Using a combination of public institutional records and private personal records, this thesis explores how a newly emerging America constructed its ideas of physical disability in the era of the War for Independence. In the colonies, physical disability never stood alone as an independent category of difference, but was anchored in discourses of poverty and morality. However, the tumultuous events that occurred during the period 177 5 to 1818 forced this developing nation to confront physical disability to an extent that had not previously been required. The result was a conceptual and legislative shift, which caused the understanding of physical disability to be fundamentally redefined and become something identifiable in its own right. To analyse how, and why, this happened, this thesis looks at the public, cultural discourse of disability through this period, and examines the legal developments and the lived experiences that were occurring alongside it. By considering how disability was used in public commentaries to allegorise the split with Britain, it highlights the complicated environment and conceptual tumult which faced disabled Revolutionary War veterans on their return. Analysis of the trajectory of disability pension legislation suggests an infant nation testing the waters with early welfare programmes, often with limited success. However, these early initiatives were the progenitors of the first. national pension program. These developments created a distinct legal construction of disability that was seemingly at odds with the negative representation of disability in the public arena and, through medical and legal classifications, created a more formal platform for the conceptualisation of disability to emerge. To complement the institutional perspective, this thesis explores the lives of 523 disabled Revolutionary War veterans, using information they gave in their applications for a disability pension. This experiential approach expounds the ways in which disability was managed, how it shaped - and was shaped by - pre-existing expectations of gender roles, and how these experiences were often determined by class. Pertinent topics include family life, work life, and the ways in which veterans understood and employed their identities as disabled pensioners. Unlike the post-Civil War period a Revolutionary War disability never became the symbol of patriotism and bravery that the empty sleeve of the Civil War amputee did. Using the experiences of disabled former Revolutionary servicemen and contrasting this with the public discourse and national memory of the war, this thesis presents the reasons why this was the case.

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ABSTRACT ORDER AND ARDOR: THE REVIVAL SPIRITUALITY OF REGULAR BAPTIST OLIVER HART, 1723–1795 Eric Coleman Smith, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2015 Chair: Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin This dissertation argues that Regular Baptist Oliver Hart shared the revival spirituality of the Great Awakening, and that revival played a greater role in Regular Baptist identity than is often suggested. Chapter 2 demonstrates that Hart’s life and ministry were profoundly shaped by the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century. He was converted in revival as a young man, promoted revival at the height of his ministry in Charleston, South Carolina, and longed for revival in his latter years in Hopewell, New Jersey. Chapter 3 examines Hart’s revival piety. The theology of the Christian life that undergirded his ministry was the evangelical Calvinism that united Christians from across denominational lines during the Great Awakening. Chapter 4 focuses on the most intense personal experience of revival in Hart’s ministry, an awakening among the youth of the Charleston Baptist Church in 1754. An analysis of Hart’s diary during this period proves that it belongs to the emerging genre of eighteenth century “revival narrative,” epitomized in Jonathan Edwards’s A Faithful Narrative. Chapter 5 shows that Hart’s spirituality was marked by the evangelical activism of the Great Awakening, as illustrated by his efforts in evangelism, gospel partnerships, education, and politics. Chapter 6 demonstrates that Hart and a number of other Regular Baptists shared in the evangelical catholicity of the revival. While Hart embraced the ecumenical impulse of the awakening to promote revival, he also maintained deep Baptist convictions.

Female camp followers throughout history have followed troops into the field fulfilling supply and labor needs which the military structure could not. This pattern began to change during the American Revolution as governments and military commanders tightened their control on the military. Emerging army patterns and new attitudes concerning women acted to discourage the informal reliance on women and to encourage a more formal and controllable reliance on military units. By examining women with regular army groups, a stronger understanding of these women's lives and choices becomes possible. This study examines the number of women involved, the reasons they chose to follow military troops, the life they found with the military, and military commanders' attempts to control women and their behavior. Between five thousand and twenty thousand women traveled with military forces during the Revolution for reasons of economic need, a sense of duty, and love. They cleaned, cooked, nursed, and helped in gun crews for occasional pay, rations, and the chance to stay with their husbands, sons, and male friends. Disease, childbirth complications, and violence within and outside camp claimed their lives. Meanwhile, military leaders issued orders against straggling, riding the wagons, looting, and the illegal sale of alcohol in an effort to control the women's behavior. Such efforts only achieved intermittent success. / Master of Arts

