History Theses and Dissertations
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Item Inter-Ethnic Relations on New England's Frontier: A Survey of the Formative Period(1969) Cole, Robert A.; Van Ness, James S.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)In many respects, the form and progression of the New England frontier reflects a collision, of sorts, between two disparate peoples and their two divergent cultures. As the European confronted the native American in the wilderness setting, it soon became apparent that the demise of the Indian culture was inevitable, the only salient question being as to the nature of its decline. A close examination of early Seventeenth Century relations shows the English as ambitious and militant expansionists who not only rejected the idea of cultural coexistence, but, in regarding the Indian solely from a European frame of reference, failed to make any substantial progress toward a theory of toleration. The English were highly organized, strongly motivated, and eminently successful in their pursuit of the long range goals of settlement; and it is the very cohesiveness of the Puritan frontier which best illuminates the fateful dilemma of the indigenous population. While fragmented by tribal particularism and internecine warfare, the native New Englanders were beset on all sides by enemies, European and Indian. Though willing, at first, to contest a permanent European colonial effort, their cultural resiliency was undermined by disease, and a multiplicity of negative factors which developed as their relationships with the English settlements moved toward interdependency. As the confrontation moved into the climactic period following the Pequot War, the weight of the English presence had already brought about irreversible trends in the Indian way of life. With his lands diminishing under the pressure of two converging lines of frontier settlement, he was finally left, with two impractical options, acculturation or resistance. Both charted a course to futility.Item Slaveholding and Indentured Servitude in Seventeenth Century Maryland, 1674-1699(1968) Payne, Philip Marshall; Land, Aubrey C.This thesis is concerned with the characteristics of slaveholding and indentured servitude in seventeenth century Maryland, so far as these can be delineated from quantitative data. on the basis of a quantitative analysis of personal estates in the Inventories and Accounts of the Probate Court, several conclusions are apparent . These can best be stated in summary form in six propositions . First, estates with bond labor (slaves and/or servants) decreased from 36 per cent of the total number of estates during the period 1674 to 1679 to 24 per cent in 1695 to 1699. Second, the percentage of estates with slaves (slaves only or slaves and servants) increased from 24 per cent of those estates with bond labor in the period 1674 to 1679 to 72 per cent in 1695 to 1699. Third, the average number of slaves per estate (of those estates holding slaves) increased from 2.89 in the period 1674 to 1679 to 5.50 in 1695 to 1699. The average number of servants per estate (of those holding servants) decreased from 2.88 in the period 1674 to 1679 to 2.15 in 1695 to 1699. Fourth, those who invested 0 to 20 per cent of their total income in bond labor decreased, while those who invested 21 to 40 per cent of their total income in bond labor remained fairly constant. Those who invested 41 to 70 per cent of their total income in slaves and/or servants increased during the twenty-six year period. Fifth, there appeared to be a concentration of slaves in the hands of the wealthy. over the twenty-six year period, 17.6 per cent of the estates with bond labor held 52.2 per cent of the total number of slaves. Sixth, the average value of male slaves during the period was between L21 and L25; the average value of a female slave was Ll6 to L20 for the first several decades and L21 to L25 for the last decade. The average value for servants ranged from Ll to LlO, with the value increasing as the time of service increased.Item A Force for Reform: The American Presbyterian Mission Press in China, 1836-1870(1977) Dove, Kay Lee; Folsom, Kenneth E.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The American Presbyterian Mission Press (PMP) was a vital, if indirect, force in stimulating intellectual reform in China. During its early years, 1836-1870, the PMP developed technological innovations in the printing of the Chinese language that led to the modernization of the Chinese printing industry, which, in turn, provided textbooks for modern education and periodical literature for the development of public opinion. At the same time, the Press trained a corps of Chinese in modern printing technology, which was then able to apply this training in Chinese private and governmental printing offices. The PMP worked with Chinese printing establishments, selling them Chinese type and assisting them to purchase printing presses and other equipment which was necessary for use with metal movable type. Before the 19th century Chinese printing had become a finely