Penn History Review Spring 2014 by Penn History Review

Penn History Review Journal of Undergraduate Historians Volume 21, Issue 1 Spring 2014

Sarah V. Riblet

on Irish Immigration to the United States

Meghan E. McDonald on Perceptions of the Sun and Skin Cancer

Elise A. Mitchell

on Representations of Gender and Race in the British West Indies

John F. Schifalacqua on James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

Penn History Review Journal of Undergraduate Historians Volume 21, Issue 1 Spring 2014 Editor-in-Chief Gregory Segal 2015, American History

Editorial Board Serena Covkin 2014, American History Rachel Easterbrook 2014, European History Julia Molo 2014, Diplomatic History Jackson Kulas 2015, History Elizabeth Vaziri 2015, European History Aaron Elkin 2016, Diplomatic History Taylor Evensen 2016, Diplomatic History Aaron Mandelbaum 2017, American History

ABOUT THE REVIEW Founded in 1991, the Penn History Review is a journal for undergraduate historical research. Published twice a year through produced by and primarily for undergraduates. The editorial board of the Review is dedicated to publishing the most original and scholarly research submitted for our consideration. For more information about submissions, please contact us at phrsubmissions@gmail.com. Funding for this magazine provided by the Department of History, University of Pennsylvania. Cover image: Birch, W. “Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia.” Plate 4 from The City of Philadelphia as it appeared in the Year 1800. 1800. http:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arch_Street_Ferry_Birch%27s_ Views_Plate_4.jpg.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permissions in writing. The authors and artists who submit their works to Penn History Review retain all rights to their work.

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Penn History Review Volume 21, Issue 1 Spring 2014 Contents: Letter from the Editor........................................................6 The “Grand and Awful Sight”: The Transatlantic Passage from Ulster to Philadelphia, 1783-1812 Sarah V. Riblet.....................................................................8 Tainted Bodies: Gendered Representations of Racial Mixing and Creole Degeneracy in the British West Indies (1770-1812) Elise A. Mitchell................................................................31 The Cause of Our Dilemma with the Sun through the Lens of Skin Cancer Meghan E. McDonald.......................................................64 James Madison and America’s First Encounter with Islam: Tracing James Madison’s Engagement with Barbary Affairs Through the 1st Barbary War John F. Schifalacqua, University of Virginia........................88 Honors Thesis Abstracts.................................................127

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Letter from the Editor The Editorial Board is proud to present this landmark issue of the Penn History Review. In the twenty previous volumes of the publication, the Penn History Review historical research by University of Pennsylvania undergraduates. Beginning with this edition, the Editorial Board has expanded its scope to include the work of undergraduates from other colleges and universities in the United States. When Dr. Thomas Max Safely, possibility of expansion, the Editorial Board eagerly took on the challenge. The response from other institutions was profound, as the Editorial Board received over eighty submissions from across the country. It is with pride that we publish the work of John F. Schifalacqua, a senior at the University of Virginia, and we are excited to continue publishing work from other schools in future issues. That â&#x20AC;&#x153;Grand and Awful Sightâ&#x20AC;?: The Transatlantic Passage from Ulster to Philadelphia, 1783-1812 experience of immigrating to the United States in the period, and the reader is drawn in by her descriptions of the challenges faced by immigrants from the Irish province of Ulster as they travelled to the U.S. Riblet achieves this though her skillful use of primary sources, including letters, passenger lists, and contemporary newspapers. Tainted Bodies: Gendered Representations of Racial Mixing and Creole Degeneracy in the British West Indies (1770-1812), written by Penn senior Elise A. Mitchell, is the second essay. Mitchell paints a vivid portrait of the intersections between gender and race in the British West Indies through her extensive use of images and writings from the period. These illustrations immediately engage the reader in her study of representations of the black female body and the paradoxical ways that Englishmen imagined it. The Cause of Our Dilemma with the Sun through the Lens of Skin Cancer, which gives 6

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a fascinating perspective on how Americans have perceived the sun over time. She looks at the evolving understanding of skin cancer and effects of sun exposure, in the realms of both popular wonderful example of the history of science and medicine. James Madison and America’s First Encounter with Islam: Tracing James Madison’s Engagement with Barbary Affairs Through the 1st Barbary War. He argues that Madison should be credited with greater agency in his approach to Barbary Affairs given his experience on the issue before rising in the Executive Branch. In the process, Schifalacqua offers an insightful interpretation of This issue also includes abstracts of the Senior Honors Theses completed in the Penn History Department this past year. These offer a snapshot of the incredible achievements by students in the History Honors Program. We thank Dr. Safely for his guidance, and Dr. Yvonne Fabella, the Undergraduate Advisor of the History Department, whose advice and assistance has been invaluable, in addition to the faculty who encouraged their students to submit their work and those at other schools who circulated the call for submissions. The Editorial Board also thanks the History Department and the University of Pennsylvania for their support of the Penn History Review and their commitment to undergraduate research and the study of history. Finally, I would like to personally thank the entire Editorial Board for their hard work this semester. It is their determination that to make special note of the graduating editors—Serena, Rachel, and Julia—as well as previous Editor-in-Chief Elya Taichman, all of whom have been an essential part of the publication and will be greatly missed next year. These editors should feel great pride for the role they played in the growth and success of the Penn History Review. Gregory W. Segal Editor-in-Chief Penn History Review

Irish Immigration to the U.S.

This map of Ireland, labeled with the names of towns, counties and provinces, was published in An Atlas to Walkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Geography and Gazetteer in Dublin in 1797. Ulster can be seen at the top of the map.

Sarah V. Riblet

Irish Immigration to the U.S.

That “Grand and Awful Sight”: The Transatlantic Passage from Ulster to Philadelphia, 1783-1812 Sarah V. Riblet Discussions of Irish immigration to the United States unsurprisingly center upon the years of the mid to late 1800s, when potato blights and the resulting Great Famine of 1845 Ireland and travel to American shores.1 But the phenomenon of Irish settlement in America was by no means new in 1845. People from the Emerald Isle, most of them Presbyterians from the northern province known as Ulster who were themselves descended from Scottish and English migrants of the seventeenth century, had been migrating to North America for over two centuries.2 Indeed, both recurring violence and markets in Ireland, made immigration to the United States a very attractive option to many Ulster people between the end of the American Revolution in 1783 and the beginning of the War of 1812, when violence between the United States and Great Britain stemmed the tide of Irish immigration to America.3 Published descriptions of the early United States, which circulated in the north of Ireland throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, asserted that hard work would always result in a good living in America. The violent Irish Rebellion of 1798, which pitted the republican United Irishmen against the forces of British rule across Ireland and threatened the lives of innocent civilians, helped turn thoughts of emigrating into action. Ulsterpeople from across the political spectrum – those who supported British rule in Ireland, those who favored a for politics – could not be sure which side would eventually

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triumph or that they could be safe and prosperous at home in the interim. So they, like the seventeenth-century Scottish men and women from whom many of them were descended, looked to the west for a new land to call home. People seeking to leave Ireland often selected Philadelphia because it was the United extraction. More than 100,00 Ulstermen and Ulsterwomen had come to the British territories, which would become the United States, between 1718 and 1775.4 Once Ulster men and women of the next generation had made the challenging decision to depart for the United States, leaving behind extended families and a familiar land, they were faced with a harrowing transatlantic voyage. Historians of Irish migration rarely study this journey, despite several primary sources, including journals, letters and newspaper articles that describe these travels. These accounts range from the movement from rural homes to busy ports, feelings of safety under the watchful eyes of good captains, and mortal danger at the hands of bad ones, as well as the mesmerizing beauty of the sea and the sheer terror of being at its mercy, cut off from familiar land and people. The records of Irish men and women suggest that the Atlantic crossing itself was not merely a forgettable interlude between an old home and a new nation, but a formidable challenge in the process of relocation. century journey from Ulster to America began with more modest migrations across Ireland; those leaving the northern unfamiliar port cities like Derry/Londonderry and Belfast. The voluntarily by only a few captains of transatlantic voyages in the period, provides some insight into where Ulster emigrants originated. Of the 445 recorded â&#x20AC;&#x153;families,â&#x20AC;? which ranged from single young men to relatively elderly parents migrating with several of their grown children and grandchildren, who 10

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travelled to Philadelphia between 1800 and 1811 most traced their origins to the Ulster countryside.5 These people made their way on foot or by horse and cart to the ports from which their ships would sail for America. A large minority of the migrant population, however, had not lived in the most rural parts of their home country, but had settled in larger towns around Ulster prior to leaving Ireland. Relatively few who were leaving listed the largest cities as their homes. Rather, burgeoning inland towns, in which linen and other textile mills had been established earlier in the century, contributed numbers of passengers disproportionate to their relative sizes. Omagh, in County Tyrone, was the home of 16 passengers, while Strabane, in the same county, had 13 representatives on the rolls for Philadelphia. 12 people left Enniskillen in County Fermanagh in as many years. By comparison, only 15 passengers left homes in Londonderry, despite the fact that most ships whose passengers were catalogued sailed from that bustling port.6 It is unlikely that the people who came from these inland towns had moved to them in preparation for their emigration; rural homes to places like Omagh, Strabane, and Enniskillen.7 In Omagh particularly, the population increased â&#x20AC;&#x153;not only on account of the linen and other manufactures there carried on, but also by reason of the people, as almost everywhere, being driven from their farms into towns by monopolizing farmers.â&#x20AC;?8 Most Ulsterpeople, particularly women in competition with male laborers for skilled manufacturing positions, likely did not realize when they left the countryside that employment opportunities in these larger towns would not support their numbers.9 Fewer might have suspected that the resulting unemployment would drive them to emigrate to the United States. Regardless, the initial shift from rural homesteads to town and city life may have ended up easing the transition from the north of Ireland Penn History Review

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to American cities like Philadelphia. As Ireland experienced greater urbanization at home, the options available to those travelling to the United States were expanding. In previous decades, would-be colonists travelled as individuals or in small family groups by reserving berths on merchant ships otherwise intended only to carry cargo. As the passenger lists for the Port of Philadelphia illustrate, this mode nineteenth century. Several ships still came into Philadelphia each year loaded not only with Irish linen or wool, but also listing one or two men, and occasionally women, as cabin passengers with trunks and bedding.10 In the spring of 1800, only 13 passengers made the journey from Dublin to Philadelphia on board the Patty.11 However, as the years passed, even more Irish immigrants arrived on ships intended for the sole purpose of carrying people. Ships like the Edward or the Sally, each capable of carrying 400 tons or more, ferried dozens of passengers in accommodations of varying comfort across the Atlantic.12 By 1812, none of the seven ships that were recorded coming into Philadelphia from ports in the north of Ireland carried fewer than 20 passengers.13 Many of these ships returned with the same captain to repeat their journey to and from Ulster ports each year. For the owners of these ships, encouraging emigration consumer goods were replaced with the fares paid by a steady stream of passengers. For the emigrating customers themselves, the cost of a voyageâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;listed on the manifest of the Edward in May of 1805 as 15 guineas per person for a cabin birth, ten guineas for one berth in steerage, and eight guineas a piece for a place between decksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;could equal a small fortune.14 At these rates, a single woman who had been employed in Ireland as a laundry maid, as several of the recorded passengers were, to six guineas in 1780, to reach Philadelphia by herself while staying in the cheapest accommodations on board.15 In order 12

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This is the first of seven pages, which make up the passenger list for the summer 1802 voyage of the ship Mohawk from Derry/Londonderry to Wilmington and Philadelphia. According to the list, 218 people took their passage from Ireland to America on that voyage.

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to keep her family intact on the journey to the United States, year.16 When emigrants had to choose which captain they would serious one. The choice was further complicated by the sheer abundance of options. The number of ships advertised as Journal in the years 1783 to 1812 ranged from a high of 14 in 1792 to a low of two in 1804, with no records available for 1789, 1797, 1810, or 1811. The average number of advertised departing ships in that period was a little over seven annually.17 a single port, it is not unreasonable to assume that migrants had For some Ulsterpeople, seeking better living conditions in America generally, and in Philadelphia particularly, a speedy departure seems to have been more valuable than direct travel to any one intended destination. Samuel Brown, a merchant who had settled in Philadelphia after leaving his extended family in Belfast, wrote to his brother David on Christmas Day, 1815 of the 18

with another uncle, James, compelled him to consider migration.

soon as possible was more important than the convenience of sailing directly to his intended city.19 A year later, when economic conditions in America proved little better than those in Belfast 20

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Still,

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as quickly as possible. Other Ulster Scots men and women who had the luxury of time to select ships expressly destined for Philadelphia by several late-eigtheenth century observers indicates that the choice between two vessels was often tantamount to a choice between life and death. The voyage across the Atlantic was not one to be taken lightly, and those leaving Ireland likely spent considerable time selecting which of the several ships departing from Belfast, Londonderry, Newry, and other Ulster ports each summer would carry them.21 The most fortunate of migrants had experienced friends and relatives already settled in the United States to whom they could turn for advice. Samuel Brown was far from the only Ulster-American to send travel instructions to family members still in Ireland. His brother James suggested in a letter to home that, if his sister was determined to come to the United States, she should prepare herself immediately to travel with a Captain home in Philadelphia.22 Samuel similarly endorsed one Captain this port and is a credit to his country.â&#x20AC;Ś His family and ours has [sic pride or ostentation about him and any attention you may show him will be to me a favour.â&#x20AC;?23 Such personal recommendations a draw to potential passengers as the condition of his vessel. Even if a potential emigrant did not already know someone who had undertaken the journey to America, he or she was not necessarily without resources for selecting a ship in which to travel. Conditions were most favorable for sailing across the Atlantic during the spring and summer months, and, from as early as February to as late as October, the front pages of advertisements for ships sailing for American ports. In Gordonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Penn History Review

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Newry Chronicle, the Londonderry Journal, the Belfast News-Letter, and the Belfast Commercial Chronicle, these advertisements took on a its owners would announce which “bustling city in America” was its destination, extol the virtues of its captain, and proclaim the sumptuousness of its accommodations.24 The most elaborate taken their passage to Philadelphia on board the brig Rachel in the summer 1792 published a piece in Gordon’s Newry Chronicle short column, which ran directly under an advertisement for the Rachel sincere treatment during our passage, as also for having laid in and having afforded such as required it medicine of all sorts.”25 The ship-owning publishers of these and other reports like it no doubt printed them in attempts to attract more passengers. But the extent to which these testimonials were persuasive should not be overstated. For one thing, they were hardly unique—a positive endorsement accompanied almost every ship advertisement printed in the pages of these newspapers. Occasionally, as was the case in a September 1792 issue of Gordon’s Newry Chronicle, competing ship owners even tried to the owners of the Joseph published a long description stating that their ship was a “much larger vessel, and of course will be more comfortable for the passengers than the Brig Friendship,” which was being advertised in the adjacent column.26 These men also made a point to note that the captain of their ship, a man named William Forrest, had sailed with passengers in the Friendship the previous year.27 But the owners of the Friendship also came out swinging, arguing in their advertisement that the smaller size of their ship allowed it to complete its transatlantic journey 16

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This ship’s advertisement, from the May 10th, 1785 edition of the Londonderry Journal, emphasizes the quality of the accommodations on board, as well as the competence and kindness of the captain – both primary concerns for potential passengers.

faster.28 Reading exchanges such as these no doubt left readers owners needed to publish assurances that “every individual of provisions during the voyage,” demonstrated a need to quell anxiety among emigrants that they would not be well looked after on board all ships.29 Men and women leaving Ireland could not take a safe voyage for granted; rather, they had to use what little information was at their disposal to make educated choices about which owners, ships, and captains they could trust with their lives. Selecting the wrong ship with the incorrect captain valid, because, “as emigration from Ireland to the United States several parts of Ireland.”30 Some captains believed themselves to

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tricked a would-be emigrant, one such captain vowed to smuggle that passenger on board his ship despite the fact that “the quota 31

Though this gesture may have seemed noble on the part of the captain, the “damned laws” establishing quotas to which he and his peers were bound existed for a reason.32 Ideally, they When these “damned laws” were not followed, and likely even in some cases where they were, situations which endangered the lives of passengers could arise before ships had even reached the Atlantic. This was the case with the ship Rachel in 1799. As the Londonderry Journal reported, the ship and her Captain, Edward Dodsworth, had “met with an accident in this river,” likely referring to the River Foyle, which connects Derry/ Londonderry to the Atlantic Ocean.33 Understandably, this event “intimidated several of the passengers going out in said vessel,” who demanded that “her bottom be examined and repaired.”34 that his ship should “be thoroughly overhauled and repaired with all possible expedition” in order that it “be completely repaired 35

Rachel have been left shaken by these experiences; perhaps they would have even been unwilling to continue if not for the resulting loss of their fare money.36 The possibility that this may even have been the same ship whose passengers had written such a glowing review in the Newry Chronicle years before helps highlight the wear put on ships by repeated voyages, the importance of having a good captain, and the sheer unpredictability of the sea journey itself. Still, the unlucky travelers on the Rachel were in some small sense fortunate in that their troubles occurred in circumstances where they still had the ability to demand that something be done about them. In other cases, nothing could be done to ensure the survival of Ulster immigrants who faced unfavorable weather 18

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or disease while at sea and had sailed without a competent captain. In 1775, Margaret Duncan, an Ulsterwoman who settled in Philadelphia prior to the American Revolution, wrote letters to her remaining family in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, describing two such cases. In one instance with which Duncan was intimately familiar, her son David (or perhaps her son-in-law, the Presbyterian Reverend David Telfair) was on a voyage during give them plenty of water and everything else, every person of them agrees too that then he was seized himself and narrowly got off with his life… seven in all died.”37 The close quarters of a ship and the inability to escape illness when it broke out or seek medical treatment elsewhere made the transatlantic voyage also in that of many others, some of whom would never arrive in Philadelphia. event that made the Ulster-American community “lament . . . the great danger that is in the way of our countrymen in comeing [sic 38 In this instance, “capes,” presumably somewhere near the perilous mouth of the Delaware Bay, a location which otherwise would have happily marked the approaching end of travel for passengers on the route to Philadelphia.39 Here, even more than in the previous case, “the captain was greatly blamed.”40 Perhaps the captain in question men whose expertise was always required to assist ships coming into the city.41

was never served because “the few that was saved [sic 42

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Mary Cumming

Sarah V. Riblet

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Thus it became clear that the stakes for passengers selecting their captain were very high, as those men often suffered little to no repercussions for their misdeeds. Even for those passengers whose lives were not put at risk during the journey, the voyage was often far from pleasant. To understand the realities of the late-eighteenth and earlynineteenth century transatlantic crossing, we may turn to two very different contemporary accounts, those of Hugh Campbell and Mary Cumming. Campbell was born on January 1, 1797 to a relatively well-to-do family in Country Tyrone.43 After immigrating to the United States in 1818, Campbell worked in the mercantile trade around the country before ultimately settling in Philadelphia around 1843.44 His extremely detailed â&#x20AC;&#x153;Journalâ&#x20AC;? of the transatlantic crossing was written in North Carolina in 1819 and sent back to relatives in Ulster.45 Mary Cumming also came from a reasonably prosperous background; her father was a Presbyterian minister in Lisburn, a town southwest of Belfast straddling Counties Antrim and Down.46 Cumming married a cotton merchant named William, whose business necessitated their temporary immigration to the United States in 1811.47 Cumming described the trip and her years in America in numerous letters to her sister Margaret in Lisburn, whom Mary was never able to see again after her arrival in the United States.48 Campbell and Cumming were both cabin passengers, but their descriptions can nevertheless give us insight into some experiences shared, regardless of class, by all those who undertook the journey to America. emotional upheaval of leaving Ireland. Cumming wrote of her depressed spirits as her ship sailed out of Warrenpoint, County Down, and she watched her family â&#x20AC;&#x153;walking along the shore 49 The experience of phenomenon for many passengers, although some took it as an opportunity to build camaraderie below decks. As Campbell Penn History Review

