Acknowledgments Countless solitary hours were spent at work on this thesis and graduate work, generally. Yet in spite of this fact a great many individuals contributed to the work's final outcome and my graduation, and they are deserving of my eternal thanks: -The numerous fellow graduate students who passed through VCU's history department during my tenure, and whose interests and insights helped to guide this project from seed to fruition. -Each course taken with the department's outstanding

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... aculty has greatly enhanced the final outcome of the paper, even if the topic has not directly related to the specific thesis. With that in mind, I would like to thank Drs.