Left Home Research Articles

What Happens After “Nora Leaves Home”? Chinese Female Rural-to-Urban Migrants in the Sex Webcamming Industry

What Happens After “Nora Leaves Home”? Chinese Female Rural-to-Urban Migrants in the Sex Webcamming Industry

Home, but Homebound After Traumatic Brain Injury: Risk Factors and Associations With Nursing Home Entry and Death

ObjectiveTo examine risk factors associated with homeboundness 1-year after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and to explore associations between homebound status and risk of future mortality and nursing home entry. DesignSecondary analysis of a longitudinal prospective cohort study. SettingTBI Model Systems centers. ParticipantsCommunity-dwelling TBI Model Systems participants (n=6595) who sustained moderate-to-severe TBI between 2006 and 2016, and resided in a private residence 1-year postinjury. InterventionsNot applicable. Main Outcome MeasuresHomebound status (leaving home ≤1-2d per week), 5-year mortality, and 2- or 5-year nursing home entry. ResultsIn our sample, 14.2% of individuals were homebound 1-year postinjury, including 2% who never left home. Older age, having less than a bachelor's degree, Medicaid insurance, living in the Northeast or Midwest, dependence on others or special services for transportation, unemployment or retirement, and needing assistance for locomotion, bladder management, and social interactions at 1-year postinjury were associated with being homebound. After adjustment for potential confounders and an inverse probability weight for nonrandom attrition bias, being homebound was associated with a 1.69-times (95% confidence interval, 1.35-2.11) greater risk of 5-year mortality, and a nonsignificant but trending association with nursing home entry by 5 years postinjury (RR=1.90; 95% confidence interval, 0.94-3.87). Associations between homeboundness and mortality were consistent by age subgroup (±65y). ConclusionsThe negative long-term health outcomes among persons with TBI who rarely leave home warrants the need to re-evaluate home discharge as unequivocally positive. The identified risk factors for homebound status, and its associated negative long-term outcomes, should be considered when preparing patients and their families for discharge from acute and postacute rehabilitation care settings. Addressing modifiable risk factors for homeboundness, such as accessible public transportation options and home care to address mobility, could be targets for individual referrals and policy intervention.

홈리스 청소년 자립지원을 위한 법제 개선 연구

Nearly 70,000 homeless youth in South Korea require state support due to the lack of protection within their original families. However, the current legal framework divides these youth into two categories: children in need of protection and youth in crisis, each subject to different support systems and discriminatory policies. Despite repeated system improvements, many young people continue to face economic hardships and isolation, leading to tragic outcomes. This bifurcated approach to youth homelessness and the resulting sense of exclusion undermine the dignity and worth of homeless youth. This study aims to explore a unified legislative framework that integrates the support for children aging out of care under the Child Welfare Act and youth outside the home under the Youth Welfare Support Act. To this end, it compares the support systems for homeless youth in the United Kingdom, establishes a legal definition for homeless youth, and proposes the introduction of supported housing, which combines housing and services, to enable youth who have left home to live inclusively within their communities.

Epidemiology of Homebound Population Among Beneficiaries of a Large National Medicare Advantage Plan.

Interest in home-based care is increasing among Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. The epidemiology of homebound MA beneficiaries is unknown. To determine the prevalence, characteristics, predictors, health service use, and mortality outcomes of homebound beneficiaries of a large national MA plan. Cross-sectional. National MA plan. Humana MA beneficiaries in 2022 (n = 2 435 519). Homebound status was assessed via in-home assessment using previously defined categories: homebound (never or rarely left home in the past month), semihomebound (left home with assistance, had difficulty, or needed help leaving home), and not homebound. Demographic, clinical, health service use, and mortality outcomes were compared by homebound status. In 2022, the overall prevalence of homebound beneficiaries was 22.0% (8.4% of beneficiaries were homebound, and 13.6% were semihomebound). In adjusted models, female sex (odds ratio [OR], 1.36 [95% CI, 1.35 to 1.37), low-income status or dual eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid (OR, 1.56 [CI, 1.55 to 1.57]), dementia (OR, 2.36 [CI, 2.33 to 2.39]), and moderate to severe frailty (OR, 4.32 [CI, 4.19 to 4.45]) were predictive of homebound status. In multivariable logistic regression, homebound status was associated with increased odds of any emergency department visit (OR, 1.14 [ CI, 1.14 to 1.15]), any inpatient hospital admission (OR, 1.44 [CI, 1.42 to 1.46]), any skilled-nursing facility admission (OR, 2.18 [CI, 2.13 to 2.23]), and death (OR, 2.55 [CI, 2.52 to 2.58]). The study period overlapped the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and data were derived from a single national MA plan, which limits generalizability. Overall homebound prevalence in a national MA plan was 22.0% and was independently associated with increased health service use and mortality. Study findings can inform strategic initiatives to identify and manage care for homebound beneficiaries. Humana, under a collaborative research agreement with Johns Hopkins University.

