Michael Douma
Biographic Data
| ID | 5244789 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Douma |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Douma |
| SIGNATURE | DOUMA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgetown University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9882-5462 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Icelandic Heritage in North America
The editors of this work of collected essays note that because Iceland is a small country, Icelanders often prefer to judge themselves by per capita figures, rather than gross figures. On a per capita basis, there may be more written on Icelandic immigrants in North America than any other North American ethnic group. Only fifteen to sixteen thousand people migrated from Iceland in the period 1870 to 1914, but that comprised 20 percent of the isla…
Taking Control of Slavery in Dutch New York
How Americans kept warm in the 19th century
In the eighteenth century, Americans burned a lot of wood to keep their homes warm. Everything from a log cabin to a brick house had an open fireplace with a chimney made of brick or stone. These o
Translation Approaches in Constitutional Hermeneutics
In this article, we suggest an alternate approach to interpreting the US Constitution, using founding-era translations. We demonstrate how both symmetries and asymmetries in structure and vocabulary of the languages involved can help in deciding nowadays’ problems of constitutional interpretation. We select seven controversial passages of the US constitution to illustrate our approach: Art. I, § 8, cl. 3 (“to regulate commerce”); Art. II, § 1, cl…
Alex Rosenberg, How History Gets Things Wrong
Two Early Dutch Translations of the United States Constitution
In 1788, a Dutch-born minister in upstate New York named Lambertus De Ronde translated the U.S. Constitution into Dutch. Five years later, a legal scholar in the Netherlands, Gerhard Dumbar, produced another Dutch translation of the U.S. Constitution. De Ronde's translation was printed on at least two separate occasions in 1788, and scores of editorial changes between the two printings demonstrate that De Ronde was working to make the text appeal…
The Impressment of Foreign-Born Soldiers in the Union Army
In 1862–1863 well over one thousand foreign-born men living in the United States argued that they had been illegally drafted into Union military service. Fearing a diplomatic row, the Lincoln administration sought to clarify the rules of draft eligibility and its relation to citizenship. William Seward, secretary of state, determined to include in the pool of potential draftees men who had filed their declaration of intent to become American citi…
Creative Historical Thinking
Creative Historical Thinking offers innovative approaches to thinking and writing about history. Author Michael J. Douma makes the case that history should be recognized as a subject intimately related to individual experience and positions its practice as an inherently creative endeavor. Douma describes the nature of creativity in historical thought, illustrates his points with case studies and examples. He asserts history’s position as a collec…
Slave Maroon Communities in the Atlantic World
The Danish St Croix Project
Working from previously unknown sources in Danish archives, this article establishes for the first time the important role that the island of St Croix played in the Lincoln administration's considerations on colonizing African Americans abroad. This article argues that U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, commonly viewed as an anti-colonizationist, was at least a mild proponent of colonization in its earliest stages. The article demonstrate…
A Black Dutchman and the Racial Discourse of the Dutch in America, 1850–1920
Following the American Civil War, a Dutch-American immigrant soldier returned to his home in Holland, Michigan, with a freed slave whom he had adopted. The adopted child, named Siras, was then raised in a Dutch immigrant household where he learned the Dutch language and the tenets of Dutch Calvinism. Although Siras was clearly well regarded by locals, he could not escape the racial stereotypes and prejudices of the Midwest and spent his entire ad…
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A Black Dutchman and the Racial Discourse of the Dutch in America, 1850–1920
Following the American Civil War, a Dutch-American immigrant soldier returned to his home in Holland, Michigan, with a freed slave whom he had adopted. The adopted child, named Siras, was then raised in a Dutch immigrant household where he learned the Dutch language and the tenets of Dutch Calvinism. Although Siras was clearly well regarded by locals, he could not escape the racial stereotypes and prejudices of the Midwest and spent his entire ad…
The Danish St Croix Project
Working from previously unknown sources in Danish archives, this article establishes for the first time the important role that the island of St Croix played in the Lincoln administration's considerations on colonizing African Americans abroad. This article argues that U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, commonly viewed as an anti-colonizationist, was at least a mild proponent of colonization in its earliest stages. The article demonstrate…
Slave Maroon Communities in the Atlantic World
Creative Historical Thinking
Creative Historical Thinking offers innovative approaches to thinking and writing about history. Author Michael J. Douma makes the case that history should be recognized as a subject intimately related to individual experience and positions its practice as an inherently creative endeavor. Douma describes the nature of creativity in historical thought, illustrates his points with case studies and examples. He asserts history’s position as a collec…
Alex Rosenberg, How History Gets Things Wrong
Two Early Dutch Translations of the United States Constitution
In 1788, a Dutch-born minister in upstate New York named Lambertus De Ronde translated the U.S. Constitution into Dutch. Five years later, a legal scholar in the Netherlands, Gerhard Dumbar, produced another Dutch translation of the U.S. Constitution. De Ronde's translation was printed on at least two separate occasions in 1788, and scores of editorial changes between the two printings demonstrate that De Ronde was working to make the text appeal…
The Impressment of Foreign-Born Soldiers in the Union Army
In 1862–1863 well over one thousand foreign-born men living in the United States argued that they had been illegally drafted into Union military service. Fearing a diplomatic row, the Lincoln administration sought to clarify the rules of draft eligibility and its relation to citizenship. William Seward, secretary of state, determined to include in the pool of potential draftees men who had filed their declaration of intent to become American citi…
Translation Approaches in Constitutional Hermeneutics
In this article, we suggest an alternate approach to interpreting the US Constitution, using founding-era translations. We demonstrate how both symmetries and asymmetries in structure and vocabulary of the languages involved can help in deciding nowadays’ problems of constitutional interpretation. We select seven controversial passages of the US constitution to illustrate our approach: Art. I, § 8, cl. 3 (“to regulate commerce”); Art. II, § 1, cl…
How Americans kept warm in the 19th century
In the eighteenth century, Americans burned a lot of wood to keep their homes warm. Everything from a log cabin to a brick house had an open fireplace with a chimney made of brick or stone. These o
Taking Control of Slavery in Dutch New York
Icelandic Heritage in North America
The editors of this work of collected essays note that because Iceland is a small country, Icelanders often prefer to judge themselves by per capita figures, rather than gross figures. On a per capita basis, there may be more written on Icelandic immigrants in North America than any other North American ethnic group. Only fifteen to sixteen thousand people migrated from Iceland in the period 1870 to 1914, but that comprised 20 percent of the isla…
History (7 works) · History (6 works) · Political science (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Linguistics (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · American Constitutional Law and Politics (3 works) · Archaeology (3 works)