Project Description
Students will work with Professor Sammons to help him conduct research for his book project on the Yazoo Land Sales, and more generally on the relationship between land speculation, finance, and Indigenous dispossession in the early United States. In collaboration with the professor, students will undertake a variety of research tasks, including: researching the biographies of land speculators; researching the financial dimensions of treaty negotiations between the US and Native nations in the Southeast; helping to clean land office data in Excel; reading and taking notes on a range of primary sources, particularly digitized newspapers from Georgia in the 1790s and early 1800s, and digitized correspondence from officials in the US War Department. Students will gain experience in different kinds of historical research, learn more about Native American history and the political and economic history of the early US, and learn more about the variety of undertakings necessary to produce historical scholarship.
Prerequisites
Students should have some experience performing primary source research.
Special Comments
Professor Sammons hopes to work with a history major with an interest in early American and Native American history, but these are not requirements for applying.
Project Information (subject to change)
Estimated Start Date: 6/16/2025
Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025
Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks
Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1
Research Location: Hybrid
Contact Information: Franklin Sammons (email: fsammons@wlu.edu)