Thomas Dew The Proslavery Argument

American economist

Thomas Roderick Dew


13th President of the College of William & Mary
In office 1836–1846
Preceded by	Adam Empie
Succeeded by	Robert Saunders, Jr.

Personal details
Born	1802 King and Queen County, Virginia
Died	1846
Education	The College of William & Mary
Occupation	Professor of History, Metaphysics, and Political Economy, Higher of William & Mary
Known for	Proslavery writings

Thomas Roderick Dew (1802–1846) was a professor at and then president of The College of William & Mary.^[1] He was an influential pro-slavery advocate.

Biography [edit]

Thomas Dew was born in Male monarch and Queen County, Virginia, in 1802, son of Captain Thomas Dew and Lucy Gatewood Dew. His begetter was a Revolutionary State of war soldier and founder of Dewsville, a prosperous plantation about Newtown, King and Queen County. He attended The College of William & Mary, graduating in 1820, and later spent several years studying in Europe.^[two] ^: 1110 He was a professor of history, metaphysics, and political economy at William & Mary from 1827 to 1836, then President until his expiry from bronchitis in 1846.^[1] He twice declined invitations to run for political part, as well as invitations to teach at South Carolina College (today the University of South Carolina) and the University of Virginia.^[3] Shortly before his death, he married Natalia Hay. He died on their honeymoon, in Paris; his remains were later on moved to the crypt under the Wren Chapel on the William & Mary campus.^[four] His descendant Charles B. Dew is a professor of Southern history at Williams College, and wrote in The Making of a Racist (2016) of his Southern family's tradition of racism.^[five]

Dew came to national prominence in 1828 when he attacked the tariff that passed that year (also known as the "Tariff of Abominations"). He was a proponent of gratuitous merchandise, arguing that consign taxes benefited Northern manufacturers at the expense of Southern planters. He supported land banks over a national bank, stating that centralized banking would give the government likewise much control over the economic system.^[one] Dew's largest book was the Digest of the Laws, Customs, Manners, and Institutions of Ancient and Modern Nations (1853).^[ii] A source was P. Austin Nuttall'southward 1840 Classical and Archaeological Lexicon. ^{[half dozen]}

Dew and slavery [edit]

In 1832, he published a review of the celebrated slavery debate of 1831–32 in the Virginia General Assembly, A Review of the Debates in the Legislature of 1831 and 1832, which went far towards putting a stop to a motion, and then assuming considerable proportions, to proclaim the cease of slavery in Virginia.^[7] ^: 21–47 The Virginia Legislature's contend was a response to Nat Turner's slave rebellion of August 1831.^[8] Like many other white southerners, he argued that whites and freed blacks could not alive alongside 1 other in peace.... Dew dismissed colonization of freed American blacks in Africa as prohibitively expensive and logistically impractical; that Blacks did non desire to go was of no importance to him. He noted also that the displacement of blacks would forestall Virginia from profiting from its breeding and export of negros, as "a negro raising country for other states" of the Due south.^[3] While his position was disarming to many Southern readers, Jesse Burton Harrison, of Lynchburg, Virginia, wrote a robust response that argued that colonization (sending freed slaves to Africa) was possible and that slavery was economically inefficient.^[nine]

In his countdown speech equally President at William & Mary, "he admonished young planters to resist fanatics who wished to eliminate slavery. Dew emphasized the importance of a broad-based liberal arts education simply singled out morals and politics as the most significant subjects of study."^[3]

Dew was well respected in the S; his widely distributed writings helped to confirm pro-slavery public opinion. His piece of work has been compared to that of the Southern surgeon and medical authority Samuel A. Cartwright, who dedicated slavery and invented the "diseases" of drapetomania (the "madness" that makes slaves desire to run away), and dysaesthesia aethiopica ("rascality"), both of which were "cured" with beatings. Dew's 1833 Review was republished in 1849, and collected in The Pro-Slavery Statement, together with writings by Harper, Hammond and Simms.^[10]

Many people at the fourth dimension credited Dew with the defeat of the proposal to end slavery in Virginia in the 1830s. He was opposed to even gradual emancipation. Dew'southward teaching and his writings influenced the following generations, which opposed Reconstruction and created Jim Crow.^[xi] ^{: 1137–1139}

Dew on men and women [edit]

In the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Dew's views on the differences between the sexes are described as follows:

Dew characterized women equally modest, passive, virtuous, and religiously devout, attributing these traits to women'southward physical weakness, which rendered them dependent on male person goodwill. He as well asserted that men, beyond all cultures and historical periods, were intellectually superior to women, but he blamed the disparity on differences in the substance and duration of education rather than on diff natural endowments. Dew argued that it was appropriate to deny suffrage to women because their intense focus on their own families impeded their ability to embrace broader political developments.^[3]

He described the hardships faced by men in the marketplace and the virtually savage strength needed to survive in such a competitive atmosphere. He stated that backbone and boldness are man's attributes. For Dew, women were dependent and weak, simply a leap of irresistible power.

