of the Senegambia during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. It explores how the habitants, who were descendants of African women and European men, learned to masterfully petition French officials in the metropole and how the habitants created a connection, both perceived and real, to France. What emerged from the habitants' engagement was a system of patronage, with the habitants providing services to the French and securing protections from the French crown. The habitants came to see themselves as subjects of the king of France, which set the stage for later French conceptions of assimilation—the idea that anyone could become a model French citizen. While many scholars have generally focused on how the ideas of assimilation emanated from French republican ideals, the habitant actions of engaging French officials in the late eighteenth century present a different possibility: assimilation was as much an African innovation as a French one.

Committee: James Genova (Advisor) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, History

While the history of slavery in the Middle Ages remains a hotly debated subject, most traditional narratives posit a significant decline in the use of slavery in the Latin West at some point in the early Middle Ages, leaving slaves to be found only in insignificant numbers or in `peripheral' regions to the north. There is substantial reason to revise this narrative, however, particularly in light of the evidence from the German duchy of Bavaria in the years between 975 and 1225 CE. There, a significant and economically important population of slaves can still be found in the twelfth century, along with a diminished but still active local slave trade. The evidence for the continued vitality of slavery in central-medieval Bavaria is contained mostly in the records of donation to monastic and ecclesiastical institutions that were collected in libri traditionum. From a survey of the donation records contained within the surviving libri traditionum of twenty-seven Bavarian monasteries and churches, it is possible to reconstruct the past condition of servile individuals manumitted as tributary freedmen of the Church, and to discover the still substantial population of slaves owned by the Church itself.

Committee: Alison Beach Ph.D. (Advisor); Christina Sessa Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sara Butler Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; History; Medieval History; Middle Ages; Religious History

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Music History

The development of Renaissance Portugal was greatly impacted by the transatlantic slave trade during the colonial period, as the country emerged as a major European power not only financially but also culturally. It is well known that Portuguese musical practices during this period, especially with regard to sacred polyphony, resembled those of other European cultures, however, there is more to this narrative. Knowing that the transatlantic slave trade was one of the major consequences of colonialism, and that by the 16th-century Black Africans represented more than 10% of the population in Lisbon and other cities in Portugal makes it crucial to consider Black Africans as major agents of cultural transfer. As the groundbreaking work of historians Kate Lowe, A. C. de C. M. Saunders and Jose Tinhorao demonstrates, the presence of Africans had a significant impact on Portuguese social and cultural life. Contemporary written and visual sources (such as paintings) demonstrate that, for instance, music from sub-Saharan Africa was performed in a variety of situations and on different levels of society: in the squares and taverns of early modern Lisbon, in religious processions around the country, and at the Portuguese court. The primary aim of this thesis is to explore the musical activities of Africans in early modern Portugal, emphasizing their influence towards the practice of the villancico. To contextualize the question of how Black Africans have influenced the practice of music in Portugal, I discuss the social, cultural and legal role of Black Africans within the society. Through a thorough stylistic and formal comparison of the Villancicos de Negro to other villancicos of the same collection that represent other ethnic groups or an unspecified type, I will seek to demonstrate that the Villancicos de Negro share a common stylistic and formal profile. Moreover, I will examine the specific issue of representation of race, focusing on what the works can potential (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Arne Spohr (Advisor); Sidra Lawrence (Committee Member); Mary Natvig (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2014, History

The abolition of British slavery in the 19th century raises the question of how the British achieved antislavery against colonial opposition. While historical theories have focused on economic, political and religious factors, no account of abolition is complete without a thorough investigation of the history of evolving British legal traditions. This thesis analyzed a number of British homeland court cases and antislavery laws. English legal traditions established principles of freedom long before abolition in Britain, and then upheld them in respect to blacks on British soil in the 18th century. On the other hand, these traditions exposed a void in British homeland law on slavery that failed to provide any positive legal basis for freedom beyond its shores, forcing abolitionists into a long battle to build social and political pressures to create such positive laws. This was facilitated by a gradual expansion of Parliamentary authority to impose such antislavery laws.

