No description available.

This dissertation argues that, in Rhode Island, the institution of slavery, the process of emancipation and circumscribed black freedom was fundamentally influenced by the businesses of slavery. The businesses of slavery include the West Indian rum and slave trade, the Atlantic slave trade and the negro cloth industry. Specifically, I contend that in Rhode Island these businesses led to the legalization of race-based slavery, buttressed the local economy, and helped to maintain the institution of slavery throughout the Americas. Academic scholarship and public knowledge of northern slavery and emancipation in the United States remains relatively slim. American slavery has become almost synonymous with the American South, disregarding the fact that it was an institution that was socially accepted, legally sanctioned and widely practiced in the North. Furthermore, most emancipation studies focus on the Civil War era, rather than the decades of freedom struggles in the post-revolutionary North. This dissertation argues that the history of slavery and freedom in North American is fundamentally skewed without a full accounting of the northern experience. Historians have long noted the importance of the Atlantic slave trade and trade with the West Indies to the survival and maintenance of the northern North American British colonies. This project studies the origins of race-based slavery, the process of emancipation and circumscribed black freedom within the context of the development of the businesses of slavery.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Title from title screen (viewed Feb. 21, 2007). Includes bibliographical references. Online version of the print original.

When discovered by sport divers in 1970, the Mepkin Abbey shipwreck was immediately reported to the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA). The wreck was first investigated in 1980, and a preliminary report was published in 1981. The shipwreck is now part of 'The Cooper River Underwater Heritage Trail,' established in 1998. SCIAA archaeologists theorized that the wreck was the sloop Baker, owned in the late 1700s by American patriot and Mepkin Plantation owner Henry Laurens. This thesis includes a description of the field research, drawings of the vessel, a scantling list, and a discussion of the artifacts recovered from the site which provided clues dating the vessel to the second quarter of the 19th century. The historical background of Mepkin Plantation is described, with a focus on how the craft may have been utilized. Finally, the thesis compares the wreck with other documented vessels from the same region and period, specifically: the Brown's Ferry vessel, Clydesdale Plantation sloop, and Malcolm boat.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1926. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [56]). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

The purpose of this study is to bring to the forefront the importance of black humor in the lives of African-Americans. The cultural roots of black humor began in Africa and were transported to America where Africans were forced to live as an enslaved people. Humor is a defining factor which contributed to the survival of blacks living in an oppressed state. Black people continue to live in survival mode and the researcher evaluates how black humor is a significant component to overcoming a life of adversity. All genres of literature evolve from one generation to the next. The genre of black humor is no different. This study will disclose how the dynamics of black humor evolve from the days of the enslaved entertaining the plantation masters, to the era of minstrelsy, and into the twentieth century with the rise of black comedy. Each period of black humor will demonstrate the profound effect humor has in the lives of black people.

This study explores the evidence for differences in foodways related to status among an enslaved community according to labor-based designations. Specifically, this paper investigates the interplay of a plantation provisioning system and slave responses to the imposed system through the study of faunal remains recovered from discrete slave quarters at James Madison's Montpelier plantation near Orange, Virginia during the so-called Retirement Period of James Madison, approximately encompassing the years A.D. 1810-1836. Through synthesis of data acquired by the author with that of previous investigators, this research reveals subtle variations in the ways in which the different labor groups at Montpelier negotiated the plantation hierarchy through differential access to and acquisition of meat resources within the constraints of the plantation setting. While higher positions within the plantation hierarchy, particularly in the case of the skilled laborers of the Stable Quarter, is inferred, further fine-grained examination of the material culture from the slave quarters at Montpelier is necessary to accurately identify the nuances of status and unravel the power structure at Montpelier.

At the close of the American Revolution thousands of American Loyalists were forced into exile and made their way to British colonies beyond the United States. Most of the Loyalists landed in British North America, particularly the Maritimes. Along with the trauma and losses of the conflict, the Loyalists brought with them a way of doing things, an intense political history, and ideas concerning the imperial structure that framed their everyday lives. This dissertation is a study of the Loyalists. Specifically, it explores a prominent Loyalist and his journey from Massachusetts to Nova Scotia along with family members, servants, and labourers, including enslaved persons. A central objective of the dissertation is to illuminate the story of the enslaved and magnify their place in Nova Scotia’s eighteenth century colonial history narrative. The objective is addressed by adapting a holistic perspective that considers a single geography – the plantation. The holistic perspective, developed through an interdisciplinary methodology, explores the people, places and culture that formed the Loyalist plantation and were informed by it. The picture that emerges is one that puts into place the structure and organization of a Loyalist plantation in the late eighteenth century. This dissertation argues that an interdisciplinary approach is fundamental when exploring the subject of the plantation and its inhabitants in Nova Scotia. Through study of the slaveholder and the comparison of his plantation spaces, the dissertation argues for Loyalist continuity. Such continuity confirmed a slaveholding culture during the mass migration. Finally, this dissertation argues that the Loyalist period can be described as Nova Scotia’s Age of Slavery. The Loyalist migration represents an unprecedented arrival of enslaved persons to the province. Furthermore, the Loyalist migration represents the unprecedented arrival of a political and ideological framework that carried within it perceptions of race and seeds of discrimination that took root. / The dissertation employs an interdisciplinary methodology that integrates research from Atlantic world history, historical archaeology and cultural geography. The resulting insights are key to supporting the central arguments and conclusions.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.