With its opening in 1829, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ushered in a new era of criminal punishment. Inmates of Eastern State entered a world of austerity, silence, isolation, labor, religious teachings, and a lack of corporal punishment. Quaker reformers contended that this 'Pennsylvania System' of discipline provided a better way to punish criminals by having inmates reflect on the errors of their past misdeeds without physical punishment. Within five years of the opening of the penitentiary, Eastern State was under state legislative investigation for cruel and unusual punishment towards inmates who broke the institution's rules. Using this investigation as a gateway, this paper examines the struggle between reformers, prison officials, and inmates in understanding the purpose of punishment and administering discipline at Eastern State. This study explores how inmates rebelled against the institution's procedures and argues that while the way that officials retained their control over inmates came close to torture, ultimately officials could justify their actions in relation to the reformers' goals of practicing "humane" punishment. To examine these struggles over power and intention, this paper utilizes prison records and official reports, visitor accounts, and papers from the legislative committee organized to investigate Eastern State's cruelty charges in 1834-1835.

Drawing on the extensive records of the Royal Africa Company as well as eyewitness reports by important actors in the slave trade, this paper addresses current assumptions held about piracy and the Atlantic slave trade. The quantitative data in David Eltis Slave Voyages Database suggests that despite the lucrative nature of the Slave Trade, pirates and privateers did not go after human slave cargo as often as material goods. From the works of the main historians of piracy or the slave trade, we know that the difference between pirate attacks on slave ships and merchant ships is staggering: for every slave ship taken by pirates, twenty merchant ships were attacked, and yet historians have only speculated as to the reasons why. The records of the voyages of the Royal Africa Company, (the company that held the Atlantic slave monopoly in the 17th and 18th centuries), and the account of Captain Snellgrave, whose slave ship was taken by pirates off of Africas slave coast, show a very different story: the allure of the precious cargos of slaves packed alongside planks of exotic hardwoods, barrels of fragrant beeswax and tusks of ivory worth as much as those of the Spanish silver galleons were such that few pirates could ignore. The companys ships were inundated with pirate attacks, and this paper explores these incidents in greater detail to illustrate that piracy had a significant effect on the Atlantic Slave Trade.

"In this work, I have not attempted a full description of the many hellish torments and punishments those piratical sea-rovers invent and inflict on the unfortunate Christians who may by chance unhappily fall into their hands..." wrote John Foss, an American sailor captured by pirates off the coast of North Africa and sold into slavery in 1793. Many other captives were not as reserved, describing the pirates' bloody attacks with colorful, titallating language that provoked outrage in early America. Although often exaggerated or forged, the Orientalist tropes perpetuated about the Barbary Pirates would shape not only future encounters with the Barbary powers, but early American foreign policy as well. These first American encounters with North Africa through the pirates set a precedent for how the young nation would engage with belligerent powers in the future. While European superpowers paid tribute and appeased the Barbary nations in order to incapacitate their economic rivals on the seas, the American Congress commissioned a naval fleet and prepared for war. To understand this unusual response to the Barbary threat, this paper explores the captivity narratives' role in early American perceptions of North Africa. In examining these narratives in their historical context, and comparing the ideas and opinions in the American newspapers and broadsides with the papers of the Jefferson administration, it comes clear that the legend of the Barbary Pirates shaped America views of "the Orient," which led to an uncharacteristic acceptance of radical foreign policy.

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This thesis examines the forces that interacted to become elements against which black Atlanta struggled for development. Stimulated by a mentality existent in American society, the revised Ku Klux Klan developed enormous political power in Atlanta. In conjunction with “Jim Crow” and other forms of black repression, the Klan’s influence helped to create an atmosphere for struggle. However, determined to improve conditions affecting their lives, in 1919, black Atlantans organized to help defeat a proposed tax increase and bond referendum. The 1919 success caused sponsors of a 1921 referendum to seek black support, for which black Atlanta received improved educational facilities, including the first public high school. The location of the high school was determined by a racial zoning ordinance adopted by the city council. Although unconstitutional, the zoning plan was influencial in determining how black Atlanta was to develop. A number of sources were used. in this study, including: City Council Minutes, Ordinance Records, Board of Education Minutes, Court Cases, Interviews, Newspapers, primary and secondary books and articles.

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