DOCSLIB.ORG

Seeking the Middle in a Sectionalizing America: James Dinsmore and the Shaping of Regional Cultural Economies, 1816-1872

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Seeking the Middle in a Sectionalizing America: James Dinsmore and the Shaping of Regional Cultural Economies, 1816-1872 Seeking the Middle in a Sectionalizing America: James Dinsmore and the Shaping of Regional Cultural Economies, 1816-1872 A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History of the College of Arts and Sciences by Catherine T. Collopy 2015 M.A. University of Cincinnati June 2003 Committee Chair: Christopher Phillips, Ph.D. Abstract 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 ii 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 mixed economy founded on yeoman-based agriculture, evolved from its former Whig-friendly cultural economy, based on diverse interests and compromise into a sectionalized, proslavery, Democratic, political economy. As a perpetual outsider, Dinsmore’s attempt to create compatible social and cultural economies in each of these places was only partially successful. He was never able to construct a middle space where he could feel content. A nationalist from his youth, he witnessed the growing sectionalization of those around him. Though he argued for the emancipation of slaves, others successfully argued for increased protections for their property. The Civil War, which engulfed his region, reinforced his status as an outsider. Always on the periphery of the regions he inhabited, Dinsmore’s failure to find a center attests to the varied and contested meanings of nationalism and regional cultures during this time period. iii iv Acknowledgements My gratitude first must go to my family who supported me in this project much longer than anyone should have and kept trying to motivate me to complete it. Without their encouragement and support I do not think I would have finished. Thanks especially to my son, Stuart, who willingly traveled around with me, reading books while I did my research and patiently listened to me talk about research and gave me very helpful feedback. My profound thanks extend to Chris Phillips for not giving up on me. His critiques of my work were extremely helpful in focusing my scattered ideas and, I believe, he helped to improve my writing in the process. Although the rather isolated path I took in writing this paper was not ideal, Chris was always there when I had questions or needed direction. I definitely owe thanks to the University of Cincinnati for the opportunity they have provided for me to learn so much about the profession from some wonderful professors. My sincere gratitude goes to my committee for taking time from their own busy lives to provide me with feedback to improve my paper: Wayne Durrill, Mark Lause, Jim Klotter, and Diane Mutti Burke. In the last ten years, I have traveled to many places and have met with kindness and assistance in all those places. I would particularly like to mention the Judge George W. Armstrong Library in Natchez, Mississippi, the Terrebonne Parish Library, in Houma, Louisiana, the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort, Kentucky, and the Local History staff and the Boone County Public Library in Burlington, Kentucky. And a huge debt of thanks goes to the volunteers at the Dinsmore Homestead v in Burlington, Kentucky, for never tiring of my incessant babbling about the topic of my paper and for allowing me to bounce ideas off of them, all the while, feigning interest. vi Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements v Introduction 2 Chapter One: Between Worlds: The Unmaking of a New Englander 9 Chapter Two: The “Principle of Hope”: Exploiting Opportunities on the Periphery of the Old South 44 Chapter Three: Culture in the Old Southwest: Expanding the Boundaries of Southern Identity 79 Chapter Four: A “Happy Home amid the Deep Green Forests of the Glorious West”: Society on Slavery’s Border 114 Chapter Five: “To be once more free & enjoy a quiet mind”: The Social Economy of Slavery and Freedom 150 Chapter Six: At Home in Northern Kentucky: Finding Cultural Fulfillment Across the River 184 Chapter Seven: The Border of Unrest: Political Realignments on the Eve of War 216 Chapter Eight: “Be Tender of Pa’s Feelings”: The Civil War and Reconstruction in a Divided State 235 Conclusion 276 Bibliography 282 1 Introduction James Dinsmore grew up in New England with the Early Republic and died in a border state during Reconstruction. His life is a story of changes and accommodations. As the country around him expanded and developed, he relocated several times and was optimistic that he could adjust to the new conditions he met. Successfully adapting in some ways to the realities surrounding him, he was unable to completely accommodate his own values to the beliefs and practices of the regions he encountered during his life. Attempting to carve out for himself a space free from local and sectional prejudices, he was disappointed. Through his life, as he benefited from the country’s growth, he retained his love for the Union. His preference for leisure over labor allowed him to accept slavery as a means