1 The Michigan Journal of History Winter 2015 Volume XI 2 About the Cover The Donovan Elementary School stood at 944 Wall Street in Ann Arbor for almost 75 years. It was originally constructed in 1909 and named after the local grocer, Patrick Donovan. On the cover, we see one of the few remaining photographs of the Donovan School – the class of Miss Lily E. Goodhew, taken in February 1911. The school was eventually demolished in 1984 to make room for University of Michigan’s Kellog Eye Center. Cover photo title: The Donovan Elementary School; Date: 1911; Collection title: University of Michigan; Located in Bentley Historical Library 3 A Letter from the Editor-in-Chief Dear Readers, I am happy to report that the Michigan Journal of History has once again received a record number of submissions from students not only across the country but internationally as well. Our team spent months working our way through these truly impressive submissions, and it was incredibly difficult to decide what would go in to this issue. In the end, we selected the following papers which present often unexplored and overlooked topics and perspectives. Once again, I cannot extend enough thanks to all those who made this issue a success. As this publication continues to grow, we must constantly learn how to grow and evolve with it. This process takes a lot of patience and dedication, and the editing team behind this journal proved they were up to the challenge— everyone giving their all to make this issue come together. I’d like to thank them all for their efforts as well as the faculty and History Department at the University of Michigan who continue to support this publication. Lastly, thank you to the students who submit and whose hard work continues to exceed our expectations. Sincerely, Melissa Durante Editor-in-Chief, Michigan Journal of History 4 Michigan Journal of History Editorial Board, Winter 2015 Melissa Durante Editor-in-Chief James Nadel Managing Editor Jordan Grauer Sonali Gupta Senior Editors Indira Bhattacharjee Senior Editor/Webmaster Sarah Bedoyan Mollie Berkowitz Iris Chen Andrew Grafton Hannah Graham Alec Ramsay-Smith Jason Rozbruch Assistant Editors 5 Table of Contents 6 The Need for Radical Reconstruction: Meridan, Mississippi Bogdan Belei, University of Michigan 18 Rhyolite, Nevada: The Rhetoric of a Ghost Town Lydia Cornett, Princeton University 48 Waving Red Books: Murray’s Handbook and the British Traveler Jaime Ding, Princeton University 75 From Bells to Blindfolds: Differing Conceptualizations of Justice from Mughal, India, to British Colonial Rule Emma Fallone, Yale University 96 Entranced by Exotics: An Exploration of the Commonalities in Commercialization, of and Fascination with, Exotic Animals in the Early Modern Period and the Modern World Emily Frantz, Stanford University 112 The Pergamon Altar in Wilhelmine Context: The Cultural and Imperial Ambition of the New German Empire Christopher Hunt, University of Michigan 129 Gangs Running Politics: The Role of Irish Social Athletic Clubs in Politics, and Racial Violence in Chicago from 1900-1920 Ethan James Johnson, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign 153 For Duty and Glory: Mazzini’s Justification for Italian Colonial Expansion Catalina Mackaman-Lofland, Barnard College 175 Snatching Bodies, Making Doctors: Stealing Black Corpses for Medical Education in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century American South Scott Nelson, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill 6 210 Paris and the History of French Cuisine Reyna Schaechter, Yale University 233 The Wrong Man Elizabeth Villarreal, Yale University 244 The Roads They Had Taken: Polish Jewish Refugees in the Soviet Union During World War II Brody Weinrich, Rice University 7 The Need for Radical Reconstruction: Meridian, Mississippi Bogdan Belei University of Michigan In 1871, only six years removed from slavery, the black community of Meridian, Mississippi, organized in a town hall, fully armed and ready to retaliate against what they viewed as imbalances in the application of justice. Prior to the unfolding events, race relations in Meridian remained quite peaceful – but the increase of blacks and their newfound liberties established an underlying tension among the two groups. With the arrival of outsiders from Alabama, who engaged in intimidating and kidnapping blacks, the fragile balance of tolerance disappeared. This paper aims to illustrate a story in which the incendiary actions of minority groups within the black community instilled fear and heightened the stakes for the local whites. In light of an opportunity for retaliatory violence, local whites responded with an effort to preserve their position of power in the status quo social