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observed while waiting to depart Londonderry, “the greater number of our steerage passengers (in order to drive away the sorrow which a separation from their native land produced) entered into the greatest extravagance in dancing, drinking, singing etc,” even as “some of the more sober and aged, gave themselves up to the deepest melancholy.”50 Once the voyage was truly underway, some passengers, most of whom had never been at sea before, were overwhelmed by the multitude of discomforts faced on an ocean expedition. Initially, even as around her “the females were all sick, some of them crying,” Cumming did not feel the effects of seasickness.51

weeks – the longest ones I have ever spent. The sickness was most dreadful.”52 The self-proclaimed “adventurer” Campbell rarely admitted to feeling personally ill, and then only as a result of the unvaried diet, but he did remark on the ill-health of his fellow passengers, pointing out some of the other less-thancommodious circumstances on board.53 He repeatedly expressed his good fortune in having a cabin berth, and his sympathy for steerage passengers whose journeys were even less comfortable than his own.54 Their accommodations were cramped, which only helped to make steerage passengers “compare their many privations and dangers with the security and ease they left behind. It makes them conscious of being cast loose from the secure anchorage of settled life and cast adrift upon a doubtful world.”55 The food was passable, but Campbell asserted that he could not have existed on it for any longer than the duration of the crossing.56 Perhaps his most miserable experience was that of a storm in which “the sea rose into tremendous waves and the vessel rolled in the most awful manner through them” so that “during the night every moveable in the Ship was put in motion. The kegs full of water for immediate use and the buckets full of 22

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all kinds of were hurled in the greatest confusion through the steerage to the great offence of our smelling organs.”57 Indeed, during the commotion, “the more timid passengers thought… 58

duration from the their families may have been equally miserable. The increasing desire to land on and hear news of family and friends made every day on the ship that much more unbearable; passengers were “anxious” to obtain information on letter to Margaret after landing in New York.59. The only source of such information would have been other ships that passed sporadically. Even then, the majority of these vessels would have been travelling the opposite direction, from North America to Europe. Occasionally, smaller and faster ships would pass larger ones headed for the United States. This experience was no doubt demoralizing for the passengers languishing on the slower ship, even if it meant that they might be able to hear of goings-on in Ulster. Along these lines, Campbell lamented “our vessel from her form and age proved to be a very slow sailer and discouraged us considerably.”60 In the years approaching the War of 1812, meeting another ship, particularly one of British origin, may not have been a welcome sight. Rather, seeing an English ship would have struck fear into the hearts of emigrating Ulstermen, who were at risk of impressment so long as they continued to be subjects of the English crown.61 Wrongful impressment was also a concern for American citizens. The information vacuum on board ship may have also meant that some who left Ulster in themselves resident in a nation at war with their homeland.62 The sheer joy of emerging from the ship would have been tempered with sadness, fear and confusion, especially if these passengers had received assurances from relatives in the United States “that we will not have war,” as Mary Cumming wrote to her sister Penn History Review

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less than two months before the outbreak of hostilities on June 18, 1812.63 If Irish-Americans felt any lingering attachment to Britain, as Cumming herself did, the war and resulting limits to transatlantic correspondence would only serve to remove them further from that which they held dear. Still, some aspects of the journey served to redeem it slightly in the eyes of the Ulster emigrants. Campbell seemed to delight in the resourcefulness he saw in the passengers and crew around him. He appreciated the crew for being “numerous and little importance to emigrants unacquainted with sailing.”64 He wrote in admiration of the fact that his peers, inexperienced at sea as they may have been, were not helpless when left to their own devices. Rather, they made themselves “comfortable during our voyage.”65 Displaying an impressive sense of organization, in addition to a commitment to the gender-segregated social order of the period, a commodore or president was elected – berths were laid out for passengers and the males were very properly separated attend the sickly and aged passengers.… Each passenger agreed to pay him one shilling for his trouble. The ship was regularly washed out by the passengers once a week and swept every day to preserve cleanliness.66 they were leaving behind all the physical markers of the world they had inhabited. in the unfamiliar seascapes around their ships. She “was very much delighted looking at the sun setting, which is a glorious object at sea…for a great length of way waves appeared ringed with burnished gold, the sky was so clear and the air so pure and reviving.”67 Furthermore, the hardships of the voyage made the arrival that much more joyous. Upon hearing that land had been 24

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The Arch Street ferry, seen here in an 1800 engraving by William Birch, connected Philadelphia with southern New Jersey. However, the dock scene provides a sense of what Irish immigrants of the period would have found themselves in the midst of after disembarking; crowds and laborers, white as well as black, crowded the area.

World than we did at this moment.”68 For the weary voyager and his peers, “the very name of America carried a volume of associations in themselves indescribable.”69 When Campbell and Cumming were able to take in America with their own eyes, the vision was similarly beyond life I never was so enchanted with the view of the shore and the harbour coming up. I can give you no idea of the beauty of the American woods at this season of the year.”70 The excitement of Penn History Review

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soon disembarking on this new and alluring continent prevented Campbell and his fellows from sleeping much on the night of September 5, 1818, the last night they spent anchored at sea near Sandy Hook, New Jersey.71 Upon arrival, Cumming declared that “it would be impossible almost to conceive the delight I felt when again I set my foot on land, I never in all my life felt so truly grateful to Providence.”72 Men and women like Cumming, who had “never imagined… what a voyage across the Atlantic was,” thanks to rose-tinted ships advertisements and nostalgic family letters, had endured nevertheless.73 They rejoiced because God had preserved them on their quest for America. Those Ulsterpeople who were bound for Philadelphia experienced much the same emotions on sailing up the Delaware, shore on one side and Jersey on the other was beautiful beyond description.”74 Philadelphia stood before them, a metropolis on a scale for which no northern Irish town had prepared them.75 For some, the exhilaration of embarking on a new life in a new nation mixed with fears that they would shortly be setting foot “on a land of strangers… perhaps destitute of both friends and money.”76 Only time would tell whether Philadelphia was to be the better home that they sought, or merely one more stop on Ulster Scot struggle to subsist. Hasia R. Diner, Erin’s Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the Nineteenth Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), 2; Margaret Lynch-Brennan, The Irish Bridgets: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930 (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2009), 40. The Irish in America, 550-1972: A Chronology & Fact Book (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1973), 2. The 1621 arrival of a “large party of Irish settlers led by Daniel 1

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Gookin, a wealthy Quaker merchant from Cork” in Virginia Graham Leyburn, The Scotch-Irish: A Social History (Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina Press, 1962), xix. 3

c.1500-1800” in Women and Paid Work in Ireland, 1500-1930, edited by Bernadette Whelan (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000); 4 The People With No Name: Ireland’s Ulster Scots, America’s Scots Irish, and the Creation of a British Atlantic World, 1689-1764 (Princeton; Princeton University Press, 2001), 1. 5 Raymond D. Adams, An Alphabetical Index to Ulster Emigration to Philadelphia, 1803-1850 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1992), passim. 6 Ibid. 7 W. H. Crawford, The Impact of the Domestic Linen Industry in Ulster (Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2005), passim. 8 Ibid. 83. 9 Mary E. Daly, Women and Work in Ireland (The Economic and Social History Society of Ireland, 1997), 16. 10

collection, National Archives at Philadelphia. 11 Ibid. 12 British Library, “Passenger Lists to North America,” Public 13

collection, National Archives at Philadelphia. 14 Ibid. 15

Philadelphia, 1800-1812”. 16 Ibid. 23. One guinea was worth slightly more than a pound. 17 Londonderry Journal 18 Samuel Brown to David Brown, letter dated December 25, 1815, PRONI. 19 Ibid. Penn History Review

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Samuel Brown to David Brown, letter dated December 30, 1816, PRONI. 21 Londonderry Journal 22 James Brown to David Brown, letter dated December 30, 1818, PRONI 23 Samuel Brown to David Brown, letter dated December 25, 1815, PRONI. 24 Gordon’s Newry Chronicle, Londonderry Journal, Belfast News-Letter, and Belfast Commercial Chronicle PRONI. 25 Gordon’s Newry Chronicle, issue dated Monday September 17th to Thursday September 20th 26 Gordon’s Newry Chronicle, issue dated Thursday April 18 to 20

Ibid. Ibid. 29 Gordon’s Newry Chronicle, issue dated Monday September 17th to Thursday September 20th 30 Ibid. 31 Hugh Campbell, “The Journal of Hugh Campbell,” ed. George R. Brooks, The Bulletin, Missouri Historical Society, volume 23.3 (April 1967), 247. 32 Ibid. 33 Londonderry Journal collection, PRONI. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 36 British Library, “Passenger Lists to North America,” PRONI. 37 Margaret Duncan to William Weir, letter dated December 1774, PRONI. 38 Margaret Duncan to William Weir, letter dated December 1775, PRONI. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid. 41 Simon Finger, “A Flag of Defyance at the Masthead”: The 27 28

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World in the Eighteenth Century,â&#x20AC;? in Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, volume 8, number 2 (Spring 2010), 387. 42 Ibid. 43 Campbell, 241. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 242. 46 Mary Cumming, Letters Home to Lisburn from America 18111815 (Coleraine, Northern Ireland: Impact-Amergin, 1982). 47 Ibid. 48 Ibid. 49 Ibid. Letter dated August 30th, 1811. 50 Campbell, 243. 51 Cumming, letter dated August 30th, 1811. 52 Cumming, letter dated approximately November 8th, 1811. 53 Campbell, page 251. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid. 250. 56 Ibid. 251. 57 Ibid. 250. 58 Ibid. 59 Cumming, letter dated approximately November 8th, 1811. 60 Campbell, 247. 61

collection, National Archives at Philadelphia. 62 Ibid. 63 Cumming, letter dated August 30th, 1811. 64 Campbell, 249. 65 Ibid. 66 Ibid. 67 Cumming, letter dated approximately November 8th, 1811. 68 Campbell, 256. 69 Ibid. 70 Cumming, letter dated approximately November 8th, 1811. 71 Campbell, 256. Penn History Review

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Cumming, letter dated approximately November 8th, 1811. Ibid. 74 Cumming, letter dated November 25th, 1811. 75 By 1800, the city of Philadelphia, including the Northern Liberties and Southwark, was home to nearly 70,000 people, over three times greater than the number of inhabitants in 72 73

Londonderry/Derry, the most popular port of embarkation for Northern Irish emigrants to North America. Philadelphia statistics from Billy G. Smith, A Flaneur in Philly: Class, Gender, Race & All that Jazz,” page 6; Belfast and Londonderry/Derry statistics from http://www.localhistories.org/belfast.html and http://www.localhistories.org/derry.html. 76 Campbell, 257. Images: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale, University of Pennsylvania urce=gale&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=upenn_main&tabID=T001 &docId=CB126741308&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&versi on=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE>. Page 13: “List of Passengers on Board the Ship Mohawk,” “Passenger Lists to Philadelphia, 1800-1882,” Ship Mohawk, July 6, 102, National Archives and Records Administration, www.ancestry.com. Page 17: “For Newcastle and Philadelphia, The Ship Faithful Steward,” Londonderry Journal, issue dated May 10, 1785, page 1, www.ancestry.com. Page 20: Mary Cumming, Letters Home to Lisburn from America 1811-1815, ed. Jimmy Irvine (Coleraine, Northern Ireland: Impact-Amergin, 1982). Page 25: Birch, W. “Arch Street Ferry, Philadelphia.” Plate 4 from The City of Philadelphia as it appeared in the Year 1800. 1800. http://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arch_Street_Ferry_Birch%27s_Views_Plate_4.jpg.

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Tainted Bodies:

Gendered Representations of Racial Mixing and Creole Degeneracy in the British West Indies (1770-1812)

Elise A. Mitchell

“Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies” © Trustees of the British Museum

The satirical print published in 1808 by William Holland titled, Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies, depicts Johnny Newcome, a white Englishman who recently arrived in the British West Indies, and his courtship with a black slave, Mimbo. Holland, an English publisher who was known for pushing boundaries with his satirical prints, and for his depictions of West Indian planter lechery with black women slaves, was one in a series of satirical prints between 1807 and 1808 ridiculing Penn History Review

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the lives of white West Indian planters.1 In this print, the black bodies serve as backdrops to the creole degeneracy of Johnny Newcome. The racism embedded in these images implies that blackness is intrinsically inferior, foregrounding English anxieties This essay will focus on the English representation of black and mulatto mistresses, their reproductive facilities, and miscegenation in order to draw attention to the paralleled and simultaneous desire and repulsion for the black female body and the institution of slavery, that was held by the English and their conceptualizations of English identity . Contemporary scholars, most notably Jennifer L. Morgan, have argued that published imagery and travel literature contributed body as simultaneously â&#x20AC;&#x153;desirable and repulsive, available and untouchable, productive and reproductive, beautiful and black.â&#x20AC;?2 The English had a long history of marking persons from other parts of the world through grotesque anatomy and perceived female sexual deviance.3 By the late eighteenth century, English with visual and rhetorical strategies used to represent and situate notions and perceptions of sexual promiscuity, abnormal strength, and grotesque physical features informed these visual and rhetorical depictions, all of which were utilized to delineate the differences between, alternately, black women and white women, and blackness and Englishness. 4 were labeled as repulsive and grotesque, an antithesis to normative English femininity, and thereby the antithesis of Englishness.5 Thus the sexual availability of the black female body became a trap that ensnared Englishmen and white creoles, resulting both in their own degeneracy and the degeneracy of their mixed raced progeny. Their only option for social and genealogical redemption was matrimony with white women. However, despite attempts to redeem their Englishness, Englishmen and English colonials 32

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in the metropole perceived white West Indian men, their mixed raced children, and the colony writ large as racially tainted. great import during the late eighteenth century as abolitionists gained traction in England and the Caribbean. With the slave trade coming to a close, planters became increasingly preoccupied with maintaining their slave populations through natural reproduction, rather than the purchase of new slaves. Slavers now appropriated the womb as reproduction became yet another source of labor on which the colonies depended. Anglo-Caribbean settlers were increasingly anxious about slave rebellions given the large slave populations and the failed attempts in settling the British Caribbean. However, the plantation economy necessitated this large labor force, just as it labor force. This perpetuated the very cause of white anxiety an ever-growing black presence in colonial life. By considering textual and iconographic representations of the black female body in conversation with legislation and court documents miscegenation, this paper will demonstrate the ways in which representations of interracial sexual contact and reproduction blackness resulting in creole degeneracy and racial impurity. Available and Untouchable: The Black/Mulatto Mistress One of the most infamous stereotypes of the white creoles throughout the Americas was their â&#x20AC;&#x153;infatuated attachmentsâ&#x20AC;? to black and mulatto women.6 These stereotypes plagued Spanish, French, and British plantocracies and resulted in the creation of complex systems of racial categorization and a plethora of images and texts ridiculing and satirizing their male creole degeneracy often informed discourses on these affairs. Sexual promiscuity was often ascribed as characteristic Penn History Review

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of Caribbean slaves, particularly enslaved women, in part due to African traditions of polygamy, nudity amongst Africans, real or imagined anatomical differences, particularly pertaining to enlarged genitalia, and their lack of monogamous life partnerships in slave holding societies.7 As the scholar Marietta Morrissey has argued, labeling the non-monogamous relations between blacks as “promiscuous” placed an unfair judgment on the women and men affected by the structural barriers created by the institution of slavery that prevented and prohibited lasting monogamous relationships.8 These barriers included the dispersal of families due the slave trade, the potential for social and economic gains that relationships with multiple male partners offered, cultural and religious fragmentation as a result of group dispersal, and the ubiquitous violence and death that may have made long-term partnerships unattainable.9 Another popular belief in the eighteenth century was physique.10 The scholar, Felicity Nussbaum, contends that warmer climates, particularly the Torrid Zone, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, were mapped the sexualization of the “woman of empire” as distinct from English womanhood, which positioned these locations as part of an eternal savage past.11 This became most evident in eighteenth century natural histories.12 Thus the perception of British West Indians could never be on par with that of the English, because primitive and backward nature of the islands was concretely and geographically linked to the identity and the bodies of their inhabitants. Through the sexualization of the women of these areas, black women became temptresses to white men, or as the 13

Many sources pertaining to interracial affairs in the British Caribbean during the long eighteenth century present 34

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inconsistent representations of black women and their relations description of a black or mulatto mistress, a harangue regarding animalistic description of the black female body. Many satirical prints, such as Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies, utilize this paradox to ridicule white creoles and travelers for their desire for the repulsive black body, while playing into the notion of black female bodies as both sexually available and untouchable. Many English travellers categorized these representations of interracial sexual contact as a form of over indulgence, a symptom of creole degeneracy. One example of this may be found in the account of John Luffman, an eighteenth century English traveller. He remarked in his account of his experience visiting Antigua that plantation managers, despite their modest income, lived lives complete with â&#x20AC;&#x153;every foolish extravagance of this western region,â&#x20AC;? from excessive alcohol and multi-course meals to mulatto mistresses.14 Thus these representations identity, and cast them as characteristically creole. Holland acutely represented these notorious affairs in Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies. Mimbo Wampo, Johnny as a large, stout, very dark skinned, black woman. She has a toothy smile, large eyes, plump lips, large sagging breasts, and wears worn clothing- a faded skirt, head wrap, and hat. In the feet, demonstrating her role as his slave, marking this image as evidence of an illicit relationship between master and slave. Both her smile and her sagging breasts are examples of the visual language used by artists, beginning as early as the 1500s, to marginalize non-European bodies by representing them as savage and animalistic.15 Additionally when compared in size to

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only contributes to the monstrosity of her appearance. In the with the charms of Mimbo Wampo, a sable Venus, daughter of Wampo, King of the Silver Sand Hills in Congo,â&#x20AC;? according to artistic images of voyeurism and sexual propositioning between white men and black women. While these voyeuristic images are not unique to black women, the power of the white male as surveyor and owner of the black woman.16 Another example of such voyeurism can be found in a painting by the artist and traveler, Agostino Brunias, titled Mulatress and Negro Woman Bathing painted sometime in the late eighteenth century.17 In this image we see four women, each nearly nude as they bathe. Their bodies are drawn with features not unlike classical European images of female nudes, however their skin tones range from olive to deep brown, and all of them have their hair in the characteristically Caribbean head wrap. Two of them, the woman to the left standing and drying herself, and the woman the right, lounging and bathing in an odalisquelike position, are turned away from us and seem to be gazing off into the distance. The brown skinned woman seen bathing to be staring off into space. The presumably mulatto women, who takes the center is bathed in light and has an expression of surprise possibly surprise at spotting the voyeur in the bushes. The art historian Lennox Honeychurch, has suggested that the man peeping through the bushes is Agostino Brunias, the artist himself.18 This image, unlike the ones of Mimbo, depicts these black and mulatto female bodies as desirable and sexually available. The image is not dissimilar to other European images classical European notions of beauty and proportion, save for their darkened skin. Their breasts are not sagging or â&#x20AC;&#x153;large and 36

