Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 1999, Department of Humanities

The New England Emigrant Aid Company, formed in 1854 under the direction of Eli Thayer, was established to send settlers into the Kansas territory. The New England Emigrant Aid Company's goal was to secure Kansas as a free-state. This position was in direct opposition to the proslavery Missourian's desire to make Kansas a slave state. The New England Emigrant Aid Company supplied emigrants and leadership to the free-state movement in Kansas. This caused conflict between the free-state party and the proslavery faction. The company's impact upon Kansas and the border Missourians needed to be examined thoroughly to understand its place in Kansas history. The consequences of its presence in the territory as an antagonistic force to the proslavery Missourians has never been fully examined. It is the focus of this study to determine the effects of the company's presence and its propaganda in Kansas.

Committee: Frederick Blue (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2001, Department of Humanities

Over the past forty years, scholars retold the story of Native Americans and, unlike their predecessors, portrayed them as active participants in their own history. No longer viewed as being the measuring stick of "white" progress or atrocities, historians placed the emphasis on Native Americans, their actions, their culture and their active resistance to acculturation and assimilation through a unique process of accommodation. However while they accomplished much, few historians attempted to explain how Native Americans influenced the development of America and continued to regard the majority of their activities as methods of cultural resistance. In an attempt to answer the question of "how Native Americans influenced the development of America," this study examines the impact that Native American urban settlements had on the Anglo-American westward movement and argues that Native Americans "spearheaded" and supported the Euro-American settlement of the west. The focus of this work is on the Native American urban settlement of Logstown and its relationship to the founding and building of Fort Pitt in the Ohio Valley during the mid-eighteenth century. To show the relationship between Logstown and Fort Pitt, this study proposes a model of frontier development that includes Native Americans and their urban settlements in the development of America. The model expands and synthesizes the works of Kenneth Lewis, Richard C. Wade and Francis Jennings and deals primarily with the Eastern Native American groups who migrated west and settled the Ohio Valley, the Shawnee, Lenni-Lenape (Delaware) and Mingo.

Committee: Fred Viehe (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 1999, Department of Humanities

Following the close of the American Revolution, the Federal Government, reeling from the strain of a massive war debt, looked toward the lands of the Old Northwest as a possible source of compensation for its war veterans. In response to the ensuing encroachments on to their native lands, which Great Britain had unjustifiably surrendered under the terms of the peace treaty of 1783, Indian nations of the Great Lakes Region and the Upper Ohio Valley sought to reestablish what had proven to be a tenuous alliance. This alliance will be traced from its roots in the mid 1750s, through its collapse following General Anthony Wayne's crushing victory at the battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794. Particular attention will be paid to the late 1780s and early 1790s, when the struggle for the Ohio Country brought the region's Indian nations a degree of unity which had long alluded them. United by the principles of common land ownership and a united diplomatic voice, the confederation nevertheless remained shrouded in local and regional concerns. It is the manner with which the tribes struggled to overcome these concerns while searching for the unity they so desperately needed in the face of a rapidly expanding enemy that will be explored in depth. Historians have long ignored the Ohio Indians' efforts. Portrayed as mere pawns of British diplomacy, the tribes remain shrouded under a veil of misperception. While more and more scholars are slowly beginning to reexamine the Indians' role, they have done so at the expense of limiting the tribes' motivations to those shared by their European counterparts. An "Indian perspective" of these events will serve to highlight the distinctions between Indian and European agendas, while demonstrating the extent to which the Ohio Indian Confederacy remained subject to its own diverse strains amid a struggle that would define a region.

Committee: Frederick Blue (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

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

This thesis deals with the social, aesthetic, and historical significance of Civil War era photography, with special emphasis on Alexander Gardner's photographs from the Battle of Antietam. My thesis argues that Antietam was a watershed moment in photography, for Gardner's Antietam images represented the medium's first step towards establishing its own unique photographic aesthetic. This new photographic aesthetic was firmly grounded in a literal realism that did not exist in other forms of representation, such as painting or engraving. This realism dispelled American ideological notions of God-sanctioned, pastoral innocence, and forced Americans to confront the savagery in their own midst. Apart from their aesthetic legacy, the Antietam images also gave birth to the separate medium of war photography, and represented the birth of photojournalism. Chapter one addresses the origins of photography, with particular emphasis on its connection to the nineteenth century aesthetic movement and its close relationship to portrait painting. Chapter two examines in-depth the most important photographs from the Battle of Antietam. By analyzing how the American public reacted to these images, this chapter reveals how Alexander Gardner's photographs invalidated the aesthetic ideology of nineteenth century America. Chapter three examines some of Alexander Gardner's most important photographs from the Gettysburg and Virginia campaigns of 1864 and 1865. It emphasizes Gardner's drift from compositions depicting masses of battlefield casualties in favor of close-range, highly personalized images of individual corpses. The thesis concludes with the legacy of Gardner's Civil War photographs by exploring their value as pieces of commemorative art that invoke the true memory of the Civil War.

