Theses and Dissertations - Department of History

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Abner McGehee
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1928) Williams, Clanton Ware; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
It so happens in the course of events that many men live and labor, often unknown and more often unheeded as they toil onward across the stream of life. They die and are soon forgotten. A few days and the ripple they have made on the surface of the onrushing stream has, with them, disappeared.
The Abolition of the Convict Lease System in Alabama, 1913-1928
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1949) Clark, Elizabeth Boner; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Almost from the first day of its organization, the penitentiary system of Alabama was a source of trouble to the state, and for years its operation was unprofitable in every sense. From the beginning, penology in Alabama labored under the theory that the state's correctional institutions should be self-sufficient. In order to gain complete self-sufficiency, the state entered upon the policy of leasing the prisoners to private business and individuals.
Acts of war: the Southern seizure of Federal property, 1860-1861
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Deale, Rachel Katlyn; Rable, George C.; Kohl, Lawrence Frederick; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The Civil War began before shots were fired on Fort Sumter. During the four months between Lincoln’s election on November 7, 1860, and his inauguration on March 4, 1861, the Deep South seceded from the Union, seized all the federal forts, arsenals, navy yards, custom houses, revenue cutters, mints, courts and post offices within their borders except Fort Sumter in South Carolina, and Forts Pickens, Taylor, and Jefferson in Florida. This dissertation investigates the rationale, methods, and consequences of these dramatic captures. Northern and southern reaction to these aggressive measures demonstrate that the seizures were acts of war and show that the Civil War actually began long before Edmund Ruffin fired that famous first shot at Fort Sumter.
The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1951) Scudder, John Ralph; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad Company was formed in December, 1868, out of the purchase of the North East and South West Alabama Railroad by the Wills Valley Railroad Company to build a railroad diagonally across the northern half of Alabama, connecting Chattanooga and Meridian.
Albert Taylor Goodwyn
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1936) Mustin, Louise Goodwyn; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Andrew jackson and the Indians, 1767-1815
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Ray, Jonathan; Freyer, Tony Allan; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Andrew Jackson's experience with the Indians was an ambivalent relationship. From his childhood along the South Carolina-North Carolina border through his two terms as president, he had extensive interaction with both friendly and enemy Indians. As a child in South Carolina, Jackson grew up around the peaceful Catawba Indians. During the American War for Independence he served as a scout alongside the Catawbas as members of his community fought the British and their Indian allies from the west, most notably the Cherokees. Serving in this capacity he learned the value of Indian alliances that he carried with him throughout his professional, military, and political career. Jackson came into direct contact with the Indians as he moved to Tennessee, as a young lawyer and businessman. In the western territory, various Indian tribes claimed the land the Whites were settling. Jackson learned to distinguish between the tribes that were recognized by the United States government as having legitimate claims to land and those that were not. Several tribes, particularly the Creeks and the Chickamaugas, a dissident faction of the Cherokees, frequently raided the White settlements in Tennessee, forcing Jackson to fight the Indians in defense of his community. He became an Indian fighter out of necessity and fought the enemy Indians while aligning with the friendly Chickasaws. During the Creek War and the War of 1812, Jackson applied his experience of using friendly Indian tribes to defeat the British and their Indian allies. He rewarded those who were loyal and punished those who joined Britain. He carried this experience to his post-war career as Indian agent, and later, as president, negotiating dozens of treaties with the Indians as he insisted upon removal as the best policy. In these treaties he exchanged federal territory west of the Mississippi River for Indian land in the east. Although he is most well-known for signing the Indian Removal Act, he promoted the rights of Indians at times as he allowed Indian citizenship, encouraged intermarriage between Whites and Indians, frequently had Indian leaders as guests in his home, and adopted an Indian child. He advocated for removal through the exchange of land in treaties to preserve tribal autonomy.
Antislavery violence and secession, October 1859 – April 1861
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) White, David Jonathan; Rable, George C.; Kohl, Lawrence Frederick; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation examines the collapse of southern Unionism between October 1859 and April 1861. This study argues that a series of events of violent antislavery and southern perceptions of northern support for them caused white southerners to rethink the value of the Union and their place in it. John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and northern expressions of personal support for Brown brought the Union into question in white southern eyes. White southerners were shocked when Republican governors in northern states acted to protect members of John Brown’s organization from prosecution in Virginia. Southern states invested large sums of money in their militia forces, and explored laws to control potentially dangerous populations such as northern travelling salesmen, whites “tampering” with slaves, and free African-Americans. Many Republicans endorsed a book by Hinton Rowan Helper which southerners believed encouraged antislavery violence and a Senate committee investigated whether an antislavery conspiracy had existed before Harpers Ferry. In the summer of 1860, a series of unexplained fires in Texas exacerbated white southern fear. As the presidential election approached in 1860, white southerners hoped for northern voters to repudiate the Republicans. When northern voters did not, white southerners generally rejected the Union. This study relies on primary sources of white southerners where available and devotes considerable attention to southern newspapers, especially as they described the working of county-level government.
