This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles ... more This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles of the postemancipation and early Reconstruction South were waged. At the start of the Civil War, Confederate discourse played upon the fears of sexual violence engulfing the South with the invasion of Union armies. The nightmare never came to Southern households; rape was infrequently reported. However, Southern women, especially if they were African American, were subjected to sexual violence, which likely increased as the war dragged on. Sexual violence includes, but is not limited to, rape. Destruction of clothing, invasion of domestic spaces, and other actions could also constitute sexualized violence. With Confederate surrender came the ultimate humiliation to white Southerners: the military occupation of the South by United States Colored Troops. To white Southerners, occupation by USCTs marked the complete collapse of slavery and the inversion of Southern racial relations. Race and gender’s link in the 19th century South meant that the racial instability caused by military occupation would frequently be depicted in gendered discourses. Southern newspapers continually reported on sexual crimes committed by African Americans during 1865 and 1866 to justify white supremacist violence. The newspapers reportage of a rape committed by black soldiers in South Carolina marked a transition in white Southern discourses about black sexuality. Once described as docile and obedient, white Southerners now articulated a vision of hypersexual black men who threatened the purity of white Southern women. In retaliation for real and imagined “outrages” committed by African Americans, white vigilante groups engaged in violence that attempted to demonstrate the superiority of white masculinity. Lynch mobs were the most common public demonstration of white masculine power. Lynch mobs and “night-rider” organizations engaged in brutal attacks against black men for alleged sexual indiscretions.
In the pantheon of Beat generation writers Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs stand tallest. Freque... more In the pantheon of Beat generation writers Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs stand tallest. Frequently excluded from this canon is another star of the 1950s and 1960s San Francisco poetry scene, Bob Kaufman. Described as “prolific and flamboyant” at his peak, Kaufman died in obscurity in the 1980s and has slowly returned to anthologies. To be “Beat” meant “down and out but full of intense conviction.” Frequently homeless and battling addiction, Kaufman embodied the intense conviction of the Beat Generation poets. Despite leaning on jazz and borrowing from black culture, the Beat movement of the 1950s and 1960s “rarely seemed to speak other than from, or to, white America.” Contemporary depictions of a subversive, all-white Beat generation provided the comfortable conservatives of Eisenhower’s America with a diversion from growing domestic racial tension. Mainstream America targeted the Beats, including coining the slur “beatnik” - first used by a San Francisco journalist describing Kaufman- to cast the radical poets as outsiders. Kaufman’s blackness defined him as a racial outsider before his poetry marked him a cultural outsider. His experience in leftwing politics during the 1940s inspired his anti-racist and anti-colonial writings where he reimagined the world at large. Through purposeful silence, anti-police demonstrations, and spontaneously performed poetry, Kaufman articulated a unique vision of what it meant to be an African American and a Beat poet.
How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and t... more How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and their slaves? This inquiry engages the rich historiography on the master-slave relationship. Most historians have not fully appreciated the ways that things had agency and infused violence into the household. While there is a wide agreement that white women oppressed their slaves, few scholars have explored the ways that fashion became contested. In the diary of Northeastern Louisiana’s Kate Stone, one finds numerous incidents of slaves taking and using clothing as a form of resistance. Clothing was also frequently captured or destroyed by Union soldiers, especially United States Colored Troops (USCTs), many of whom were freed slaves and resented the symbolism behind Southern clothing. Extravagant clothing choices for Southern women came at the cost of a labor system based on the exploitation of slaves, a symbolism understood across the South. The destruction of fine clothing led to an increased warning of alternatives, like homespun materials. Wearing these homespun materials furthered Southern rage at the collapsing intuition of slavery and visualized their feelings of decline. Like many of her class, every day as Kate Stone got dressed, her clothing reminded her of her fall from the pedestal of being an elite woman.
How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and t... more How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and their slaves? This inquiry engages the rich historiography on the master-slave relationship. Most historians have not fully appreciated the ways that things had agency and infused violence into the household. While there is a wide agreement that white women oppressed their slaves, few scholars have explored the ways that fashion became contested. In the diary of Northeastern Louisiana’s Kate Stone, one finds numerous incidents of slaves taking and using clothing as a form of resistance. Clothing was also frequently captured or destroyed by Union soldiers, especially United States Colored Troops (USCTs), many of whom were freed slaves and resented the symbolism behind Southern clothing. Extravagant clothing choices for Southern women came at the cost of a labor system based on the exploitation of slaves, a symbolism understood across the South. The destruction of fine clothing led to an increased warning of alternatives, like homespun materials. Wearing these homespun materials furthered Southern rage at the collapsing intuition of slavery and visualized their feelings of decline. Like many of her class, every day as Kate Stone got dressed, her clothing reminded her of her fall from the pedestal of being an elite woman.
