Dew, Thomas Roderick

Life Span
to
Dickinson Connection
Influenced by Thomas Cooper's ideas on political economy
    Full name
    Thomas Roderick Dew
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Slave State
    No. of Spouses
    1
    No. of Children
    0
    Family
    Thomas Dew (father), Lucy E. Gatewood (mother), Mathilda Hay (wife, 1845)
    Education
    William & Mary
    Occupation
    Educator
    Writer or Artist
    Other
    Other Occupation
    Economist
    Relation to Slavery
    Slaveholder

    Thomas Roderick Dew (American National Bibliography)

    Scholarship
    Dew gained still more notoriety in 1832 with the publication of his Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature, 1831-1832 (which became even more widely circulated when it was reprinted in 1852 in a collection of essays by southern writers entitled The Pro-Slavery Argument). This work was prompted by the turmoil following the Nat Turner revolt, during which some members of the Virginia legislature championed state support for gradual emancipation and deportation of slaves. Dew was harsh in his criticisms of legislators who expressed such views and defended the "peculiar institution" vigorously. In his judgment, "slavery has been, perhaps, the principal means for impelling forward the civilization of mankind." Those who sought to eliminate it might be well intentioned, but they were naive. Proposals to remove the black population through colonization in Africa and elsewhere were too expensive to be contemplated, but neither was emancipation without deportation a feasible option. Dew insisted "that the slaves, in both an economical and moral point of view, are entirely unfit for a state of freedom among whites."
    William J. Barber, "Dew, Thomas Roderick," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/14/14-00144.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Dew, Thomas Roderick," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/35114.