to wealth, but this preference made it more difficult for him to construct a middle ground in an increasingly sectional world. Born in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, he moved away in several brief steps after graduating from Dartmouth College: to northern New York, Lexington, Kentucky, St. Genevieve, Missouri, and then to Natchez in the Mississippi Territory. Befriended by the wealthy Minor family, he studied law and became the managing partner in a sugar and cotton plantation in southern Louisiana, where he then moved. But 2 the plantation lifestyle, with its correspondent debt and large enslaved labor force, did not suit him and he dreamed of a life of leisure on a diversified farm in Kentucky, where he could manage with a mixed labor force of slaves, tenants, and day laborers. Moving to Boone County, just hours downstream from the cosmopolitan city of Cincinnati, he strove to live out his dreams. At the age of seventy, he was drawn into the maelstrom of the Civil War, reaffirming his Unionism but threatening to destroy the world he had created. As the America that Dinsmore was born into grew and matured, political and economic freedom unleashed a new confidence in the ability of individuals to forge their own paths in life. The market revolution created favorable circumstances for opportunistic men seeking to attain the wealth and position that had eluded their forefathers. But as these changes opened up opportunities, they drew participants into an economic game of roulette where chance, as much as skill and education, fostered success.1 As an urban, middle-class manufacturing culture was spreading from the Northeast to the Old Northwest, a rural, slaveholding, patriarchal, and aristocratic plantation culture was likewise flowing westward in the South, spurred on by the invention of the cotton gin. Though both regions shared much, they increasingly emphasized their differences. Priding itself on free labor and progress, the North viewed the South as economically backward and violent. The South, meanwhile, ascribing more to a community-based understanding of honor and adhering to a rigidly Calvinistic evangelical Protestantism, interpreted northern society as infused with greed and impatience and unappreciative of the social hierarchies southerners deemed natural and 3 essential. Historians argue that in the South, this perception of differences evolved into a belief on the part of southerners that their institutions would be safest under their own separate government. Even as people of the North, South, and West perceived men and women of other parts of the country to be different, there were common attitudes that most Americans shared. Among them were republicanism, Christianity, white supremacy, and the importance of property ownership. Capitalism was expanding throughout the country, regardless of terrain or climate and it was affecting how a growing number of men transacted their business and lived within their community.2 As the country expanded, the white men who settled the West brought democracy and individualism with them. Aided by the accelerated flow of information, men and women followed regional and national events, and engaged in national debates that increasingly focused on sectional differences.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • David Duncan and His Descendants
    THE STORY OF THOMAS DUNCAN AND HIS SIX SONS BY KATHERINE DUNCAN SMITH (Mrs. J. Morgan Smith) NEW YORK TOBIAS A. WRIGHT, INc. PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS 1928 FOREWORD ESEARCH in Duucan genealogy was begun in 1894 and has been R carried on industriously to this date through Court records, VVills, Deeds, Bible records and tombstone inscriptions which have furnished proof and have affixed the seal of authenticity to much of the recorded data. Interested kinspeople have contributed from their store of family traditions some of which have been found to agree with certain facts and may be considered true. Many letters have been received, principally from descendants of Daniel and Stephen Duncan, extracts of which appear in this history and are mute evidence of the interest the writers feel in their lineage and their desire to worthily live and teach their chil­ dren to hold to the standard set by their ancestors. That there are errors in this publication there can be no doubt, but not of my making for: "I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as 'twas said to me." (Sir Walter Scott.) The frequent appearance of my name and the very personal nature of this book is warranted, somewhat, by the fact that all along the thought has been it would be distributed, mainly, among the descendants of Daniel and Stephen Duncan, between whose families there is very close relationship because of the intermar­ riage of many cousins. The stretch of years between 1894 and 1928 is a long one and it is not possible for me to estimate the time I have given to my self-imposed task, but if this book shall meet with favor and be prized by those into whose hands it may fall, the hours, days and weeks devoted to The Story of Thom,,as Dun­ can and His Si.r Sons will be remembered by me as pastime.
