Darrel Bigham's Books

On Jordan's Banks

Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley

By: Darrel E. Bigham

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On Jordan's Banks

Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley

By: Darrel E. Bigham

The story of the Ohio River and its settlements are an integral part of American history, particularly during the country's westward expansion. The vibrant African American communities along the Ohio's banks, however, have rarely been studied in depth. Blacks have lived in the Ohio River Valley since the late eighteenth century, and since the river divided the free labor North and the slave labor South, black communities faced unique challenges. In On Jordan's Banks, Darrel E. Bigham examines the lives of African Americans in the counties along the northern and southern banks of the Ohio River both before and in the years directly following the Civil War. Gleaning material from biographies and primary sources written as early as the 1860s, as well as public records, Bigham separates historical truth from the legends that grew up surrounding these communities. The Ohio River may have separated freedom and slavery, but it was not a barrier to the racial prejudice in the region. Bigham compares early black communities on the northern shore with their southern counterparts, noting that many similarities existed despite the fact that the Roebling Suspension Bridge, constructed in 1866 at Cincinnati, was the first bridge to join the shores. Free blacks in the lower Midwest had difficulty finding employment and adequate housing. Education for their children was severely restricted if not completely forbidden, and blacks could neither vote nor testify against whites in court. Indiana and Illinois passed laws to prevent black migrants from settling within their borders, and blacks already living in those states were pressured to leave. Despite these challenges, black river communities continued to thrive during slavery, after emancipation, and throughout the Jim Crow era. Families were established despite forced separations and the lack of legally recognized marriages. Blacks were subjected to intimidation and violence on both shores and were denied even the most basic state-supported services. As a result, communities were left to devise their own strategies for preventing homelessness, disease, and unemployment. Bigham chronicles the lives of blacks in small river towns and urban centers alike and shows how family, community, and education were central to their development as free citizens. These local histories and life stories are an important part of understanding the evolution of race relations in a critical American region. On Jordan's Banks documents the developing patterns of employment, housing, education, and religious and cultural life that would later shape African American communities during the Jim Crow era and well into the twentieth century.

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Page Count

607

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813188318

ISBN 13

9780813188317

Evansville

The World War II Years

By: Darrel E. Bigham

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Evansville

The World War II Years

By: Darrel E. Bigham

World War II changed the face of Evansville, Indiana. In December 1941, the city was still recovering from the Great Depression, yet within three months, a series of blockbuster announcements transformed the region. Several corporations received major defense contracts to manufacture parts and ammunitions, while two new installations were launched: a shipyard to construct Landing Ship Tanks and a factory to manufacture P47 airplanes. Industrial employment rose dramatically, producing social, economic, and racial tensions as thousands of newcomers poured into a city that lacked adequate housing and public facilities. The citizens of Evansville persevered, and most workers stayed following the end of the war. One federal official commented that the citynot just its many defense plantsdeserved the coveted Army-Navy E (for excellence) award.

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Page Count

136

Publisher

Arcadia Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1439615489

ISBN 13

9781439615485

Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

By: Darrel E. Bigham

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Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

By: Darrel E. Bigham

America. Enterprise. Metropolis. Cairo. Rome. These are a few of the grandly named villages and towns along the lower Ohio River. The optimism with which early settlers named these towns reveals much about the history of American expansion. Though none became the next great American city, it was not for lack of ambition or entrepreneurial spirit. Why didn't a major city develop on the lower Ohio? What geographic, economic, and cultural factors caused one place to prosper and another to wither? How did Evansville become the largest and most influential city in the region? How did smaller cities such as Owensboro and Paducah succeed? Regardless of how appealing a locale looked on the map, luck, fate, culture, and leadership all helped determine success or failure. The fate of Cairo, Illinois—on paper an ideal site for a metropolis—emphasizes the extent to which human decisions, rather than physical landscape, affected a town's prosperity. The location of a canal or railroad terminus, the construction of a factory, or the activities of local boosters all mattered greatly. Darrel Bigham examines these towns and villages from the 1790s, when the first settlements appeared, to the 1920s, when the modern pattern of life associated with automobiles, economic upheaval, and mass culture emerged. Bigham's intimate knowledge of the area offers a true sense of the towns and villages and discloses fundamental truths about the workings of the American dream.

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Page Count

496

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813189632

ISBN 13

9780813189635

Southern Indiana

By: Darrel Bigham

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Southern Indiana

By: Darrel Bigham

Southern Indiana depicts a distinctive place at a special time: the beginning of the modern era, 1910 to 1920. During those years, this region of 26 counties, from which Indiana and much of the Old Northwest had developed a century before, was in transition toward consumerism and mass culture, as symbolized by automobiles, road-building, movies, radio, and popular magazines. Southern Indiana celebrated the stateas centennial; political progressivism in the era contributed to, among other things, prohibition and womenas suffrage. Americans for the first time sent young men off to war in Europe. The vintage photographs included in this book, culled from 20 private and public collections, are representative of southern Indiana. They show people at work, at play, in worship and school, in clubs and organizations, in travel, and at war. Most have never before been published. Once the most populous section of the state, the area o the south became much less so. Culturallyaespecially in the woods, hills, and valleys of the un-glaciated center of the districtasouthern Indiana retained its upper South character. It remained largely rural and agricultural. Most settlements were isolated and small; many communities had been losing popularity and people because of hard times on the farm and the appeal of larger cities.

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Page Count

132

Publisher

Arcadia Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

0738507326

ISBN 13

9780738507323

Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

By: Darrel E. Bigham

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Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

By: Darrel E. Bigham

No other region in America is so fraught with projected meaning as Appalachia. Many people who have never set foot in Appalachia have very definite ideas about what the region is like. Whether these assumptions originate with movies like Deliverance (1972) and Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), from Robert F. Kennedy's widely publicized Appalachian Tour, or from tales of hiking the Appalachian Trail, chances are these suppositions serve a purpose to the person who holds them. A person's concept of Appalachia may function to reassure them that there remains an "authentic" America untouched by consumerism, to feel a sense of superiority about their lives and regions, or to confirm the notion that cultural differences must be both appreciated and managed. In Selling Appalachia: Popular Fictions, Imagined Geographies, and Imperial Projects, 1878-2003, Emily Satterwhite explores the complex relationships readers have with texts that portray Appalachia and how these varying receptions have created diverse visions of Appalachia in the national imagination. She argues that words themselves not inherently responsible for creating or destroying Appalachian stereotypes, but rather that readers and their interpretations assign those functions to them. Her study traces the changing visions of Appalachia across the decades from the Gilded Age (1865-1895) to the present and includes texts such as John Fox Jr.'s Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1908), Harriet Arnow's Hunter's Horn (1949), and Silas House's Clay's Quilt (2001), charting both the portrayals of Appalachia in fiction and readers' responses to them. Satterwhite's unique approach doesn't just explain how people view Appalachia, it explains why they think that way. This innovative book will be a noteworthy contribution to Appalachian studies, cultural and literary studies, and reception theory.

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Page Count

372

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813131146

ISBN 13

9780813131146

On Jordan's Banks

Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley

By: Darrel E. Bigham

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On Jordan's Banks

Emancipation and Its Aftermath in the Ohio River Valley

By: Darrel E. Bigham

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

607

Publisher

University Press of Kentucky

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813188318

ISBN 13

9780813188317

Book's by Darrel Bigham

On Jordan's Banks

On Jordan's Banks

Evansville

Evansville

Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

Southern Indiana

Southern Indiana

Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

Towns and Villages of the Lower Ohio

On Jordan's Banks

On Jordan's Banks

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