American History Research Articles

Lincecum’s law: white supremacy, castration, and Gideon Lincecum’s crusade in Texas during the long civil war era

ABSTRACT In 1854, prior to the American Civil War, Gideon Lincecum (1793–1874), an enslaver and physician from Texas, proposed a law advocating for the castration of criminals to prevent additional crimes committed by men, especially Black men, and to inhibit hereditary immorality. Shockingly, Lincecum also viewed his law as a “solution” to the “immorality” of abolitionists who supported freedom for enslaved African Americans. Lincecum inspired physicians and scientists promoting eugenics in the twentieth century who racially targeted Black men as candidates for castration. Lincecum’s castration law magnifies the ugliness of scientific racism and violent perceptions of justice as deriving from the same ideological white supremacy that persisted from before the Civil War into the twentieth century.

Madmen and Matriarchs: Gender, Race, and the Reimagining of Creole Identity in Johnelle , by Alfred Mercier

Abstract: Still relatively overlooked, Johnelle by Alfred Mercier is an intriguing meditation on societal collapse and resilience. Shaped by Mercier’s personal experiences and political leanings, the novel delves into motherhood, fatherhood, heredity, and mental illness, and links infanticide to the demise of Francophone Creole culture. It positions female characters as pivotal to Louisiana’s future, contrasting them with male figures whose relevance fades in the aftermath of the American Civil War. This essay examines how Mercier challenged nineteenth-century literary conventions by using gender both as a narrative device and an ontological framework. To a white, crumbling patriarchy, he opposed a multi-racial matriarchal system, and introduced a gender-non-conforming character, inviting readers to envision new possibilities for the future. Ultimately, Johnelle presents a radical vision that questions racial and gender hierarchies and advocates for alternative social structures in postbellum Louisiana.

Current Themes in (Somewhat) Early American History

Current Themes in (Somewhat) Early American History

Beyond physical and representational violence: the violence of Black children’s invisibility in public spaces

ABSTRACT George Floyd’s May 2020 murder by police underscored the interconnectedness of violence, systemic racism, and white supremacy in the US. This essay explores violence against Black children as an historical extension of the violence against Black adults and communities that is often at the centre of social justice and anti-racism work. We connect recent social media posts of Black children being ignored, waved away, or pushed by public amusement park performers with the current conservative political climate legislating the erasure or censoring of US history in K-12 schools allegedly to ‘save the [white] children’ from the misnamed ‘Critical Race Theory’.

Moral attitudes towards effort and efficiency: a comparison between American and Chinese history

In some cultures, merely exerting effort is considered virtuous, even when the effort is inefficient. Our study examines how this moral attitude towards effort (relative to efficiency) has evolved historically across two distinct sociopolitical and linguistic contexts: the People’s Republic of China and the United States, using natural language processing techniques. Specifically, two formal political corpora were used—the People’s Daily (1950–2021) and the Congressional speeches for the U.S. (1873–2011). We developed dictionaries for each concept based on pre-trained word embedding models in both languages. Moral attitudes towards effort and efficiency were calculated on a year-by-year basis as the cosine similarity between the dictionaries of these concepts and an existing dictionary of morality. We benchmarked the fluctuations of moral attitude towards inefficient effort against critical historical events in the two countries. Additional time series analysis and Granger tests revealed the association and potential directionality between the evolution of moral attitude towards inefficient effort and critical socio-cultural variables such as collectivism and cultural looseness. Our research sheds light on the historical and socio-cultural roots of moralization of effort and has implications for historical psychology research on moral attitudes.