Works by Thomas R. Dew [edit]

Lectures on the restrictive system : delivered to the senior political class of William and Mary Higher. Richmond. 1829.
Free Trade Convention (to be annexed to Doc. No. 82.) : communication of Wm. Harper and Thomas R. Dew, in relation to the memorial of the committee of the Free Trade Convention against the tariff. House of Representatives?. February 13, 1832.
Abolition of slavery : review of the contend in the Virginia legislature, 1831-'32. Washington, D.C.: Duff Dark-green. 1833.
- An Essay on Slavery (2d ed.). Richmond, VA. 1849. (The "first edition" is the 1833 publication cited to a higher place.)
- "The Pro-slavery argument: as maintained by the almost distinguished writers of the southern states : Containing the several essays on the subject, of Chancellor Harper, Governor Hammond, Dr. Simms, and Professor Dew". Philadelphia. 1853.
- Torr, James D., ed. (2004). "Emancipation Is Impractical". Slavery . Greenhaven Printing. ISBN073771705X . Retrieved December 3, 2018.
Z. X. W. (May 1835). "Dissertation on the Characteristic Differences of the Sexes, and Adult female'south Position and Influence in Society, No. I". Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. ane, no. 9. pp. 493–512.
- Unsigned (July 1835). "Dissertation on the Feature Differences between the Sexes, and Woman's Position and Influence in Gild, No. II". Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. i, no. 11. pp. 621–632.
- Unsigned (August 1835). "Dissertation on the Characteristic Differences between the Sexes, and on the Position and Influence of Woman in Society, No. 3". Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. 1, no. 12. pp. 672–691.
The great question of the mean solar day letter from President Thomas R. Dew, of William and Mary college, Virginia, to a representative in Congress from that state : on the subject of financial policy of the administration ... Washington, D.C.: T. Allen. 1840. (sixteen folio pamphlet)
A assimilate of the laws, customs, manners, and institutions of the ancient and modernistic nations. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1853.

Briefer pieces, messages, speeches [edit]

Memorial of a committee appointed by the Complimentary Trade Convention : held in Philadelphia in September and October, 1831, upon the subject of the present tariff of duties. 1832. OCLC 34565448. With William Harper and Albert Gallatin.
"Essay on the interest of money and the policy of laws confronting usury". Farmers' Register. 1834.
"An Address on the Influence of the Federative Republican System of Government Upon Literature and the Development of Graphic symbol". Southern Literary Messenger. Vol. 2, no. iv. March 1836. pp. 261–282.
An accost delivered before the students of William and Mary, at the opening of the college, on Mon, October 10th, 1836. Richmond, VA: T.W. White. 1836.
The great question of the twenty-four hours : alphabetic character from President Thomas R. Dew, of William and Mary college, Virginia, to a representative in Congress from that state : on the subject of fiscal policy of the assistants ... Washington: T. Allen. 1840. Reprint from Washington newspaper The Madisonian. Selected Americana from Sabin's Dictionary of books relating to America ; fiches A-11,071-eleven,072).
A alphabetic character of President Thomas R. Dew to Professor John Millington. Williamsburg, VA: King and Queen Press. 1964. A letter to Professor Millington dated Sept. 21, 1837, requesting him 'to buy ii or 300$ worth of books for Wm. & Mary Higher Library'.

Archival cloth [edit]

Dew's family papers^[12] and papers from his time equally president of the Higher of William and Mary^[13] can be constitute at the Special Collections Research Center at the Higher of William and Mary.

Media [edit]

A non-real volume past Dew, Inequality Is the Ground of Society, appears in the spaghetti western Sabata (1969), in which the book is read past a villain. A character reads a quotation from it: "The responsibility of control is to use lesser men."

References [edit]

^ ^a ^b ^c Ely, Melvin Patrick; Loux, Jennifer R. "Thomas R. Dew (1802–1846)". Encyclopedia Virginia/Lexicon of Virginia Biography. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved nine March 2015.
^ ^a ^b Brophy, Alfred Fifty. (2008). "Considering William and Mary's History with Slavery: The Case of President Thomas R. Dew" (PDF). William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. 16: 1091–1139. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved Nov 22, 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ely, Melvin Patrick; Loux, Jennifer R.; Dictionary of Virginia Biography (2015). "Thomas R. Dew (1802–1846)". Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities in partnership with the Library of Virginia.
^ Swem Library Special Collections Research Middle Athenaeum. "Papers, ca. 1830-1967". Archived from the original on July xx, 2021. Retrieved November xv, 2018.
^ Pitts, Leonard (September 2, 2016). "A white Southerner searches for the source of his family unit's racism". Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 25, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2018.
^ Nuttall, P. Austin (1840). A classical and archaeological dictionary of the manners, community, laws, institutions, arts, etc. of the celebrated nations of antiquity, and of the middle ages. To which is prefixed A synoptical and chronological view of ancient history. London: Whittaker. OCLC 2667864.
^ Brophy, Alfred L. (2016). University, Court, and Slave: Prolsavery Idea in Southern Courts and Colleges and the Coming of Civil War. Oxford Academy Press. ISBN978-0190625931.
^ Brophy, Alfred 50. (June 2013). "The Nat Turner Trials". North Carolina Law Review. 91: 1817–80. SSRN 2281519.
^ Harrison, Jesse Burton (1832). Review of the slave question : extracted from the American Quarterly Review, Dec. 1832, based on the speech of Th. Marshall, of Fauquier, showing that slavery is the essential hindrance to the prosperity of the slave-property states : with particular reference to Virginia, though applicable to other states where slavery exists. By a Virginian. American Quarterly Review.
^ Harper, William; Hammond, James Henry; Dew, Thomas Roderick; Simms, William Gilmore (1853). The Pro-Slavery Argument. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, & Co. Archived from the original on 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2016-04-xiv .
^ Brophy, Alfred L. (2008). "Considering William and Mary'due south History with Slavery: The Case of President Thomas Roderick Dew" (PDF). William & Mary Beak of Rights Journal. Vol. xvi. pp. 1091–1139. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-07-09. Retrieved 2018-12-12 .
^ "Dew Family Papers". Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary. Archived from the original on 27 June 2010. Retrieved 25 Jan 2011.
^ "Office of the President. Thomas Roderick Dew". Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary. Archived from the original on 26 June 2010. Retrieved 25 Jan 2011.