Baseball diplomacy, baseball deployment: the national pastime in U.S.-Cuba relations
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Turner, Justin W. R.; Jones, Howard; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The game of baseball, a shared cultural affinity linking Cuba and the United States, has played a significant part in the relationship between those nations. Having arrived in Cuba as a symbol of growing American influence during the late nineteenth century, baseball would come to reflect the political and economic connections that developed into the 1900s. By the middle of the twentieth century, a significant baseball exchange saw talented Cuban players channeled into Major League Baseball, and American professionals compete in Cuba's Winter League. The 1959 Cuban Revolution permanently changed this relationship. Baseball's politicization as a symbol of the Revolution, coupled with political antagonism, an economic embargo, and an end to diplomatic ties between the Washington and Havana governments largely destroyed the U.S.-Cuba baseball exchange. By the end of the 1960s, Cuban and American baseball interactions were limited to a few international amateur competitions, and political hardball nearly ended some of these. During the 1970s, Cold War détente and the success of Ping Pong Diplomacy with China sparked American efforts to use baseball's common ground as a basis for improving U.S.-Cuba relations. Baseball diplomacy, as the idea came to be called, was designed to be a means toward coexistence and normalization with the Castro government. Ultimately, despite a taking few swings during that decade, baseball diplomacy--unable to surmount the obstacles, either within politics or within professional baseball--failed to produce any actual games between Cuban and Major League Baseball teams. As Cold War détente evaporated into the 1980s, baseball's role in the U.S.-Cuba political relationship changed. Efforts to boost Cuban exposure to Major League Baseball developed as part of a general policy to use American culture and influence to erode Communism. This practice of deploying baseball as a political weapon continued into the 1990s. Unlike earlier efforts at baseball diplomacy, which were designed to improve U.S.-Cuba relations, baseball deployment aimed to provoke a democratic regime change in Cuba. This dissertation examines how politics have complicated U.S.-Cuba baseball exchanges, and traces the sport's contradictory use through baseball diplomacy and baseball deployment.
Basil Manly and His Administration at The University of Alabama, 1837-1855
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1955) Pate, James August; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Basil Manly II was born January 29, 1798, in Chatham County, North Carolina, near Pittsboro. His father, a farmer who had settled in Bladen County and had spent most of his early life there, had led a band of homeguards in the Revolutionary War. He held the rank of Captain and did valiant service for the cause of the Colonies. At the end of the war the "Farmer-Soldier" had attained a place of honor and esteem among his fellow citizens and neighbors. After he returned home he was trampled upon by a vicious bull. Thus disabled, he had to turn over the management of his farm to his sons. "Determined to give them...a liberal education," Captain Manly took advantage of the school at Pittsboro, where he could send the boys daily. Later "he sent one after another to the even then celebrated Bingham School in Orange County."
"the best notes made the most votes": race, politics, and spectacle in the South, 1877-1932
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Johnson, Mark A.; Frederickson, Kari A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
From the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, black southerners influenced local, state, and national politics and challenged white supremacy by performing at political spectacles. Reformers, Lost Cause advocates, and party leaders employed spectacle to generate enthusiasm, demonstrate the strength of the party, mobilize voters, legitimize electoral results, and spread their platforms. Before disfranchisement, African Americans played prominent roles in these spectacles as performers, orators, musicians, marchers, and torchbearers. Despite attempts to eliminate spectacles and restrict voting, southerners continued to view spectacle as an important part of the political process. In the twentieth century, African Americans participated in spectacles despite disfranchisement, diminished economic opportunity, and the threat of lynching. With their presence and activism, they remained a visible and audible part of the public sphere, which resulted in financial improvement and political influence. At times, they exhibited dangerous behavior at political spectacles by harassing white politicians and confronting white women. Based on findings in newspapers and archives, this dissertation examines three case studies from Georgia, Louisiana, and Tennessee. From 1885 to 1898, black Atlanta and black Maconites played prominent roles in the local-option prohibition campaigns of the region despite increasingly hostile attitudes toward African Americans. In 1903, black musicians in New Orleans allied with their white colleagues to protest the exclusion of black talent from a reunion of Confederate veterans. In 1909, black bandleader W. C. Handy lent his talents to the mayoral campaign of Edward Hull Crump. During the campaign, Handy composed a song that launched both of their careers. In addition to these case studies, this dissertation consists of three broader chapters, which reveal black southerners performed similar behavior across the South. From 1877 to 1932, African Americans spoke at public rallies, generated enthusiasm with music, linked party politics to the memory of the Civil War, honored favorable candidates, and openly humiliated their opposition.
