The Legal Emancipations of Leander and Caesar: Manumission and the Law in Revolutionary South Carolina and Massachusetts

During the Revolutionary era, two slaves, one named Leander from South Carolina and another named Caesar from Massachusetts, legally verified their new free status after long battles to become free. These two cases expose some similarities in the slave systems of Massachusetts and South Carolina.

However, they more strongly show deep differences in the legal status of slaves in the emerging nation. Caesar legally established his freedom by suing his master, and Leander registered his emancipation with the South Carolina Secretary of State's office. While the legal system in Massachusetts protected Caesar's right to own property, to make a contract, to sue and have other blacks testify on behalf of him, Leander's legal action marked a protection for him against re-enslavement since free blacks and slaves had practically no legal status in South Carolina. These two legal systems were always fundamentally different, but it was not until the American Revolution when many slaves like Caesar and Leander demanded freedom that these divisions became evident.     

Women Attending High-Risk Substance Abuse Clinics Versus General Obstetrics Clinics

Substance-abusing women experience burdens making attending high-risk prenatal care critical for a healthy pregnancy. Many face barriers that compromise their health by reducing access to care, delaying their first prenatal appointment. One hundred forty-one women attending a high-risk prenatal clinic were compared to a matched group from the hospital’s general obstetrics clinic. Analyses revealed that substance-abusing women with a mental illness attended prenatal care earlier than those without a mental illness. This is important because psychiatric illnesses might precipitate poor reproductive behaviors. Women with HIV also entered prenatal care earlier, which improves reproductive health. Clinicians’ roles are discussed.     

The LINC Project

Abstract

The Linking Intergenerational Networks in Communities (LINC) Project, a statewide, collaborative, intergenerational program, funded in 1995 by the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation, included Clemson University, the Bureau of Senior Services for South Carolina, the South Carolina Department of Education, and the United Way of South Carolina. In this paper, the author focuses on what the partnering groups learned during the five-year project about the process of creating and implementing a collaborative statewide intergenerational program that included a public university, the state offices of aging and education, and a private fundraising and public service agency. The author, who during part of the project was the evaluator at Generations Together at the University of Pittsburgh and who consulted with the LINC project on the project evaluation from 1998 to 2000, uses the literature on collaboration to describe how the four partners worked together to form an intergenerational collaborative organization in South Carolina.     

Scaling up a community-led health promotion initiative: Lessons learned and promising practices from the Healthy Weights for Children Project

The increase in overweight and obesity among children has emerged as an important public health issue. This trend has highlighted the need for accessible and novel approaches to support healthy weights for children and their families to prevent childhood obesity. The purpose of this article is to describe the iterative development and scale-up of a community-led, national-level project to promote healthy weights among Canadian children and families who may be experiencing vulnerabilities. In this project, the Healthy Together program was designed to engage families in an interactive program to support healthy lifestyles. The program also provides a platform for creating supportive environments for healthful lifestyles through practice and policy change. Based on a process evaluation, we describe the iterative development of Healthy Together from Phase 1 through 3 to shed light on processes shaping implementation and scale-up of the program. Lessons learned during each phase were used to refine the program and further expansion. Indicators of successful scale-up include the Healthy Together program’s cross-jurisdictional reach and promising evaluation results in real-world conditions. The practice-based program scaling approach provides practical guidance for planning and implementing similar health promotion programs in diverse communities.     

Child day care and the employment of AFDC recipients with preschool children

In the context of recent federal initiatives to increase the affordability, accessibility, and quality of child care for the working poor, this article examines the degree to which expanding the supply of publicly subsidized child care in local communities may promote, through employment, the independence from welfare and economic self-sufficiency of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients with preschool-aged children. In a telephone survey of a random sample of 232 AFDC recipients who participated in a larger federally sponsored demonstration project in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, many respondents reported the lack of available child care as a barrier either to employment or to the attainment of a preferred job. Although it is concluded that increases in the availability of subsidized child care should be a component of any strategy to increase the level of employment participation, continuity, and success for this population, the results underscore the need for a multi-faceted intervention strategy to reduce the welfare dependency and to increase the economic self-sufficiency of these parents. Implications for further research are suggested.The data for this investigation were collected under Authorization No. 89-3-WR-NC-008 to the North Carolina Department of Human Resources from the Division of Program Evaluation, Office of Family Assistance, Family Support Administration, Department of Health and Human Services. Additional support was provided under Grant No. 5-44232 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University Research Council, Office of Research Services. The views and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the North Carolina Department of Human Resources.He received his Ph.D. in Family Science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1981. He is a specialist in work and family linkages, policy analysis and evaluation, and survey research methodology. He served as principal investigator on the child care evaluation study that is the basis for this article.He received his Ph.D. in Library Science from the University of Wisconsin in 1982. He is a specialist in evaluation and research methodology, information dissemination and use patterns in public sector agencies, and welfare policy and initiatives. He served as project director for the study described in this article.     