On Friday, October 12th, 2018, the National Civil War Medicine Museum kicked off its 26th annual ... more On Friday, October 12th, 2018, the National Civil War Medicine Museum kicked off its 26th annual conference and began its three-day event with a series of lectures on topics ranging from Confederate medical practice to cultural understandings of cowardice. A series of unique lectures given by a professionally diverse cast of presenters illuminated the often-peripheral field of Civil War Medicine. [excerpt]
November 19th saw the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and with it, one of the highlights o... more November 19th saw the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and with it, one of the highlights of the year: The annual Fortenbaugh Lecture. The goal of the annual Fortenbaugh lecture is to capture the spirit of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and make academic history accessible to the general public. This year’s lecturer was Dr. George Rable, Professor Emeritus and formerly the Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama. Dr. Rable’s reputation as a prolific scholar of the Civil War era is well known, with 6 books to his credit, including Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg! which won the 2003 Lincoln Prize.
This collection of essays illustrates that a material culture approach to the past can help us be... more This collection of essays illustrates that a material culture approach to the past can help us better understand some of the deeper complexities of the Civil War era, such as the expansion of consumer culture, the common soldier’s experience, and behavioral history, as well as issues of race, bondage, and emancipation. Cashin argues that it is important to study the objects featured within the book to understand their multi-valenced roles in the daily lives of 19th-century Americans, as well as the cultural and emotional significance they held for those who utilized them. From Robert Hicks’s essay on vaccinating the Confederate armies, to Sarah Jones Weicksel’s examination of shelter in refugee camps, these pieces explore a wide assortment of artifacts. The authors reveal that these artifacts enabled historical actors to shape events in specific ways and give meaning to their surrounding world. [excerpt]
The bearer of this sword was a member of a United States Navy that rapidly grew in power during t... more The bearer of this sword was a member of a United States Navy that rapidly grew in power during the Civil War, increasing its enlistment 500% and developing the first ironclad ship. However, even as the Navy was in the midst of its transition, one thing remained in place: The U.S. Model 1852 Navy Officer’s Sword. The sword is still used in the Navy today, albeit for ceremonial purposes. Yet, for all that this sword symbolizes, very few scholars have given much attention to it or the sailors who used it in the Civil War. The common soldier has received much more attention than the common seaman and his officers. While there were considerably more men serving in the Army than the Navy (the Navy started the war with 7,600 sailors and grew to 51,500 by the end, whereas the Union Army boasted about 2.2 million enlisted men), the Navy was still an important part of the Union war effort and therefore deserving of attention. An analysis of the U.S. Model 1852 Navy Officer’s Sword provides a...
How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and t... more How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and their slaves? This inquiry engages the rich historiography on the master-slave relationship. Most historians have not fully appreciated the ways that things had agency and infused violence into the household. While there is a wide agreement that white women oppressed their slaves, few scholars have explored the ways that fashion became contested. In the diary of Northeastern Louisiana’s Kate Stone, one finds numerous incidents of slaves taking and using clothing as a form of resistance. Clothing was also frequently captured or destroyed by Union soldiers, especially United States Colored Troops (USCTs), many of whom were freed slaves and resented the symbolism behind Southern clothing. Extravagant clothing choices for Southern women came at the cost of a labor system based on the exploitation of slaves, a symbolism understood across the South. The destruction of fine clothing led to an in...
This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles ... more This inquiry centers on the way that sexual violence became the terrain upon which the struggles of the postemancipation and early Reconstruction South were waged. At the start of the Civil War, Confederate discourse played upon the fears of sexual violence engulfing the South with the invasion of Union armies. The nightmare never came to Southern households; rape was infrequently reported. However, Southern women, especially if they were African American, were subjected to sexual violence, which likely increased as the war dragged on. Sexual violence includes, but is not limited to, rape. Destruction of clothing, invasion of domestic spaces, and other actions could also constitute sexualized violence. With Confederate surrender came the ultimate humiliation to white Southerners: the military occupation of the South by United States Colored Troops. To white Southerners, occupation by USCTs marked the complete collapse of slavery and the inversion of Southern racial relations. Race and gender’s link in the 19th century South meant that the racial instability caused by military occupation would frequently be depicted in gendered discourses. Southern newspapers continually reported on sexual crimes committed by African Americans during 1865 and 1866 to justify white supremacist violence. The newspapers reportage of a rape committed by black soldiers in South Carolina marked a transition in white Southern discourses about black sexuality. Once described as docile and obedient, white Southerners now articulated a vision of hypersexual black men who threatened the purity of white Southern women. In retaliation for real and imagined “outrages” committed by African Americans, white vigilante groups engaged in violence that attempted to demonstrate the superiority of white masculinity. Lynch mobs were the most common public demonstration of white masculine power. Lynch mobs and “night-rider” organizations engaged in brutal attacks against black men for alleged sexual indiscretions.
