Degree Level

The Effect of the Assimilation of the La Reunion Colonists on the Development of Dallas and Dallas County (open access)

The Effect of the Assimilation of the La Reunion Colonists on the Development of Dallas and Dallas County

This study examines the impact of the citizens of the La Reunion colony on the development of Dallas and Dallas County. The French, Belgian, and Swiss families that formed the utopian colony broughta blend of European culture and education to the Texas frontier in 1853. The founding of La Reunion and a record of its short existence is covered briefly in the first two chapters. The major part of the research, however, deals with the colonists who remained in Dallas County after the colony failed in 1856. Chapters three and four make use of city, county, and state records along with personal collections from the Dallas Historical Society Archives and the Dallas Public Library to examine the colonists effect on the government and business community. Chapter five explores the cultural development of the area through city and county records and personal collections.
Date: December 1986
Creator: Sandell, Velma Irene
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Uneasy Alliance: the Relationship Between Jefferson and Burr: 1791-1807 (open access)

An Uneasy Alliance: the Relationship Between Jefferson and Burr: 1791-1807

Papers, memoirs, diaries, letters and autobiographies from 1791-1807 are studied to determine the relationship between Jefferson and Burr. A limited examination of congressional records for the same period was made. Monographs and biographies of Jefferson, Burr and their contemporaries were studied. This study shows that the relationship between Jefferson and Burr was one of political expediency and that Jefferson's antipathy toward Burr began in 1791 and not as a result of the House presidential election of 1801. The thesis concludes that Jefferson used Burr's political influence in New England to achieve Democratic -Republican control of the federal government and then used the alleged conspiracy between Burr and the Federalists during the House election of 1801 as an excuse to begin Burr's political destruction.
Date: August 1979
Creator: Helms, Dorcas K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carpetbagger Policies during Reconstruction in Arkansas (open access)

Carpetbagger Policies during Reconstruction in Arkansas

This investigation is an attempt to reevaluate the role of the carpetbagger in bringing about a reform program during Reconstruction.
Date: August 1963
Creator: Ellenburg, Martha Ann
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texas and the CCC: A Case Study in the Successful Administration of a Confederated State and Federal Program (open access)

Texas and the CCC: A Case Study in the Successful Administration of a Confederated State and Federal Program

Reacting to the Great Depression, Texans abandoned the philosophy of rugged individualism and turned to their state and federal governments for leadership. Texas's Governor Miriam Ferguson resultantly created the state's first relief agency, which administered all programs including those federally funded. Because the Roosevelt administration ordered state participation in and immediate implementation of the CCC, a multi-governmental, multi-departmental administrative alliance involving state and federal efforts resulted, which, because of scholars' preferences for research at the federal level, often is mistakenly described as a decentralized administration riddled with bureaucratic shortcomings. CCC operations within Texas, however, revealed that this complicated administrative structure embodied the reasons for the CCC's well-documented success.
Date: December 1989
Creator: Wellborn, Mark Alan
System: The UNT Digital Library
William's America: Royal Perspective and Centralization of the English Atlantic (open access)

William's America: Royal Perspective and Centralization of the English Atlantic

William III, Prince of Orange, ascended the throne of England after the English Glorious Revolution of 1688. The next year, the American colonists rebelled against colonial administrations in the name of their new king. This thesis examines William's perception of these rebellions and the impact his perception had on colonial structures following the Glorious Revolution. Identifying William's modus operandi—his habit of acceding to other's political choices for expediency until decisive action could be taken to assert his true agenda—elucidates his imperial ambitions through the context of his actions. William, an enigmatic and taciturn figure, rarely spoke his mind and therefore his actions must speak for him. By first establishing his pattern of behavior during his early career in the Netherlands and England, this project analyzes William's long-term ambitions to bring the Americas under his direct control following the 1689 rebellions and establish colonial administrations more in line with his vision of a centralized English empire.
Date: December 2018
Creator: Woodlock, Kylie Michelle
System: The UNT Digital Library
No Quarter: the Story of the New Orleans Greys (open access)