South Carolina College and the origins of secession

South Carolina College was a locus of proslavery, secessionist political thought. The college was created in 1805 to make connections among the planters’ sons and to reduce the geographic sectionalism within the state. The College was at the forefront of nullification, proslavery expansionism and secessionist agitation. Within the state, South Carolina College alumni dominated the legislature, the press and the learned professions. Alumni were preponderant in the antebellum Congressional delegations of South Carolina. Outside the state, alumni who migrated went exclusively to the new states of the lower South: Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Texas and Louisiana. They were disproportionately represented in the Congressional delegations and state-level political offices in their adopted states. The alumni helped propel the lower South toward secession.     

Experiences, concerns, and service needs of families adopting children with prenatal substance exposure: summary and recommendations.

Parents who adopted children from out-of-home care with prenatal substance exposure were interviewed four months after the child's placement in the home, and again after the first year regarding their experience with adoption and their concerns about their child's development, attachment, and behavior; aspects of parenting and the adoption process; effects of prenatal substance exposure; and availability and helpfulness of resources. Adoptive parents found parenting children with prenatal substance exposure to be both more rewarding and more difficult than they had imagined.     

Use of time and preferences for time allocation among urban,employed, married women

This study examines the relationship between employed wives' preferences for household production time, employment time, leisure, and their actual time use. A random sample of 235 employed, married women estimate their time use on an average weekday and weekend day in 13 activities and indicate their preferences for time in those activities. Hierarchical multiple regression procedures are used to examine the relationships between actual and preferred time use. Weekday employment time is not related to preferences for more or less time in household production but wives allocating more time to employment want to spend less time at that employment and more time in leisure. Weekend employment time is related to preferences for more time in leisure, child care, and other household work. Time spent performing household work is not related to preferences for more or less time in any activity except the desire for more leisure time on weekends.Ann Renigar Hiatt is Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Services, College of Education and Allied Professions at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223. Her research interests include employed women's time allocation, time pressures, and use of time management strategies. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.Deborah D. Godwin is Associate Professor in the Department of Housing and Consumer Economics at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Her research has focused on husbands' and wives' time allocation to household production, the effects of women's employment on family economic functioning, and family financial management. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensbore.     

Evaluation design for a community prevention trial. An environmental approach to reduce alcohol-involved trauma

The Community Prevention Trial was 5-year effort to reduce alcohol-involved injuries and death through a comprehensive program of community awareness and policy activities. The three experimental communities were of approximately 100,000 population each (one in Northern California, one in Southern California, and one in South Carolina). Matched comparison communities were used for each experimental community. This article describes the evaluation approach used in a program that sought to change environmental factors not a specific population or target group. This approach demanded unique evaluation approaches for determining overall community aggregate effects, that is, distal outcomes, as well as changes in key mediating variables, that is, process effects. The problem of trending and lagged effects of community prevention programs are discussed.     

Properties of the sociolinguistic monitor1

This paper investigates the perceptual aspect of quantitative sociolinguistic variation in order to derive properties of a sociolinguistic monitor integrated into linguistic processing in real time. A series of experiments measured listeners’ sensitivity to frequencies in the form of variable percentages of the non‐standard apical form of the variable (ING). Subjects heard ten trial readings of broadcast news from the same speaker, and rated them on a seven‐point Likert scale of professional suitability. Responses conformed closely to a logarithmic function in which the effect of each deviation from the norm was proportional to the percent increase in deviations. The logarithmic pattern of responses was replicated in group and individual experiments in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in group experiments in Columbia, South Carolina and Durham, New Hampshire. South Carolina subjects were less critical of the /in/ variant in news broadcasting but showed the identical logarithmic function in reacting to Northern and Southern speakers. Inferences are drawn on the window of temporal resolution of the sociolinguistic monitor, its sensitivity and the pattern of attenuation over time.     

