Dr. Ruth Wallis Herndon

BOOKS:

• Standard of Living: Essays on Economics, History, and Religion in Honor of John E. Murray (Springer, 2022), co-edited with Patrick Gray, Joshua Hall, and Javier Silvestre.
• Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America (Cornell University Press, 2009). Co-edited with John E. Murray.
• Unwelcome Americans: Living on the Margin in Early New England (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001).

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

• “Childhood,” in Oxford Bibliographies on Line: Atlantic History, ed. Trevor Burnard (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).   http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/.
• “Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse, 1795-1801,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 44:1 (Summer 2013), 63-83.  Co-authored with Amilcar E. Challu, BGSU.
• “Poor Women and the Boston Almshouse in the Early Republic,” Journal of the Early Republic 32:3 (Fall 2012), 349-81.  Awarded the Ralph D. Gray prize for best article in 2012 by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.
• “Markets for Children in Early America: A Political Economy of Pauper Apprenticeship,” Journal of Economic History 62:2 (June 2002), 356-82.  Co-authored with John E. Murray.  Awarded the best article prize in 2002 by the Program in Early American Economy and Society.
• “The Right to a Name: Narragansett People and Rhode Island Officials in the Revolutionary Era,” Ethnohistory 44:3 (Summer 1997), 433-62.  Co-authored with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.  Reprinted as chapter in After King Philip’s War: Presence and Persistence in Indian New England, ed. Colin G. Calloway (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1997), 114-43.  Reprinted as chapter in American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers From European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850, eds. Peter C. Mancall and James H. Merrell (New York: Routledge, 2000), 426-51.  Reprinted as selection in Major Problems in American Indian History, 2^nd ed., eds. Albert L. Hurtado and Peter Iverson (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001), 182-97.  Awarded the Heizer Prize for the best article in ethnohistory in 1997 by the American Society for Ethnohistory.
• “Literacy among New England’s Transient Poor, 1750-1800,” Journal of Social History, 29:4 (Summer 1996), 963-65.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS:

• “Pauper Apprenticeship in Narragansett Country: A Different Name for Slavery in Early New England,” Slavery/Anti-Slavery in New England (2003 Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife), ed. Peter Benes (Boston University Scholarly Publications, 2005), 56-70.  Co-authored with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.
• “‘Breachy’ Sheep and Mad Dogs: Troublesome Domestic Animals in Rhode Island, 1750-1800,” New England’s Creatures, 1400-1900, Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife for 1993 (Boston: Boston University Press, 1995), 61-72.

BOOK CHAPTERS:

• “Adult Guardianship and Local Politics in Rhode Island, 1750-1800,” Standard of Living: Essays on Economics, History, and Religion in Honor of John E. Murray, eds. Patrick Gray, Joshua Hall, Ruth Wallis Herndon, and Javier Silvestre (Springer, 2022), 185-209.  Co-authored with Amilcar E. Challú.
• “An Economic Interpretation of Rhode Island’s 1788 Referendum on the Constitution,” Public Choice Analyses of American Economic History, eds. Joshua Hall and Marcus Witcher (New York: Springer, 2019), 117-135.  Co-authored with John E. Murray.
• "‘A Proper and Instructive Education’:  Raising Children in Pauper Apprenticeship,” Children Bound to Labor (2009), 3-18.  Co-authored with John E. Murray.
• “Recreating Proper Families in England and North America: Pauper Apprenticeship in Transatlantic Context,” Children Bound to Labor (2009), 19-36.  Co-authored with Steve Hindle.
•  “‘Proper’ Magistrates and Masters: Binding out Poor Children in Southern New England, 1720-1820,” Children Bound to Labor (Cornell, 2009), 39-51.
• “Colonial Period through the Early Republic” (overview essay), Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, and Policy, eds. Gwendolyn Mink and Alice O’Connor (ABC-CLIO, 2004), 1-8.
•  “‘Who died an expence to this town’: Poor Relief in Eighteenth-Century Rhode Island,” Down and Out in Early America, ed. Billy G. Smith (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004), 135-62.
•  “Colonizing the Children: Indian Youngsters in Early Rhode Island,” Reinterpreting New England Indians and the Colonial Experience, eds. Colin G. Calloway and Neal Salisbury (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 2003), 137-73, 37pp.  Co-authored with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.
•  “Women as Symbols of Disorder in Early Rhode Island,” Women and the Colonial Gaze, eds. Tamara L. Hunt and Micheline R. Lessard (Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave, 2002), 79-90.
• “Racialisation and feminisation of poverty in early America: Indian women as poor of the town in eighteenth-century Rhode Island,” Empire and others: British encounters with indigenous peoples, 1600-1850, eds. R. Halpern and M.J. Daunton (London: University College London Press, 1999), 186-203.
• “Women of ‘no particular home’:  Town Leaders and Female Transients in Rhode Island, 1750-1800,” Women and Freedom in Early America, ed. Larry D. Eldridge (New York University Press, 1997.
• “The Domestic Cost of Seafaring: Town Leaders and Seamen’s Families in Rhode Island, 1750-1800,” Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700-1920, eds. Margaret S. Creighton and Lisa Norling (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), 55-69.