developed art, but by this time, printing technology in Europe and America had modernized, and it was more efficient and less expensive. Type founders and missionaries in Europe and Asia reduced the 40,000-character Chinese language to amanageable number by determining which characters were necessary for printing Christian literature. Then they mass-produced them in metal movable type. The PMP was the pioneer that succeeded in this effort, thereby modernizing China's printing industry and promoting the massive introduction of Western secular as well as religious thought. The modernization of China in general rests upon the modernization of the printing industry, for this development preceded and made possible the reforms which followed it.Item Clio at College Park: The Teaching of History at the University of Maryland, 1859-1968(1978) Ross, Martha Jackson; Rundell, Walter Jr; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The evolution of the teaching of history at the University of Maryland reflects both the changing role of history as a course of study and the altered status of history as a scholarly discipline. After a succession of history teachers with degrees in English or political science, the first professor with a history Ph.D., Hayes Baker-Crothers, came to Maryland in 1925. Other trained historians followed, but growth was slow. In 1940, President H.C. Byrd hired Wesley M. Gewehr to head the History Department. In the wake of stresses of World War II, dissension between Byrd and Gewehr caused even more neglect than might otherwise have accrued to a "service" department. History appointments, salaries, and facilities all suffered from Byrd's hostility throughout his administration. Four years after Byrd resigned in 1954, Gewehr retired, leaving to his successor, Aubrey C. Land, the task of developing a true university department with the support of the new president, Wilson H. Elkins. With worthwhile objectives but an abrasive manner, Land alienated a significant number of his senior faculty, especially those who had been close to Gewehr. Eventually, Land lost the confidence and support of the administration and withdrew as department head. An interim committee administered the department under the direction of Dean Charles Manning until a new chairman, David A. Shannon, was chosen in 1965. A recognized scholar, Shannon attracted a number of distinguished historians in a variety of scholarly fields before departing after three years. With a faculty of achievement and promise, the University of Maryland moved to capitalize on its advantageous location near the nation's capital to establish a History Department of the first rank.Item Henry Theodore Tuckerman as Revealed in his Published Works(1959) Ellsworth, Richard Grant; Beall, Otho T.; American Civilization; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Henry Theodore Tuckerman, as revealed in his published works, was, in many ways, a model of the mid-nineteenth century American. In his travel accounts, his historical and biographical scholarship, his social and political attitudes, his artistic and literary criteria, is revealed his sincere allegiance to the Romantic Idealism which dominated his day. This allegiance is shown in his belief in the fundamental goodness and inevitable progress of mankind; in his basic individualism, an almost transcendental egocentrism, which mystically identified the human soul with God, and interpreted self-reliance in terms of intuitional supranatural apprehension; in his dichotomization of his realities, separating the Ideal from the practical, the intuitive from the reasonable, the commonplace from the beautiful, the here and now from the distant and the past; in his acceptance of Nature as the representation of the Ideal, and of the feminine as the symbol of the Beautiful; in his fealty to emotion and sympathy as the mystical keys to all human relationships; in his strict and didactic morality; and in his professed national ism and proclamation of divine purpose and destiny in America . Yet, he was conservative in his personal refusal to become involved in reformism, in either outright abolitionism or feminism; in his determined and maintained attitude of Brahmin aloofness from "the herd" and "the multitude"; in his willingness to submit himself to governmental mandate, to support, at least nominally, what was legal and generally accepted; and in his overly-developed and almost unnatural reticence which prevented his from ever achieving that intense ego-exploration imperative within the Romantic philosophy. His published works reveal him to have been profoundly influenced by three major factors in his private live: his mother's death, his Italian residence, and his deep aversion for the commercial life. Possibly, in his need for social (and, especially, feminine) acceptability, his adoration of the ideal woman, and, perhaps, his easy acceptance of the sentimental and the emotional. His Italian travels and residence introduced him to the artistic experience and instilled in him a determination to devote his life to the Beautiful and to