Wayne State scholar reveals faith and power in Jacobite songs

DETROIT - For Aimee Shulman, B.A. '18, M.A. '21, history doesn't sit quietly on a page. It sings.

A doctoral candidate in history at Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Shulman will present her research project, "'No Spark of Religion, though Mad for the Church.' The Whig-Jacobite Conflict: Religious War in Song," during the Graduate Research Symposium on Feb. 25 in the Student Center Building's second-floor ballroom.

Her work explores the fierce political and religious struggle that gripped Britain in the late 17th and early 18th centuries - not through official records or battlefield accounts, but through the popular songs that ordinary people wrote, copied and circulated.

"I've always liked history," Shulman said. "I just didn't know you could make a living at it."

Raised in Gaines Township, which is located south of Grand Rapids, and homeschooled, Shulman eventually found her way to Wayne State after beginning her college career in architecture. Realizing math was not her passion, she pivoted and is working toward her doctorate and currently teaching HIS1000: World Civilization to 1500 at Wayne State while completing her dissertation.

Her fascination with the Jacobite movement began almost by accident.

While browsing the shelves of the Purdy/Kresge Library during her master's program, Shulman stumbled upon a printed collection of Jacobite songs, ballads written by supporters of the deposed King James II, a Roman Catholic, and his heirs, who sought to reclaim the British throne after the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

The discovery opened an entirely new world.

"I had never seen anything like it," she said, "and I wanted to know more."

The Jacobite cause sparked two major uprisings, in 1715 and 1745, the latter ending in the bloody Battle of Culloden. While historians have long studied the political and military dimensions of the conflict between the Jacobites and their Protestant rivals, the Whigs, Shulman's research argues that the struggle was fundamentally religious and that the songs of the period prove it.

Though Europe's great "wars of religion" are often considered to have ended by the mid-17th century, Shulman contends that in Britain, religious motivations for war persisted for another century. The lyrics she studies are explicit, often naming names and accusing opponents of endangering "true religion."

For Jacobites, restoring the Stuart line was not merely political - it was a religious duty. For Whigs, keeping a Catholic monarch off the throne was equally sacred.

"These songs are very plain spoken," she said. "They tell you exactly what the writers' thought was at stake."

Many were printed as inexpensive broadsheets and plastered onto walls or sung to familiar tunes, allowing ideas to spread even among those who could not read. Because most were published anonymously - writing them could be considered treason - they offer what Shulman calls a kind of "democracy of ideas," revealing the broader motivations of a movement.

Tracking them down has required years of research and travel. Shulman has examined archival materials in Edinburgh, combing through scrapbooks and printed collections dating back to the 18th century. Some documents remain uncatalogued, boxes of fragile papers that may still contain undiscovered songs.

"It would take a very long time to exhaust what's there," she said. "You don't always know what you're going to find."

Her upcoming symposium poster distills a much longer conference presentation she delivered in Montreal last fall. It is her second time presenting a topic at Wayne State's Graduate Research Symposium, and her first time designing a poster rather than giving a traditional talk.

"I enjoy people listening to my research," she said with a laugh. "But this will be more low key, and a lot of fun."

Ultimately, Shulman hopes to teach history at the college level, turning her lifelong love of the past into a career. For now, she continues digging through centuries-old verses, listening for echoes of belief, identity and conflict.