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pendulousâ&#x20AC;? as described in so many texts.19 One could argue that these are even favorable depictions. The languid bodily positions and nudity are evocative of European visual language signifying sexual availability. In a temporal and geopolitical context in which darkened skin and a female body is enough to suggest promiscuity, the voyeur and odalisque-like position of the woman on the right is more than evocative of the sexual availability of these women. Yet they are still untouchable, the voyeur is not interacting with them, but simply watching. Given that they are all facing his gaze â&#x20AC;&#x201C; though it may seem that they the social taint of bodily contact. Many of Brunias paintings were commissioned as propaganda for the settlement of West Indian colonies. Most, if not all, of his paintings depict peaceful quotidian scenes demonstrative of the easiness of Caribbean life. This scene is both one of tranquility and pleasure. However, the lurking voyeur suggests that the tranquility and pleasure of the island, embodied in these bathing women, is ultimately for the consumption of white men. The trope of the voyeuristic white male planter also appears in many satirical cartoons, often more blatantly than the lurking Johnny Newcome portrayed by Holland. In a later series of Johnny Newcome satirical cartoons published in 1812, the artist William Elmes and publisher Thomas Tegg, depict a more Adventures of Johnny Newcome, Johnny Newcome arrives on the island, spends his time idly siting at the docks and smoking with women, and is carried about the island by his slaves, drinking excessively all the while. He also hunts for sport by having his slaves release birds in his direction and has them aim the for entertainment. Overall, the Elmes cartoon depicts Johnny Penn History Review

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Adventues of Johnny Newcome Pl. 1 © Trustees of the British Museum

Newcome engaging in all of the indulgences of the Caribbean, acts antithetical to English respectability, but characteristic of creole degeneracy. In all of the instances of extravagance depicted in the image, the root may be traced to slavery- either contact with slaves, or idleness brought on by the luxuries of slavery. In the third panel to the right, “Johnny enamored with Nymphs bathing,” we see Johnny Newcome, the voyeur Mulatress and Negro Woman Bathing. The images depict a similar scene of voyeurism, the nude black women bathing outdoors and a white, West Indian male peering from the banks. Though there is nothing to suggest a direct connection between the two images, one could argue that communications about the West Indies, assisted in the fabrication and the entrapped creole paramour. The women in Adventures of Johnny Newcome, are not portrayed to the standard of classical

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beauty, but instead more closely resemble Mimbo. These women are topless with stout bulging bodies. There is an emphasis placed on the grotesque size of their behinds, such that the buttocks of the woman standing is disproportionately large and the two women in the water are fully submerged with the exception their heads and enormous buttocks, protruding up out of the water. Despite the repulsive nature of their bodies, exaggerated large lips noses and eyes, Johnny Newcome is drawn to them and his jaunty bodily language suggests that he is aroused by their sexual availability (or vulnerability). However, like Brunias, he does not touch them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; narrowly escaping their entrapment. While both Mulatress and Negro Woman Bathing and Adventures of Johnny Newcome harken to stereotypes regarding male creole voyeurism, neither directly confronts the question of sexual relations. The publisher, William Holland, does not shy away from this topic in his prints. For example, in Johnny Newcome in Love print published by Holland in 1796, titled, What a Nice Bit!, artist, Richard Newton, depicts a large, stout, very dark skinned black woman, with wide nostrils, plump lips and large exposed breasts, apprehensively, albeit clearly allured by her large exposed breasts. Her bosom indicates her sexual availability and desirability to the master, a stereotypical creole degenerate. Their impending of self-control and taste. That being said, it is also expressive of the quotidian sexual violence committed against black women. This imagery normalizes her sexual violation, justifying it by way

Cruikshank, the English satirist and printer, produced a print titled A Morning Surprise, which the art historian Kay Dian Kriz has suggested depicts the morning after the sexual encounter that occurs after What a Nice Bit! In this image we see a slave Penn History Review

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woman with features and dress almost identical to the woman in What a Nice Bit!, smiling at her clearly appalled master in bed.20 The master is repulsed by her presence and his prior sexual desire for her. These images of voyeurism represent the paradoxical iconography regarding interracial affairs between white male masters and their black female slaves and mistresses. For the English, these representations of voyeurism and sexual encounters were indicative of a characteristically Caribbean creole lifestyle from which they wished to distance themselves. Today, many of these images would be evocative of the rape and sexual harassment, rather than an iconographic ribbing of creole degenerates or celebration of the boons of West Indian planter life. However, underlying these repulsive representations is the reality of the sexual violence that was entrenched in the nature of female slave labor. notions of the sexually available black mistress. Burnard explores the culture of interracial affairs in the British Caribbean through a study of the journals of the infamous Jamaican planter, Thomas Thistlewood, who kept detailed accounts of his sexual exploits with his black slaves. As Burnard explains, domestic female slaves were often the concubines of white men as part of their domestic duties.21 Rather than the black woman being a temptress, in many instances she was the victim of strict sexual exploitation.22 According to Antigua traveller John Luffman, it was not uncommon for free or enslaved women of color to be forced into sex work or raped and brutalized: the coloredâ&#x20AC;Śwomenâ&#x20AC;Ś are generally prostitutes. When taken into keeping by white men, they dress in a very ridiculous manner, assuming the name of their keeper for the time being, and laying it aside when turned off. There are persons in this island who let out their female slaves for the particular purpose of fornication, and that, as well as publickly cohabitating with them, is considered 40

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Top: What a Nice Bit!; Below: A Morning Suprise ÂŠ Trustees of the British Museum

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here merely a venial error. These women are much more subservient to the will of their enamoratos, from a dread of punishment than a white would be, or even the laws of the country suffer, for it is not uncommon for some men to beat, and otherwise severely correct their colored mistresses. This connexion strikes at the root of honorable engagements with the far, prevents marriage, and is, thereby, detrimental to the increase of legitimate population.23 Black women were generally required to obey the demands of white men or face the corporeal punishment.24 However, biopolitical concern about white population growth on the island. more preoccupied with the establishment of a settler colony and English moral conduct such as marriage. Let us revisit the images of Mimbo from Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies becomes increasingly lavish. Over the course of the cartoon, her wardrobe transforms from gold earrings, a worn colorful skirt, about Caribbean mistresses and materialism. While those such materialism, Edward Long, a wealthy Jamaican planter and the notion of them as controlling temptresses, the goatish Eves 25 Long argues that mulatto mistresses conspire using â&#x20AC;&#x153;tricks, cajolements, and are adept at the trickery and robbery necessary to obtain their material desires.26 Long is also not unique in holding mistresses 42

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culpable, at least in part for the failure of marriage in the colonies. immigrant members of the planter class living the West Indies characterized black and mulatto women as temptresses that were devoid of all morals and destructive to the patriarchal plantocracy. Thomas Atwood, a Dominican author and judge, presented a similar characterization of mulatto mistresses in his text History of Dominica. So little are the sexes attached to each other, or constant in connubial connections, that it is common for the men to have several wives at a time, besides transcient mistresses; and the women to leave their husbands for others, and to submit to the embraces of white men for daughters to white men for a moderate sum, nor do they look upon it as any crime, but an honour to the damsel, to wife by one of her own colour.27 Like Long, Atwood highlights the materialism of the infamous black/mulatto mistress and gestures toward her immorality by claiming that it is she who will sell her daughter in to prostitution. However, as many contemporary scholars have noted, prostitution and illicit relationships with white men were sometimes the most viable path to social mobility for free women of color in the Caribbean.28 One example of the social mobility afforded to women of color who engaged in sexual relations with white men can be found in a 1799 case, Nisbett v. Murray, dealing with a controversy over the estate of a deceased Jamaican planter from the parish of Westmoreland named, Robert Nisbett, who had property holdings in Jamaica and England.29 According to the court documents, Robert Nisbett had a mistress, Anney Gordon, “a free mulatto woman,” with whom he had two “reputed” sons Robert and Archibald Nisbett. All three of these persons were Penn History Review

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possessions, and several slaves to maintain her home until her death.30 Robert and Archibald were both awarded handsome 31 Anney Gordon is merely one example of a mulatto mistress for whom relations with a white planter provided economic stability, such that she and her children would be taken care of for their lives. However, as indicated in they had a family together, Robert Nisbett and Anney Gordon were not married. The taboo nature of interracial affairs was often associated with the destruction of matrimony, the white family, and thus the settlement of the colony and the establishment of English society in the Caribbean.32 Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies in the fourth panel we see that Mimbo is made â&#x20AC;&#x153;Queen of the Harem,â&#x20AC;? with four other women, presumably other sexual partners of Johnny Newcome. Unlike Anney Gordon, whose relationship with Robert Nisbett appears to have been monogamous, Mimbo seems to be one of many male creole degeneracy within the British Caribbean. White embody virtuosity and modesty.33 bodies and sexualities placed white women at odds with women of color, politically and sexually, however they remained connected through their shared oppression.34 Though all women were oppressed through the patriarchal dominion over their sexuality and matrimony were posited as cures to the parasite and sexual contact with women, at least in part that legitimated

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Productive, Reproductive, and Destructive: Black Women, Reproduction, and Miscegenation shown to have borne upwards of nine children by Johnny Newcome, as the caption in the last panel suggests that the nine depicted are only “a few” of their progeny. This plays on the apocryphal stereotype that African women had a propensity for easy childbirth, resulting in numerous children.35 In the British West Indies, however, this was often not the case. Slaveholders and travellers were surprised by the low fertility and high mortality fertility in Africa. British West Indian travel narratives, written as early as A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados and child rearing methods were abnormal, alienating these women from white women. Long, like Ligon, describes the ease of childbirth and recovery for women in Africa, denoting 36

explanations of childbirth and child rearing. For example, he do in Africa” when he describes their lack of children.37 He attributes this lack of “breeding” to the skewed gender ratio woman.38 voluntary abortions in order to continue their business, as well as the malpractice of black midwives.39 To remedy the problem of “Negro reproduction,” Long suggests that planters should offer better incentives for women to care for their children.40 The fact that these women are perceived as needing incentives in order to care for their children assumes that black women are simultaneously naturally more fertile and innately less maternal than white women. Nussbaum has argued that when Penn History Review

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Europeans observed the absence of any aspect of maternal nature, as determined by Eurocentric standards in a nonEuropean population, it was considered evidence of inferior otherness.41 These perceived and real reproductive differences between black women and white women are marked in the texts and iconography of the eighteenth century as characteristically non-English. sympathizer; however, abolitionists paint a very different image. One example of this may be found in the text of Reverend James Ramsay, an Anglican reverend who travelled the West Indies in the 1760s and 1770s intent on converting African slaves to Christianity. In 1784, Ramsay published his treatise, An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies abolitionist circles in Britain. In his treatise he describes black If, after all, she carries her burden full time, she must be delivered in a dark, damp, smoky hut, perhaps without a rag in which to wrap her child, except the manager has a wife to sympathize with her wants. Hence the frequent loss of negroe children by cramp and convulsions within the month. A lying-in woman is allowed three, in some with her child, and hoe or bill. The infant is placed in the furrow, near her, generally exposed naked, or almost naked, to the sun and rain, on a kid skin, or such rages as she can procure. Some very few people give nurses an extra allowance. In general, no other attention is paid to their condition, except perhaps to excuse them from picking grass.42

Indeed, he attributes frequent infant mortality improper care of 46

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enslaved mothers. In this section, Ramsay holds the planters and plantation managers responsible for these poor conditions rather

low and infant mortality was high due to the intense manual labor, poor nutrition, living conditions, and stress of slavery.43 activist and member of the West India Committee, wrote, Cursory Remarks Upon the Reverend Mr. Ramsay’s Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the Sugar Colonies By a Friend to the West India Colonies, and Their Inhabitants (1785). In his text, Tobin deconstructed and criticized every claim made

explicit in stating that he has never seen a pregnant woman with suckling children work light labor.44 He also stated that lying-in as well as breaks before and after suckling their children.45 Tobin redeem the character of the West India planter, which Ramsay denigrated.46 This is evident in the title of his text where he positions himself as a “friend to the West India colonies and their inhabitants.” Yet Tobin does not call himself an inhabitant of West India; in his text, he defends the planter class while maintaining a safe distance and positions himself as an English ally to the planter class. Throughout his text, Tobin is unwilling to acknowledge his place in the West Indian plantocracy as an By doing so, this would not only reveal his bias, but it could also that contact and participation in the institution of slavery could

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of this chapter, the connection between desire for and revulsion towards slavery and the connection between desire for and and absentee planters. However, proponents of slavery, much like their abolitionist counterparts, were repulsed by the popular characterization of degenerate white planters and thus took on the paternalistic role of respectable English allies. Englishmen were not the only ones who expressed paternalism. As Henrice Altink has noted, planters and Englishmen alike developed a paternalistic attitude towards enslaved women in order sustain declining enslaved populations.47 promiscuity and willingness to abort their children, we see examples of this kind of paternalism. According to Long, neglect for the slave infant mortality rates and disease. For example, Long cited locked-jaw (also known as jaw-fall) as a cause of death for infants whose mothers neglected to keep termination of pregnancies and infanticide.48 Similarly, Robert incompetence to that of European midwives. Renny wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;â&#x20AC;Ś disease frequently arises from the want of skill, or inattention of the black midwives, who, like their fairer sisters in Europe, are always illiterate, generally careless, and often intoxicated.â&#x20AC;?49 This characterization of the black midwife and the European midwife epitomizes the paternalistic attitudes of British subjects toward black lying-in women and lying-in women worldwide. Historians have charted the ways in which the early modern European midwife, who was often a literate and valued member of the community, was displaced by the male midwife/obstetrician in the early eighteenth century due to increased preoccupation with female reproduction, proliferation of medical texts regarding reproduction, and Enlightenment ideologies that enabled men 48

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to place themselves at the center of the public sphere.50 comparison for an eighteenth-century English reader would practices and would posit the Englishman, who is beyond the antiquated and incompetent female midwife, as a bastion of modernity. Renny also explained the proper care needed for a lying-in womanâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;reminiscent of the medical knowledge explained in texts by Tobin and Ramsayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;furthering the paternalistic nature mentioned in his text. The persistent stereotype of black women as innately In the second to last panel, Mimbo is shown bidding farewell in an embrace to Johnny Newcome while her children are her children suggests a weak attachment to them, as evidenced by her lack of holding or caring for them. In fact, one child is even held up on a platter like a suckling pig, which Kay Dian toothy smile â&#x20AC;&#x201C; evocative of cannibalism.51 Contrary to this belief, evidence from runaway slave advertisements suggests that enslaved women had strong attachments to their children and were likely to runaway with children in tow.52 Given that this image was published in 1808, after the end of the slave trade, one methods of maintaining their plantations. After the Slave Trade maintain the enslaved populations on their plantations. Thus simultaneously disparaged and utilized for support to the West Indian economy. In the 1780s, around the same time as abolitionists gained a foothold among the English public, West Indian planters came mortality rates. In fact, by 1789 the Jamaican assembly voted to provide incentives to plantation owners who had enslaved Penn History Review

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children that survived beyond the age of one.53 Some planters attempted to meet these goals by taking precautions with their pregnant and lying-in female slaves. Although, most planters continued to allow the cost of raising enslaved children to be absorbed in the slave trade until its abolition in 1807.54 Since the child in their womb was also the legal property of the master. In 1767, Grenada was one of several islands to agree on legislation that required that all free persons of color provide evidence of birth from a free woman or manumission. 55 Thus, black politicized. As the slave trade came to a close, planter anxieties about their wombs increased â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and thus enslaved women became valuable reproductive bodies in which planters depended for the maintenance and increase of their plantations. As the eighteenth century came to a close and with it the slave trade, West Indian planters became increasingly concerned planters took it upon themselves to better care for their slaves so they would reproduce naturally, while others chose to reproduce with their slaves and enslave their own, mixed children. Eventually, increasing numbers of mixed raced persons on these islands threatened the social order of the colonies. Indeed, ambiguously raced persons became the subject of new legislation surrounding the ways in which a person of color could legitimate their freedom. The increased population of mixed raced persons also gave rise to scholarship regarding racial categorizations and mixing as a form of racial infection for which the only cure was more whiteness. Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies depicts this threat of mixed raced persons to the stability of the West Indian plantation system. In the last panel, nine of Johnny

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with a corresponding name and description in the small section below the cartoon. Each child is shown with light skin, rosy cheeks, and thick curly hair to signify their racially mixed identity. However, in the names and descriptions below, particularly the name and description of Hector Sammy Newcome, demonstrate description reads, “a child of great spirit can already Damnme Liberty and Equality and promises fair to be the Toussaint of his country.” The association between the increasing mulatto class with the Haitian Revolution is indicative of British imperial and colonial anxieties about the instability and lack of control over mixed race populations. Indeed, the success of the Haitian Revolution sent fear rippling throughout the West Indies, where people of color (enslaved and free) vastly outnumbered white populations.56 As the savvy mulatto woman became categorized compared to the “Negro”) became emblematic of a threat to the social order of the islands and the purity and the increase of the white population. Many eighteenth century writers struggled to place mixed raced persons within the already existing constellation of blackness and whiteness in West Indian society. This resulted in the inclusion of ethnographic chapters in travel literature, early histories describing different racial categorizations, and charts of racial ascendency from blackness to whiteness.57 For example, Edward Long attempted to organize persons of different racial groups into a social order through the creation of two charts, which he claimed to have based on Spanish categorizations of race. His allusion to the Spanish is not surprising given the proliferation of Spanish casta paintings and detailed descriptions of mixed-raced persons in Spanish travel narratives. Seventeenth and eighteenth century historians, most notably Bryan Edwards, cite the narrative of Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, A Voyage to South America, as the source of these racial categorizations.58

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charts constructed throughout the latter eighteenth century, including the infamous racial chart created by Moreau de SaintMéry depicting race in Saint Domingue. to ascend from black to white. The chart essentially states that after six generations of inter-mixing with a white male, one can achieve the status of a white person. According to the Code Noir, however, it only requires three generations of removal from a “Negroe” ancestor as well as a baptism to be granted the same rights as whites.59 Yet Long seems to be skeptical about the potential to “mend the breed,” or ethnically cleanse the “Negroe” in his statement on the page adjacent to the chart, writing, “twenty the stain.”60 His statement implies that one will never be purely white again, which presents a threat to the already diminutive racially pure white population. The notion of the washing away of this stain through racial mixing was also mocked throughout the British Empire during the eighteenth century. The depictions of Mimbo and her family in Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies are one instance of this mockery, though others appear even in North America. For example, in her study of race and gender in colonial Virginia, the contemporary historian Kathleen M. Brown cited an early eighteenth century Virginia planter, William Byrd II, who described a wicked West Indian that claimed to have “washt the Blackamoor white.” he had a Daughter that was a Mulatto. Her he lay with, believing no man had so good a right to gather the Fruit as he who planted it. By this he had another Daughter of the Portuguese complection and when she came to be 13 years old – he begot issue female upon her Body that was perfectly white and very honorably descended.61 of the infamous reputation of West Indian planters for their 52

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Edward Long, History of Jamaica, Volume 2, 261-2.