    [Show full text]
  • And Type the TITLE of YOUR WORK in All Caps
    THAT LIBERTY SHALL NOT PERISH: AMERICAN PROPAGANDA AND THE POLITICS OF FEAR, 1914-1919 by ZACHARY CHARLES SMITH (Under the Direction of John H. Morrow, Jr.) ABSTRACT This dissertation attempts to provide an understanding of the widespread anxiety, vigilantism, suppression of dissent, and violation of civil liberties that took place in the United States from 1917 to 1919 and argues that it can be found in some Americans‟ understanding of and reaction to racially-charged propaganda. As the United States inched toward war with Germany in 1915 and after declaring war in April 1917, many propagandists began referencing the allegedly inherent characteristics of Germans as evidence of German American disloyalty and the existence of a vast “Pan-German” plot to undercut or even destroy American democracy. The imagined conspiracy grew to encompass most of the fears that had plagued the Anglo Saxon middle-class since the 1870s – immigrant radicalism, race suicide, the capability of “racially inferior” immigrants to assimilate and self-govern, and the continued deference of African Americans. To many anxious Americans, Germany and German Americans became a very real entity to which these long-held fears could be transferred. American propaganda produced during the First World War, though, was not a cynical ploy to fool the American people into supporting intervention on the side of the Allies. Leading Americans – politicians, editors, and social elites – were convinced that a global German conspiracy threatened the security of the United States and hoped to enlist the American people in staving off the existential threat they believed racially degenerate Germany allegedly posed.
    [Show full text]
  • White Man's Country" White: Race, Slavery, and State-Building in the Jacksonian South Lacy K
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Faculty Publications History, Department of Winter 1-1-1999 Making the "White Man's Country" White: Race, Slavery, and State-Building in the Jacksonian South Lacy K. Ford, Jr. University of South Carolina - Columbia, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/hist_facpub Part of the History Commons Publication Info Published in Journal of the Early Republic, Volume 19, Issue 4, Winter 1999, pages 713-737. http://journals.pennpress.org/strands/jer/home.htm;jsessionid=9A2E30D9771E3ACC977B7ED7812A2A3B © 1999 by University of Pennsylvania Press This Article is brought to you by the History, Department of at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MAKING THE 'WHITE MAN'S COUNTRY' WHITE: RACE, SLAVERY, AND STATE-BUILDINGIN THE JACKSONIANSOUTH Lacy K. Ford, Jr. Any examinationof race as a formativeinfluence on the American South must first acknowledge the interpretationadvanced decades ago by the putative founder of southernhistory as a field of study: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. A Georgia-bornProgressive and author of the first scholarly accountof slaveryto gainwidespread acceptance in the nationalacademy, Phillipssurveyed the otherwise wrenching journey from Old South to New andfound continuity in the timelesscommitment of whitesoutherners to thecommon cause of whitesupremacy. Phillips insisted that the "central
    [Show full text]
  • A Season in Town: Plantation Women and the Urban South, 1790-1877
    Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-23-2011 12:00 AM A Season in Town: Plantation Women and the Urban South, 1790-1877 Marise Bachand University of Western Ontario Supervisor Margaret M.R. Kellow The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Marise Bachand 2011 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Bachand, Marise, "A Season in Town: Plantation Women and the Urban South, 1790-1877" (2011). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 249. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/249 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A SEASON IN TOWN: PLANTATION WOMEN AND THE URBAN SOUTH, 1790-1877 Spine title: A Season in Town: Plantation Women and the Urban South Thesis format: Monograph by Marise Bachand Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment Of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Marise Bachand 2011 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ____________________ ____________________ Dr. Margaret M.R. Kellow Dr. Charlene Boyer Lewis ____________________ Dr. Monda Halpern ____________________ Dr. Robert MacDougall ____________________ Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Whitewashing Or Amnesia: a Study of the Construction
    WHITEWASHING OR AMNESIA: A STUDY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE IN TWO MIDWESTERN COUNTIES A DISSERTATION IN Sociology and History Presented to the Faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by DEBRA KAY TAYLOR M.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2005 B.L.A., University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2000 Kansas City, Missouri 2019 © 2019 DEBRA KAY TAYLOR ALL RIGHTS RESERVE WHITEWASHING OR AMNESIA: A STUDY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACE IN TWO MIDWESTERN COUNTIES Debra Kay Taylor, Candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2019 ABSTRACT This inter-disciplinary dissertation utilizes sociological and historical research methods for a critical comparative analysis of the material culture as reproduced through murals and monuments located in two counties in Missouri, Bates County and Cass County. Employing Critical Race Theory as the theoretical framework, each counties’ analysis results are examined. The concepts of race, systemic racism, White privilege and interest-convergence are used to assess both counties continuance of sustaining a racially imbalanced historical narrative. I posit that the construction of history of Bates County and Cass County continues to influence and reinforces systemic racism in the local narrative. Keywords: critical race theory, race, racism, social construction of reality, white privilege, normality, interest-convergence iii APPROVAL PAGE The faculty listed below, appointed by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, have examined a dissertation titled, “Whitewashing or Amnesia: A Study of the Construction of Race in Two Midwestern Counties,” presented by Debra Kay Taylor, candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, and certify that in their opinion it is worthy of acceptance.