Committee: Diane Barnes (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2000, Department of Humanities

On May 4, 1886 a group of anarchists organized a meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois to protest police shooting of strikers the day before. As Samuel Fielden was concluding his speech, Chicago Police Offiers arrived and ordered the anarchists to end the meeting. As Fielden stepped down from the speakers stand a bomb was hurled into the ranks of officers and a riot ensued in which several police officers and civilians were killed. Although the bombthrower was never identified, eight anarchists were put on trial and found guilty of the murder of Chicago Police Officer Mathias J. Degan. Given their political views it would have been difficult for them to receive a fair trial anywhere in the United States. The media convicted them in print long before the trial began and inflamed the passions and prejudices of the public. Even the American court system was conservative and reflected the views of the press and public. Yet, Judge Joseph E. Gary was especially prejudicial throughout the trial. This study has investigated the objectivity in the trial of the eight anarchists with and emphasis on the role of trial of the eight anarchists with and emphasis on the role of trial Judge Joseph E. Gary. The question, "What rulings did Judge Joseph E. Gary make during the trial that contributed to the guilty verdicts and harsh sentences passed upon the eight anarchists?", has been answered.

Committee: Martha Pallante (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2000, Department of Humanities

Taking captives was an old and established custom in the Americas long before Columbus arrived in 1492. Nevertheless, the coming of Europeans ushered in a new era in the taking of captives, since the Native Americans could use the colonists as slaves, for ransom, and for adoption, to replace their dead. The prospect of captivity placed an additional burden of fear on an already difficult life for the European colonists. Indians captured both men and women. However, because of the different roles men and women played in their society, the circumstances of their capture and captivity differed, based on their gender. Women, normally confined to the home and care of the children, were usually captured with their children, and fear for them placed an additional burden on the mothers. Men, nearly always kidnapped while hunting, farming, or soldiering, typically only had themselves to worry about. Men and women also dealt with the actual captivity and its aftermath differently. Men, without their families involved, found it easier to escape from the Indians. Women, however rarely escaped unless or until their children were all dead. After their release, men publicly profited from their experiences, while women did not.

Committee: Martha Pallante (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2001, Department of Humanities

The thesis "Friendship Memorialized: Joseph G. Butler and McKinley National Birthplace Memorial" describes the history of how the first to be completed Congressionally authorized presidential memorial was conceived and dedicated. The crucial role of William McKinley's boyhood friend, steel magnate, and philanthropist, Joseph G. Butler is documented. The campaign to construct and dedicate the second memorial in Ohio to the assassinated leader rivaled McKinley's presidential campaigns in scope and effort. Butler's seven-year campaign tapped the esteem and goodwill many Americans still felt for the fallen favorite son from Niles years after the president's death. The work places the construction of the birthplace memorial in context with other American reform efforts occurring in the United States at that time. Most notable influences exhibited at the monument in Niles were those involving the City Beautiful movement that mobilized people from diverse backgrounds in civic improvement projects, the American Renaissance movement by sculptors and architects who sought to address civic concerns with the monuments, and Andrew Carnegie's extensive library grant program that dramatically changed public education and literacy. Finally, the thesis addresses how the McKinley National Birthplace Memorial affected the commemoration and formation of public memory regarding the twenty-fifth president in the years following its dedication. The author based research for this work upon primary source material from Butler's personal correspondence and papers located at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, artifacts and documents from the McKinley National Birthplace Memorial, as well as local newspapers.