lechery towards enslaved women as well as the racial impurity of the British West Indies. It also speaks to the perceived moral impurity of the planters in the West Indies, due to their willingness to engage in incestuous relationships for the purposes of whitening their already tainted population. This is not say that planters in North America did not sleep with their female slaves as well, but rather to suggest that miscegenation and lechery were noted characteristics of Caribbean creole degeneracy. The passage from Byrd also speaks to the power and control white men had over black women, both physically and racially, as echoed by Edward Long.62 white male. On one hand, this chart locates the ethnic â&#x20AC;&#x153;stainâ&#x20AC;? of as the only means ascending this social hierarchy, for he is the only Penn History Review

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one that can cleanse a lineage of the “stain.” Relations between white women and men of color are absent from this chart in addition to relations between persons of mixed race. This is white women in Jamaica and the criminalization of black male relations with white women.63 The absence of White women from the chart and the absence of discussion of white female sexual relations with anyone who is not a white male, speaks to the pure and virtuous ideal of white womanhood, which Long seeks to uphold in his narrative. In his second chart, Long delineates the intermixing of black, Indian, and mixed raced persons without regard for their gender, describing the offspring as “neither advancing nor receding.”64 Thus, this further suggests that the white male is the nexus of social mobility and anyone who is not a white male, white women and people of color, are socially immobile. Mixed raced children upset strict categories and codes of conduct stipulated for blacks and whites. Although, much like the limits of their freedom. A mulatto, quarteron, or even a quinteron, would never achieve or surpass the status of a white male and they would never fall below the lowest rank, the black female. physiques in comparison to the features of black persons are also mediated by the boundaries of blackness and whiteness. Thus differentiation between one group and the other is represented in the resemblance to the European standard.65 Long suggested that the mulatto body is “well-shaped” and the women are “well-featured,” seeming to “partake more from the white than the black.”66 Their hair, he said, has a natural curl of a “tolerable length.”67 Although some, he said, have hair more native Africans.68 54

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with orangutans and likening their feet to hoofs.69 These bestial representation only serves to further other the black body, thus creating more distance between creole whites and their African 70 differs somewhat from his description of the inherent animalistic and ugly features of native Africans. He wrote, “creole blacks differ much from the Africans, not only in manners but in beauty of shape, feature and complexion.”71 “well-featured,” “well-shaped,” and “tolerable length” are all predicated on a Eurocentric standard of beauty and the belief that African features are inferior. Differences in the bodies of mulatto offspring fascinated Charles White, an English physician and proponent of polygenesis. In his text An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, and in Different Animals and Vegetables, published in 1799, he described the variations in the complexions of mixed raced persons. In similar natural lists and conducting his own study of black people from a variety of climates.72 were still distinctive differences between whites and blacks that could not be attributed to purely environmental factors, which were the grounds for his argument that blacks and whites must have had different origins.73 White outlined these gradations and concluded that Europeans are the most developed and furthest removed from apes.74 He cited examples from medical texts and the Encyclopedia Britannica regarding mixed raced persons, noting pigmentations we would categorize today as albinism or vitiligo.75 As a result, White suggested that a person might be born both white and black.76 He also cited examples where a black woman gave birth to twins or triplets, where some were born black and others mulatto, simply based on their complexion.77 Regarding this example, he stated that these children must have been born of a white master and not of a black father for such racial Penn History Review

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discrepancies to occur.78 The fact that it was their complexion rather than their parentage, therefore, marked the shift towards located in American colonies, thus characterizing racial mixing and the medical anomalies associated with it as something other than English. of the “mule-kind,” speculating that they could not reproduce something resembling themselves and conversely that two mulattos could not reproduce.79 Long conjectured that in such instances where it seemed that two mulattos reproduced, it was actually a mulatto woman that had lain with a white man.80 This suggests that mulatto women were promiscuous and lays the groundwork for his polygenesis theory. By proposing that whites and blacks produce an infertile offspring of the “mule-kind,” Long also posited that they must be of a separate origin. He later stated that a difference in species was the only way to account for the differences of “feature, skin, and intellect; observable among man kind; which cannot be accounted for in any other way.”81 for understanding the construction of race in the late eighteenth century, especially as it relates to English nationality. This section was both useful and threatening to colonial Caribbean society. Additionally, many of the stereotypes that distanced white planters from their fellow Englishmen at home came from their different relationships and treatment of black women, who played the roles of servant, mistress, and often mother of their

otherness. The rhetoric of blackness as a spreading taint residing 56

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in black bodies—but with a cure through white maleness—is indicative of the notion of an infectious female blackness that seemed to proliferate in Caribbean society. Thus, the muting or marginalizing of blackness, which was forcibly brought into contact with Englishness, became a method of reifying the boundaries between the English and the black (or blackened) other. Conclusion

were posited as the antithesis to Englishness such that contact with them, particularly sexual contact and miscegenation, resulted in the moral, racial, and thus national impurity on the island. Scholars, including Felicity Nussbaum, Trevor Burnard, and Roxann Wheeler suggest that the increasing Africanization of these islands created a climate in which racial categorizations became increasingly focused on linkages between complexion and morality. This physiognomic discourse, also noted in Kay English exceptionalism that developed in late eighteenth century rhetoric. Given the emphasis placed on white male planter relations with black women, it is only appropriate that the focus of this chapter on infectious blackness through sexual contact be centered on the bodies of black women. As Nussbaum has so eloquently put it: “ Complexion calibrated from the standard of whiteness, then, becomes the exterior sign of interior merit as well as aesthetic value: it increasingly becomes a legible measure of beauty or ugliness, national character, health, social rank, economic and moral worth…”82 Thus, complexion altered through miscegenation and evident in interracial affairs, artistic, and textual reproductions became the lexicon of communicating

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Englishness and non-Englishness, or blackness, which privileged

Satirical Print Catalogues, 1788-1794,” Print Quarterly 16, no. 2 (1999): 127-138.; Trevor Burnard, “‘A Compound Mongrel White Creoles in the British West Indies, 1780-1834,” in Seeing Satire in the Eighteenth Century, Malone (Oxford: Voltaire Press, Forthcoming). 2 Jennifer L. Morgan, Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004), 16. 3 Morgan, Laboring Women, 16.; Barbara Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean Society 1650-1838 (Indianapolis: Indian University Press, 1990), 11-22. 4 Kay Dian Kriz, Picturing the British West Indies, 1700-1840 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 71-116.; Felicity Nussbaum, The Limits of the Human: Fictions of Anomaly, Race and Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 135-150.; Morgan, Laboring Women, 12-49. 5 Kathleen Wilson, The Island Race: Englishness, Empire and Gender in the Eighteenth Century (New York: Routledge, 2003), 1-53. Kriz, , 71-116.; Nussbaum, The Limits of the Human, 135-150.; Morgan, Laboring Women, 12-49. 6 Edward Long, Settlements, Inhabitants, Climate, Products, Commerce, Laws and Government (London, 1774), 2:327. 7 Bryan Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies (London, 1793), 2:82.; Charles White, An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, and in Different Animals and Vegetables (London, 1799).; Harris’s List of Covent58

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Garden Ladies or Man of Pleasure’s Kalendar for the Year 1793 (London, 1793).; Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 11-22. 8 Marietta Morrissey, Slave Women in the New World: Gender (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1989), 83-85. 9 Morrissey, Slave Women in the New World, 83-85.; Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 83-150. 10 Roxann Wheeler, The Complexion of Race: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), 4. 11 Felicity Nussbaum, Torrid Zones: Maternity, Sexuality, and Empire in Eighteenth-Century English Narratives (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 7. 12 Ibid. 13 Lucille Mathurin Mair, A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica 1655-1844, ed. Hilary McD. Beckles et al. (Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2006), 77. 14 John Luffman, A Brief Account of the Island of Antigua (London, 1789), 43-47 15 Morgan, Laboring Women, 12-49., Bucher, Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 11-22. 16 John Berger, “From Ways of Seeing,” in The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader, ed. Amelia Jones (New York: Routledge, 2003), 37-39. 17

vast majority of his paintings have been dated to the 1780s, it Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies and certainly The Adventures of Johnny Newcome Part 1 by William Elmes (1812). 18

and the Depiction of St Vincent,” Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (2004): 109. 19 White, An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, cliv. ; Numerous travel narratives including those by Richard Ligon, Penn History Review

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Edward Long, and Bryan Edwards depict black women as having large sagging breasts. 20 Kriz, , 106-109. 21 Trevor Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004) 231. 22 Carol Barash, “The Character of Difference: The Creole Woman as Cultural Mediator in Narratives about Jamaica,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 23, no. 4 (1990): 411. 23 Luffman, A Brief Account of the Island of Antigua, 114-118. 24

Status in Early Colonial Jamaica,” The William and Mary Quarterly 48, no. 1 (1991), 111. 25 Long, History of Jamaica, 2:331. 26 Ibid. 27 Thomas Atwood, History of the Island of Dominica (London, 1791), 273. 28 Morrissey, Slave Women in the New World , 83-85; Hilary McD. Beckles, Centering Woman: Gender Discourses in Caribbean Slave Society (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 1999), 22-37. 29 Nisbett v. Murray, Murray v. Nisbett, 518-523 (Rolls 1779), Hein Online English Reports. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Trevor Burnard, “A Failed Settler Society: Marriage and Demographic Failure in Early Jamaica,” Journal of Social History 28, No. 1 (1994): 63-82. 33 Burnard, “Inheritance and Independence,” 112. 34 Barash, “The Character of Difference,” 410. 35 Morgan, Laboring Women, 36. 36 Ibid. 37 Long, History of Jamaica, 2:435. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid. 2:436. 40 Ibid. 2:439. 60

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Nussbaum, Torrid Zones, 52. James Ramsay, An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies (London, 1784), 89. 43 Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 120-150.; Morrissey, Slave Women in the New World, 100-143.; Morgan, Laboring Women, 107-143. Kenneth Morgan, “Slave Women and Reproduction in Jamaica, c. 1776–1834,” History 91 (2006): 231–253.; Kenneth F. Kiple, The Caribbean Slave: A Biological History (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984). 44 Tobin, James. Cursory Remarks Upon the Reverend Mr. Ramsay’s Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the Sugar Colonies. By a Friend to the West India Colonies, and Their Inhabitants. (London, 1785), 77-78. 45 Ibid. 79. 46 Ibid. 4-5. 47 Henrice Altink, Representations of Slave Women in Discourses on Slavery and Abolition, 1780–1838 (London: Routledge, 2006). 48 Long, History of Jamaica, 3:436. 49 Robert Renny, An History of Jamaica (London, 1807), 207. 50 Lisa Forman Cody, “The Politics of Reproduction: From 41 42

Man-Midwifery,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 32, no. 4, (1999): 477495. 51 Kriz, , 110. 52

collection of eighteenth century Caribbean newspapers. Bush, Slave Women in Caribbean Society, 63-64. 53 Vincent Brown, Reaper’s Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008), 55. 54 Brown, Reaper’s Garden, 56. 55 “An Act, to prevent the further sudden Encrease of Free Negroes and Mulattoes,” in The Laws of the Legislature of the Islands of Grenada and the Grenadines, From the First Establishment of A Legislature, to the Dissolution of the Last Assembly on the Fifth day of September One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Four Penn History Review

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(Grenada, 1779), 25-30. 56 Sir William Young, The West-India Common-Place Book: Compiled Great Britain in its Sugar Colonies (London, 1807), 3. common place book; Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, 2-3. 57 Both Edward Long and Charles White constructed similar Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, 16. Long, History of Jamaica, 2:321. 60 Ibid. 2:261. 61 Kathleen Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial Virginia (The University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 333. 62 Brown, Good Wives, Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs, 328334. 63 Burnard, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Inheritance and Independence,â&#x20AC;? 111. 64 Long, History of Jamaica, 2:261. 65 Wheeler, The Complexion of Race, 222. 66 Long, History of Jamaica, 2:335. 67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 2:352. 69 Ibid. 2:389, 412. 70 Creole black is intended to mean black persons who were born in the West Indies, rather than those imported as slaves. 71 Long, History of Jamaica, 2:409. 72 White, An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man, 55-6 73 Ibid. 74 Ibid. 75 Ibid. 100. 76 Ibid. 121-122. 77 Ibid. 78 Ibid. 79 Long, History of Jamaica, 335-336. 80 Ibid. 58 59

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Ibid. Nussbaum, Limits of the Human, 150.

Images: Page 31: â&#x20AC;&#x153;J.F.,â&#x20AC;? Johnny Newcome in Love in the West Indies, 1808, hand-colored etching, London Courtesy of the British Museum Prints and Drawings Department, London, England. Page 38: William Elmes, Adventures of Johnny Newcome Pl. 1, 1812, handcolored etching, London. Courtesy of the British Museum Prints and Drawings Department, London, England. Page 41: Richard Newton, What a Nice Bit!, 1796, hand-colored etching, London. Courtesy of the British Museum Prints and Drawings Collection, London, England; Isaac Cruikshank after George Woodward, A Morning Surprise, 1807, hand-colored engraving, London. Courtesy of the British Museum Prints and Drawings Collection, London, England. Page 53: Edward Long, History of Jamaica Volume 2, 260; Edward Long, History of Jamaica Volume 2, 261.

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Perceptions of the Sun and Skin Cancer

The Cause of Our Dilemma with the Sun through the Lens of Skin Cancer Meghan E. McDonald

Many American families are familiar with the struggle to balance healthy sun exposure with the potentially harmful effects of ultraviolet rays. As patients, doctors, and consumers, Americans have a complex relationship with the sun, and skin cancer has a unique place in this connection. By surveying twentieth-century discourse on sun exposure, one can discover dilemma Americans presently face with the sun. This paper will historically contextualize the role that skin cancer has played in the ambivalent relationship that both consumers and medical professionals currently have with the sun. I will explain how the and harmful view, and how the medical perceptions of the sun have gone through a much more dramatic change with increasing on skin cancer. This concept of the relationship between the as an example of how the environment shapes the way health is viewed and how humans are intimately connected to the environment. Through an assessment of popular perception of the sun in American popular culture, it is possible to explore how in the last century. Through the use of advertisements, this paper will demonstrate the existing public perceptions at the time. Medical and public health journals will be used to show

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the general population to believe the sun was healthy even though pale skin was seen as beautiful. Next, the paper will show how from the 1920s through to the 1950s, the idea of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;healthy tanâ&#x20AC;? was pervasive in popular culture due to new thus the sun tanning industry reached its peak. There were skin cancer and other skin conditions at this time, but it took decades for them to be taken seriously and for that message to how, from the 1960s to the present day, medical professionals have struggled with their position on sun exposure, as new developments were discovered that demonstrated the harmful popular perceptions of tan skin for white, middle, and upper class individuals continues to be seen as a sign of good health and

not itself in agreement. The late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries brought about great change socially, culturally, economically, and medically. This time period constituted the rise of urbanization and industrialization and was the setting for the bacteriological revolution. Increased movements of families into cities and the societal perceptions of the sun based on class, as the lower classes were no longer working long hours outdoors.1 The bacteriological the time.2

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In Harpersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Bazaar, 33.26, 4

ideas that arose concerning sun exposure and its health effects. In terms of the popular perceptions of the sun during this time, most sources point to the idea that pale skin was seen as more beautiful than tan skin, but that the rays of the sun were valuable for overall health and welfare. Throughout the nineteenth largely covered their skin from exposure to the sun. Women of the middle and upper classes were especially vigilant in avoiding sun exposure that would damage their complexion, often wearing long dresses and using parasols to block the rays of the sun.3 Based on analysis of advertisements from this time period, it is clear that pale skin was considered fashionable. An advertisement in Harperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bazaar in June 1910 displays Lablache Face Powder, with a range of tints

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the complexion – prevents sunburns.”4 An issue of the same which states, “a good, natural complexion and a fair, soft skin are necessary essentials of beauty.”5 twentieth century was largely favorable, a gradual shift in this ideology began to occur with the popularization of the idea of a healthy tan.6 Sally Dunne Romano, a medical historian and physician from Yale University, claims in her doctoral dissertation, entitled “The Dark Side of the Sun: Skin Cancer, Sunscreen, and Risk in the Twentieth Century,” that a Washington Post article in American newspaper. It was in reference to a district attorney returning from his vacation in West Virginia. This advertisement

In Harpers’ Bazaar, 43.6, 1

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illustrates the beginnings of the association between tan skin and good health for white-skinned upper and middle class Americans.7 Romano suggests that the rise of the connection between “healthy” and “tan” stemmed from a combination of urbanization and industrialization.8 these popular perceptions of the sun as healthy. In the late nineteenth century, ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun were found to be successful in treating tuberculosis and destroying harmful bacteria.9 An article from The New York Times in September 1907, experiment by scientists in London that exposed samples of tuberculosis, diphtheria, typhoid, and Asiatic cholera to sunlight. The results found that the bacteria were killed in two to ten minutes when there was no intervening object between the sun and the sample.10 Due to these promising results, doctors and scientists attempted to make use of this effective treatment by promoting exposure to natural sunlight through heliotherapy or creating dissertation completed in 2013, medical historian Meghan Crnic together make up the study of phototherapy.11 Heliotherapy, a technique made popular through the work of the early twentieth century physician Auguste Rollier, was primarily used to treat tuberculosis but also treated rickets, arthritis, and other wounds and burns. For contemporary Americans and for the medical community, heliotherapy was seen both as a treatment and as a preventative measure to maintain health.12 The popularization of this medical treatment provided a critical link between the medical “healthy tan.”13 Actinotherapy, which was surprisingly developed before heliotherapy in the 1890s, used UV lamps to expose the 68

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the inventor of the UV lamp, won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1903 for his work in treating tuberculosis patients.14 This prestigious prize shows that the medical community of the time recognized his ideas about the healing powers of sunlight as both innovative and effective. Other medical professionals encouraged these natural sun exposure for a healthier environment for the sick. Dr. J. Mount Bleyer suggested to a New York Times reporter in 1896 that the construction of hospitals should optimize sun exposure for the patients. He stated, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We already know the purifying effect of sunlight on waterâ&#x20AC;ŚWe know also that sunlight is essential for This quotation shows the commitment of the medical community to incorporate treatment and research about the positive effects of sunlight into their practice. Although skin cancer and other skin conditions were indeed also connected to UV exposure, the prevailing attitude of the general population, as well as that of the medical community, was that the sun was an asset to health and well being. Because of this medical ambivalence toward the harmful effects of the sun at this time, the general population was largely unaware 15

even fewer laypeople knew that the UV light from sun exposure could cause skin cancer.16 Popular Perceptions of the Sun from 1920 through the 1950s The popular perception that sun exposure was healthy carried into the 1920s, but with the added social aspect that a tan was now considered beautiful.17 For both men and women at this time, it was agreed that tan skin was an external sign of both health and wealth.18 The shift in the idea that a suntan was associated Penn History Review

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Actinotherapy

with wealth, rather than manual labor, was most prevalent in the 1920s, as industrialization and urbanization greatly altered the American way of life. Instead of lower class laborers working outdoors, most were now working in the factories, away from the sun. Possessing a tan was no longer related to occupations in farming and agriculture, as the United States became a predominantly industrialized country. Rather, it was connected to the ability of the upper and middle classes to spend their free time participating in recreational activities outdoors.19 Fashion icon and designer Coco Chanel is sometimes credited with popularizing the tan in the 1920s, when she returned from a yachting trip in the Mediterranean with dark skin, exemplifying the idea that tan skin was associated with wealth and relaxation.20 The suggestion that the existence of a tan is a class issue can still