"Charlie Brown's america: Peanuts and the politics of wishy-washy, 1950-1989"
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2017) Ball, Blake Scott; Huebner, Andrew J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The long 1960s is often considered to be a period of extreme polarization in American politics. This study of Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts franchise (comic strips, television programs, films, and merchandise), however, reveals that through the 1960s and 1970s there remained a large popular audience for centrist discussions of the period’s most controversial issues. Public religion, racial integration, the Vietnam War, feminism, the environmental crisis, and conflicts over the future of consumer capitalism all received considerable treatment in Schulz’s work. While this might be surprising to critics and journalists who often assumed that Peanuts was merely an escapist endeavor, this perception could not be further from the truth. Peanuts readers and viewers certainly saw the truth. Over the forty years covered in this project, they wrote thousands of letters to Schulz to praise or condemn his discussions of real world issues. These letters have provided a rather unlikely window into the political and social thought of Middle America in the Cold War years. Such correspondence formed the focal point of this dissertation. Ultimately, this dissertation shows the ways that Schulz cunningly navigated the politics of Middle America, gaining historic popularity and demanding unprecedented editorial and licensing control over his franchise. But this dissertation also shows that as Schulz became increasingly popular, corporate interests, government officials, and the public increasingly appropriated the Peanuts characters, infused them with new meaning, and deployed them to their own ends.
Colonial Pennsylvania's peace experiment on the frontier, 1631-1786
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Cecil, Patrick William; Selesky, Harold E.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation explores the maintenance of peace in Pennsylvania during the colonial era. When other colonies along the Atlantic seaboard experienced warfare in the early decades of settlement, Pennsylvania presents an anomaly for experiencing 120 years of relative peace with Indians before becoming a center point for two major conflicts in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The existing scholarly literature has examined the Long Peace and two conflicts, the French and Indian War and the War for American Independence, as distinct periods in the colony's history. When considering these periods through a lens of military violence, scholars point to the lack of military tradition and culture under the Quaker-led government during the Long Peace as an explanation for Pennsylvania's poor military reaction when at war and have used racial, religious, and political interpretations to discuss violence in the colony. In contrast, I argue that the inhabitants of Pennsylvania did have an effective approach for securing the safety of their settlement. I demonstrate that a security culture of restraint developed between Indians and European settlers, marked by dialogue, not war, in the fifty years prior to the formal establishment of Pennsylvania. When they arrived, William Penn and Quaker leaders recognized this understanding to be already in place and they infused into this preexisting structure their own ideals of community and brotherhood of man while continuing the practices of the culture of restraint. I explore how restraint and these Quaker ideals eroded during the eighteenth century, but argue that the culture of restraint ultimately had a lasting legacy through its outward symbols, language, and shared memories assisting in reestablishing peace along the frontier following war. My dissertation thus revises our understanding of Colonial Pennsylvania's long period of peace and how Quakers approached the issue of security in the colony, while also demonstrating the value in considering the role of peace in military history and security affairs.
Community and Government of Tuscaloosa, Alabama
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1950) Dorsey, John T.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
There has been an increasing realization in recent years that no one of the various disciplines concerned with the study of man and his society, ranging from biology through the social sciences to philosophy, is sufficient unto itself. Human behavior and social processes are no respecters of interdisciplinary barriers. Many social scientists are therefore attempting to examining such behavior and process as a whole - to integrate their own area of concentration with knowledge derived from other approaches. This is not to imply that the thinking of a political scientist, for example, should become a hash of indiscriminately compounded political science, economics, sociology, and anthropology, seasoned with psychology. The local organs of government and political processes should rather be studied in their larger societal context, and their relation to this context analyzed.
Confederate Diplomacy in Mexico
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1949) Maisel, Jay Max; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Long before the Civil War, the southern states had realized the importance of state sovereignty. The infringement upon the rights of state sovereignty was a perpetual source of discontent and animosity between the North and. South. John O. Calhoun, the proponent of states' rights, clearly stated his views in the doctrine of nullification. He argued that since the Union is the creation of states and not the states of the Union it stands to reason that the former will be subordinate to the latter in case there is a dispute as to respective powers; for the creator is alwavs greater than the creature. The South was anxious to have an alliance with the West and to win over that section to its own political views. Such a union would insure the southern planters and the western farmers against objectionable measures advocated by northern manufacturers and would give them a controlling voice in the Federal government. The key to the southern expansionist problem was to be found in Mexico. Mexico was to be the lever by which the South could attain its goal.
