Reunited with Bands of Iron

Author(s):  
R. Scott Huffard

This chapter details how white southerners used the economic and cultural power of the railroad to reunify with the North and to move beyond the sectional tensions of the Civil War. For white southerners, the memory of the war and the destruction of the region’s railroads inspired calls for new development. Travel narratives and arguments from boosters like Henry Grady show how these elites saw the railroad as critical to idea that a New South would rise. The chapter then goes into a discussion of how northern railroad corporations like the Illinois Central and Louisville & Nashville pursued southern expansion strategies after the Civil War. Finally, the chapter discusses a key moment of reunification in 1886, when southern railroads shifted the gauge of thousands of miles of track to match the northern standard gauge.

This introduction provides a background of C. Vann Woodward and his career, as well as an overview of his lectures on the history of white antebellum southern nonconformists, the immediate consequences of emancipation, and the history of Reconstruction in the years prior to the Compromise of 1877. The Fleming Lectures at Louisiana State University document the alienation of white southerners who challenged the proslavery orthodoxy of their friends and families and ultimately fled to the North seeking a more tolerable climate. The Messenger Lectures at Cornell University and the Storrs Lectures at Yale University Law School highlight Woodward's interpretation of Reconstruction. In addition to these lectures, Woodward spent more than a decade intermittently researching and thinking about writing a history of Reconstruction meant to be the equal of Origins of the New South (1951). This collection reveals Woodward’s intellectual process as he grappled with and ultimately failed to attain his goals.


Author(s):  
Martin Ruef

This chapter discusses the uncertainties surrounding the trade among country merchants, manufacturers, and wholesalers. Often separated by distances of hundreds of miles, their exchange relationships had little recourse to the social devices used to manage uncertainty within Southern communities. After the Civil War, moreover, these relationships had to bridge the sectional division between the North—where many wholesalers were concentrated in the large seaboard cities, and the South—where many country stores and manufactories were located in the hinterland. The physical and social distance between suppliers and Southern businesses created a need for new institutions to govern the flow of commerce. Although these institutions did emerge in the postbellum era, they ultimately proved inadequate to manage the economic uncertainty of merchants and, in some respects, may have even exacerbated it.


1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-52
Author(s):  
Mahmud A. Faksh

I.Since the end of World War 11, approximately eighty new states havebeen established. Only two, Pakistan and Cyprus, have undergone theagony of dismemberment when Bangladesh broke off in 1973 and theTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared in 1983. The worldmay now be witnessing the possible breakup of yet a third state:Lebanon, whose disintegration has been accelerated since the June 1982Israeli invasion.Shortly after the invasion began, Henry Kissinger assessed itsconsequence for Lebanon’s future, concluding, “It is neither desirablenor possible to return to the status quo ante in Lebanon.” One possibleoutcome was that some Syrian and Israeli forces would remain in thenorthern and southern ends, respectively, and the central government’sauthority would ostensibly cover the rest of the country. Implicit in theKissinger diagnosis is the possibility of eventual partition.Though the gloomy assessment by the “wizard” of US. foreign policyshould by no means be construed as a portent of an official shift awayfrom the publicly stated US. support of “Lebanon’s sovereignty andterritorial integrity,” a shadow was cast on the country’s prospects.Subsequent developments have seemed to indicate that Lebanon’sdemise looms larger than at any time since the beginning of the civil warin 1975-76.For over a year and a half national fragmentation has proceededinexorably. What many people once could imagine only with difficulty,they now acknowledge: in reality, Lebanon is facing possible death. TheSouth (35 percent of the land area) is occupied by Israel; the North andthe Biqa’ (45 percent) are controlled by Syria; Kasrawan (15 percent) iscontrolled by the Christian Maronite forces (the Lebanese Front forces),which are not subject to the government’s authority. The rest of thecountry-beleaguered Beirut and environs-was until the February1984 breakdown under the government’s shaky control supported bysymbolic US., French, Italian, and British units. The Multi-NationalForce (MNF) was subject to increasing attacks by Muslim leftist factions,as witnessed in the October 23 bombing of the quarters of U.S.Marines and French troops. Thus, instead of keeping peace, the MNFbecame ,a partisan force trying to protect itself. The US. and Frenchforces in particular seemed to have outlived their usefulness as“peacekeepers.” Recurrent fighting in southern Beirut and in theadjacent Chouf mountains, that pitted Christian Maronites and armyunits against Shi‘ite and Druse Muslims constantly threatened theexistence of President Amin Gemayel’s government and consequently arenewal of the civil war. This situation culminated in February 1984 inthe resignation of the Shafiq al-Wazzan’s cabinet, the loss ofgovernment’s control of West Beirut to Muslim-leftist militias, and theimminent collapse of Amin Gemayel’s presidency ...