BOOK REVIEWS:

• Review of A Crisis of Community: The Trials and Transformations of a New England Town, 1815-1848 by Mary Babson Fuhrer, in Journal of Economic History 77:3 (2017): 964-66.
• Review of Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America by E. Jennifer Monagahan, in Journal of American History (September 2006), 496-97.
• Review of American Childhoods by Joseph E. Illick, in Journal of American History (December 2003), 984-85.
• Review of The Healer’s Calling: Women and Medicine in Early New England by Rebecca J. Tannenbaum, in American Historical Review (December 2003), 1439-40.
• Review of Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed by Stephen O’Connor, in New York Times Book Review, June 10, 2001, 26.
• Review of The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island: A Study of Institutions in Change by Sydney V. James, ed. by Sheila L. Skemp and Bruce C. Daniels, in William and Mary Quarterly (April 2001), 526-28.
• Review of Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia by Woody Holton, in Reviews in American History 29 (March 2001), 23-28.
• Review of The Age of the Child: Children in America, 1890-1920 by David I. Macleod, in Journal of American History (March 2000), 1804-05.
• Review of Wives of the Leopard: Gender, Politics, and Culture in the Kingdom of Dahomey by Edna G. Bay, in Women’s Studies International Forum 22:4 (1999), 454-55.
• Review of Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolution by Lloyd Kramer, in H-Net Reviews (June 1998). 
• Review of From Virtue to Character: American Childhood, 1775-1850 by Jacqueline S. Reinier, in Journal of American History 84:2 (September 1997), 633-34.

Projects:

• “Children of Misfortune: Bound out by the Boston Overseers of the Poor, 1676-1820.”
• “The Indenture of Orson, 1764.” In collaboration with Alice Nash (University of Massachusetts) and Ella Wilcox Sekatau (The Narragansett Tribe).
• “The Boston Almshouse, 1790s-1810s.”  In collaboration with Amilcar E. Challu (Bowling Green State University).
• “Popular Reaction to the Constitution:  The 1788 Referendum in Rhode Island.”  In collaboration with John E. Murray (Rhodes College).
• “The Clerk’s Tale: Politics of Record-Keeping in Early America.” In collaboration with Christine L. Eisel (University of Memphis).