Creating a "different citizen": the federal development of the Tennessee Valley, 1915-1960
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2010) Downs, Matthew L.; Frederickson, Kari A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation describes the process of cooperation and contestation by which residents, civic leaders, state officials, and federal politicians in the Tennessee Valley encouraged the economic development of their rapidly changing region. Beginning in 1916, when the Woodrow Wilson administration authorized construction of a hydroelectric dam and nitrate-producing plants at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, federal investment provided the means by which communities created (or attempted to create) prosperity by encouraging industrial development in a dying agricultural economy. The debates over Muscle Shoals led to the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority, but federal officials found that Valley residents rejected broad-based social reorganization in favor of directed economic investment. During the "Gunbelt" defense boom of World War II, Valley leaders increased calls for development, especially at Huntsville, where the inconsistency of federal funds led community leaders to develop a modern, professional industrial recruitment campaign. In the Tennessee Valley, and across the South, the Sunbelt economy emerged as locals encouraged federal investment in order to bring development while rejecting and redirecting broader calls for social change. Historians have only recently begun to investigate the complicated process by which the southern economy modernized in the twentieth century, but none have provided an in-depth exploration of the long-term growth of one particular region, such as the Tennessee Valley. Drawing on local records, numerous Valley newspapers, and federal records, this dissertation traces the process by which Valley residents attempted to attract industries and businesses to the region. As such, this research provides insight into the birth of the modern southern economy.
Creating the modern South: political development in the Tar Heel State, 1945 to the present
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Menestres, Daniel Paul; Frederickson, Kari A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation describes the process of political development in North Carolina during the twentieth century. Beginning with the creation of the "solid South" in the early twentieth century, North Carolina's unique one-party system featured a spirited rivalry within the Democratic Party that was largely absent throughout the South. The political rivalry between conservative and progressive Democrats profoundly influenced the course of North Carolina's political development. Following the Second World War, the interaction between state and national politics played a significant role in the development of the state's two-party system. By the end of the twentieth century, a competitive two-party system supplanted one-party politics. Historians have written extensively about political development in the twentieth-century South, but there are few state-specific studies focusing on political change in the modern South. Using manuscripts, newspapers, and interviews, this dissertation traces the process by which one southern state gradually cast aside one-party politics and developed a strong, competitive two-party system. As such, this research provides insight into the development of two-party politics in the modern South.
The developments leading to the Reformation Parliament of Henry VIII and the first two session
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1971) Sloan, Bernard James; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Disease, Disuse, and Disappointment: The Volunteer Experience and the Modernization of the American National Guard, 1898-1902
(University of Alabama Libraries, 2020) Boyd, Kari Lee; Dorr, Lisa L; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
This dissertation combines an intimate study of the common volunteers during the Spanish American War with a look into larger institutional changes within the American military at the turn of the Twentieth Century and the development of a modern National Guard. The Spanish American War left a stronger imprint on the form and function of the United States military than previous scholarship has ascribed to it. Particularly silent in scholarly discussions of the war are the voices and experiences of the common men that volunteered to serve in April and May of 1898. Their experiences in the service reveal the serious flaws that existed in the American military at the end of the Nineteenth Century and helped define the service experiences of citizen soldiers and veterans in future wars. Foregrounding the letters, diaries, and memoirs of the volunteers provides a rich source base from which to tell the story of how the volunteers of 1898 helped spark the modernization of the American military, sources that have long been overlooked. A result of the focus previous historians had on issues of empire and imperialism, this omission in the scholarship prevents historians from fully understanding how the Army grappled with new technology, new medicine, and new styles of combat. In addition to adding a new layer of perspective to discussions of disease and military operations during the Spanish American War, focusing on the experiences of the volunteers reveals why conditions in American military camps deteriorated so quickly during the summer of 1898, how integral the actions of the volunteers were to altering the shape and function of the Army, and why the militia was willing to support the creation of the modern National Guard after the war had ended.
The Equal Suffrage Movement in Alabama, 1912-1919
(University of Alabama Libraries, 1949) Lumpkin, John Irvin; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Suffragists were not united in support of a federal amendment. The National Woman Suffrage Association was founded May 15, 1869, with the object of promoting a sixteenth amendment to enfranchise women. Another organization known as the American Woman Suffrage Association was formed in November, 1870, to get suffrage through amendments to the state constitutions. In 1890 the two groups united as the National American Woman Suffrage Association following both the state and federal amendment methods. Leaders of the movement were convinced that they could not hope for action by Congress until several states had experimented with woman suffrage. Alabama suffragists tried both the state and federal amendment methods of gaining equal suffrage. They failed to achieve their aim in either case. This paper attempts to tell the story of those failures.
Factors in the History of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1816-1846
(University of Alabama Libraries) Boucher, Morris Raymond; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
The history of Tuscaloosa as a town goes back beyond the history of the state of which it forms a part. From a purely technical standpoint, it became an incorporated town one day earlier than Alabama became a state. Tuscaloosa was incorporated December 13, 1819, and Alabama became a state on the following day.

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