Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
SURC Room 271
Start Date
15-5-2014
End Date
15-5-2014
Keywords
Press, War, Identity
Abstract
As the Civil War raged across the South and the Trans Mississippi region, Washington Territory newspapers found themselves having to walk a political tight rope. While most of the population supported the North, politicians and civic leaders had to always remember that many of the early settlers had come from the upper South. While these people did not approve of slavery, neither did they did they appear to glory in the destruction of their home states. For this reason, newspapers at the time watched developments over slavery and the war, but wanted to emphasize uniting ideas of internal improvements like the establishment of a territorial capital, construction of a university, and the transcontinental railroad over the bloody details of the war. This presentation will examine several press reports printed in Washington Territory during the war, where they were placed in the paper and what information they contained. In this way I will theorize that while newspaper editors hesitated to display news of the war on the front pages, it was because they viewed the conflict as the sadly divided present and wanted to focus instead on an identity of a united future in Washington Territory.
Recommended Citation
Griffith, Adam, "Territorial Identity: How Newspapers Covered the Civil War in Washington Territory 1861-1865" (2014). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 5.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2014/oralpresentations/5
Additional Mentoring Department
History
Territorial Identity: How Newspapers Covered the Civil War in Washington Territory 1861-1865
SURC Room 271
As the Civil War raged across the South and the Trans Mississippi region, Washington Territory newspapers found themselves having to walk a political tight rope. While most of the population supported the North, politicians and civic leaders had to always remember that many of the early settlers had come from the upper South. While these people did not approve of slavery, neither did they did they appear to glory in the destruction of their home states. For this reason, newspapers at the time watched developments over slavery and the war, but wanted to emphasize uniting ideas of internal improvements like the establishment of a territorial capital, construction of a university, and the transcontinental railroad over the bloody details of the war. This presentation will examine several press reports printed in Washington Territory during the war, where they were placed in the paper and what information they contained. In this way I will theorize that while newspaper editors hesitated to display news of the war on the front pages, it was because they viewed the conflict as the sadly divided present and wanted to focus instead on an identity of a united future in Washington Territory.
Faculty Mentor(s)
Herman, Daniel