hierarchy by suppressing and destroying black progress in Meridian, Mississippi. This case study will focus on a small, but rising town of Meridian, Mississippi, in the year 1871. Due to its historical scope, there are limited secondary sources directly related to the events in Meridian – but the conflict itself can be explored and analyzed within the framework of larger works concerned with violence during the early Reconstruction period, such as Hannah Rosen’s Terror in the Heart of Freedom and Altina Waller’s “Community, Class and Race in the Memphis Riot of 1866.” The existing narrative will be extracted from the extensive, detailed thirteen-volume collection of reports and testimonies produced by a forty-second Congress 8 Congressional committee.1 An analysis of these reports and testimonies will illustrate Meridian as a racially divided, but relatively peaceful town during the period preceding the riot. The series of events which followed, led to the ultimate suppression of the entire black community, the expulsion of Republican Party interests, and the reestablishment of a political and social order favoring a white, patriarchal hierarchy. Literature Review As evidenced in both Hannah Rosen’s Terror in the Heart of Freedom and Altina Waller’s “Community, Class and Race in the Memphis Riot of 1866,” the rise of racially motivated violence in the South developed out of complex reasons. In both works, the authors examine physical violence and psychological intimidation by white men in the South as a method to preserve the status quo.2 The difference between the two works lies in exactly what was at stake for each community. Whereas in Rosen’s book, acts of terror were deployed in local communities as a general tool to maintain white patriarchal dominance, Waller’s article presents an argument centered around racial targeting as an externality of a general issue over class. Together, the two pieces develop a narrative in which any attempt from blacks to compete in the South transformed into violent retaliation, ultimately subjugating the status of blacks through the use of fear and intimidation. In the context of this paper, Waller’s argument is particularly useful to understanding the events leading up to the riot and the reasons for the initial black mobilization. In his study of the 1866 race riot in Memphis, Waller argues that the dynamics which led to race riots emerged 1 Testimony taken by the Joint Select Committee to inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States: Mississippi, Vol. I (Washington, DC., Government Printing Office, 1872) 2 (1) Hannah Rosen. Terror in the Heart of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.) (2) Altina L. Waller. "Community, Class and Race in the Memphis Riot of 1866". Journal of Social History, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter, 1984), pp: 233 - 246 9 primarily from economic tensions caused between newly settled blacks and white, predominantly Irish, unskilled laborers. Diverging from the traditional and most common narrative of racial targeting, Waller states, “…race was not the single or even primary determinant of who would be victimized in the riot. Rioters were angry at newcomers who flooded their neighborhood, not only because they overwhelmed the racial composition of the community, but because they upset its established social and class structure…”3 This analysis provides an insight to the complexities which emerged from the newly granted rights of relocation and the freedom of movement during Reconstruction. It also presents evidence which argues that a large portion of Memphis remained insulated from race riots, where blacks and whites existed simultaneously without widespread racially-motivated violence. The argument will be made that Meridian similarly existed within the description of racial peace, but crimes committed by incoming Alabamians disrupted relations and led to a provocation of terror campaigns from both local Meridian camps. Once the level of fear and intimidation heightened due to the incendiary actions of both armed blacks and whites, widespread violence erupted. Through Rosen’s analysis of terror campaigns across the South, it becomes evident how specifically targeted events evolved into an exercise of widespread racially motivated violence to ensure both safety and a stake in future hierarchal power. Prior to the collapse of the slave system which dominated the Southern economy since the founding of the United States, members of the abolition movement championed the idea of “Slave Power Conspiracy.”4 The term was used in reference to the tremendous amount of political power seen to be held by Southern slaveholders. Ultimately, with the defeat of the Confederate Army and the Union