香港六合彩玄机

LEXINGTON, Va., Oct. 23, 2019鈥擶hat happens when a history professor meets an electrical engineer? At most schools, the answer might very well be 鈥渘othing.鈥� But at 香港六合彩玄机, the answer is a successful collaboration that鈥檚 been going on for over a decade and has now resulted in the publication of four scholarly articles.

This summer, The William & Mary Quarterly, published 鈥淜nowing When to Fold: Litigation on a Writ of Debt in Mid-Eighteenth Century Virginia.鈥� The essay is the result of years of work on the parts of Col. Turk McCleskey, professor of history, and Col. Jim Squire, professor of electrical engineering.

McCleskey鈥檚 interest in debt litigation among residents of colonial Virginia began several years ago as he was doing research for a book he would ultimately publish in 2014, The Road to Black Ned鈥檚 Forge. As he worked, McCleskey found that Edward Tarr, the main character of the book title and the first free black landowner west of the Blue Ridge, had been involved in more than one lawsuit having to do with the collection of debt.

But when McCleskey went to put that finding in context, he ran into a brick wall. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 say if that was significant or not,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚 started looking around and there was no literature that said this is what鈥檚 normal for litigation, this is what to expect.鈥�

At that point, McCleskey had to just keep going and finish the research for his book, but he came back to debt litigation as a research interest later. He鈥檇 obtain court records on microfilm and enter them one by one into a database on his laptop.

The process was slow enough as it was, but then McCleskey, a Marine Corps reservist, faced an additional challenge when he was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from 2005 to 2007. The Marine Corps took over his daytime hours, so McCleskey used the evenings to his advantage.

鈥淚n the evenings, on my own time, I鈥檇 put on a baseball game and sit there and compile the data,鈥� he commented.

By the time his deployment ended, McCleskey had data on approximately 3,600 lawsuits and 5,000 property transactions. Shortly after he returned to 香港六合彩玄机, he ran into Squire, who asked, 鈥淲hat did you do for fun while you were down there?鈥� When McCleskey explained what a tremendous volume of data he鈥檇 acquired, Squire volunteered to come on board as a number cruncher.

Just how much work McCleskey had put in by that point is almost impossible to overstate. 鈥淯ntil [McCleskey] came, these [records] were all hand-lettered using quill ink pens in ledgers in different courthouses scattered all through Virginia,鈥� noted Squire. Banks didn鈥檛 exist, McCleskey explained, and debts were often recorded on slips of paper.

Amassing the data, though, was just the first step. The next step had to do with determining what kinds of stories the data could tell. Very quickly, McCleskey and Squire learned that colonial Virginians were much more litigious than their modern-day counterparts. On average, each person was involved in one lawsuit every nine years.

That in itself was newsworthy鈥攂ut there was more. In the most recently published article, McCleskey found that the high volume of debt litigation bolstered support for the courts, which carried out both executive and judicial functions in colonial times. The court might order a landowner to come together with his neighbors and fix the road, for example, or grant a license for a tavern.

鈥淭he county court is making decisions that have daily ramifications for people,鈥� McCleskey explained. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no popular input, no voting, for the people who are telling you what to do. You hope that the legal system is sufficiently impartial that you are going to get justice if it鈥檚 due to you.鈥�

One might suspect that this system would lead to unrest鈥攜et it did not, and Squire鈥檚 analysis of McCleskey鈥檚 data shows why it did not.

Using a decision tree, Squire graphically showed in the article that in the five Virginia counties included in the study鈥擜ugusta, Middlesex, Richmond, Surry, and York鈥攐nly about 5 percent of the court cases initiated between 1746 and 1755 went to trial. What鈥檚 more, McCleskey added, in the cases that did go to court, the evidence was very clear.

Because of this, the history professor noted, citizens were likely to conclude, 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing wrong with the courts. Everybody鈥檚 making good decisions 鈥� the judges must be okay.鈥�

The county court system of colonial times, as odd as it may seem to modern sensibilities, 鈥渋s a great example of a non-democratic but stabilizing process,鈥� said McCleskey.

For his part, Squire doesn鈥檛 see his role in supporting McCleskey鈥檚 research as unusual.

鈥淢y job is essentially applied mathematics,鈥� he stated. 鈥淎n engineer does applied mathematics to solve social problems.鈥�

McCleskey, meanwhile, is grateful for Squire鈥檚 willingness to share his skills. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have the ability to do anything more than see the potential in all of this,鈥� he noted. 鈥淚 can build an accurate data set, but I can鈥檛 drive it around the block.鈥�

McCleskey also had a funny observation about his and Squire鈥檚 most recently produced collaboration.

鈥淭he weirder pairing isn鈥檛 the co-authors,鈥� he observed. 鈥淣ot since it was founded in 1892 has The William & Mary Quarterly published an article with a country-western allusion in the title.鈥�

 鈥� By Mary Price