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Spanish Imperial Missionary Activity and Indian Politics in "La Florida," 1565-1597 in this paper, I argue that Catholic missionization of Calusa, Tequesta, and Guale people in sixteenth-century "La Florida" must be understood not simply as a Spanish colonial endeavor but as a collaboration with native leaders, who encouraged it as a means of increasing their own social and political power. I show that missionization was only successful as long as the presence of friars and a Spanish garrison benefited native leaders. Missionaries were expelled when their upkeep became a burden—that is, when they were no longer a source of socially valuable status items or military assistance against neighboring groups. Euro-Inuit at Wolstenholme Post, 1909-1946: Arctic Foxes and Neighborly Bonds This paper is a case study of white-Inuit relations at the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) Wolstenholme trading post. I show how Inuit influence over the twentieth-century white fox trade contributed to the development of neighborly bonds between Inuit trappers and HBC traders. in the early twentieth century, the eastern Arctic was Inuit territory, far from white Canadian society, and there were multiple entities clamoring for a trading partnership with Inuit. The pressing need to retain Inuit patronage, the communal nature of surviving arctic winters, and the unique backgrounds of the HBC men meant that the latter learned Inuktitut, donned Inuit clothing, hunted and traveled with Inuit, and established friendships with them that went far beyond fur trade business.

Memories in Stone: The Confederate Catawba Monument Controversies surrounding Confederate monuments and symbols have brought increased attention to issues of Civil War memory. Often overlooked, Native Americans play an important role in the ways in which some people remember the conflict. A particularly interesting example of this role exists in Fort Mill, South Carolina. in 1900, the town unveiled a limestone monument to Catawba Indians who served in the Confederate Army. These Native people had a specific historical relationship with local and state authorities that shaped how the white ruling class formed a particular memorialization of the Catawba after the Civil War. Furthermore, the two leading local figures in the monument's creation had strong personal motivations to sponsor it. These factors combined with national trends in Civil War memorialization to make the Catawba monument a unique, yet still representative, example of Civil War memory making. Unique in that the design and message of the monument served a local purpose of permanently enshrining the white population's version of Catawba history in Fort Mill's public space, and representative in that it bolstered the ideals of Lost Cause ideology that swept the country at the turn of the twentieth century. Caught between these powerful ideas were the Catawba themselves, who utilized the beliefs represented by the monument for their own strategic goals. Reconstructing the Street: Confrontations Over Norfolk's Public Sphere, 1862-1866 on April 16, 1866, several hundred African Americans marched through the streets of Norfolk, Virginia to celebrate the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866. on the outskirts of town, a fight occurred between white onlookers and black marchers. Violence continued into the night, as white assailants prowled the streets of the city and killed several black people. This violence, which soon became known as the Norfolk Riot, garnered national attention. But it was not an exceptional event. Rather, it was one of many violent contests between white and black people over who had access to, and influence in, Norfolk's public spaces. Reconstruction brought irreversible changes to Norfolk's political and civic status quo. Previously excluded from or constrained within the city's public sphere, formerly enslaved and free black inhabitants seized the opportunities presented by the Civil War to exercise their demands for full access to it. However, white residents consistently resisted these claims, often resorting to organized violence. By examining several violent disputes that took place prior to April 16th, the Norfolk Riot can be contextualized as but one of a series of similar battles between the city's white and black communities centered around control of Norfolk's civic arena.