Committee: William Jenkins (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 1999, Department of Humanities

The United States went to war in Vietnam on 7 August 1964. Although involved in Vietnam much earlier, it was not until the Tonkin Gulf Resolution passed both the Congress and Senate that the United States could legally wage war in Southeast Asia. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution resulted from the Tonkin Gulf incidents, in which American ships were attacked by North Vietnam. While these attacks are the basis for the Resolution, they have never been fully and clearly explained. Many questions remain as to what actually transpired in the Tonkin Gulf on 2 and 4 August 1964. Due to the nagging questions surrounding these incidents, a thorough chronology is necessary. The followinh history of the Tonkin Gulf incidents incorporates new information that will better detail the questionable incidents. Furthermore, this study exposes some of the more blatant misrepresentations made by government officials as they tried to pursuade Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

Committee: Hugh Earnhart (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Humanities (MHum), Wright State University, 2007, Humanities

The purpose of this study was to examine the causes that led African Americans to resist industrial education higher education, which ended industrial training programs in predominantly Black colleges and universities during the 1920s. Three key factors helped create this reform movement: 1) the death of Booker T. Washington; 2) the improved educational levels of African Americans; and 3) the rise in aspirations of African Americans to expand the benefits of higher education. The loss of the Civil War caused a reorientation of southern and economic conditions. Newly freed slaves had to be granted citizenship. Southern Whites were more concerned with rebuilding the South while holding onto the power. Several key characters emerged as leaders within the debate of African American education during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Armstrong, Washington, and Jones were among the many supporters of industrial education, while DuBois and Miller supported the argument of the liberal arts education for African Americans. Three research questions addressed the issues surrounding the ideology of African Americans' education: (1) What role did hegemony and ideology play in African American education and how did they influence Booker T. Washington's and W. E. B. Dubois's position on how African Americans should be educated; (2) What was the Black ideology of African American education; and (3) What was the White ideology of African American education?

Committee: Ava Chamberlain (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2001, Arts and Sciences : History

The National Japanese American Student Relocation Council was a private organization established during the Second World War with the objective of moving Japanese Americans of college age out of the concentration camps they had been exiled to and into colleges east of the Pacific states in which they had lived. The Council, originally formed under the initiative of the American Friends Service Committee at the urging of the War Relocation Authority, was intimately involved in all aspects of the student resettlement project. This private organization, which quickly gained the support of several church groups and philanthropic foundations, was eventually staffed by religious and political liberals. It performed a variety of functions. The Council worked closely with a number of government agencies, including the Wartime Civil Control Administration, the Provost Marshal General's Office, and the War Relocation Authority, to coordinate a program of student resettlement. It informed incarcerated students of the educational opportunities available outside the camps and worked to facilitate the movement of students to institutions of higher learning, largely in the Mountain States, the Midwest, and along the East Coast of the United States. The Council also worked with colleges and receiving communities, encouraging them to participate in its program and to provide warm welcomes to Japanese American students. Approximately 4,000 Japanese American students participated in the Council's program. This was a substantial portion of the college-aged cohort of the mainland Japanese American population. Although different agencies had different goals for student resettlement, some Council members and the resettled students cooperated in promoting what we now call multiculturalism. While the War Relocation Authority and even some on the Council hoped to force assimilation through geographic dispersal, the students constructed their own meanings for their resettlement experiences. T (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Roger Daniels (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Arts and Sciences : History

This study examines changes that Kentucky's white middle class made to marital ideals in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. It demonstrates that this developing class refined an earlier ideal of companionate marriage to better suit its economic, social, and cultural circumstances in an urban environment. This reevaluation of companionate marriage corresponded with Kentucky's escalating entry into a national market economy and the state's most rapid period of urbanization. As it became increasingly unlikely that young men born to Kentucky's white landed settler families would inherit either land or enslaved labor, they began to rely on advanced education in order to earn a livelihood in towns and cities. Because lack of land and labor caused a delay in their ability to marry, the members of Kentucky's middle class focused attention on romantic passion rather a balance of reasoned affection and wealth in land when they formulated their urban marital ideal. They encountered several obstacles in the process of redefining marriage. Kentucky's middle class was a small urban ship on a vast rural sea. A majority of Kentucky's population, both white and black, continued to define marriage in a way that suited life in a family farm economy. In addition, white middle-class men faced challenges to their ownership of enslaved people, property and wealth because educated white women in urban centers began to demand more control of family finances and people in Kentucky, bolstered by an increased agitation for abolition, challenged the institution of slavery. In response, the members of Kentucky's middle class attempted to establish cultural hegemony over the marital ideals and practices of Kentucky's large rural population. They also began to culturally buttress marriage as an institution in which white men acted as legal, social and economic heads of households. Although this dissertation is a study of the contesting marriage beliefs and practices between urban and ru (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Wayne Durrill (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Arts and Sciences : History