the encouragement of its creation and appreciation. And His aversion to the common precepts and standards demanded by American commercialistic enterprise influenced this decision, and shaped his life philosophy in its declaration of an over-stressed materiality in American life, and consequent under-development of the spiritual and the intellectual. With the exception of some of his better poems, Tuckerman's travel accounts best reveal his personal attitutdes and feelings toward his time and his world. As a scholar, Tuckerman read widely, but not deeply. His recorded perceptions almost always appear to be reflections of the parallel conclusions of his greater contemporaries. But he considered his theories his own, and, although he often documented a though or a conclusion, he never admitted to an intellectual debt or spiritual guidance. Tuckerman's greatest significance is in his constant effort to popularize the Beautiful, and thus to enrich American life. He sought always to broaden the public perceptions, to increase American aesthetic appreciation, to combat American reoccupation with commercialism. He was ever the propagandizer for good taste and cultural cultivation. His published works all evidence this. As a recorder of travels, he encouraged an appreciation for European cultural achievement. As a historian and biographer, he was narrative and moralistic. As a literary and art critic, he ever diligently encouraged the writer and the artist, and always sympathetically explained and interpreted to their audience. As a poet and author in his own right, although he often proved sympathetic with the sentimental demands of his age, he, nevertheless, in spite of such lapses, always strove to broaden the public outlook toward the Beautiful and the Cultural as he perceived them to be. That his audience appreciated his effort is readily apparent in his evident contemporary popularity. But his death and the end of his social influence, the broad standard and contemporary nature of his appeal , and the swiftly changing public interest, all combined to prove his fame ephemeral, and to banish him to a modern obscurity unworthy of his sincere intent and effort, and obvious contemporary accomplishment. Henry Theodore Tuckerman deserves to be remembered not only for his yet-standard biographical scholarship, and his service as a historian of art and artists in America, but also for his exemplary thought and attitude, the cultured reflections of the literary and artistic standards of mid-nineteenth century America.Item Anglo-American Relations, 1789-1794(1976) Mezzullo, Louis A.; Gordon, Donald C.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The thesis is a study of certain internal and external events that affected the development of Anglo-American relations during the period from 1789 to 1794. It examines the international situation b efore and after the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, aspects of British policy toward the United States during this period, the diplomatic mission of Gouverneur Morris, the struggle in Congress over the resolutions introduced by James Madison designed to discriminate against British shipping, and finally, the events leading up to the appointment of John Jay as envoy extraordinary to Great Britain. The narrative and analysis is based on printed secondary and primary sources. The central theme is that the policy advocated by Alexander Hamilton, and supported by most of the Federalists, was on the whole the one best suited to the strengths and weaknesses, internal and external, of the United States during this early stage in its development. Viewed in a contemporary setting, a policy that sought to avoid war and retain commercial intercourse with Great Britain was not only essential to the success of the financial system erected by Hamilton but also necessary to prevent internal disunity and loss of territory as a result of a disastrous war. The Hamiltonian system rested on credit, and that credit was supported by import duties. By far the largest amount of imports came from Great Britain. Internal disunity, exemplified by separatist movements in the west and in Vermont, was an ever present consideration. The United States was not strong militarily. By remaining at peace, America gained time to reduce the national debt, develop internally, and improve the administration of the national government.Item British Influence in Mesopotemia 1900-1914(1957) Amin, Abdul Amir; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)Although several European powers showed early interest in the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia, its natural land extension, Britain was more successful than her rivals in exploiting commercial and political possibilities in the area, and over a period of three centuries gradually emerged as the dominant foreign power there.Item The Organization and Use of the Maryland Militia in The Whiskey Rebellion, 1794(1978) Rogers, Robin Michael; Bradbury, Miles; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This thesis is directed at the use of the Maryland militia