Many Americans are under the impression that slavery ended following the Civil War. However, this is a vast oversimplification of the reality that Black men and women faced in the South after the war’s end. Freedmen’s bureau reports, “Black Codes,” and the research of historians demonstrate the ways in which Black men and women were treated following the end of the Civil War. Comparing the conditions revealed in the aforementioned sources to the conditions Black men and women faced during legal slavery reveals startling similarities. Violence against Blacks continued to be widespread in the post-war period, and many Black men and women were even bought and sold through convict leasing. In short, slavery continued in all but name.

This paper provides an account of the experiences of Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, London, and Sierra Leone after the American Revolution. Tens of thousands of North American slaves fled to the ranks of the British army when they were promised freedom in return for service. When the British lost the war, they began the evacuation of both White and Black Loyalists out of the colonies. Black Loyalists were sent primarily to Nova Scotia and England and, to a lesser extent, the Bahamas and West Indies. Yet the Black Loyalists were not content with freedom alone; they actively fought for equality and against discrimination in their new countries. Black Loyalists thus took charge of their own emancipation by fighting for the British and continuing to fight for equality even after their exodus from the colonies. The results of the Black Loyalist exodus were mixed, as shown by letters from the Sierra Leone colonists themselves. Yet the experience of the Black Loyalists is significant because this massive migration of free Blacks had international implications, the founding of the Sierra Leone colony being one example. This narrative also brings into question the concept of the Revolution as a national struggle for independence, in addition to revealing the complexity of Loyalist ideology.

Previous historical scholarship on the origins of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt argues that the rebellion resulted from either poor environmental conditions, harsh Spanish treatment of the Pueblo Indians, or a combination of the two. Using Puebloan myths, Spanish documents from colonial New Mexico, and anthropological studies of various Puebloan groups and religions, this paper contends that the Pueblo identified the disease, worsening environmental conditions, and harsh Spanish treatment as an indicator that they had failed to meet their ceremonial obligations to their ancestors. Therefore, Spanish occupation and prohibition of customary Pueblo religion acted as a barrier to their restoration of harmony. Thus given a tangible cause for their suffering, the Pueblo people rebelled to rid themselves of the Spanish in order to practice rituals and secure their prosperity.

This paper deals with the complexity of the legal system in the American South during the Antebellum period. The laws put in place by the various Southern states during this era were constructed locally, and were a delicate balance of planters’ property rights, the need for slave regulation, and evangelical desire to defend their own way of life. But, the resulting outcome was the same in each case. The Southern states continuously pushed laws that reinforced the authority of the master with the help of political economists, judges, lawmakers, and of course the master class itself. Therefore, this paper emphasizes the laws that the South began altering or reaffirming in response to northern criticism during the same time. These laws took form in a variety of ways not simply state by state but also case by case. By examining many of the cases in these states, this essay deals with some of the larger impacts on slaves and the system of slavery as a whole due to these legal modifications. This paper contends that the intention of the South in these cases was the strengthening of the position of the master class, which in and of itself led to resulting legal decisions that were stamped out with the collapse of diplomacy and civil war.

This article argues that the Confederacy in the American Civil War had one final chance to achieve a negotiated peace. This chance was in the summer of 1864. The North had an overwhelming logistical and strategic advantage over the Confederacy. However, this great advantage only mattered if the Northern populace realized that they were effectively winning the war. The North was growing tired of the war, and it was possible that the Confederacy might hold out long enough to negotiate peace. Ultimately this chance was undone by political infighting and Jefferson Davis replacing General Joseph E. Johnston with a less suitable commander. The result was that the Confederacy was forced into a series of battles that resulted in decisive victories for the North. These victories, in turn, secured Lincoln’s re-election and guaranteed that the war would continue with a Union victory.

At its peak, Roman Empire controlled over two million square miles of territory. To conquer and control that much land, Rome produced a highly skilled army. Casualties and deaths were to be expected, but ancient medical sources about caring for the wounded in the Roman army point to treatments considered advanced for the time period. Galen of Pergamum was an important contributor to this field. The use of food products and natural resources helped combat infections, healing the wounded soldiers and returning them to their military units. This paper identifies and analyzes what those specific products for wound care were and how they worked as effective medical treatments.