In the pantheon of Beat generation writers Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs stand tallest. Freque... more In the pantheon of Beat generation writers Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs stand tallest. Frequently excluded from this canon is another star of the 1950s and 1960s San Francisco poetry scene, Bob Kaufman. Described as “prolific and flamboyant” at his peak, Kaufman died in obscurity in the 1980s and has slowly returned to anthologies. To be “Beat” meant “down and out but full of intense conviction.” Frequently homeless and battling addiction, Kaufman embodied the intense conviction of the Beat Generation poets. Despite leaning on jazz and borrowing from black culture, the Beat movement of the 1950s and 1960s “rarely seemed to speak other than from, or to, white America.” Contemporary depictions of a subversive, all-white Beat generation provided the comfortable conservatives of Eisenhower’s America with a diversion from growing domestic racial tension. Mainstream America targeted the Beats, including coining the slur “beatnik” - first used by a San Francisco journalist describing Kaufman- to cast the radical poets as outsiders. Kaufman’s blackness defined him as a racial outsider before his poetry marked him a cultural outsider. His experience in leftwing politics during the 1940s inspired his anti-racist and anti-colonial writings where he reimagined the world at large. Through purposeful silence, anti-police demonstrations, and spontaneously performed poetry, Kaufman articulated a unique vision of what it meant to be an African American and a Beat poet.
How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and t... more How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and their slaves? This inquiry engages the rich historiography on the master-slave relationship. Most historians have not fully appreciated the ways that things had agency and infused violence into the household. While there is a wide agreement that white women oppressed their slaves, few scholars have explored the ways that fashion became contested. In the diary of Northeastern Louisiana’s Kate Stone, one finds numerous incidents of slaves taking and using clothing as a form of resistance. Clothing was also frequently captured or destroyed by Union soldiers, especially United States Colored Troops (USCTs), many of whom were freed slaves and resented the symbolism behind Southern clothing. Extravagant clothing choices for Southern women came at the cost of a labor system based on the exploitation of slaves, a symbolism understood across the South. The destruction of fine clothing led to an increased warning of alternatives, like homespun materials. Wearing these homespun materials furthered Southern rage at the collapsing intuition of slavery and visualized their feelings of decline. Like many of her class, every day as Kate Stone got dressed, her clothing reminded her of her fall from the pedestal of being an elite woman.
How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and t... more How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and their slaves? This inquiry engages the rich historiography on the master-slave relationship. Most historians have not fully appreciated the ways that things had agency and infused violence into the household. While there is a wide agreement that white women oppressed their slaves, few scholars have explored the ways that fashion became contested. In the diary of Northeastern Louisiana’s Kate Stone, one finds numerous incidents of slaves taking and using clothing as a form of resistance. Clothing was also frequently captured or destroyed by Union soldiers, especially United States Colored Troops (USCTs), many of whom were freed slaves and resented the symbolism behind Southern clothing. Extravagant clothing choices for Southern women came at the cost of a labor system based on the exploitation of slaves, a symbolism understood across the South. The destruction of fine clothing led to an increased warning of alternatives, like homespun materials. Wearing these homespun materials furthered Southern rage at the collapsing intuition of slavery and visualized their feelings of decline. Like many of her class, every day as Kate Stone got dressed, her clothing reminded her of her fall from the pedestal of being an elite woman.
On Friday, October 12th, 2018, the National Civil War Medicine Museum kicked off its 26th annual ... more On Friday, October 12th, 2018, the National Civil War Medicine Museum kicked off its 26th annual conference and began its three-day event with a series of lectures on topics ranging from Confederate medical practice to cultural understandings of cowardice. A series of unique lectures given by a professionally diverse cast of presenters illuminated the often-peripheral field of Civil War Medicine. [excerpt]
November 19th saw the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and with it, one of the highlights o... more November 19th saw the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, and with it, one of the highlights of the year: The annual Fortenbaugh Lecture. The goal of the annual Fortenbaugh lecture is to capture the spirit of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and make academic history accessible to the general public. This year’s lecturer was Dr. George Rable, Professor Emeritus and formerly the Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama. Dr. Rable’s reputation as a prolific scholar of the Civil War era is well known, with 6 books to his credit, including Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg! which won the 2003 Lincoln Prize.