• “Children from the Praying Towns: Cultural Casualties of King Philip’s War,” paper presented to the Paul Maier Early American Seminar at the Massachusetts Historical Society, virtual (Zoom) seminar, 06 December 2022.
• “Women Raising Pauper Apprentice Children in Old and New England, 1700-1800,” paper presented at the conference on “Mothers and Fathers in the Pre-Modern World, c. 1000-1800,” University of Cambridge, virtual (Zoom) seminar, 23 April 2022.
• “Rebranding Public Charity: The Boston Female Asylum of the Early 1800s,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, virtual (Zoom) conference, 17 July 2021.
• “Children of Misfortune: Life After Apprenticeship,” paper presented to the Biography Workshop at the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic annual conference, Cambridge, MA, 18 July 2019.
• “The Labor of Poor Apprentices in Revolutionary Massachusetts,” paper presented at the “Children, Youth & Labor on the Eve of Independence” symposium, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, 30 March 2019.
• “Children of the Praying Towns,” paper presented to the 24^th annual conference of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, 17 June 2018.
• “Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse in the Early Republic,” paper presented to the 38th annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, New Haven, Connecticut, 22 July 2016.  Co-authored with Amilcar E. Challu, BGSU.
• “The Town Clerk’s Tale: New England Town Records as Historical Artifacts,” paper presented to the 22nd annual conference of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Worcester, Massachusetts, 25 June 2016.
• “Thomas Banks: ‘Rogue in Grain’ among the Lower Ranks,” paper presented to the annual conference of the Organization of American Historians, Providence, Rhode Island, 7 April 2016.
• “The Other Un-Free Children in Early America:  Pauper Apprenticeship and Gradual Emancipation,” paper presented to the Eighth Biennial Conference of the Society for History of Children and Youth, Vancouver, Canada, 26 June 2015.
• “‘Come as we meet on common ground’: A Collaborative Approach to Narragansett History,” paper presented to the 46^th Algonquian Conference, Mohegan Tribal Reservation, Uncasville, Connecticut, 25 October 2014.  Co-authored with Alice Nash, University of Massachusetts.
• “From Slavery to Poverty: Mothers and Children during Gradual Emancipation in Southern New England,” paper presented to the Sixteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women (Big Berks), University of Toronto, Toronto, CA, 24 May 2014.
• “Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse, 1795-1811,” paper presented to the “On the Anvil of Labor History in the Revolutionary Era:  Billy G. Smith and Fellow Artisans” conference, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7 November 2013.  Co-authored with Amilcar E. Challu, BGSU.
• “Mapping the Boston Poor: A Digital History of Boston Almshouse Inmates, 1795-1817,” paper presented to the History Brown Bag Lunch Series, BGSU, 25 October 2013.  Co-authored with Amilcar E. Challu, BGSU.
• Discussant, book session on John E. Murray, The Charleston Orphan House: Children’s Lives in the First Public Orphanage in America (Chicago, 2013), Social Science History Association conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1 November 2012.
• “Children of Misfortune: Growing up Poor in Early New England,” paper presented to the Boston Area Seminar in Early American History, Massachusetts Historical Society, 6 December 2011.
• “Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse, 1795-1801,” paper presented to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture conference, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 15 June 2012; earlier version presented to the Social Science History Association conference, Boston, Massachusetts, 17 November 2011.  Co-authored with Amilcar E. Challu, BGSU.
• “What Happened to Old Pat’s Children?: Welfare and Childhood in Early America,” Institute for the Study of Culture and Society Faculty Fellows Lecture Series, Bowling Green State University, 1 November 2011.
• “Poor Mothers and the Boston Almshouse, 1795-1817,” paper presented to the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic conference, Rochester, New York, 25 July 2010.
• “Not Slaves, Not Free:  Children of Color in Revolutionary New England,” paper presented to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture conference, University of Mississippi, 11 June 2010.
• “Birth Mothers and Substitute Mothers: Women Raising Poor Children in Old and New England,” paper presented at the Fourteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women (Big Berks), University of Minnesota, 15 June 2008.
• Session Comment, “New Directions in the Study of the American Apprentice,” presented to the Joint conference of the Society of Early Americanists and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture, College of William and Mary, 9 June 2007.
• Chaired and commented at session, “Equal Rights and Criminal Justice in Early Republican Massachusetts,” New England Historical Association, Southern New Hampshire University, 7 May 2007.
• “Children of Misfortune: The Fates of Boston’s Poor Apprentices,” paper presented to the Boston Area Seminar in Early American History, Massachusetts Historical Society, 2 November 2006.
• “Race and Bondage in Early New England: The Strange Case of Orson,” paper presented to the Humanities Institute, The University of Toledo, 27 January 2006.
• “The Politics of Record-Keeping in Early New England,” paper presented to the Humanities Institute, The University of Toledo, 24 September 2004.
• “Another Face of Slavery: Indentured Servitude of Native Americans in Southern New England,” paper presented to the “Slavery and Slave Trade in New England” conference, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston, 21-23 April 2004.  Co-authored with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.
• “Unfree Labor of Native Americans in Eighteenth-Century New England: The Strange Case of Orson,” paper presented to the Law and Social Thought Study Group, The University of Toledo, 26 March 2004.