No Quarter: the Story of the New Orleans Greys

The purpose of this thesis document is to explain the process of making the documentary film, No Quarter: The Story of the New Orleans Greys. The document is organized by having the prospectus and the film proposal at the beginning, with the body describing how the film was made based on the prospectus. The purpose of the film is to tell the history of a unit of volunteers in the Texas Revolution, the New Orleans Greys. The document describes the methods used to make the film and how it will be distributed to the intended audience. As the thesis explains, the film changed slightly from the prospectus, however the resulting film was successful in telling the history of the little-known New Orleans Greys.
Date: December 2015
Creator: Barnes, Travis S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Why the Fuse Blew: the Reasons for Colonial America’s Transformation From Proto-nationalists to Revolutionary Patriots: 1772-1775 (open access)

Why the Fuse Blew: the Reasons for Colonial America’s Transformation From Proto-nationalists to Revolutionary Patriots: 1772-1775

The most well-known events and occurrences that caused the American Revolution are well-documented. No scholar debates the importance of matters such as the colonists’ frustration with taxation without representation, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Coercive Acts. However, very few scholars have paid attention to how the 1772 English court case that freed James Somerset from slavery impacted American Independence. This case occurred during a two-year stall in the conflict between the English government and her colonies that began in 1763. Between 1763 and 1770, there was ongoing conflict between the two parties, but the conflict temporarily subsided in 1770. Two years later, in 1772, the Somerset decision reignited tension and frustration between the mother country and her colonies. This paper does not claim that the Somerset decision was the cause of colonial separation from England. Instead it argues that the Somerset decision played a significant yet rarely discussed role in the colonists’ willingness to begin meeting with one another to discuss their common problem of shared grievance with British governance. It prompted the colonists to begin relating to one another and to the British in a way that they never had previously. This case’s impact on …
Date: August 2015
Creator: Davis, Camille Marie
System: The UNT Digital Library
Stoney Burns and Dallas Notes: Covering the Dallas Counterculture, 1967-1970 (open access)

Stoney Burns and Dallas Notes: Covering the Dallas Counterculture, 1967-1970

Stoney Burns (Brent LaSalle Stein) edited and published Dallas Notes, a Dallas, Texas, underground newspaper, from November 1967 through September 1970. This thesis considers whether Burns was the unifying figure in the Dallas counterculture.
Date: August 1999
Creator: Lovell, Bonnie Alice
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Negro in Texas Politics, 1865-1874 (open access)

The Negro in Texas Politics, 1865-1874

"The theme of this work centers around the Negro and his association with the Radical Republican party. For eight years this party controlled the state government of Texas and, the Negro's participation during this period cannot be overlooked. The Negro possessed, at this time, two valuable assets, the right of suffrage and a strength in numbers. It was through the careful coordination of these two assets that the Radicals were able to gain and maintain control of Texas politics."--Leaves iii-iv.
Date: January 1963
Creator: Fennell, Romey
System: The UNT Digital Library
Origins of the Southern Conservation Revolt, 1932-1940 (open access)

Origins of the Southern Conservation Revolt, 1932-1940

During the political interlude between Wilson and Roosevelt, the United States was under the leadership of the Republican party which adhered to a conservative philosophy. While this regime continued, conservative southerners were content, but in 1933, Franklin Roosevelt, who had campaigned on the need for a "New Deal" was inaugurated President. Although southerners readily accepted the relief and recovery features of the first phase of the Roosevelt program, they opposed his program of sweeping reform because it constituted an impeding threat to intrenched political and economic interests in the South.
Date: June 1963
Creator: Brophy, William J.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Colonization of the East Texas Timber Region Before 1848 (open access)

Colonization of the East Texas Timber Region Before 1848

For many years adventurers from Spain and France had explored Texas. For about fifty years Spain had tried to civilize and Christianize the Indians in East Texas. Finally the Spanish government had abolished the missions and presidios. During the following fifty years, very little had been done toward colonization in Texas. In 1821, Texas was an almost uninhabited country, with the exception of savage Indians. The Anglo-Americans came and changed it into a great state. The East Texas Timber Region has been the gateway through which most of the settlers came to Texas. The settlers who stopped there did their part in establishing the present state of Texas. The East Texans did their part in helping to win freedom from Mexico so they could lay a foundation for American civilization there.
Date: August 1939
Creator: Baker, Willie Gene
System: The UNT Digital Library
The 1948 States' Rights Democratic Movement in Texas (open access)