This collection of essays illustrates that a material culture approach to the past can help us be... more This collection of essays illustrates that a material culture approach to the past can help us better understand some of the deeper complexities of the Civil War era, such as the expansion of consumer culture, the common soldier’s experience, and behavioral history, as well as issues of race, bondage, and emancipation. Cashin argues that it is important to study the objects featured within the book to understand their multi-valenced roles in the daily lives of 19th-century Americans, as well as the cultural and emotional significance they held for those who utilized them. From Robert Hicks’s essay on vaccinating the Confederate armies, to Sarah Jones Weicksel’s examination of shelter in refugee camps, these pieces explore a wide assortment of artifacts. The authors reveal that these artifacts enabled historical actors to shape events in specific ways and give meaning to their surrounding world. [excerpt]
The bearer of this sword was a member of a United States Navy that rapidly grew in power during t... more The bearer of this sword was a member of a United States Navy that rapidly grew in power during the Civil War, increasing its enlistment 500% and developing the first ironclad ship. However, even as the Navy was in the midst of its transition, one thing remained in place: The U.S. Model 1852 Navy Officer’s Sword. The sword is still used in the Navy today, albeit for ceremonial purposes. Yet, for all that this sword symbolizes, very few scholars have given much attention to it or the sailors who used it in the Civil War. The common soldier has received much more attention than the common seaman and his officers. While there were considerably more men serving in the Army than the Navy (the Navy started the war with 7,600 sailors and grew to 51,500 by the end, whereas the Union Army boasted about 2.2 million enlisted men), the Navy was still an important part of the Union war effort and therefore deserving of attention. An analysis of the U.S. Model 1852 Navy Officer’s Sword provides a...
How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and t... more How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and their slaves? This inquiry engages the rich historiography on the master-slave relationship. Most historians have not fully appreciated the ways that things had agency and infused violence into the household. While there is a wide agreement that white women oppressed their slaves, few scholars have explored the ways that fashion became contested. In the diary of Northeastern Louisiana’s Kate Stone, one finds numerous incidents of slaves taking and using clothing as a form of resistance. Clothing was also frequently captured or destroyed by Union soldiers, especially United States Colored Troops (USCTs), many of whom were freed slaves and resented the symbolism behind Southern clothing. Extravagant clothing choices for Southern women came at the cost of a labor system based on the exploitation of slaves, a symbolism understood across the South. The destruction of fine clothing led to an in...
This paper argues for the centrality of the Gallipoli campaign in the formation of the national i... more This paper argues for the centrality of the Gallipoli campaign in the formation of the national identities of Turkey, New Zealand, and Australia. Each nation undertook its own process of using memory of the Gallipoli campaign to form its national identity during the interwar period. This paper looks at literature, including school textbooks, national holidays, and on-site commemorative activities including cemeteries, monuments, and pilgrimages.
How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and t... more How did the material culture of fashion shape power relations between plantation mistresses and their slaves? This inquiry engages the rich historiography on the master-slave relationship. Most historians have not fully appreciated the ways that things had agency and infused violence into the household. While there is a wide agreement that white women oppressed their slaves, few scholars have explored the ways that fashion became contested. In the diary of Northeastern Louisiana’s Kate Stone, one finds numerous incidents of slaves taking and using clothing as a form of resistance. Clothing was also frequently captured or destroyed by Union soldiers, especially USCTs, many of whom were freed slaves and resented the symbolism behind Southern clothing. Extravagant clothing choices for Southern women came at the cost of a labor system based on the exploitation of slaves, a symbolism understood across the South. The destruction of fine clothing led to an increased warning of alternatives, like homespun materials. Wearing these homespun materials furthered Southern rage at the collapsing intuition of slavery and visualized their feelings of decline. Like many of her class, every day as Kate Stone got dressed, her clothing reminded her of her fall from the pedestal of being an elite woman.
This paper argues that sites administered by the Imperial War Graves Commission played a signific... more This paper argues that sites administered by the Imperial War Graves Commission played a significant part in the British public’s mourning and understanding of the meaning of the Great War. Pilgrimages, due to their popularity, size, and accessibility, allowed the countless bereaved families to grieve the losses that they suffered during the war. Their visits to cemeteries were powerful experiences because of the painstaking work done by the IWGC to bury identified bodies, honor unidentified remains, and enshrined names for those whose remains could not be identified. The IWGC was a bureaucratic organization that overcame the cultural challenge posed by the question of how to memorialize hundreds of thousands of war dead. IWGC Director Fabian Ware oversaw the commission and was instrumental in creating a bond amongst the dead that redefined them to be an extension of the empire, in effect creating a constituency where the tombstones and memorialized names became grasped as a single entity architecture. The IWGC relied on planned cemeteries and accompanying funerary, centered around the complex web of meaning that families, the nation, and the Empire assigned to the Great War. More than 100 years since the creation of the first IWGC cemeteries, the cemeteries remain a powerful reminder of the cost and meaning of the Great War.
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