Plan for International Events That Never Leave Home

Plan for International Events That Never Leave Home

Pregnancy in Liver and Kidney Female Recipient: A Case Report

Deterioration of kidney function after orthotopic liver transplantation is a common complication. It may occur due to perioperative acute kidney injury (AKI) and pre-existing or developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). AKI is described in early postoperative period in more than half of the recipients whereas the main cause of CKD is pharmacotherapy. When end-stage renal failure occurs, patients may be qualified for additional transplantations.A case report: We present a rare case of 27-year-old female who as teenager underwent two liver transplantations due to Wilson's disease. Operations were complicated by systemic infection and multiple organ failure. The kidneys did not regain their function, therefore, after 6 months of dialysis, the organ was transplanted. In total, three organ transplantations were performed. Due to the patient's willingness and good graft functions, patient started trying to conceive. Three months before successful conception, immunosuppressive therapy was changed to tacrolimus and azathioprine. Pregnancy was complicated by pregnancy induced hypertension and its course was closely monitored. Organs' functions and immunosuppressive therapy were regularly assessed. Due to the pre-eclampsia developed in the 35th week of gestation, a caesarean section was performed and she gave birth to daughter weighing 2350g (Apgar 7-7-8). Women decided on breastfeeding. No obstetric complications or graft function deterioration were observed in the early postpartum period. Mother and daughter left home after 7 days of hospitalization.Conclusions: The presented clinical situation proves that successful pregnancy is possible by multi-organ transplantation recipients, without impairing the graft functions. Therefore, it requires adequate preparation and increased care.

Lifespace and occupational participation following acquired brain injury during driving disruption: a mixed methods study

Purpose To examine the lifespace of participants referred for occupational therapy driving assessment following acquired brain injury, to understand how, why, where and with whom access and participation in community-based occupations is occurring during the period of driving disruption. Materials and methods The mixed methods, convergent research design utilised a travel diary and Lifespace Mobility Assessment-Composite quantitative elements and semi-structured interviews analysed qualitatively with an interpretive description lens. Results Forty-eight participants (56.25% male) aged between 26 and 65 years, left home on average once/day, primarily to conduct instrumental activities of daily living, health management, and social participation community-based occupations. Most reported restricted lifespace (54.2%) requiring assistance to conduct community occupations (68.1%). Support was primarily provided by family members (80.3%). Analysis of semi-structured interviews (n = 15) created three themes that shaped participant occupational experience during driving disruption: (i) changes to occupational participation; (ii) reliance on others for community access and participation; and (iii) trying to move forward. Conclusion The period of driving disruption following the onset of acquired brain injury is a time of occupational disruption which restricts lifespace, changing how, why, where and with whom participation in community-based occupations occurs. Rehabilitation facilitating occupational adaptation process to enhance community access capacity is indicated.

“Eudora Welty Leaves Home”: A Note on Recent Archival Research Supported by a 2023 Eudora Welty Review Research Grant

“Eudora Welty Leaves Home”: A Note on Recent Archival Research Supported by a 2023 Eudora Welty Review Research Grant

Women’s Leaving Home Experiences in Mother-Daughter Narrative in Post-1990s Chinese American Fiction

This article aims to investigate the trope of “home” and the representation of women’s leaving home experiences in mother-daughter narrative in post-1990s Chinese American fiction. Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement (2013), Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You (2014), and Little Fires Everywhere (2017) are selected in the case study to illustrate the new characteristics of women’s leaving home experiences and the changing cultural connotations of “home” in Chinese American fiction in the new era.