During the American Civil War, guerrilla raids, military operations, economic hardships, political turmoil, and racial tensions upset the status quo of communities situated along the Ohio River border. This dissertation compares the wartime experiences of two border towns – Frankfort, Kentucky and Corydon, Indiana. These communities shared a legacy of white settlement and a distinct western identity, which fostered unity and emphasized cooperation during the first year of the war. However, the exigencies of war and the eventual demise of slavery in Kentucky divided citizens living on either side of the river border, including the people of Corydon and Frankfort. The Ohio River border was a cohesive economic and social unit at the beginning of the war, even though the river served as the legal boundary for slavery. Prominent Unionist citizens in both Corydon and Frankfort galvanized political support by strengthening connections with like-minded citizens throughout the river valley. The majority of white Unionists in the two towns believed that they could maintain peace by negating the radical notions of abolition and secession. Although white citizens in both places agreed on the importance of white supremacy to maintaining the stability of their respective communities, the Union government's evolving policy on slavery, which culminated in the Emancipation Proclamation, ultimately strained the relationship between Unionists in southern Indiana and Kentucky. By the end of the war, Corydon's residents had suffered devastation from raids and guerrilla violence, all emanating from Kentucky. Frankfort was engulfed in anti-government sentiment, guerrilla violence, and local resistance to the inevitable end of slavery in the state. The demise of slavery in Kentucky challenged white supremacy, while in southern Indiana most citizens welcomed the end of slavery if it meant an end to the war. Emancipation, violence, and material loss forged separate wartime experiences for th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Christopher Phillips (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Arts and Sciences : History

The Watery World, an environmental study, challenges traditional histories of Illinois that present the natural environment in 1778 as untouched, virgin land. Occupied by the French since 1699, Illinois lands had been depleted of furbearing animals, deforested, and rigorously hunted. An exodus of French and Illinois Indians after 1763 encouraged a partial recovery of the environment; yet there were permanent losses, such as oak-hickory savannas and bison. Changes in the tri-partite habitat of French Illinois – floodplain, talus and bluffs, and upland till plain – also contributed to an escalation of inter-tribal conflicts. Northern Fox, Sauk, Potawatomi, and Sioux, as well as eastern bands of Miami and the Missouri Osage, competed for the resources of the Illinois prairies. The radical depopulation of Illinois tribes over the eighteenth century has been studied in the context of European contact, yet change to the natural environment has not been emphasized. This study argues that environmental degradation played a role in the decline of the Illinois subtribes and was also a factor in European occupation. The experience of the British particularly, who arrived to claim Illinois after the Treaty of Paris in 1763, was impacted by soil exhaustion, flooding and resultant fevers, the exodus of peoples, and deforestation. The massive influx of American settlers after 1778, when George Rogers Clark captured British Illinois, rapidly led to new environmental controls and surveys. The watery world of the Illinois Country saw an even more significant period of ditching, drainage, and aggressive agriculture. Illinois Indian lands were alienated; fencing laws replaced old French communal codes; and enormous grants of land were made along the rivers. The effect on the ecology of the Illinois Country was profound. This study examines the role of water in the settlements and livelihoods of Illinois Indians, French, British, and at the very end, Americans. It invokes the rich river (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Geoffrey Plank (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2002, Arts and Sciences : History

This dissertation examines the impact of the Civil War on the rise of industrial capitalism in Cincinnati, Ohio. In an era of laissez faire capitalism, merchants developed economic institutions fitting their circumstances, the most important of which was its Chamber of Commerce and Merchants' Exchange. By 1850, the Chamber controlled much of the city's trade, substantially reducing the risk of conducting business. Although manufacturing had been important throughout the city's short history and grew increasingly more important as time passed, merchants dominated the local economy. The Civil War changed the basis for local prosperity. War ended the Southern trade, throwing the city into a severe financial panic, which convinced many citizens that the Democratic principles of free trade, private capital, small government, and peace remained valid. Within months, however, it became clear to the mercantile elite that wartime prosperity would come only from aligning local self-interest with those of the federal government. The Chamber quickly wed itself to the Lincoln administration and its economic program of protected trade, organized capital, free labor, and a preserved Union. Other elements within the local economy were not so quick to support such a radical transformation. Over the next year and a half Cincinnatians experienced serious social conflict in the form of worker protest, a violent race riot, and a brief threat of Confederate invasion known as the siege of Cincinnati. In the wake of this conflict, renewed prosperity convinced a majority of citizens that they could prosper under the Republican system, thanks to government supply contracts, military success, a national banking system, and the creation of a mythology that touted the city's service to the Union. By 1865, industry had superceded commerce as the city's most important economic activity, and most citizens supported a Republican economic program consistent with that transformation. No longer the ce (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Wayne K. Durrill (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2006, History