1996 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 299 ◽  
Author(s):  
TS Andrews ◽  
RDB Whalley ◽  
CE Jones

Inputs and losses from Giant Parramatta grass [GPG, Sporobolus indicus (L.) R. Br. var. major (Buse) Baaijens] soil seed banks were quantified on the North Coast of New South Wales. Monthly potential seed production and actual seed fall was estimated at Valla during 1991-92. Total potential production was >668 000 seeds/m2 for the season, while seed fall was >146000 seeds/m2. Seed fall >10000 seeds/m2.month was recorded from January until May, with further seed falls recorded in June and July. The impact of seed production on seed banks was assessed by estimating seed banks in the seed production quadrats before and after seed fall. Seed banks in 4 of the 6 sites decreased in year 2, although seed numbers at 1 damp site increased markedly. Defoliation from mid-December until February, April or June prevented seed production, reducing seed banks by 34% over 7 months. Seed banks in undefoliated plots increased by 3300 seeds/m2, although seed fall was estimated at >114 000 seeds/m2. Emergence of GPG seedlings from artificially established and naturally occurring, persistent seed banks was recorded for 3 years from bare and vegetated treatment plots. Sown seeds showed high levels of innate dormancy and only 4% of seeds emerged when sown immediately after collection. Longer storage of seeds after collection resulted in more seedlings emerging. Estimates of persistent seed banks ranged from 1650 to about 21260 seeds/m2. Most seedlings emerged in spring or autumn and this was correlated with rainfall but not with ambient temperatures. Rates of seed bank decline in both bare and vegetated treatment plots was estimated by fitting exponential decay curves to seed bank estimates. Assuming no further seed inputs, it was estimated that it would take about 3 and 5 years, respectively, for seed banks to decline to 150 seeds/m2 in bare and vegetated treatments.


Oceania ◽  
1957 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm J. C. Calley

2006 ◽  
Vol 285 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 245-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. McHenry ◽  
B. R. Wilson ◽  
J. M. Lemon ◽  
D. E. Donnelly ◽  
I. G. Growns

1981 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Levine
Keyword(s):  

1851 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 239-240
Author(s):  
Thomas Anderson

About thirty years ago a species of manna, obtained from the Eucalyptus Mannifera, was brought from New South Wales, and was examined by Dr Thomas Thomson, and afterwards by Professor Johnston, both of whom ascertained it to contain a new species of sugar, different from the mannite which exists in ordinary manna. The author had, through the kindness of Mr Sheriff Cay, an opportunity of examining a very different species of manna, remarkable both from its chemical constitution, and from its possessing a definitely organised structure. This substance was discovered by Mr Robert Cay in 1844, in the interior of Australia Felix, to the north and north-west of Melbourne, where it occurs at certain seasons on the leaves of the Mallee plant, Eucalyptus Dumosa, and is known to the natives by the name of Lerp.


2001 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 344-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cally L. Waite

The community of Oberlin, Ohio, located in the northeast corner of the state, holds an important place in the history of the education of Black Americans. In 1834, one year after its founding, the trustees of Oberlin College agreed to admit students, “irrespective of color.” They were the only college, at that time, to adopt such a policy. Oberlin's history as the first college to admit Black students and its subsequent abolitionist activities are crucial to the discussion of Black educational history. Opportunities for education before the Civil War were not common for most of the American population, but for Blacks, these opportunities were close to nonexistent. In the South, it was illegal for Blacks to learn to read or write. In the North, there was limited access to public schooling for Black families. In addition, during the early nineteenth century there were no Black colleges for students to attend. Although Bowdoin College boasted the first Black graduate in 1827, few other colleges before the Civil War opened their doors to Black students. Therefore, the opportunity that Oberlin offered to Black students was extraordinarily important. The decision to admit Black students to the college, and offer them the same access to the college curriculum as their white classmates, challenged the commonly perceived notion of Blacks as childlike, inferior, and incapable of learning.


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