“I left home for better opportunities elsewhere”: An Autoethnographic Study of what it means to be an International Student

Canada is increasingly receiving international students despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Informed by the media, friends and family members, many international students are motivated by the prospects of studying in Canadian post-secondary institutions. This is due to factors such as the reputation of education in Canada, scholarship opportunities, and future employment opportunities. Upon arrival, international students become aware of the challenges associated with living in a new country. They become disappointed and stressed, especially during the initial stage of settlement due to various challenges such as financial difficulties, discrimination and racism, environment-related challenges, loneliness and other mental health issues. Their challenging experiences affect their overall satisfaction and success in their studies. Given the cultural, social and economic benefits international students bring to Canada, it is essential to understand their experiences and how to better support them. In this study, I contributed to the existing literature by focusing on my past experiences as an international student from Ghana using evocative ethnography. I shared the challenges, successes and supports that shaped my overall perspective and settlement in Canada. The major challenges were financial problems, environmental and cultural adjustment, discrimination and loneliness, and COVID-19 pandemic-related challenges. Support strategies involved my personal motivation to succeed, institutional supports (i.e., scholarships, food bank, English language centres, international student centre), my peers in Canada, and my family in my home country. I hope that international students who intend to migrate to Canada and those presently in Canada will learn from the experiences that I have had. This is a singular narrative, but has the potential to influence migration decisions and policies to foster quality international students’ experiences in Canada.

Incremental declines in independence associated with disease progression in early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (AD)

AbstractBackgroundAssociations between disease progression (DP) and health outcomes are poorly characterized in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild AD (MILD). To address this, we examined the impact of DP on incremental changes in independent functioning over 18 months; baseline factors associated with DP were also explored.MethodsParticipants included amyloid‐positive participants assigned to placebo in EXPEDITION‐1/2/3 (solanezumab) and AMARANTH (lanabecestat) studies. DP defined as worsening ³5 (MCI1) or ³9 (MILD2) points on the Integrated Alzheimer’s Disease Rating Scale (iADRS). Endpoints included proportions of participants requiring home supervision (³1 hour) or unable to leave home independently (score <3) and change in total care partner time. Machine learning methods using penalized logistic regression and random forest identified factors associated with DP. Least squares mean change (LSMC) was estimated from mixed‐model repeated measures.ResultsOf 1884 participants (274 MCI, 1610 MILD), 56% of MCI and 63% of MILD participants met DP criteria over 18 months.Baseline AD medication use, greater care partner time, worse functional activities questionnaire (FAQ) score and CDR‐SB, higher iADRS, and lower BMI and MMSE increased odds of DP for MILD (Figure 1) but not for MCI.Proportion of participants with DP requiring home supervision (p<0.001; MILD only) and not leaving home independently (p<0.05; MCI&MILD) increased significantly at each post‐baseline visit over 18 months (Figure 2). DP in MILD only had significantly higher proportions of participants who could not be left home alone or travel outside of home independently vs no DP (p<0.05).In those with DP, total care partner time increased significantly from baseline to 18 months (LSMC: 46.0±12.5 hours/month for MCI and 73.2±5.5 for MILD) (Figure 3). For DP vs no DP, increased care partner time at 18 months was significantly higher for MILD (LSMC difference, 66.0±9.3 hours/month; p<0.001) but not for MCI.ConclusionsEarly symptomatic AD participants who progressed over 18 months had reduced independence and required more care partner time. Treatments that slow DP may preserve independence and reduce overall health care burden.

Field study challenges: Customisation and personalisation during lighting control research in residences

Residential lighting control can assist in creating a comfortable atmosphere, providing information, and supporting well-being. Field studies are used to investigate lighting control, but study protocol customisation or personalisation may be required due to actual life events and situations. An 8-week field study tested three protocols for effects on behaviour, well-being, and sleep patterns and was executed in 14 apartments during the winter. Light amount and timing were controlled: residents woke up with a dawn simulation, experienced lights turn-off as an indication to leave for work, and were prepared for bed during a dusk simulation scenario. Sleep trackers results showed later and more wide-ranged wake-up and bedtimes than assumed. As expected, the apartments’ different floorplans challenged comparable light exposure. Unexpectedly, several participants requested a reduced wake-up frequency and reported sleeping elsewhere on Fridays and Saturdays. Everybody experienced a full dawn simulation, but some people left home soon after wake-up, calling for lighting control customisation. Real-time field applications may demand a certain level of customisation or personalisation, affecting intentions and results. Discussing and documenting (un)intentional adjustments during final interviews and in scientific publications can benefit in explaining findings and further research.