The 1948 States' Rights Democratic Movement in Texas

The purpose of this paper is to examine, from a local perspective, the reaction of the southern conservative wing of the Democratic party to the liberal changes which occurred in that organization as a result of the transitional decades of the 1930s and 1940s. In particular, the study focuses on the growing sense of alienation and the eventual withdrawal of a handful of Texas Democrats from affiliation with the national body and their subsequent realignment with other dissident Dixie Democrats in the short-lived States' Rights party of 1948. This work is based essentially on the personal recollections of Texans who participated in the States' Rights movement and on those papers of the party's leaders which have survived until today.
Date: August 1979
Creator: Griffin, James P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The President's Influence on Congress: Toward an Explanation of Senators' Support for Presidents Carter and Reagan (open access)

The President's Influence on Congress: Toward an Explanation of Senators' Support for Presidents Carter and Reagan

This study examines the possible effect of the president's vote totals in states on Presidents Carter's and Reagan's support among senators. Using senators' Congressional Quarterly (CQ) presidential support scores as the dependent variable, this paper hypothesizes that Carter and Reagan's support is significantly and positively related to their electoral success in that Senator's state for the years 1977 through 1988. Several control variables are included to help explain support. There is qualified corroboration for the hypothesis that senator's presidential support scores are significantly and positively related to the president's electoral success for specific administrations and for specific-party senators, although not for the original hypothesis that aggregated the period 1977 to 1988.
Date: May 1994
Creator: Endsley, Stephen C. (Stephen Craig)
System: The UNT Digital Library
The History of the Republican Party in Texas During the Reconstruction Period (open access)

The History of the Republican Party in Texas During the Reconstruction Period

The purpose of this paper is to give a descriptive history of the Republican party in Texas during the reconstruction period.
Date: June 1955
Creator: Hopper, John M.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Secret Six and Their Theory of Autonomous Individualism (open access)

The Secret Six and Their Theory of Autonomous Individualism

This paper focuses on the Secret Six who consisted of Theodore Parker, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Samuel Gridley Howe, George Luther Stearns, and Gerrit Smith, and the concepts that these men believed in regarding the type of society they wanted established in the United States. The dominant theme in the minds of this Secret Six was the romantic belief in the free individual. The belief in the free individual living in a free, progressive society held out the promise that America could become a perfect community of autonomous individuals and an example for all the world. But the Secret Six realized that for America to be this perfect community of autonomous individuals, America had to be freed of any determinism in its institutions. These six crusaders had such faith in their theories of individualism, that they abandoned moral persuasion and accepted violence as the principal means of establishing their society. These men believed that only the type of an individual who was willing to use violence if necessary and to die for the dictates of his conscience, could reform America into a community that exemplified to the world a belief in the free individual.
Date: December 1973
Creator: Tatom, E. Lynn
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mexican Military Movements in the Texas Revolution (open access)

Mexican Military Movements in the Texas Revolution

"This thesis describes the art of logistics practiced by Santa-Anna and his staff in the marches from Northern Mexico to San Jacinto and Goliad, and the subsequent withdrawal. The method, or methods, employed to keep such an army in fighting condition are analyzed as it moved slowly and uncertainly across the desert and semi-desert areas, over burnt-out prairies and flooding rivers. To obtain the most complete picture of the Mexican army's movements and needs, the letters and diaries of the outstanding Mexican participants were used. Whenever possible American sources were studied to substantiate any seemingly questionable information in the Mexican accounts...As this thesis is primarily concerned with logistics, battles are not covered in detail. In cases where a conflict between American and Mexican sources exists concerning any phase of the Mexican military movements during the Texan revolution, both sides are presented, and an attempt made to evaluate them objectively." -- leaf x.
Date: January 1966
Creator: Flannery, 'Tina
System: The UNT Digital Library
Racial Turmoil in Texas, 1865-1874 (open access)

Racial Turmoil in Texas, 1865-1874

"The primary concern of this work is to present a clearer picture of the Reconstruction period in Texas, particularly as it relates to the black. Little consideration is given to those blacks elected to public office; rather concern is placed on those outside the then 'Establishment.' To view the black in terms of those elected to public office only presents a distorted picture and negates the influence blacks had on electoral politics. In the main, evidence presented by most historians writing on this period has tended to ignore a major factor which has influenced Texas politics, namely violence. Those who acknowledge the presence of this violence tended to 'understand' the southern white and thus justify the use of this violence. The influence of violence is massive and some attempt must be made to understand the actual way in which it was directed. Here it is only established that violence was racial with some political overtones. There is no doubt that further research will prove very valuable in understanding this period."-- leaf 1.
Date: December 1971
Creator: Keener, Charles Virgil
System: The UNT Digital Library
American Interests in the Cuban Revolt, 1868-1878 (open access)