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be seen today. Throughout the 1920s, Vanity Fair magazine published many examples of a suntan as both a sign of beauty and as a sign of belonging to the upper class. An article from June 1929, entitled “The Well-Dressed Woman at the Shore,” refers to four women wearing expensive bathing suits at the beach and describes how they lounge in the sand during the week so that “a dazzling tawny beauty may greet arrivals on Friday night.”21 An advertisement from July 1927 for Cannon Towels depicts a group of men and women on the beach in the sunlight. The caption for the illustration reads, “Registered at the Ritz in Atlantic City.” This article implicitly portrays the connection between a healthy tan and wealth by combining the image of sunbathers with the expensive, luxury hotel.22 Cartoons in Punch magazine provide a satirical perspective of how the public viewed the sun. One cartoon from 1931 shows tanned men and women surrounding a lonely, very pale man in the center of the group with the caption, “the new arrival on the bathing beach.”23 Another cartoon from 1936 pictures two women talking on the beach – one with short blond hair, a skimpy bikini, and a deep tan and the other with very pale skin and a more conservative swimsuit. Other men and women, also with very tanned skin, surround the pair. The tan woman respectable in a day or two.” This article was published in the Health and Medicine section of the magazine, further illustrating that the general population considered a tan medically healthy.24 In the History section of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, dermatologist Michael Albert and scholar Kristen Ostheimer describe the prevalence of sunbathing in this period. They describe how people were not only spending more time laying out in the sun at beaches and parks, but also how new businesses were growing in cities that offered sun tanning on rooftops of hotels and even on some trains.25 They also describe how ultraviolet lamps in the home rose in popularity along with Penn History Review

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sunbathing and phototherapy. These lamps, made by companies

of having UV light in the home.26 The sunscreen industry offers another example of the focus on tan skin during this time period. Products such as Skol and Tartan dominated the industry from the development of sunscreen in the 1930s to the decade after World War II.27 An advertisement for Skol in Life magazine in 1941 used the slogan, “Tan Beautifully without Burning.” The ad targeted both men to the medical authority behind the product.28 Tartan, which was popular in the sun lotion market after the increase in demand for sunscreen by soldiers in World War II, advertised their product as useful for even those with fair skin, as they could now achieve a beautiful tan without reddening.29 1931, entitled “Sunlight for Babies,” further demonstrates the popularization of the notion that a tan was a sign of good health. The pamphlet advocates sunbaths for babies in every season to prevent rickets and to promote overall health. It also states that sunlight aids in the natural growth of children and thus babies should be given a “coat of tan,” providing simple illustrations of infants exposed to healthy sunlight.30 According to Daniel Freund, an assistant professor of social sciences at Bard High School Early College, in his book American Sunshine: Diseases of Darkness and the Quest for Natural Light, this 1931 pamphlet was

Another advertisement in The New York Times in 1928 proclaimed “Babies 31

only how natural sunlight exposure was encouraged, but also the 72

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U.S. Department of Labor Children’s Bureau, “Sunlight for Babies”

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explains how a three-year-old demonstrated the use of an ultra violet ray lamp at the Divine Providence Day Nursery. The Executive Secretary of the Catholic Day Nurseries and a nurse steadily in both height and weight, signaling the healthiness of the treatment.32 The beginning of the 1920s continued the trend of the proven to treat and prevent a variety of diseases, UV radiation was often administered. A 1932 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) article written by physician George MacKee explains how UV radiation was used at the time. It details that heliotherapy, or natural light sun bathing, was done outdoors and required no extra equipment except elements for the comfort of the patient. It also states that the Finsen UV lamp was not used in the United States at the time for economic reasons, but called quartz mercury arc lamps.33 Interestingly, it also gives a table of diseases that had been repeatedly and successfully treated by dermatologists using UV light. The table includes conditions such as acne, eczema, psoriasis, lupus vulgaris (tuberculosis of the skin), and even ulcers and wounds. The table also explains the doses of UV given for each disease. For example, lupus vulgaris required either “frequent general irradiation of the entire body or large areas of normal skin with doses too small to evoke erythema (redness of the skin)” or “irradiation of circumscribed eruptions or lesions with erythema and blistering doses.”34 This article provides evidence of the general acceptance Perhaps the progressive era ending in the 1920s also

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light treatment through the recommendation of public health measures.35 An article in the Journal of State Medicine in 1930 the general physique and on the general power of resistance to disease butâ&#x20AC;Śthere is a stimulating effect upon the mentality of patients receiving insolation.â&#x20AC;?36 This idea that sunlight was not only good for treating rickets and tuberculosis of the skin the skin and mental health provided the basis for public health exposure. These public health campaigns, which held their perception of sunlight at the time. Yet, concurrently, the science that backed these public health campaigns was gaining new information about the dangers of sunlight exposure. In 1928, British physician George Marshall Findlay conducted one important experiment that shed light on the issue. Findlay repeatedly exposed albino mice to UV rays from a quartz mercury vapor lamp, which induced malignant skin tumors in the mice.37 Findlay also reported that at the time there were other supporters of this idea that sunlight could in 1896, who reported that the condition was especially common in sailors.38 39 A 1935 review in JAMA written by physician Lloyd Craver, M.D., about the accepted causes of cancer at the time stated ultraviolet light as a causative factor in the production of skin cancer cells and to malignant melanoma.40 While all of these discoveries about the harmfulness of sunlight were being published, there was also much debate about the topic. Another JAMA article written in 1935 states that Dr. A. H. Roffo also produced skin cancer in the face and ears of white rats by exposing them to sunlight but Penn History Review

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into many objections. Among the objections were that sunlight been proven to treat tuberculosis of the skin; and animals that are exposed to sunlight year round do not frequently develop skin cancer.41 The Science of the 1960s to the Present Day

aspects in the background to, from the 1960s to the present day, the widespread knowledge of the negative effects of the sun. If a physician in the early the twentieth century had given a speech somewhat routine. But in 2005, when Harvard epidemiologist Ed Giovannucci proclaimed at a meeting for the American Association for Cancer Research that the sun might in fact do more good than harm, the critical reaction was immense.42 emerging trend within the medical community that promotes increased sunlight exposure. exponentially from the 1960s onward, as more scientists began to consider and study the negative effects of sunlight. In the 1960s, two major discoveries helped scientists to understand that found DNA mutations could arise from exposure to UV light. That is, photoproducts were formed that mutated a “C to a T” or a “CC to a TT” in a particular DNA sequence, which is the mechanism for the formation of skin cancer. Secondly, a scientist named James E. Cleaver discovered the importance of repair mechanisms in the skin to maintain healthy skin in 1968. He showed that UV light exposure caused the process of the skin tissue repairing itself to be defective, which helped scientists 76

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to further understand the role of UV radiation as a carcinogen causing cutaneous malignancies.43 An article written by three scientists published in the American Journal of Public Health in 1976 provides evidence that at that time, it was generally accepted that sunlight contributed to the etiology of skin cancer. The article describes a study concerning the incidence and mortality rates of skin cancer based on exposure to ultraviolet light in biologically effective units (BEU). With advanced statistical analysis, the study found that a 10 percent increase in maximum month BEU for a white male in Iowa (or any place of equivalent latitude) corresponded to 49.7 additional cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer per 100,00 people.44 A 1994 article in the journal Cancer Causes and Control written by medical researchers from across the globe contained a review of the state of knowledge surrounding skin cancer. They concluded, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The indirect epidemiological evidence that sun exposure causes skin cancer is strong.â&#x20AC;?45 They give several reasons for this conclusion. First, sites on the body that receive more exposure to sunlight have higher rates of skin cancer. Second, a study from Australia showed that migrants to Australia had a lower rate of skin cancer than lifelong residents of the country. This was possibly because they were not exposed to the strong sun in Australia during their youth, which is a critical time in terms of UV exposure. Third, darker skinned ethnic groups have lower incidences of skin cancer than lighter skinned groups in the same geographic location, which shows that pigment does play a role in protecting the skin from damaging UV rays. While there is much indirect evidence for the connection between UV radiation and skin cancer, the authors also reveal that direct evidence relating the two is very weak. Very few studies had and measure. Therefore, more quality epidemiological studies were needed to address the many existing unanswered questions about the exact relationship between sun exposure and skin Penn History Review

Perceptions of the Sun and Skin Cancer

cancer. For instance, the authors questioned if basal cell cancer and squamous cell cancer had the same relationship to the sun, as well as what the quantitative relationship between incidence of skin cancer and UV light exposure was.46 exposure in 2005 by four physicians published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that many studies still supported the role that UV radiation plays in the causation of skin cancer. Also, in reference to the tanning bed industry, they such as vitamin D and unfortunately, this industry is not strictly regulated to prevent people from using the services.47 Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology titled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Reviews on sun exposure described the current state of the relationship between sun exposure and skin cancer in the medical community. They stated that UV radiation is the predominant environmental risk factor for melanoma but that this UV exposure could come from both natural outdoor sunlight and tanning booths indoors. In strongest evidence that connects the two is that individuals who were exposed to indoor tanning before the age of 30 were 75 percent more likely to develop melanoma. History of sunburns, genetic predisposition, and phenotypic factors also play a role in the incidence of skin cancer.48 Returning to the point that was made by Ed Giovannucci at the American Association for Cancer Research about the sun in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology written six years later production, also help to reduce the risk of several other types of cancers.49 Another article from Cancer Causes Control reports that to produce a healthy amount of vitamin D without damaging the 78

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skin. The authors claim that vitamin D plays a role in preventing other cancers and autoimmune diseases and aids in bone growth. 50

has focused almost exclusively on the damaging effects of sunlight because of the complicated correlation of UV exposure with skin cancer. Physicians and researchers have cautioned against the use of tanning beds and excessive outdoor sunlight exposure. However, in recent years there has also been support for more sunlight because of the positive effects that vitamin D has on the skin and on other parts of the body, but it does not

drastically in the past century, popular perceptions of the sun and the public health campaigns employed to get people out of the sun in order to avoid skin cancer, the general population still engages in practices that involve excessive sun exposure. This is possibly due to the fact that although science has overwhelming sun exposure did not seem to be enough to push the perceptions of the public away from their current views. In analyzing the covers, advertisements, and other photographs in current popular magazines, it is readily apparent that tan skin is perceived as beautiful. According to Kerry Segrave in her book Suntanning in 20th Century America, this time period has been marked by a tan not only being associated with health, but also being a symbol of desirability, sexuality, and beauty. People start tanning because it is a social expectation and because fashion dictates that everyone should. She mentions a 1964 Mademoiselle article that advised its readers how to get a Penn History Review

Perceptions of the Sun and Skin Cancer

“perfect tan.” The article described an intensive method called the “rotisserie system” to achieving a deep and even tan.51 The indoor tanning salon industry, possibly a successor The tanning booths were advertised as a cheaper option for getting a tan than traveling to an expensive, exotic, and sunny 81 locations in December of 1979 and was projected to have over 3,000 outlets.52 Although the FDA has increased regulations on tanning salons over the past forty years for safety reasons, they are still widely available and visited. In fact, according to a 2005 article by four physicians in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, the indoor UV tanning industry is still growing. There has been a 500 percent increase in the estimated annual revenue for the industry between 1992 and 2005, from $1 billion to $5 billion.53 Also, approximately one million people tan in a tanning salon on an average day in the United States, 70 percent of whom are white females aged 16 to 49.54 This shows that although there is an abundance of evidence proving the harmful tanning were not swayed away from the tan-as-beautiful model, the practices of tanning have not changed. In terms of awareness about the issue of skin cancer, a study conducted by physicians at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University found that most of the population surveyed engaged in unprotected UV exposure. The sample of 176 men and 300 women ranging from 16 to 90 years old demonstrated that women are more knowledgeable about the damaging effects of UV exposure and were more likely to use sunscreen. Yet women were also more likely to engage in practices such as sunbathing and using a tanning bed. In addition, tanning bed users were more likely to be informed of the harmful effects of excessive UV exposure. This seems to suggest that educational public health campaigns are not

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Perceptions of the Sun and Skin Cancer

toward UV exposure.55 In order for those men and women who are aware of the dangers of direct sunlight and want to achieve a tan without damaging their skin, many products have been created to produce a tan look. For example, an article in Vanity Fair magazine from August 2013 describes the best type of self-tanning lotions. The

say goodbye to a nice tan as well.” The online edition provides Tanning Bronzing Mousse, the Clear Sunless Tanning Spray made by Brownberry, and even a tan in a towel form called Somerville 360 Towelettes by Kate Somerville.56 An article from Allure magazine provides another views of the sun, as evidenced by the title “How to Tan Safely – SPF is Just the Beginning.” The article describes the “dos” and additional proof that a tan is considered so fashionable by the general public that people will engage in any method necessary to get a tan. By promoting sunscreen use every two hours and wearing a wide brimmed hat and long sleeves to the beach, it also shows that people recognize that the sun can cause severe to avoid the damaging effects of the sun while exposed.57 Overall, although the medical community focuses on and advocates for a limit on UV ray exposure, the population of the United States still engages in the practice of tanning in whatever way they deem appropriate. Even though individuals may be aware of the damage that UV rays can cause to skin, they still believe a tan is fashionable and even healthy looking possibly

Penn History Review

Perceptions of the Sun and Skin Cancer

Conclusion This paper has constructed a story detailing the history of perceptions of the sun by both the medical profession and the general population in terms of both health and aesthetic. It has shown that popular perceptions shifted from favoring pale skin in the late nineteenth century to favoring tan skin beginning sun was healthy for their skin and overall welfare to recognizing the dangers of the sun as science prescribed, although they have taken little action to adjust to this new knowledge. It is an interesting paradox that tan skin became fashionable as a tan exceedingly became seen as healthy, but when the sun was exposed as harmful, this perception did not revert back to favoring the pale appearance. perspective drastically changed with the discovery of skin cancer. exposure to children and adults alike to promote health before exposure and skin cancer. Until recently, physicians and scientists advocated for staying out of contact with direct sunlight. These facts help us to understand why science now faces the conundrum in which skin cancer is a serious disease that affects millions of Americans, but completely discouraging sun exposure leads to other negative health effects. As Daniel Freund wisely states in the epilogue of his book American Sunshine, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The story of American sunlight is one of powerful new fears, of remarkable technological mastery, of created commodities, and of hypernatural but limited solutions to environmental hazards. 58

This dilemma has led to various suggestions as to how to deal with the problem. An article by Harold Hefter, M.D. in The New York Times in 1989 promoted the necessity of more public education concerning sun protection. He proposed that beauty magazines reveal the damaging effects of the sun as much as the 82

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beauties of a tan. Also, he suggested that radio and television should use their public service announcements and more posters should be placed in public spaces in order to advertise this phenomenon.59 On the other hand, as previously mentioned, a study on perceptions of UV radiation in 1993 suggested that skin cancer rates because the most knowledgeable demographic is also the one that abuses sunlight exposure the most often.60 delineating the correct amount of sun exposure for each individual in their lifetime, we are able to understand how we got to this point. Both sides of this of the argument can be utilized to attempt to achieve a healthy balance of sunlight for health and well-being. Meghan Crnic, “Seeking the Salubrious Sea: The Health and Environments of Urban American Families, 1870-1930,” Chapter 5 (PhD Diss. University of Pennsylvania. 2013), 8. 2 Charles E. Rosenberg, The Therapeutic Revolution: Essays in the Social History of American Medicine (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979) 3 Michael R. Albert and Kristen G. Ostheimer, “The evolution of current medical and popular attitudes toward ultraviolet light exposure: Part 1,” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 47, no. 6 (Dec 2002): 930. 4 “Advertisement 17 -- no Title.” Harper’s Bazaar (1867-1912) 33, no. 26 (Jun 30, 1900): 4. http://search.proquest.com/docv 1

“Advertisement 15 -- no Title.” Harper’s Bazaar (1867-1912) 43, no. 6 (06, 1909): 1. http://search.proquest.com/docview/12500 5

Albert and Ostheimer, “Evolution Part 1,” 936. Romano, “The Dark Side of the Sun,” 33. 8 Ibid. 34. 6 7

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Meghan Crnic, “Seeking the Salubrious Sea,” 4, 12. Special Cable to The New York Times, “Sunlight Deadly to Germ Life,” New York Times (1857-1922), September 01, 1907, accessed November 07, 2013, http://search.proquest.com/doc 9

Crnic, “Seeking the Salubrious Sea,” 4.

heliotherapeudic portraits, c. 1903-1944,” Med Humanities Published Online First: March 28, 2013, accessed November 4, 2013, doi:10.1136/ medhum-2012-010281. 13 Romano, “The Dark Side of the Sun,” 61. 14 Crnic, “Seeking the Salubrious Sea,” 14-17. 15 “More Sunlight Needed.” New York Times (1857-1922), Mar 14, 1896, accessed November 1, 2014, http://search.proquest. Albert and Ostheimer, “Evolution Part 1,” 934-935. Albert, Michael R. and Kristen G. Ostheimer, “The evolution of current medical and popular attitudes toward ultraviolet light exposure: Part 2,” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 48, no. 6 (Jun 2003): 914. 18 Romano, “The Dark Side of the Sun,” 38. 19 Crnic, “Seeking the Salubrious Sea,” 8. 20 Deborah S. Sarnoff, “The Tale of Tanning: From Pale to Bronze and Back Again.” Accessed November 20, 2013. http:// www.skincancer.org/prevention/tanning/tale-of-tanning 21 “The Well Dressed Woman at the Shore,” Vanity Fair, June 1929, 87. 22 “Cannon Towels,” Vanity Fair, July 1927, 79. 23 “The Colour Question. The new arrival on the bathing beach,” Illustration, Punch Magazine, accessed November 19, 2013, http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I0000QEKvrAlXUdg 16 17

respectable in a day or two,” Illustration, Punch Magazine, September 2, 1936, accessed November 19, 2013, http://www. punchcartoons.com/PS/Store/Product/Tanned_sunbather_ 84

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pities_pale_woman-49712 25 Albert and Ostheimer, “The Evolution Part 2,” 913-914. 26 Ibid. 915-916. 27 Romano, “The Dark Side of the Sun,” 71. 28 Ibid. 75. 29 Ibid. 93. 30

Babies.” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://www.mchlibrary. info/history/chbu/29412.PDF 31 Daniel Freund, American Sunshine - Diseases of Darkness and the Quest for Natural Light, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 116. 32 New York Times (1923-Current File), May 01, 1928, Accessed November 05, 2013, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/10457110 George M. MacKee, “Ultraviolet Therapy in Dermatology,” Journal of the American Medical Association 98 (1932): 1553. 34 MacKee, “Ultraviolet Therapy in Dermatology,” 1556. 35 Albert and Ostheimer, “The Evolution Part 2,” 911. 36 H. Gauvain, “Sun Treatment in England,” Journal of State Medicine 38 (1930): 468-475, quoted in Albert and Ostheimer, “The Evolution Part 2,” 911. 37 G.M. Findlay, “Ultra-Violet Light and Skin Cancer,” The Lancet 212, no. 5491 (Nov 1928): 1072. 38 Ibid. 1070. 39 Michael R. Albert and Kristen G. Ostheimer, “The evolution of current medical and popular attitudes toward ultraviolet light exposure: Part 3.” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 49, no. 6 (Dec 2003): 1099. 40 Lloyd F. Craver, “Etiology of Cancer: A Partial Review,” Journal of the American Medical Association 105 (Dec 1935): 1821. 41 “Cancerigenic Action of Sunlight,” Journal of the American Medical Association 104 no. 20 (Mar 1935): 1837. 42 Freund, “American Sunshine,” 168. 33