What to Do after the Emancipation Proclamation? A Princeton Seminary Alumnus’s Views on Racial Issues and Slavery in Brazil and the United States (1852–1867)

Abstract This article reflects on how the concept of race and views on African Americans and Afro-Brazilians permeated the American Presbyterian missions that operated in the Brazilian empire in the nineteenth century. This analysis considers the writing and reading of Ashbel Green Simonton (1833–1867), a Princeton Seminary alum sent to Brazil as a missionary by the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA). In his missionary activity, Simonton founded the first Presbyterian Church and the first evangelical periodical in Brazil. Considering the intercessions between the racial theories stemming from natural history and nineteenth-century theological anthropologies, as well as the missionary’s interactions with the racial and slavery issues that permeated the American Civil War (1861–1865), this article analyzes Simonton’s journal (1852–1867), the books requested by Simonton at Princeton Theological Seminary (1856–1858), and the periodical Imprensa Evangélica (Evangelical Press, 1864–1867).

“An Acre of Land to Plant or a Stick of Wood to Make a Fence or Fire”: An Archaeology of Mohegan Allotment

Abstract Although land loss is among the most profound impacts that settler colonialism had for Indigenous societies across North America, archaeologists rarely study one of the principal colonial mechanisms of land dispossession: allotment. This process forever altered the course of North American history, breaking up collectively held Indigenous lands into lots “owned” by individuals and families while further stressing local Indigenous subsistence patterns, social relations, political organization, and more. Archaeology's long-term, material, and sometimes collaborative vantage stands to offer insights on this process and how it played out for Indigenous peoples in different times and places. As its case study, this article considers the allotment of Mohegan lands in southeastern Connecticut (USA). An archaeology of Mohegan allotment speaks to more than land loss and cultural change. It provides evidence of an enduring and long-term Indigenous presence on the land; of the challenges faced and overcome by Mohegan peoples living through, and with, settler colonialism; and of the nuances of Indigenous-colonial archaeological records. This study also shows the importance of Indigenous and collaborative archaeologies for shedding new light on these challenging but important archaeological traces.

Neurosurgeons in Congress: the 25th amendment and United States Presidency.

In 2020, realizing that a President was not immune to a public health emergency, United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recommended the passing of a Bill (Raskin J (2021) A Bill To establish the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office, and for other purposes. 116th Congress, 2nd Session. https://raskin.house.gov/sites/raskin.house.gov/files/Commission%20on%20Presidential%20Capacity%20Act%20%5BFINAL%5Dpdf.pdf ) that would create a bipartisan group of experts to evaluate the Commander-in-Chief's mental and physical health and advise Congress on whether a President could be demoted under the 25th Amendment. Neurosurgeons are equipped to advice Congress in the advent of such a need. The authors aimed to provide a brief history of the 25th amendment during US history and implications for neurosurgeons within the jurisdictions of US Congress.

A Timeline of Journalistic Influence of Writing on the Gilded Age in American Literature

The themes found in the writings by authors during the Gilded Age are still prevalent in writings of the twenty-first century. The Gilded Age, a term used to describe a period of economic boom after the American Civil War at the turn of the century, influenced communication to readers by using the ethos unearthed by writers who were opposed to a particular politician and their policies. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. What looked like a golden time was an era of great growing pains in America between the industrial worker and the wealthy business owner. What the Gilded Age symbolized in both life and writing has become a model of writing that extended to current literature. American writers contributed to a great body of literature that flourished during the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was a time of rapid economic growth through the invention of the railroad and business. Literature was used as a social revolt that violated the growing power of business and growing government corruption that outlined the utopias of the inefficiency of a capitalistic system. Within genres of writing such as Poetry, the later nineteenth century, and early years of the twentieth century were a poor period for American poetry providing themes of distress, doubts, and fears about American life. Within the genres of writing, newspaper writing played a crucial role in exposing scandals, the pathos of the American Dream, and the logos or persuasion by using the trials of society. Writing was a powerful communication tool during the Gilded Age that allowed writers to target events during this era. Newspaper writing was important to communicating prominent issues to the public, as it upheld ideals to question government and keep it accountable. However, the Gilded Age writings helped to permanently etch in the minds of readers the importance of themes that were prevalent post-Civil War that impacted the writing and writers of American Literature.

