William Alexander Leidesdorff is probably one of the best-kept secrets in the pioneering of the West and the creation of the State of California. Born out of wedlock in St. Croix, Danish West Indies in 1810 to a Jewish Danish sugar planter and a black plantation worker, he went on to become the first Black millionaire when gold was found on his property shortly before he died in 1848.
The 2015 volume of Theatre History Studies presents a collection of five critical essays examining the intersection of theatre studies and historiography as well as twenty-five book reviews highlighting recent scholarship in this thriving field.
Based on the latest research, this work provides a new look at the lives of African Americans in the Western United States, from the colonial era to the present. From colonial times to the present, this volume captures the experiences of the westward migration of African Americans. Based on the latest research, it offers a fresh look at the many ways African Americans influenced—and were influenced by—the development of the U.S. frontier. African Americans in the West covers the rise of the slave trade to its expansion into what was at the time the westernmost United States; from the post–Civil War migrations, including the Exodusters who fled the South for Kansas in 1879 to the mid–20th century civil rights movement, which saw many critical events take place in the West—from the organization of the Black Panthers in Oakland to the tragic Watts riots in Los Angeles.
Depictions of the American west in literature, art and film perpetuate romantic stereotypes of the pioneers--the gold-crazed '49er, the intrepid sodbuster. While ennobling the woodsman, the farmwife and the lawman, this tunnel vision of American history has shortchanged the whaler, the assayer, the innkeeper and the inventor. The westward advance of the trailblazers created demand for a gamut of unsung adventurers--surveyors, financiers, politicians, surgeons, entertainers, grocers and midwives--who built communities and businesses in the wilderness amid clashes with Indians, epidemics, floods, droughts and outlawry. Chronicling the worthy deeds, ethnicities, languages and lifestyles of ordinary people who survived a stirring period in American history, this book provides biographical information for hundreds of individual pioneers on the North American frontier, from the Mississippi River Valley as far west as Alaska. Appendices list pioneers by state or country of departure, destination, ethnicity, religion and occupation. A chronology of pioneer achievements places them in perspective.
In Californios, Anglos, and the Performance of Oligarchy in the U.S. West, author Andrew Gibb argues that the mid-nineteenth-century encounter between Anglos and californios— the Spanish-speaking elites who ruled Mexican California between 1821 and 1848—resulted not only in the Americanization of California but also the “Mexicanization” of Americans. Employing performance studies methodologies in his analysis of everyday and historical events, Gibb traces how oligarchy evolved and developed in the region. This interdisciplinary study draws on performance studies, theatre historiography, and New Western History to identify how the unique power relations of historical California were constituted and perpetuated through public performances—not only traditional theatrical productions but also social events such as elite weddings and community dances—and historical events like the U.S. seizure of the city of Monterey, the feting of Commodore Stockton in San Francisco, and the Bear Flag Revolt.
Since its inception the United States has sent envoys to advance American interests abroad, both across oceans and to areas that later became part of the country. Little has been known about these first envoys until now. From China to Chile, Tripoli to Tahiti, Mexico to Muscat, Peter D. Eicher chronicles the experience of the first American envoys in foreign lands. Their stories, often stranger than fiction, are replete with intrigues, revolutions, riots, war, shipwrecks, swashbucklers, desperadoes, and bootleggers. The circumstances the diplomats faced were precursors to today's headlines: Americans at war in the Middle East, intervention in Latin America, pirates off Africa, trade deficits with China. Early envoys abroad faced hostile governments, physical privations, disease, isolation, and the daunting challenge of explaining American democracy to foreign rulers. Many suffered threats from tyrannical despots, some were held as slaves or hostages, and others led foreign armies into battle. Some were heroes, some were scoundrels, and many perished far from home. From the American Revolution to the Civil War, Eicher profiles the characters who influenced the formative period of American diplomacy and the first steps the United States took as a world power. Their experiences combine to chart key trends in the development of early U.S. foreign policy that continue to affect us today. Raising the Flag illuminates how American ideas, values, and power helped shape the modern world.
The Museum of the City of San Francisco presents a biographical sketch of the African-American businessman and steamboat owner William Alexander Leidesdorff, written by Sue Bailey Thurman and originally published in the work entitled "Pioneers of Negro Origin in California" by the author.
The only biographical dictionary on African-American business leaders, this volume provides biographies on 123 individuals. Covering significant Black business leaders from the early days in America to the present, it includes many individuals who do not appear in general African-American biographical collections, and provides extensive information that is not available in other sources. Each biographical profile provides comprehensive coverage of the individual, and includes comprehensive bibliographical information. The volume also includes appendices classifying the business leaders by place of birth, principal place of business, type of business, and women business leaders. An extensive general bibliographical essay provides information on works giving background information, and the volume concludes with a full subject index.