The thesis illustrates the disconnect between the benevolent rhetoric and actual U.S. foreign policy from 1980 to the present through an examination of the U.S. voting record in the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, detailing that the United States fits its own definition of a rogue state.

Committee: Diane Britton (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Liberal Studies, University of Toledo, 2005, College of Arts and Sciences

This thesis is an examination into the defeat of the Indians of the Ohio Country at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The purpose of the thesis was to more fully evaluate all factors that contributed to the representatives of all the hostile tribes signing the Treaty of Fort Greeneville of 1795. I argue that most historical descriptions are lacking in their extent and focus. Most summations place an undeserved emphasis upon the actual battle itself, rather than the social, political, and military factors that led to the ultimate outcome. The Indian Confederation had forced humiliating defeats upon the infant nation in 1790 and 1791, only to succumb to a minor defeat in 1794. The real answers are found in and beyond the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Committee: Alfred Cave (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2005, History

This thesis will examine four events that shaped the court and the executive's power between 1801 to 1807. The first three, the Marbury v. Madison decision, the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, and the Impeachment of Federalist judges, occurred within the first few years and show how the power struggle evolved into the final showdown of the Aaron Burr treason trial. The Burr trial was an arena where the president and the chief justice faced off in a highly publicized trial that dealt with the most serious of crimes allegedly performed by the former vice president.

Committee: Diane Britton (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2005, History

This thesis examines the history of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ohio by comparing two time periods, the 19th and early 20th centuries with that of the latter twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The thesis looks at changing societal gender roles, Irish nationalism, nativism, preservation of Irish culture and Catholic Action.

Committee: Diane Britton (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2004, History

This thesis discusses the historic preservation movement in Lucas County, Ohio, showing how certain preservation issues paralleled with those of the national movement in certain eras. Issues pertaining to sucessful preservation, such as grassroots organizations, federal programs, tax incentives, the impact of preservation law, and planning are explained, as are the issues surrounding poor preservation, such as urban renewal, disinterest, migrations out of the city, and social unrest. Public perceptions of historic sites and of the preservation movement are overviewed, showing that certain intrest groups held influence over what was to be saved. Also, significant sites in Lucas County (1820-1910)are described as examples of successful and poor preservation.

Committee: Diane Britton (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, History

This study examines Congress's role in defense policy-making between 1955 and 1968, with particular focus on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), its most prominent and influential members, and the evolving defense authorization process. The consensus view holds that, between World War II and the drawdown of the Vietnam War, the defense oversight committees showed acute deference to Defense Department legislative and budget requests. At the same time, they enforced closed oversight procedures that effectively blocked less "pro-defense" members from influencing the policy-making process. Although true at an aggregate level, this understanding is incomplete. It ignores the significant evolution to Armed Services Committee oversight practices that began in the latter half of 1950s, and it fails to adequately explore the motivations of the few members who decisively shaped the process. SASC chairman Richard Russell (D-GA) dominated Senate deliberations on defense policy. Relying only on input from a few key colleagues - particularly his protege and eventual successor, John Stennis (D-MS) - Russell for the better part of two decades decided almost in isolation how the Senate would act to oversee the nation's defense. Russell's oversight concept weighed multiple competing considerations: the reality that modern presidential power was an outgrowth of the Congress's acknowledged inability to manage the expanded scope of government; the requirement that the Executive Branch demonstrate wisdom and managerial competence; the duty to conduct thorough oversight as a prerequisite for congressional consent to presidential proposals; and the Cold War imperative to buttress presidential leadership with at least the appearance of a broad governing consensus. While initially hesitant to craft a substantive policy role, perceived shortcomings in presidential wisdom and managerial competence steadily prompted Russell to insert himself and his committee more directly into the poli (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Stebenne (Advisor) Subjects: History, United States