during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794 in western Pennsylvania. The call for militia, made by President Washington, was not well received in the state. The quota was not tilled, and attempts to fill it touched off riots in western Maryland. These riots made another call necessary, this time made by Maryland Governor Thomas Sim Less. Only Maryland troops were requested, and the quota was filled completely and quickly. The difference in the militia's response is an important part of this thesis because it affords an examination of the condition of federal state relations in the first few years after the ratification of the Constitution. Evidence discussed in this thesis provides material from which several conclusions may be drawn. The examination of the federal and state militia law shows that the federal government was uncertain of its position in attempting to dictate legislation to the states. The state government was uncertain too, about how much it should be dictated to. The result of these uncertainties was a set of weak militia laws that left the responsibility of the obedience to them up the individual militia men. Indeed, the two governments were not only unsure of their positions with each other, but also unsure of their position with the citizens. They were not certain that the citizens would support militia laws, or militia calls. The difference in the militia's response to the two calls also shows that the militia was not certain of its responsibility to answer a requisition. Troops from Maryland were much more concerned with protecting their own state, and possibly homes and families, than they were with protecting the federal government's whiskey excise. Aside from the natural desire for self preservation, the difference indicates that the militia and its leaders were willing to inconvenience themselves for the state, but not for the Union.Item The Poe Amendment's Defeat: Maryland Voters Reject the Negro Disfrancisement Movement, 1903-1905(1967) Goll, Eugene W.; Merrill, Horace S.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)The Poe amendment resulted from the increase of anti-Negro feeling in the very early 1900's and dominated Maryland politics from 1903 to 1905. Through this amendment, the Democratic party under Senator Arthur P. Gorman would have disfranchised Maryland's Negroes. The racist movements of the South and anti-Negro sentiments of a segment of the Baltimore press affected Democratic thinking. The Democrats scored an overwhelming victory in the 1903 state election and pushed the amendment through the 1904 meeting of the Legislature. The Legislature sent the measure to the people as a referendum in the November 1905 election. If passed, it would have placed much power in the hands of election officials. In 1904, however, resistance to the proposal emerged, first by Governor Edwin Warfield and later by other leading Democrats. In addition, the newspapers lessened their racist tone. The amendment threatened the Republican party; its members strongly fought it. They received help at this critical point from Secretary of the Navy, Charles J. Bonaparte, who led and solidified the party. In particular, the Bonaparte-led Republicans utilized the foreign community and apprehensive third parties. They also received negative help from the Baltimore Democratic organization under I. Freeman Rasin which gave the amendment little support. Further, the election eve saw a number of leading Democrats such as Senator Isidor Rayner squabbling publicly over the amendment. Thus, the voters did not trust Gorman and his organization, did not fear the threat of Negro domination, and thoroughly defeated the amendment throughout most of the state.Item The British in the Arctic, 1818-1829(1971) Lowry, Peter Joseph; Gordon, Donald C.; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)This thesis will concern itself with British involvement in the Arctic during the period 1818 to 1829. This study seeks to determine and to explain why the British decided to go into the Arctic after the Napoleonic Wars, what happened in the various expeditions that were sent out, and what results were achieved from such an investigation. Various forces, motives and prominent figures are examined to establish the kind of rationale that induced government to sponsor not only one expedition but to embark upon a sustained and continuing series of exploration in the Arctic regions. A recurrent theme that presents itself throughout this quest - and a notion that had held the minds of men for centuries - was the road to Cathay. In order to achieve this dream, British policy was directed towards the discovery of a north-west passage or, failing that, a quicker route to the east via the North Pole. By 1829 the British had become disheartened in the quest. Again and again expeditions had returned without having achieved their goals. The most immediate and obvious success was, of course, the opening up of the North American continent bordering the Arctic Ocean. The other major achievements were the discoveries and additions given to science.