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Examples
- Late 18th-Century Women's Fashion and History
- newspapers, looking at clothing and fashion adverts
- descriptions of clothing during time period (look up clothing in Virginia Historical index)
- Descriptions of fashion, style, clothing in women's writings
- Look at critics of womens clothing in sermons and mens writings
- Early Republic & Politics; Competing Visions for government, Challenges to those Competing Visions, Reactions in the form of Rebellion
- newspaper coverage of riots, uprising, rebellions (ex whiskey rebellion)
- legislation at federal and state level against rebellions (see gov materials tab)
- writings by political dissidents
- The War and how geography and knowledge of/existing cartography shaped it ; war, military strategy, geography, cartography, environment
- maps from the time period
- descriptions and discussions of maps in writings and letters of military leaders
- The Virginia Frontier during the Revolution ;How the war was impacted by the Shenandoah Valley, and how the social and cultural makeup of the valley changed because of the conflict
- descriptions of that region in va legislative records from period
- letters and diaries from that region
- newspapers from that region (see chronicling america and Lib of VA historic newspaper list)
- Identity in the American Revolution and its Revolutionary Impact; Influence on other revolutions, nationalism, liberty, propaganda, ideals, identities
- will need to narrow a bit more. Generally: see how the revolution is depicted in writings
- ex if you're interested in influence on other revolutions (Ex French, Haitian, Shays, Dutch, Whiskey) see how the leaders of those groups describe the american revolution
- Enslaved Individuals during the Revolution; How conditions changed on plantations, how enslaved people negotiated, and how they formed identity/agency
- plantation records; look at our plantation records database in History Vault. search for plantation in our database page.
- look at runaway ads in our newspaper databases, limited to the year of the war. See newspaper tab
- see writings of slaveholders from this period.
- Legal History of the Revolution; Founding of the JAG Corps, the trial of Colonel Henley, LTG John Burgoyne, William Tudor, Diplomatic relations between the US and England during the war
- start with court cases of these individuals; should be able to find them digitized online
- For diplomatic relations, look up personal appears of the embassy staff and foreign ministers -- their names will be in secondary sources
- British Parliament papers database will have the British side of the story; for the US side, see state papers https://www.loc.gov/item/97080286/
- Religion and Politics of Early America; Separation of church and state, intersection of religion and politics, religious freedom, religious unity/division
- see sermons (use sermons as subject) about politics during this period (ex).
- Depictions of religion among leaders (jefferson is the usual example)
- Colony specific legislation about religion; see colonial statutes for states of interest, they will be online through each state library
- Political Cartoons and Art; Beginning of political cartoons, predominant themes or visual elements, how people of color are portrayed and represented
- Look at broadsides, see tab.
- Look at newspapers from the period -- you are not likely to find many, it appears newspaper cartoons/images weren't very common in US newspapers until well after the 1820s.
- books on your topic, published during the period, are most likely to have woodcut images. The American publishing industry is pretty limited until the 1840s, so there is less than you'd expect on this side of the atlantic.
- The Revolution's effects on runaway unfree people, how did prevention of running away and punishment change; Convict labor, slavery, newspapers, methods of escape, demographic changes?
- Look at runaway ads during this time period. runaway isn't a great phrase, try advert* AND negr* to start. Dr. Dresler is also an expert on this, and can give advice. Use the proximity searches too, which will allow you to search for these works about 20 words apart.
- Religion and Rhetoric; Dissent against Anglicanism, Religion and democracy
- Sermons and tracts criticism anglicanism
- Discussions of democracy in sermons
- you may need to focus on a specific denomination and their writings
