This dissertation is a study of the life and career of Benjamin Stoddert Ewell (1810-1894). A grandson of the first United States Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert, and son of an old Virginia family, Benjamin Ewell grew up in Prince William County, Virginia, during the early days of the American republic. Although educated at the United States Military Academy, Ewell rejected the military life for a career in college teaching and administration. After holding faculty chairs at Hampden-Sydney College (1839-46) and Washington College (1846-48), Ewell became, in 1848, president pro-tempore of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. For the next forty years he served William and Mary as professor (1849-54) and president (1848-49; 1854-88).;Ewell's years were troubled ones for the colonial college. In the ante-bellum period, financial difficulties and a dearth of students--problems common to almost all nineteenth century college presidents--constantly threatened the college's existence. In 1859 fire destroyed the main building, and Ewell faced the difficult problems of rebuilding. During the Civil War, in which Colonel Ewell served as adjutant to Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston, the college was burned again, this time by Union troops. Rebuilding after 1865 depleted the school's endowment, and its location in the inaccessible and economically depressed Tidewater region of Virginia discouraged student enrollment. Ewell's efforts to obtain reparations from Congress came to naught. In 1882, William and Mary was forced to close.;Ewell always considered the college a living monument to Virginia's years of glory during the period of the Revolution and Early Republic. On the basis of this belief, his dedication to William and Mary was so complete that his biography necessarily becomes a history of the college. In all its adversity Ewell kept the faith that William and Mary would survive and fought unrelentingly to prevent the institution's removal from Williamsburg. After William and Mary closed, he remained as president to protect both its charter and its buildings. Finally, in 1888, he led a successful campaign to make the colonial college a normal school for white males, thereby assuring its continued existence, its financial stability, and its location in Virginia's colonial capital.

Why, at the end of the nineteenth century, did the long Russo-American friendship turn into a bitter rivalry? Why was Manchuria prized sufficiently by each to risk jeopardizing this friendship? In answering these questions an attempt is made to view the relationship from both the Russian and American standpoints, since the actions of one, whether economic, political or military, frequently prompted counter-moves from the other.;To obtain a broad perspective the whole century is included. Attention is centered on Northeast Asia, for it was in that region that Russian-American interactions were most numerous and where the expansionist drives of both nations finally intersected. The study traces how the geographic gap was gradually bridged across the North Pacific.;Throughout the century these interactions stemmed primarily from the initiatives of private individuals and businesses--fur hunters, whalers, merchants and entrepreneurs. Consideration of these private contacts and the process through which the two governments were slowly drawn into confrontation provides one of the underlying themes explaining the estrangement.;In order to understand the historic foundations of the amicable relations, attention is directed at the high degree of cooperation displayed during the 1850s and 1860s. Highlighted are the circumstances surrounding the benevolent neutrality exhibited toward Russia during the Crimean War and Russia's reciprocation during the American Civil War. Although both governments were drawn more deeply into the affairs of Northeast Asia, the results at mid-century seemed mutually beneficial. Russia acquired the Amur region, and the United States was permitted to purchase Alaska.;By contrast, examination of the escalating events of the 1890s--the political turmoil in Korea, the construction of Russia's Siberian railroad, the defeat of China by Japan, the subsequent diplomatic successes of Russia and the projection of American seapower into the Far East--reveals heightened competition between Russia and the United States and deteriorating relations. The Russian advance into Manchuria, which appeared about to frustrate America's own last opportunity to gain a foothold in Northeast Asia, was viewed with particular concern.;The study concludes with an outline of the pressures placed on the McKinley administration to safeguard American interests in Manchuria and an analysis of the procedures adopted. American insistence on an open door policy, a tactic designed primarily to check Russian expansion into Manchuria, and Russian resistance to it brought to a close the long period of previously unquestioned friendship. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).

Using ecological literature and an ethnohistorical approach, this dissertation examines the nature and extent of environmental change resulting from European colonization in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia.;European explorers in the Southeast saw mixed hardwood forests, pinelands, savannahs, marshlands, and inland swamps. These diverse habitats were home to an infinite variety of wildlife, including whitetailed deer, black bears, wild turkeys, buffalo, elk, and beaver. The landscape had been shaped by long-term ecological change and by varying patterns of topography, rainfall, and fire.;The environment had also been altered by Indians. Southeastern Indians were neither despoilers nor conservators of nature. Seeking subsistence and survival, they fished, farmed, hunted, and periodically burned the woods, all of which affected the various ecosystems.;Early contact between natives and Europeans introduced Old World diseases into the Southeast which killed Indians by the thousands. With their culture torn apart by depopulation, the natives ensured their survival by finding a place within the European system. Indians willingly supplied colonists with animal skins, meat, and medicinal plants, a systematic trade which led to the extinction of buffalo and elk and nearly wiped out beaver, deer, and ginseng.;Agricultural clearing by colonists reshaped local climates. Selective cutting of white and live oak, white cedar, and baldcypress made those trees scarce in settled regions. Naval stores production reduced sizeable tracts of pinelands to patches of scrubby hardwoods.;Commercial agriculture exhausted and eroded soils. Domestic animals destroyed native grasses and woody plants. European grasses and weeds, carried by transplanted livestock, replaced indigenous species. Agriculture and ranching simplified existing relationships between plants and animals, creating an ecologically unstable "new South.".;Attributing such changes solely to European capitalism is an oversimplification. Since his arrival in North America, man has been alienated from nature. The innovations of a capitalist economy triggered complex cultural interaction between Indians, colonists, slaves, and the land itself, a dialectic which pushed all three groups toward exploitation of the environment.