The Racialized American Dream: Predictors for the 21st Century

ABSTRACT The American Dream has long been understood as a “shorthand summary of a nation’s collective aspirations” (Hauhart 2015:65). What determines optimism about the Dream? This paper uses nationally representative data collected at a critical historical juncture to advance research which has connected the American Dream to America’s racial history. We find faith in the American Dream was racialized into the 21st-Century, both in the sense that our data show different levels of optimism toward the Dream by race and in that predictors of belief vary by racialized experiences and ideologies. We find that most Americans continued to believe in the American Dream, but contrary to prominent 20th-Century understandings, whites became less optimistic than persons of color, and that this remaining white belief was complex, with racial attitudes being central. Predictors of belief in the Dream were different by race in ways that may vitally reflect how collective aspirations are conceived from within unfolding American racial civic histories and 21st-Century racial hierarchies, patterns we discuss as privileged multiculturalism (whites), meritocratic incorporation (Hispanics), and positive social inclusion (Blacks). Ultimately, these findings suggest that the socio-cultural significance of the American Dream is not just tied to material position but intertwined with racialized cultural expectations, outlooks, and status concerns.

The other women's rights movement: ‘Streetwalkers’, habeas corpus and anticarceral activism in New York City, 1830–1860

AbstractThis article reconstructs the earliest known movement for sex workers' rights in US history. It interprets collective assertions of due process as a strategy to overturn vagrancy laws, which permitted municipal officials to summarily commit ‘common prostitutes’ to the penitentiary for months. Mass arrests sparked an anticarceral movement of ‘streetwalkers’ who refused to be contained. Unlike the middle‐class Woman's Rights Movement, which sought equal rights for their own sake, streetwalkers acted to build a world in which they could control their own labour, have sex without punishment and move freely through their city.

An Analysis of the Time Travel Device for Exploring Black-White Race Relations in Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred

The thesis focuses on Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred and employs close reading and textual analysis to explore the depiction of black-white race relations through the time travel device. It points out that Butler cleverly uses the method of temporal rescue to break the “grandmother paradox.” The dual-time setting allows Dana, while saving her white ancestors, to witness the harsh realities faced by her African American ancestors in American history. On this basis, the thesis reveals and critiques the historical roots of racial issues, highlighting the physiological and psychological experiences of racial injustice endured by African Americans, as well as the persistence and improvement of the legacy of slavery. It emphasizes the importance of African Americans confronting history to break the cycle of oppression and shape a more equitable future.

“The Explosive Ingredients Are Here” Mexican American Municipal Electoral Challenges in South Texas, 1963–1965

Abstract This article examines the unsettled landscape of racial and political relations between and among Mexican Americans and Anglos in South Texas from 1963 to 1965, as liberal Mexican American civil rights activists organized to challenge longstanding Anglo power, driving fear, anger, and backlash among Anglos and exacerbating divisions among Mexican Americans across lines of class and ideology. In three sections, the work investigates a series of threatened, attempted, and successful municipal electoral challenges by Mexican American voters beyond the well-known and widely publicized such event in Crystal City in 1963. In the first section, the study details the embryonic municipal electoral challenges that erupted before and after Crystal City between 1963 and 1965, showing that Mexican American South Texans supported the overthrow of Anglo political domination. In the second, it sketches the responses of Anglos to what they termed “Latin take-overs,” reflecting the erosion of Anglo dominance. In the third, it examines how the electoral challenges mounted by Mexican Americans revealed internecine ideological and class divisions amongst themselves over the most effective ways to challenge racism, demonstrating the conflicts that undermined their efforts and strengthened those of the Anglos. In so doing, the study challenges and revises the historiography of the Crystal City ‘revolt’ and its legacies.