Committee: Christopher Oldstone-Moore Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kathryn Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Opolot Okia Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African History; African Literature; African Studies; American Studies; Black History; Black Studies; British and Irish Literature; Economics; European History; European Studies; History; International Law; Law; Legal Studies; Philosophy; Political Science; World History

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2007, Department of Humanities

British naval impressment and slavery were two major social issues in the British Empire in the long-eighteenth century. Scholars have explored each issue separately, however little has been done comparing both at length. Secondary sources, political theorem, and laws, frame the role of naval impressment and slavery in the eighteenth century British Empire. The two court cases, Rex versus Tubbs and Rex versus Knowles, exemplify each issue in the governmental realm of the eighteenth century. As such, naval impressment and slavery became major imperial issues throughout the eighteenth century, and although social reformer challenged the problems associated with the growth of each institution, the necessity to the empire blocked any far-reaching changes. The study of slavery and naval impressment is divided into three sections. The first section is the introduction, which presents a survey of the scholarly work already done on this work. The second section is comprised of chapter one and two. The overall theme of this section is that the slavery and naval impressment differed in its earlier manifestations and its later ones. The first chapter establishes Britain's long histories of slavery and impressment. The second chapter concentrates on the growth of the empire and provides a solid comparison of early and later forms of impressment. The third section of this thesis looks at the legal standings of each institution in the eighteenth century. The third chapter contends that leading up to the 1770s the judicial system chipped away at the institution of slavery, while impressment was continually supported. The last chapter argues that the main cases of social reform of each institution, occurring in the 1770s, achieve relative success in Britain, but ultimately with their narrow scopes do very little to change the institutions throughout the empire.

Committee: Martha Pallante (Advisor) Subjects: History, European

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, History

In 1729 the French Company of the Indies (Compagnie des Indes) operated more than two dozen coastal and riverine comptoirs, or trade outposts, along waterways stretching from the upper Mississippi Valley to the West African coast to the Bay of Bengal in Southeast Asia. The Company, administered by an assembly of Paris-centered directors, shareholders, and syndics, stood on the verge of initiating self-directed changes that would simultaneously diminish its functional and geographic scope and place it on firm financial footing for the first time since its mid-seventeenth-century inception. For unlike the Dutch and English monopoly companies, the French Company of the Indies prior to 1731 did not restrict its mission to trade alone; nor did the Company limit its operational sphere to the East Indies. Instead the Company spread its ships, bureaucrats, soldiers, laborers, and cargoes across the Atlantic and Indian oceans. In Louisiana during the second decade of the eighteenth century, the Company made a last unsuccessful bid in its quest to extract wealth from company-directed agricultural endeavors. As the Company's focus shifted away from agriculture with the retrocession of the colony to the king in 1731, so too did the life courses of individuals whose fortunes were bound up in the Company's trade, colonization, and agricultural mission in the Americas. Through the lens of an unpublished contemporary account penned by Marc Antoine Caillot, a clerk with the Company of the Indies during its last years in Louisiana, “Company Towns and Tropical Baptisms” situates the colony within the French Atlantic circuit that stretched from Paris and the Brittany Coast to Africa's Senegambian region to the West Indies to Louisiana and back, and examines the Company's role as colonizer, developer, slave holder, commercial entity, and deal maker between 1717 and 1731.

Committee: Alan Gallay (Advisor); Kenneth Andrien (Committee Member); John Brooke (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2009, African-American and African Studies

