Thomas Roderick Dew: defender of the southern faith

Thomas Roderick Dew was the first of the comprehensive defenders of slavery in nineteenth century America, but his defense was an early effort from a pen which continued to be productive. During his twenty-year career as professor and president of the College of William and Mary, he wrote numerous essays and articles on economic issues of state and national concern. As the South responded to Northern criticism of its institutions, a cult emphasizing Southern values was developed, to which Dew contributed several justifications. A study of his life thus reveals a scholarly, well-rounded individual, neither restricted nor dominated by his early slavery essay.

Digitization of this thesis was made possible by a generous grant from the Jefferson Trust, 2015.

Thesis originally deposited on 2016-03-14 in version 1.28 of Libra. This thesis was migrated to Libra2 on 2017-03-23 16:37:04.