Journey towards independent living: a grounded theory investigation of leaving the care of Girls & Boys Town,South Africa

The journey out of care and towards independent living is a challenge for many care-leavers. There has been little research into the social processes involved in this care-leaving journey. This paper presents the results of a grounded theory investigation into the care-leaving journeys of nine young men who had, several years previously, been in the care of Girls & Boys Town in South Africa. Working from a resilience perspective, with an ecological emphasis, four central social processes emerged that together explain the care-leaving experiences of the participants. These processes are striving for authentic belonging; networking people for goal attainment; contextualised responsiveness and building hopeful and tenacious self-confidence. These four processes are located within contextual boundaries and at the social environmental interface. The paper presents these processes in detail, drawing on selected narratives of the participants and integrated with additional theory. It is hoped that this paper may contribute to theory building concerning care-leaving processes and enhance youth care practices for youth in care and leaving care.     

Father involvement,child health and maternal health behavior

This paper uses data from the baseline Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study to examine the level and effects of father-involvement on child's birth weight and mother's health behavior during pregnancy (prenatal care, drinking, drug use and smoking). The findings indicate that most fathers, including unwed fathers, are involved with their children at birth and have intentions to remain involved. The effects of father involvement on health and health behavior depend, however, on how the construct is measured. When measured as parent's relationship status (married, cohabiting, romantic or non-romantic), the effects of marriage are beneficial for all but one outcome, the effects of cohabitation are positive for prenatal care only, and the effects of romantic involvement are negative for child's birth weight. When measured as paternity acknowledgement, contributions during pregnancy and intentions to contribute, unmarried father involvement has no effect on child's birth weight, a strong effect on early prenatal care and a variable but overall positive effect on mother's health behaviors. Furthermore, the effects of father involvement do not vary systematically by fathers' earnings potential and psychosocial attributes. While these results support the notion that fathers can influence mothers to maintain or adopt healthy pregnancy behaviors, they do not indicate that father-involvement improves birth outcomes.     

'We are Irish Everywhere': Irish Immigrant Networks in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia

In the nineteenth century, Irish immigrants in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, showed a strong interest in the affairs of Ireland and its residents. Although a distinct minority in these 'southern' cities, they formed networks through societies, clubs, militias and Irish nationalist organisations to encourage social activities and ethnic connections among their fellow countrymen and those friendly towards Irish interests. These groups provided opportunities for upwardly-mobile immigrants to improve their social status in America, while retaining their 'Irishness'. Charity towards new migrants was thus an important element in retaining ethnicity. Irish Protestants initially dominated these networks, but increasingly, as the century progressed, Irish and Irish-American Catholics came to prominence. Nonetheless, interdenominational networks remained strong. Class and sectarian divisions within the Irish communities of these two cities were not as deep or rigid as they were in some other Irish-American communities. Overall this study highlights the great importance of immigrant networks in assuring Irish integration into host societies.     

The effects of domestic violence during pregnancy on maternal and infant health

The present study examined the impact of domestic violence on maternal and infant health by assessing maternal health during pregnancy and infant health at two months postpartum. Two hundred and two women (68 battered and 134 non-battered) were recruited from the community and completed both pregnancy and 2-month postpartum interviews. Results revealed that domestic violence during pregnancy was associated with numerous health problems for mothers and infants including more health problems during pregnancy, more likelihood of premature labor, later entrance into prenatal care, lower infant birth weight, greater utilization of health care resources, and more prenatal substance use. After income was controlled, the relationship between violence and timing of prenatal care and infant birth weight became nonsignificant. Maternal social support was found to protect against the effects of violence for several health outcomes. The current findings suggest the need for domestic violence screening during pregnancy, as well as clinical interventions for battered, pregnant women in order to prevent serious physical and emotional problems for both mothers and their infants.     

‘We are actually,after all,just children’: caring societies and South African infantilisation of adults with intellectual disability

This article comments on infantilisation by attending to South African adult intellectual disability (ID) care through an intersubjective ethics of care lens, and shows how such an ethic can shine light on shifting our responses towards ID. Care performance data were gathered from three sources within two South African specialist ID care sites – from 10 adult residents, 16 nurses as spatiotemporal carers, and three wards as ethnographic sites. Deeply embedded and interwoven throughout various care practices is the disabling of adults with intellectual impairment when literally referred to as ‘children’. These adult-unmaking processes constitute practices that fall short of Tronto and Kittay’s caring societies ethic. Care exchanges generate relational and intersubjective spaces in which people are understood as never meeting full criteria for personhood. Infantilising care dynamics require urgent attention if we wish to change ways in which ID is viewed and responded to in South Africa.     

