Schedule of Events

Beastiality, pickpocketing and promotion of the Quaker faith all resulted in the same sentence: Death. English Colonists had landed in North Eastern America in the Early 1600s and these people would be a starting point of the America we are today.  The inhabitants of the New England colonies in the 1600s were still English in culture so it would be expected that the basic functions of the society would be a mirror of the homeland of England. However when it came to the criminal punishments England was in the thick of the Bloody Codes where 215 crimes were punishable by death while in New England crimes were punished as the bible dictated. The study of this phenomena is conducted through examination of legal documentation, personal journals of governors and legal codes. After an in depth study, New England Colonies in the 17th century had a drastic deviation from the legal style of the English due to the environmental lack of urbanization and the value of religion surpassing that of the monarchy.

The eighth and ninth centuries saw the formation of Western European Kingdoms that would later evolve into the modern countries of today. Kings and lords in England united to form small kingdoms, and in France, Charlemagne and his descendants established a Frankish empire, that included territory in modern day France and Germany. These emperors and kings attempted to rule over large amounts of land from a central monarchy, and thus were highly susceptible to invasions from outside forces. One group of invaders came from the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Denmark, where small groups undertook raiding missions against the French and English kingdoms. In the chronicles written during this period, the Scandinavians were given names like heathen, pagan, Northmen, or foreigner. To most people today, they are simply known as Vikings. From the late eighth century to the early ninth century, Scandinavian Vikings ravaged the Western European kingdoms, pillaging towns, churches, and monasteries to acquire wealth. These raids evolved into full scale invasions, and eventually into missions of conquest, where Viking groups looked to create better lives than that was available to them in Scandinavia. Viking groups began to colonize the uninhabited islands to the west of their homes, as the settlers sought a more habitable land and climate, and to escape internal violence and conflicts among their fellow Northmen. Through both peaceful and violent means, Vikings were able to create new homes in the uninhabited lands to the west of Scandinavia and in the European kingdoms they once raided.

When the American Civil War broke out at Fort Sumter in the year 1861, men from across the United States chose a side and stood up to fight for what they believed defined who they were as a group. Each man fought within a wider community, but each individual fought for reasons beyond those that defined the group. Individual reasons for fighting in the American Civil War did not always match the familiar, such as the controversy over states’ rights, the economic interest of slavery, or even the ethical nature behind the institution. Rather, the reasons why men fought in the Civil War varied by state and by individual. The Christie brothers, Thomas, William, and Alexander, who fought with the North for the duration of the war are examples of this phenomenon. Through the letters they wrote home to their family, these brothers from Minnesota explain how they fought in this war to express their state’s new sense of nationalism and patriotism towards the Union, to suppress a rebellion of uneducated and ignorant men, and to finally abolish slavery within the entirety of the United States.

Women in ancient Greece were not citizens. The society of ancient Greece functioned as a patriarchy. A woman’s father controlled her and she had no rights. When she married, her husband would control her and if she became a widow, her son would control her; the woman was always under the control of a man. Religion in ancient Greece did not help the plight of women either, it furthered their ensnarement. Rather, their religion kept women confined and helped to contribute to a patriarchal system which forced them to be second class citizens in their own society. The portrayal of the gods and goddesses in the literary works, myths, and epic poems of Ancient Greece reinforced the submissiveness and frailty of women. Athena for example, always sided with the men, Aphrodite was a fragile and promiscuous woman who concerned herself with pleasure and Zeus’ infidelity legitimized the patriarchal institution of ancient Greece.

In a time when we applaud bravery of  those who have been victims of sexual assault and are seeking justice, the women of Korea have gone sorely unrecognized. As World War II survivors, they deserve and should be given a voice for their saddening reality of rape.Since the close of the second World War, the world has tried to move on and forward, with terms of neutrality and peace, but peace comes at a price. One of those prices was the women of Korea who were discredited as having been raped by the soldiers of Japan. While the Japanese are the main perpetrators, even the records kept by the allied powers of World War II suggest that the pain these women have experienced should take a back seat to peace. The notion that national governments  chose to brush the rape of thousands of women under the carpet is not one that is widely shared, but through many first-hand accounts and some allied war documents it is clear to see the truth of what both the American and Korean governments would like to ignore. The women of Korea saw some of the worst results of comfort houses, from rape to sterilization and they should be given the proper apologies and reparations for the torture they were put through.

For most of the first half of the twentieth century, the Empire of Japan attempted to extend its hegemony over the neighboring peninsula of Korea. From the Russo-Japanese War through World War II, the Korean people faced invasion, abuse, and subjection as a people from the Japanese Empire. Although one can contend that Japanese occupation of Korea played a major part in shaping the successful Korean society of today in terms of infrastructure, schooling and administrative upgrading, the legacy is far more complicated. Using primary sources from colonial Korea, as well as Korean governmental documents, one can perceive a painful pattern. Through the Japanese cruel treatment of comfort women, the commandeering of resources, the manufacturing of drugs, and violent behavior toward Koreans resisting the regime, historians can trace this complicated legacy.