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Michael R. Albert and Kristen G. Ostheimer, “The Evolution Part 3.” 1099-1100. 44 Thomas R. Fears, Joseph Scotto, and Marvin A Schneiderman, “Skin Cancer, Melanoma, and Sunlight,” American Journal of Public Health 66, no. 5 (May 1976): 463. 45 Ann Kricker, Bruce K. Armstrong and Dallas R. English, “Sun Exposure and Non-Melanocytic Skin Cancer,” Cancer Causes and Control 5 no. 4 (Jul 1994): 388. 46 Kricker, Armstrong and English, “Sun Exposure and NonMelanocytic Skin Cancer,” 388. 47 Levine, Sorace, Spencer, and Siegel, “The indoor UV tanning industry,” 1038. 48 Gandini, Sara, Philippe Autier, and Mathieu Boniol, “Reviews Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology 107 (2011): 362. 49 Ibid. 365. 50 Monika Janda, Michael Kimlin, David Whiteman, Joanne Aitken and Rachel Neale, “Sun Protection and Low Levels of Cancer Causes and Control 18, no. 9 (Nov 2007): 1015. 51 Kerry Segrave, Suntanning in the 20th Century, McFarland and Co., Inc, 2005. 127-128. 52 Ibid. 155. 53 Jody A Levine, Michael Sorace, James Spencer, and Daniel M. Siegel, “The indoor UV tanning industry: A review of skin Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 53, no. 6 (Dec 2005): 1038. 54 Levine, Sorace, Spencer, and Siegel, “The indoor UV tanning industry,” 1039. 55 Victoria B. Mawn and Alan B. Fleischer Jr., “A survey of attitudes, beliefs, and behavior regarding tanning bed use, sunbathing, and sunscreen use,” Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 29, no. 6 (Dec 1993): 961-962. 56 “Hot Looks: Self Tanning Saviors,” Vanity Fair, August 7, 2013, accessed November 14, 2013, http://www.vanityfair.com/ 43

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Perceptions of the Sun and Skin Cancer

online/beauty/2013/08/hot-looks-self-tanning-saviors. 57 “How to Tan Safely – SPF is Just the Beginning.” Allure. July 2, 2013. Accessed November 18, 2013. http://www.allure. com/beauty-trends/blogs/daily-beauty-reporter/2013/07/ how-to-sun-tan-safely.html. 58 Freund, “American Sunshine,” 171. 59 Heftor, Harold S. “Learning the Dangers of Overexposure to Sun.” New York Times, July 9, 1989. http://www.nytimes. com/1989/07/09/nyregion/l-learning-the-dangers-ofoverexposure-to-sun-288589.html. 60 Mawn and Fleischer Jr., “A survey of attitudes” 961-962. Images: no. 26 (Jun 30, 1900): 4. http://search.proquest.com/docview/125034284

untid=14707. Emphasis added. Page 70: Meghan Crnic, “Seeking the Salubrious Sea: The Health and Environments of Urban American Families, 1870-1930,” Chapter 5 (PhD Diss. University of Pennsylvania. 2013), 36. Babies.” Accessed November 12, 2013. http://www.mchlibrary.info/ history/chbu/29412.PDF.

Penn History Review

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia

John F. Schifalacqua

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

James Madison and Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s First Encounter with Islam:

Tracing James Madisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Engagement with Barbary Affairs Through the 1st barbary War

John F. Schifalacqua University of Virginia

On May 20, 1815, Commodore Stephen Decatur, in set sail for the Mediterranean to begin the Second Barbary War.1 Barbary States (Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli, de facto independent possessions of the Ottoman Empire ) to end Barbary piracy of American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean Sea. With war on the horizon, Decatur was chosen to command a squadron. He had gained public acclaim in 1804 during the First Barbary War. In particular, he was known for his heroism in the Second Battle of Tripoli Harbor, where he had tactically slipped into Tripoli Harbor to destroy the captured American warship 2 Philadelphia Thomas Jefferson. The Philadelphia Aurora newspaper reported,

which has incessantly annoyed her peace, corrupted her citizens, 3

In the years following the battle, Decatur had fallen upon rougher times. In 1814, sent to the Bay of Bengal during the War of 1812 to plunder the commercial trade of the British East India Company, he had been captured and held prisoner by the British

Penn History Review

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

before he could accomplish his task.4 Thus, as Decatur set sail for the Mediterranean to face Algiers, he sought redemption for both himself and his country. Similarly, Algiers weighed heavily

to extract more tribute…In July 1812, a month after America annual tribute.”5 Dey Hadji Ali, Regency of Algiers, rejected the quality of American goods delivered as tribute and subsequently demanded that the Americans pay money for the safe departure policy of capturing American merchantmen while the U.S. Navy was preoccupied with war against Britain.6 As historians Louis Wright and Julia Macleod suggest, when “the danger of war with England increased, warships were withdrawn from regular patrol of the Mediterranean, and the Barbary rulers immediately became more arrogant.”7 In fact, Ali would proceed to inform a British consul that “my policy and my views are to increase, not to diminish the number of my American slaves, and not for a million dollars would I release them.”8 remarks and policy. In 1808, Madison had made clear to British equivalent return of injury, for injury received; and where it is to operate through the interests of a third party, having no voluntary participation in the injury received, the return ought… 9 As in 1808, when

a threat to hard-fought national independence abroad.10 On February 25, 1815, James Madison recommended that Congress “declare the existence of a state of war between the United States and the Dey and Regency of Algiers” for reasons of “overt and 90

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James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

direct warfare against the citizens of the United States trading in the Mediterranean.”11 Monroe, concurred, suggesting the Dey “had violently, and without just cause” permitted “acts of violence and outrage” against Americans.12 Madison was well-versed in the machinations of threat and tribute employed by the Barbary States. In fact, some of from the problems associated with Tripoli and Algiers. As historian Frank Lambert suggests, “the Tripolitan and Napoleonic attention, and Madison as Secretary of State was unmatched in knowledge and experience of the major issues.”13 Thus, the and solidify honor, independence, and justice for American commerce in the Mediterranean. Several American newspapers, like the Petersburg Daily Courier in Virginia, interpreted the war in this way, writing in 1815, “It is hoped by a number of citizens that our little Navy will be employed soon…such a service would be 14

Just as Decatur viewed his voyage into the Mediterranean as an opportunity to restore his individual honor, Madison, having led the nation through the War of 1812, was eager to restore national prestige and free commerce in the Mediterranean. because it demonstrates how, for all the actors involved in Barbary affairs, the 1815 War with Algiers was a culminating later be considered the crowning achievement of his career.15 For Madison, and his long history of involvement in the Barbary It led to the loss of independence by the Barbary powers in 1815 and a humiliating U.S. treaty. In 1816, the Algerians tried to rebuild their military forces, only to be crushed by a joint BritishDutch bombardment.16 French and Spanish colonization would Penn History Review

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

begin in subsequent years.17 While historians have focused extensively on the role of individuals like Stephen Decatur and Thomas Jefferson in the Barbary Wars, little time has been devoted to James Madison, 18 If anything, the conclusion of the 1815 War with Algiers invites Barbary affairs to explain his presidential policy emphasizing justice and commerce toward the Barbary States, as suggested by War were ultimately part of his larger commitment to American experience with the Barbary States provides important context to this commitment. have generally suffered from a degree of essentialism. Many contributions, beliefs, and policies on this foreign policy issue were the same as those of Jefferson. For example, Samuel Flagg Bemis, in his The American Secretaries of State and their Diplomacy series, argues – with little evidence – that “American policy toward the Barbary powers was largely dictated by Jefferson and executed by Madison.”19 More recent scholarship, including The Barbary Wars, has been less dismissive Madison to Jefferson when it comes to Barbary policy. For instance, in discussing Madison as President, Lambert argues that “like Jefferson, Madison had pinned his hope for peace [during without explicating to the extent required for such an ambitious claim of comparison between two Founding Fathers.20 Moreover, since both were Democratic-Republicans, policy mimicked those of Jefferson, and thus make generalized

John F. Schifalacqua

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

Penn History Review

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

substantive detail. Even John Quincy Adams suggested that minds upon each other, is a phenomenon”; he recognized the 21

Although such assumptions are sometimes appropriate, such as the controversy surrounding the Alien and Sedition Acts, with regard to topics like the Barbary Wars, in which little time has been devoted to a study of Madison, generalizations create Donald A. Zinman, in his article, “The Heir Apparent Presidency of James Madison,” emphasizes these misconceptions and explains how such essentialism among historians can occur. Few would dispute that, in some ways, Madison was an heir to Jefferson, as Gordon S. Wood, popular historian of the Early Republic, notes that “Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were more than good friends . . . these two Virginians and Founding Fathers participated in what was probably the greatest political collaboration in American history.”22 But Zinman argues that Madison, if an heir to anything, was primarily the recipient of 23 “A longtime close personal and professional associate of Jefferson,” Zinman argues, Madison Republican principles in government.”24 This responsibility is not unreasonable since “Jefferson had told Madison that, in his 25

characteristic complexities of studying Founding Fathers. These

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James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

Democratic-Republicans—which he certainly helped to build— he handled domestic and foreign policy quite differently from to Congress on December 5, 1815, not only did he report on the “successful termination of the war” against the Regency of Algiers, but he also acknowledged that the “probable operation of a national bank will merit consideration.”26 While Jefferson had many complex policies, when it came to certain issues advocated by Madison, such as considering a national bank, Jefferson was quite clear in his rhetoric. In his 1791 Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bill for Establishing a National Bank, Jefferson declared that, in regard to a national bank, it is “tolerably clear that it is unauthorised by the constitution.”27 Even though, as president, Jefferson made no effort to dismantle the First Bank of the United States once it had been instituted, Madison supported the institution of the Second Bank of the United States from its inception. This divergence of political position and degree of agency suggest that Madison did not fully adopt Jeffersonian ideology. deserves reinvestigation. The 1815 Algerine War may have been

foreign policies, it is necessary to develop the ways in which Madison was engaged with Barbary Affairs through the First Barbary War. By doing so, it is possible to dispel the notion that problems associated with the Barbary States. Furthermore, it is possible to contextualize and trace his participation in the issue, policy in the Barbary affairs.

Penn History Review

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

Defense of Free Navigation acquainted with the Barbary because of his participation in debates concerning naval affairs and commerce. It began with his participation in the 1776 Virginia Convention. His exposure to foreign affairs matured during his time as a delegate on the Continental Congress dealing with the intricacies associated with the Revolutionary War. Madison remained involved in the war until its triumphant end in 1783. Perhaps the most in foreign affairs involves problems associated with claims to the to understanding his policy in the subsequent decades, especially in regard to Barbary affairs. As problems arose between Spain and America over the foreign affairs. In 1779, John Jay was sent to Madrid by the Continental Congress to relay the instructions that “the United States should enjoy the free navigation of the River Mississippi into and from the sea.”28 However, dispatches from Jay began navigation on the Mississippi and the intentions of the Spanish government. Jay wrote that members of Congress and diplomats close to the issue “often enlarged on the policy and objects of to become possessed of the exclusive navigation of the Gulf of Mexico, and, of course, the Mississippi.”29 Jay even admitted that he believed such a concession would be worthwhile if it convinced the Spanish to support the American Revolution. But when Spain “afterwards declared war for objects that did not include ours, and in a manner not very civil to our independence,” the navigation of the Mississippi.30 96

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Consequently, on October 4, 1780, the Continental Congress declared that Jay was to adhere to his “former instructions respecting the right of the United States of America to the free navigation of the river Mississippi into and from the sea” whether or not Spain acknowledged such a policy.31 Two days later, a committee was appointed, presided by James Madison, “to enforce the instructions given by Congress to Mr. Jay…and to explain the reasons and principles on which the same are founded.”32 Madison presented this explanation in a report on October 17, 1780. Coupled with the argument that it was in the best interests of the United States and Spain to maintain the status quo, Madison focused heavily on free navigation of commerce. He suggested that a freely navigable Mississippi would “not only supply an abundance of all necessaries for the West India islands, but serve for a valuable basis of general trade, of which the rising spirit of commerce in France and Spain will no doubt particularly avail itself.”33 would “lay the groundwork of all the future discussions on a vital question of national policy [in regard to the Mississippi vicissitudes and a long series of years, to agitate the public councils.”34 Madison believed strongly in the importance of free navigation; it was part of his strong belief in free commerce in both domestic and foreign policy. During his time in the House of Representatives, he became deeply involved in matters of commercial discrimination, which, once again, placed him at the forefront of republican politicians concerned about navigation, commerce, and trade as essential to policy at home and abroad. understanding his own thoughts on the subject of commerce. His beliefs did not originate from prominent leaders, like Jefferson, but in congruence with fellow Republican colleagues. Within this early context, it becomes easier to understand Penn History Review

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

affairs as they came to national attention in the decades following Mississippi would lead to expanded commerce and economic on Barbary affairs as the inability to navigate the Mediterranean without the threat of captivity was similar to the threat of illustrated in his frustrations with the Continental Congress who, in need of Spanish aid during a weak point in the Revolution, reversed their decision to John Jay in early 1781. With British military successes in the South necessitating stronger diplomatic ties to the Spanish, Continental Congress instructed Jay: “so far as they insist on the free navigation of that part of the river Mississippi which lies below the 31st degree of north latitude and on a free port or ports below the same.”35 Fortunately, Spanish ministers turned down the deal hoping that Florida and the Mississippi could be secured without the entanglement of a formal treaty with Americans.36 Regardless, the reversal in policy was disappointing to Madison. He would later write in 1822 to Hezekiah Niles of the Niles’ Weekly Register to describe how the representatives at the Continental Congress of the southern states of South Carolina to give up the American commitment to free navigation of the Mississippi.37 Madison claimed that “fresh vigour [had been by drawing Spain into an alliance, and into pecuniary succours, believed to be unattainable without yielding our claim to the navigation of the Mississippi.”38 Consequently, Madison made clear that the Virginia Legislature and delegation “revoked the instruction to her Delegates to cede the navigation of the Mississippi” the minute the crisis was over.39 That Madison believed in the importance of the protection of free commerce from the very beginning of his 98

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Motion on the Protection of Commerce designed to “employ the naval force of manner as will most effectually protect the Trade & Commerce of the U. States.”40 He introduced the motion in response to a memorial “for the grievous losses of American ships and cargoes to British men-of-war and privateers in the spring of 1782.”41 During the war, British privateers threatened commerce and, without adequate protection, merchants subsequently suffered.

with the navy was often complex and even contradictory, his motion in 1782 supports his fundamental advocacy for trade and affairs requires knowledge of this fundamental determination for free navigation since before his relationship with Jefferson many foreign polices. Revolutionary War. Jefferson was governor of Virginia and Madison frequently wrote to him concerning the Revolution as well as developments in foreign affairs that stemmed from this in the Mississippi question and kept Jefferson appraised of the situation from his insider position at the Continental Congress.42 In 1781, Madison wrote to Jefferson expressing his concern that the Revolutionary War was enabling the creation of a government arming Congress with coercive powers arises from the shameful yielding their apportioned supplies.”43 Madison argued that if such a degree of coercive power were required, the existence of a navy could be rationalized—even to southern states—by the fact that maritime resources, Penn History Review

James Madison and the Barbary Affairs

would be both preserved in a respectable State in time of peace, and it would be an object to mann it with Citizens taken in due proportions from every state. A Navy so formed and under the orders of the general Council of the States, would not only be a guard against aggressions and insults from abroad; but without it what is to protect the Southern States for many years to come against the insults and aggressions of their N. Brethen.44

when Moroccan affairs prompted Jefferson in 1785 to advocate for â&#x20AC;&#x153;beginning a naval power if we mean to carry on our own commerce.â&#x20AC;?45 the Barbary States must be thought of in the context of previous discussions with Madison on the potential existence of a navy during the Revolution.46 Congress and his clearly delineated views suggest an agency beyond that of a simple regurgitation of Jeffersonian opinion. of the Mississippi and his awareness of foreign affairs as they pertained to the Revolution were fundamental characteristics that contextualize his role in regard to the Barbary States. the importance of American commerce, the potential of a naval force, and the reality that foreign affairs had to be considered when addressing domestic policy. States By understanding the degree to which Madison was aware 100

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of commercial and foreign affairs, it is easier to grasp his role and rationale in early American relations with the Barbary States. The Confederation Congress, aware of the ongoing problems in British colonization.47 Treaty explored the possibility of a maritime agreement with France to facilitate American commerce in the Mediterranean. “I am not for soliciting any political connection, or military assistance, or indeed naval, from France,” John Adams wrote.48 Instead, he wished “for nothing but commerce, a mere marine treaty with them.”49 Given the dangers of the Mediterranean, such an agreement would have been useful; as the British Lord will have a very free trade in the Mediterranean; it will not be in the interest of any of the great maritime powers to protect them from the Barbary States.”50 As such, the new Confederation Congress acted quickly, and in early May of 1784, passed a series of foreign affairs resolutions. John Jay became Secretary of Foreign Affairs and the Confederation Congress resolved to conduct “treaties of amity, or of amity and commerce,” with the Barbary States so as to recognize the friendly disposition of Morocco and attempt to foster a similar disposition among the other Barbary States.51 In 1784, Madison left the Confederation Congress to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates and remained a delegate until 1787. As such, it is understandable that Madison, who had been previously a major contributor to solutions for commerce and navigation during the Mississippi question, would be less move to the Virginia House of Delegates did not prevent him from participating in and remaining aware of Barbary affairs. While his nascent political career did not yet position him with the diplomatic power to be deeply involved in Barbary States Penn History Review

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Barbary affairs during his time in the Virginia House of Delegates, however indirect, remained important for contextualizing his future actions as Secretary of State and President. The Virginia House of Delegates, while perhaps playing a more peripheral role than that assumed by the national government, did in fact consider questions pertinent to the the Virginia House of Delegates decided that a number of delegates, including Madison, “be appointed commissioners, who…shall meet such commissioners as may be appointed by other States in the Union…to take into consideration the trade of the United States; to examine the relative situations and trade their commercial regulations may be necessary to their common interest and permanent harmony.”52 The House of Delegates resolved: that it be an instruction to the delegates of this Commonwealth in Congress, to use their utmost and effectual measures be taken for negotiating and entering into treaties of amity and friendship with the several independent maritime States of Africa on the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas; and moreover, to obtain and procure such naval protection to the courts of the United States, as their preservation and safety require.53 The resolution promptly passed the House and, shortly who introduced such a resolution to the House of Delegates, the fact that the 1786 Legislature of Virginia considered trade, the “maritime States of Africa,” and the possible procurement of a special commission on trade during the same session and day, it is Penn History Review