Del's Growth: A Typical Example of Construction of Female Self-consciousness—A Postmodern Feminist Analysis of Lives of Girls and Women

Alice Munro is a famous contemporary Canadian women writer and the winner of 2013 Nobel Prize in literature. She is known as the ""master of contemporary short stories"". Munro is very concerned about the life experience of ordinary women. She always focuses on the daily trifles and details of ordinary women and describes their journey from a girl to a wife in detail, especially focusing on the psychological fluctuations and twists and turns of women. They seem fragile, but they are persistent. Munro's works are full of postmodern feminism, focusing on women's self-awareness and subjective conscious construction.
 From the perspective of postmodern feminism, the thesis focuses on the gradual formation and evolution of the heroine's self-consciousness in Alice Munro's only ""full-length"" novel Lives of Girls and Women in the process of growing up from a girl to a woman, and how female images to jump out of the hierarchy, logical structure and linear narrative surrounded by men's words and begin to express own world.
 The introduction gives an overview of Alice Munro and the novel Lives of Girls and Women, literary reviews at home and abroad, some key elements in postmodern feminism, and the significance of this thesis.
 The body section consists of three chapters: Chapter One focuses on ""Del observes the adult life"". Through Del's observation, the life of Uncle Benny's wife, two aunts, her mother and the teacher unfolded. Chapter Two analyzes ""Self-consciousness of Del begins to construct"". Del gradually began to grow up. The awakening of sexual consciousness, the doubt of belief and the excavation of herself have gradually become the theme of this adolescent girl's life. Chapter Three revolves around ""Establishment and Perfection of her self-consciousness"". Finally, she got rid of her fantasy and self-deception, her past mistakes and perplexity, and left home to start her real life.
 The conclusion part summarizes that from the perspective of postmodern feminism, the self-growth and consciousness awakening of Del is how women break away from the role of ""good women"" who meet the social expectations and find their own real nature. Munro challenges the forces we take for granted and shakes the foundations of our lives. Women perceive the world in a way different from men and resist the grandeur of history with daily trivialities. Munro constructs women's value expresses her voice and embodies her choice of will by transcending feminism and returning to women's ontological experience.

18 Years After Mamaw's Death, Our Grief Thinks it's Grown Enough to Leave Home, and: Sweetbitter

18 Years After Mamaw's Death, Our Grief Thinks it's Grown Enough to Leave Home, and: Sweetbitter

Leaving the parental home in post‐apartheid South Africa

AbstractThe process by which young people leave home in South Africa is central for understanding the lives of the country's young adult population, as well as, their role in the structural household change that has occurred over the post‐apartheid period. However, hardly any quantitative work has been conducted on this process and no work exists on trends. This study provides nationally representative trends of home‐leaving for young adults in South Africa for the first time using a stacked series of annual cross‐sections between 1995 and 2011. Different home‐leaving rates by race converged in the late 90s and steadied in the 2000s. Most South Africans only left home by age 25—but whether this can be interpreted as ‘delayed’ or not is complicated by diverse family patterns and the presence of stretched households. Home‐leavers are especially dependent on labour market income in the absence of social grants targeted at the large unemployed young adult population. Since young women face higher unemployment rates than young men, women were notably more reliant than men on marriage as a pathway out of the parental home. Over time, young male home‐leavers are living alone at higher rates, meaning they have contributed to general household proliferation.