From the Museum to the Studio: Rethinking Visual Representations of White-Washed Stories of North American History

From the Museum to the Studio: Rethinking Visual Representations of White-Washed Stories of North American History

Native Foods: Agriculture, Indigeneity, and Settler Colonialism in American History by Michael D. Wise (review)

Native Foods: Agriculture, Indigeneity, and Settler Colonialism in American History by Michael D. Wise (review)

Lessons from the Biggest Business Tax Cut in US History

We assess the business provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the biggest corporate tax cut in US history. We draw five lessons. First, corporate tax revenue fell by 40 percent due to the lower rate and more generous expensing. Second, firms with larger declines in their effective tax wedge increased investment relatively more. In aggregate, we suggest a loose consensus from the literature that total tangible corporate investment increased by 11 percent. Third, the business tax provisions increased economic growth and wages by less than advertised by the Act’s proponents, with long-run GDP higher by less than 1 percent and labor income by less than $1,000 per employee. Fourth, provisions that increase foreign investment by US-based multinationals also boost their domestic operations. Fifth, some of the expired and expiring provisions, such as accelerated depreciation, generate more investment per dollar of tax revenue than others.

Curating the American Past: A Memoir of a Quarter Century at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Curating the American Past: A Memoir of a Quarter Century at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Commemorating the Events of May 4, 1970 at Kent State University, USA: An Analysis of the Reconciliation Process

On May 4, 1970, American history saw a violent outburst between the US government and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators. On this day, protesters who were unarmed and gathered on the Kent State University campus were opened fire upon by Ohio State National Guardsmen. Four students were dead and nine injured in the span of thirteen seconds. Emotions swept across the USA following the shootings. Discussions concerning the shootings' purpose, significance, and memory are still ongoing. Many memorials have been built in the decades after the May 4th shootings as a way to remember the atrocity. This study aims to provide an overview of the May 4th events at Kent State University and the memorializing process that has occurred on campus. This study describes and analyzes some of the commemorations such as the candlelight walk and vigil, memorials, and their function in the transitioning process. The main discussion of this article revolves around the effectiveness of the assistance given to the victims in their healing journey, the adequacy of the support, and the exploration of other options. Additionally, it explores alternative strategies for healing. Finally, this article offers the establishment of a historical truth commission for promoting the healing process.

Content Analysis of Textbooks via Natural Language Processing

Purpose: Advanced methods from the field of data science have the potential to shed fresh light on basic concerns in the field of educational research. Natural language processing tools, such as lexicons, word embeddings, and topic models, are used in 15 United States history textbooks that were extensively used in Texas between the years 2015 and 2017. Material and Methods: This study aims to analyze these textbooks for their portrayal of historically oppressed populations. Latinx individuals are rarely mentioned, but renowned white men are almost always mentioned. People of African descent are characterized as behaving in ways that imply helplessness and lack of control, according to lexical methods. Women are most often addressed in the contexts of the home and the workplace, according to the word embeddings. Issues of a political rather than a social nature are highlighted by subject modeling. Findings: We also found that textbooks with a smaller representation of women and people of African heritage are more often purchased by conservative nations. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: Our computational toolkit has a rich history of textbook analysis and has recently been distributed as part of our efforts to support new fields of study.

Recipes for Life: Black Women, Cooking, and Memory

In African American history, food has functioned as expression of colonial power and control, and as a source of Black celebration and liberation. Cookbooks written by Black women from the mid-eighteenth century to late twentieth century reflect the long history of the development of African American cuisine. These texts are practical and instructional, while also offering insights into the transnational development of food as an expression of cultural history through African, Indigenous, and European influences. African Americans, and more specifically Black women, have contributed to the food history of the Southern United States by developing a distinct African American cuisine and creating the texts by which to publicly declare their knowledge and ensure its survival. By analyzing the cookbooks of Malinda Russell, Edna Lewis, Vertamae Smith-Grosvenor, and Carole and Norma Jean Darden, a timeline of cookbooks from the Civil War to the Black Power Movement can be established. Their commonalities, including the use of cookbooks as autobiographies, community memoirs, and genealogical records, are features that resonated with the Civil Rights Movement in the latter half of the twentieth century. Food is more than a means of survival. It is a constantly evolving expression of culture, people, and celebration.