    [Show full text]
  • Portraiture and Text in African-American Illustrated Biographical Dictionaries, 1876 to 1917
    Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2014 Portraiture and Text in African-American Illustrated Biographical Dictionaries, 1876 to 1917 Dennis Williams II Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, American Material Culture Commons, Book and Paper Commons, and the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3666 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Portraiture and Text in African-American Illustrated Biographical Dictionaries, 1876 to 1917 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University by Dennis Williams II, Bachelor of Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Director: Eric Garberson, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Art History, and Director, Media, Art and Text Program Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia December, 2014 ii Acknowledgements I am indebted to Dr. Eric Garberson for his perseverance, direction, patience, and breadth of knowledge and am grateful for the high expectations and standards to which he holds his students. I would like to thank Dr. Brian Daugherity and Dr. Babatunde Lawal for their assistance throughout this process and for their undergraduate courses which I took and which helped form the epistemological foundations for this thesis. I must also thank the following professors: Dr. Charles Brownell for setting me on the path which ultimately led to the study of portraiture, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Manuscript Resources
    Young-Sanders Center for the Study of the War Between the States in Louisiana Microfilm Special Collections William T. Shinn Memorial Library ________________________________________________ Manuscript Resources On the War Between the States in Louisiana (Acknowledgement page 148) A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U |V| W | X | Y | Z Acknowledgement A Adams, Israel L. and Family Papers, Mss. 3637, 1813-1890 [Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi; also Arkansas] Location: Reel 1; Confederate Military Manuscripts, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge Israel L. Adams (1801-1860) was a merchant and farmer of Natchez, Mississippi. He had six children, Harriet Catharine, Mary Eliza, Franklin Oliver “Frank,” Orlander Percival, Marey, and Laura. Frank Adams and his cousins, James and Theodore, fought in the Confederate Army. The Adams family was associated with the Zingline and Shupan families. This collection consists of 505 items and one manuscript volume. Items include correspondence, bills, receipts, and printed items. Most of the correspondence was written after 1860. Letters written by the Adams children and other members of the Adams, Zingline, and Shupan families describe the Civil War in Arkansas and Mississippi; battles at Baker’s Creek (Champion’s Hill), Atlanta, Georgia, and Vicksburg, Mississippi; local news; illnesses; and deaths. Letters from Orlander P. Adams describe student life at Mississippi College. Other items in the collection include slave bills of sale, Confederate currency, the amnesty oath of Lewis Zingline, home remedies, and papers related to German immigrants. Confederate States Army units documented include the 22nd Mississippi Regiment and the 126th Arkansas Infantry Regiment.
    [Show full text]
  • Rednecks and Hillbillies: a Thematic Analysis of the Construction of Pride and High Self-Esteem Exhibited by Southern Characters
    South Dakota State University Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 Rednecks and Hillbillies: A Thematic Analysis of the Construction of Pride and High Self-Esteem Exhibited by Southern Characters Casey R. White South Dakota State University Follow this and additional works at: https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, and the Television Commons Recommended Citation White, Casey R., "Rednecks and Hillbillies: A Thematic Analysis of the Construction of Pride and High Self- Esteem Exhibited by Southern Characters" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4185. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/4185 This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REDNECKS AND HILLBILLIES: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF PRIDE AND HIGH SELF-ESTEEM EXHIBITED BY SOUTHERN CHARACTERS BY CASEY R. WHITE A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Major in Sociology South Dakota State University 2020 ii DISSERTATION ACCEPTANCE PAGE Casey White This dissertation is approved as a creditable and independent investigation by a candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree and is acceptable for meeting the dissertation requirements for this degree. Acceptance of this does not imply that the conclusions reached by the candidate are necessarily the conclusions of the major department.