"By the Dear, Immortal Memory of Washington" Americans have long used the Founding Fathers as symbols of patriotism, invoking their names and using their images whenever they wish to demonstrate that a particular way of thinking or acting is true to American ideals. The vague patriotic image of the founders tends to eclipse their actual character, allowing diverse and competing movements to all use them. This has been especially true of George Washington, who long enjoyed a preeminent and almost mythic status among the founders. During the 1860s, both secessionists and unionists claimed him as their own in order to show that America's chief founder would have supported them. Politicians freely tossed his name about in their speeches, and ordinary citizens in the North and South wrote about carrying forth his legacy once the Civil War began. For this reason, Washington's symbolic status is a significant but frequently ignored factor in understanding American thought at the time of the Civil War. The Baptists, Culture, and the Law in Eighteenth-Century Virginia Throughout Virginia's colonial existence, the only established church was the Church of England. By law, all Virginians had to be baptized into it and had to pay taxes to maintain it. But by the middle of the eighteenth century, the colony had acquired a sizeable population of Protestant dissenters. While they disliked the restrictions that the government had placed on their faith, most were content to submit to the law in order to enjoy the benefits of toleration. The Baptists, however, resolutely refused to submit to any law which attempted to control their "God-given" rights to preach and assemble as they felt proper. Rather than moving to the margins of society, the Baptists repeatedly engaged with the Anglican-dominated culture around them, seeking to transform society and bring it more in line with the principles they held sacred. Foremost among these was the conviction that no sincere faith could exist if church membership was compulsory. Throughout the Revolutionary era, the Baptists led the fight for religious freedom, bringing about a complete separation of church and state.

The two papers that comprise this masters portfolio are "The History of Prostitution by William Sanger as a Basis for Modern Studies of Prostitution" and "Vampires in American Newspapers: 1820-1840" "The History of Prostitution by William Sanger as a Basis for Modern Studies of Prostitution" examines how Sanger's work has influenced the historiography of prostitution in New York City. This paper begins by examining William Sanger as an individual, and demonstrates how despite claiming to be objective, his work is clouded by his role as a resident physician on Blackwell's Island. His work is unique because it can be read as a primary and secondary text: the first half of his work is a discussion of the history of prostitution and its causes, while the latter half is documented quantitiative research. The main argument of this paper is that historians should read his text as a primary source: both his quantitative research and reproduced history is inherently biased, making many of his claims difficult to use as a secondary source. This paper points out several historians who cite him, and either do not point out his historical bias and inaccuracies, or in several cases miscite his arguments. "Vampires in American Newspapers: 1820-1840" examines American newspaper articles published between 1820 and 1840 that contain references to vampires. The authors of these articles engaged with vampires for multiple reasons and for multiple purposes: they refer to vampires as literal monsters (such as giant squid), monsters who disguised themselves as men, politicians, and foreigners. This paper demonstrates that "vampires" existed in the United States, and that they had a distinct American nature.

This paper investigates the Continental Army’s junior leaders (sergeants, ensigns, lieutenants, and captains) who moved westward postwar and used the abilities acquired during military training in their new communities in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. This skill set included leading diverse individuals under arduous conditions, functioning within a bureaucracy, performing managerial tasks, and maintaining law and order in nascent communities. The Continental Army’s leadership development program for junior leaders centered on Baron von Steuben’s Regulations for the order and discipline of the troops of the United States, better known as the Blue Book. Unlike other contemporary military manuals, the Blue Book had instructions on how to be a leader. The unit’s orderly books contained lessons that continually reinforced Steuben’s tenets on leadership: officers had a responsibility for their soldiers and were expected to be actively involved in their unit’s daily operations. The army’s encampments included military and civilians, men and women, free and enslaved, and Euro-Americans, African-Americans, and Native-Americans. While acquired and honed in the encampment’s diverse environment, these veterans applied the same skills in civilian vocations. Of the approximately 14,168 Revolutionary War soldiers who moved to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, only 180 junior leaders were identified who lived and died in these states. Of this cohort, fifty-eight percent held positions of authority such as law enforcement personnel, local politicians, businessmen, and religious leaders. Historians have long overlooked the effect of junior officers’ and sergeants’ hard-won wisdom and experience. The veterans’ important institution building does not generally appear in pension applications, tax records, or wills, but it was vital to the early Republic’s expansion. The results of my research challenge the current narrative which concentrates on soldiers’ resentment at their treatment during the war and their poverty in later life. Instead, I argue, the benefits of Continental Army service were seen for many decades afterwards.

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