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This study examines the major works of Judith Sargent Murray, Hannah Webster Foster, and Susanna Haswell Rowson, three major writers of the 1790s whose writing responds to the ideologies of the early American Republic. I suggest that Murray, Foster, and Rowson write conduct fiction which responds to the changing attitudes toward women and education after the American Revolution. Using fiction, these authors comment on the republican woman, the need for women’s education, and the necessity for women to gather in communities for support. Despite the prevailing notion that reading too many novels would corrupt young women, Judith Sargent Murray’s novella, The Story of Margaretta (1786), Hannah Webster Foster’s novels, The Coquette (1797) and The Boarding School (1798), and Susanna Rowson’s novels, Charlotte Temple (1794) and Reuben and Rachel; or, Tales of Old Times (1798), were some of the most popular books in the late eighteenth century. If these novels were not meant to be read by young women, who were the authors’ primary audience, why were they so popular? This project situates these questions in the political environment the authors were writing in to show that a relationship exists between what women were reading and how authors of conduct fiction helped facilitate the changing roles of women in the early Republic

Windows are a significant feature of building construction that have largely escaped notice in terms of their design and fabrication in America from the time of European colonization to the mid-nineteenth century. This thesis tells the story of the glass, woodworking, and hardware technologies that transformed windows from hand-crafted to mass-produced building components. It also explores the stylistic, social, and economic factors that underlie the development and usage of windows in America. / Department of Architecture

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This study investigated one central aspect of the political views of John Withexspoon: His steadfast belief in the right of resistance. A product of the Reformation and Enlightenment movements, this doctrine offered justification for questioning the authority of magistrates acting contrary to their sovereignty: it further compelled disobedience to unjust laws and the removal of unjust officials to protect the instituted social order. The context of post-Union Scottish society provided a distinct setting for Witherspoon's introduction to resistance theory. As a devout Scottish Presbyterian and a learned Enlightenment scholar, Withexspoon commanded a thorough understanding of this civil-religious right and duty to protect society.Through his education at Edinburgh University, Witherspoon became acquainted with the substance of Scottish Enlightenment philosophy. Edinburgh instructors utilized the writings of Commonwealth theorists and the classical writers to construct their views of society and social obligation: Society was a constituted civil order, restrained by law, preserved by the efforts of every individual citizen. Witherspoon's Scottish ecclesiastical heritage served to vindicate his Enlightenment education by echoing a similar view of restraint and balance.Covenant Pianism, the product of the 16th-Century reformer John Knox and the Westminster Assembly of the 1640s, invoked the supremacy of a sovereign God over all instituted states. In the Scotsman's view, human depravity and selfish ambition would destroy government if not for the diligent vigil of involved, virtuous citizens. Members of society were thus obliged to oppose tyranny -the unjust, illegitimate exercise of civil-religious authority. Hence, both academic enterprise and doctrinal conviction provided Witherspoon a firm theoretical foundation to support the right of resistance.As President of Princeton during the Anglo-American crisis of the 1770s, Witherspoon directed the education of many future leaders of the new American nation. He was certainly not an idealistic crusader nor a reluctant follower, but consistently argued for the right of American colonists to resist the tyranny of England's Parliament. An early supporter of independence, Witherspoon was the only clergyman to sign Jefferson's Declaration. His most significant contributions, though, were made as a committee member in the Second Continental Congress. / Department of History

This dissertation argues that Samuel Davies' theology of and vision for the Christian life were inseparable. Although his contribution to American Evangelicalism was not as original nor as widely remembered as that of his contemporaries, Samuel Davies' insistence on vital Christian piety was far more central to his ministry than was religious toleration or patriotic duty, which are more commonly remembered emphases of his legacy. Chapter 2 recounts the contours of Davies' life and world. Chapter 3 argues that Samuel Davies' vision of the Christian life was grounded in the divine revelation of Scripture. The Bible was essential to a life of godliness. Samuel Davies believed that Jesus Christ communicated and sustained divine life in people and that this life marked the beginning of genuine piety. Chapter 4 shows that Davies' emphasis on conversion is grounded in the Puritan tradition yet evinces an emerging Evangelical theology. Chapter 5 argues that Davies saw gospel holiness as the animating principle of spiritual life, that which separated it from worldly, even religious counterfeits. Chapter 6 demonstrates that Davies believed that spiritual life was maintained through the conscientious practice of various religious duties, especially through private prayer and public communion.