• “Pauper Apprenticeship in Narragansett Country: A Different Name for Slavery in Early New England,” paper presented to the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife conference, Deerfield, Massachusetts, 21 June 2003.  Co-authored with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.
• “Hard Labor in Tender Years: Children of Color as Servant Apprentices in Early America,” invited paper presented to the “Race, Globalization, and the New Ethnic Studies” conference, Brown University, 8 March 2003.
• “‘Proper and Instructive Education’: Children Bound to Labor in Early America,” paper presented to the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, at the opening session of the “‘Proper and Instructive Education’: Children Bound to Labor in Early America” conference, University of Pennsylvania, 1 November 2002.  Co-authored with John E. Murray, Department of Economics, University of Toledo (now at Rhodes College).
• “A Better Bargain than Poor Relief: Servant Apprenticeship in Southern New England,” paper presented to the “‘Proper and Instructive Education’: Children Bound to Labor in Early America” conference, University of Pennsylvania, 2 November 2002.
• “Children Bound to Labor in Early New England,” paper presented to the Phi Alpha Theta Colloquium, University of Toledo, 1 March 2002.
• “A Hard Education for Adulthood: Pauper Apprenticeship in Early New England,” paper presented to the Law and Social Thought Study Group, The University of Toledo, 30 November 2001.
• Organized and facilitated mini-conference on “Pauper Apprenticeship in Early America,” University of Toledo, 7-9 September 2001.  With John E. Murray, Department of Economics, The University of Toledo (now at Rhodes College).
• “Orphan Apprenticeship in Early Rhode Island,” paper presented to the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic conference, Baltimore, 21 July 2001.
• Panel Member, “Transforming Classroom Culture: Revisiting the Successful Tutor-Linked Class,” Writing Across the Curriculum conference, The University of Indiana (Bloomington), 31 May 2001.
• “Colonizing the Children: Narragansett Youngsters in Servitude in Early Rhode Island,” paper presented to the “Reinterpreting New England Indian History and the Colonial Experience” conference, Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Old Sturbridge Village, 21-22 April 2001.  Co-authored with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.
• “Narragansett Communities in Nineteenth-Century Rhode Island,” paper presented to the John Nicholas Brown Center American Seminar, Brown University, 14 March 2001.  Co-authored with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.
• “Servants of the Community: Black Children as Bound Laborers in Eighteenth-Century New England,” paper presented to American Historical Association conference, Chicago, 9 January 2000.
• “Indian-Black Relations and Race, Religion, and Ideology in America, 1780-1880,” session comment presented to American Society for Ethnohistory conference, Meshantucket-Pequot Tribal Reservation, Connecticut, 22 October 1999.
• “The Power of the Clerk: Rethinking Eighteenth-Century Town Records,” paper presented to the Microhistory Conference, University of Connecticut, 16 October 1999.
• “Indentured Servitude of Children as a Community Strategy in Early New England,” paper presented to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture conference, Austin, Texas, 13 June 1999.
•  “‘Bastards,’ Orphans, and Servants: ‘Mulatto’ and ‘Mustee’ Children in Early Rhode Island,” paper presented to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture conference, Worcester, Massachusetts, 6 June 1998.
• “‘Bastards,’ Orphans, and Servants: Reconstructing the Lives of Children in Early America,” paper presented to the Ohio Seminar in Early American History and Culture, Ohio State University, 17 April 1998.
• “‘Bastards,’ Orphans, and Servants: Reconstructing the Lives of Children in Early America,” paper presented to the Phi Alpha Theta Seminar, The University of Toledo, 10 April 1998.
• “Native Americans and the Poor Laws in Early New England,” paper presented to the American Historical Association conference, Seattle, 9 January 1998.
• “Twice Buried in Obscurity: Poor and Female in Early Rhode Island,” paper presented to the “Rhode Island Reconsidered” conference, Brown University, 14 November 1997.
• “Getting into the Almshouse in the Early Republic,” session comment presented to the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic conference, Pennsylvania State University, 20 July 1997.
• “Designing ‘Suitable’ Lives for the Poor: Welfare Administration in Rhode Island, 1750-1800,” paper presented to Organization of American Historians conference, San Francisco, 17 April 1997.
• “Racialization and Feminization of Poverty in Early America: Indian Women as ‘The Poor of the Town’ in Eighteenth-Century Rhode Island,” paper presented to the Joint Neal-Commonwealth Fund Conference, University College London, 14 February 1997.
• “Women of Color as the Poor of the Town in Eighteenth-Century New England,” paper presented to the Newberry Seminar in Early American History, Chicago, 31 October 1996.
• “Children of the Strolling Poor: Transience and Poverty among New England’s Eighteenth-Century Children,” paper presented to Northeast Popular Culture Association conference, Worcester, Mass., 7 October 1995.
• “Warned Out in New England: Eighteenth Century Tales of Trouble,” paper presented to the Philadelphia (McNeil) Center for Early American Studies Seminar, Philadelphia, 22 September 1995.
•  “Clearing the Public Ways: Animal Pollution and Animal Control in Eighteenth-Century Rhode Island,” paper presented to the American Studies Association conference, Nashville, Tenn., 28 October 1994.
• “‘To live after the manner of an apprentice’: Public Indenture and Social Control in Rhode Island, 1750-1800,” paper presented to the American Studies Association conference, Boston, Mass., 7 November 1993.
• “‘Breachy’ Sheep and Mad Dogs: Troublesome Domestic Animals in Rhode Island, 1750-1800,” paper presented to the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife conference, Deerfield, Mass., 7 August 1993.
• “Popular Reaction to the Constitution: The 1788 Referendum in Rhode Island,” paper presented to the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic conference, Sturbridge, Mass., 22 July 1988.

