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About the Project: Project Narrative

   There are three main ways in which users can help to make “Other Souths” a more effective online teaching tool.  In every case, please contact Charles Irons (cirons@elon.edu) with suggestions.  Users may:

  1. Troubleshoot existing problems with the site.  Please report any errors in either content or problems in navigation so that they may be addressed.
  2. Help to establish links between sources.  There are hundreds of additional links to be made between items in the databases.  Moreover, the number of new links will climb as new datasets come on line.  Some users may possess in their family histories information that can help to facilitate new links.  Descendents of the Thompson family, for example, may be able to help sort out which “Joseph Thompson” from the population census to match with which Joseph Thompson in the Confederate Service Records.
  3. Contribute primary source material for digitization.  The addition of manuscript material to this site is one of the most exciting avenues for improvement.

Currently, “Other Souths” contains primarily formal records about individuals’ lives.  While this reveals a great deal about the individuals, it is nonetheless difficult to capture personalities or to reconstruct the ideas behind actions using only this type of sources.  The addition of letters, diaries, and even some “formal” texts like court records would enhance the site enormously.  All of these sources would be digitized with care, transcribed, and integrated into the site by being linked to the relevant individuals. 

As an example of the additional insights that the inclusion of more manuscript material might bring, consider the excerpt below from the Trial of William W. Holden, Governor of North Carolina, Before the Senate of North Carolina, on Impeachment by the House of Representatives for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, vols. I-III (Raleigh: “Sentinel” Printing Office, 1871).  The excerpt is the first article of impeachment against Governor Holden:

Article I.
            That by the Constitution of the State of North Carolina, the Governor of said State has power to call out the militia thereof to execute the laws, suppress riots or insurrection, and repel invasion, whenever the execution of the law shall be resisted, or there shall exist any riot, insurrection or invasion, but not otherwise; that William W. Holden, Governor of said State, unmindful of the high duties of his office, the obligation of his solemn oath of office, and the Constitution and laws of said State, and intending to stir up civil war, and subvert personal and public liberty, and the Constitution and laws of said State, and of the United States, and contriving and intending to humiliate and degrade the saie (sic) State and the people thereof, and especially the people of the county of Alamance, and to provoke the people to wrath and violence, did, under the color of his said office, on the seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and seventy, in said State, of his own false, corrupt and wicked mind and purpose, proclaim and declare that the county of Alamance in said State, was in insurrection, and did, after the days and times last aforesaid, and before the time of impeachment in this behalf, through and by means of such armed, desperate and lawless men, arrest many peaceable and law-abiding citizens of said county of Alamance, then and there about their lawful business; and did detain, hold, imprison, hang, beat and otherwise maltreat and injure many of them, to-wit: Lucian H. Murray, George S. Rogers, William Bingham, Alexander Wilson, Walter Thornton, William Redding, Thomas M. Holt, George Andrews, John Andrews, Frederick Blanchard, Adolphus G. Moore, John Roberson, James N. Holt, William Tate, Alexander Patton, Jesse Grant (sic), Lemuel Whitsett, Josiah Thompson, Sidney Steel, George Johnson, William Patton, Joseph Wright, Benjamin McAdams, Ruffin Andrews, Thomas Ray, Joseph Prichard, Loften Tear, Joseph Thompson, Henry Cooke, William Andrews, M. N. Shaw, John Long, James H. Anderson, Joseph Gibson, Henry Prichard, Joseph Nelson, James R. Murphy, Jr., William Kirkpatrick, Thomas Gray, Jefferson Younger, Frank Mebane, Clement Curtis, John W. McAdams, William Moore, William Clendenden, D. W. Weeden, Daniel Moses, P. Thompson, David Moore, Monroe Fowler, Henry C. Hurdle, William Whitsett, Albert Murray, J. G. Moore, Joseph Kirkpatrick, W. V. Montgomery, John Trollinger, Jerry Whitsett, Calvin Gibson, John G. Albright, Robert Hannah, William Johnson, Henderson Scott, William Stockard, James Dickson, K. A. Albright, Thomas Lutterloh, John Grant, James Foust, John Curtis, A. Thompson, Robert Stockrrd (sic), J. A. Moore, James T. Hunter, James S. Scott, John Smith, George Andrews, Milton Pickard, Henry Robertson, John R. Stockard, John Curtis and Joseph Stockard, when in fact and truth there was no such or any insurrection in said county of Alamance.  And he, the said William W. Holden, governor as aforesaid, well knew that such and said proclamation was groundless and false, and that there was no insurrection in said county, and that all civil authorities, both state and county, in said county, were peacefully and regularly in the full, free and unrestrained exercise in all respects, of the functions of their offices, and the courts were all open, and the due administration of the law was unimpeded by any resistance whatsoever, whereby the said William W. Holden, governor as aforesaid, did then and there, and in the way and manner, and by the means aforesaid, commit and was guilty of a high crime in office against the constitution and laws of soid (sic) state, and the peace, interests and dignity thereof.

Note how the excerpt, brief though it is, connects dozens of Alamance County names to one of the most important political events in postbellum North Carolina—and to one another.  Links from the document to the records about the individuals mentioned (shown here in the example of Henry C. Hurdle) in it could be a powerful research tool, indeed!  The Elon University Archivist, Katie Nash, will consult on any attempt to digitize private papers, in order to guarantee that the sources themselves are not damaged by the process.
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Please send questions, comments, or suggestions to othersouths@gmail.com.