Search Results

Advanced search parameters have been applied.
open access

Slavery in the Republic of Texas

Description: Slavery was established in Texas with the first Anglo-American settlement in 1822. The constitution of the Republic of Texas protected slavery as did laws passed by the legislature from 1836 to 1846, and the institution of slavery grew throughout the period. Slaves were given adequate food, clothing, and shelter for survival, and they also managed to develop a separate culture. Masters believed that slaves received humane treatment but nevertheless worried constantly about runaways and slave re… more
Date: May 1982
Creator: Purcell, Linda Myers
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Texas and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

Description: This work demonstrates the importance of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in stirring sectional awareness and tension in Texas. It also analyzes the continuing impact of the measure on Texas politics and public opinion from 1854 until secession in 1861. Texas newspapers of the 1850s were the principal source for this study, supplemented by historical journals and other works. Organized chronologically and topically, this study traces Texans' attitudes and opinions concerning the extension-of-slavery con… more
Date: December 1974
Creator: Moore, Charles Latham
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Thomas Jefferson and Slavery

Description: Throughout the history of American slavery and abolitionist activities Jefferson was a key figure. Because he so clearly and fervently denounced slavery as inconsistent with natural rights and the ideology of the Revolution, he has been hailed by many as a champion of equality. On the other hand, Jefferson owned many slaves during his lifetime, and he freed only seven, five of these being emancipated through his will. This fact has made him vulnerable to attacks from modern historians. The crit… more
Date: December 1973
Creator: Beatty, James Paul
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Slavery, Fear, and Disunion in the Lone Star State: Texans' Attitudes toward Secession and the Union, 1846-1861

Description: This work is a study of white Texans' attitudes toward their role in the federal Union and their right to secede from it during the antebellum period. The central question of the study is why did people so strongly Unionist in 1846 became so strongly secessionist by 1861. In tracing this significant shift in Texans' sentiment, the author especially emphasizes the racial attitudes of white Texans, their emotional defense of the institution of slavery, and their strong conviction that the Negroes… more
Date: August 1972
Creator: Ledbetter, Billy D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Slavery and the Federalist Party, 1789-1808

Description: The growth of antislavery sentiment during this era had origins traceable to several aspects of life in revolutionary America. The two most important were the philosophical basis of the revolution and the evolving economic situation, both of which worked together to destroy slavery in the northern and middle states and to restrict it in the South.
Date: August 1966
Creator: Smith, Stewart D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Economic Mobility into the Planter Class in Texas, 1846-1860

Description: This study examines upward economic mobility into the planter class in Texas during the antebellum statehood period, 1846-1860. Using quantitative methods to analyze data from census and tax records, this study addresses several questions regarding the property owning experience of Texas planters. Did any of the 1860 planters, men or women, rise to that status from another class? If so, how many rose from small slaveholder or small planter origins, and how many advanced from plain folk origins?… more
Date: December 2011
Creator: Nelson, Robert Nicholas
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Behold the Fields: Texas Baptists and the Problem of Slavery

Description: The relationship between Texas Baptists and slavery is studied with an emphasis on the official statements made about the institution in denominational sources combined with a statistical analysis of the extent of slaveholding among Baptists. A data list of over 5,000 names was pared to 1100 names of Baptists in Texas prior to 1865 and then cross-referenced on slaveownership through the use of federal censuses and county tax rolls. Although Texas Baptists participated economically in the slave … more
Date: May 1993
Creator: Elam, Richard L. (Richard Lee)
Partner: UNT Libraries

Richard Thompson Archer and the Burdens of Proprietorship: The Life of a Natchez District Planter

Description: In 1824 a young Virginia aristocrat named Richard Thompson Archer migrated to Mississippi. Joining in the boom years of expansion in the Magnolia State in the 1830s, Archer built a vast cotton empire. He and his wife, Ann Barnes, raised a large family at Anchuca, their home plantation in Claiborne County, Mississippi. From there Richard Archer ruled a domain that included more than 500 slaves and 13,000 acres of land. On the eve of the Civil War he was one of the wealthiest men in the South. T… more
Access: Restricted to the UNT Community Members at a UNT Libraries Location.
Date: December 2001
Creator: Hammond, Carol D.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

A History of Overcoming: Nietzsche on the Moral Antecedents and Successors of Modern Liberalism

Description: This work aims to understand human moral psychology under modern liberalism by analyzing the mature work of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. I seek to understand and evaluate Nietzsche's claim that liberalism, rather than being an overturning of slave morality, is an extension of the slave morality present in both Judaism and Christianity. To ground Nietzsche's critique of liberalism theoretically, I begin by analyzing his "master" and "slave" concepts. With these concepts clarified, I then app… more
Date: December 2016
Creator: Gill, Rodney W.
Partner: UNT Libraries

The Apologist Tradition: A Transitional Period in Southern Proslavery Thought, 1831-1845

