Twenty-nine skeletons from the first cemetery in New Orleans provide significant new information about urban slavery in America. Dating as early as 1720 and used perhaps as late as 1810, the cemetery provided an identifiable sample of two whites, 13 blacks, one individual of possible Indian-white ancestry, and two possibly mulatto individuals. Numerous skeletal and dental lesions were noted in the series, and historical information was used in conjunction with the physical data to draw conclusions about rates and patterns of mortality. Pathological changes indicate that the cemetery contained individuals representing two slave occupational groups, house servants and laborers. This research provides information in the expanding area of Afro-American biohistorical research.

No abstract

No abstract

This study assessed optimism held by 300 college students at a midwestern university using Scheier and Carver's Life Orientation Test. Optimism ratings were compared to measures of psychological functioning. Analysis showed that optimism was significantly associated with all of the adjustment measures (social, academic, personal, and goal commitment) assessed with Baker and Siryk's Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire, higher self-esteem measured with Rosenberg's Self-esteem scale, and with lower ratings of loneliness as assessed with the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale.

The personal vs social motivations for using alcohol were assessed for 109 undergraduates attending a midwestern technical university. Analysis indicated that alcohol was consumed more for social than for personal reasons and that men used alcohol more than women for the social reasons of meeting new people and meeting members of the opposite sex and for the personal reason of feeling better about themselves. Use was also associated with being a member of a fraternity or sorority and the total number of campus organizations in which students were involved. These results suggest that alcohol education programs should take into account the motivations on a particular campus for alcohol use.