When King Philip's War erupted in the summer of 1675, the New England colonies entered a quarter-century of almost constant trial and tension. Colonial leaders consistently interpreted each successive crisis and the lingering legacies as warnings from God against backsliding and sin. Interpreting the causes of the colonies' troubles was just the beginning of the struggle, however; understanding, solving, and learning from the trials of the period represented the ongoing challenge for the future of the New England mission.;The most obvious victims of King Philip's War were the natives of the colony. Even the Praying Indians who lived under English jurisdiction became targets of the colonists' anxiety and prejudice. The persistence of any bands in the region, friendly, or hostile, provided a source of continuing tension for the colonists.;Economically, demographically, even politically, the effects of King Philip's War lingered throughout the ensuing decades. The colony's effort to recoup the costs of the war led to a persistent struggle as citizens and towns attempted to avoid the increased tax rates. The need to secure the frontier communities either threatened or actually abandoned during the conflict represented an ongoing campaign in the region. In the area of politics, the war made the colonists more sensitive and more assertive, and this new spirit appeared in town politics as well as in the constitutional upheaval in Boston.;The uneasiness resulting from the accumulated tensions led to a period of self-examination among New Englanders. Puritan clergy exhorted their followers to reform in order to ward off the forces of evil which threatened the mission. The jeremiads of the period bemoaned the spiritual decline in the region, but in the end, their message remained optimistic. The errand would continue, but with a new sense of secular interest incorporated into the New England mentality. Although King Philip's War was not the sole, direct cause of all the problems that plagued Massachusetts during the troubled decades of the late seventeenth century, it was the first in a series of crises and the event which set the tone for the whole period.

This study examines Confederate military operations in Virginia from February 17-May 31, 1862, focusing specifically on the role of Joseph E. Johnston as commander of the Department of Northern Virginia. It includes a detailed consideration of Confederate grand strategy, Johnston's withdrawal from the Potomac River, the redeployment of the army to Yorktown, the siege of Yorktown, and the Battles of Williamsburg and Seven Pines.;In February, 1862, following the surrender of Fort Donelson, President Jefferson Davis reoriented strategy in Virginia from a defense of the frontiers to a closer defense of Richmond; he also recalled General Robert E. Lee from South Carolina to coordinate that defense. But the strategic concepts of Davis, Lee, and Joseph Johnston (the senior field commander in Virginia) often differed a great deal, leading to confrontation and discord.;This study concentrates on following Johnston's point of view during the campaign, especially on his role as a field army commander. The conclusion suggests that Johnston was a superior strategist, administrator, and operational commander, but suffered from serious deficiencies as in tactical supervision of his own subordinates and an inability to deal tactfully with his superiors.

The Continental Army was the cause and the core of a military community made up of both army personnel and camp followers, who together and separately affected the military mission. The dissertation focuses primarily on the civilian, as opposed to the military, members of the "Continental Community." Fitting within the broad context of social history, it is also a part of the new military history.;Books and articles on armies have typically dealt with the military structure, the campaigns and battles, and the exploits of uniformed heroes or traitors. Those accounts provide merely the background here. In this dissertation, the military community is illuminated. It includes the prostitutes that most people immediately think of when they hear the term "camp follower," but, as American soldiers were too infrequently and poorly paid to support a large retinue of such followers, they are only a very small part of this work. Actually, the spotlight shines on those persons specified in Article 23, Section XIII of the 1776 Articles of War: "All sutlers and retainers to a camp, and all persons whatsoever serving with the armies of the United States, ... " The dissertation examines the sutlers and other merchants who supplied the encampments, the family members, servants, and volunteers who fell under the heading of retainers to a camp, and the other civilians who served with the army in various capacities. It is this very broad definition of camp follower that makes the topic unique.;This dissertation shows that camp followers engaged in numerous tasks to support the army. Men entered the camps to sell goods and services (from soap and liquor to dancing lessons), or busied themselves in the Quartermaster and Commissary Departments. Women cooked, cleaned, sewed, nursed, and sometimes engaged in espionage. African-Americans served not only their individual masters, but the army as well in jobs as diverse as courier duty and ditch-digging.