In October 1983, the United States landed troops on the small Caribbean island of Grenada. A largely anonymous and previously inconsequential nation, Grenada’s importance to the United States was nearly non-existent. The accepted motivation for the US invasion was in response to a coup against the short-term Prime Minister Maurice Bishop that threatened more widespread destabilization of the region. Though this motivation has been proven to be correct in part, the underlying relationship between Grenada and North Korea offers a much stronger explanation for US interest in the internal politics of such an inconspicuous nation. Beginning in 1975, North Korea began exporting its brand of Communism to post-colonial nations in an effort to create allies beyond its regional cohorts. The Reagan administration’s hardline containment policy towards Communism was the primary motivation behind US actions in Grenada. This paper addresses an understudied relationship between the United States and North Korea in which US actions were the key motivator behind the North Korean pursuit of hegemonic status through nuclear development and internationalism. This study examines declassified Central Intelligence Agency dispatches, legislative documents, international agency documents, corporate agreement records, state financial records, and newspaper articles to evaluate the extent to which US actions in Grenada in 1983 contributed to the progression of North Korean development into the modern era.

My research explores the concept of heroism in several traditional Viking mythological tales. The purpose of the research is to explore the traditional role of heroes in Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic society and how that role changed as the populations christianized over time. I utilized an English translation of the Voluspa, an Icelandic text that thoroughly recounts traditional folktales, as well as a collection of later Christian folktales from distinct, later periods of Norse history. Looking at only stories containing a hero and an antagonist, I used mythology ranging from creation myths to cautionary tales meant for children to humourous satires on life in order to examine the concept of heroism in every aspect of society. The end result of my research showed a pattern of what identified a hero in ancient Viking mythology and how aspects of distinctly Christian morality began to change what Viking heroes did in stories and where their values were placed.

The idea of a runaway slave typically implies that these individuals were running away from horribly cruel masters. Although this may generally be true, the varying incentives supporting their decision to leave are worthy of examination. From 1830-1840, the descriptions found in Southeastern American newspaper advertisements, more specifically from Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, shed light on some of the underlying factors influencing the decision to flee. In the past, runaway slave advertisements have only been analyzed and compiled for statistical categorization, but this research seeks to understand what lies hidden beneath the printed words. Runaway slave advertisements, though written by the slave owners and not the slaves themselves, present a narrative about the slaves who ran away. The masters needed valid and specific representations in order for their fugitive slaves to be identified, captured and returned. In analyzing the advertisements, push factors repeatedly emerge, leading to the understanding that these slaves were not necessarily running away, but running toward something they valued. These slaves actively and consciously made decisions about their lives, not merely remaining passive responders to the institution of slavery. Historians have made this argument as it pertains to the Civil War but the research shows that slave agency existed in the preceding decades. Despite the repercussions failure would bring, slaves still chose to put themselves at risk for something they deemed worthy, whether it be faith in their own intelligence, the desire to reconnect with family or a combination of both.

The misogynistic writings of ancient Greece portray women as a subservient sex limited to the narrow roles of vixen, bride and mother. This ideology correlates to the literary texts and mythology of the time period where Goddess and women alike were both subjected to fulfilling a limited representation of a home making or sexualized role. This paper analyzes the ancient Greek representation of mortal and immortal women in literary works and mythology portrays the female sex as subservient to man through the establishment of enforcing narrow roles of servitude (as a vixen, bride or mother) where women were depicted as scapegoats for man’s troubles – thus fulfilling a discriminatory role as a blameworthy entity. Literary texts and mythology of the time period evaluated the subservient construct of the bride, vixen, and mother. Ancient Greek society established narrow social constructs to establish misogynistic roles to women. The prevalence of this ideology is supported through the mythology and literary texts (Hesiod and Aristotle) of the time period, which enforced the subservient perspective of the female sex. This is where the creation of women was acknowledged to be a punishment to man. Literary texts and mythology do not support the woes of man – instead they falsely attribute any blameworthy attribution to women. Women themselves are representative of punishment in the form of a bride and gender alone. Women are the subservient sex of the time period that face limitations upon pursuing socially acceptable roles.
 

Advertising strategies used by cigarette companies aided the cigarette’s rapid rise in American culture. From the late 1920’s to the 1940’s advertisements featured celebrities and attractive women smoking their brand of cigarette to entice their readers to do the same, in hopes of achieving their social status. Cigarette advertisements also advertised their cost effectiveness by emphasizing low prices and great pleasure from smoking their brand of cigarette as numerous Americans struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression. In the 1940’s, cigarette companies incorporated war fever, brought upon by the US entry into the Second World War, into their advertisements by featuring soldiers prominently. As World War Two ended and the Cold War began to ramp up, cigarette advertisements reflected the nation’s infatuation with science and technology into their advertising arsenal. Cigarette ads reflected the culture of the United States between the 1920’s and the 1940’s. Many ads became ubiquitous in periodicals including the McCall’s magazine. This paper builds upon previous literature on the subject of the advertising industry and their adaptations to national trends, specifically for cigarettes, by examining a particular period of time rather than taking a wider look at the entire history of cigarette advertising.