Weekly newspapers of Montgomery, Giles and Roanoke Counties, the Continental Divide Counties covering the period from 1866 to 1876 are used to assess the lives of southwest Virginians. The newspapers reflect a strong traditional political, economic and social conservatism during a period of economic struggle for small subsistence farmers. In order to better their marketing, the citizens resorted to a variety of internal improvement schemes, but it was not until the unsolicited Republican capital of Philadelphia businessmen invaded that a major railroad link was built. Whereas attempts to channelize the New River failed, efforts to improve municipal waterworks were largely successful. The inhabitants were people of strong moral convictions, as evidenced by their enthusiasm for the temperance movement and their endorsement of the southern Civil War memorial associations. Reluctantly turning from their Jacksonian principles, the Ninth District embraced organized political conservatism through convention politics, in a statewide conservative effort to destroy Radical Republicanism. / M.A.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/106137 |
| Date | January 1986 |
| Creators | Nicolay, John A. |
| Contributors | History |
| Publisher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | x, 134 leaves, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 15617946 |
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