Undergraduate Student Features

2023 History Essay Prize Winners

Each year, the Department of History offers several monetary prizes for the best undergraduate essay in a number of categories. Please join us in congratulating our essay prize winners.

European History Prize

"Bullets, Braids, and Raids: Women in the Allied Resistance"

Abigail Brown

Throughout World War II there were various resistance movements that sprung up all across Europe, working towards Nazi liberation. In places such as France, Holland, and even among the Jewish population of Poland, a significant number of these resistance fighters were women who, unable to join the war front, enlisted instead in resistance forces. The experiences of women throughout the resistance movement across Europe, though varying in operations and results, can be used to show the wider contexts that not only allowed women to take these roles, but flourish into them almost seamlessly as the war continued. This essay will work to analyze the larger societal, educational, and political movements taking place throughout Europe that allowed these women to be successful in their exploits by showcasing different circumstances and cultures from all sides of the war.

John W. Foster Prize

"The War, On Drugs: How Drug-Addicted Vietnam Veterans Became Symbols of Gateway Drugs, Invading Addicts, Sick Criminals, and Polydrug Use, 1970-1975"

Theron Verburg

The earliest War on Drugs discourse in America from the 1950’s and 1960’s revolved around portraying white, middle-class youth as victims of predatory foreign drug trades. By the 1970’s, with much of Congress eager to rehabilitate its image in light of the Vietnam War, politicians on either side of the aisle perpetuated the myth of widespread narcotics addiction among American servicemen in Vietnam. In so doing, they simultaneously portrayed Vietnam veterans as sick victims of the Vietnamese drug market and as potential criminals that would bring drug-induced crime to American neighborhoods. The myth, however, distracted from meaningful discussions surrounding the emerging polydrug abuse problem, stemming largely from under-regulated pharmaceutical, not recreational, drugs. Vietnam veterans did not commit crimes to support their habit but rather abused pharmaceuticals which were even easier to access. Thus, while the rhetoric surrounding drug-addicted Vietnam veteran suggested otherwise, American servicemen, in reality, became tragically reflective of America’s emerging drug mixing crisis.

M. Jeanne Peterson Prize

"From the Land of the Free to the Home of the Brave: Personal Letter Correspondences in the War of 1812"

Sarah Hensler

From 1812 to 1815, the United States engaged in its first war as an independent nation: the War of 1812. This war cared little for casualties and territory. Rather, the War of 1812 sought to redefine the murky boundaries of “us” and “them” between the United States and Canada, establishing an ideological front against the British Empire. Newspapers, politicians, and preachers rose to the cause, but the unsung heroines of this mission were housewives, who spread news in a complex array of letters and social networking. This paper uses collections of letter correspondences to analyze the ways in which married women impacted public opinion on the war beyond the scope of print media. By looking at individual family units, it highlights the emotional bond people created with the war, particularly among their closest confidants. This paper seeks to discover the role that extremely small-scale communications had in developing American nationalism.

Rozelle Boyd Essay Prize

"‘Up to God’s Free Church I Hope to Go:’ Christianity Among the Enslaved and White Resistance in the Antebellum South"

Rachel Bayler

The decades following the period known popularly as the Second Great Awakening led to an increase in white and African American free and enslaved Christian communities. Though outwardly professing the same religion, white slaveowners and enslaved Christians quickly developed different views of Christianity’s relationship to slavery. This paper begins by examining the various perspectives of white Christian slaveowners, be they preacher or layman, pro-, anti-, or neutral toward slavery, and the intrinsic hypocrisy within the predominant justifications of slavery through Christian texts and tenets. It then explores the spectrum of Christian practice made available to or adopted by enslaved Christians. Groups of enslaved Christians developed covert, informal organizations of individuals bound by spiritual purpose, and they in turn used their religious belief and expression as a vehicle for affirming the community, agency, and freedom routinely denied them by the oppressive system under which they were forced to live.

World History Prize

"Smoke and Mirrors: Colonialism and War in French Equatorial Africa During WWII"

Abigail Brown

The Second World War is a frequent period of discussion in terms of imperialism, international relations, and human rights as throughout the war, nations such France used their African colonies to gain troops, and governmental legitimacy when faced with a Nazi occupation. Free French leaders such as General Charles de Gaulle promoted the unity of France against its Nazi occupiers, and Vichy pretenders, through the French African colonies, specifically French Equatorial Africa, and later French West Africa. But the truth of the experience of African men and their families was that of coercion and confusion as many men were essentially forced to join the military, or were persuaded to, under false pretenses. The disconnect between Free French propaganda and the experience of African families illustrates the predicaments of colonialism: even when the African colonies were the last fighting force Free France had, they were treated as secondary citizens of France, and were forgotten when European troops were able to get back on the front.

William M. Locke Essay Prize

"The Revolutionary Secession"

Andy Klage

Leaders of the Southern secession movement of 1860-1861 often used rhetoric that was strikingly similar to the American Revolution to justify their own rebellion. The use of Revolutionary language communicated to the people that the Confederacy was upholding the legacy of the Founding Fathers by standing up to Northern tyranny. However, while this rhetoric was prominent, it does not capture the full scope of the secession and the preponderance of factors that played into it. The Revolutionary sentiment itself was often framed in various, sometimes conflicting ways, by groups in both the North and South: be it to outright defend the justice of slavery, to argue for the superiority of states' rights, or to interpret the Constitution as a voluntary compact. The wide range of factors that played into the secession diminish the effectiveness of the language used by Southern leaders, who were most prone to harken back to the “good old days” of the Revolution when rationalizing their actions.

Undergraduate Student Features

2023 History Essay Prize Winners

European History Prize

"Bullets, Braids, and Raids: Women in the Allied Resistance"

John W. Foster Prize

"The War, On Drugs: How Drug-Addicted Vietnam Veterans Became Symbols of Gateway Drugs, Invading Addicts, Sick Criminals, and Polydrug Use, 1970-1975"

M. Jeanne Peterson Prize

"From the Land of the Free to the Home of the Brave: Personal Letter Correspondences in the War of 1812"

Rozelle Boyd Essay Prize

"‘Up to God’s Free Church I Hope to Go:’ Christianity Among the Enslaved and White Resistance in the Antebellum South"

World History Prize

"Smoke and Mirrors: Colonialism and War in French Equatorial Africa During WWII"

William M. Locke Essay Prize

"The Revolutionary Secession"

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