The role of fathers and care-giving arrangements in informal settlements in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Quality childcare has been associated with multiple long-term benefits for children including improved school readiness, better educational outcomes and improved health and productivity. Evidence suggests that returns on investment are much higher when targeted at the youngest children, especially during the first 1,000 days. Despite the evidence and the ever-increasing need and potential benefits, investments made so far to make high-quality childcare accessible to the neediest families are not commensurate. It is estimated that nearly 350 million eligible pre-primary school-age children have no access to quality childcare, especially in low-and middle-income countries. The purpose of this study was to establish the role of fathers and the childcare arrangements in selected urban informal settlements in Kenya and Ethiopia. A mixed methods design was adopted with quantitative data being collected using a structured household questionnaire administered to 635 mothers of children of 0-3 years from both countries. In both countries, data was collected from three vulnerable communities namely urban informal settlements, large commercial agricultural settlements associated with flower farms, and female penal institutions where women with young children below 4 years old are incarcerated. Quantitative data was not collected from the penal institutions because during the time of the study (at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic), access to members of the public including researchers was restricted and so here only qualitative data was collected. The data reported in this article therefore does not include data from penal institutions. Findings show that fathers played a major role in childcare according to 74% of respondents in Kenya and 57.7% in Ethiopia. This involvement is mainly defined in terms of providing financial support for basic needs for the family and child and for accessing health care. Some fathers were found to be either minimally involved or not involved at all. Key reasons advanced for minimal engagement included fathers having either left home permanently, had another family, was working far from home or was working long hours. Findings regarding care arrangements established that significant proportions of children had been left behind without adult supervision. Neighbors and siblings younger than 18 years provided most of the alternative care. House helps also accounted for 20.3% of care in Ethiopia with none being registered for Kenya. Daycare services only accounted for 13.4% of care in Kenya and 6.3% in Ethiopia, respectively. The findings revealed that fathers are fairly involved in childcare even mainly through providing necessary resources. Significantly high proportions of children were left under the care of their underage siblings leading to questions of the safety of these children. Parents and guardians in these settlements had access to a mix of care arrangements including both unpaid and paid neighbors, toddler's siblings and in limited cases, daycare services. The low levels of utilization of daycare services indicate either limited services or inability to pay for the same. It is recommended that governments consider investing in childcare services in informal settlements.

The Increasing Prevalence of Children Home Alone in Ghana: The Importance of Considering Regional Inequalities

Research from industrialized settings has linked inadequate child supervision with various negative consequences. Nevertheless, empirical research in lower- and middle-income countries about correlates of inadequate child supervision has been scarce. The few studies that exist tended to focus on individual- and household-level factors, and reported associations that are not significant or in mixed directions depending on the context. Structural factors are left underexplored, but taking a more macro-level lens in settings with high regional disparities can hold the key to explaining increases in prevalence of inadequate child supervision. Exploring the evolution over time of child supervision practices can also enrich this explanation. We use data from two rounds of Ghana Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys to examine factors associated with children left home alone, and employ regional analysis using strata-level mixed effects. We found that in Ghana, the prevalence of children left home alone without adult supervision increased by 8.5% between 2011 and 2018 – an increase of more than 500,000 children over seven years. Statistical analyses suggest that variation between regions likely are associated with the growth of inadequate child supervision in this country. Future research should pay closer attention to how structural conditions, proxied by regions, can serve as either barriers or facilitators to adequate child supervision practices, helping shed light on residual variance unexplained by individual- and household-level factors.

The empty nest syndrome assessment instrument: development and psychometric properties of Persian version among iranian older adults

ABSTRACT Leaving home by children so-called ‘empty nest’ is a crucial event that will affect the parents’ quality of life. This article reports the development and validation of the empty nest syndrome Instrument (ENSAI), an instrument that assessed a set of signs and symptoms specific to parents confronted by the empty nest. Initially, qualitative responses from 41 parents were analyzed and cross-referenced with existing literature on empty nest syndrome to develop 21 items and six factors of Loneliness, Purposelessness, Anxiety-Depression, Insomnia, Grief-Loss, and Incompetency. Following a development phase, the instrument’s psychometric properties were tested on a sample of 210 parents using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFI). EFA revealed six subscales for ENSAI, collectively explaining 79% of the empty nest syndrome variance. All item loadings were ‘good’ to ‘excellent,’ ranging from 0.60 to 0.96. CFA indicated a high goodness of fit for the Persian version of ENSAI.

