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The Day New York Forgot: The Legacy Of Trauma In Collective Memory As Seen Through A Study Of Evacuation Day

Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: On November 25 1783, the British evacuated New York City after occupying the city for seven-years during the American Revolution.As Washington and his troops marched into Manhattan to take command of the city, both those who fled New York, as Washington did in 1776, and those who endured the occupation joyously celebrated his return, which for them, marked the end of the Revolution.Each year from there on, the 25 th of November was celebrated as a day that would later be titled Evacuation Day.This work analyzes how Evacuation Day was celebrated from 1783 to 1883.This study examines the reception to each year's Evacuation Day celebration through a rhetorical analysis of local newspaper coverage of the event and argues that traumatic memory is very fragile and unless well-cultivated fails to transfer to from generation to generation-replaced instead with meaningless ritual and bombastic spectacle.I would like to thank both members of my committee, Andrew Schocket and Rebecca Mancuso, for their support and feedback throughout this process.Working with these two scholars offered me the guidance and flexibility I needed to make this project possible.Additionally I would like to thank Benjamin Greene who allowed me to workshop the fourth chapter on this project in his history seminar.I am in-debt to all of my friends and colleagues who read sections, chapters, and drafts of this project and offered insightful feedback.These same people helped guide me through the excitement of finding fantastic sources and the frustrations that working on a larger project brings and for that help I am eternally grateful.Last I would like to thank Thomas Henthorne who passed away in 2014 but served as a mentor to me, and others, for many years.
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2581374771
FWCI:
Cites: 15
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Related to: 10