Date Awarded

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

History

Advisor

Andrew Fisher

Committee Member

Samuel Charles Harrison Florer

Committee Member

Hiroshi Kitamura

Committee Member

Hannah Rosen

Abstract

Memories in Stone: The Confederate Catawba Monument Controversies surrounding Confederate monuments and symbols have brought increased attention to issues of Civil War memory. Often overlooked, Native Americans play an important role in the ways in which some people remember the conflict. A particularly interesting example of this role exists in Fort Mill, South Carolina. in 1900, the town unveiled a limestone monument to Catawba Indians who served in the Confederate Army. These Native people had a specific historical relationship with local and state authorities that shaped how the white ruling class formed a particular memorialization of the Catawba after the Civil War. Furthermore, the two leading local figures in the monument's creation had strong personal motivations to sponsor it. These factors combined with national trends in Civil War memorialization to make the Catawba monument a unique, yet still representative, example of Civil War memory making. Unique in that the design and message of the monument served a local purpose of permanently enshrining the white population's version of Catawba history in Fort Mill's public space, and representative in that it bolstered the ideals of Lost Cause ideology that swept the country at the turn of the twentieth century. Caught between these powerful ideas were the Catawba themselves, who utilized the beliefs represented by the monument for their own strategic goals. Reconstructing the Street: Confrontations Over Norfolk's Public Sphere, 1862-1866 on April 16, 1866, several hundred African Americans marched through the streets of Norfolk, Virginia to celebrate the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866. on the outskirts of town, a fight occurred between white onlookers and black marchers. Violence continued into the night, as white assailants prowled the streets of the city and killed several black people. This violence, which soon became known as the Norfolk Riot, garnered national attention. But it was not an exceptional event. Rather, it was one of many violent contests between white and black people over who had access to, and influence in, Norfolk's public spaces. Reconstruction brought irreversible changes to Norfolk's political and civic status quo. Previously excluded from or constrained within the city's public sphere, formerly enslaved and free black inhabitants seized the opportunities presented by the Civil War to exercise their demands for full access to it. However, white residents consistently resisted these claims, often resorting to organized violence. By examining several violent disputes that took place prior to April 16th, the Norfolk Riot can be contextualized as but one of a series of similar battles between the city's white and black communities centered around control of Norfolk's civic arena.

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-27p7-h055

Rights

© The Author

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