I and We in Picun: The Making of Chinese Poet Xiao Hai

Abstract Xiao Hai left home at age fifteen as one of roughly three hundred million domestic migrant workers whose labor has contributed to China's rise since the 1980s. He was a factory worker in a string of cities for a good dozen years: think assembly line, overtime, exploitation, alienation. To counter the pressures of this life, he wrote poetry. In 2016 he settled in Picun, a village on the outskirts of Beijing made famous by an NGO called the Migrant Workers Home. The Home aims to advance migrant workers’ social identification through cultural education. To this end, the migrant worker community works with academic and cultural professionals, media professionals, and members of the state's cultural apparatus. This interaction takes shape in a “shared space” (in Dai Jinhua's words) of cultural production and experience that blurs distinctions of official and unofficial culture and their easy association with political power and resistance, respectively. As a member of the Picun Literature Group who expertly navigates this space, Xiao Hai has become a representative of the Picun “brand,” building a mediagenic public persona in the process. Who is Xiao Hai? What does his writing say? What other actors and factors shape his persona? What can we learn from all this about the nexus of precarious labor and cultural production? The stories of Picun, Xiao Hai, and migrant worker literature subvert simple oppositions of grassroots versus state discourse and unofficial versus official culture. Instead, they foreground the complexity of relations between the individual, community, and the state in China today.

Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease by Elizabeth Whitlow

Reviewed by: Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease by Elizabeth Whitlow Amy M. Porter Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease. By Elizabeth Whitlow. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2021. Pp. xii, 405. $45.00, ISBN 978-1-57441-866-8.) Biographies of early Texas political figures often focus on men, but in her new book, Elizabeth Whitlow breaks from this trend by studying the lives of both Elisha and Lucadia Pease. Identified with Texas: The Lives of Governor Elisha Marshall Pease and Lucadia Niles Pease examines an important political figure who served as governor from 1853 to 1857 and again during Reconstruction from 1867 to 1869, as well as the challenges of life in nineteenth-century Texas and the experiences of a woman who often lived apart from her husband as he left home to serve in political office. Public records allow for more coverage of Elisha, but Lucadia Pease’s extensive private correspondence reveals a woman’s world that works on Texas political history have rarely examined. Whitlow notes that, before this project, Elisha Pease was the only major political figure or Texas governor of this era who did not have a full-length scholarly biography. Identified with Texas follows the lives of Elisha and Lucadia Pease in chronological order, and several of the chapters focus on parts of his three terms as governor. Whitlow’s research in the Pease Papers and other public records is extensive. Identified with Texas is at its best when Whitlow provides details from personal correspondence that offer readers glimpses into the relationship between Lucadia and Elisha, as well as their thoughts on political and societal issues. Lucadia Niles Pease is a fascinating figure. She attended school in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and she traveled extensively before she [End Page 356] married Elisha Pease in 1850. She referred to herself as a “woman’s rights woman,” and she made sure her daughters, one of whom attended Vassar College, had access to education (p. vi). Lucadia was often without her husband, as he lived away from home when he held political positions. Her story reveals the emotional support she provided for Elisha during his political career, and their letters disclose a loving relationship. Lucadia’s story also takes the reader through the challenges of epidemic illnesses, losing children, and living through a war. Elisha receives more coverage in the book than Lucadia since he was the public figure, but the attention paid to Lucadia and her letters adds tremendously to Whitlow’s analysis. Whitlow demonstrates that Elisha Pease played a critical role in nineteenth- century Texas politics. He advocated for causes that he felt were important to the development of the state. He supported public schools and advocated for public higher education. He also worked to start schools for deaf and blind Texans and to open a state asylum. Politically, he opposed the Know-Nothing Party, criticized abolitionists, and registered his frustration with the federal government for not providing enough troops to offer protection against Indian raids. Pease worked to prevent the secession of Texas, but after the outbreak of the Civil War, he remained in the state to protect his property. This was a risk for him and his family, as other Texans knew he held Unionist views. But throughout his career, Pease had also made his proslavery views widely known. The Peases were slaveholders, and Elisha defended the system of slavery on numerous occasions. In letters Lucadia wrote during a stint teaching children on a Virginia plantation, she noted her opposition to slavery but also claimed that the slaves appeared happy. In Texas, too, slaves were part of her household. One of the most interesting sections in Identified with Texas explores the Reconstruction era. As a Unionist with political experience, Pease was an obvious choice for appointment to the governorship during the postwar years. His correspondence noted the challenges the state faced: economic problems, violence against Unionists, violence against freedmen and freedwomen, conflict with Indians along the frontier, and divisions within the ranks of Unionists and Republicans. Pease’s words vividly illustrate this complicated atmosphere. Whitlow has...