The representation of freed and enslaved people of African descent at sites such as Elmina, Ghana, and Williamsburg, Virginia, are subject to much criticism and praise. “Founded” by the Portuguese in 1482 and later controlled by the Dutch, Elmina is distinguished as the first of its kind. Initially established as a trading center between Africans and Europeans, those interactions soon gave birth to Elmina as a dungeon for holding Africans as slaves for sale into slavery. Williamsburg, a living history museum, is identified as the second colonial capital following the Jamestown settlement. On the eve of the American Revolution its citizens were confronted with questions of freedom, independence, and bondage. While many white settlers fought for independence and freedom from England, they simultaneously embodied slavery and unequal treatment towards enslaved and free African Americans.Today, both Elmina and Williamsburg reflect historical spaces as memory of the past. This thesis explores the ways that contemporary historical interpreters depict Elmina and Williamsburg. Some of the goals of this thesis are to study and analyze the sites' contemporary flaws, the sources these flaws, the ways that the histories of these sites are packaged for guests, and to explore how the sites' guests are encouraged to re-interpret and identify with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery. A comparative analysis of the ways that Elmina and Williamsburg are interpreted by visitors, site administrators and the people that live in and around these sites was conducted to understand how these sites are memorialized. Finally, this thesis addresses questions of “musemification,” preservation, tourism, and the role that these sites play in shaping contemporary identities within and outside the African Diaspora

Committee: Walter Rucker PhD (Advisor); Leslie Alexander PhD (Committee Member); Ahmad Sikainga PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; African History; Cultural Anthropology; History; Library Science; Museums

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2002, History

Much of the existing literature on black life during the era of slavery has either given secondary consideration to Georgia or emphasizes the development of the African American community during the antebellum era. Examining the impact of the growth of the slave trade to Georgia and the ways in which North American, Caribbean, and African histories intersected in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, my dissertation demonstrates that Georgia is an ideal area to study the cultural and community development of black Atlantic peoples. Georgia=s black society grew and transformed as it faced the harsh realities of labor in a growing agricultural economy and met the challenges of a chaotic American Revolution and the formation of a new nation. The early history of slavery in Georgia reaches far beyond the boundaries of the American South, this project utilizes an Atlantic perspective in reconstructing African life, community and culture. Plantation records, missionary tracts, medical books, ship records, travel and slave trader journals, court proceedings, and newspapers all from the southern lowcountry, the West Indies, Africa, and Europe are used in examining the structure of Georgia's enslaved communities. This study finds that West African philosophy and culture transformed to meet new challenges in Georgia and remained a critical foundation for black society throughout the slavery era. The dissertation also finds that Africans crossed ethnic and racial barriers in building their communities. Georgia's frontier presented an atmosphere that was brutally oppressive, yet its fluid boundaries offered unique opportunities for enslaved persons to push for cultural autonomy and freedom. From enslaved Africans' perspectives, building communities in Georgia meant finding an advantageous position in a multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual society where most could only envision them as slave laborers. As they adjusted to enslavement, the pressures of their condition s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Margaret Newell (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2012, History

Between 1845 and 1859, southern merchants, planters, and politicians convened fourteen commercial conventions, with the hopes of finding solutions to the South's economic problems. These conventions became major social and political events for the southern elite and the attendance rolls listed hundreds of current and future representatives, senators, state legislators, and Confederate congressmen. In addition to arguments over expansion of industry in the South and greater protections for the cotton economy, the conventioneers spent a great deal of time debating Manifest Destiny. In the view of the conventions, the South had become inferior to the North in nearly every way. Men who met at the conventions feared that the South would become a junior partner in the empire the United States was destined to possess. Whigs dominated the early conventions, as they advocated for expansion of nation-building programs, internal improvements, and commercial imperialism. As the conventions shifted to Democratic control after 1854, they began to advocate more forcefully for territorial expansion. Some conventions sought more land from Mexico, while others advocated for the conquest of Cuba and Nicaragua. A number of speakers also pushed for an “open-door” policy towards Brazil, not unlike the policy pursued by northern interests towards Japan. The final set of conventions would go so far as to advocate for the reopening of the African slave trade. The African slave trade was a form of European imperialism and southern calls to reopen the trade fit within expansionists' imperial designs. The trade also became a powerful political tool that southern radicals used to further their section's secession from the Union. This paper examines the conventions as an outgrowth of political frustrations created by sectionalism and it uses the conventions to situate imperialism as a key part of the sectional crisis.

Committee: Lesley Gordon Dr. (Advisor); Walter Hixson Dr. (Other) Subjects: American History; History