In looking at the development of a major, graduate-level project in the Digital Humanities, it is crucial to start with a plan, organization, knowledge, and fortitude. All these aspects play in the final production that is woven together to submit a new form of analysis into the pre-existing realm of a particular historical context.
Mostly, it helps to have a concept.
My
focus is looking at what the concept of marriage looked like in 1850s-1870s
America. By focusing on the antebellum period, there is an opportunity to chart
both the basic census data (household members, male's education levels, and
marriages) and the later, more thorough, census data that includes education
levels of all in the house, the worth of the house, and the years of marriage
and childbirth. The including of this data, along with primary sources in
letters, diaries, and court records, allows for a more fleshed out examination
of what marriage looked like during this period.
The
main purpose of this is to look at how quantitative data reflects what was
going on in the culture. One main question that appears is how do census trends
reflect the literature and events of the time period. By looking at 1850-1870,
not only is there a connection to my research in Italy (looking 200 years
later) but also there is a change in the details provided in the census.
Questions about this include “why the change in 1870?” as well as “how do these
responses vary between the North and South?”
In
looking at what the concept of marriage was in the North versus the South,
there is a complication of what marriage in this period really was. I’m
anticipating that text analysis, data charting and comparison, and word usage
in literature/letters will provide the different experiences between the North
and the South.
In
charting the census data, I would like to superimpose the numerical data of
each household onto a map of each time period and use ArcGIS to show the
changes in married households across the 20 year spread. This will reflect
married versus unmarried households in the U.S. and will give a visual
representation as to how many couples are experiencing these marriage trends.
This also allows for a look at occupation trends, age trends, and location
trends.
The
project will also include, and be situated among, secondary research and
American social historians' commentaries about marriage, the state it was in
during this period, and the changes that occurred during this twenty year
spread.
Besides
simple data analysis (in the form of charts, trees, and graphs), the project
will also create a timeline in which major events will be documented with marriage
percentages shown to draw conclusions about the influence of American culture
and events upon marriages (by using Timeline). Specific trends found in this
examination will be backed up with primary letters, conversations, and other
documents showing any correlation.
As
of now, the plan is to put the census data into a more readable platform
(considering excel) and then using that transcribed data to look at trends that
occurred regionally, country-wide, and in other aspects of culture in the U.S.
For instance, the rise in marriage during this period precedes the rise in
marriage handbooks and novellas written during the 1860's (as shown through
Google's Ngram tool). The charting of these trends allows for analysis as to
what marriage looked like during the period, as well as how historians have
perceived it.
My
main sources include Census data from 1850, 1860, 1870 (all available online
through the census bureau), specific marriage registries (available online
through ancestry.com and archives), diaries of specific women (listed in flow
chart, available through ILL), and letters (some available through archives,
others not digitized).
The
secondary research includes the main heavy hitters of the period: Nancy Cott,
Bonds of Womanhood, Linda Kerber’s “Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Women’s
Place”, Joan Cashin’s Our Common Affairs,
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Within the
Plantation Household, Stephanie McCurry’s Masters of Small Worlds and “Two Faces of Republicanism…”, Jan Lewis’ Pursuit of Happiness; Ann Douglas, Feminization of American Culture.
There will also be scholarship on courtship specifically (in the South)
-Anya Jabour, Scarlett’s
Sisters
-Lori Glover, Southern
Sons
-Steve Stowe, Intimacy
and Power in the Old South
And the North:
Karen Lystra, Searching
the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in Nineteenth-Century America
Ellen Rothman, Hands
and Hearts: A History of Courtship in
America
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