Description: Early antebellum defenders of slavery acknowledged that slavery created problems for southern society. They contended, however, that slave society was better and more natural than other forms of social organization. Thomas R. Dew, William Harper, and James Henry Hammond each expressed a social philosophy in which slavery had a crucial role in preserving social order. They argued from the basis of social organicism, the idea that society should have an elite that controlled the masses. For all t… more
Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.
Date: December 2000
Creator: Austin, Clara
Partner: UNT Libraries

Exploitation, Justification and Overcoming through Voice: Exploring American Slavery and the Slave Narrative in "The Handmaid's Tale"

Description: To what extent does Margaret Atwood draw from American slavery to write The Handmaid's Tale? How does Offred's narrative compare with traditional slave narratives, and to what effect? This thesis explores intersectionality (or lack thereof) in The Handmaid's Tale and compares Offred's narrative to traditional slave narratives to find answers to why Atwood chose to draw from American slavery to write her novel in the first place. Offred's narrative is compared to three traditional slave narrativ… more
Date: August 2021
Creator: Brown, Kaitlyn
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Paul and Slavery: a Conflict of Metaphor and Reality

Description: The debate on Paul’s views on slavery has ranged from calling him criminal in his enforcement of the status quo to rallying behind his idea of equal Christians in a community. In this thesis I blend these two major views into the idea that Paul supported both the institution of slavery and the slave by legitimizing the role of the slave in Christian theology. This is done by reviewing the mainstream views of slavery, comparing them to Paul’s writing, both the non-disputed and disputed, and de… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Baker, James C.
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Human Trafficking: New Global Estimates of Forced Labor and Modern Slavery

Description: This report discusses a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation that estimates that 40.3 million people worldwide were victims of modern slavery (including forced labor run by individuals and governments, forced marriages, and sex trafficking) which used a new methodology that combined multiple data sources and statistical probability calculations. A brief overview of the findings, past reports and variance between State Department Trafficking in Pe… more
Date: October 18, 2017
Creator: Rosen, Liana W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

Transnational Crime Issues: Human Trafficking

Description: This report discusses U.S. and international responses to the issue of human trafficking. Human trafficking is a domestic and international phenomenon that refers to the subjection of men, women, and children to exploitative conditions that may be tantamount to slavery.
Date: July 19, 2018
Creator: Rosen, Liana W. & Weber, Michael A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
open access

John Quincy Adams and Slavery

Description: The purpose of this thesis is to provide for the reader an isolated study based on a thorough research of the Adams Papers, Congressional Globe, and American Foreign Relations Papers, of Adams' views on slavery, both legal and moral.
Date: August 1973
Creator: Rosendahl, Nancy Diane Boydston
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

James K. Polk and Slavery

Description: As a plantation owner, James K. Polk had economic interests which were bound to that peculiar institution. Consequently, many of his decisions as a politician were influenced by his southern background. Although his partiality toward"southern rights" was evident, he did not let his personal bias interfere with his determination to preserve the nation. Throughout his public career, he maintained that slavery was being exploited as a "political question" to divide the United States. Even though h… more
Date: August 1977
Creator: Marsh, Richard Dean
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Southern Roots, Western Foundations: the Peculiar Institution and the Livestock Industry on the Northwestern Frontier of Texas, 1846-1864

Description: This dissertation challenges Charles W. Ramsdell's needless war theory, which argued that profitable slavery would not have existed west of the 98th meridian and that slavery would have died a natural death. It uses statistical information that is mined from the county tax records to show how slave-owners on the northwestern frontier of Texas raised livestock rather than market crops, before and during the Civil War. This enterprise was so strong that it not only continued to expand throughout… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Liles, Deborah Marie
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Henry Clay and the Peculiar Institution

Description: The major concern of this study is an attempt to analyze the attitudes.of Henry Clay, United States Congressman and Senator from Kentucky, 1807-1852, and three time presidential candidate, concerning the institution of slavery by examining its effects upon his political career from 1798 to 1850. The major conclusions of this study are that early in his life Clay made an intellectual commitment that slavery was wrong and maintained this abstract view of the institution until his death. However, … more
Date: December 1971
Creator: Boeding, Michael Alexander
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The South and the Mexican War

Description: This thesis examines newspapers and correspondence of public men in the era of the Mexican war to provide some answers to pertinent questions regarding the South's role in the Mexican War. It attempts to reveal to some degree whether Southerners uniformly supported the war, whether their support arose from an expansionist sentiment or a desire to extend the area of slavery, whether any strong opposition to the war existed in the South, and why they supported or opposed it.
Date: December 1970
Creator: Lowe, Billie Lynne Owens
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Slaves, Ships, and Citizenship: Congressional Response to the Coastwise Slave Trade and Status of Slaves on the High Seas, 1830-1842

Description: Between 1830 and 1842, the United States coastwise slave trade raised several issues and provoked numerous debates in Congress. The purpose of this study is to determine the role of the coastwise slave trade and its effect upon attitudes toward slavery in Congress during this period. The primary sources used include official government documents, unpublished and published papers, correspondence, diaries, speeches, and memoirs. This study concludes that the issues raised by the coastwise slave t… more
Date: May 1975
Creator: Green, Barbara Layenette, 1950-
Partner: UNT Libraries
Back to Top of Screen