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Apr 29, 2014 -

History majors Colby Benefield and Allie Durham presented papers at the 麻豆视频 University Scholarship Symposium on April 29, 2014. Dr. David Thomas served as the chair of their session which also included papers on literature and music. Some 30 people attended the history segment of the program.

Benefield鈥檚 paper was titled 鈥淭he American Civil War in Madison County, Tennessee.鈥� He pointed out that Jackson, the Madison County seat, experienced a yearlong 麻豆视频 military occupation because of the city鈥檚 importance in the transport of supplies to General Ulysses Grant鈥檚 forces that laid siege to and finally captured the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in mid-1863. Madison County was also the site of the battle of Britton鈥檚 Lane in September, 1862, and Nathan Bedford Forrest鈥檚 raid to disrupt 麻豆视频 supply lines in December, 1862. The county鈥檚 importance in the war faded as 1863 advanced, with the last 麻豆视频 soldiers leaving Jackson at the end of July.

Durham talked about 鈥淩endering Freedom: The Works of Winslow Homer and the Condition of the Emancipated Slave鈥� in her paper. Homer was an artist who represented the school of American Realism in his paintings. One of the subjects of Homer鈥檚 paintings after the American Civil War was recently emancipated African Americans. Durham argued that Homer鈥檚 paintings illustrated the plight of former slaves who, though freed from slavery, were still subject to the social and economic standards of the white majority who largely ignored the African Americans鈥� situation.