Alternative prenatal care interventions to alleviate Black–White maternal/infant health disparities

This paper attempts to forward the maternal health literature that critiques standard prenatal care in the United States by drawing on intersectionality, medicalization, and fundamental causation theories. We argue that these theories deepen our understanding of the maternal health experiences of Black women and can help explain why alternative prenatal care interventions have value for Black pregnant women. Alternative models of prenatal care, which include the use of midwives, doulas, and group prenatal care, are associated with equal or better health outcomes for infants and mothers compared to the standard prenatal model in the United States. We begin by drawing on these sociological perspectives to identify gaps in the maternal health literature that is critical of standard biomedical maternal health approaches. We then go on to describe select alternative methods of prenatal care and then provide a summary of the epidemiological literature as it relates to sociodemographic trends in usage and the relative effectiveness of alternative models compared to standard care. We conclude by arguing that a joint, critical application of these three theories can help scholars explain the utility of alternative interventions for African American maternal/infant health and can inform policies that aim to alleviate Black–White maternal/infant health disparities.     

Social Theory,Social Programs,and Program Evaluation: a Metatheoretical Note*

Program evaluation attempts to assess the consequence of deliberate efforts to intervene in ongoing social processes. Efforts to understand and explain social processes and social change constitute social theory. The evaluation of social programs provides an opportunity both to test existing theories of social change and to discover new theory. Current notions about theory in the evaluation literature are reviewed and cues from that literature provide the basis for suggested directions in the relationship between the design of programs, their evaluation, and theory.     

Structural and Supportive Changes in Couples' Family and Friendship Networks Across the Transition to Parenthood

This article prospectively examined the patterns of change in couples' family and friend networks and supports across the transition to parenthood as well as stability in individual differences over time. Additionally, parental adjustment and depression were examined with respect to changes in couples' social systems. Participants included a total of 137 couples recruited prior to the birth of their first child from prenatal clinics in rural North Carolina. Couples were interviewed about their social networks and supports at four different time periods: prenatally and when target children were 3, 12, and 24 months of age. Couples also completed measures of depression and adjustment at each of the time periods. Across‐time correlations computed for the social network, support, and parental functioning variables revealed that there was considerable stability in the rank ordering of husbands and wives from the prenatal period through 24 months postpartum documenting continuity in parental networks in the context of change. However, growth curve analyses revealed dynamic changes in mothers' and fathers' social systems during this transition and that many of these changes were related to parental adjustment and depression. The discussion highlights the contribution of these data to understanding continuities and discontinuities in mothers' and fathers' social networks over time.     

Preparing and Partnering with Families to Support the Adoption of Children from Foster Care

ABSTRACT

This investigation evaluated the effectiveness of a pre-placement education and preparation curriculum (PREP) for prospective foster/adoptive parents in improving attitudes toward children with prenatal substance exposure and their substance-using birth parent and increasing willingness to adopt these children. Participants included 1,836 prospective parents seeking adoption through foster care who received three 3-hour sessions of PREP. Prospective parents completed questionnaires assessing their knowledge about important issues involved in adopting a child from foster care, attitudes, and willingness to adopt children with a variety of characteristics. Changes from pre- to post-intervention were examined. Results indicated significant increases in self-reported knowledge; significantly more positive attitudes toward substance-abusing parents and children with prenatal substance exposure; and significantly increased willingness to adopt children with a variety of potential difficulties, including children with serious behavior problems, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a biological history of mental illness. In sum, findings suggest that prospective adoptive parents who attended the PREP sessions felt better prepared by the end of training with regard to issues related to adoption of high-risk foster children with special needs, particularly those with prenatal substance exposure.     

Impact of a Group Prenatal Program for Pregnant Adolescents on Perceived Partner Support

This quasi-experimental study compared family formation and perceived partner support among pregnant adolescents in a prenatal care program. Participants were assigned to either an intervention group utilizing centering pregnancy (CP) prenatal care and case management, or to a comparison group receiving case management only. Partners were invited to participate in CP group sessions. This study included 173 predominantly minority pregnant adolescents ages 15–18 years who were enrolled in a prenatal program and followed one month postpartum. Family formation included living and relationship arrangements. Perceived partner support included six domains of perceived social provisions. Data were collected through participants’ self-reports using computer-assisted self-interviews. Changes in family formation and perceptions of partner support from baseline to postpartum did not differ between intervention and comparison groups. Male partners who attended at least one CP session were perceived as more supportive at both the beginning and end of the program than partners who did not attend any sessions. After combining groups, pregnant adolescents reported a significant shift in family formation and increased monetary support from partners from baseline to postpartum. Partner support is important for ensuring positive pregnancy outcomes. Additional strategies are needed to engage young fathers who do not readily provide support during pregnancy.