This dissertation examines the processes that created supreme courts of appeal in Virginia and Louisiana and challenges the traditional view of Louisiana as an anomaly in the American judicial system. Comparison of the development of the Supreme Court of Louisiana to that of Virginia reveals important similarities in judicial practices and procedures, legal theory, and the role the courts played in the early political development of each state. In every area, the two states shared important intellectual and historical experiences.;In order to investigate the creation of these jurisdictions, this dissertation examines the political climate of both states; the background, education, and politics of the judges; the rules of court which they developed; and the jurisprudence that defined the structure and operation of the courts. Accordingly, the judicial history of both states reflects the political changes which governed the era. The study of the development of the jurisdictions, moreover, chronicles the structural changes that influenced a pronounced shift from "moral" or "republican" principles of law to a more pragmatic and activist approach to justice in nineteenth-century America. Finally, the profound influence of the common law and Anglo-American patterns of judicature on Louisiana's legal institutions suggests a reconsideration of the state's place in the mainstream of American legal history.

The backcountry of colonial Virginia and North Carolina saw a process of urbanization during the third quarter of the eighteenth century uniquely shaped by a large-scale migration from colonies to the north, aided by the westward extension of local government. This rapid development did not lead to the creation of a hierarchical economic system of central places, but rather linear networks shaped by the geography of the region. Ironically, this phenomenon occurred in an area of two American colonies usually considered to be devoid of towns.;This dissertation is a study of twenty-eight towns established from 1744 to 1776 in the Piedmont Southside and Great Valley of Virginia and in Piedmont North Carolina. The towns are categorized by their primary function (administrative, migrant, or trade), and then analyzed individually, taking into account the circumstances of their establishment, their intended purpose, their design, and actual development.;The goal of this work is not only to provide a regional town study, but also to identify commonalities in town development, including methods of establishment, economic activities on local and regional levels, the roles of public institutions, and what factors helped determine success or failure. The interaction between towns is also explored to determine trade and communication links, any network systems, and areas of urban influence. The study is an attempt to identify and describe the growth of a significant colonial urban movement.

This study analyzes the political activities of workmen in Norfolk, Alexandria, and Charleston in the years 1763-1800. British historians, in particular, E. P. Thompson, have discovered radical agitation on the part of artisans and laborers in Great Britain between 1790 and 1832. A similar rise in class consciousness has been documented on northern urban centers at the time of the Revolution.;Socially and politically Norfolk, Alexandria, and Charleston were quite different; yet in each the mechanics did develop some class consciousness and realization of their political worth. The artisans of Charleston united in opposition to British measures in the years before the Revolution and as a result gained political strength for workers unprecedented in South Carolina politics. Political consciousness developed among Norfolk artisans when they worked together after the Revolution to demand a more republican form of local government. Alexandria mechanics experienced political unity in the shadow of national partisan divisions which enhanced their local influence in the 1790s.;Despite attaining some degree of class consciousness the mechanics in these three southern cities were different from the politically and economically oppressed laborers of Britain during the Industrial Revolution. The artisans of the South were mostly middle class, nestled between the laborers, many of whom were enslaved, and the wealthy planters and merchants. Diversity in craft, economic standing and ethnicity played a hand in weakening the artisans' unity, but their relatively limited political success in provincial and national politics in contrast to local was a function of the mechanics' hesitancy to challenge those above them. In all three cities the strides the artisans made politically by 1800 were impressive, but in each instance they had yet to achieve the permanent coalescence of a conscious social class.

When historians have addressed the issue of maritime lawlessness in the English colonies of North America their attention almost invariably has been drawn to New England where, according to the commonly held belief, opposition to the navigation system of the home government was most fervent, concerted, and pervasive. Rarely have researchers examined local involvement in piracy, illicit trade, and the unauthorized salvage of stranded or sunken vessels, or "wrecking," in the Chesapeake region where, scholars customarily have maintained, the colonists willingly participated in the imperial navigation scheme. Traditional historical investigations of freebooters and smugglers have also tended to focus on the lawbreakers themselves, generally neglecting the activities of coastal inhabitants without whose support the outlaws could not have operated and prospered.;Contrary to the conventional wisdom, however, not only did residents of the greater Chesapeake personally engage in piracy, contraband trade, customs fraud, and wrecking, but many more supported their actions by assisting and harboring the perpetrators or by refusing to convict the lawbreakers in the common-law courts. In the provincial assemblies, other colonists opposed legislative initiatives designed to improve the enforcement of imperial policy in the maritime sphere. Compounding the enforcement problem in the greater Chesapeake was the participation of both royal and provincial officials--including customs officers, guardship commanders, and even colonial governors--in various contraband, duty fraud, and piratical schemes themselves. If British authorities wondered about the sources of such behavior they did not have far to look for precedents. English piracy, smuggling, and wrecking--often tacitly approved and even actively promoted by high-ranking government officials--dated back centuries before the colonial era.;The coincidence of the periods of greatest complaint about maritime lawbreaking in the Chesapeake with the intervals of most active regulation of colonial affairs by the home government suggests that inhabitants of the bay region conducted illegal maritime activities continuously between 1650 and 1750 and beyond. Reports by customs officials and guardship captains in the decade preceding the Revolution, including accounts of violent resistance to royal authority, indicate that compliance with the Navigation Acts was no better than it had been in the late seventeenth century when English authorities undertook a major reform initiative designed to end abuses of the system.