    [Show full text]
  • (April-July 1861) “I Have Desired As Sincerely As Any
    Chapter Twenty-three “I Intend to Give Blows”: The Hundred Days (April-July 1861) “I have desired as sincerely as any man – I sometimes think more than any other man – that our present difficulties might be settled without the shedding of blood,” Lincoln remarked to a group of ersatz soldiers in late April. The “last hope of peace may not have passed away. But if I have to choose between the maintenance of the union of these states, and of the liberties of this nation, on the one hand, and the shedding of fraternal blood on the other, you need not be at a loss which course I shall take.”1 Little did he and most of his contemporaries realize how much fraternal blood would flow in order to save that Union and preserve those liberties; 620,000 soldiers and sailors (360,000 Union, 260,000 Confederate), including some of Lincoln’s closest friends, would die over the next four years. The total equaled the number of deaths in all other American wars combined, from the Revolution through the Korean War. One of those who failed to realize how bloody the war would become was Edwin M. Stanton, who on April 8 told John A. Dix: “I do not think peaceful relations will 1 This is a conflation of two versions of these remarks, one from the Perryville correspondence, 28 April, New York World, 29 April 1861, and the other from the New York Tribune, 1 May 1861, reproduced in Roy P. Basler et al., eds., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols.
    [Show full text]
  • Information to Users
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter free, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/321-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. “SUCH A PARADISE CAN BE MADE ON EARTH:” FURNITURE PATRONAGE AND CONSUMPTION IN ANTEBELLUM NATCHEZ, MISSISSIPPI 1828-1863 by Jason T.
    [Show full text]
  • The Struggle Against Choctaw
    “WE ARE CLAY PEOPLE”: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CHOCTAW COMMUNAL DISSOLUTION, 1801-1861 By Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Mississippi State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Department of History Mississippi State, Mississippi May 2010 Copyright by Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. 2010 “WE ARE CLAY PEOPLE”: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CHOCTAW COMMUNAL DISSOLUTION, 1801-1861 By Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. Approved: _________________________________ _________________________________ Anne Marshall Alan I. Marcus Assistant Professor of History Chair and Professor of History (Director of Dissertation) (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Evan Peacock Jason K. Phillips Associate Professor of Anthropology Associate Professor of History (Committee Member) (Committee Member) _________________________________ _________________________________ Peter C. Messer Gary L. Myers Associate Professor of History Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History (Committee Member) Name: Gary Coleman Cheek Jr. Date of Degree: May 1, 2010 Institution: Mississippi State University Major Field: History (Native America) Major Professor: Dr. Anne Marshall Title of Study: “WE ARE CLAY PEOPLE”: THE STRUGGLE AGAINST CHOCTAW COMMUNAL DISSOLUTION, 1801-1861 Pages in Study: 359 Candidate for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Acculturation has become an integral part of scholarship about Native Americans in the Southeast. Recent studies have focused on trade the eighteenth century and Choctaw entry into the American market economy during the beginning of the nineteenth century. This study analyzes acculturation from 1801 to 1861, carrying the story about cultural change and persistence through the Removal era and to the American Civil War.
    [Show full text]
  • Download This
    NFS Form 10-900 (Rev* 10-90) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service DEC | 5 1994 INTERAGENCY RESOURCES DIVISION j NATIONAL PARK SERVICE This form is for use in nominating or requesting u dut:eru±inx£±uiiB rur"""Individual properties and districts. See instructions in How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (National Register Bulletin 16A) . Complete each item by marking "x" in the appropriate box or by entering the information requested. If any item does not apply tpj^bfte property being^ documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional entries and narrative items on continuation sheets (NPS Form 10-900a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer, to complete all items. 1. Name of Property historic name _Old Natchez Trace and Choctaw Agency site other names/site number JNatchez Trace Section 3P; Old Agency Road; and Choctaw Agency Site (22Md645) 2. Location street & number Within city of Ridgeland between 1-55 and Livingston Rd. Not for Pub city or town __Ridgeland vicinity X state _Mississippi_____] code MS_ county _Madison_ code 089 zip code _39157___ 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this _XX_ nomination _ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60.
    [Show full text]