American Interests in the Cuban Revolt, 1868-1878

This thesis describes the Cuban revolt of 1868-1878 and the interest it caused in the United States.
Date: August 1954
Creator: Watkins, Holland Dempsey
System: The UNT Digital Library
What Went Wrong?  How Arrogant Ignorance and Cultural Misconceptions Turned Deadly at the San Antonio Courthouse, March 19, 1840 (open access)

What Went Wrong? How Arrogant Ignorance and Cultural Misconceptions Turned Deadly at the San Antonio Courthouse, March 19, 1840

Although the Council House Fight is well written about in the annals of early Texas history, this all-encompassing study will reveal a whole new picture. Unlike previous works that maintained one point of view, multiple perspectives were analyzed and explored to allow a more comprehensive view of the Council House Fight to emerge. Primary focus on social and cultural misunderstandings, as well as the mounting hostility between the Penateka Comanche and Texians across the frontier, will demonstrate their general distrust and hatred of the other. Detailing their complicated relationship will prove that neither the Texians nor the Comanche were without blame, and both shared responsibility for the deterioration of events on and before March 19, 1840.
Date: May 2008
Creator: Copeland, Cristen Paige
System: The UNT Digital Library
Relations Between the United States and Argentina, 1810-1940 (open access)

Relations Between the United States and Argentina, 1810-1940

This thesis is a survey of Argentine-United States relations from 1810 to 1940.
Date: 1948
Creator: Gray, Phyllis
System: The UNT Digital Library
Jefferson's Leap of Faith: the Embargo Acts of 1807-1809 as a Failure of Jeffersonian Ideology (open access)

Jefferson's Leap of Faith: the Embargo Acts of 1807-1809 as a Failure of Jeffersonian Ideology

Thomas Jefferson's political ideology centered on the importance of individual liberty and choice for the common person. Activities throughout his career were grounded on this concept. It is interesting, therefore, that events during the final years of his presidency appear to have prompted him to abandon this philosophy in favor of a more pragmatic, less democratic, approach. The embargo acts which Congress passed at Jefferson's request in between December 1807 and January 1809 outlawed all foreign commercial activities and provided harsh penalties for violations. The president's failure to communicate publicly the reasons he believed these drastic measures were required stand in stark contrast to his political philosophy and left a cloud over his presidency when he left office.
Date: December 1994
Creator: Hamilton, James M. (James Milburn)
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study of Behavior Analysis in a Secondary School (open access)

A Study of Behavior Analysis in a Secondary School

The purpose of this investigation is to study a given secondary school with which the investigator is familiar in order to determine as objectively as possible what conditions, relationships, and experiences are exercising unwholesome influences on the youngster's actions, and to determine how the school can provide opportunities for developing social behavior that will make an integrated personality.
Date: 1948
Creator: Geer, Blanche Newby
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Expeditions of Narcio Lopez and the South, 1850-1851 (open access)

The Expeditions of Narcio Lopez and the South, 1850-1851

This thesis relates the expeditions of General Narcio Lopez in 1850-1851, and the influence he had in the southern United States.
Date: January 1968
Creator: Simpson, John E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Slavery in the Republic of Texas (open access)

Slavery in the Republic of Texas

Slavery was established in Texas with the first Anglo-American settlement in 1822. The constitution of the Republic of Texas protected slavery as did laws passed by the legislature from 1836 to 1846, and the institution of slavery grew throughout the period. Slaves were given adequate food, clothing, and shelter for survival, and they also managed to develop a separate culture. Masters believed that slaves received humane treatment but nevertheless worried constantly about runaways and slave revolts. The Republic's foreign relations and the annexation question were significantly affected by the institution of slavery. The most important primary sources are compilations of the laws of Texas, tax rolls, and traveler's accounts. The most informative secondary source is Abigail Curlee's unpublished doctoral dissertation, "A Study of Texas Slave Plantations, 1822 to 1865" written at the University of Texas in 1932.
Date: May 1982
Creator: Purcell, Linda Myers
System: The UNT Digital Library