DOC The Archaeology of Clothing and Bodily Adornment in Colonial America (American Experience in Archaeological Pespective) by Diana Dipaolo Loren in History

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An essential resource for scholars; students; and all lovers of the Mountaineer State. From bloody skirmishes with Indians on the early frontier to the Logan County mine war; the story of West Virginia is punctuated with episodes as colorful and rugged as the mountains that dominate its landscape. In this first modern comprehensive history; Otis Rice and Stephen Brown balance these episodes of mountaineer individualism against the complexities of industrial development and the growth of social institutions; analyzing the events and personalities that have shaped the state. To create this history; the authors weave together many strands from the past and present. Included among these are geological and geographical features; the prehistoric inhabitants; exploration and settlement; relations with the Indians; the land systems and patterns of ownership; the Civil War and the formation of the state from the western counties of Virginia; the legacy of Reconstruction; politics and government; industrial development; labor problems and advances; and cultural aspects such as folkways; education; religion; and national and ethnic influences. For this second edition; the authors have added a new chapter; bringing the original material up to date and carrying the West Virginia story through the presidential election of 1992. Otis K. Rice is professor emeritus of history and Stephen W. Brown is professor of history at West Virginia Institute of Technology._x000D_ Kidnapping was perhaps the greatest fear of free blacks in pre-Civil War America. Though they may have descended from generations of free-born people or worked to purchase their freedom; free blacks were not able to enjoy the privileges and opportunities of white Americans. They lived with the constant threat of kidnapping and enslavement; against which they had little recourse.Most kidnapped free blacks were forcibly abducted; but other methods; such as luring victims with job offers or falsely claiming free people as fugitive slaves; were used as well. Kidnapping of blacks was actually facilitated by numerous state laws; as well as the federal fugitive slave laws of 1793 and 1850. Greed motivated kidnappers; who were assured high profits on the sale of their victims. As the internal slave trade increased in the early nineteenth century; so did kidnapping.If greed provided the motivation for the crime; racism helped it to continue unabated. Victims usually found it extremely difficult to regain their freedom through a legal system that reflected society's racist views; perpetuated a racial double standard; and considered all blacks slaves until proven otherwise. Fortunate was the victim who received assistance; sometimes from government officials; most often from abolitionists. Frequently; however; the black community was forced to protect its own and organized to do so; sometimes by working within the law; sometimes by meeting violence with violence.Mining newspaper accounts; memoirs; slave narratives; court records; letters; abolitionist society minutes; and government documents; Carol Wilson has provided a needed addition to our picture of free black life in the United States._x000D_ Within the American antislavery movement; abolitionists were distinct from others in the movement in advocating; on the basis of moral principle; the immediate emancipation of slaves and equal rights for black people. Instead of focusing on the immediatists" as products of northern culture; as many previous historians have done; Stanley Harrold examines their involvement with antislavery action in the South―particularly in the region that bordered the free states. How; he asks; did antislavery action in the South help shape abolitionist beliefs and policies in the period leading up to the Civil War? Harrold explores the interaction of northern abolitionist; southern white emancipators; and southern black liberators in fostering a continuing antislavery focus on the South; and integrates southern antislavery action into an understanding of abolitionist reform culture. He discusses the impact of abolitionist missionaries; who preached an antislavery gospel to the enslaved as well as to the free. Harrold also offers an assessment of the impact of such activities on the coming of the Civil War and Reconstruction.