• “The Earliest At Risk: Caring for Poor Children in Early America,” paper presented to the Wood County Museum ‘Tea & Talk” series, 13 June 2019.
• “What Happened to Old Pat’s Children?: Growing Up Poor in Early America,” invited paper presented to the American Origins Seminar, University of Southern California and Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 18 January 2014.
• “Mapping the Boston Poor: Residential Patterns and Mobility of the Boston Almshouse Inmates, 1795-1805,” invited paper presented to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 21 February 2013.  Co-authored with Amilcar E. Challu, BGSU.
• “The Strange Disappearance of Abel Tanner: A Mystery Story from Early America,” invited paper presented to the History Department Awards Ceremony/P.A.T. Initiation, Bowling Green State University, 20 April 2008.
• Invited comment on paper by Seth Rockman, “Pauper Agency, Elite Benevolence, and Capitalist Discipline: The Political Economy of Social Welfare in the Early Republic US,” presented to the Workshop on the Political Economy of Modern Capitalism, Harvard University, 11 December 2006.
• “Children of Misfortune: The Fates of Boston’s Poor Apprentices,” invited paper presented to the University of Connecticut History Department, 6 December 2006.
• Panelist, “Race: The Power of an Illusion,” invited presentation to the University of Toledo Forum, 2 March 2006.
• “Research Philosophy and Methods,” invited paper presented to the University Honors Seminar, University of Toledo, 19 October 2004.
•  “The Truth is the Truth is the Truth: Writing Native New England History,” invited paper presented in the “Native People of New England Lecture Series,” Holy Cross College, Worcester, Massachusetts, 21 April 2004.  Co-presented with Ella Wilcox Sekatau, The Narragansett Tribe.
• “Seventeenth-Century America: Issues and Opportunities,” special colloquium, History Department, The University of Toledo, invited presentation, 25 April 2003.
• Invited Panelist, “Discovering the Real Indian: New Perspectives on Native American History and Culture,” Humanities Institute Public Seminar, The University of Toledo, 12 April 2000.
• “Narratives of Warning Out,” invited paper presented to the Southern California Early Americanists Association, University of California–Riverside, 4 March 2000.
•  “Black Children as Indentured Servants in Early America,” invited paper presented to the Africana Studies Brown Bag Seminar, University of Toledo, 9 February 1999.
• “Unwelcome Americans: The Transient Poor in Eighteenth-Century New England,” invited paper presented in the Humanities Institute Showcase Series, The University of Toledo, 27 January 1999.
• “Using Poor Law to Define Community in Early Rhode Island,” invited paper presented to the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University, 6 May 1998.

• “Early America” (U.S. history to 1865), HIST 2050
• “Colonial America,” HIST 4210
• “Era of the American Revolution,” HIST 4220
• “Slavery and the Slave Trade in America,” HIST 3910
• “Natives and Newcomers in Early America,” HIST 3910
• “Race and Gender in Early America,” HIST 3910
• “Historical Methods and Historiography,” HIST 4790/3790
• “History Capstone Research Seminar,” HIST 4800
• "Alexander Hamilton," HNRS 3000

• Graduate Seminar in Early America, HIST 6210
• “Atlantic World Slavery and Slave Trade,” HIST 6800
• “The Historical Profession,” HIST 6940
• "Historiography and the Historical Profession," HIST 6520