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conceivable that he would have at least participated in the House proceedings. In particular, one pertaining to a resolution seeking to negotiate treaties and obtain a naval force to protect Virginian trade in the Mediterranean. Taken in conjunction with his extensive involvement with the Mississippi question and his own consideration of a naval force through his Motion on the Protection of Commerce, a resolution considering the Barbary States—even in the context of the Virginia Legislature before the creation of the Constitution—would have been a topic of relevance to Madison and his involvement in American commercial interests. Whether or not he was directly involved, it is important that Madison was at least aware of such a resolution as a member of the legislature. The fact that the Virginia House of Delegates considered the Barbary States in the latter years of the Articles of Confederation is not only indicative of the prominent nature of the Barbary affairs and their prevalence within the discussions of state legislatures, but also for Madison who— in almost every stage of his career as a politician—was exposed to, and was involved with the Barbary affairs. The threat in the Mediterranean held great pertinence to Madison as he grappled with problems concerning commerce in his early political career. By considering this, it may be asserted that Adams and Jefferson matters pertaining to the Barbary States. This is not to say Jefferson and Madison did not maintain a relationship; nevertheless, while letters were sent policy suggestions. Rather, the correspondence served to inform Madison on Congressional activity applicable to his service in the Virginia House of Delegates. Between 1784 and 1786, for instance, Madison received a number of letters concerning foreign affairs, including updates on the Mediterranean. This affairs. This desire for information on foreign affairs relevant to 104

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commercial relations is understandable given his previous interest in Mississippi navigation, commerce, and his prior thoughts of a navy. supports such a relationship. The letter focuses on commerce and ardently supports to “suspend further treaties of commerce till measures shall have taken place in America, which may correct the idea in Europe of impotency in the federal government in matters of commerce.”54 After answering this inquiry, Jefferson included, “the present favorable disposition of the piratical states our ministers as a circumstance which may be transient.”55 The

that beyond these few early letters, mention of the Barbary affairs

collaboration with Madison on the issue in his early career as Jefferson at this time. Furthermore, during the 1780s, Madison corresponded primarily with William Grayson and James Monroe of Virginia Madison so exclusively on matters concerning Algiers, Morocco, and Tripoli than William Grayson did in the earliest years of the Barbary affairs before his presidency. Grayson was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates until 1785 when he entered the Confederation Congress as a delegate from Virginia.56 The vast Penn History Review

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information on what policymakers were considering on issues of foreign affairs for Madison.57 He updated Madison on issues ranging from what John Adams was thinking on “the necessity of commercial restrictions” to the fact that some representatives in the Confederation Congress were thinking about the necessity 58

opinion on the Spanish intrusion in southeastern America. Spanish engagements would have been important to determining the Spanish threat to a commercially free Mississippi. Grayson consistently updated Madison on the suspicion among representatives that the “Spaniards, on making peace with the Algerines, might wish that their arms might be turned against us.”59 Despite the fact that Grayson wrote to Madison that “the expense will be considerable” for negotiating with the Barbary States, he believed it best to go against John Jay, now Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and make peace with the Barbary states.60 In October of 1785, Jay disagreed and wrote to the President of Congress that “war does not strike me as a great evil” after being informed that the “Algerines had declared war against the United States.”61 Jay thought, “it may be demonstrated, that while we bend our attention to the sea, every naval war, however long, which does not do us essential injury, will do us essential good.”62 Grayson seemed opposed to such a belief, but Madison—while not involved in high-level policymaking in 1785—may have agreed with Jay. In a letter to Jefferson on October 3, 1785, he wrote: “the desiderata most strongly urged by our past experience & our present situation” were, among others “a grant to Congress of an adequate power over trade.”63 As such, Madison argued that doing so with a protective navy 106

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Congress could make it the interest of any one of the Atlantic States to pay its just Quota.”64 Madison drew from his experience with the Mississippi question to argue that for states dependent “on the trade of the Mississippi, as small a force would have the same effect.”65 Madison supported a limited navy, especially for the support of commercial interests now becoming intertwined with Barbary affairs. James Monroe also wrote to Madison concerning Barbary commerce by speaking more fully on the implications of problems in the Mediterranean. For example, Monroe wrote to Madison in 1785 that the “monopoly of the trade of the medeteranean (sic) is in the hands of France, Britain, & the Netherlands; will they or either of them, give up this advantage, four our convenience for nothing.”66 Secretary for Foreign Affairs John Jay certainly agreed with Monroe. In the same letter to the President of Congress since “the more we are ill-treated abroad the more we shall unite and consolidate at home.”67 On December 14, 1786, Jay wrote to Jefferson that any desire to pay off the Barbary States for captives as some people, like William Grayson, advocated, would be impossible since “Congress cannot command money for that, nor indeed for other very important purposes; their requisitions produce little, and government (if it may be called a government, so inadequate to its objects, that essential alterations or essential evils must take place…).”68 While Madison was continually aware of the opinions of Jay, Monroe, Adams, and Jefferson, his own opinions regarding early Barbary affairs were drawn from his experiences with the Mississippi and in the Virginia House of Delegates. His past participation in commercial questions concerning the navigation of the Mississippi served as important context for Furthermore, his presence in the Virginia House of Delegates Penn History Review

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while the legislative body was considering Virginian trade in relation to the Barbary States is also telling. However, there opinions more directly. As early as 1781, Madison commented on the situation of American captives by making suggestions to the Ordinance on Captures at Sea, which the Continental Congress was considering toward the end of 1781. Many suggestions were minor, but his active revision of such a document suggests his participation in matters concerning piracy and naval affairs. Six years later, in a November 7, 1787 letter, Madison and Grayson would help author a letter to Edmund Randolph entailing Constitution. Among such topics was the fact that Madison and Grayson thought: In pursuance of our instructions we have called the attention of Congress to the Subject of the Barbary piracies, and a measure for forming a Confederacy with some of the European powers, who may be disposed to Act against them, has been contemplated; but the desperate prospect of the United States being enabled to comply with their Stipulations in such a Confederacy, has obliged Congress to decline any Overtures towards this desirable object. We cannot however forbear to express our Regret, that a measure which appears so practicable, which would be so honorable to the Union, and in which the States are so materially interested, should be Neglected because the Necessary Contributions for its Support cannot be relied upon.69 Grayson had put forth a motion to form such an aforementioned Confederacy in the summer of 1787, but John Jay had denied such an idea as â&#x20AC;&#x153;unseasonable by the present State of our Affairsâ&#x20AC;? 70

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involvement in Barbary affairs often came indirectly through his comments on the potential of a navy, his relationship to William willingness to help author the aforementioned letter to Edmund Randolph suggests he may have supported more diplomatic Confederacy—from very early on. through the 1780s was largely indirect; his participation in the Virginia House of Delegates pulled him away from the main Thomas Jefferson. But his early career is an important period when he ascended to positions that gave him more diplomatic agency. Between 1780 and 1787, Madison was certainly aware of Barbary affairs. He participated indirectly through his interest in commercial affairs and even collaborated with more involved individuals like William Grayson. However, his constant interest in a navy and his comment to Jefferson that “a grant to Congress of an adequate power over trade” as “the desiderata most strongly urged by our past experience & our present government may have been a major motivator for his opinions on Barbary affairs during his early career.71 Certainly, as some a federal government strong enough to command the respect of foreign nations could be created, would there be any hope princes.”72 of the Constitution demonstrated his use of maritime problems to inform an argument for a stronger national government than the Articles. James Madison, the Constitution, and Piracy

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to understanding what informed his policy decisions regarding Barbary affairs. While Grayson, an anti-Federalist, seemed to disagree that “the advocates for the acceptance [of war and opinion such as The tranquility (sic), of the Union,” Madison believed the war for the tranquility of the Union would be impossible without a stronger national government.73 Madison did not think that national defense, commerce, and treaties were what necessitated a federal government, but rather believed that effectively dealing with foreign affairs required uniformity. “The national government should be armed,” Madison argued, “with positive and complete authority in all cases which require uniformity; such as the regulation of trade.”74 Since Madison was all too aware that the regulation of trade often required an awareness of foreign affairs, as was the case in his participation in the Mississippi question and considerations by the Virginia House of Delegates, it is plausible that Madison considered Barbary affairs when advocating for a stronger national government. The Federalist Papers contextualize his actions against the Barbary States as president because they suggest that his advocacy for the use of a navy was a manifestation not only of national authority, but also as a protective force for commerce. Madison certainly considered questions of piracy when writing his share of The Federalist Papers. In The Federalist Number 41 and 42 Madison addressed some of the basic reasons for creating a national government which could “be reduced into different classes as they relate to…security against Congruent with his past experiences and knowledge of foreign affairs, Madison believed 75

economic interests abroad and this aim included the necessity of a navy. In The Federalist 41 Madison suggested that “the palpable necessity of the power to provide and maintain a navy” would

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security against danger from abroad.”76 The Federalist 42 argued that the national government would be able to “have the power admitted improvement from the Articles of Confederation.77 In addition, The Federalist 41 and 42 awareness of piracy as an important issue for national defense: he seemed to have little problem advocating for the use of navy to secure the safety of the United States in such cases. The fact that Madison equated national security with commercial success played a large part in his opinion.78 Although Madison was less directly involved in Barbary affairs through the 1780s and development of the Constitution, he was involved in matters that related to commerce that increasingly intertwined with maritime affairs. The fact that Madison addresses East Coast commerce in The Federalist 41 suggests he was becoming more aware of maritime problems that had commercial impact. Madison argued that: commerce, the great reservoir of its wealth, lies every moment at the mercy of events, and may almost be regarded as hostage, for ignominious compliances with the dictates of a foreign enemy, or even with the rapacious demands of pirates and barbarians.79 The Federalist Papers contextualize his actions as President. Through the 1780s, Madison had increasingly been involved in matters concerning commerce and naval affairs—aggressively supporting the Constitution for a variety of reasons, one of which being that it offered a better opportunity to protect commerce from piracy. While Madison rarely addressed the Barbary problem during this time, the implication is that captivity of American merchantmen in the Mediterranean threatened American commerce—an issue

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against Algiers may be confusing in the context of his previous 1794, a House committee resolved, “a naval force, adequate to the protection of commerce of the United States against the Algerine corsairs, ought to be provided.”80 However, Madison disagreed for reasons other than an opposition to a naval force. Although Madison supported the use of a navy, he was cautious as to whether it would be the best decision given the circumstances.81 effective service in the course of the present year” and worried that two major objections prevented the United States from using a naval force. The Algerians were of the habit of selling not have been acting “on the their own impulse, but upon the instigation of the British.”82 initiated an unwinnable naval war if Britain were to become incensed. Madison vetoed the Naval Bill not out of opposition to the navy, but rather out of pragmatism. Historians might be

the 1794 Naval Bill, Madison made clear in 1796 that “he was one of those who set great value upon marine strength”, but purpose for which they had been intended.”83 to a naval force for supplementing commerce, but his 1787 co-authorship of the letter to Edmund Randolph regarding a potential Euro-American Confederacy to deal with Barbary piracies suggests Madison was not as aggressive as Jefferson. The latter contended that war was the best option as early as the 1780s, 112

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and he may have considered a multinational alliance to deal with Algiers in late 1786 and early 1787 when a captured Russian ship created an opportunity to persuade European powers to deal 84 However, the potential alliance fell through and may have in fact been less original to Jefferson since Madison, Grayson, and the Virginia House of Delegates were considering this very idea at about the same time Jefferson sent John Paul Jones to Russia to negotiate a similar alliance.85 William Grayson clued him in to the context of foreign affairs and may have contributed to his apprehension in pursuing an aggressive naval force in 1794. By the time Madison became president, the War of 1812 had necessitated a U.S. Navy of substantial strength, making an aggressive offensive against Barbary piracy much more pragmatic. In this sense, Madison was more cautious than Jefferson. While he held similar views to Jefferson regarding a naval force and the Barbary States, his opinions developed out of experience with commercial affairs and correspondence with individuals like William Grayson aggressionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as his long-standing support of a navy for purposes related to commerce best evidencesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but he was one who thought a stronger national government played an important role in deciding when such a navy could be of use. After all, as early as 1784, Madison had written to Jefferson calling for greater consideration of European affairs when dealing with treaties of commerce.86 question foreshadowed his caution to use naval force until the important context to perhaps his most famous legislative engagement, his resolutions on commercial discrimination which dealt with Barbary piracy at the most explicit level. Therefore, they inform his Barbary policy during his presidency. However, his engagement remained tied to commercial policy. Madison Penn History Review

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began his career in the U.S. House of Representatives began by addressing these questions of commerce and economics, which had direct relevance for Barbary affairs. For example, in 1791, Madison was engaged in a debate to establish a National Bank with other Representatives in which problems with Algiers became pertinent. Those in favor of such a bank argued that no one would doubt that â&#x20AC;&#x153;Congress may lend money, that they may buy their debt in the market, or redeem their captives in Algiersâ&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;?87 Madison disagreed, suggesting that no implied power existed for a National Bank in the Constitution, but such a debate illustrates the pertinence of Barbary affairs for Madison during his time in Congress.88 Oftentimes, piracy in the Mediterranean would be resolutions were no exception. trade was limited. Madison entered the national stage for discrimination toward nations like Britain who did not show a disposition to enter into commercial agreements with the United States. Madison may have believed in free trade, but only when all parties believed the same. Much of the intense debate over around a report that Secretary of State Jefferson introduced to Congress a month before in December 1793. The report was introduced at a time when Britain was beginning to issue general orders to seize American food ships, and France to these actions, American commerce had been fairly free from malice exhibited by European nations other than Britain. Thus, anti-commercial discrimination representatives attacked the misrepresented the British in a negative light in a fashion typical of such a Francophile.90

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report for his own political purpose of supporting his resolutions, mobilized Barbary affairs for his argument. In a long series of debates with Representative Ames and other sympathetic Congressmen, Madison defended his resolutions on a variety of grounds. Those opposed to commercial discrimination, like French threat to commerce and overplayed that of the British. Consequently, he and others believed that suspicions of British stimulation of Indian frontier attacks and Algerian corsair piracy were overrated examples as to why commercial discrimination should be imposed upon Britain. But Madison disagreed, and in the process explicitly voiced his opinion on the Barbary States.91 Originally, Madison did not think it was necessary to speak of imprinted on every mind, and would have all the effects they ought to have.”92 Yet, in rebutting the counterarguments of his opponents, he thought it necessary to emphasize that the “Algerine depredations appeared to have proceeded from the steps taking in pursuance of the views of the British Government” and “the evil, therefore, may at least be charged to an unfriendly disregard to our interests.”93 part of his larger commercial policy, and in this case Madison himself reminded the committee of his long-standing advocacy of American commercial interests. For Madison, it was important that “American vessels, from a spirit of enterprise and a unison of commerce and new markets for our produce, which foreign carriers would leave unattempted.”94 Yet, such a goal had been threatened by the present state of Barbary affairs: be countenanced also by the present state of our Mediterranean trade, which had, since our corsairs to foreign bottoms. Previous to the Penn History Review

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Revolution, when American vessels could be the carriers, the trade was very considerable. Since the exclusion of our vessels, though the carriage of our produce is safe in British and several other foreign vessels, yet this trade has withered as much as others have grown. In 1790, the exports cleared for the Mediterranean were but $21,726; and in the year following, the imports no more than $11,522.95

engagement in Barbary affairs as a representative would be incorporated into a larger argument over commercial policy. In April 1795, Madison published his pamphlet, Political Observations, to gain support for his resolutions and to discuss the â&#x20AC;&#x153;depredations, as derogatory to our rights,â&#x20AC;? that Algerine piracy subjected American commerce.96 largest legislative contribution while in Congress, and his use of Barbary affairs in advocating for such legislation is important for contextualizing his involvement in Barbary policy in engagement with Barbary affairs, an involvement that is perhaps unsurprising given the importance of the Mediterranean to American commerce in this period. For the moment, however, because he was not yet Secretary of State or President, issues concerning the Barbary States were often supplemental to report on commerce, there is no reason to suggest Jefferson was as the Mississippi question suggest he was invested in the topic of commerce and did not require any type of counsel from Jeffersonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;who, by early 1794, had resigned from his position as

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Conclusion Once Jefferson rose to the presidency, Madison became his Secretary of State. While it could be assumed that Madison the 1st related to Barbary affairs suggests that Madison could think for Although a comprehensive study of the 1st Barbary War is clear. For example, when William Eaton proposed displacing the Bashaw of Tripoli with exiled Hamet Karamanliâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the that â&#x20AC;&#x153;although it does not accord with the general sentiments, or views of the United States, to intermeddle with domestick (sic) controversies of other countries, it cannot be unfair, in the prosecution of a just war.â&#x20AC;?97 As early as 1801, Eaton had alerted Madison that he would approach Hamet concerning American assistance.98 written evidence to suggest he informed Jefferson of the matter own opinions based on past experience. Mississippi, his policies concerning trade while serving in the Virginia House of Delegates, and his support of a strong national government are particularly revealing in understanding Madison did not simply decide to send a naval force to Algiers was congruent with Jeffersonian policy, it was also shaped by to trace his emphasis on free navigation and commerce as early as his work with the Mississippi question, and when necessary, Madison considered the use of a navy for protecting American interests from the Mississippi to the Mediterranean. However, Penn History Review

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Madison was not as pro-navy as Jefferson; though he considered the potential of a navy early on, and even discussed the issue with Jefferson, his correspondence with people like William Grayson suggests that Madison was aware of the diplomatic alternatives to problems concerning trade based on European foreign affairs. The fact that Madison co-authored a letter to Edmund Randolph concerning the potential of a European Confederacy suggests that he did not necessarily believe a strong naval force was the answer to problems in the Mediterranean, an opinion that differs greatly from those of Jefferson. and Virginia Legislature exposed him to issues of commerce and, more importantly, Barbary affairs. Not only did Madison remain apprised of the issues concerning Mediterranean piracy, but his interest in commerce also required him to address problems concerning piracy. Similar to the opinions of John Jay and others in the early 1780s, Madison believed that such matters of piracy, including dealing with the Barbary States, could not be addressed until a stronger government than that called for by the Articles of Confederation was created. The fact that Madison included issues concerning piracy, the institution of a navy, and commerce The Federalist Papers suggests he was well aware of the connection between a robust free trade sustained by a national government and problems of piracy in the Atlantic World. Yet, when Madison had the opportunity to approve a naval force in 1794 as a solution to Mediterranean piracy, Madison voted against the bill窶馬ot because he did not believe in a navy, but because he felt it would be inadequate to solve the problem. time as Secretary of State and President was often a corollary to his extensive engagement with commerce. However, these early experiences provide an important context to his response to Algiers in 1815. After the War of 1812, Madison had a navy

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The Attack Made on Tripoli on the 3rd of August 1804

that had threatened American commerce for some time. His extensive advocacy for American commerce and free trade, not his relationship to Jefferson, likely compelled this response. important for historians to consider Barbary affairs not as an for American commerce. Consequently, when Madison had the means to end harassment of American shipping in 1815, he aggressively employed the U.S. Navy. Jefferson was not the decision was rather a result of a long history of engagement, however indirect, with commerce and Barbary affairs.

