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In Honors Theses

Abstract

This thesis seeks to examine African American activist Octavius Valentine Catto's social and civic contributions to the African American community in Philadelphia and the nation during the Reconstruction era. Catto's militancy, courage, and devotion to the black cause, as a result of major religious and secular revolutionary ideology, offers an alternative view of the black experience in the North which was overshadowed by the myriad of research on Reconstruction in the South. Octavius Catto is part of a long tradition of black activists who led a wave of antislavery reform rooted in the secular political ideology of the American Revolution, which proposed that slavery was hypocritical and inconsistent with the ideals proclaimed in the foundational traditions of America, the Declaration of Independence. Intense racism and discrimination, due to the sociopolitical framework of the period, provides a focus for Octavius Catto's civil rights activism. How did Octavius Catto challenge the white sociopolitical structure? How did he gain the respect of Philadelphia's white population while combating racist sentiment? Through the examination of Octavius Catto's formal liberal arts education, intense involvement in sociopolitical societies, recruitment efforts for black Union troops during the Civil War, and baseball career, this thesis demonstrates that Octavius Catto was influential in directing the progress of blacks within a white prejudiced nation. Octavius Catto founded the Pythian Baseball Club, the first all black baseball club to participate in and win an interracial challenge, which provided an alternative and novel path of civil and social activism. Evidently, the Pythian Baseball Club used baseball as a vehicle to battle race relations, uplift the status of blacks, and assimilate into the mainstream fabric of American society. This thesis is a qualitative study supported by extensive primary source documents which allow further examination of Octavius Catto's life. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania contains the Leon Gardiner Collection and American Negro Historical Society Collection, which constitutes the bulk of the primary source records researched for this project. These primary sources consist of the Banneker Institute Papers, the Pythian Baseball Club Papers and the Pennsylvania State Equal Rights League Papers. Through the meticulous examination of the language and content in correspondence letters, speeches, weekly periodicals, and social and literary organization law, this thesis outlines the ways in which Octavius Catto and fellow black leaders forged a path to social and civic equality in their respective communities. Despite the availability of primary source material relevant to Octavius Catto's life, secondary sources have provided extensive sociopolitical contextual information integral to the Reconstruction era and primary source material. The Department of History at Villanova University maintains a permanent online exhibit entitled "A Great Thing for our People: The Institute for Colored Youth in the Civil War Era," which seeks to tell the early history of its graduates, including Octavius Catto, and how they helped shape the history of postwar America. This exhibit, along with other secondary sources, constitute the bulk of my secondary sources.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

While most Civil War history deals with a glorified and romanticized version of a soldier's experience of war, the time a soldier spent combating the idleness of camp proved to be a more consuming battle. Though lacking in grandeur, how a soldier 'killed time' provides an important yet often overlooked insight into the camaraderie and culture of Civil War soldiers. Historians that have looked into camp amusements and vices tend not to go beyond the soldiers psychological need to mentally manage the war. This thesis takes their theory a step further. Examining soldiers' records of their experiences in camp activities in date order and by season reveals distinct patterns of criticism, disassociation, indifference, and participation. Furthermore, analyzing their observations based on rank shows the antagonistic relationship between officers and soldiers based on discipline and behavior.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

The United States was not always as united as its name suggests. In the middle of the nineteenth century, as the country was in turmoil, the nation was divided between the North and the South, ultimately resulting in a four year Civil War. By 1865 the regions' tensions around the strongly contrasting views of partisanship, the role of the Federal government, and race were fully exposed. Between 1865 and 1877, the nation embarked on a path of Reconstruction as a way to rebuild itself. This path had three different phases - Presidential Reconstruction, Radical Reconstruction, and Redemption. However, South Carolina, along with other southern states, strongly resisted such a movement and refused to accept change. Thus, the state became one the loudest and most vocal critics of Reconstruction as it impacted the nation's development. For South Carolina, 1865 until 1872 was a time of great struggle, as the state resisted Federal control yet was still subjected to forcible change. This struggle was documented in newspapers such as the Charleston Daily News. These newspapers were the passageways to South Carolina's heart, as they directly spoke to and shaped the ideas of people, especially around partisanship, the Federal Government and attitudes towards blacks, reflecting tensions that were embedded in the fabric of the changing country. The Charleston Daily News emerged in 1865 with strong partisanship ties to state Conservatives and the nation's Democratic Party. The News advocated for each with such dedication that the articles mildly resembled propaganda. However, as Reconstruction developed and Radicalism emerged, South Carolina's political views changed, as reflected in the opinions of the News, which by 1872 began to encourage its readers to break from the Democratic Party and support a fusion party.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

The purpose of my research is to reevaluate and extend the commonly understood time frame of Reconstruction by scholars to include Southern women's ideological Reconstruction as well as provide a particular perspective on women during this era, which is underdeveloped in literature. Elite, white women during the Civil War began a journey towards independence and involvement in the public sphere. This evolution occurred approximately fifteen years behind similar actions taken by Northern women; this paper attempts to explain this lag. Additionally, my research asserts that Southern women were forced in a sense to become independent during the Civil War while their men were fighting, once Reconstruction began, rather than publically asserting this independence instead retired into the private domestic sphere cultivating a different degree of independence until Northern subjugation was removed and women felt secure enough in their feminine role in society to more towards reform involvement. I have primarily used diaries written by women of this demographic during the Civil War and years following to show a specific ideological progression using their own words as evidence to support this thesis as well as various archives from women's groups.

Type of Resource

Thesis

Rights Statement

In Honors Theses

Abstract

The demands that come with war can be both physically and mentally traumatizing and damaging to the soldier in many ways. These psychological injuries manifest themselves in what physicians call Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The purpose of this paper is to examine Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in American Soldiers by analyzing the training methods, human's natural aversion to killing, pre-deployment medical exams, type of warfare, and treatment options provided in war; specifically the Civil War, World War I and World War II, Vietnam, and the Iraq War. By taking into account the history of PTSD as a disease, as well as these five triggers, we can fully explore why PTSD has increased in soldiers from war to war and how changing the negative stigma surrounding PTSD is the best way to help our soldiers.

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Thesis

Rights Statement

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

In Alumni Files

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

In John Bigelow papers

Abstract

This scrapbook contains newspaper clippings coving the Bigelow family's travels in Europe while John Bigelow performed diplomatic duties for the United States during the Civil War.

Type of Resource

Book

Rights Statement

In John Bigelow papers

Abstract

This scrapbook contains newspaper clippings coving the Bigelow family's travels in Europe while John Bigelow performed diplomatic duties for the United States during the Civil War.

Type of Resource

Book

Rights Statement

In John Bigelow papers

Abstract

This bibliography was compiled in 2013 for the original Union College online Bigelow database website. It was created as a guide for further research regarding John Bigelow, his family, and the events he participated in. The sources quoted may contain information that is out of date. This object is represented in this collection as an artifact of the John Bigelow Papers here at Union College.

Type of Resource

DigitalDocument

Rights Statement

Digital Publisher