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James T. De Kay, A Rage for Glory: The Life of Commodore Stephen Decatur, USN (New York: Free Press, 2004), 155. 2 Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005), 163. 3 Robert J. Allison, The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776-1815 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 191. 4 James T. De Kay, A Rage for Glory, 155-7. 5 Lambert, The Barbary Wars, 183. 6 Ibid. 184-188. 7 Louis B. Wright and Julia H Macleod, The First Americans in North Africa: William Eatonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Struggle for a Vigorous Policy Against the Barbary Pirates, 1799-1805 (Princeton: Princeton University, 1945), 202. 8 Wright and Macleod, The First Americans in North Africa, 203. 9 James Madison to David M. Erskine, 1808, as quoted in Arthur M. Schlesinger and Fred L. Israel, History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-1968 (New York: Chelsea House, 1971), 233. 10 Lambert, The Barbary Wars, 180. 11 Algiers, 23 February 1815, American State Papers: Foreign Relations 3:748. 12 Barbary Powers, 23 February 1815, American State Papers: Foreign Relations 3:749. 13 Lambert, The Barbary Wars, 179. 14 Petersburg Daily Courier, March 2, 1815. 15 De Kay, A Rage for Glory, 152. 16 Lambert, The Barbary Wars, 201. 17 Ibid. 18 Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero, 1799-1820 Stephen Decatur: A Life Most Bold and Daring (2005). Meanwhile, scholarship which 1

and his aggressive pursuit of a naval force to dispense of the

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of National Security” in the Journal of Diplomatic History 21.4 (1997); 519-544 for an in-depth discussion and bibliographic The End of the Barbary Terror, represents an increasing interest in the Barbary Wars as it was written due to the apparent neglect Leiner observed regarding the subject. Madison can be interpreted as equally complex as Jefferson when it came to foreign policy and the Barbary States. but little scholarship focuses on him. 19 Samuel Flagg Bemis, American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, Volume 1 (New York: Pageant Book Co., 1958) , 89. 20 Lambert, The Barbary Wars, 182. 21 John Quincy Adams, 1839, as quoted in Adrienne Koch, Jefferson and Madison; the Great Collaboration (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 2. 22 Gordon S. Wood, The Company of Giants, New Republic, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books/magazine/85343/ madison-jefferson-wood-american-consitution (March 17, 2011). 23 Donald A. Zinman, “The Heir Apparent Presidency of James Madison”, in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Dec, 2011, Vol.41(4), p.712(15). 24 Ibid. 25 Thomas Jefferson as quoted in Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005), 179. 26 Ibid. 27 “Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bill for Establishing a National Bank” in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition, ed. Barbara B. Oberg and J. Jefferson Looney. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. 28 Continental Congress Instructions to John Jay, as quoted in William C. Rives, History of the Life and Times of James Madison (Boston: Little, Brown and company, 1859), 236. 29 John Jay, The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, ed. Penn History Review

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93). Vol. 1 (1763-1781). Chapter: JAY ON THE NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 1 Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund. org/title/2326/220072 on 2013-11-02. 30 Ibid. 31 Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et. al. (Washington, D.C., 1904-37, 18:900. 32 Journals of the Continental Congress, as quoted in Rives, History of the Life and Times of James Madison, 237. 33 Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et. al. (Washington, D.C., 1904-37), 18:946. 34 Rives, History of the Life and Times of James Madison, 242. 35 Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et. al. (Washington, D.C., 1904-37, 19:152. 36 Howard Jones, Crucible of Power, 15. 37 James Madison, The Writings of James Madison, comprising his Public Papers and his Private Correspondence, including his numerous ed. Gaillard Hunt â&#x20AC;&#x201C; TO HEZEKIAH NILES. 1 chic. hist. soc. mss. Accessed from http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1940/119265 on 2013-11-03. 38 Ibid. 39 Ibid. 40 Motion on Protection of Commerce, May 2nd 1782, in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 41 Ibid. 42

engagements in Martinique to Auxiliary armaments from France [James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, June 2nd 1780 in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition, ed. Barbara B. Oberg and J. Jefferson Looney. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, issues of foreign affairs and acts as the informer of Jefferson, 122

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rather than the one informed. 43 James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, April 16th 1781, in The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition, ed. Barbara B. Oberg and J. Jefferson Looney. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2008. 44 Ibid. 45 Jefferson to Francis Eppes, December 11, 1785, as quoted in Michael L.S. Kitzen, Tripoli and the United States at War: A History of American Relations with the Barbary States, 1785-1805 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1993), 11. 46 Ibid. 47 Samuel Flagg Bemis, American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, Volume 1, 287. 48 John Adams as quoted in Howard Jones, Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913, 8. 49 Ibid. 50 American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, Volume 1 (New York: Pageant Book Co., 1958), 266. 51 Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et. al. (Washington, D.C., 1904-37), 26:362. 52 Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia,1781-1786, (Richmond: Commonwealth of Virginia), 153. 53 Ibid. 154. 54 Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, May 8, 1784 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 55 Ibid. 56 William Grayson, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay. 57

foreign and Barbary affairs. 58 William Grayson to James Madison, November 28, 1785, Penn History Review

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& William Grayson to James Madison, March 22, 1786 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 59 William Grayson to James Madison, October 14, 1785 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 60 William Grayson to James Madison, June 27, 1785 & William Grayson to James Madison, October 14, 1785 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 61 Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et. al. (Washington, D.C., 1904-37, 29:833-34. 62 Ibid. 63 James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 3, 1785 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 64 Ibid. 65 Ibid. 66 James Monroe to James Madison, December 26, 1786 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 67 Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et. al. (Washington, D.C., 1904-37, 29:833-34. 68 John Jay to Thomas Jefferson, December 14, 1786, as quoted in as quoted in Samuel Flagg Bemis, American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, Volume 1 (New York: Pageant Book Co., 1958), 270. 69 Virginia Delegates to Edmund Randolf, November 3, 1787 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 70 Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, ed. Worthington C. Ford et. al. (Washington, D.C., 1904-37, 33:420-21, 451-52. 71 James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 3, 1785 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010.

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Samuel Flagg Bemis, American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, Volume 1, 271. 73 William Grayson to James Madison, May 28, 1786, & William Grayson to James Madison, March 22, 1786 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 74 Irving Brant, James Madison: Father of the Constitution 1787-1800 (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill), 12. 75 Federalist Paper 41 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 76 Ibid. 77 Federalist Paper 42 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 78 In fact, Madison was so sure that the correlation between commerce and maritime security was clear, that in The Federalist 42 he acknowledged that “the regulation of foreign commerce… has been too fully discussed to need additional proofs here of its being properly submitted to the federal administration”. 79 Ibid. 80 Annals of Congress, vol. 4, 154-155. 81 As early as 1786, legislators had been interested in estimating the force of Algiers. 82 Ibid. 433. 83 Naval Armament, April 7, 1796 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 84 Robert J. Allison, The Crescent Obscured, 13. 85 Ibid, 14. 86 Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, May 8, 1784 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 87 Annals of Congress, vol. 2. 1905. 88 Ibid. 72

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Irving Brant, James Madison: Father of the Constitution 1787-1800, 389-400. 90 Ibid. 91 Annals of Congress, vol. 4, 375. 92 Ibid. 377-378. 93 Ibid. 383. 94 Ibid. 383. 95 Political Observation, April 20,1795 in The Papers of James Madison Digital Edition, J. C. A. Stagg, editor. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, Rotunda, 2010. 96 James Madison to William Eaton as quoted in Charles E. Hill, The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, ed. Samuel Flagg Bemis (New York: Pagent Book Co, 1958), 74. 97 Michael L.S. Kitzen, Tripoli and the United States at War, 54. 89

Images: Page 88: Moran, Edward. Burning of the Frigate Philadelphia in the Harbor of Tripoli. 1897. U.S. Naval Academy Museum Collection. http://commons. wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burning_of_the_uss_philadelphia.jpg. Page 93: Head to Save the Life of His Commander [Stephen Decatur]. Copied from the original engraving by Alonzo Chappel, 1858. Courtesy of the University of Michigan, The Barbary Wars at the Clements, http://www.clements.umich.edu/ exhibits/online/barbary/barbary-images.php. Page 102: James Madison, courtesy of the University of Michigan, The Barbary Wars at the Clements, http://www.clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/ barbary/barbary-images.php. Page 119: The Attack Made on Tripoli on the 3rd of August 1804, by the American Constitution, the Syren, the Argus, the Enterprise, the Nautilus, and the Vixen (created 1805) under Comodore Edward Preble. Hand-colored engraving by J.B. Guerrazzi. Courtesy of the University of Michigan. The Barbary Wars at the Clements, http://www.clements.umich.edu/exhibits/online/barbary/barbary-images. php.

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Honors Thesis Abstracts

Senior Honors Thesis Abstracts The Gendered Nature of Quaker Charity Panarat Anamwathana In seventeenth century England, male overseers of the poor were the norm; however, women were the main administrators of poor relief within the Society of Friends, a group more commonly known as the Quakers. My project explains this phenomenon and analyzes the schemes and success of these women. The agency of female Friends has long been attributed to Quaker theology, which asserted that individuals who had works regardless of gender. No connection, however, had charitable acts. My thesis bridges this gap in the historiography of the Society of Friends. Female Quakers also devised different strategies to distribute aid, and carefully recorded them in account books and meeting minutes. Upon engaging with these archival sources, I found that these women were to alleviate poverty. The transferal of this practice to colonial America suggests that this was the beginning of the global Quaker charitable schemes that still exist today. Patriotic Women, North and South: The American Civil War, Citizenship, and Memory Serena Covkin This thesis investigates the limits of patriotism as a vehicle the political impact and legacy of southern and northern American Civil War. In particular, it focuses upon northern Penn History Review

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abolitionists and suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan upon southern essayist Louisa McCord, and her daughter, Louisa McCord Smythe, and the various Confederate relief and memorial associations they helped found, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The league represented widely-held view that Confederate women were more patriotic their southern counterparts. Through this organization, Stanton and Anthony framed universal emancipation and universal suffrage as patriotic measures that were integral to meaningful Union victory. There was no such expressly political work as an extension of her political convictions. Moreover, patriotic organizations demonstrate that southern women were but to the Confederate nation. In many ways, particularly in the South, wartime organizing brought women unprecedented southern women like Louisa McCord Smythe orchestrated memorial services, built monuments, and produced histories of the war that were instrumental to the perpetuation of the myth of the Confederate Lost Cause. However, the very from making their own claims to equal citizenship. Though southern women began to establish independent civic identities during the war, their postwar political engagement remained circumscribed by their service to the defeated Confederacy. At the same time, while northern suffragists could employ

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not leverage their loyalty to lay claim to equal citizenship for themselves. Stanton and Anthony recognized, and coveted, the were too fundamentally self- interested to provide an effective most southern women contended that they neither desired nor deserved political equality that they could so ably integrate into the southern political system. In this way, conservative, elite, white southern women like Louisa McCord and Louisa McCord Smythe achieved what Stanton, Anthony, and the northern suffragists could not. Patriotic competition between northern and southern women endured into the twentieth century, outcomes. In this way, the Civil War and the ensuing battles for political equality in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century America. World War II on the Equator: Antifascism, Gender, and Democracy in Ecuador’s May Revolution of 1944 Robert Franco From May 28-31 of 1944, masses of Indigenous, political, Quito, Ecuador, to overthrow the Liberal President Carlos Arroyo del Río and install the populist José María Velasco Ibarra. This thesis focuses on the strategic use of antiNazism and anti-Fascism by a number of interest groups that participated in the May Revolution of 1944 in order to advocate for political and labor reforms during World War II. This project explores the gendered makeup of the antiFascist movement and the May Revolution, their intersections, and the ideas of democracy and citizenship that Ecuadorians Penn History Review

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the movements of three groups â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Movimiento Popular Antitotalitario de Ecuador (MPAE), the Alianza Democratica Ecuatoriana (ADE), and the Alianza Femenina Ecuatoriana (AFE) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; my work opens room for new debates on the both diverse motivations that launched the May Revolution, and the subsequent construction of its memory. Imported Revitalization: A Historical Analysis of Immigration and its Impact on Small to Medium Sized Cities Kenneth Douglas Ginsburg This thesis seeks to examine the impact of immigration on smaller urban cities since 1965 by looking at four cities: Paterson and Passaic, NJ, Bridgeport, CT, and Flint, MI. In 1965, the Hart-Celler Act ushered in a new era of immigration when it eliminated the quota system, which resulted in a sharp rise in Hispanic and Asian immigration. At the same time, cities which had thrived during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when their foreign-born populations were at their peaks suddenly found themselves in crisis throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, larger American cities had weathered these downturns and were beginning to experience revitalization. Smaller cities, however, have gone largely unstudied. By looking at the cities mentioned above through quantitative continue to act as the lifeblood of small cities. With the rise in their foreign-born populations, Paterson, Bridgeport, and Passaic witnessed a reversal in population loss, a stabilization of their economy, and a substantial drop in their crime my thesis clearly demonstrates that these cities would be worse off without them. 130

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The “Old China Hand” Debate Reexamined: Loyalty Under Fire, Norwood F. Allman and American Secret Intelligence in China, 1916-1943 Cole Kosydar My thesis engaged with the historiography of the “Old China Hand” debate. I argued that the persecution of Old China Hands began much earlier than the McCarthy hearings. In a case study of Norwood Allman, the director of the Far East (OSS), I showed that the Old Hands of the OSS, like their counterparts in the State Department a half-decade later, were also persecuted, not by Congress but by the military establishment. It was not simply one factor that made the Old Hands, particularly Allman, suspect. The interaction of multiple factors led to the slandering of their reputations: their friendship with the British, their association with communists, and their disfavor with the Chinese Bureau of Intelligence, which had a strong relationship with the U.S. Navy. Ultimately, they were persecuted not so much for what they did but for who they were. Infectious Blackness: Slavery, Englishness and Representations of the Body in the British West Indies (c. 1770-1807) Elise Agatha Mitchell Between the years 1770 and 1807, revolutions, abolitionist movements, discourses on natural history, and the attempted consolidation of the British Empire produced a wealth of textual and visual representations of the British West Indies that circulated throughout the Atlantic World. My thesis uses textual and iconographic sources pertaining to the British West Indies to explore connections between representations of the bodies of black persons, both free and enslaved, Penn History Review

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and white West Indian creole degeneracy during the late eighteenth century. I suggest that artists and authors of this period employed visual and rhetorical strategies that implied that the creole degeneracy of white West Indians was caused by frequent contact with black bodies. These about black persons and marginalized white West Indians. Drawing on late eighteenth century English and Caribbean court documents, newspapers, pamphlets, travel literature, early histories, paintings, and satirical cartoons, my paper discusses representations of the black body with regards interracial spaces, miscegenation, disease, and violence and their relationship to the lived experiences of British West Indians. â&#x20AC;&#x153;By Pen, Word, and Exampleâ&#x20AC;?: Federico Urales and his Anarchist Project (Spain 1898-1942) Isabel Oliveres Anarchist thought has proliferated and been popularly embraced in Spain throughout its modern history, particularly during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Among the prominent anarcho-theorists of this period, Federico La Revista Blanca, the magazine he founded in 1898, has been lauded by scholars for being the most sophisticated anarchist cultural product of its time. Urales was a man fully committed to diffusing anarchist theory to the working class through accessible language, and did so through not just his magazine but by also authoring novels, novellas and letters. In this magazine articles he wrote for La Revista Blanca in the form of one novel and a handful of short serialized novellas, and his personal correspondence. In the process, I his life, as well as the means by which he disseminated them 132

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regardless of their literary form, were political documents at work in the international anarchist project the author hoped to foster. By tracing the history of anarchist thought in Spain from 1898 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936 through development of Spanish anarchism. Ultimately, this project can serve to ignite new debates as to how and why anarchism found such a popular, welcoming home in Spain throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It can also help enhance diffusing political ideology, by making accessible and engaging with the key works of one of the ideology´s most important Once and for All: The Spanish Civil War and the Nationalist Concentration Camps Steven Jay Perez This project examines the Nationalist concentration camps of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It begins by outlining the ideological origins of the war before examining how the during its early months. I then analyze how an increasing number of Republican prisoners of war during the campaigns of 1937 led to the creation of the Inspección de Campos de Concentración de Prisioneros (ICCP), the bureaucratic department designed to administer the expanded camp system and classify Republican prisoners. Finally, this project examines the system of “reeducation” in the camps, the psychobiological studies conducted on the prisoners and the results of these studies. Ultimately, this study uncovers how and why the Nationalists attempted to create a “new” Spain through its system of concentration camps. Penn History Review

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“A Tempestuous Voyage at Sea and a Fatiguing One by Land”: Ulsterwomen in Philadelphia, 1783-1812 Sarah Riblet This thesis examines the lives of women who came from the north of Ireland, the area traditionally known as Ulster, and settled in the city of Philadelphia between the end of the American Revolution and the beginning of the War of 1812, when economic strife and political rebellion within Ireland impelled many to emigrate. In so doing, this work aims to augment the historical record, expanding upon the work of scholars who have heretofore focused almost exclusively on the experiences of male Irish immigrants during either the the 1840s and 1850s. The research methods utilized include quantitative analysis of data from late-1700s and early-1800s transatlantic passenger lists, newspapers and the intake records of various benevolent societies in Philadelphia. In addition, several case studies based on readings of primary sources, such as letters and journals from the period, are incorporated historical notion that the United States was a land of prosperity: even their lives at risk, leaving familiar people and places to engage in a dangerous transatlantic passage only to arrive in a city lacking opportunities for women. Thus, the chances they took in leaving Ulster were not often rewarded with comfort, stability, or even subsistence, in the City of Brotherly Love. “Men of Honour and Honesty”: Connections between Jews and Freemasons in Early America Sara Arielle Zimmerman My thesis is an exploration of the intersections between the Jewish community and the Freemasons in early American 134

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history, focusing especially upon the eighteenth century. While the presence and prominence of Jews in America might be somewhat surprising, let alone that many of them were important enough in their community to merit membership in an organization as elite as the Freemasons. This paper tries to understand the overlap between these two groups by narrowly examining of the Masonic organization. I begin by common between the two groups, including the use of what the Jewish community was different in the eighteenth century than it is today) and the importance of King Solomon and his Temple. Chapter two has a smaller focus, looking at the role of individual lodges in America in this interaction This chapter also discusses the changes that occurred between Jewish lodges in and those that were founded in America, and I seek further to understand both how these arose and how they changed were involved in Masonryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Moses Michael Hays, Solomon Bush, and Isaac da Costaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and examines how they were able can be summarized by this line from my paper: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Although it sounds surprising that many of the early Jews in America were Masons, upon further investigation, it would be more surprising there were enticements that might attract Jews to Masonry and Masons to Jews. Jews gained prestige and connections to new networks through Masonic membership, allowing them to advance themselves economically through trade networks as well as politically by utilizing their brotherhood with some of the most powerful politicians of the time. This thesis demonstrates the utility of examining the linkages between minority populations throughout history, and it is my hope that future scholars will continue this work.

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No Abstract Available Women Helping Women: Manifestations of Sisterhood in Early Modern English Courts Natalie Claire Gabbay John Hawkins and Jean Bontemps: Trans-Atlantic Slave Traders of Sixteenth-Century England and France Courtney Gans Enabling Tranny: Procedural and Jurisdictional Change in the Court of Star Chamber Julia Elena Kelsoe Rooting for Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Team: Professional Football, Baseball and Boxing as Institutions of Domestic Mobilization during the War in Vietnam Justin Harrison Levin The Bankrupt Golden Age: The Public Consciousness of the Price Revolution in Spain Lucie Burkham Read Judicial Inconsistencies and the Causes in the House of Lords in 1626 and 1640 William Patrick Smith State of the Arts: Government, National Identity, and the Arts in Singapore Shawn Teo

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